Divine order is simply the way God orders or arranges things.   It is God's ordained arrangement according to His Divine logic and comprehension.  It His methodical or prescribed arrangement of all things so that they function properly according to His Divine will.  It is His determination of how things ought to be, which is the only way anything can work correctly.  His Divine Order never changes because it is perfect and based on His perfection and unchangeableness.  The following is the introduction to the forthcoming book on Divine Order. 

Divine Order

Introduction:

This book is the accumulation of much time and thought spent diligently searching for why the American church has fallen into apostasy.  I acknowledge the fact that many don't believe anything is wrong with the church in America. Many churches have become so liberal, secular, or downright demonic that not even God=s word is taken seriously (much less this book).   For the people who are alarmed by the encroaching apostasy I believe God=s word provides some knowledge that helps us understand why.   

I began to understand (yet am still understanding) some of the answers to these questions. The answers began to come shortly after the Holy Spirit impressed me to begin teaching a series on a topic I was unfamiliar with, the Tabernacle. I was intimidated by the challenge since I only knew superficial information about the Tabernacle. I went out and bought a few books and someone gave me a set of tapes, yet I could not feel the liberty to use these helps. It seemed the Holy Spirit was restraining me, implying there was something deeper He wanted to teach me. He did not want me to simply re-teach what I would learn from the books and tapes, but to teach a fresh message, a deeper truth.

After teaching a series on the Tabernacle that lasted six months I understood what He was trying to reveal to me. It was the truth about Divine Order. In the several years since that time I have learned more about Divine Order through observation. Divine Order is, simply put, how God orders things. It is His order in the universe, in every thing that has breath, in every molecule, in every atom, in every individual, and most certainly in His Church. It is the order for everything both physical and spiritual. This is reflected in the Tabernacle which is the Old Testament example and reflected in the church as you can read in scriptures such as Ephesians 4:16, which is the New Testament example of Divine Order. It is every part doing its share, everything in Divine Order, nothing out of place. This does not fit well with organized religion. In fact most churches today will reject this teaching. Yet we had better heed the lesson because we will never be in His perfect will until we understand Divine Order.

Many who are not spiritually blind the church is in a great falling away from the faith, a great apostasy, and there has to be some reason or another for it.   God=s kingdom seems to be in disarray, many are leaving established churches for the occult and New Age religions. Young people are abandoning Christianity in huge volumes and are also being herded into cults by the master of darkness.

People such as myself who get caught up in the religious machinery of this disordered church system find themselves bewildered and hurting. You find your faith begin to slip and its hard to believe or trust anyone. I am currently in my seventh pastorate which includes two pioneer endeavors. Out of those seven pastorates four involved major splits. Two times I have been forced out of the church building along with a majority of the membership and over 90% of the leadership and church workers. The other two splits I stayed in the building, yet I could not overcome the stigma, stress of the division, not to mention trying to recuperate from the trauma while at the same time being pastor to people who also needed recovery.  I have also been brought before two denominational tribunals charged with being uncooperative and speaking derogatory against the leadership among other things. Although I was able to avoid being defrocked, I finally resigned after thirteen years of association with one denomination, battle-scarred and discouraged.

I began to ask myself some tough questions. What happened to the Church? Why has it sunk to this anemic level of apathy and complacency? With as many preachers and teachers communicating to the largest mass of people in history via television, radio, and the printed word, why has spirituality gone down the graph instead of up?

There are several reasons for this plague of instability upon the land. In listing them I do not want imply one reason is greater than another for they are all contributors and equal sharers in the guilt.

     1.  There is the epidemic church division. Church division is at epidemic proportion leaving a trail of broken-hearted, discouraged and disgusted people.  Sometimes congregations are at fault, and other times it is the pastor who has failed. Yet almost every time it is a failure by both contingents to follow God=s Divine Order.

     2.  Vain ritualism and religious idolatry.  God=s Divine Order clashes with the present forms of professing Christianity that hinges on ritualism. It does not=t permit or condone vain rituals and traditions that stifle spiritual life.

