PERFECTING THE CHURCH
(week 17/10)
OLUBI JOHNSON
We are in the 3rd. millennial (2 Pet. 3.8) day from the birth of Christ. In this time, we are to see in manifestation the perfection of the church according to the prophetic scriptures:
Luke 13:32 KJV: and he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.
Hosea 6:2-3 MKJV: After two days He will bring us to life; in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight. (3) Then we shall know, if we follow on to know Jehovah. His going out is prepared as the morning; and He shall come to us as the rain, as the latter and former rain to the earth.
A perfect Church is one that has a perfect leadership: experiencing and manifesting the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ and a consequentially fully submitted followership. The followership is fully submitted because of the power of God being released and manifested by the perfect leadership.
Psalms 110:3 AMP: Your people will offer themselves willingly in the day of Your power, in the beauty of holiness and in holy array out of the womb of the morning; to You [will spring forth] Your young men, who are as the dew.
Psalms 50:2 AMP: Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.
Psalms 14:7 NIV: Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion! When the LORD restores the fortunes of his people, let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad!
So, in this hour, God is perfecting the Church on a modular basis; this means He will first perfect just one regional church and then use it as a model, a showcase and a pattern for other regional churches to follow.
Recall that God revealed to us in the book of revelation the churches in Asia as regional candlesticks each addressed as an individual module:
Revelation 1:11-13 NIV: which said: “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.” (12) I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, (13) and among the lampstands was someone “like a son of man,” dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest.
Revelation 1:20 NIV: The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.
So, in this hour, God is perfecting the Church by first perfecting the regional church in the land which the rivers divide beyond the rivers of Ethiopia: Nigeria.
Isaiah 18:1-3 MKJV: Woe to the land of whirring of wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, (2) which sends ambassadors by the sea, even in ships of papyrus on the waters, saying, Go, swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth, to a terrifying people from it and onwards; a mighty nation and trampling down, whose land the rivers have divided! (3) All people of the world and dwellers on the earth, you will see as one lifts up a banner on the peaks. And you will hear as the blowing of a trumpet.
Isaiah 18:7 MKJV: In that time shall be brought to Jehovah of Hosts the present from a terrifying, a tall and smooth people, from it and onward; a mighty and trampling nation whose land the rivers have divided, to the place of the name of Jehovah of Hosts, Mount Zion.
Zephaniah 3:10 AMP: From beyond the rivers of Cush or Ethiopia those who pray to Me, the daughter of My dispersed people, will bring and present My offering.
These scriptures speak in symbolic spiritual language (1 Cor. 2:13, Col. 2:17, and Heb. 10:1) prophetically of a perfect church: tall and smooth people: speaking of their spiritual smoothness and the stature of the fullness of Christ; terrible like the army described in Joel 2: 2-11; located geographically in a land that rivers divide beyond the rivers of Ethiopia. Nigeria, which is divided into North and South by the rivers Niger and Benue and named after the River Niger (the area of the Niger), is the only nation beyond the rivers of Ethiopia (sub Sahara) that answers this prophetic description. Other nations have rivers but are not divided by rivers like Nigeria and are not named after the rivers that divide them.
Even though as at today (April 14, 2010), we still do not yet see a perfect church in Nigeria; we can definitely see a great influence of the Evangelical and Pentecostal church throughout Nigeria. Furthermore, Nigerian Pentecostal pastors pastor some of the largest churches in the UK, the Ukraine, other European countries and the United States. Definitely Nigeria has the potential and the prophetic destiny of manifesting the first module of the perfect Church, hence this prophetic message.
How then will this perfect Church emerge in Nigeria at this time?
By God removing and bringing judgement on the present ‘Saul’ leadership of the Church in Nigeria and replacing it with a ‘David’ leadership that will manifest the perfection and fullness of Christ and so bring some of the church into full submission.
‘David’ is characterized by his willingness to do all of the will of God:
Acts 13:22 ESV: And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, ‘I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.
‘Saul’ is willing only to do parts of the will of God he finds convenient:
1 Samuel 15:22-23 ESV: And Samuel said, “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. (23) For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected you from being king.”
Furthermore, ‘Saul’s’ idolatry in the New Testament is called covetousness; this is an over emphasis on financial and material blessings and the omission of the weightier matters of the law: using faith to develop the character of God: love, righteousness and justice.
Colossians 3:5 ESV: Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
Matthew 23:23 ESV: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.
Now, just like God brought judgment on and allowed the Philistines to kill Saul, his three sons and armour bearer, so God will bring judgement upon the present ‘Saul’ leadership in the church in Nigeria.
1 Samuel 31:2 MKJV: And the Philistines followed Saul and his sons. And the Philistines killed Jonathan and Abinadab and Malchishua, Saul’s sons.
1 Samuel 31:6 MKJV: And Saul died, and his three sons, and his armor-bearer, and all his men, that same day together.
1 Chronicles 10:13-14 MKJV: (13) And Saul died for his sin which he committed against Jehovah, against the Word of Jehovah, which he did not keep, and also for seeking of a medium, to inquire, and (14) inquired not of Jehovah. And He killed him and turned the kingdom to David the son of Jesse.
In our article next week, we will see how the church will be perfected under the ‘David’ leadership.
