Originally released May 8, 2014 – Download PDF:  The Church is a Perch for Jim Crow.05.08.14

The thought occurred to me that if you or I were invited to “worship” at an all white church, where the ushers, deacons, elders and the pastor actively kept our African-American brothers and sisters from entering the House of the Lord, would we participate in their hypocrisy?  Would we simply walk past all of the people that wanted to get in but were denied entry to a “place of worship” simply because of the color of their skin?  I hope not, because it would be a sham.  Some might call it “worshipping the Lord”, but it would be far from that!

So tell me, why should I tolerate a “church” that keeps the Holy Spirit from entering their place of “worship”?  It is not their house!  It is His house!  Why should I actively participate with those that proclaim that they “follow Jesus”, when they actively dishonor The One He sent?  With their Jim Crow laws they discriminate against the Holy Spirit that are designed to make Him a second-class citizen in, or keep Him out, of His own house!.  Should I keep my mouth shut for fear of offending?!  I will not!  I will not participate in the present-day sins of Jim Crow-like prejudice that are nothing but manifestations of hatred, rebellion, idolatry or divination/ witchcraft against the Holy Spirit.

Have you ever participated in the sin of witchcraft or divination?  “Oh no, not me Brother Mark!  I attend church every Sunday.  I do the things the Bible says we should do!  I witness….”  If we are rebelling against the Holy Spirit the Bible equates it to the sin of divination/witchcraft.  We are called to worship the Lord who is the Spirit (2 Cor 3:17).  As Jesus said, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth (Jn 4:24).”  If we offend the Spirit we are offending Almighty God!

Paul boldly proclaimed the following to the Church at Ephesus–

Philippians 3:2–3 (NASB95) 2 Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision; 3 for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.

And yet, so many so-called churches put all of their confidence in the flesh, i.e. style and form of preaching and eloquent oratory, fund raising for the youth and other programs designed to make people only feel like they are doing the commandments of Jesus.  Are these the criteria for true disciples and followers of Jesus?  Do followers of Jesus resist the Spirit of truth and deny His power?    Even if they don’t verbally deny His power, they do it in practice.  Let’s be clear, it’s a sham.

“But Brother Mark, Jesus said in Mt 18:20, that wherever two or three are gathered, He is in their midst!”  True, but the Scripture is clear that the Lord will not dwell with sin (Ps 5:4, 45:6; Prv 6:16-19; Hosea 9:15; Amos 5:14-27).  To refuse His Holy Spirit on an ongoing basis is to stand in rebellion against Him, which is the sin of witchcraft and divination (I Sam 15:23).  Stephen spoke against the Sanhedrin and other leaders saying:

Acts 7:51 (NASB95) 51 “You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did.

Stephen died for condemning the religious Jim Crow laws of his day.  True followers of Jesus and His Spirit know a sham when they see it.  They know those that resist The One they love.  In like manner, the Spirit knows those that follow Him.  True followers give the Holy Spirit honor and they allow Him to move in whatever way He chooses to move; they do not restrict the manifest power of the Holy Spirit.  They know He is God and they worship Him as such.

There may be people inside a building they call “they church” singing, giving their tithes, they may even read and/or preach out of the Bible but without honoring the Spirit, it is a sham.  Neither an individual nor a group can say that they are “followers of Jesus” without welcoming the Holy Spirit and allowing Him to speak by and through His gifts which He designed to flow through the members of His Body.  Unless they do, their activity must be labeled a “powerless-sham gathering”, which Paul warned against saying, “holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; avoid such men as these (2 Ti 3:5).  Why?  It’s a sham.

I am not a poet, but Dr. Seuss might say it this way:  “I will not eat powerless dregs and sham.  I do not like them with a goat.  I do not like them in a boat.  I will not enter the ship named Sham.  I will not conform to be called cool.  There is neither fellowship nor community with those who choose to play the fool.  I will not sail in pride on the Sunday tide.  I will not venture, I will not abide.  I would not, could not give way to sham, Sham-I-am.  I find no fellowship where there is no love for The Holy One, the Spirit of God, Sham-I-am.

I choose to worship with those who recognize and reverence the great I AM, Sham-I-am; those who worship the Spirit of God and invite Him in and allow Him to manifest His power in the way of His choosing.  To do otherwise and compromise what and Who I know to be Truth, would be nothing Sham-I-am, if it were not sin.”

I was born to abide under the cloud of the presence of the Almighty; it is not something that I take lightly.  If someone wants to do something else rather than follow the Holy Spirit, that is their choice.  They need not expect me to participate nor enter their prison of sham.

Why?  The Father, Son AND the Holy Spirit are my life!  They are my all in all!

Mark C. Biteler