Part Two

Far, far too many churches are like Paul, while he was still Saul. They are full of pride in their religion, their church, their pastor, themselves. Like Paul, they need to be knocked off their "high horse", they need to be humbled "and he fell to the earth". Like Paul they need to be blinded outwardly so they can see how blind they are inwardly - they need to be blinded to man and his ways and his wisdom that they may see God - this is a key for spiritual maturity "and when his eyes were opened he saw no man". We must arrive at a place where we are looking for and to "Christ alone". We should not even look to the Law and the Prophets when we can see Christ himself, for they (the law and the prophets) point us to Christ.....when we see Jesus transfigured, we see Him meeting with Moses, representing the Law and Elijah, representing the Prophets but we also see the Father himself interrupting this get together, pointing to and praising His Son "This is My beloved Son: HEAR HIM", not Moses, not Elijah, not your Pastor or favorite teacher, hear HIM! "My sheep hear MY VOICE, and I KNOW THEM, and they FOLLOW ME".
     We follow HIM! Not Paul, or Moses, or our pastor or mentor. We all must arrive at the place Peter, James and John (and Paul) did - "AND SUDDENLY, WHEN THEY HAD LOOKED ROUND ABOUT, THEY SAW NO MAN ANYMORE, SAVE JESUS ONLY WITH THEMSELVES". When we put our eyes on Jesus, when He alone becomes the focus of our walk with God, we will only notice Him and those who are like us, focused on Him, obeying the Father by HEARING HIM....
     When our eyes are on man, any man, living or dead, and not on Christ, when the focus of our walk is our pastor or even ourselves, we will end up ensnared in a religion or our own devising, which leads us to resist and persecute Christ at every turn, spurning and rejecting (persecuting) truth whenever they meet him. Jesus would say to denominations and countless churches today "Why persecutest thou Me?" Like Paul while he was Saul, their reply will be "who are you Lord?" for they do not know Him. They proudly study their Bibles, teaching their false doctrines - remember, Satan had the audacity to use God's own word against him, he quoted scripture to Jesus, taking it out of context, teaching the Word falsely, and so do churches today - they quote the scriptures to the Holy Spirit, taking them out of context, to excuse their excommunicating the Holy Spirit from their midst.
     We must "seek HIM with the whole heart" - we must desire truth in the inward parts, we must all become like Paul, whose name means "small, humble", every time this once haughty, arrogant, pride filled man said his new name, he was reminding himself of this truth "GOD BIG, us small". The more humility we walk in (Paul said he was the chief of sinners), the greater the glory we can give to God - not ourselves. Being the center of attention of every service is death to any man's ministry to God and His people. Jesus should be, the Father should be and the Holy Spirit should be the center of our attention whenever we meet together, not any man. OH that we would all see "no man anymore, save Jesus". He will open our eyes to see Him in one another, that He may remain our focus, that He may touch and speak to us, through each other.
     May the day of the "pastor led churches" instead of "Holy Spirit led" churches, come to an end......Soon.
                                 Isaiah 58:13