Many in the church say they are saved and filled with the Holy Spirit, both charismatic and non-charismatic alike. But if there is no power in the church, both charismatic and non-charismatic alike, you really have to ask the question what have you been saved into? This is a crucial question as the location of your eternal destination, heaven or hell, depends on the right answer. If you think or you have been told you are saved and filled with the Holy Spirit but are following other gospels or a different Jesus, you do not want to find that out when it is too late. You do not want to find out that you didn’t go through the narrow door when you hear Jesus say, Luke 13:27 “I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!” Many in the church today are travelling down the road to the wide gate. Matthew 7:13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.” As the scriptural power test shows, there is no power which means God has turned His face from the church, which means the Holy Spirit is not as present as people think. This means that many who think they have been saved have been deceived. The presence of the Holy Spirit and salvation has been modified from scripture to fit the current state of the church, for their own purposes. 

    God turns His face when His people refuse to obey Him. Most in the church will respond and say we have obeyed but being saved and filled with the Holy Spirit is more of an expression than a reality. As king Josiah said, 2 Kings 22:13 “Great is the Lord’s anger that burns against us because those who have gone before us have not obeyed the words of this book; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written there concerning us.” By refusing to repent, the church is stating with their lack of action that they have disobeyed. Even while rejecting God’s word, the church still states that they have obeyed. Jeremiah 8:6 “I have listened attentively, but they do not say what is right. None of them repent of their wickedness, saying, “What have I done?” Each pursues their own course like a horse charging into battle.” But the church saying they have obeyed is like king Saul saying he obeyed after he disobeyed Samuel command to 1 Samuel 15:3 “go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’ 8 He took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and all his people he totally destroyed with the sword. 9 But Saul and the army spared Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs—everything that was good. These they were unwilling to destroy completely, but everything that was despised and weak they totally destroyed.” The church has also not obeyed (the battle is not flesh and blood) and to say the church has obeyed the word of the Lord is the same as Saul saying he obeyed. When Samuel came to him, Saul said, 13 “The Lord bless you! I have carried out the Lord’s instructions.” 14 But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear?” 15 Saul answered, “The soldiers brought them from the Amalekites; they spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the Lord your God, but we totally destroyed the rest.” That sounded very spiritual but Samuel said 19 “Why did you not obey the Lord? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the Lord?” And again, Saul tried to convince Samuel that his disobedience was obedience and said 20 “But I did obey the Lord,” Saul said. “I went on the mission the Lord assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king. 21 The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the Lord your God at Gilgal.” Like the church, Soul modified the word of God for his own purposes. Then Saul lost the kingdom to one after God’s own heart and God would depart from Saul. 

    Now you may be thinking that God promised David, 2 Samuel 7:14 “I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands. 15 But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. 16 Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.’” This is where the church’s false view of God’s love stems from. If God had taken His love completely away, Solomon would have been completely destroyed. 1 Kings 11:9 “The Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. 10 Although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the Lord’s command. 11 So the Lord said to Solomon, “Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates. 12 Nevertheless, for the sake of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son. 13 Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him, but will give him one tribe for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.” Israel and Judah would have been wiped off the map forever, but as per God’s promise to David, there would always be a remnant of survivors, although few in number. Disaster did come upon them due to their rebellion. Jesus said, Matthew 24:22 “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.” 2 Chronicles 36:15 “The Lord, the God of their ancestors, sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling place. 16 But they mocked God’s messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord was aroused against his people and there was no remedy. 17 He brought up against them the king of the Babylonians, who killed their young men with the sword in the sanctuary, and did not spare young men or young women, the elderly or the infirm. God gave them all into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar. 18 He carried to Babylon all the articles from the temple of God, both large and small, and the treasures of the Lord’s temple and the treasures of the king and his officials. 19 They set fire to God’s temple and broke down the wall of Jerusalem; they burned all the palaces and destroyed everything of value there. 20 He carried into exile to Babylon the remnant, who escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and his successors until the kingdom of Persia came to power. 21 The land enjoyed its sabbath rests; all the time of its desolation it rested, until the seventy years were completed in fulfillment of the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah.” The number of people that returned to the promised land was very small but as God said through Jeremiah, Jeremiah 29:10 “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”

    Yes, God will always love His people, but He will not tolerate disobedience and rebellion. The false sense of God’s love that people have has led them to be deceived by false teaching that they would be eternally secure no matter what. Think about the millions of people who think they have been saved and feel confident that they will spend eternity with God, yet they have been deceived and deluded. They think because they prayed a prayer or followed a ritual that they then would be saved and filled with the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 1:13 “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.” The key words are the “message of truth.” Paul said, 1 Corinthians 15:2 “By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.” Today the church worships in vain and is desolate and powerless because the true message of the gospel has not been proclaimed. 

    If it were true that they were saved and filled with the Holy Spirit, there would be the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, but there isn’t, so instead of defeating satan as Jesus said we would happen, Matthew 16:18 “on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it,” satan has defeated the church. Even though Jesus warned us not to be deceived, the church did not listen. 2 Thessalonians 2:3 “Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. 4 He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God. 9 The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, 10 and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12 and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.”

    In the same chapter in Ephesians, where Paul talks about “the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation,” Paul prays that they would know God more. Ephesians 1:18 “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” The church doesn’t have that power nor does the church have those who are teaching truth. Instead, most teach their own doctrinal distinctives instead of Malachi 2:6 “True instruction was in his mouth and nothing false was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many from sin. 7 “For the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge, because he is the messenger of the Lord Almighty and people seek instruction from his mouth.” Paul later would say, Ephesians 4:11 “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. 14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” The church is not being built up as it should be. Malachi 2:8 “But you have turned from the way and by your teaching have caused many to stumble; you have violated the covenant with Levi,” says the Lord Almighty.” Since there is no truth, that means there is no armor, and we are defenseless against our enemies. Paul talks about our war with satan. Ephesians 6:10 “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground.”

    When you look at those three passages in Ephesians, you see that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is available for all those who believe to stand against satan’s power. To do this we need the Holy Spirit but when you look at the church, the church has been decimated by satan’s power, because we do not have the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. That means the gospel has not been preached. That also means we do not have the holy Spirit, therefore cannot be saved as many think that they are. There is a false sense of security because of the deception and delusion in the church. People in the church say they are saved but other gospels are preached. People say they are filled with the Holy Spirit, yet there is no power again because other gospels are preached. People are still following a different Jesus and other gospels but at the same time still think they have God dwelling in them and calling themselves Christians. Being saved and filled with the Spirit does mean God is dwelling in you but you must have heard and believed the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When that happens, we become the temple of God. 1 Corinthians 3:16 “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? Ephesians 2:22 “And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” Jesus said John 14:15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 23 Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching.” Because God has turned His face from the church, Isaiah 59:15 “Truth is nowhere to be found, and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey.” When God turns His face back to the church and the kingdom comes near once again, the good news will be preached, there will be salvation, all the gifts of the Spirit, healing and demons cast out. John 14:12 “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” Mark 16:20 “Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.” Hebrews 2:1 “We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. 2 For since the message spoken through angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, 3 how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. 4 God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.”