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The Churches of General Apathy.
 

There have been other dreams, suggesting the prideful shortcomings of other protestant denominational churches, (Orthodox. Lutheran and Episcopal) that are considered to be of the universal church, called catholic, but are outside of the direct influence of the Roman Catholic Church.  What is written, in the various chapters of this book, is what has been revealed to me through night visions, and I believe those dreams are most certainly of the Spirit of Holy God, and for the edification of the whole Ecclesia of the Almighty God. 

One such dream, concerned a liturgical church of catholic division, where communion was to be part of their liturgy, but in the dream the Lord showed me that the commonality of agreement with repentance, born of humility with faith and love, was somewhat absent in the community.  Their respect for the thank offerings to God was deplorable, for the Eucharistic bread and the wine, were depicted respectively, as a hamburger in a bun, and orange juice.  In the dream it became apparent, that the clergy had yet to respond to the general apathy and sins of the congregation, and even their own corruption.  Because of the leadership's static confusion, Communion in this church was missing its clear and direct approach to God, and because of unrepented sin, ichabod was written on the pastor's ministry.  Make no mistake with this Holy Matter, for God will not be mocked concerning the Blood of His Son.

The formal liturgy of the Eucharist, presented in the “Divine Liturgy”, or perhaps the Latin  “Mass”, is good in content, if it conforms to the heart of scriptures.  In any case, the rote performance, or the formal act of the liturgy in itself, is not the right of passage into the Holiest Place of the Lord GodBut, says Adonai; He that puts his trust in Me shall possess the land, and shall inherit My holy mountain; And shall say: Cast you up, cast you up, prepare the way, take up the stumbling block out of the way of My people.  For thus says the high and lofty One that inhabits eternity, whose Name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, also with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. (Please See Isaiah 57 verse 14 thru 21 .) Without God's Spirit of Grace, how else can repentant people come together in Spirit and Truth, and give thanksgiving to God for His Great Sacrifice of the Love of His Son.  

It is good that the liturgical structured order of service, provides consistently the Water of the Word of God, with the presentation of the Eucharistic Provisions of the bread and wine.  Upon hearing the Word of Truth coupled with repentance, then the essential element of faith remains for the humble hearts and spirits of the celebrant and the people.  This faith in the Word of God will influence God's Holy Spirit of Truth, and God will administer His Grace, even as by cleansing fire.  Once again, it is not just the physical performance, and rote participation that brings the spiritual benefits of God's Grace, but one's true spiritual embracing within the heart, and the spirit of the mind, to believe in the true supernatural dimensions of God's Sacrament of Grace.  In this faith of the believer, God's unseen Holy Spirit of Truth is present in the Communion Body and Life Blood of Jesus Christ, to bring the Life of His Spirit of Grace to the contrite hearts of the saved.

At the intimate Family Table of the Lord, there is no doubt that the Holy Spirit of all Truth, will be present in the unseen dimensions in the consecrated Water and Fruit of the Vine, and within the unleavened Bread, for those true humble hearts of renewed acceptance.  It is in the dimensions of unfettered faith, that the Holy Spirit willingly accepts those hearts, and empowers them with the assurance of continuing Life in the Body of His Son.  The Word "Logos" and the Spirit agree in the Blood, and the Sword of the Spirit will circumcise the hearts that are yielded to Him.  But, let it not be this Word of the Lord for His people. “They do honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me.” And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying: Read this, I pray thee: and he says, I am not learned.  Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near Me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor Me, but have removed their heart far from Me, and their fear toward Me is taught by the precept of men: Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder: For the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. (Isaiah 29 verse 12 thru 14.)

If you revisit the visions and dreams of Holy Communion, then you will see that in the Lord's Holy Body, all that were saved, that is justified by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ our Righteousness, are present in the Communion Bread of Life.  I do not believe there can be any distinction in time and space, as we know it, and certainly not in cultural denominations.  Each member was fitly joined together in God's Love, as there was no separation in the unleavened Bread of Life, Who is the Lord Jesus Christ.  But speaking the Truth in love, may we grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ Jesus:  From Whom the whole body fitly joined together, and compacted by that which every joint supplies, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, making increase of the Body unto the edifying of itself in Love. (Ephesians 4 verse 15 thru 16.)

Many churches, when they have a form of communion, serve leavened bread, which in this case is probably symbolic of the spiritual state of a church laden with sin.  If flesh and blood does not enter into the kingdom of God, then how can worship of God take place in Spirit and Truth, when only the flesh is seeking to be gratified with its own placating performance. (See 1st Corinthians 15 verse 50.)

NOTE 2018: This is an insertion to the original message from years past: After participating in a form of communion on a previous Sunday, I got an extraordinary correction from God's Spirit of Truth.  The pastor, who did not know me, was offended in my position on Communion, and out of hand thought me to be a disrupting influence in his church.  However, in a show of unity with the church, I participated in a communion service where the church provided leavened (yeasted) bread, which was to be for the representative members of the unleavened Body of Christ Jesus.  A few days later I had a dream.  I was in the church on the first Sunday of the month, and just before Communion was to begin, there was a piece of meat in my hands, which was to be consumed by all, but was set aside, as it appeared to be out of order.  Double minded Man's mixed up ritual continued until I woke up.  Upon reflection, I saw clearly that the meat represented the flesh of man, but I held only one supposition to what was being pictured.  Initially, I saw that the monthly communion ritual of this non denominational church was performed as an open show of the flesh, and was consumed only to satisfy the flesh. Your glorying is not good. Know you not that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you are (to be) unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. (See 1st Corinthians 5 verse 6 thru 8.)

