"Letting Go"

"You've been holding on for so long. You thought there was something of value. It couldn't have all been for nothing. There had to be something special, you thought.

"I am calling you to let go. You've begun to taste the power of My gospel because the message of grace is coming to you from other churches, from mainstream Christianity. You've been trying to fit it into the unique beliefs which you believed had to somehow be important. But from time to time you've glimpsed how peripheral, irrelevant, unnecessary and distracting those unique beliefs are. Grace has offered you a taste of something that eclipses them all.

"But it's been hard for you to completely let go and rest on My grace alone. You don't realize or understand it, but this difficulty of fitting the Cross into your church's unique beliefs is a heritage that has been passed down to you through many generations. Over 165 years ago your spiritual forefathers were faced with the same problem. They had tried to calculate the date of My coming, and when I didn't come they had a hard time letting go of what they had 'built'. It couldn't have all been for nothing. It couldn't be irrelevant. It had to be special, they thought. They reinterpreted their errors, made new ones, and have passed them down through the generations to you today. This is why it has been difficult for you to simply let go and embrace the Cross alone, to rest in My grace alone.

"You've been taught to be afraid that maybe you'll be in danger if you don't hold onto these things. Sometimes you hold onto them 'just in case' My grace isn't sufficient. Part of you has been afraid to let go of these things because part of you worries, 'What if they were correct?' You realize that yes, people who focus on these old things are often legalistic or extreme, but the unique beliefs couldn't wholly be wrong, you think. There has to be something right about them, you think. And that means that there has to be something really important about them... and so you're afraid that letting go of them will mean losing Me and losing My favor.

"After all, you think that it was Me who began your church. But you haven't thought very deeply about that. You don't realize that the fresh breath of the gospel of My grace which you are beginning to embrace today is what Christians believed back when your spiritual forefathers were calculating the date for My coming. You don't realize that your spiritual forefathers chose to believe that My grace was not sufficient, and that if they didn't calculate the date correctly, they believed and preached that one would be lost. You know I'm not like that. You know the Bible you've read. You know that I would love you and carry you home to Me even if you didn't know the day or the hour, even if you couldn't get outside a building and into a field in time.

"You know that if someone were preaching such a message to you today (like they did back then), you know that it would not be Me speaking. I would tell you to believe My word, to trust in Me and My grace instead of your calculations. My child, that is what My people did over 165 years ago when your spiritual forefathers tried to preach to them. My people stood on My word and stood on My grace, and they refused to follow your spiritual forefathers out of their churches and into the fields on that cold October night.

"I was not the one who called your spiritual forefathers to calculate the date of My return. I was not the one whose hand guided those calculations. I was not the one who called people out of their churches to join that movement. I was not the one who told your spiritual forefathers to try and salvage something from their failed calculations. I was not the one who gave them reinterpretations and visions leading them into new errors. I was not the one who 'sent' them to found a new church and attempt to correct other churches. I was not the one who led them away from My grace. And I was not the one who called you to accept the beliefs based on their calculations. I have never called you rest on anything other than My finished work on the Cross on your behalf.

"You don't have to 'calculate' anything to be saved! You don't have to get it all 'right' to be saved! You don't have to know more than other 'regular' Christians in order to please Me! You don't have to possess some special 'truth' or message for My people! See the cross? I love you! I save you! I myself will keep you safe through the end!

"I am bringing you back to the root of your church. I am bringing you back to the place where your spiritual forefathers refused to repent and chose to walk away from My grace because of their fear of shame, humiliation and futility. I am bringing you to the Cross where you can be free of your burdens—and the ones they passed to you—once and for all. I am bringing you to a place of rest if you will let go of everything except for My grace in the Cross.

"Yes, your spiritual forefathers were wrong. Yes, there is nothing worth saving in the unique doctrines they created and built the house of your church on. The sooner you can admit this and cling to My grace in the Cross alone, the sooner you will find rest, true security, and joy unspeakable!

"Here is the choice I am presenting to you, and which I have been presenting to your church for over 165 years: Will it be the this (these futile calculations), or will it be the Cross?"

*****

See also: "Faith or Fear?" (study)