Then remember from where you have fallen, and repent, and do the first works. And if not, I am coming to you quickly, and will remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.
Revelation 2:5
The church of the city of Ephesus addressed in the book of Revelation had a lot of good things going for it, but it had “left [its] first love” and was in danger of Jesus removing its lampstand. The removal of the lampstand signified the loss of effective witness. Devotion to Jesus from the heart defines authentic Christianity. It the incarnational of the life of Jesus in every believer that infiltrates a culture and brings the authentic witness of the Kingdom of God.
- When loving Jesus is not the first priority of the church, it has lost its lamp stand.
- When its daily activities are not understood in prayer and motivated by a desire to honor Christ first, the church has lost its lamp stand.
- When it is afraid to speak out its conviction in public, when it is ashamed of what Jesus has told it to say, the church has lost its lamp stand.
- When the church is afraid to stand for truth, and can no longer speak with conviction and grace on basic moral issues, the church has lost its lamp stand.
- When it no longer believes in the gospel and supplies additives to its message to compete with the world, the church has lost its lamp stand.
- When it no longer believes in prayer, the church has lost its lamp stand.
- When it is has no answers for the broken…
- When it moves out of the inner city and retreats to the suburbs…
- When it grows cynical and pessimistic about the government and the future…
- When it cowers in the face of persecution…
- When its only prayer is “Jesus, get us out of here”, the church has lost its lamp stand.
Jesus Christ is the head of the church. He is the source of its life. Jesus told his followers that they would encounter tribulation in this life, but he added, “…be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.” As long as the church abides in the life giving presence of Christ, its light will shine bright.
When the church begins to work independently from a vital life connection to Jesus, it loses its hope, its faith, its vision, its power, its effectiveness and purpose.
Furthermore, the Gospel is so simple that apart from staying connected to Jesus it is easy to discount it. That is why the church must remain connected to Jesus through prayer if it is to keep and maintain its lamp stand. Apart from His life, the church loses its way, its boldness, its willingness, its nerve, and its effectiveness in spreading the gospel.
Let Us Return
The remedy for the church’s loss of power is simple; “Come let us return unto the Lord.” Hosea 6:1. The church must find itself and its message again in the house of prayer. It must come back to the altar and get its candle re-lit.
The House of Prayer
When I say, “House of Prayer”, I am not necessarily referring to a building or a place where there is regular prayer going on. Rather, I am referring to that place in the Spirit where the church connects with Jesus and listens intently to His voice. Psalms 91 identifies this place of listening as the “secret place of the most high.” In Psalm 27 it is the “House of the Lord” and “His pavilion” or the “secret place of His tabernacle.” In Psalm 73:17 it is the “sanctuary of God.” All of these signify a realm of revelation and intimacy. It is the place to come when one needs divine perspective. It is where one beholds the “beauty of the Lord.” This can only be done “in the Spirit.”
There are many metaphors for a single reality but the important thing is that the church must come back to the House of prayer to find His presence. Before Jesus was crucified and resurrected He said, “A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also.” John 14:19. Until the church ‘sees’ the Lord, it does not properly discern anything else.
The Summons
The Lord is summoning the church, like He did in Psalm 50, to an encounter with Him in the house of prayer for the sole purpose of reconnecting with Jesus Christ as the head, the source of its life and power.
Does the church have problems? Yes. Does it need guidance and wisdom? Yes. Does it need answers to life’s dilemmas Yes. But these are not the primary issue. The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. And the main thing is vital, organic, life giving connection with the resurrected Jesus.
There is a jealousy in the heart of God for the testimony to Jesus, His only begotten Son. God chose Jesus to be the King of the nations and His only begotten son. There has always been and always will be a challenge to God’s choice of a king. “Why do the nations rage…” the Psalmist ask, “against the Lord and against His anointed.” There is an offense to God choosing one over the other. But He has chosen His Son, Jesus Christ. Faltering on this issue, on the finality and supremacy of Christ, on the issue of the resurrection and on His right as absolute Lord is paramount to losing the Gospel altogether. Jesus came in humility and meekness, but he also said to Jerusalem and to Israel, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, …Your house is left to you desolate.” Why did He declare such a judgment, “because you did not recognize the day of your visitation.” When the opportunity arose for Jerusalem to come into agreement with God’s choose and align its allegiance with Christ, it missed its opportunity. Christ is Christianity and without Him one has nothing but an empty shell of religion.
The Need of the Moment
Knowing what is going to happen in the future is not the greatest need of this moment. Even if the church could accurately predict everything of major significance that is going to happen in the next ten years, or a hundred years, that still would not guarantee that people know what to do or that they would end up at the right place at the right time.
The single most important priority of the church in this hour is to make sure that it is connected to the head, Jesus Christ. By in large, the church is profoundly isolated from the true presence of Jesus, pre-occupied with a thousand little fires, but utterly unaware of the real issue.
Make no mistake; the church all around is plenty busy. It has plenty to say. But is it releasing light or darkness? Hope or fear and despair? False hope or genuine peace? Life and freedom or guilt and manipulation? It is not enough to be moralistic. The church cannot simply stand back and denounce bad behavior. It is not enough to know the Bible. The Pharisees knew the Bible backwards and forwards but were not able to recognize the Messiah. It is not enough to be “culturally relevant”. To often this means Heavenly irrelevance. It is not enough to store up guns or food or any other “necessity.” What about heavenly treasure? What does that even mean?
Frankly, the world does not need another good idea of how to divert disaster.
What the World Needs Now
- What the world needs from the church is a simple explanation of how to connect with God.
- What the world needs from the church is a clear expression of God’s character and nature.
- The world needs is an authentic display of the wisdom of God.
- What it needs is a demonstration of the culture of heaven.
- What the world needs is a genuine experience of the love of Jesus through His people
- What the world needs is light!
It is time to stop everything we are doing and restore the light!!!
If the church, indeed, has lost its lamp stand then it needs to drop everything it is doing until its lamp stand is restored.
What must the church do to regain its lamp stand?
- It must repent from thinking that it has anything relevant to offer apart from Christ.
- It must repent from actions born out of worldly wisdom.
- It must repent from trying to please the world instead of trying to please God.
- It must return to the house of prayer, come and be still, sit at the feet of Jesus and allow itself to marinate in the presence of Christ.
- It must drop its own agenda and simply ask God what is on His heart.
- It must wait on the Lord. It must wait until it hears. Until the church truly hears, it has nothing to say and nothing to do!
- It must identify with the Lord’s burden and then begin to pray and intercede into it. Allow the Lord’s burden to become the burden of the church.
- It must begin to see the vision that God wants to replace the present reality with.
- It must pray into the vision and believe for it.
- It must articulate and declare the vision of God.
- It must ask for specific strategy to see it come to pass and be willing to be part of the answer.
- It must begin to gather resources.
- It must act in obedience to the clear leading and guidance of the Lord.
The church must have a lamp stand. It must burn with the Lord’s light. When the church gets reconnected to the head in the house of prayer and begins to flow out of this vital connection, the wisdom of God will be on display for all to see. God will relight the candle in the church again.