The United States of America is a very diverse and well-educated country. There are more institutions of higher learning in America than anywhere. Yet, in spite of the vast number of schools and colleges, some Americans still do not meet the intellectual standards of the rest of the nation. They do not meet these intellectual standards because they have not applied what was taught to them. Intellect is more than the ability to know a large amount of information. Intellect is also the ability to apply that information you know for the intended purpose. Nevertheless, one disturbing fact is clear concerning America spiritually as a people and a nation. Although, we invest our time, energy, and money into our religion and personal beliefs, the average church member has no personal knowledge of God other than what has been told to them on Sunday morning. The fact is we are surprisingly spiritually illiterate.
The reason for this lack of spiritual intellect could be as the children of El Elyon, the most high God; we do not have much of a dialogue with God. Moses and Elijah had dialogue with God in a visible and audible form. However, all we have are the common memorizes prayers and our visits to our church buildings. Nevertheless, the real underlying cause of our spiritual illiteracy is in our comprehension and understanding of what the Scriptures has to say to us as present day Christians. Realistically, since each person comprehends what they hear, see and read differently from the next person, it is hard for our pastors, teachers and preachers to get all of the congregation to comprehend and understand what is being communicated from God. Communication is not just what is being said; communication is also what is being comprehended and understood by the listener.
However, in order to hear, comprehend and understand what the Spirit of God is saying to the church God calls the body of Christ, we must hear from the Scriptures our place, position, and stand as the children of El Elyon, the most high God. By not knowing these things, we have developed into a nation that is still struggling with knowing whose we are. This question is constantly being asked in our music, our books, and television programs we watch. In America, we classify ourselves by our race, our income, our political affiliations, and our religious denomination. In America, we never know whom we will see in the mirrors of reality because we are obsessed with changing reality and ourselves.
We tend to measure or identify ourselves according to our success, our friends, and our degrees. In our society, our self worth is tied to our stock portfolios, our trips to exotic locations, and investments in our personal properties. Shamefully, we have allowed ourselves to be fooled into thinking that is what life is all about; we have been told that what counts the most is how many toys and how much joys of life you have before you die. Moreover, this same lie has found its way into our homes. In our homes, we define ourselves according to the things we purchase because some voice on the radio or television told us and because the newspaper gave us a so-called coupon to use. Oprah, Dr. Phil, among many others tells us how we should feel, act, and think because we think we can not think for ourselves. In our homes, Neuman Marcus, Vanity Fair, or the latest Cover Girl models tell us how much we should weigh, eat and drink. Sadly we listen and we do.
Moreover, the modern day denominations and church buildings have embraced this same ideology. Our denominations measure themselves by the size of its buildings, the wealth and power of its congregations, and the prestige and political clout of its leaders. Those of us who become members of these church buildings measure the church itself by the amount of members, the entertainment, and the work we can pay someone to do for us. As great as our accomplishments are, they do not, have not, and will not hide the fact that we really do not know whose we are. By not knowing and understand whose we are, we have become double minded Christians. By not knowing and understand whose we are, we will miss the mark of being the church without a spot or wrinkle. Contrary to popular opinion, God did not save us so we can play dress up on Sunday morning and parade around in our denominational tombs and monument.
The true church does not exist because of our traditions, ceremonies, or organization founders. We exist, we move, and we are whose we are because God has a message to deliver. We are whose we are because Jesus, the Christ died on the cross to buy our soul from our old master. We have been bought with a high price and that make us whose we are. We are here to tell the rest of this racially divided, emotionally scared, and spiritually insecure world that they too have been bought with a high price. Their sin debt has been paid in full. Because of the shedding of the Blood on Calvary, we all can become the children of El Elyon. This is why we were saved and this is whose we are. We were saved to do the work God sets before us because we belong to El Elyon, the most high God.
