The Church is Dead! Long Live The Church!

OK so that title might be a cheap play on words, given the season the UK is in with a new king on the throne, but I believe there is some genuine truth in it.

I was chatting with a prophet-friend the other day – she’s one of those fiery ones with a heart just for Jesus, and whenever we chat I always come away sharpened and encouraged. We were talking about the shift that I was feeling (as she was too), and what that means for the Church. Because up until now, although I myself have been called to be rather blinkered, looking straight ahead to the new and knowing I am unequivocally NOT called to minister within the old church organisation and structures, I do know many who have felt called to reach those within the old still. And I believe there was a grace for a season when God was still using willing voices to speak into the old, keep sounding the alarm and inviting His people to pursue His New.

However now? (bearing in mind that a prophetic ‘now’ can be declaring what is on its way, so let’s be aware of that possibility)
With the shift that I felt yesterday I am starting to feel like it’s time for us ALL to look ahead and make that choice: old or New? I don’t tend to be one who believes I have full revelation and everyone else has to agree with me, or they are wrong. I actually love the truth that we all see in part, and that God is giving others different revelation to me. So maybe I am still just wearing those Spirit-given blinkers – everyone must test for themselves. BUT… I feel such a strong call in the spirit to now move forward: no more waiting for those who haven’t got it yet. No looking back, like Lot’s wife.

For those Christians who have clung to their old religious structures because they couldn’t grasp what God is inviting them to, I don’t believe He’s going to let them drown, but I do think they will probably be caught up in the fear and anxiety that the flood of darkness and trouble is bringing… and they, like the world, will need rescuing by those in the ark whose eyes are fully on Jesus. I just feel like we have to look ahead and move now – the invitation to “come away with Me” has been on the table for a couple of years, and we now need to respond with our feet. Delay any longer, and the chance to pioneer into the New will pass. As I said yesterday, I believe the separation of those who have chosen religion or remnant has been established now, and we are about to start seeing that separation come to light.

And as I was chatting to my prophet friend about the Western Church, God brought to mind a building site in my town that I drive past regularly. It was purchased by developers a long time ago, and then recently the diggers etc moved in and started preparing the ground for a small estate of housing. But pretty soon they had to stop work because on this plot of land was an old tumble-down house with barely any roof tiles on half the timbers, no windows in the rotting frames, walls held together in places by rampant ivy etc. it was certainly not fit to live in, but it had the romantic charm of an old historic cottage for all that.

Anyway the development work stopped because some surveyors found there were some protected bats living inside, so they could not proceed. The whole plot of land around the house remained untouched for weeks, if not months. Then last month, people appeared on site again, and I presume the bats had been successfully relocated, because very soon after, the old tumbledown house was razed to the ground, and the true construction work has begun, starting with gathering resources, and establishing the foundations.

Those with prophetic eyes and ears will probably have sensed where I’m going already, but as God brought all this to mind I felt it was a clear picture of where we have been, and are at re: the Western Church…

At the start of lockdown, work began to clear the land (most of us heard God loud and clear: “behold I am doing a new thing” – the old wineskin had had its day).
Many responded straight away, recognising and rejecting the old, but as soon as lockdown eased enough, many missed what they had and chose to go back. I believe these were like the bats in the above allegory, and so God’s plans to build the New were put on hold while opportunity was given for the bats (those He was protecting) were given time and gentle encouragement to move on.
Now, I believe the relocation season has passed, and it is time for the old, decrepit, charming but ineffective structure to come down. it’s time to make way for active construction – or at least, the digging of new foundations – to begin.
As far as I can see, for us to keep ministering into and praying for the old now, is like putting up bat boxes: helping people to remain comfy in a structure that has been condemned.
There was a season for that, but I believe it has shifted, and now is the time to rebuild.

The (old) church – our human-polluted, worldly & religious structures – is dead. But GOD’s Church – His one true Church – is rising like a phoenix from the ashes – or rather, like the royal Bride emerging from her ashes of mourning. Long live HIS Church, who is just beginning to emerge but will grow stronger and more glorious, unmissable in her devotion to her Bridegroom.

NB I never have and still do not denounce all organised churches. There are many who are truly pursuing Jesus, led by remnant-hearted leaders. But there are also many who are still serving religion, and those will – eventually – fall. Because at present there are still many who are lost in our country who think Christianity is about going to a church building on Sundays to sing hymns, listen to sermons, and judge everybody else who doesn’t go, like the Pharisees of Jesus’ day. They think Christianity is about religion. And I hear Jesus roaring, “that is NOT My Church” That old religious church has to fall, so that His true Church – His family/ army/ Body of people in love with Him whose lives are laid down for Him – can emerge and be seen as His one true Bride, whose glory reflects His. Until now they have been mixed among the old religious lot (and only God knows which of us stands where) – but separation between the two MUST now happen, for the sake of the lost. How else will they know where to find salvation?

It’s time for the true Church to emerge and be seen as separate from the old religious structures that are coming down.