UNHOLY ALLIANCES

by | Jun 21, 2022 | Prophetic | 1 comment

While we want to remain open and inviting to all people helping them to experience the love of God, creating alliances with agendas not aligned with truth for the sake of appearing open and inviting is a grave error. It creates a compromise of our faith and creates confusion in the minds of the very people we want to reach – people who God created to see and hear the absolutes of truth being expressed.

The Lord warned Judah of a worthless treaty they were attempting to form with Egypt. “You make plans that are contrary to mine. You make alliances not directed by my Spirit” (Isaiah 30:1). 

Any attempt to create an alliance of peace without the boundaries of truth and Spirit-led consultation with the Lord will always end up in disaster for all involved. It is a challenge in a world where truth has become subjective to speak the truth in love when that expression might be labeled as unloving or out of touch with the current reality. 

For the last several decades we have become skilled at consulting the culture about what they want from the Church. In some cases, consulting the Lord about how to relate to a wayward culture has been abandoned in exchange for diagnostic research tools used to uncover cultural wants and trends. It has devolved into creating a package to deliver a product. This data has been used to plant churches and create ministry models with skilled stagecraft and personalities at the expense of the power of the Spirit demonstrated by signs, wonders, miracles, and sacrificial love. It was an expensive experiment to follow the data and not the Spirit. We now have a chance to experience a God-empowered recovery if we follow the lead of the Lord and none other.

The alliances we form must be closely examined for any element that would lead us to compromise the truth or its expression. Many individual lives and assemblies of faith are currently broken and weary due to the struggles experienced in the last two years. Reforming a pure and unfiltered alliance with the Lord will offer each of us an opportunity to demonstrate the power and love of God to this recovering generation without making the mistakes of the past that came about because we did not first consult the Lord to discover the elements of His plan.

1 Comment

  1. John Anderson II

    This is a very timely and poignant warning, Garris!

    I was briefed on a new outreach model being tried in West Australia. Fridays are a social meeting with 1:1 conversation using structured questions – very welcoming and non-judgmental. If the right interest is shown in pursuing truth, there is an invitation to visit Saturday encounter – more structured along the lines of Alpha. If sincere repentance and faith are witnessed, they are invited to Sunday worship and discipleship training.

    This model appears to bridge the gap between keeping the assembly pure while making a nonjudgmental welcome possible.

    Reply

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