Why Am I Speaking Out? I didn’t want to.

I do not like rejection or being stoned by members of the Church any more than anyone else.

I have been battered too many times. It does not matter who I am. What matters is, if I am telling the truth and if I am doing it in the right spirit.

I know I am nothing, the least in the Kingdom. I can honestly say that if I make it from one day to the next it will only be if He has given me strength.

But something keeps rising up from within me, something I cannot ignore even if I try. I have agonized with myself and with God for days about it.

I have argued, “I know what they will say!” It’s though I can already hear, “Who does he think he is?” and “How dare he speak of such things?”

It’s been to no avail. I can have no rest until I am willing to speak the things that are welling up inside of me. It’s like I am being moved whether I want to be or not.

My mother died from cancer not too long ago. It was terrible and she suffered so much. She never had a chance. No radiation, no chemo, nothing. The doctors said, “There’s nothing else we can do.”

In the last few years, I have learned to surf the internet and I have learned so many things. I am new to Facebook and again I have learned many things.

I have learned that there are precious people I know who are sick and suffering. Many of them are our families, people we love very much.

So many of their loved ones are hearing the same thing, “There’s nothing we can do.”

Many have already lost them and remain in grief and heartbreak. I’ve heard it until I can’t stand it any more. It’s against everything I was taught to believe in.

I was told there was a Church, one I was once a part of, that had the gifts to heal other people through the power of the Holy Ghost.

I was taught that the same power the Apostles had was also within Spirit-filled people today, that Jesus Christ was the same, yesterday, today and forever, that the Gifts were placed in the Church and that they were never taken out and that these gifts were available to those who sought them.

Some of our family members are older and there are those who would say that they have already lived a full life and it was just God’s time for them. Maybe so, but I’m not so sure.

Many of these departed are some who still had so much left to give, their knowledge and experience still so needed in our time.

I’m not questioning God, I am questioning what I have been taught about God. Maybe you’re right, but what about those who are still so much younger, many only in their fifties or those who are even only young adults who will be leaving young families behind.

ll of us are being told there is nothing else that can be done but we were taught there is. That healing was in the atonement. Are we doing enough?

I’m speaking out, because millions are still dying without knowing the Spirit of God in His fullness. So many today do not know that the Holy Ghost is the most awesome thing in this life.

There is nothing that can even possibly compare with Him, the most powerful and unbelievable Spirit known to mankind.

Once you have known it, there is nothing else that ever will fulfill. The Spirit can do more in seconds than we could ever hope to accomplish in our entire lifetimes.

Thousands are calling themselves apostles and prophets today without the manifestation of signs, wonders and miracles that accompany such an office.

People are calling everything “anointed” and can not tell the difference in what really is the Spirit and what is likely flesh.

Many videos are posted showing Churches shouting and dancing, but people see very little of the real, deep moving of the Holy Ghost as we once saw it or know it to be, that quiet moving of the Spirit that washes us with tears and moves mountains and melts hearts.

There is a counterfeit in much of the music department. Many of those responsible for changing the music in our Churches are no longer even a part of the mainstream Church anymore.

Exalting those with the best talent, keeping everyone jumping and clapping and yelling and putting on a real show is fooling many.

Some older people and even younger people are saying that much of this music and singing is not of the Spirit, that it is not the same feeling or sound of what we once knew in Church.

Their voices are being drowned out. Preaching is loud and demonstrative and there is much fanfare but the deep moving of the Spirit is missing.

People in the ministry are rich and powerful. I wish I could say this was all in what we called denominational Churches. I’m afraid it’s not.

No one is seeking those who have been driven out of the Church. No one wants to hear about it. Many were driven out, just as Jeremiah 23 and Ezekiel 34 said they were.

If only just those people were found and restored, our Church buildings could not even hold all the people.

Large numbers are still leaving mainstream Churches everyday, even children of those in leadership, and nobody really wants to know why or accept responsibility.

Old Church and leaders feel they have nothing to apologize for. So many left because they could no longer live by rules that had no scriptural basis.

They could no longer believe that maintaining “standards” was more important than showing love to one another and being ruled by harsh people including family was no longer tolerable.

Claiming something you did not have or could not do just didn’t work anymore. But too often they have gone from one extreme to the opposite extreme. The world watches. The revival doesn’t come.

The world is in a terrible mess. People are starving, disease is spreading like crazy, divorce is rampant here, half the people getting married don’t stay married, homes are being torn apart, children and parents alike are on nerve pills, depression and suicide are awful and people have lost their jobs and their homes.

We are at war, we live in terror and fear or we live in some state of arrogance and self-righteousness and snub everyone else that doesn’t believe the way we do and say everybody else is going to hell.

It’s not just in the world. It’s in our Churches. People are falling right under our noses and we pretend we don’t see anything. We were told we had the answers.

We were told and we still tell people that we have the power. A few signs, a few miracles here and there. We hear, “the revival is coming” but I’m afraid it may be too late for some of us.

I still hear, “There’s nothing else we can do.”

The end-time Revival will come. But many of us may not be part of it. One particular Church is known all over the internet and all over the world for their worship, deep moving of the Spirit, their love for people and in keeping the old ways of singing alive as well as being progressive on all fronts.

There should be many more. Those elders who know the old way will pass. There is an entire generation of Pentecostal men and women that are wonderful singers and musicians.

They no longer sing. I almost cannot believe it. They know how to have Church the old-fashioned way. They’ve give up and give in. They know about hurt, they know about suffering and sorrow, they know how to love, they know this new stuff’s not working, they took a back seat, they had no choice.

But they do now. They know there IS something we can do.

I can tell you that you will begin to be stirred, just as I have been. That which was placed deep down inside your heart and spirit was put there for a reason by the giver of gifts, the Holy Spirit of God.

It is from the Ancient of Days and cannot be destroyed. I know. I tried to lay it aside and forget it but it won’t happen.

What God gave to you, He does not take back. It’s just the way He works whether others believe or understand or not and it is His word and no one can change it.

Not even you. A hunger and desire will begin to build in you like you have never known before.

No matter where your life has taken you or how many mistakes you have made, God saw ahead, way down the line and He always had a purpose and a plan and what you got from God was preserved for just such time that He wanted the work to be done and completed.

He is stirring many others in this same manner. You will come to know of them and you will know that you are not the only one. What He started, He will complete.

Trials, losses and missteps were brought about so that He alone will get the glory in the work that He will perform.

He did not teach you the things you know or bring you this far to throw you away. That would defeat His divine purpose.

He is stirring all those who yet desire to be used of Him and do His work. No matter what anyone else thinks.

There was an old song we used to sing and it said, “When The LORD gets ready, you gotta move!” And you will, in His name.

First Published: January 14, 2010.

~ Robert Blackburn

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Robert Blackburn

 

 

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