Teachings 

 

Family - Assembly - Community

 

 

 

 

Let’s build !... Let’s build ?

Yaakov, Béla Orbán

This question is not only provocative, but also very important and topical. And especially at a time when it is almost impossible to find a church or an assembly where there is no construction, enlargement, renovation or some kind of modernization going on.  

At first sight all these activities seem to serve a noble case. In most cases we see the negati ve consequences and the results not only on the spiritual level but also in the souls of the people: sufferings, anger, quarrels, bad thoughts, in a word-  the good intentions of building lead sometimes to sin. At the beginning vanity comes up, then the spirit of competition, then financial problems. The spirit of Jezebel rises up very quickly and very craftily too, by leading people to submit others to their own will. Moreover it is often not human will that controls the work anymore, but the work begins to dominate the people! And when the work becomes an idol, men start to quarrel, to fight, to demand more and more from one another, in a word : sin is born. They start to compete with each other for money and success, fights break out within the assembly or even against public organs.  

The consequences of these fights can be very serious, and many get spiritually wounded or dead. These fights and rivalries do not only become progressively greater, but turn into conflicts wounding many seriously and fatally in their spirits.  

So the first question is : Are these buildings really projects according to God’s plans? 

We could very easily come up at first sight with the answer Yes, because Satan never constructs anything but destroys and scatters everything. We shall not precipitate the answer and shall not rejoice at once as soon as we hear about any construction work ! 

- Let’s be sober and careful because Satan does never construct, that’s true, but he builds with partiality and cunningness, so that he can move into the a completed building!

- In the same way, he likes to enlarge  what exists already so that he could also settle down in it and take the power over the assembly.   

- He also traps people by making them renovate buildings.

 The following three ”good tricks” are often used when building an assembly : 

1.         The forced evangelisation, the establishing of the assembly, all kind of ”visions” that are false or not topical, the ministries coming from false prophecies and all the projects coming from human will, are all reasons for spiritual relapse, disappointment and tears.  In the beginning the work could seem to be enriching, but in the end it becomes hollow, ragged, and finally lifeless.  

Every forced construction or human effort leads towards physical and spiritual emptiness. The pastors, the workers and other members of the assembly are all tired, exhausted, spiritual life is stagnant. Some return to the world, while others - in the best case - will look for another assembly.   

2.         When these symtoms appear, the following trick comes next : we need to open wide our doors ! Under the guise of false mercy and love, tolerance appears. In the same way new methods that were already used elsewhere and apparently ”worked” are being imported without any examination what they are really about. These methods are mostly psychical (human) methods from which they expect a spiritual revival. There are in general good programs, trips, parties (some even arrange balls!), study groups and many other things like that… More singing, bigger orchestras, increasing repertoires. Because of our desires we could lose our clear vision by wanting the spiritual revival. They start to organize parades and movements of all kinds, make declarations or confessions in public, pray with others „as mediators and in spiritual warfare” without any unction, any authorization from God, real religious revolutions. These can be the consequences of our growing, of our renovations, when we invite foreign spirits (catholicism, false charismatics, ecumenism, New Age, etc.) which are the ”Ismaels” born from our own desires. Without realizing it, we open the door to all sorts of so-called ”Christian” methods (music, meditation, ceremonies and various other tools) in the form of new idols like famous musicians, ”successful” preachers, false prophets and well known miracle makers…. The price to pay for the enlargments is bigger than it seems : in place of spiritual leading the assemblies submit to a human hierarchy and place men on their pedestals. The consequence of this idolatry is the spiritual deterioration toward religiousness, a spiritual dilution.  

3.         This second ”trick” gives the natural rise to the third one which is modernisation.

The men that follows his soul’s will is not far from worldly thinking because in most of the cases instead of following the leading of God’s Spirit they follow their own thoughts and desires. These thoughts possibly come from a good will and from trying to please God.

This desire to please God arises from the fact that religious man tries to know God and His Will through his intellect, whereas the spiritual man seeks Him without trying to explain His characteristics but accepts Him without condition and totally submits to the Lord because he has a direct and living relation with Him through the Holy Spirit.

The spiritual man knows that God is everlasting, constant and unchanging. So it is totally unnecessary to modernise anything. The Law of the New Life never changes, and neither does His big patience and Grace change.  

But the aspirations of the person living apart from God are such like that he would like to create for himself a world where all his joy, comfort, material, physical and mental desire would be satisfied.

This leads to the result of a progressive depreciation, followed by the denial and final abolition of the Law.

Modernisation is the process which has been working for thousands of years.

Modern Christianity follows a way which takes it farther and farther away from the Law, that is to say from Christ, in Whom the Law has been fulfilled.  

That’s why the biggest enemy of the Body of Christ - based on the apostles, the prophets and the Law (and which was sanctified by the judgement and Grace of the One that fulfils the Law : Yeshoua HaMashiah) – is modernisation, which is nothing else like secularisation.

The moving away from the Law and from Grace in the ”modern” version of self-redemption by good deeds that the Pharisees were doing.

This state is often worse than the atheists’ who at least do not lie to themselves when they recognize that they need a new life, that they need God.

Modern Christians look at their lives as a well-ordered believer’s life because Law fades away step by step and the Word disappears too. The Word which could unveil those lives getting farther and farther away from God.  

The modern assembly offers modern music, modern external appearance, modern instruments, modern methods which replace little by little to finally exclude Christ’s Spirit, who goes sadly further away. Spiritual gifts which aid the ministries to be done do no longer work if false prophecies or false teachings appear. That is why instead of restoring the apostolic work men carry out projects that are not of God and rule over whole assemblies and lead them away from God. ”Modern paths” open the doors toward false ”idol” pastors.

The only properly working ministry by the grace of God is the evangelisation.

But even this ministry often serves pastors to fill the church pews and to bring growth and new success to them.  

Modern assemblies are often people’s communities which satisfy the desires, the aspirations of the world and the Times we are living in. That is the reason why those assemblies spiritually merge with the surrounding world to please it and to avoid any conflict with it.

This suffering world stays under the reign of Satan who besieges it with a growing refinement and more and more modern tools.  

This modern spiritual world without faith and Law and remote from God is much stronger than the actual situation of the believers. That is why it spreads very easily, and if the believers openly invites it, it settles and definetely takes the power over them.