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TEAR DOWN THE IDOLS

by Keith Wells

[Quote] I am a pastor in a small inner city church in Halifax Nova Scotia Canada. On Tuesday September 23rd, we were having our midweek service, which developed into an intense conversation about the format of our services, things like, where the concept of altars came from, the layout of the chairs, how they face a pulpit; for that matter, where did the idea of a pulpit come from.
In a very short time, we covered many issues concerning the traditional set up of how we conduct a typical church service. Understanding that we as a church have been without a "paid full time minister" for over 2 years, opting instead to pursue the ministries God has put in the body.

Over these two years we have seen the most growth, spiritual invigoration and personal growth our church has ever experienced in it's 25 year history. To jump to the prophecy, we finished the evening off feeling very excited about God taking us in an even more open and informal direction for our church services, allowing the body to minister to each other instead of "the paid professional minister" and that we want to rid ourselves of the traditional trappings of a typical Pentecostal church service. What this totally means, who knows, but we felt strongly it was God's will and intent. I closed with a prayer, and was led to speak the following prophecy/vision:

I saw a large whitewashed tower in a somewhat half built fortification. This whitewashed tower was taking up most of the space inside this fortification, and the Spirit revealed to me it was Satan's presence in the church. This tower was whitewashed with both false righteousness and demonic traditions within the church. More significant is what I saw and heard next. God said, that he will rise up the individual within the church, and as they take their place and authority within the church body and structure ... they will each start taking a brick out of this tower, eventually weakening it and causing it to crumble. In the vision I saw the crumbled tower, destroyed by the saints of God reaching up and taking out the bricks it was made of.

But behind the tower, coming out from behind it, were poor, ragged, weak and emaciated saints of God. They had been overshadowed and dominated by the shadow of this tower and they came staggering so to speak, out from behind it into the light of God. In my mind, the understanding was given that this tower had been spiritually suffocating the saints, but God said he is in the process of bringing this tower down.

The fact that Satan could have such a position and prominence in the church structure and tradition is serious cause for evaluating and scrutinizing our way of handling the living organism called "the church." God free us from the bondage of what was ... move us into a vibrant and powerful body, created in equality and openness, where everyone is an active part, and esteemed as such. Father release the ministers of God that are caught in the mold of being "the Pastor" and bring them out into the knowledge of what you offer not just through them but your whole body. Tear down the idols Father ... clean the house ... and set the saints free [end Quote].

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