     3.  Materialism and self-seeking.    God's Divine Order definitely not agree with this present religious crowd of materialistic, self-seeking, pleasure-mongers.

     4.  The flood of false doctrine.   False teachers, preachers, and other wicked Satan-sent people have invaded the church like a flood.  Paul warned Timothy about these people in 2 Timothy 4:3-4 (NKJV) "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; {4} and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables." People are told what they want, not what they need to hear. As a result they do not know or understand Divine Order and therefore cannot know God=s will. The result of this poses some very severe consequences.

     5.  The lack of righteousness.  Many today do not believe they have to be righteous.  God said,  (1 Pet 1:13-16 NKJV) "Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; {14} as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; {15} but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, {16} because it is written, "Be holy, for I am holy.""

     6.  Lack of hunger for the word of God.   Today's increasingly apostate, professing, church does not have a hunger for the word.  It is not palatable because it does not agree with this current age of materialism and obsessions with pleasure.  We live in an up-side-down where the things that matter least have become prioritized as most important.  Sports-minded men gorge themselves on television on Sunday evenings to the extent many churches have stopped having Sunday evening services.  Then they feast again on Monday nights to further drive what little they received Sunday morning from their minds.  Hunger for the word cannot develop in such individuals.

     7.  Lack of respect for holy things.

     All of these errors are brought on by a lack of Divine Order in the lives of professing Christians.  As a result, they have not become or remained possessing Christians.  The lack of Divine Order comes in part because of a lack of understanding God's word or from a lack of love for the truth.  You can see several consequences of the lack of Divine Order manifested in the professing church.

First, there is the consequence of the lack of true, God-called, pastors to lead the Church. I believe we are going to see things change in modern Christianity so radically because of the lack of true shepherds that it will scarce resemble biblical Christianity. In some instances the church is already in that state. At this present time it is near impossible for a genuine shepherd to pastor in most churches because of the false satanic order. Even when a true pastor is in leadership, the congregation puts demands on him that are improper, given what he is called to be and to do.  People demand their pastor abide by that false order.  God-called pastors are spending more time today doing public relations work than they do preparing themselves to preach, teach, exhort, and otherwise challenge people to grow to the measure of the statue of the fullness of Christ. This is because the pastoral office is designed by a false order.  This opens the door for the hirelings to enter into Church leadership. Hirelings are not concerned for the sheep, only about building their personal kingdoms.    The art of personal kingdom building, perfected by this modern day crop of hirelings, does not include preaching or teaching the truth.

This leads to a second severe consequence which is people get weak without the anointed word of God. Today=s Professing@ church is starved for the word of God and debilitated to the point of not being able to resist satanic deception. They begin to accept carnal people into leadership and trust the flesh more than they trust God. Thus they place more emphasis on temporal things, and areas that is none of their business such as church attendance (God adds daily to the church such as should be saved).

A true pastor has a very difficult time pastoring this spoiled, selfish, constituency that must have their egos and emotions massaged with entertainment and psychobabble in order to commit themselves to faithful church service attendance. They want a church where everything is done for them. None want to be called on for service unless it involves a reward or public honor. The fact is, in this day of the hireling, and people love to have it this way.

Even if everything goes their way they still have to change hirelings every two years (They will get rid of a true pastor quicker than that). There is a period after assuming a new pastorate when people will tolerate the new pastor from six months to a year. After that year comes a cooling off period when opposition begins to mount. In two years they swear you've somehow changed or you work there is finished, so you should be dismissed as pastor.

Enter the democratic process. Its like a tradition in some places. I remember once getting elected as pastor by 100% vote. Immediately after the meeting an old man came up to me and said, AWell I hope you get to stay at least a year.@ I didn't last that long, for in six months they had a full scale battle going on to get me out. They passed the infamous petition around and worked toward the democratic process. They knew what it took, whoever has the most votes wins. To these folks God=s will is determined by a vote.   Some churches have just accepted what they consider is the inevitable and adopted a standing policy of changing pastors every two years, thereby avoiding the hassle of throwing a pastor out every two years. This keeps strife and confusion on constant display in the church. If a true pastor steps into this disorder he will find himself drawn into the vortex of a  traumatic cycle of rebellion against the authority of God.

