RETHINK - It’s time for change

By Julius Eniolu

Our world is changing faster than we can keep up, geo-political structures are constantly being redefined right before our eyes. In the midst of it all though, we see God doing amazing things through the local church. There are accounts of mass conversions, amazing miracles and various transformational work being done through the Church right across the face of the earth. No doubt, the Church is coming to its finest hour, but in this same season, it is evident that God is calling the church to order. He constantly raises prophetic voices to speak to us, to inspire, challenge and encourage the Body of Christ as we eagerly await the second coming of our Lord and King.

This book is one of those prophetic voices bringing a timely word of the Lord to us in such a time as this. It is my prayer that you will open your ears and heart to receive what the Lord is saying to His people!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Julius Eniolu
• Release date: Dec 9, 2016
• ISBN: 9789785465907

Book preview

Dedication.

This book is dedicated to the memory of my dear Mother, Esther Omidiora,  who introduced me to Jesus and brought me up in the ways of the Lord!

She went home to be with the Lord before my 17th birthday but the godly foundation she built in me is forever treasured!

I miss you mum and I will always love you

Table of Content

Dedication.

Table of Content

Preface

Endorsement

Appreciation

1.The State of the Modern Church

2.Honestly Guys, we are not Superstars!

3.We are not here forever

4.Political Correctness and the Church

5.Racism in the Church

6.And What is this Thing about Competition?

7.Strange Fire at the Altar

8.The Problem with the Prosperity Message

9.We are not Self-employed and we are not into Empire-building

10.We are more than Motivational Speakers

11.We must not confuse Rhetoric and Noise with the Anointing

12.Are we beginning to take ourselves too seriously?

13.It’s not a Numbers game! Actually, it’s not a Game at all!

14.You may deceive Everyone Else, but you can’t deceive God

15.We must all take Ownership of the Problem

16.Seriously speaking, Anointing Counts, but so does Character!

17.We cannot just ‘Go with the Flow’

18.Time to awake! A New Wine truly requires a New Wine Skin

The King is Coming

About the Author

Let’s Connect

RETHINK

It’s time for change!

Preface

The Church of Jesus Christ is the living, pulsating expression of the kingdom of God on earth; it is through His Church that God is executing His purposes on the planet. But the dilemma for many of us is that the ‘church’ that we see around us, just doesn’t seem to match the Church we read about in the Scriptures. It seems as if the divine blueprint has been hijacked by people whose agenda is to serve self and to promote, or establish, their own selfish visions. So yes, the Church is God’s idea, but we clearly have a problem, and to pretend that there is no problem is a massive problem in itself. We really need help, because we cannot carry on like this!

This book is thought-provoking and sounds critical in many places; however, the intention is never to criticise the Church per se, but to jolt the reader into action, to provoke each believer to rethink the way we ‘do’ church and to help us to realise the Church is actually a reflection of  ‘us’!

Endorsement

The letters of Revelation chapters 2 and 3 indicate that there is no single corrective word that can be applied to the whole Church but that different sectors of the Church need to receive their own challenges and assurances. These can come at different times and in different ways so churches can respond appropriately.

Pastor Julius has presented a timely word and I warmly encourage those who recognise the relevance of his words to weigh prayerfully what he has written.

At the same time, given that each of the letters in Revelation ends with the exhortation to 'hear what the Spirit says to the churches', we should all be praying that God will raise up those who will similarly challenge each of us in our various spheres of church life so that we too can have the opportunity to weigh such godly provocation and realign accordingly.

I firmly believe that now is the time for the Church to shine even more brightly in our ever-changing world and we need more prophetic voices with the boldness of Pastor Julius Eniolu - voices that cannot be lightly dismissed because they speak the truth in love and respect our distinctiveness in a way that delivers us from judgmentalism into a purer and more relevant relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

––––––––

Dr Hugh Osgood,

President of Churches in Communities International.

Appreciation

I want to thank my dear wife Mary for her invaluable help and cooperation during the writing of this book. It would have been difficult without you. I also want to thank my boys Daniel, David and Derek for their understanding during the writing of this book. I appreciate you all!

Thanks to Sharon Rees, Daniel Eniolu and my wife who helped with the editing. To Reiko Mirabueno and Derek Eniolu for the concept and design of the front cover

Most of all glory and praise be to my Lord and Saviour, for birthing this through me, for strengthening and inspiring me. I am humbled and grateful Lord!

1.  The State of the Modern Church

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Many look at the Church and are confused; they see it as weak, anaemic and irrelevant, while others even see it as toxic, hence, as something to be avoided completely! Many have even conveniently substituted the word ‘church’ with the word ‘kingdom’.

May I suggest to you that the Church and the Kingdom are one and the same! The Church is the earthly manifestation of God’s kingdom, its embassy and sole representative here on the earth. The Church is God’s end-time agenda, for which there is no alternative!

To acknowledge that the Church of Jesus Christ is divine in its origin is not to ignore the state of the Church in many quarters. Believers all over the world and even some outside of the body of Christ are aware of the distressing state of the modern Church. The Church is undoubtedly divine but we desperately are in need of some divine intervention.

It would seem like the anti-establishment mood in the world causing political unrest is to a large extent also present in the church, as many believers are obviously tired of the statuesque. This is reflected in recent statistics revealing that millions are trooping away from conventional churches and are beginning to meet informally, it is still church, but just not church as we know it. This amongst other things reinforces the fact that the need for change is urgently and inevitably upon us!

It is difficult to argue against the fact that the Church of Jesus Christ is in need of true and genuine revival. We all acknowledge that Jesus Christ is coming back, but the Scriptures state that He is coming back for a glorious Church, without stain or wrinkle or any such blemish, but holy and blameless.[1]  So let us reason together. If Jesus were to return today, will He be so proud of the modern Church and say to many of us well done you good and faithful servant[2] or will He say you wicked servant[3]instead?

It is important to acknowledge and celebrate what God is doing across the world, people are getting saved even in the most unlikely places in the world, big and effective congregations are springing up around the globe, especially in the third world countries. But to ignore the unholy things done in the name of a Holy God is simply irresponsible and ungodly. Yes, there are godly men and women out there who have not bowed their knees to Baal but we must also acknowledge that present amongst us are people whose goals are ungodly and self-seeking[4].

There are inroads being made into the Church by what I call ‘the Balaamic spirit,’[5] a spirit that is informed and influenced by personal gain, a spirit that has a ‘form’ of godliness, but which is void of God’s presence! And it is therefore easy to judge the church by focusing on these ‘weeds’[6] who appear amongst us but who we know don’t belong with is[7], after all, by their fruits ye shall know them[8]!

This analogy is best explained by the parable that Jesus told in the Book of Matthew Chapter thirteen Jesus presented another parable to them: The