But then again, the flesh of even the saved is innately subject to an unruliness that God alone can see. (See Jeremiah 17 verse 9 thru 10.) Confession of the faults of the flesh is a prerequisite before we enter into God's presence. Without humility with repentance we will never come before the Face of Yahweh God Almighty.  (See 2nd Chronicles 7 verse 13 thru 15.) Communion in the Body and Life Blood of Jesus Christ is of God's New Covenant Grace where His Holy Fire consumes away the dross of our confessed sins of the flesh that is against the Will of Almighty God.  You and I are called too always serve the Almighty God in Spirit and Truth, and not the natural rule of man's flesh.  In the whole of this Holy Matter of God's Grace in the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, one of my many weaknesses was again manifested within me.  Through experience in God's call, I have come to expect rejection, but nevertheless the exclusion is painful.  But by the Grace of God here I am, and here I stand.  On the first matter of the substance of Holy Communion, the Righteous Word of Yahweh God Almighty stands eternal.  I will not make this mistake again to placate man's ignorance of the Holy. Consider also God's warning instructions: "You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread, or let the fat of My feast remain until the morning. (Exodus 23 verse 18.)  No grain offering, which you bring to the LORD, shall be made with leaven, for you shall not offer up in smoke, any leaven or any honey as an offering by fire to the LORD. (See Exodus 29 verse 23 thru 25.) On the second matter, I have an understanding of the nature of sin that can so easily beset me in my self centered flesh.  I am among the many with saving faith in the Infinitely Righteous Word of Jesus Christ, slain before the foundation of the world: Take and drink all of you. This is My Blood of the New Covenant that is shed for many for the remission of sin.

The Eastern Orthodox Church completely dismisses the former scriptures, and predominately serves leavened bread as the Body of Jesus Christ.  The error is compounded, in that the leavened bread is served with the Spirit's cleansing Life Blood of Jesus Christ. "You shall not offer the Blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread.  Also of error, this church institution has mistakenly interpreted the Greek words for a loaf of bread, to be as a loaf of leavened bread, rather than a loaf of unleavened Matzo bread.  The unleavened matzo, in the original Passover in Egypt, is symbolic of humility, and the unity of the people, who are prepared to follow the leading of the Lord, into His Covenant promise of deliverance.  Even as this is true of the Passover matzo, so then is the consecrated unleavened Bread of Life, through the Holy Spirit, the spiritual humility that makes us One in the Body of the Lord Jesus Christ.  The Mediator between God and sinful man, is our Lord Jesus Christ, and it is His Perfect Love offering in His Life Blood, that binds His people together in His Love. (See Colossians 2 verse 2.) Leavened bread was served only on the Day of Pentecost.  In this case, the leaven, in the baked bread, represented that God had giving the increase of the first fruits of His Son's sacrifice on the fifteenth day of Nisan, and now fifty days later, the Ecclesia of God, was the harvest of sinful souls, who would now feed of the unleavened Bread of Life.  (See Leviticus 23 verse 16 thru 17.)

Moreover, Every grain offering of yours, you shall season with salt, so that  the Salt of the Covenant of your God shall not be lacking from your grain offering.  With all your offerings you shall offer salt. (Leviticus 2 verse 11 thru 13.) And Jesus says: For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.  Salt is good: but if the salt has lost his saltiness, wherewith will you season it?  Have Salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another.  I AM the Vine, you are the branches: He that abides in Me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit: for without Me you can do nothing. (See Mark 9 verse 48 thru 50, and John 15 verse 5.) God demanded that salt, had to be added to all of the propitiating sacrifices of Israel.  The salt was initially added by man, indicative of the seasoning that Israel would experience through their own sacrifices. 

However, it is God alone, Who seasons our beginning faith and finished faith, with the fiery salt from His Sacrifice of His only begotten Son Jesus Christ.  God's Holy Spirit of Grace gives His people of faith the renewing seasoning Salt of His Son, Jesus Christ, that makes for our Covenant of Peace with God, and with each other.  As men of faith, we were baptized into the sacrificial death and burial of Jesus Christ, by the Spirit of God, Who is One with the Fountain of Living Water that flowed from the side of Jesus Christ.  If faith is disrupted into unbelief, then what good is a life that has no salt to persevere to the end.  What is the seasoning of your faith?  If God offers the Fiery Salt of His Son, as His gift of renewing Grace in Christ Jesus, are you going to refuse that Grace, and His discipline?