The third great consequence of the churches departure from Divine order is apostasy. There are people who profess Christianity yet follow after false spirits and doctrines of devils. Today we are seeing the much too frequent instances of gross sin in the leadership and only God knows the volume of wickedness in the laity.  Added to this poisonous mixture if the infusion of New Age doctrine that many are too willing to accept unquestioningly. People do not seem to know how to find God=s will. They don=t seem to know false from true, evil from righteousness. What is evident, to people who stay in His presence, seems to escape the majority of the Aprofessing@ Christians. Put this together with the lack of genuine revival, absence of repentance, hunger for God, and desire to live righteously, and you come up with full scale Apostasy.

I believe the lack of submission to God=s Divine Order is the reason for the Aprofessing@ church=s departure from God and rush to apostasy. You can see the signs of apostasy in this religious generation as it begins to delve into the demonic realm, fashioning doctrines that are obviously evil.

Another most noticeable characteristic about this current apostate generation is their cavalier attitude towards holy things and God specifically. The respect for holy things is sinking to the lowest level in recent times. Satan factors this into his plan of deception which is a plot to create the ultimate deviate form of Christianity based on satanic, false, order. One day in the future Satan will directly control millions who are submitted to him, instilling in them his completely rebellious nature. Though many today will deny they are surrendered to Satan, they are certainly not surrendered to God. Yet there is no neutral zone, they are either on God's side or Satan's, whether they know it and admit it or not.

The absence of God-called leaders, the subsequent church division, and all the spiritual death that comes with these things is bad enough. Yet add the problem of apostasy and we begin to see the heavy burden that is laid on the coming generation. The parents of this evil generation are themselves very open to the demonic realm. Believe me the younger generations who are advancing to leadership in the church were taking it all in when their predecessors were sinning and rebelling against God, accepting a false, satanic, order.

This leads to the fifth great consequence of the lack of Divine Order which is the advent of the last days generation. I believe we are now seeing that evil, last days, generation coming to age. Their parents, the current leaders of an apostate order, are fading from the scene. In a few years the leadership of the church will be in the hands of the last days generation.

Several factors, including the age of technology and information, will will help to rapidly spread a radically false Christianity from a generation more wicked than ever before. This will be a global unification that will be completely united under a one world order.  This one world order will be a combination of the false order in the professing church married to the false order of the World System. What an incredibly dangerous and deceptive time this will be for those who have not prepared for it!

This last days global generation will not completely abandon Christianity in it's form, but will instead pervert it in every foul way imaginable. Their scorn for the bible as God=s infallible word, their acceptance of false doctrine and spirits, false literature, false teachers, prophets, teachers, and the abandonment of the faith once delivered to the saints, will cause them to come under a great delusion. They will be a unholy marriage of religious and secular people with an evil spiritual disease for which there is no cure. That disease is   rejection of Divine Order and satanic order which is really disorder. They will reject God=s moral code and commit anarchy and rebellion with violence that has been ingrained in their minds from television, a satanic public education system, and music from the very depths of darkness. The result of such a last days generation, which is its fruit, is the vile poison of nihilism, narcissism, secularism and New Age spiritism.

Unlike the previous generations, this last days generation will have a form of godliness but deny the power (2 Tim 3:5 NKJV) "having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!".  Godliness in this scripture is eusebeia, which means the godly lifestyle. They will practice a form of Christianity but deny that there is any power in the God of the bible to change them. The result will be a false order and a wicked generation that no genuine pastor can hope to work with.

The only way to escape this great suffocating snare of wickedness and to be counted in the end as an overcomer is to be in Divine Order.  God commands us to live in Divine Order and everything that is outside of Divine Order is outside of His will. Divine Order is God=s perfect will and way. Anything that does not follow His perfect way is out of His will and doomed to failure and ultimately destruction if we continue in it. God ordered a world in complete harmony to His perfect will. In this midst of this beauty he made a unique creation He called man. God allowed a enemy of Divine Order to have access to His perfect world.  This enemy is called Satan and it was he who enticed mankind to break with Divine Order by introducing his false order.   Man broke Divine Order when Satan seduced Eve who in turn seduced her husband to commit sin. The result of this break with God's Divine Order was that man broke fellowship with God as is always the case with everything outside of His Divine Order.

