For nearly 18 months I applied myself to various church jobs, hoping to spark something, anything, that resembled revival. But the harder I worked, the worse it became. Finally the Lord said to me:

Get out of the way and let it fail.

His words left me stunned. In fact, I questioned whether or not it was the Lord speaking since I felt it was blasphemous to suggest the church should fail. But the Lord went on to show me the church was not a building, nor the religious institution with all its programs most people identify as the church, but simply the children of God coming together as family to live in community with God and one another. The Lord went on to speak to me about building on sand and that He is doing what He has always done: sending wind, rain and waves to test our houses for whether or not we’ve built on the Rock.

When God sends the wind, rain and waves to test the foundation and we are laboring to prop it back up while it falls apart, we are working against God and enabling the church to continue in it’s vain works.

Time and again I’ve heard believers lament the failure of a church program as the “work of the devil”. But with God’s words to me: get out of the way and let it fail, I no longer think it’s the devil behind the failure of our vain works. I believe it is God who is still throwing down our towers of Babel.

And really, what was the tower of Babel if not a vain work?

Babel was man’s effort to reach God. Interestingly, the story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11 indicates God simply confused the speech of the peoples and scattered them so they could no longer cooperate in such prideful endeavors as building a tower to reach the heavens. I recall a few movies that depicted the tower itself being destroyed, but that isn’t supported by scripture that I’m able to find. It could be said that God simply derailed the “Tower of Babel” program!

The next time a church or program fails, don’t credit the devil with it. Instead, repent from vain works and thank God who already finished the work of Salvation in Christ Jesus!

On that note I’d like to share a bit of my church history. I was born, infant baptized and raised in a Presbyterian church. They practiced what is commonly called “High church”. In other words, rigidly traditional, liturgical and symbolic. In adulthood I attended a variety of similar churches; some “High church” others observing a more relaxed form known as “Low church”. All self-identified as non-charismatic. In other words, they were driven by tradition and prohibited the manifestations of the Holy Spirit. Whether high or low in their style of service, all of them followed a printed order of worship with scripture readings and sermon topics according to the Advent calendar and service manuals endorsed by the denomination. The Presbyterian church for example uses the “Book of Common Worship” and a “Book of Occasional Service”. Perhaps you’ve noticed a pastor using such a book for a wedding, baptism or ordination? That’s the kind of church I attended for 40 years; the type of church a charismatic pastor friend once called “the dead in Christ”.

But something strange happened as I lay in the tomb. I heard a knocking and the voice of the Spirit said “COME!” When I answered the door He entered into me, just as Jesus promised He would in Revelation 3:20. Over the course of many years, He continued calling me into deeper relationship and greater revelation of the Son. The more I saw of He who is Truth incarnate, the more I came to see the church I attended for half a lifetime as the church of Laodicea. By the way, the name Laodicea (lao-di-kee-ia) is derived from the Greek words Laos (G2992) meaning “people” and Dike (di-kee) (G1349) meaning “judgment, punish and vengeance”. Thus the name Laodicea means “people of judgment”.

I’m struck that Revelation opens with 7 letters from Christ to the 7 churches, the last of which is Laodicea who shut Jesus out altogether. Revelation 18 has an additional warning for the people of God concerning Babylon, who presides over buying and selling and makes rich all who operate within her system of religious commercialism. The chapter concludes saying “for the blood of saints and prophets were found within her”. Where scripture says “the life is in the blood” (Leviticus 17:11), religious Babylon gets its life from the blood of the saints and prophets. What startles me most, is that she has captivated the people of God and sustains herself by their blood. For it says in Revelation 18:4

“Come out of her, my people, lest you participate in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.”

I’m also struck at the number of times scripture calls us to come out of bondage. Revelation 18:4 tells us to “Come out” of Babylon. Revelation 3:20 tells us to come out of Laodicea. Hebrews 13:13 tells us to come out from the camps of men and join Christ outside the camp. How can we not see that? How did I not see that?

This for me is where I worked out my salvation with fear and trembling. Mustering the courage to answer His call to leave man’s church in order to follow Jesus Christ alone, was gut wrenching. It’s there I experienced what Paul wrote in Hebrews 13:13 about sharing in Christ’s reproach. The pressure to conform to the traditions and expectations of men was so intense. I agonized over what non-conformity would cost me where I lived. Would they reject me like Nazareth rejected Jesus? My flesh screamed for the approval of men. But I wanted Jesus more. And so I left the church of men.

The experience caused me to ponder the spiritual meaning behind Jesus who raised Lazarus from the dead and how symbolically it represents people stuck in a life-less institutional church awaiting the day Christ calls them out of their religious tombs to resurrection life in the Spirit. Perhaps it’s because I’m a songwriter that I so appreciate the symbolic meaning behind the miracles and parables of Christ.

Consider the parallels between Lazarus, a dead man in a tomb with a stone over the entrance, tightly wound in religious grave clothes and buried under a mountain of fragrant spices to mask his stink; and those entombed in man’s church where the Spirit that gives life is shut out by tradition and only the spice of programs mask the stink of dead religion. One by one Christ calls them out saying “COME FORTH” where the living in Christ wait to help remove their religious grave clothes and set them free to soar with the Holy Spirit.

Just as life was only found outside Lazarus tomb, so is life and freedom in Christ only found outside man’s religious system. While occasionally people are saved in a traditional church like I was, it’s wrong to credit man’s church with saving them. Jesus simply appeared to me where I was looking. Still, I felt an obligation to that lifeless church and remained for many years, waiting for Jesus to reappear. In hindsight, I never experienced Him there again. It was always in times of private devotion or breaking bread with a brother that I experienced Him again. That I believe is for the simple reason that once raised to life, we’re expected to come out of the tomb and follow Christ where we have a living and active relationship with Him and bear witness to the life He gives us.

About the tomb, Jesus said “COME FORTH”. About Laodicea and Babylon Jesus says: “Come out”.

Are you hearing Him? If you are, don’t delay. He’s waiting for you.