The Coming of Jesus – Continued

This issue of Jesus coming and presence is also about our local, corporate doors.  By that I mean our local gathering.  Is it a church, is it a home group, is it a family?  Is it two or three gathered in His name?  To the measure we truly gather in His name, He will show up.  He sees our hearts.  He sees their true condition.  When Jesus walked through Israel, there were Pharisees who invited Jesus into their homes.  When He entered the home He saw the true state of things and addressed it.  He said things that offended and they did not like it.  When we hear a “hard” word, a word that offends, what is our response?  Do we repent and say, “Lord, come in deeper, I want more,” or do we send Him away?  The Pharisees resisted His words, and resisted Him, until they wanted to kill Him.

Where are you today?  What is the state of your heart?  Are you asking Him to come?  Have you grown weary, or hard?  Are you resisting what you don’t understand but yet you know somehow He is in the thing you don’t like?  I hesitate to get specific, but we must together face what we at first do not understand.  In what we call church history, God has been restoring what was lost in the Dark Ages.  They were dark, and thank God for the monks who copied and preserved the scriptures for us. I believe others kept the true faith, that God had other hidden ones who were true followers of Jesus.  No, I have no hard evidence.  Others may know of other groups but He has always had those who were true to Him since the Spirit came, since the river of God entered this age.  Then the reformers came, as we call them.  It would take too long to go through all the names.  They began to restore truth to God’s house, to His people.  They were His builders as that bondservant Paul called himself.

So what did they build?  All the denominations?  What a travesty they are, contrary to the very thing Paul wrote to the Corinthians.  I am of John Calvin, I of Wesley, I of the Orthodoxy.  Don’t think I mean to say no believers are among those.  Oh no, many are true followers but the whole mess obscures the truth.  Christ is one, and His church is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.  He comes where that reality is known, that is the place He will show up.  In such a place these days, the body is longing for Jesus, the head to have His rightful place.  The gatekeeper, the shepherd of that place will gladly give Him place.

Are you knowing such when you gather together?  Are you hungry for more?  There is no end to knowing Him and when we know Him corporately, as His body, the heavens and the earth register the fact.  Are you seeking Him?  Are you worshipping in Spirit and truth, or are you singing a song?  Across America, many are hungry and turning from the systems of men that perpetuate themselves beyond their season, their time of fruit-bearing.  And some openly resist the Spirit.  They hear of the dead raised in Africa, the blind eyes seeing and they do not fully believe.  They ponder and entertain their doubts.  Such cloud the atmosphere over this land because of unbelief.  So it was in cities where Jesus Himself could only heal a few sick people.

Do not fear you who are seeking for His glory to show up again, you who are hungry for that presence of Jesus.  He is showing up where hearts are turned and open.  He will not disappoint.