The question is not all that uncommon: "What is God saying to the Church?"
Permit us to suggest that in many instances the issue may not be so much whether God is saying something as rather, to quote Christ's rather trenchant turn of expression, our possession of "ears" - "He who has ears...let him hear."
This past week we were privileged to again witness a growing awareness of some of the things we believe God to be presently saying. We were pleased, first of all, with the sermon of a special speaker regarding the Church's need to "remember" (not in a sense of recreating the past; see "going on to," as opposed to "going back to" in Heb. 6:1), but rather of "re-membering" Christ's "dismembered" Body. Later in the week, we conversed with a fellow minister who shared his growing conviction that God is not calling us to self focused faith and identity but rather, transcendence of such in relation the believing Body at large.
Such is, and shall continue to be, a work of the Spirit. We can neither create its reality nor provide its requisite dynamic. (Objectively, have we ever seen true revival born of organizational determination, committee planning and/or sectarian strategy?) As "laborers together with Him" we can, however, move with the Spirit's "breaking down the walls of partition" (Eph. 2:14). Given such, have we ever experienced the sense of inspiration often attendant the coming together of believers in Christian love and fellowship - whatever one's "label?" There is a reason.
Our brother also shared his agreement to the premise of a "beginning of sorrows" (Matt. 24:8), as contrasted to the sudden and easy "Rapture escapism" of many Western Christians (this despite the millions elsewhere who, within our own era and lifetime, paid the supreme price for their faith). This, too, represents a growing consciousness with the community of faith.
Is God speaking? We believe so.
Burl Ratzsch
