A young minister recently said, “I know I may not be correct about this, but I’ve wondered at times if the anti-Christ is actually a person.” He observed the term antichrist is not capitalized in the Bible and often referred to in pluralistic language such as 1 John 2:18 (ESV), Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. He thought perhaps the antichrist may be those spiritually passively-resistant within a church who push back against missions, aggressive soul winning or a serious discipleship model that intentionally shapes the hearts of believers to come …to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ (Ephesians 4:13, NLT2).
Wow! I had never even considered that line of thinking before!! I was caught off-guard and virtually silenced with his thought process. In the midst of that, although I haven’t been able to completely process that idea, I can say it keeps returning and challenging me to reflect on it! It was true within each of the seven churches that had letters written to them in Revelation. There were at least two types of believers within each church, overcomers and non-overcomers; the latter perhaps very similar to the passively-resistant within a church today. I had never considered the potential influential power the current day non-overcomers within a church might have on the overcomers in what they believe about God and how they live out their faith in Him.
I have observed their negative witness on unbelieving young people seeking authentic hope as evidenced in genuine life-change. These seekers are looking for something our society cannot offer them, something they heard Jesus exhibited. Therefore, they hardly look twice at what appears to be as spiritually impotent as a secular club might look. I have also observed the most intense “fights” or resistance within churches is led by those content with talking the Bible but not seriously investing their time, energy, skill set or money in turning their part of the world upside down. Unfortunately, I’ve observed this group of supposed mature church members literally sucked the spiritual passion out of a new believer over time.
I’m not sure exactly what to make of that concept, but one thing I am sure of; I do not want to be one or among those who refuse to be “all in.” I do not want to be among those who won’t take risks to obey the Spirit’s whispers and instead passively rely on their natural thinking or giftings or cultural methods more than on their passionate intimacy with God. Nor do I want to be seduced into chasing rabbit trails that sound spiritual yet fail to produce the same spiritual heart Jesus reproduced in His disciples.
Instead I want to be among those whose faith in God forces them to take risks to accomplish the work of His kingdom based solely on the authentic leading of the Spirit and the working of His Spirit through them. We have the very same Holy Spirit Jesus had to do what He did, so I believe the Spirit can do through us today the same work He did through Jesus’ humanity. So, let’s rise up and do the supernatural, life-changing work Jesus did with His calling and anointing!
Powerful