“As a whole, My church has been weighed and found wanting. You who hear need to come out from her. You must come back to My Word and its fullness, or you will experience the judgment that is about to be placed on those who will not hear. I have seen the falling away. I have tolerated the self-serving attitudes of those who have attempted to form Me into their image. They have misused My words, redefined My purposes, and turned their backs on the Spirit Who once was accepted as truth, defining truth to suit their own agendas. They have witnessed to others that My presence is with them, when I am nowhere near where they are. I don’t come to their ways; they must come to Mine. They sing songs of praise because of what I have done, instead of praising Me for Who I am. Deep down, they credit themselves for their prosperity and blame Me for their trials.
"I have allowed the cold, hard heart to run its course and have asked you, who have eyes to see and ears to hear, to make choices. Some of you have seen what has happened to My people and hate what you see, but have needed to know for sure what to do. I now call you to come out. Cold fellowships are religious activities that only make participants feel comfortable where they are. Cold preachers are no longer My messengers. They allow My children to be complacent.
"I am about to deal with them. I have never been, nor ever will be, part of religious folly. Time is too short to play religious games. If you do, you will miss what I am really doing. You come away with Me. You get back to My Word. You join with others who see, and live the life of Jesus before those who need to know Him. Ignore the sound of judgments that are bringing those who would not hear to their knees. In their independence, they would not come to Me. Soon they will submit. You do My work, endued with My power that comes from being in My presence. I am with you.”
Amos 5:21-23 NIV
21) I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies.
22) Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings I will have no regard for them.
23) Away with the noise of your songs. I will not listen to the noise of your harps.
There comes a time when the Lord says, “Enough.” Just before that time, He always calls out those who can hear His call and separate themselves from those with whom He is displeased. They miss His judgment because of their obedience.
For many years, I believe that the Lord has been calling His people to pursue holiness and intimacy with Him. In those years, most of us have seen many fellowships resist the call to holiness and replace it with programs and events. Those, who have closed their spiritual ears to the call of God, busy themselves with religious activity, rather than spend the time needed in prayer and fellowship with the Lord, so that they can hear His heart.
Merry and I are incredibly blessed in knowing honest lovers of our Lord all over the land. So often we hear aching hearts crying out for a fellowship near them that doesn’t compromise the call they are hearing, a call to holiness. The common lament is that a call to participate in activities and doing good things has replaced the message of spending time with God. Spending quality time in prayer is avoided. Hours in prayer is considered radical and sometimes unheard of, even by leadership. They say that they have no place to go, so they congregate with one or two like-minded believers in their own homes, continually searching for a strong Word and a call to intimacy, wherever they can find it.
The call to become a holy, separated people, who are dedicated to intimacy with devoted, bride-like qualities, is becoming louder and more urgent each moment. At the same time, cold, dead religious activity vies for the hearts of the unaware. It feeds on those who have closed their ears and hardened their hearts to the Holy Spirit and are too busy doing good things to spend time with their Lord.
Wanting to hear clearly and respond properly,
Jim Corbett
