When You Lose It
There seems to be a crack in every piece of armor.
If every day we put on the whole armor of God, there would be no vulnerable spaces for some fiery dart to get through. But we’re not perfect and it’s not likely that we will be; not until we have been perfected through the head of the church, that being Jesus Christ.
It is really a matter of going on to fullness; to be grown up; mature, in the Spirit.
Now this is not what I thought it was going to be; I can see that already. I thought it was to be about losing your cool.
If we are indeed under severe attack from the enemy and others, we are attempting to endure severe duress. There are plenty of verses about asking others for forgiveness; while at the same time, forgiving ourselves. In this hour and under this much oppression, we are likely to blow our lid; sooner or later.
But what other things might be lost to us today – implying that we once had it, and now we no longer do?
Many will get tired of hearing about days of yore. I understand that. But like it or not, we must look back to where we once were and compare it with where we are now.
Isn’t it likely that it is truly the responsibility of the church, to do exactly that? Of course, if we never knew anything other than what we see and know today, there’s no way we would understand this message.
What things did we once have in the body of Christ, that we might have little of or less of now? There are many of those in my age group, who are alive and remain in this country.
We know the difference in how people once treated one another here. Those people, must be honest about the depth of what is called “church” today. It was different then, it just was.
But how was it different? How did people in the church treat one another, compared to the way they treat each other now?
I well remember that you could go up to someone and say, “I said something about you today that I should not have said.” Their response most often was, “That’s okay brother, I forgive you.”
They did not even have to ask what we said about them. Why? Because we all are guilty of saying things about others, we shouldn’t be saying. We’re talking about attitude here; how you will act, when you are striving to stay full of the Spirit.
How deeply did the Holy Ghost move then, compared to what we see in the Spirit today? Plenty profess about such a move in their services today. Either you know the truth of it by what that was about in earlier times, or you discern it in the Holy Ghost now.
It seems appropriate to stop and say that this is not about judging. It’s about discerning. Being able to discern both good and bad, gives you clear interpretation of the truth.
As to what was written to a particular church, there can be a difference between what we lost, and what we left.
Oh, we’ve lost some things; those who desire to live and walk in the Spirit, know that. The church, the body of Christ, needs to be revived; at least in this land in which we live.
We’ve left some things we need to go back and get; doing things again that we stopped doing. Teaching the real Word, which we no longer teach. Returning to biblical order, that we stopped following.
~ Robert Blackburn
Amen!