I have written before of Satan’s blinding power – that it is incredible, stupendous, mind-boggling and little understood. It is his blinding POWER that has resulted in Christianity being divided into dozens, if not hundreds, of differing factions, believers as different as Roman Catholics and snake-handling Pentecostals. He has succeeded in blinding the cleanest living, most wholesome Mormon as well as the television charlatan evangelists who claim to have the “Holy Ghost’s anointing” on their extremely lucrative ministries! And he can blind the average “pastor” in the quaint little church around the corner.
The average pastor does not even comprehend what scripture identifies as his supreme function, the thing he is called to do more than anything else. “And He (Jesus Christ) gave some (to be) ….pastors and teachers (for what purpose?) for the perfecting of the saints…till we all come…unto a perfect man (to what degree?) UNTO THE MEASURE OF THE STATURE OF THE FULLNESS OF CHRIST (that we may) grow up into Him in all things (in every area of our life and understanding), which is the Head, even Christ” (See Ephesians 4:11-15).
That is why Paul wrote “ordain elders in every city…if any be blameless…just, holy, temperate” (See Titus 1:5-8). They are to serve as examples to the flock! Again Paul writes, “And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that HE COUNTED ME FAITHFUL, putting me into the ministry” (I Timothy 1:12). Jesus Christ is a wise Master Builder. He will not place into His ministry an unproved novice, nor will He use a carnal, weak-willed and headstrong individual to serve as an under shepherd over His blood-bought flock. Even a deacon had to “first be proved, then let them use the office of a deacon, BEING FOUND BLAMELESS” (See I Timothy 3:10). A gross misunderstanding of Romans 7 has led millions to believe that Paul himself was a carnal, defeated Christian and unable to live up to the requirements he himself said were required by one who desired to fulfill the office of a pastor or deacon.
Through His truly called and anointed pastors and teachers, Jesus Christ is bringing many sons to glory to present us to the Father totally spiritually mature, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blamelessly – not just religious Joes and Janes, but prime examples of what Almighty God, through Jesus Christ our High Priest and with the Holy Spirit’s help, what He can do in and through and with human flesh, human beings in the here and now!
I assure you the bride of Christ will NOT be comprised of a rag-tag bunch of bickering, dissenting, differing and squabbling religious types who day in and day out have been giving in to every human passion and emotion right up to the moment of being caught up in the air to meet the Lord. Do you really think that is the best Almighty God can do in presenting His beloved Son with a resplendent holy and pure bride??????
Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley