1. Abraham (Abram): When he left Haran at age 75 and moved to Canaan, he was doing the will of God. However, a famine gripped the land and he was forced to Egypt. I am almost sure that if Sarah was like other women, she asked repeatedly, "How in the world did we wind up here?" There might have been such questions as "Abram, were you sure God told you to move at your age?" "Abram, we moved to this place where we don't speak the language, away from family and friends and now we can't even buy provisions with the wealth we have. How in the world did we wind up here?"
2. Moses and the complainers: Moses did the will of God and wound up with nearly a million complainers who wanted to return to Egypt and give up. They surely inquired multiple times, "How in the world did we wind up here?" Their chief complaint was "who made you leader?" (How often do pastors and church leaders hear this complaint, "We followed you and now look at us; we are in such a predicament. How in the world did we wind up here?"
3. Joseph, minding the things of God and the vision of heaven, wound up being sold into slavery, falsely accused for a sex crime and wrongly imprisoned. I am positive the thought occurred, "How in the world did I wind up here?"
4. Job, the oldest recorded written work in the O.T., portrayed a man who did the will of God and prayed and sacrificed and was steadfast and pure and true. His three Friends sought to help him understand how a man might "wind up with boils, his family decimated and all his earthly and material possessions vanished."
   (They are why I always ask when a text is taken from Job, "who is speaking?" I will only take what God or Job says… relying on no text from the friends.)

He disturbed my mind every time I worked on this address. He formatted in my spirit a sort of "counter message." This went on for months. It became clear the Lord wanted me to concentrate just on the clergy-worldwide. It was to be a universal message… not just to those assembled here at LHBC. I was reminded, in the Spirit, of Rye Stadium, 1986, and the 12,000 assembled evangelists from around the globe. The Lord said, "Preach like you were addressing those in Rye Stadium; do not skip or diminish one item I lay before you."

12 The kings of the earth,
And all inhabitants of the world,
Would not have believed
That the adversary and the enemy
Could enter the gates of Jerusalem -

13 Because of the sins of her prophets
And the iniquities of her priests,

Several years ago, I spoke to a Baptist Church, in Colorado, on the subject: "How did we wind up with Jim and Tammy?"
It was a message right out of the heart of Jeremiah, but I was a Baptist then and didn't understand too much.
My conclusions were simple: we wound up with Jim and Tammy because we liked what they produced: the glitz, the amusements and even the security for one's future.
Somehow, the church has really never escaped them.
Somehow, the church of today reflects more of Jim and Tammy than Jesus.

As clergy and members of the five-fold ministry, outlined in the New Testament, we are aware that the (Jim and Tammy) church of modern times lacks something --- even numerous things.

(1) It lacks almost every facet of spiritual power found in the early church.
(2) It is not the glorious church heralded by Billye Brim and others.
(3) It is not the shining witness to an increasingly populated world --- a group born into such sin that one can hardly turn anywhere and view a horizon that it is not tainted or marred.

Based on this, it is fair to ask: "How in the world did we wind up Here?" On this topic we must agree.

(1) I am not to actually address the moral turpitude issues of which we all are aware.
(I leave that for you to dispel from your pulpits and your counseling sessions.)

(2) Neither am I to address some of the major social issues, like gay clergy, abortion and the myriad of societal flaws of which everyone is apprised.
(As Minister's, you already know how to cleverly address these issues by smoothly referencing them. Ministers are masters at speaking about them in perfectly couched terms, where no one gets offended. The clergy knows offended people don't give at offering time. [I plan to cover those subjects in my book, "Sermons you never hear on Sunday" with the underlined subtitle: "Because they are bad for the Offerings."])

The Main Thing:
I do wish to come to more important matters that are much deeper in scope.

I wish to approach the utter failure of the clergy's ranks as spiritual leaders.
I want to address their congregations, which support them.
I wish to address Christendom around the world from this Arkansas pulpit.

Opening Word:
          Here is God's word for the clergy of the world: WAKE UP! I AM NOT PLEASED!

He Knows:
It is not right: that we have people, who know and love the Lord but do not wish to attend services because they come away with the dirty feeling they have been to a place of prostitution rather than the house of God.

It is not right: that we have elderly saints weeping over the sad state of affairs, like those in Ezra's day when they viewed the restored Temple.

(What passes as normal fare from the clergy of today, 200 years ago would have gotten them publically flogged or burned at the stake for heresy.)

There is heresy in the land! --- A heresy which has corrupted the majority of all clergymen!

On all sides, there is the purposeful dispensing of a religious special opiate given to the people in order to quell their free access to the truth! Having been overly sedated, they now no longer recognize the truth, and they accept the lies set before them as "meat for the masses."

Pastor's have learned and practiced how to rule their domains in such a way that a prophet, like Jeremiah, would never find an opportunity to stand and address the people! These pastors are the gate-keepers in a way God never intended.

Pastors bring their silliness to the pulpit: and administer a plateful of pulchritude, platitudes and porridge, offering it up as a substitute for the saint's inheritance--- reminiscent of Jacob and Esau.

Pastors are parading about among us who require no holiness of their congregations and have never seen the likes of righteousness in the whole of their counseling riddled audiences.

Acts 17:30
Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent,

These are the ones with cutesy illustrations, tabloid testimonies and sympathy ensconced platitudes dressed in a religious garb. This public is the one who emails you and me those pretty little sayings and notes about some abstract religious trait. You know them by what turns them on… and I know them by what turns me off! The Prayer of Jabez might have been wonderful for Jabez, but my prayers must exceed those prayers… and yours had best exceed his too.

His Biblical Reasons for Judgment:

Lam 4:11 The LORD has fulfilled His fury; He has poured out His fierce anger.
He kindled a fire in Zion, and it has devoured its foundations

(Ps 11:3 If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?)

Lam 4:13 Because of the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests…

Jeremiah had Spiritual discernment: the missing grace gift.
Not one of you, if you had an ounce of spiritual discernment, could stay in a meeting of clergy (ministerial alliance or interfaith conf.) or sustain another women's meeting, without throwing up. Jeremiah's concerns lay with his Fellow clergy-concerns about their lack of doing the will of God.
But what are the main concerns of our modern clergy brethren?
Well, recently, a man came to me and said, "My friend came to visit me and in our discussion he related how appalled he was at a meeting of 'Spirit Filled' clergy. My friend was there to wait tables and do the 'ministry of helps' as so defined by his pastor. He said he sat in the back and listened to the conversations at the tables: it was all about 'church benefits,' size of congregations, the newest auto, how they were building new houses and what their golf scores were." YOU KNOW THIS IS TRUE, BRETHREN. I KNOW THIS IS TRUE!

I attended an introductory meeting for a minister's group in Houston last year and once the meal was finished, the chatter began about who would be president and who would be officers and how each could benefit from networking with others. Soon, it was 10 pm., and I left them, never to return!

At the First Baptist Church, Conroe, Texas, two weeks after Sept. 11, 2001, Haziz Abib, the president of the Islamic Association of Greater Houston, mounted the pulpit to explain, from his point of view, what had just happened. As he stood up to go from the front row to the pulpit, Betty and I arose from our seats and exited… We were the only ones. Weeping, while going down the front stairs of this old church, we entered the parking lot weeping and saw an open vision of the church sanctuary hollowed out with flame and charred… nothing remaining, but a few of the stained glass windows… Judgment!

'Weep between the porch and the altar, Joel 2:17'

Ezek 8:15-18
Then He said to me, "Have you seen this, O son of man? Turn again, you will see greater abominations than these." So He brought me into the inner court of the LORD's house; and there, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs toward the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east, and they were worshiping the sun toward the east.

And He said to me, "Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it a trivial thing to the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they commit here? For they have filled the land with violence; then they have returned to provoke Me to anger. Indeed they put the branch to their nose. Therefore I also will act in fury. My eye will not spare nor will I have pity; and though they cry in My ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them."

