You don’t know when the message is going to come.

If you have been chosen to speak The Voice of The Spirit, you remain on-call. The urgency of the times is at hand. It is the hour for truth; to speak what God wants His People to hear.

We are at a desperate day, when we must be listening to hear what The Spirit is saying to The Church.

It’s no longer an option not to. Those times of hearing nice sermons and tickling ears, are now far spent.

We are in trouble. We face the beginning of a new year; one that we have no idea of what to expect or what is coming.

Whether it sounds trite to many or not, there has been much turning away from God.

I am reminded that it’s not about not knowing the truth; it’s about not loving it. There is a clarion call to the Elders of we the people; and especially to those who are seniors of The Church of The Living God.

We of this age group; we are the Elders now, and we are being asked and required to tell, how it was, and how it is now.

I know, when we the people here treated one another differently than we do today. I’m a witness of how much more we loved and cared for one another.

How much kinder we were, how much more considerate we were; more caring for our neighbors and how we were trustworthy and honest.

We cannot turn around or change anything, unless we first face, what we were before and what we have now become.

We lost some very valuable assets; the things that made us different than a lot of other places in our world.

Don’t let me lose you over what sounds like a mundane sermon. We don’t hear certain words anymore; like, character, integrity, courtesy, discipline, respect, responsibility and even dignity.

The words “class” and good taste belong to another time; it’s passe. I hurry along. We’ve been lukewarm for a very long time, and it’s no doubt for the same old reason.

We are increased in goods, and we have need of nothing. Or so we thought. As a country and also as The Church, we did indeed leave our first love. We must see that.

I recall a chorus I learned in Bible School many years ago now. It said,

“To be like Jesus,
to be like Jesus,
on earth I long,
to be like Him.
All through life’s journey,
from earth to glory,
I only ask,
to be like Him.”

It’s been so many years ago now, but I can still see all of us with our arms raised, with our faces turned to heaven.

We sang in beautiful three part harmony, and the tears ran down our faces. We meant that; we really did.

Our greatest desire was to live for Him, to work for Him, to sing for Him and preach for Him. It was to minister to The LORD, to all people and to always work in His house.

Here’s where I’m going with this. It caused an incredible love for one another. We loved each other in such a deep and special way.

I have not truly encountered such love anywhere since then, and here is how I know for sure. Even though that’s been well over 50 years ago, we still love one another today, just as much as we did all those years ago.

Through his medium, we love keeping up with one another, sharing our lives, encouraging one another, praying for one another and smiling about one another. It has never died.

Even in the smallest of assemblies of days gone by, we were so happy to see one another when we gathered.

The minister would ask us to turn and greet one another in The LORD. We began to turn to one another, hug each other and bless one another. As we did that, praises and tears began to come forth and the Holy Ghost would fall on the whole place.

We shook, we shouted and we spoke in tongues. We moved God. I was there; I saw it even as a child.

This whole year has led us back to something. We are going to need one another to get through this. In my community, people have already started talking to one another again; like we used to.

We know something’s up. Such despair and worry has gripped us. We’re slowly waking up. Something tells us that if things don’t change soon, it’s going to get worse.

Many who’ve turned away from God, will begin to turn back. Forget those who won’t; and I agree there’s many of them.

Perhaps I didn’t need you before; I do now. We’re taking a good second look at what’s truly important.

I heard a minister say earlier on Facebook, that people need to see the genuine Holy Ghost. They need to feel it; experience it and we in The Church, need it more than every before.

They need to see and feel the true Power of God fall; feel it hover over them and touch them.

We cannot ever forget, there is nothing like that. I declare. They desperately need and desire to see those who truly manifest the fruit of The Spirit.

We can turn. We know what to turn back to.

 

~ Robert Blackburn

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Robert Blackburn

 

 

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