For the last few years I have noticed a wonderful thing happening. Many of the body of Christ have grown discontent attending churches where the Spirit of God is not moving. Churches that have become nothing more than religious tombs where the Word of God has been so watered down and political correctness has become the staple. There is a stirring in the hearts of God’s people. A stirring for more. It happened to me a few years back and I see it happening over and over to others. God is drawing those who are earnestly seeking Him into a deeper walk. A walk that requires obedience to His Word, loving on others and allowing Jesus to not just be Savior but Lord also.

For too long many of us were content with being small c Christians, when we have been called to be big C Christians.  Christians that will be seekers of God and His Word. Christians that will walk in obedience, even into the hard places. Christians that will serve not just sit idly by as others serve. He is doing something wonderful, scary and powerful in His church. We often hear on the news that people are leaving many of the mainstream churches. Attendance is down. Churches are closing. Despite this there is a wonderful thing happening. Some of those people are leaving churches where God’s Spirit is not moving to churches where God’s Spirit is moving! They are being relocated to grow and serve elsewhere.

For those truly seeking, God will lead them where they may be fed and where they may feed others. Sometimes discontent is a good thing. Sometimes it causes us to seek out more! By no means am I suggesting that people leave a church if God has placed them there in order that they may be used to bring about necessary change. Nor am I suggesting people flip from church to church looking to be entertained and served. What I am suggesting and seeing is that when people are serious about growing closer to Christ and hungry for growth it may be necessary that they leave behind a church that is refusing to move forward in God. A church bound by men’s traditions where the Spirit of God is not allowed to freely move.

Prophetic signs tell us that  it is not likely too long before Christ takes His followers home to be with Him. If so, we would be wise to use the time left wisely.  To get involved with a Church that is preaching the full gospel. To sit under the teaching of men and women that are walking in obedience to Christ. To serve along side brothers and sisters that are committed to being the hands and feet of Christ to a broken, messed up world. I am not suggesting these churches will be perfect, after all you and I are there right? 🙂  However, they are headed in the right direction. They are allowing the Spirit of God to move. They are people of prayer, lining their lives up with the Word of God. Not perfect but true seekers. It is in this atmosphere we are able to grow spiritually as a family and from that growth are able to reach out and use our lives in service inside and outside the church building!

Ephesians 5:14-20 NIV  ¹⁴ This is why it is said:“Wake up, sleeper,  rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”¹⁵ Be very careful, then, how you live not as unwise but as wise, ¹⁶ making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. ¹⁷ Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. ¹⁸ Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, ¹⁹ speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord,²⁰ always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 1:18-23 NIV ¹⁸ I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, ¹⁹ and His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength ²⁰ He exerted when He raised Christ from the dead and seated him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, ²¹ far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.²² And God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church, ²³ which is his body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way.

Ephesians 4:1-16 NIV 4 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. ² Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. ³ Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. ⁴ There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called;⁵ one Lord, one faith, one baptism; ⁶ one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. ⁷ But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. ⁸ This is why it says:  “When He ascended on high, He took many captives and gave gifts to His people.” ⁹ (What does “He ascended” mean except that He also descended to the lower, earthly regions? ¹⁰ He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) ¹¹ So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, ¹² to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up ¹³ until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. ¹⁴ Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. ¹⁵ Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. ¹⁶ From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

Acts 2:17-21 NIV ¹⁷ “‘In the last days, God says,  I will pour out my Spirit on all people.Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.
¹⁸ Even on my servants, both men and women I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.
¹⁹ I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below,  blood and fire and billows of smoke.
²⁰ The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
²¹ And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’

If you are seeking a deeper walk with Christ and are longing for more and you are in a church where the gospel is being watered down or perhaps no longer even preached and the Spirit of God is no longer moving,  it is likely time for a change!   Ask God for wisdom and direction in where you should be attending. He will open up a door for you to walk through. Life is too short. God has a place for you to grow and serve. Ask Him and He will show you!

Blessings!