The House of Israel sinned and faced Assyria and was carried away.
The House of Judah sinned and was carried away by Babylon.
The US has sinned and is about to be carried away by outside forces, with its peoples captured and enslaved. (I'm talking chains, folks). Silent, compromised pulpits are to blame!

We are like Joshua, the priest and our garments are stained, unbelievably stained, with this world… stained to the point of having to destroy the garment BECAUSE IT HAS BEEN SO CLOSELY ASSOCIATED WITH the religious garbage system which has been guilty of delivering trash to its people while truth lies scattered in un-harvested vineyards and fields!

(I believe if the clergy got honest, there would be a spiritual awakening unlike any in history. Somehow a pastor in Virginia obtained a copy of the Sons of Zadok. He opened to chapter two and read this chapter to his staff. One by one, they fell to their knees and repented and prayed and sought the Lord. This meeting lasted for several hours with tears and confession from all quarters. I believe this kind of thing must take place in every staff meeting and among ministers worldwide.)

Why should we weep?
We should "Weep between the porch and the altar," because the idolatry of the Twenty-First Century is gargantuan.

Ezekiel's vision revealed to him the double-minded clergy, carrying out services in the Temple while they fell before Tamuz in their private chambers.

Is it not the place symbolically seen as the beginning point between where one approaches God and the place for one's washing by repentance and cleansing?

I stood in Prague at the huge memorial to John Huss and cried out in my spirit, "Who Among us is like him? Who would stand against Romanism, Islamism, Government-ism, (Place your denomination's ISM at this point) to say, 'No more!'" (Knowing the flames of a fiery pyre was the only answer for truth to give! Huss gave that answer!)

I served with a brother Carlos Gruber on many campaigns. He was a Latvian by birth. He escaped Communism by his family following the Spirit and moving to Brazil. He never ceased to pray and intercede for his country. He published a Latvian newspaper in NY, until certain congressmen shut him down for his own "health." He moved to Texas and continued intercession until the Soviet's failed and Latvia was free. In his 90's, he organized relief efforts for his nation, sending container ships loaded with clothes and food. He was awarded the Gold Star of Latvia, the highest commendation of that nation, when he was 92. I never knew a single day that he did not pray earnestly for his native land and published and printed a "Martyrs Page" in his monthly magazine to remind the world of their sufferings. He wrote pastors in Latvia and corresponded with many exiles. He wept between the porch and the altar with a consistency that brought the hand of God visibly into the matter.

Because of him, the president of Latvia declared a "week of national repentance." It turned into a month of repentance. If that little nation needed a month… we need a year!

Let us be reminded of: Hophni and Phinehas, the wayward sons of Eli.

1. Hophni and Phinehas are examples of an unrepentant clergy, officiating over a compromised constituency. Their sin was greed and avarice, lust and ruin.
2. They brought down their own families, and with the news of the loss of the Ark, killed their father, Eli.
3. Ichabod was born. He was the child of a compromised union between a faithful wife, who was cuckold by a deviate husband. This clergyman was having sex with the good ladies of the church… otherwise known as the woman's missionary union in some denominations.
4. Listen! Samuel was reared in that sordid home. No discipline was imposed on Eli's sons, but when God spoke to the high priest about his sons, he muddled through a miserably weak attempt to challenge them and wound up having a death sentence imposed upon himself and his family forever!
5. Eli, the high priest (top clergy), was the man who knew the voice of God for Samuel, but did not regard the power of God in Judgment.
6. Don't be fooled brethren; this is an important message to clergy and to pastors.

1. Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, messed up with the ambassador from Syria. Every day when he saw his leprous skin, he was reminded "how he got there." II Kings 5:25



2. The Lion stood over the dead body of the prophet of God… He had been used mightily for one great message from the Lord, but as his body was being torn, repented of ever stopping by for a chat with a fellow minister. Sometime associations will lead to death. I Kings 13:28



3. Samson, standing under the coliseum's framework, blind, cheated, treated like a slave, made to be little more than an animal, cried out against his plight and God answered… God will answer you too! Judges 16:26-30

(1) Having promoted their programs and progenitored their agendas--they stand naked in these days of exposure… it's Last Days roof-shouting time, Ladies and Gentlemen!

