The high holders of institutional authority in the CGGC pay lip service to APEST...
...to the reality that the Holy Spirit is alive and active in the world today that He empowers followers of Jesus with gifts.
Ephesians 4:13 is clear. There is no expiration date on the gifts of the Spirit, particularly APEST.
First Corinthians 14 is a vivid description of how early disciples behaved when they gathered.
Back in that Spirit-empowered day, there were no pastor/parish priests. There certainly were no sermons.
When you read 1 Corinthians 14, you get a feel for the operation of the priesthood of all believers, with all of its power...and, from a human perspective, its chaos.
When early Jesus followers gathered, there was speaking in tongues, which Paul attempts to regulate, and words of instruction and prophecy and knowledge, which, if anything, Paul writes to empower.
One of the great sins of institutionalized Christianity in our day its the thwarting of, or, to use biblical language, the quenching of, the Spirit.
These days, in the CGGC, we get a message from Lance, not a word of wisdom or revelation or knowledge empowered by the Spirit.
I have no doubt that the Spirit is active among us, at this very moment, and that He is providing knowledge and wisdom for God's people for the challenges of this day...through the universal priesthood He empowers.
Yet, what does the institutionalized church provide?
Everything I've seen has been a sermon or a less formal message of encouragement or a Bible Study from a pastor/parish priest or, now, a high holder of denominational institutional authority.
Most of what I've seen is intended to be a religious product or service delivered through some form of social media, which is intended to be consumed by those who receive it...
...not an empowered Word of the Spirit that has the goal of "preparing the saints for works of service." (Eph. 4:12)
Where are those raw and pure revelations of knowledge and wisdom and prophecy that drove the ministries of the first disciples?, words spoken by anyone and everyone who walks in the Spirit?
The Western church today is ill-prepared to walk in the power of the Spirit and, therefore, to thrive in the midst of this challenge.
It has all but destroyed the Lord's universal priesthood by creating an unspiritual chasm between its institutional priesthood and the laity, and turning its so-called laity into consumers, not empowering all disciples to be priests.
And, God's people...honestly, ALL people...will pay the price in our age.
We are equipped, by today's church, to demonstrate nothing more than a weak, institutional and very human response to these challenges.
Most of the church's self-proclaimed leaders have no understanding of the operation of Spiritual Gifts nor of the priesthood of all believers.
The Word promises that the Spirit is always operating and speaking to and through God's people. And, it warns us not to quench the Spirit.
The church today not only doesn't empower the people through whom the Spirit will speak and act.
It, honestly, in practice, prevents them from using their gifts.
We have a faulty and bankrupt doctrine of the church. It's nothing short of heresy and our heretical belief system has produced rotten fruit.
As I often say here, the holders of institutional authority in the church are, individually, good people.
Our problem is with the system. The system is entirely corrupt and incapable of producing genuine spiritual fruit.
We needed to repent of institutionalization before this crisis befell us.
We are now paying a very high price for our sin of diminishing the role of the Spirit as we have empowered a human institution.
Let's become people of the Spirit who walk in the Spirit.
We must repent.
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