"Bulge In A High Wall"

Beloved I am not a prophet in the sense that Isaiah was. There isn’t one today. The Prophet (capital ‘P’) has come and we have His Word and His Spirit. But preachers are supposed to be prophets in the sense that they tell forth God’s Word, rightly expounding its truth so that the Holy Spirit will use it to touch the hearts of men and accomplish God’s work.

So I’m not trying to speak prophetically in the sense that I’m foretelling events, but I am speaking prophetically in the sense that there is something all Spirit-filled believers should be able to recognize and it’s my job to shed light on it. It is this.

The church in 21st century America, at least, if not around the world today, is standing under a bulge in a high wall.

People are not wanting to hear the truth and for the sake of popularity and monetary gain and for the sake of so-called tolerance and political correctness, those they are going to are not telling them what they should hear.

And I fear that the time is much nearer than we can know that the wall is going to come down on our heads and break the church in so many pieces there won’t be a useful chunk left in our society to pass the bread of the Word or the water of the Spirit to anyone at all.

Let me reiterate that I’m not trying to wax prophetic in the sense of predicting the future. Also let me make clear that I’m not saying what comes next because we’re a house church and I have some unhealthy aversion to church structures. There is still a place for the traditional church and very many of them are still doing the work of the Kingdom so this is not an appeal to knock down the buildings and go back to Acts 2.

In just the past half a year or so I have become increasingly aware of the rapidly growing house church movement, not only in our country but all over the world. There are books being written by those in house church ministries talking about the expanding house church movement. George Barna, in his new book called ‘Revolution’ spoke of many who, having become disenchanted with the traditional church in our culture have left it altogether and have been worshiping in their own homes with just their family or with a few friends and neighbors.

It was after the Lord led us back to our home to conduct our worship and study, not being aware of why He did it but knowing His hand was in it, that I began receiving these bites of information and being made aware of this growing tendency toward small group and home worship.

And in light of the observations I’ve been making today, and looking back at times in history where mainly in hindsight we’ve been able to see how God’s providence was working to prepare His people for unseen events, I am caused to wonder if the rapidly expanding popularity of home worship and small group ministry is not a preparation for a soon-coming time when we will no longer be free to gather publicly or openly for worship.

Our nation has turned its back on God. Ridicule of God and His people has become not only acceptable but in many cases applauded openly in the media and other public forums.