The Paschal Feast, in the Hebraic calendar is in the 1st month of Nisan, and would have taken place after sundown, the evening of the beginning of the day of the 15th.  The Pascal feast would follow the first day of the seven day “Festival of the Unleavened Bread”, that began on Nisan the 14th, when the Lambs would have been slain for the family celebration of the Pascal Feast.  Jesus, the complete Jew, also would have celebrated the Passover Feast with His Disciples, on Nisan the 15th.  The scriptures make this clear.  (See Matthew 26 verse 2, and verse 18,Mark 14 verse 14,Luke 22 verse 7 thru 12.)  At the end of the dinner feast with the eating of the paschal lamb, Jesus now instituted His New Covenant Supper in the hidden Matzo bread, when He broke it, and then giving the Matzo to His disciples, He said:  Take and eat, for this is My Body given for you.  Then Jesus took the weine after dinner, and gave thanks to His Holy Father for the fruit of the vine, and then gave the cup to His disciples saying:  Drink of it all of you; For this is My Blood of the New Covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

The Living Bread that came down from Heaven, knew no sin, but for our sake, God made Him, Jesus Christ, to be our sin, and to suffer our death, to appease the wrath that Holy God Almighty has for the violence of sin, with its corruption of death.  Because of our Lord's Perfect Love, trust and obedience to His Father, His Life Blood, given as a Holy offering for the sin of humanity, propitiated, or satisfied the absolute holy justice of His Father Yahweh.  It took the holy, unleavened, sacrificial Life of Yeshuah the Messiah, the Incarnated Son of God, to satisfy the Holiness of the Almighty God.  The first man, Adam, loved himself first, and committed treason against his Maker, and brought death to all of mankind, while the last man, Jesus Christ loved His Father perfectly, and gave His sinless Life, a ransom for the sins of the world.  With His resurrection from death, Jesus showed that our sins, which demand death for all, could not hold our Lord, the Son of Man, because of the Holy perfection of His sacrificial Love.  The perfection of His sacrificial Love, as the Son of Man, and the Son of God overcomes our human nature, born of sin and death. 

In the living memorial of Holy Communion, His sinless Body is always to be presented to us, as the unleavened sacrificial Bread of Eternal Life.  In this holy matter, the Eastern Orthodox and many other churches are in ignorance, as to what is right tradition, and provides a terrible spiritual misrepresentation of our Holy Lord, and His sinless resurrected Body.  In the original Jewish Passover Seder, the house was searched and cleansed of all leaven, even before the lamb was slaughtered, roasted and then eaten.  Likewise, we also must search our own selves, and begin the cleansing of the tabernacle of our hearts of the known leaven of idolatrous, and self serving sin, even of unbelief, giving it to the Lord Jesus Christ through our confession to Him.  Now we are to partake of the Body and the New Covenant Sanctifying Blood of our Savior.

Yeast, in the strictest biblical sense, is analogous to sin with its corruption of life.  Leaven, always puffs up the dough, and reveals separation and divisions in the baked bread.  In leavened bread, various sized gaseous air pockets developed in the structure of the bread, that were produced from the fermentation of the introduced yeast.  Where a little leaven enters into the mix of the dough, then the whole lump will be leavened.  Because of the introduction of yeast into the unadulterated dough, and by its very nature of producing flatulence, all of the dough will be puffed up, and its structural fabric will be divided into individual little air pockets.  When the dough is baked, is it bread?  Yes in the natural sense only, but because of the added yeast, to the flour, the dough is now denatured, and the baked bread in this form is adulterated, and does not represent the purity of Jesus Christ.  Paul says to the Church of Corinth: Therefore, purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, for you are unleavened bread. For Christ (Who knew no sin) is our Passover (Lamb, Whose Holy Blood) is sacrificed for us (sinners). (For full context see 1st Corinthians 5 verse 6 thru 13.) Symbolically, like the gaseous fermentation of the introduced yeast in the dough, the yeast of sin remains present in our own flesh, and needs to be purged out so that we would be one lump of dough.  If sin, with its unbelief, is present in a congregation, then the people will not be able to see through the fog of their own self justified understanding, and the fermentation of sin, will leave the church blinded to the supernatural complexity of the One Holy Bread of Life.  

Christ Jesus is the true WORD of GOD, Whose perfection of Love overcomes our acknowledged puffed up sins of the flesh.  On the occasion of his letter, Paul is judging both the Corinthian Church for its liberal pride, and the member they essentially condone for committing fornication by allowing him to partake in the Agape Feast.  We believe that we are imparting spiritual clarity to Paul's scripture, for we will continue to speak to the church of her spiritual adultery and fornications with the world of yesterday and today, and of her need to repent, and return to the Lord Jesus Christ, as a chaste bride, purchased by His Holy Life Blood.

It is only by Holy God's grace that we, as ground wheat, are enjoined to the unleavened bread of heaven, Jesus Christ.  Jesus, in His High Priestley intercession to His Father, prays that all who are called out of sin's control, the Ecclesia, are to be of one heart, even as He and His Father are One, and that the Ecclesia would be one in Them. 

"And they shall overcome the evil (accuser) by the BLOOD of the LAMB, and the Word of their testimony, and they loved not their life unto the death."  (Revelation 12 verse 10.)

To proceed to the next chapter, please click on The Pride of the Pulpit.

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Robert Glenn Pratten