(2)The greatest compromisers on the face of the earth are called Pastor, Worship Leader or Chief Administrator. Fully aware of the status of their failure… they brag of great music, great programs and great masses, while they make two-fold the children of hell with their proselytes… .don't talk to me about this!… I know from over 50 yrs. of ministry! In treading the fields of the world through 53 nations, this problem is universal and is found in every venue known to man.

Listen! When Godly men, like Rick Wiles, in disgust, leave as program director of the Paul Couch satellite network, saying, "I cannot take this corruption any longer."… Explain to me why then, having known this fact, you as clergy can continue to watch, with dripping interest, every TBN broadcast and long for the day you could be sitting on or near the golden chair… remember: "death comes by association."

How can the likes of a Rick Warren (and his super-game) continue to be a Baptist spokesman (and remain unchallenged), while he plays his purpose-driven tune to Governments and churches? How does he justify being in league with the UN Millennium Counsel and a board member under Tony Blair, whose sole purpose is to unify all religions of the world under one authority?

First, look at the word "Shepherd or Pastor," then look at the N.T. definition of pastor and his duties… then tell me if the Rabbi's of Redefinition haven't been at work changing the very role and duties of them.

OT:7462 ra` ah (raw-aw'); a primitive root; to tend a flock; i.e. pasture it; intransitively, to graze (literally or figuratively); generally to rule; by extension, to associate with (as a friend): KJV - break, companion, keep company with, devour, eat up, evil entreat, feed, use as a friend, make friendship with, herdman, keep [sheeper]-), pastor, shearing house, shepherd, wander, waste.

Isa 56:9-57:1
9 Israel's Irresponsible Leaders
All you beasts of the field, come to devour,
All you beasts in the forest.
10 His watchmen are blind,
They are all ignorant;
They are all dumb dogs,
They cannot bark;
Sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.
11 Yes, they are greedy dogs
Which never have enough.
And they are shepherds
Who cannot understand;
They all look to their own way,
Every one for his own gain,
From his own territory.
12 "Come," one says, "I will bring wine,
And we will fill ourselves with intoxicating drink;
Tomorrow will be as today,
And much more abundant."
57:1
The righteous perishes,
And no man takes it to heart;
Merciful men are taken away,
While no one considers
NKJV

Jer 10:18-21
For thus says the LORD:
"Behold, I will throw out at this time
The inhabitants of the land,
And will distress them,
That they may find it so."

19 Woe is me for my hurt!
My wound is severe.
But I say,"Truly this is an infirmity,
And I must bear it."
20 My tent is plundered,
And all my cords are broken;
My children have gone from me,
And they are no more.
There is no one to pitch my tent anymore, Or set up my curtains.

21 For the shepherds have become dull-hearted,
And have not sought the LORD;
Therefore they shall not prosper,
And all their flocks shall be scattered.
NKJV

Jer 23:1-4
"Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter * the sheep of My pasture!" says the LORD. 2 Therefore thus says the LORD God of Israel against the shepherds who feed My people: "You have scattered My flock, driven them away, and not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for the evil of your doings," says the LORD. 3 "But I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all countries where I have driven them, and bring them back to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase. 4 I will set up shepherds over them who will feed them; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, nor shall they be lacking," says the LORD.

* OT:6327 puwts (poots); a primitive root; to dash in pieces, literally or figuratively (especially to disperse):
KJV - break (dash, shake) in (to) pieces, cast (abroad), disperse (selves), drive, retire, scatter (abroad), spread abroad.

