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Left Behind from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo.

Today I want to talk about being left behind. Not particularly about the return of Jesus Christ to Earth, because that will be a simple enough choice. When He appears in the twinkling of an eye, you will be saved, or you will be dead. You won’t have to decide anything, and you won’t have to worry about being left behind. The decisions you made up to that point, will have already made your decision final.

The left behind that I want to talk about is what God is doing on the Earth today, and how so many have been dropped by the wayside. When Solomon built the first temple and the fire of God fell and lit the altar, priests were assigned to take care of daily tasks and to keep the fire burning. As generations passed, they drifted farther and farther away from God. Eventually they did not even know Him, they just knew they had to get up in the morning and do these tasks, because that was their job, and their father’s job before them.

The priests were so stubborn and set in their ways that it was extremely difficult to reach them. It was their job to represent God, and they thought they were the only ones who understood His word. He once spoke through them, but now He didn’t. He couldn’t, because they refused to listen. He sent them prophets like Amos, but they told him to go prophesy somewhere else:

(Amos 7:14–16 NKJV)  Then Amos answered, and said to Amaziah: “I was no prophet, Nor was I a son of a prophet, But I was a sheepbreeder And a tender of sycamore fruit. Then the LORD took me as I followed the flock, And the LORD said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to My people Israel.’ Now therefore, hear the word of the LORD: ’

So we have the spiritually deaf priests ministering at the temple every day, and God having to use a shepherd out of the field to carry His word to those who were supposedly in His employment. The sacrifices, the rituals, the lighting of the lamps, continued on day after day, though God had left the building. Finally in Malachi, God told them this:

(Malachi 1:10 NASB)  “Oh that there were one among you who would shut the gates, that you might not uselessly kindle fire on My altar! I am not pleased with you,” says the LORD of hosts, “nor will I accept an offering from you.

After Malachi, there came 400 years of silence, but the sacrifices, the rituals, the care of the lamps in the temple continued on day after day. Then the angel Gabriel appeared to Zacharias in the temple (Luke 1:5), and told him that he would have a son, to name him John. That son was filled with the Holy Spirit from birth and grew up to be known as John the Baptist, who was a form of the prophet Elijah. He lived in the desert, ate locusts, and wore a garment of camel’s hair. He preached repentance, for the Lord Jesus was soon coming.

Just as God did with Amos, He chose a strange man in the desert and gave him His message. The existing priests, the scribes, the pharisees had a difficult time accepting John and his words (Luke 7:30). They felt they represented God, they carried His word. A mad man in the desert who wore camel’s hair and called them a brood of vipers was offensive (Matthew 3:7). They even rejected Jesus, God made flesh and standing in front of them. He made them so jealous, they plotted on how to kill Him.

After Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, the Holy Spirit descended on 120 of His disciples in the upper room, and a new church began (Acts 2). It was filled with power and grace from the beginning and led by the Holy Spirit. Even then, men came in among them and tried to add in new requirements, that you needed to be circumcised in order to be saved at all. They had to have a meeting of the elders to settle it (Acts 15:23-29). Religion has a tendency to become an exclusive club, but God loves the entire world and wants them all to be saved (John 3:16).

The first church grew strong and powerful. The shadow of Peter passing over people in the streets healed them (Acts 5:15). The Apostles tended to stay around Jerusalem, so God appeared to a man named Saul. We call him Paul, which was his Roman name. Now Paul was not even a Christian at that time. In fact, he was on his way to Damascus to arrest some Christians there when he suddenly met Jesus in a blinding light (Acts 9:3).

Soon God began to work “special miracles” through Paul. Acts 19:11 tells us that even handkerchiefs that were sent from Paul to others healed diseases and sickness. That was the beginning of the prayer cloth. It was something new that God did through the next generation of believers, and not through the original Apostles that had walked with Jesus like Peter and John. Paul had a personal experience with Jesus outside of the church, and the original disciples were not involved in his conversion at all; they had never even met.

That means that if Peter, John, and the original disciples of Jesus would have all sat down together and written all that they knew that God had done so far, compared all of their experience and knowledge that they had, and then made that into a creed, or a denominational belief system, that being healed by a person’s shadow would have been included, but prayer cloths would not have, because it was raised up outside of their circle of knowledge. No one group has all the truth.

After 300 AD, the Roman empire combined Christianity with its other divided religions into a single state religion, under the name of Christianity, and the church went into the Dark Ages. The true church was hidden within, suppressed, but still faintly breathing. Traces of Pagan Rome are found everywhere that you look today, so much so that most don’t even see it anymore. For example: About 60 A.D. the Romans brought us our seven day week, all named after their gods:

Names of our Days:

*  Sunday was named after their “sun god.”

*  Monday was named after their “moon god.”

*  Tuesday was named after “mars.”

*  Wednesday was named after “mercury.”

*  Thursday was named after “jupiter.”

*  Friday was named after “venus.”

*  Saturday was named after “saturn.”

Names of our Months:

*  January was named after the god “janus.”

*  March was named after the god “mars.”

*  April was named after “aphrodite.”

*  May was named after the “goddess of spring.”

*  June was named after the goddess “juno.”

*  July was named after Julius Caesar.

*  August was named after Augustus Caesar

Eventually God began restoring His Church, but each time He has to choose someone outside the current establishment. God’s presence comes in waves, and the new wave coming in, has to overcome the old wave that is going out. Jesus told us in Luke 5:39: “And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, ‘The old is better.’” People don’t like change.

God has used Great Awakenings and powerful preachers over the centuries to revive His people, but each time, they would go so far, but no farther, and then He would have to start fresh with someone else. (Forgive me if I don’t list your denomination here for there are just too many), but Lutherans, Baptists, Methodists, Seventh Day Adventists, Holiness, Pentecostals, Charismatics, Assembly of God, Evangelicals, and the rest all began during these awakenings, but still we are only a shadow of the first church.

Each believe they are the way, and at one time, they were each the new hotness, but God is looking for more. Until we walk down the street and our shadow heals people, we still have some room to grow. There is a hymn we used to sing called “Give Me That Old Time Religion” but unless we take it all the way back to the book of Acts, it is not the religion that God wants to see.

When I first began working with computers, most of the church here considered them taboo. They were considered by many to be the “beast” of revelation, evil incarnate. But today the same churches are saying “Come join our service online!”

I feel that we are about to see something new, an explosion of online ministries created to reach people right where they are. Internet missionaries if you will. There will be resistance for this is not the old way, but the new wave is coming in and there will be people anointed for it. Refreshing Hope was put here for such a time as this.

Don’t get stuck in a static mindset of the past. Don’t expect God to come to you on your terms, for if you will not work with Him, the River will go around you. Don’t require Him to be static and unchanging, for that will never happen. Don’t get left behind.

You can pray this with me if you like:

Prayer: Heavenly Father, I want to be a part of what You are doing today and not focus on what You did last year. Please speak to me in a way that I understand. Help me see the big picture and what You are doing on the Earth. Show me how I can help. In the name of Jesus Christ I pray. Amen.

Note: Thank you all so much for your daily prayers, love and support as we all get through this pandemic. We are praying for all of you each day, as we know you are too, for God to bring us through with His grace! For those who may not know, we are meeting online at the RHM chatroom each Wednesday afternoon at 3pm EDT to lift up the nations and to join together in prayer over individual needs. You are all welcome, though you do need to be signed up at the website to participate in chat. If you need prayer at any other time, our private prayer network is always available. We love y'all, God bless! ~ Dion & Sylvia