Sin is breaking or departure from Divine Order. Yet so is all the disobedience that we often categorize as small and insignificant. When Satan rebelled against God he created chaos in God's Divine Order. God ejected him from His kingdom because of that rebellion.

Yet man=s status is different than Satan though both have rebelled against God. Man is part of a plan to restore Divine Order to everything in God's kingdom, heaven and earth. Everything that God has been doing since the fall of Adam is because of His plan to restore Divine Order. He has not been simply reacting to the work of Satan, but He has been working out His own plan. His plan can only be fulfilled in Jesus Christ (John 4:34 (NKJV) Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work."). Once we enter the Church, His Body, we are suppose to surrender our rebellious nature to the Divine Nature of God, the Holy Spirit. The Divine Nature (Holy Spirit) is constantly directing every facet of our life to be in Divine Order. We are to fulfill God=s plan not our own which is a fleshly order which is nothing more than a thinly disguised plan of Satan.

Even before the Tabernacle there were traces of God's plan to restore Divine Order. The Ark Noah built was a symbol of Divine Order. Noah wasn't a shipbuilder. In fact history doesn't record there being any ships before the Ark. There may have been some means of flotation travel, but a project of such magnitude as the Ark would require precise engineering. Such knowledge wasn't available in that time.

The specific instructions God gave Noah was a salvation plan, the saving of his family and the animals God instructed him to take in the Ark. Any deviation would spell disaster for them all. Divine Order was laid out and Noah followed it perfectly. The result was the inevitable success that always results after obedience to God's plans.

Abraham was ordered to sacrifice his only son. Everything was prepared according to Divine Order. Even the wood had to be set in order so that it would burn. Genesis 22:9 Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. (Centuries later another man of God would set the wood in order to expose the false altars of Baal and reveal the true God. I Kings 18:33 And he put the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces, and laid it on the wood, and said, "Fill four waterpots with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood..) At the last moment God stopped the execution and provided a ram instead. Of course God was testing Abraham's obedience, but why did he have to sacrifice in the first place? Because he broke Divine Order when he tried to help God's plan by copulating with Sarah's handmaiden, Hagar. The result of that union was an unwanted son plus unjust rejection and alienation inflicted on his mother, Hagar, when Isaac was born. This was a sin that a just God had to deal with. Sin demands a payment and sacrifice is the only price it will accept. Sacrifice satisfies justice and clears the debt of sin. God mercifully allowed a substitute sacrifice for Abraham's sin and brought Abraham back into Divine Order. The substitute itself was Divine Order and a type of Christ.

During the leadership of Moses came the most spectacular symbol of Divine Order that the world had ever seen. The bible plainly states the law was a schoolmaster to lead us to Christ. If the law is a school master, then the Tabernacle was the head schoolmaster, the professor on the subject of Divine Order.

The Tabernacle teaches us about Divine Order in such detail that we have to see the importance God places on carrying out each detail. Jesus followed perfect Divine Order all his life on earth. He said, "I do nothing except I see my Father do it first." (Paraphrase) Following Divine Order line upon line, precept upon precept cost Him his physical life, yet He would not swerve from His Father's will, He would not abandon the smallest detail. He said, ANot one jot or one title shall pass from the law or the prophets till all be fulfilled,@

He reinforced with His obedience what the law and the Tabernacle taught, perfect submission to the Divine Order of God. The Pharisee's only mimicked the symbolism of the law while missing the substance of the lessons. Much like religion today they went to great lengths to continually learn, yet never came to the knowledge of the truth. This was because they never applied the lessons practically to alter their inward condition and come into God=s perfect will. They considered the lessons to be ends in themselves, not a means to an end which is Divine Order. God=s word always has a direction and a goal. The goal is always to restore complete peace and Divine Order in God's kingdom. The direction is to help us focus on Christ who will show us the way to God=s perfect will. This cannot be done until mankind submits to Divine Order. Mankind will have to submit, either to God's will now, or to the judgment later.

