Our Unchanging God. Is He enough?

God is unchanging. Generations, Society, Literature, Music, “whatever comes to mind” changes. However, nothing is new under the sun. Our Father, through His Word, Jesus Messiah, met every opposition to His Culture by telling us NOT to change; that is, in patterns and ways people receive and grow, dwell with and commune in God’s Spirit.
A culture is an “integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for symbolic thought and social learning; the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution, organization or group.” (WikiPedia)….sounded right.

Also, one can think of a culture as”cultivation,” (in God’s kingdom) the sower of the seed being God and the seed, His Word. The devil has a cultivation, and it is also a culture. It is the predominant culture on this earth, it’s called the “cosmos”, the world system. In the devil’s cultivation there are many cultures. God’s culture runs “counter” to all the cultures of this world, or should. By definition, absolutely nothing crosses the border of culture and counter culture. A counter culture is exactly what it says; it operates counter to the existing culture. Whatever and wherever the culture is, there’s no crossover. The Word of God tells us, repeatedly that we should be different from the world system.
Romans 12:2, Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your MIND (soul), that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

There are numerous examples for being separate from the world system and living as a counter culture. Most people, when reading something like this will think or even say, “what! Is everything evil, should we live in caves… and what music shall we listen too, books to read….” There’s always an excuse why NOT to live counter to this world system. There’s never dialogue on ways to get the world system out of us. We are told to avoid the very appearance of evil. What does this mean?

The idea of “lures” seemed to infiltrate the church when the Roman Catholic Church allowed Pagan rituals and holidays to be practiced within the purview of the Church. These rituals and holidays were then given contrived Christian meaning and used to attract potential victims. Believe me, the purpose was anything but honorable as the larger the “christian” converts, the more money went into the coffers; in addition, religion played a very important role in society and the power of the Pope and Priests was wielded with fervency. Wealth and power over people drove the Roman Catholic Church; while, the true disciples of Yeshua, went out into nations spreading the Gospel of the Kingdom, driven by the Holy Spirit. For them, God was enough. They didn’t need to contrive “lures” to get people into the church, bringing false, emotional conversions, causing a presumptive spirit in the new converts where they may never make a true conversion for the notion that they are already saved and in need of nothing. Lures do this. Today, much of Christianity is bathed in luring people into the kingdom.

Alright, here’s what lures do. First, instead of immersing one selves in prayer, fasting and personal consecration, much planning by way of exhaustive meetings, thinking, meetings, more thinking, putting up posters, advertising…. These aren’t wrong in themselves, but when only token prayers and noting else is employed, it becomes a soulish event. Take, for instance, the revivals that broke out in various places this last couple centuries: the Hebrides, the midwest praire revivals, various occurrences in England and Ireland. Also, the personal evangelism of great men of God such as Smith Wigglesworth, Duncan Campbell, Leonard Ravenhill… These men went where the Spirit of God went. People fell on their faces, crying out to God for deliverance and salvation. The common denominator is prayer, fasting and personal devotion, worship and consecration to Yahweh God, Yeshua Messiah. Events are not evil in themselves. But much prayer is needed, and God does the work. The problem with lures is they cause false, emotion conversions with, in many cases, bring irreparable damage. This is the spirit that Jesus spoke of regarding the Laodicean church. They said they were in need of nothing, but were blind, naked, wretches. The Holy Spirit is enough. He needs to do the work. Not enough time seeking the Lord is the problem. Token prayers give a false sense that God is totally blessing the event.

Is our Heavenly Father, the accomplishment of Ye’shua Messiah and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit worth asking the tough questions and then doing, giving up, setting aside and consecrating ourselves in order to live counter to this world system. If Father is not all our sufficiency, if we need something more than Him, if the Holy Spirit is not all we need in any and every circumstance (including soul-winning), then we need to re-evaluate our relationship with Jesus, understanding of true conversion and what it means that God is our “all in all.” For all of life is about Him. 1Cor 8:6, yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. Also, Romans 12:36, For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

It’s not a question of
We don’t need “lures” to attract people to God’s house. Events, entertainment, fancy this or fancy that, various attractions are not necessary, but have been used ever since Constatine kidnapped Christianity. The Holy Spirit of God is enough. the reason people use events and attractions is it gets people there without the cost of prayer and self sacrifice. Talking with our very best friend who has all the power in existence, spending time in communion, having fellowship in the Joy of His presence is the best and only way to true and lasting conversions. The best we can offer is the Creator of the universe and all things seen and unseen. that costs everything. that’s why we must be a counter-culture.

If we, as Christians, are to help others to hear the “call out” of the world, we must be called out ourselves. Jesus, in the book of Revelations, commands the church, (not the non-believers but the church), to “come out from amongst her.” Referring to Babylon. In the end, the church is steeped in Babylonian practices; however, everyone points their fingers to everyone else. We all need to let go of “stuff” and become a culture that runs counter to this world’s system. Let’s stop foolin’ around, making excuses, refusing to let go of secular psychological practices of getting close to God or even reaching the lost….. WE all need to let go and become God’s Counter Culture. So simple, only the mind of a child can do it.