Our Most Critical Need

THE MOST CRITICAL NEED of the Church at this moment is men -

the right kind of men, bold men. The talk is that we need revival,

that we need a new baptism of the Holy Spirit - and God knows we

must have both - but God will not revive mice. He will not fill rabbits

with the Holy Spirit.

We languish for men who feel themselves expendable in the warfare

of the soul because they have already died to the allurements of this

world. Such men will be free from the compulsions that control weaker

men. They will not be forced to do things by the squeeze of

circumstances. Their only compulsion will come from within - or from above.

This kind of freedom is necessary if we are to have prophets in our

pulpits again instead of mascots. These free men will serve God and

mankind from motives too high to be understood by the rank and file

of religious retainers who today shuttle in and out of the sanctuary.

They will make no decisions out of fear, take no course out of a desire

to please, accept no service for financial considerations, perform no

religious acts out of mere custom, nor allow themselves to be influenced

by the love of publicity or the desire for reputation.

Much that the church - even the evangelical church - is doing today,

it is doing because it is afraid not to do it. Ministerial associations take

up projects for no higher reasons than that they are scared into it.

Whatever their ear-to-the-ground, fear-inspired reconnoitering leads

them to believe - or fear - the world expects them to do, they will be

doing come next Monday morning with all kinds of trumped-up zeal and

show of godliness. The pressure of public opinion calls these prophets,

not the voice of Jehovah.

The true church has never sounded out public expectations before

launching its crusades. Its leaders heard from God and went ahead

wholly independent of popular support or the lack of it. They knew

their Lord's will and did it, and their people followed them - sometimes

to triumph, but more often to insults and public persecution - and their

sufficient reward was the satisfaction of being right in a wrong world.

Another characteristic of the true prophet has been love. The free

man who has learned to hear God's voice and dared to obey it has felt

the moral burden that broke the hearts of the Old Testament prophets,

crushed the soul of our Lord Jesus Christ, and wrung streams of tears

from the eyes of the apostles.

The free man has never been a religious tyrant, nor has he sought to

lord it over God's heritage. It is fear and lack of self-assurance that has

led men to try to bring others under their feet. They have had some

interest to protect, some position to secure, so they have demanded

subjection from their followers as a guarantee of their own safety. But

the free man - never. He has nothing to protect, no ambition to pursue

and no enemy to fear. For that reason he is completely careless of his

standing among men. If they follow him - well and good. If not, he

loses nothing that he holds dear. But whether he is accepted or

rejected, he will go on loving his people with sincere devotion, and

only death can silence his tender intercession for them.

Yes, if evangelical Christianity is to stay alive, it must have men again -

the right kind of men. It must repudiate the weaklings who dare not

speak out, and it must seek in prayer and much humility the coming

again of men of the stuff of which prophets and martyrs are made.

God will hear the cries of His people as He heard the cries of Israel in

Egypt, and He will send deliverance by sending deliverers. It is His way.

And when the deliverers come - reformers, revivalists, prophets - they

will be men of God and men of courage. They will have God on their

side because they are careful to stay on God's side. They will be

co-workers with Christ and instruments in the hands of the Holy Spirit.

Such men will be baptized with the Spirit indeed and through their

labors He will baptize others and send the long-delayed revival.

(~SOURCE: "This World: Playground or Battleground?", Chapter 7).