By David Hobbs
(This is part 5 in a series of numbered posts)
Though the Book
of Joel is coming (post 3), I don’t believe we’re there yet. Today the
church is in 1 Chron. 12, when there was a major change about to take place in
Israel. The Kingdom of Saul had become corrupt before God, yet had resisted all
attempts at correction. Now it was about to be replaced by David, who had the
anointing of the Holy Spirit and the call of God on his life but little else. The
prophetic call had gone out and many had joined David even during the 7 years he
was fighting the die-hard remnants of Saul’s kingdom. The people of Israel were
having to choose which kingdom they were going to align with, the one from the
past still trying to stay in power, or the upstart one with the anointing and
promise of God.
Today the church of Jesus Christ stands
in a similar place. We must choose between an old, familiar-yet-failed order,
and a new one the Holy Spirit is raising up.
Let’s be honest. The church in America
has failed. Like the churches in the Book of Revelation, we do have things that
are commendable, but we have failed at our most important callings. We have
failed at the Great Commission--evangelizing and discipling our world; we have
failed at the first and greatest commandment-–loving the Lord with all our
heart, soul, mind and strength; we have failed at being the salt and the light
of our world; and we have failed at stemming the tide of the evil, sodomistic
culture that has taken over America.
Like King Saul, the church has resisted
the attempts of the Holy Spirit to reform it. Awakenings and revivals come and go;
while the church slips back into its old deadness. We have lost the fear of the Lord so there is no wisdom. Our people live carelessly like the world with no fear of consequences or judgment. Though the church belongs
to Jesus and was purchased by His blood, most of what goes on in it is not His
will but man’s. (If the Holy Spirit was having His way, would the churches
across America be in the state they are in?)
But now, like in 1 Chron. 12, there is a
new move arising from the ashes of the old order: a new army being led by the One
David was a type of--Jesus through the Holy Spirit. The call is going forth again. In
David’s day the first ones to respond were those whom the old system had rejected: the ones in distress, in debt, or discontented (1 Sam. 22:2). Likewise the
ones responding now are those dissatisfied with the old order, dissatisfied
with the lack of the power that Jesus promised, dissatisfied with feel-good
messages that leave them empty inside--people too much in love with Jesus and
the moving of the Holy Spirit to abide dead religion. The Holy Spirit is
raising up this army, and for the most part He’s not going through the churches
to do it. He’s looking for hungry hearts like it says in 2 Chron. 16:9--to show
Himself strong on their behalf.
How do you join it? You must first get
up to snuff with the Holy Spirit yourself: you must learn what it is to be
Spirit-led; what it means to have a true personal relationship with Jesus and
not just talk about it; you must be sold out and fully committed to His will
in your life. Then you can look for like-minded people to group together
with. Remember, this is an army, not a bunch of spiritual lone rangers. The absence of Koinonia love for the brethren is almost as glaring in the modern church as
the absence of true love for God (“if you love Me, keep My commandments”). It’s
our love for one another that will prove to the world our connection to Jesus
(John 13:35).
In those days there were many like the
sons of Issachar (v. 32) who “had understanding of the times, to know what Israel
out to do;” so much so that v. 22 says there assembled to David at that time “a
great army, like the army of God.”
Will the Holy Spirit do any less in our day? Jesus
must have His army, just like He must have His bride.
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