The bible, which is the doctrine of Christ, is the foundation that our faith is built on; the truths that are contained on the pages are our life and our hope. The bible informs us of the ways of God and directs us to the pathways of God. Therefore, we must stand on our faith in God according to what is written in the bible. This belief or spiritual stand is the reason God calls us to be more than conquers. This stand is why when sickness and trials come; we can know and understand that all things work together for the good of those that love the Lord according to God purpose. The stand that we are to take as the children of God is right where the bible instructs us to stand. This is because, without the Scriptures all of our hope of salvation dies. However, because of the truths found in the Scriptures, we stand and remain strong because we are anchored to the rock of God. In times of trouble and trials, we stand because we are anchored. In times of temptation and even when we fall, we stand and remain strong because we are anchored. We are anchored to the rock of El Elyon and we have the power and presence of the Holy Spirit to keep us on our feet. Therefore, we stand and we stand right where the Scriptures tells us because we stand for God.
However, the average church members have not decided where to stand. We have allowed the trappings of life and the lust for prosperity to compromise our stand. Instead of going with God, we go with the tide of public opinion and hope for the best. We no longer stand with or for God. We stand with our church going politicians, moviestars and religious celebrities. However, we should read the bible for ourselves and let the Holy Spirit guide us into all truth and understanding. We grievously contribute our hard-earned wages to their financial coffers because we’ve been deceived into believing that we must go through someone else to get to God. Our Christian elected presidents and politicians says that it is okay to kill destroy, steal and start a war based on a lie, and we stand behind that. We stand there because we have decided to be good little deceived American church members. Nevertheless, in reality, we have allowed Lucifer to fool us into getting back into the same muck and mire God rescued us from.
This is the reason for our current spiritual crisis, we do not know whose we are and because of that, we do not know where to stand. As the children of El Elyon, we stand on the information found in the Scriptures. We stand for the things of God. We stand for love, mercy, peace, and righteousness, because Jesus stood on the cross for us. We stand for these things because we can not afford to stand anywhere else. We know and understand that our salvation depends upon our stand. We have the intellect to act upon this knowledge because the salvation of those not yet saved depends upon our actions. We stand upon the solid rock of Jesus, the Christ, because He stood for us. According to the Scriptures, we are enabled to stand by experiencing God’s Spirit, mercy, grace, power and love. When we stand on our spiritual feet right where we live, we can help someone else to stand. In doing this we will be following the examples and instructions of Jesus and the disciples. According to the Scriptures, we are to have the mind of Jesus, the Christ. We are instructed to be in this present age but not to be of this present age. We are instructed to forsake everything and follow Jesus, the Christ.
We hear and read that God so loved this racially divided, emotionally scared, and spiritually insecure world so much that He sent His only son to die for what we had done. We are commanded to be steadfast and firm in our belief and faith in God. We are expected to be unmovable in our hope in and expectation of God. Therefore, because we are the children of El Elyon, we abound in the works of God. We are empowered by His Spirit and we are capable to do the work. We are the body of Christ. We might be lambs among wolves, but God made us to take over. We are to heal the sick, cast out demons, and raise the dead of our society. We are the children of El Elyon. God has put us back together after sin had torn us asunder. He has reshaped us by the Word of God and the Holy Spirit. He reveals to us through the Scriptures that we are the very image and likeness of God. The Holy Spirit of God transforms us into the righteousness of God. He teaches us the ways, concepts and percepts of God. He stands us on our spiritual feet as the children of El Elyon. We are packed with the power of God and we are a force to be reckoned with.
Therefore we stand. We stand not because of our denomination, or church building. We stand not for our country, the system, or the people we chose to run things. We stand only because one day Jesus, the Christ stood for us. We stand because God has given us the Holy Spirit. We stand because by His Spirit we live, move and exist. Nevertheless, we tend to think that our education, wealth, and religion can help us to stand. We see the results. The results are we live in a world plagued by trouble and violence. The results are a notion on the verge of spiritual bankruptcy. We have allowed the false prophet of our society to lead us astray. The results are a nation, a church, and a people in crisis because we do not know our place, position, and stand as the children of El Elyon, the most high God.
