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PREPARE
THE WAY
We professing Christians often seem to think that if we
talk about a thing earnestly that’s the same as doing
it. There are multitudes who will gladly get together
every week to hear somebody talk about how Jesus heals,
or how Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit,
or how Jesus sets the captives free, even if they never
see any of this happen.
There are men who make a comfortable living talking
about how Jesus transforms lives even though their words
are rarely, if ever, confirmed by any genuine evidence.
But the
Kingdom of God is not talk, but power. People
didn’t gather around Jesus to hear Him talk about heal-
ing --- they came to be healed. They came to Him because
He had the power to make things happen to them that
needed to happen to them.
Talking about that power is not the same as having it.
- If people aren’t getting healed,
- If lives aren’t getting changed,
- If there isn’t some solid evidence that
this
man or woman has been baptized
in the Spirit of God,
- If captives aren’t actually being set free,
let’s not pretend that they are.
Notice that when Jesus laid His hands on the blind man
and asked him, “Do you see anything?” and the man answered, "I see men, but they look like trees walking,”
Jesus did not say, “Praise
the Lord, Brother!
You’re healed! Hallelujah!” No. Jesus laid His hands
on him again. He wasn’t satisfied until the man saw
clearly.
And Jesus isn’t satisfied until we have what the Kingdom
of God is quite able to give us.
Faith is not pretending the answer
has come when it hasn’t.
Faith is not exclaiming “Lord, I can
see clearly!” when your vision is
blurred and men look like trees walking.
Faith is believing that God will do
exactly what He says He will do, and
not settling for anything less.
If we pretend to ourselves that our lamps are burning
when they aren’t even flickering, what kind of shape
are we going to be in when the Bridegroom arrives?
We may go dancing up to the Banquet Hall with our
phony burnt-out lamps, but the man at the door will
say, “Wait a minute! Where do you think you’re going?
Your lamp is out, you can’t come in here!”
All of us know very well that the power of God is not
flowing in any of our fellowships the way it is meant to,
the way it was promised.
And it’s not because our God is helpless or because He’s
changed His mind. The problem is on our side.
In the days of John the Baptist the religious people of
Israel were playing the same game that many of us have
been playing.
- They were pretending that great things were
happening in their beloved Temple,
- They claimed to be looking for the coming
of the Messiah,
- but deep within them they knew very
well that all this was mostly talk.
Then came John who said, “All these things that you talk
about and pray about so much are soon to happen and you’d
better be ready. The Christ is coming and He is going to
baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Then He’s
going to clear the threshing floor and separate the wheat
from the chaff. And if your hearts are not right you’re
going to be burned with the chaff.”
Those words of John the Baptist are more apt for this
hour than for any hour since they were
first uttered on
the bank of the Jordan. What John the Baptist said to
the multitudes, the Elijah Spirit is now saying to the
Church on earth.
There is a baptism of the Holy Spirit coming on the
Church as never since its beginning. This will be
followed by a baptism of fire --- trial. This will be
followed by the Judgment of the earth.
This baptism of the Holy Spirit will bring to the Church
all the power it has been talking about for so long but
not manifesting. By the power of the Holy Spirit the
Word of God, in the midst of His people, will cause
blind eyes to open, the lame to walk,
broken
hearts to heal, captives to come free, with a consistency
we have never seen.
Those who permit this move of the Spirit of God to come
into them and rule them will rapidly be formed into
the moral likeness of Jesus Christ. Their moral life,
not just their sexual behavior, but all their behavior
- their attitude toward the Heavenly Father,
- their attitude toward other human beings,
- their generosity,
hospitality,
- their patience,
thoughtfulness,
courage,
- the way they really live,
will start bearing the unmistakable stamp of the Son
of God.
It will be known that that man is baptized in the Holy
Spirit of God, not merely because he prays in an un-
known tongue, but because his life,
the way he walks, the way he is led day-after-day,
bears a definite
resemblance to Jesus Christ.
As many as are led by the Spirit
of God they are the
sons of God.
Then when the baptism of fire comes on these saints,
when they experience trial and persecution, and after
physical death, instead of being crushed by these
things, they will rise up and bear fruit right in the
middle of the fire.
Unless a grain of wheat falls into the
ground and dies it remains alone, but
if it dies it bears much fruit.
Through a baptism of fire God will use His saints to
prepare the earth for the appearance of His Son.
The message to the Church of Jesus Christ on earth at
this hour is John’s message:
“Prepare the way of the Lord!”
The Lord comes to His church with power. He comes to
fulfil every promise He ever made. But if the path of
His coming is blocked by our crooked,
stony,
cluttered
hearts, He will
not come to us.
“But I already have the Holy Spirit.” If you say that,
and go on living your half-baked,
self-righteous,
unreal
life, that’s your choice.
But remember, friend, when the axe is laid to the root
of the tree, speaking in tongues and giving God verbal
praise will not be enough to keep the axe from cutting
it down.
If the Spirit of Christ is going to come to us to make
us what we have to be to get the job done, the things
that clutter and pollute the path into our hearts will
have to be removed. And God won’t clear the path for
us; we have to clear it.
Bring forth fruits that befit repentance, not talk----
real changes. It was not enough for the tax collectors
to shed a few tears, or the soldiers to fall on their
knees. John told them they had to change their ways.
That’s what repentance is! Not a half-hour of weeping
and then back to your old tricks, but real changes. And
if you don’t know what changes God wants, He’ll help you
to see.
For instance, the Spirit of Elijah is telling some of us
that we are inexcusably prayerless. We want God to do
many things for us but we never seriously apply ourselves
to seeking His face. Even some of us who make the time
every day could hardly call it prayer. We just have
our minds in neutral for thirty minutes.
Some of us are thoughtless of others, and we know it,
and we feel bad
about it, once-in-a-while. But we make no attempt to
change, no effort to really consider that brother,
that sister,
that child of our
Some of us are stingy. We’re great students of scrip-
ture but we’re skinflints. We feel a little uncomfort-
able about it, but we never get around to sending that
money to that needy brother.
Some of us give free reign in our thought life to the
lust of the flesh. We make no attempt to bring this
lust to the Son of God. We go right on with our fan-
tasies and then wonder why our spirits are so dull.
Or, we gossip. We love to pass the time tearing our
brother’s spiritual condition to shreds. And our
gossip works like a kind of negative prayer that almost
desires our brother to be all the ugly things we
declare him to be.
The Elijah Spirit moves among us and puts His finger on the fact that some of us are lazy. If the devil pampered himself
as much as we do,
he’d be out of business
- Some of us are ingrained pessimists --- we
never expect anything but evil from God
or man.
- Some of us are super vain, If people had
any idea what inflated
egotists we are
beneath these pious masks, they’d faint.
And we know we’re vain, and we make no
effort to bring this vanity to the Cross
of our Lord.
- Some of us are unforgiving - we have
fantastic will-power when it comes to
holding a grudge.
- Some of us are irresponsible. And we
wonder why no one seems to have confidence
in us.
We’ve been telling ourselves that these “shortcomings”,
as we like to call them, are something that will disappear
as the Holy Spirit continues to sanctify us.
But God is saying to us today, "You make them disappear.
"You do something about
them. Start bearing fruits that befit repentance. Then
you’ll see the Spirit move!”
The Lord is about to baptize His Church with the Spirit
and with fire as never before. It’s already begun.
Wherever there is a heart, anywhere on earth that is
ready for Him, He is coming with unspeakable power — now.
May the Spirit of God turn on the light within us to
show us the things we need to do,
the changes we need to make, that He may come
to us also.
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