Where Do You Go To Church?Perhaps we have all at one time asked a friend or acquaintance, "where do you go to church?" The very error of this question indicates the depth of the confusion in which God's people now find themselves. It will take the anointing of the holy Ghost to set us free from such ideas. Friend, nobody can "go to church"....except once, and that is on the day that Jesus puts you into it; and after that experience, one can never go again! While we teach that the word church [Greek=ekklesia] means "called out ones", it is quite clear that believers now consider their buildings and institutions the church instead. How can one GO to church, when God's people ARE the church?! Some may think this to be a trivial matter of words, but the destructive spiritual consequences of this wrong idea are enormous. If we are ever going to be what God wants us to be, we must define the word CHURCH. The church is not a name that man gives something, but was a name that the Lord Jesus gave to his body. He named us, and He knows those who are truly His. The church, which is the body of Christ (see Rom.12:5; Eph.1:22-23; Col.1:18) consists ONLY of the believers, who have been put in the body by Jesus's baptism: "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body" (1Cor.12:13). If one has not received the baptism that puts them into the body of Christ (and "water" baptism does not do it!), they are not members of the Church no matter how well they speak of Jesus. In short, if one has not received the baptism of the holy Ghost, with the evidence of speaking in other tongues, they are not yet in the Church. Are YOU in the Church? There IS a way to know. Many claim to have the Spirit's baptism, but do not have the Biblical evidence of it, as the prophet Isaiah said they would: "For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people. To whom he said: This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear." (Is.28:11-12). The rest (which Isaiah said was evidenced by stammering lips and other tongues) is the baptism of the holy Ghost, and without it you have never "gone to church!" "For we who have believed do enter into rest" (Heb.4:3). And well did Isaiah prophesy that many would not hear this truth! Since "man's" definition of church is not God's, it is also true that man's church will necessarily offer sinners a way to enter their church without repenting which is what one does in order to receive the real Spirit of God. Man's church will obtain it's members "for a price". Anyone who will "pay it's dues" (may be monetary or doctrinal), can join, and it happens every day. Let's look at a few of the differences between "Man's" church, and the true Church: man's church can be "joined". God's church has it's members baptized into it by the Spirit of God (1Cor.12:13). Man's church tells people that they are "saved". God's church consists of those who have the "hope" of salvation to be given to the faithful in the end by Jesus when he comes (Rom.8:23-25). Man's church consists of carnal "divisions" (called "denominations" or "non-denominations"!), but Jesus baptizes his children into none of them... he makes his children one and the common bond is the holy Ghost! (Eph.4:1-4). Friend, can we not see that misunderstanding what the word "church" means, is a leading cause of confusion and division among us? Understand that when you ask someone (or someone asks you) "where do you go to church", you are in reality asking, "to which error have you joined yourself?" if you can answer it with the name of a place. If you have a heart to repent, you will NEVER call a building or a meeting place a "church" again... it is sin. Almost a century ago, those who hungered for God and His righteousness had to move out of mainline "denominations" which refused to repent to make way for the Pentecostal move of God's Spirit. These hungry souls were forced to meet in homes, or out of the way places "on the other side of the tracks". They began the great Pentecostal awakening in the early 1900's. Now they are gone; but we see another move of the Spirit today, calling the people who realize that the church consists ONLY of those who have received the holy Ghost baptism to "come out" again. This time to come out of the very denominations that formed after the Spirit ceased to lead them as that movement faded away. Even these Pentecostal places themselves are become harbors of the very same sin; refusing to repent of the truth when they hear it. Do you think your pastor will stop calling his building a church, or believe that the only church he has are those with the holy Ghost? The difficult question is, what are YOU going to do? Do you have the courage to OBEY? One of the most difficult decisions God ever asked me to make was to leave my pastoral position in the Assembly of God, and my ties and friends in my "denomination", when I heard this truth. But I was going to obey God regardless of what others did. Our family "reapplied" for membership in the REAL church! With nowhere to go, we literally "started over", believing that God would supply fellowship and spiritual challenge to our lives. He has not failed us, and He has been faithful every step of the way. When God's people obey truth, and stand against spiritual error, they will no longer be welcome in "man's" church. And God is glad to have it that way. He wants you to come to HIS church, where there is joy, righteousness, peace, and liberty for all who will believe. Don't settle for anything less than "perfect"... that is the Father's will for you!
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