How can church be reduced to a hopeless support group? By Alan Ballou.
Spiritual principles work regardless if we know them or not. The Bible says that God’s people are destroyed for lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6). That means that even church going people experience needless destruction in their life time because they simply do not know spiritual principles.
God has already given His people everything (all things) we would ever need for this life, but it comes through our knowledge of Him, meaning that we “have to know Him and His ways” in order to receive what He has “already given us” (2 Peter 1:3-4 below).
Think about that for a second. God, being God, already knew and has already declared that church attending people would live without the things they need because they do not come to know Him and His ways. So what have we been doing in church all this time?
Look at this verse below. We “have to use God’s promises in order to receive the things He has already given us.” That’s “have to, got to, must,” and “the only way we are going to receive what is already given;” past tense (has given). Let that sink in.
2 Peter 1:2-4
2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. NKJV
The world system will keep us so busy that we do not have time to know God (Ephesians 2:1-3, 1 John 5:19). The only way to receive what God has already given us and escape the corruption of the world is to learn and use the promises. As it is written above, we have to become partakers of the divine nature through using the promises.
A spiritual person is one who knows the promises needed for a particular situation (Hebrews 5 14, 2 Peter 1:4). What is keeping you from being a partaker (participant, participating) in the divine (spiritual) nature today? How many New Testament promises can you name right now? Now you know who I am talking to. Identify whatever it is that is keeping you from knowing God, and do something about it! Break the cycle!
When Christians reach a place of destruction in their life, they ask the church to pray for them and that is good. However, most never learn the spiritual principles that they have ignored, which placed them in the predicament they are in. Some, being ignorant of God’s ways, do not want to know the principles, but only want the church to rescue them from their problem.
The Christian life is so set up to where we cannot reject knowledge and “not” end up in destruction. Show me a household that doesn’t read their Bible, and I will show you a family who will soon be in need of prayer and assistance from someone outside of that house. On top of that, show me a family who hears the Word, but does not put it into practice, and I will show you a family who will soon go through hard times (discipline).
Do you see how the Christian life is set up? Sure, sing in the choir, preach, clap, praise God, and whatever else in church, but there are certain things that we all must be doing in order to avoid destruction and discipline. That is also included in the reason why we gather together.
If you have been in church for years, but you have not learned any promises, and have not put any promises into practice, then your life will show it first of all in lack. You will live without the things you need if you do not seek God’s Kingdom and God’s righteousness (Matthew 6:33). Second your life will show it in discipline, which includes hardship, and sickness, even to the point of being lame (Hebrews 12:7-13), if you do not put the Word into practice (Luke 6:46-49).
You can’t pray those things away, because they keep coming back until you live by the spiritual principles you were made to live by. Guess what happens if you never learn them, and even reject them? Your future will be very predictable. You may have everything planned out, but things will not go as you have planned them. Have you ever known households that never seem to get a break?
So we could have a church full of people who live in lack, sickness, and disabilities if the solutions are never taught. That’s when church becomes a meeting place where people, who willingly live in such conditions, only come to find help without advice so that they can continue living in their situation. When godly solutions are never taught, church is reduced to a hopeless support group; feeding a never-ending cycle of lack and discipline.
I’m Alan Ballou; a servant.