So important is Divine Order that God specifically states that those who fail to submit to it will not enter His kingdom. Matthew 7:20-23, AWherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.@

Religion, no matter how elaborate and ritualized it is, will not get anyone into the kingdom of heaven. Even mimicking every part of true Christianity will not suffice to gain entrance into His eternal kingdom. Only submission to Divine Order will guarantee a righteous reservation. All that mimicking Christianity can produce is hypocrisy, ritual, vain traditions, and unbelief. God has a specific design for each person that will fit them into complete Divine Order with the rest of the Body of Christ. As they fully surrender to it and are fitted into the Body of Christ, which is His Church, we are all fitted into the Divine Order for God's entire kingdom. "You are not your own, you were brought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

The trouble with the American Church is a majority of Christians simply follow ritual, human tradition, and their own will, not to mention sometimes following the voice of demon spirits. From the pulpit to the pew many times there is only token commitment to His perfect will. Divine Order has either been discarded altogether or condensed into a package of a few rituals, regulations and traditions, and other actions. Many will pray at God, worship at God, pretend to serve Him, visit Him on Sunday morning, but do not know the intimacy that leads them to His perfect will. This means getting nowhere with all the motions of going somewhere.

Intimacy has been lost because most Christians have not fully surrendered to His Lordship. It always amazes me when I see people treat God as if He is their servant, or as trivial pursuit. When mankind tries to condescend to God he only sinks deeper into his own foolish, carnal, ignorance. Trying to control God is like trying to control a shooting star with a cotton string. The frivolity of such religion is immeasurable since the error can span generations. We can only speculate what the next generation that inherits such hypocrisy will be.

Satan's supernatural intelligence has been totally concentrated on destroying Divine Order since he initiated the first rebellion. His knowledge of human nature is very full and precise since it is very much like his own (Eph 2:1-3 NKJV) "And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, {2} in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, {3} among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.".

Fallen humanity is so like Satan they are called in the previous passage Achildren of wrath@ and Jesus said, (John 8:44 NKJV) ""You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it."

So Satan designs very subtle traps to entice humanity into the vain departure from Divine Order pulling from his own resource of knowledge of the carnal mind. Vain ritualism and tradition are traps that lead to deviate order. Many churches are now deeply submerged in a suffocating cloud of deviate order that drains the spiritual life from the church. Such is the case with a democratic form of church government as opposed to theocracy. Democracy (government by the people) may be fine for secular life, but it has no place in the Church. Theocracy (government by God) is Divine Order.

Divine Order never flexes or yields to man or any circumstance in life. Thus when you get in Divine Order your success in God=s kingdom is assured and there is nothing Satan can do about it. Depart from Divine Order and you are destined to fall. So solid is the path of Divine Order that a man can stray off its course and remain there for years trying to force Divine Order to fit his life and never get it done. Divine Order is a command to everything animate and inanimate to acquiesce to the will of God. The will of man is a enemy against God and everything He manifests as His perfect will for our lives.

All these things I will explain in full detail in the preceding chapters. It is not my expectation that this book will received by everyone.   Presenting the truth that challenges people's comfort zones has never been fashionable and it is not so for most of today's professing Christian.  Yet I do believe it will help those hungry souls who have been frustrated by "Churchanity" hindering their quest to live true Christianity.

Since these truths have been revealed to me I have had a great peace. The strength of that peace is knowing that God has a Divine Order for me. As long as I walk in it I will not have to worry about the consequences of sin and rebellion. This does not make me free from trials and tribulations, but I know that I can accomplish His perfect will in spite of such obstacles. May you also be blessed with the truth and be set free from the religiosity that plagues the American Church.

I also recognize that I am a fallible man and as such can make mistakes. For this reason you should judge everything I say by the word of God and prayer. The truth about Divine Order is not a private revelation.  2 Pet 1:19-21 (NKJV) AAnd so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; {20} knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, {21} for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." May God grant you wisdom and understanding as you consider the importance of Divine Order in your life.