Matthew 10:8 NKJV  ‘Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. ‘

Would you continue to shop at a supermarket week after week and month after month that never has your most commonly used staple items stocked? Yes, that store is convenient. Yes, you have been shopping at that store since you were five years old. Yes, you know everyone who works there and most of the people who shop there. Still the fact remains that you are not being “fed” there and that establishment is only meeting about twenty percent of your grocery needs because they are always out of what you truly need. This is much like some of the churches that you attend. You attend ‘dead’ churches for a myriad of wrong reasons: you know most of the members, you have attended there for many years, the pastor calls you by name, everyone already knows to not sit in your mentally acknowledged but unmarked seat. Religious tradition does not provide spiritual nourishment nor revelation for advancement.

The truth is that you are not growing in that church. You are still being bottle fed ‘milk’ instead of having moved on to the deeper, meatier things of God. You are smiling and singing along and going through the motions, but the truth is that you are miserable on the inside because you know something is missing. You are still singing “Kum Ba Yah” when you should be healing the sick. You are still addicted to the accolades that being the queen of the church bake sale brings you when you really should have your own bakery-ministry in the marketplace, selling muffins and helping the lost find their way. Why then are you ‘shopping’ at a church that is only meeting twenty percent of your spiritual needs? Why do you stay? Why is what the other members think about you more important to you than your spiritual growth and maturity? Why do your prayers go unanswered? Do you even know scripture? Where is your fruit? Why are you content to remain in the same place still listening to the same messages on forgiveness and love instead of having graduated to know how to do spiritual warfare, deliver people from demons, heal the sick, and raise the dead? And what’s worse is that you attack others who are doing exactly this as if they are some type of radical dissenter when Jesus already said that we would do even greater works than these. (John 14:12 KJV)

Attending the same church for twenty years is not what gets you into heaven. Having a position on the church board is not what gets you into heaven. Being the head chairperson over all of the church fund raisers is not what gets you into heaven. Being the pastor’s favorite member-helper is not what gets you into heaven. Professing Christianity while participating in witchcraft does not get you into heaven. Salvation through Jesus Christ and doing the will of the Father is what gets you into heaven. There are many Christians who will be shocked after they die because they performed many acts of service and did what they thought brought them status and acknowledgement before the eyes of men, instead of doing what God instructed them to do. If God told you to open an ice cream shop, why would you instead go open a church and make yourself a pastor? When you get to heaven, God is not going to reward you or give you automatic entry based on how good of a pastor you were. God knows that you would have had a much greater impact on His kingdom by opening the ice cream shop like He instructed you to do. Many people are going to be shocked when they stand before the Father at the end of their lives and hear the soul-crushing words: “Depart from me you worker of iniquity. I NEVER KNEW YOU.”

God expects his children to care about what He thinks rather than being under the bondage of what man thinks about them. He is looking for those who will acknowledge Him openly before men. (Matthew 10:32) He is looking for people He can ‘send’. (Isaiah 6:8) He is looking for the obedient. He is looking for those who seek only to impress Him and bring glory to His name rather than their own. It is way past time to shift, so save your life and make the move. Selah.

Matthew 7:21-23 KJV  ‘Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.’