"What We Have Here Is…failure To Communicate”

“What We Have Here is…Failure To Communicate”

“What We Have Here is…Failure To Communicate.” Perhaps some of you are old enough to remember this famous line from the authoritarian captain played by character actor Strother Martin in the 1967 movie, “Cool Hand Luke.” Paul Newman’s academy award nominated performance as Lucas “Luke” Jackson is a character study of a non-conformist, anti-hero loner who bullheadedly resists authority and the Establishment. One of the films posters carried the tagline: “The man … and the motion picture that simply do not conform.” This film by director Stuart Rosenberg proved to be one of the key films of the 1960’s, a decade in which protest against established powers was a key theme.

Sadly, God the Father is looking at the Church and the Christian’s life in 2002 and saying, “What We Have Here is…Failure To Communicate.” The Church is bullheadedly resisting the authority of The Word of God and the Christian is simply choosing not to be conformed to the image of God’s Son (Romans 8:29). Christians are simply not being established in the Faith today. The snare of the devil is progressing at an accelerated rate in the Church and he is holding many Christians captive to do his will while multitudes enter eternity lost. Many in the Church are lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to authorities, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God and give appearances of holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power.

Our Father is proclaiming through His Servants, “My People are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being My Priest. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children” (Hosea 3:6). Genuine worship in the Church has been exchanged for entertainment. We have been lured away by the “bright lights” and tactics of Hollywood to attract the masses. We’re more concerned about numbers than we are about souls. The study of skits and dialogues by Christians to entertain the masses has replaced the study of the Word of God to equip the saints to save the masses. Yet, the authority of God’s Holy Word remains unchanged. The Bible proclaims to all who will hear, “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:24) We need The Spirit of the Lord and we need The Truth of the Lord to communicate with and genuinely worship the Father who daily demonstrates His Love for us.

Fellow believers, the communication lines are open but we refuse to use them. We are experiencing failure to communicate! Jesus asked the Father on our behalf: “Sanctify them in the truth: Thy word is truth (John 17:17).” However, Bible Doctrine isn’t being preached in the church today. Few Christians truly know what they believe or how to defend the faith. Many believers make erroneous statements to the searching and many within the Church think there is more than one way to God when the Bible is clear: Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. Other Christians live a silent existence when the Bible says, “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.” The result is that many believers are deaf to the world because they are deaf to the Father. They are not communicating. There is a communication failure because they are not surrendering to the authority of God’s Word and the leading of His Spirit. Like Lucas “Luke” Jackson in rebellion to authority, they refuse to be conformed and established in the Faith. How sad, when The Father wants an intimate relationship with each and every one of His Children and has our best interest at heart. We have failed to hear The Apostle Peter’s warning: “You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard lest, being carried away by the error of unprincipled men, you fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. (2 Peter 3:17-18).”

This failure to communicate is our weakness in the Church and the Christian life today but there is hope. The Apostle Paul says in Romans 8:26-27: “And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” God The Holy Spirit and God the Son are available to help us communicate with God The Father. Here Paul identifies what we have is … failure to communicate. The promise of 2 Chronicles 7:14 remains true: “and [If] My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, them I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” Prayer is how we communicate with God. Paul says we do not know how to pray, as we should. We are busy seeking from God’s hand but care little about seeking God’s face. We have failed to see the power of the disciples’ request, “Lord, teach us to pray.”