Jer 25:34-38
34 "Wail, shepherds, and cry!
Roll about in the ashes,
You leaders of the flock!
For the days of your slaughter and your dispersions are fulfilled;
You shall fall like a precious vessel.
35 And the shepherds will have no way to flee,
Nor the leaders of the flock to escape.
36 A voice of the cry of the shepherds,
And a wailing of the leaders to the flock will be heard.
For the LORD has plundered their pasture,
37 And the peaceful dwellings are cut down
Because of the fierce anger of the LORD.
38 He has left His lair like the lion;
For their land is desolate
Because of the fierceness of the Oppressor,
And because of His fierce anger."
NKJV

Jer 50:6-7
6 "My people have been lost sheep.
Their shepherds have led them astray;
They have turned them away on the mountains.
They have gone from mountain to hill;
They have forgotten their resting place.
7 All who found them have devoured them;
And their adversaries said,'We have not offended,
Because they have sinned against the LORD, the habitation of justice,
The LORD, the hope of their fathers.'
NKJV

Ezek 34:7-10
7'Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD: 8 "As I live," says the Lord GOD, "surely because My flock became a prey, and My flock became food for every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, nor did My shepherds search for My flock, but the shepherds fed themselves and did not feed My flock" - 9 therefore, O shepherds, hear the word of the LORD! 10 Thus says the Lord GOD: "Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require My flock at their hand; I will cause them to cease feeding the sheep, and the shepherds shall feed themselves no more; for I will deliver My flock from their mouths, that they may no longer be food for them."
NKJV

Zech 11:4-17
4 Prophecy of the Shepherds
Thus says the LORD my God, "Feed the flock for slaughter, 5 whose owners slaughter them and feel no guilt; those who sell them say, 'Blessed be the LORD, for I am rich'; and their shepherds do not pity them. 6 For I will no longer pity the inhabitants of the land," says the LORD. "But indeed I will give everyone into his neighbor's hand and into the hand of his king. They shall attack the land, and I will not deliver them from their hand."

7 So I fed the flock for slaughter, in particular the poor of the flock. I took for myself two staffs: the one I called
Beauty, and the other I called Bonds; and I fed the flock. 8 I dismissed the three shepherds in one month. My soul loathed them, and their soul also abhorred me. 9 Then I said, "I will not feed you. Let what is dying die, and what is perishing perish. Let those that are left eat each other's flesh." 10 And I took my staff, Beauty, and cut it in two, that I might break the covenant which I had made with all the peoples. 11 So it was broken on that day. Thus the poor of the flock, who were watching me, knew that it was the word of the LORD. 12 Then I said to them, "If it is agreeable to you, give me my wages; and if not, refrain." So they weighed out for my wages thirty pieces of silver.

13 And the LORD said to me, "Throw it to the potter" - that princely price they set on me. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD for the potter. 14 Then I cut in two my other staff, Bonds, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

15 And the LORD said to me, "Next, take for yourself the implements of a foolish shepherd. 16 For indeed I will raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for those who are cut off, nor seek the young, nor heal those that are broken, nor feed those that still stand. But he will eat the flesh of the fat and tear their hooves in pieces.

17 "Woe to the worthless shepherd,
Who leaves the flock!
A sword shall be against his arm
NKJV

(I am thoroughly convinced that the meaning of each of the following New Testament passages have been defiled so one can no longer be able to associate its words with the offices that are manifested today as the five-fold ministry. These offices, using these passages, under present connotation are inconsistent with the rest of the truth of the N.T.)

Eph 4:11-16 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors* and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head - Christ - 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

*NT:4166 poimen (poy-mane'); of uncertain affinity; a shepherd (literally or figuratively): KJV - shepherd, pastor.

I am also thoroughly convinced that the reverence that we have paid these offices is to be no longer. These are hirelings, like our president, and they are not to be trusted. They have eclipsed their offices and come to a place in time that God is about to deal with the Five-fold ministry in these last days exactly as He dealt with the O.T. shepherds… They can no longer be trusted to harbor or preach the truths of the Word without mixture and taint!

Until Next month,

Dr. Cosby R. Oliver, PhD.