In our zeal to fool ourselves, we discovered three things to solve the problem that plague our society. In our quest to make a stand in this mad, psychopathic jungle, we have produced more educated people than most of the world. We can learn at home or at a vast number of community colleges. If we desire the college experience, our government, our jobs and a host of private foundations are will to send us to any number of institutions of higher learning. Because of our drive to know more, America has increased the standard of living in our country and across the world. Our educated society has brought advantages and advances that were only a dream to our forefathers. Nevertheless, we still do not know how to solve the nightmares we face each day. Education teaches us that together we can stand, but it does not give us the power it takes to stand. Education has taught us the history, the failures and the achievements of our people. Nevertheless, it has not stopped racism, poverty, war, or oppression. Education is good, but education is not God.
America has become a prosperous and powerful society because of our constant drive to educate the masses. The average household income has gone from $7,000 in 1964 to around $35,000 today. America produces and or sells most of the consumable good in the world. Our capitalist ideology allows us to lend money to the world and profit off others miseries. Our calling card is bring us your tried, your hungry, and your huddled masses and our lotteries, casinos and good old American greed will turn them in to millionaires overnight. America is truly a wealthy nation because we have the Midas touch. Nevertheless, we enjoy life much less than before. We work two jobs so we can live like someone else. We go home to tired and to deep in debt to enjoy the house or those in it. We rob and steal from each other and will kill anyone who gets in our way to the top. America is wealthy and wealth is good. However, in spite of what we stamp on our money, wealth is not God.
One of the main principals this great country is built upon is the freedom to worship any god we want. We worship when we want, where we want, and what we want. It is apart of our Constitution. In America, we do not force religion on people like in a Muslim ran country. In America, we can freely choose the religion we want. We can chose not to believe in anything, not even ourselves. This benefit has made America great and strong. We are the melting pot for all races and cultures. Consequently, we have become a country that will worship any god. To paraphrase, Paul in Acts 17:22, “ People of America, I see that in every way you are very religious.” However, because of our much-prized religious freedom, the body of Christ has become many different and useless denominations. America is now over ran with false prophet preaching false doctrine, because America is a nation that will serve any god. Religion is good, but religion is not God.
Therefore, this leads us to the only solution to the crisis we face. The answer is Jesus, the Christ. He is our Lord and the head of the Body of Christ. He has given us our commission. The Holy Spirit of God is inside us to enable us. Nevertheless, what are we doing? We are building temples with our hands when God has said He will not live in them. We have Holy Ghost parties and jump and shout about Jesus, but never invite the Holy Spirit of God to come in our lives. We chase behind the American dream and our piece of the pie in the sky and have left those lost in sins to save themselves. We let our underpaid preaches, pastors, and teachers study the Scriptures for us, because we are to busy for stuff like that. We tune in to our favorite television prophet to tell us just what we want to hear. We pay our religious organization to do the work God assigned to our hands. We chase after our dreams five, six and seven days a week, but only allow three hours on Sunday to hear from God. Therefore, the crisis we face is a vivid and loud indicator that we have went wrong some where.
Something is wrong when raising money and erecting buildings become more important than saving souls. Something is wrong when we refuse to go out and harvest because someone might call us a bible-toting religious fanatic. Something is wrong when we call sin acceptable and homosexuality a right. Something is wrong. We, the present day children of God, have set down on the job and God has turned us over to a reprobate mind. We sing with our mouths that we love the Lord, but our hearts are far from Him. We are not really singing the song; we are just mouthing the words. The question we, present day children of God need to hear is, as Thomas Shepherd writes, Must Jesus bear the cross alone and all this world go free. No, there is a cross for everyone and there is a cross for me. As the body of Christ, we need to hear the words we sing because they really do mean something. They mean that we have agreed to be the one child of El Elyon to stand up in the midst of a cowering world and respond, “ The consecrated cross I’ll bear till death shall set me free and then go home my crown to wear for there is a crown for me.” We stand and we do these things because we know our place, position, and stand. We stand for God.
