THE REMNANT CHURCH

By: Terry Fischer

Back in the fall of 2006, is when I first began to realize that the thoughts I had, about the power of God and the unity of the saints, to be a reality in Christ’s church again, was more than a daydream but was a vision the Lord gave to me. Jesus Christ loves His church and He wants her to once again be that vessel for His glory that can turn the whole world upside down. That was the testimony of the early church. However, today the church is scattered into hundreds of fragments. I read once that there are over 900 denominations in America. Paul asked the Corinthians, “Is Christ divided?” I guess our American church would have to say, yes He is. You can be certain this lack of unity is a terrible testimony of the church and is an offense to Almighty God. The lack of power in this present day church is another bad testimony against us. It is evident that we really do not depend on the Holy Spirit or believe in the power that was given on the day of Pentecost. We even have churches today that boast that they don’t believe God heals anymore, or they don’t believe that God can save through the power of His gospel but instead offer up all kinds of worldly gimmicks and programs as a substitute. As far as I’m concerned we don’t even need evangelism courses. Whatever happened to “..I will make you fishers of men?” Jesus made Peter a “fisher of men” when He went back to heaven and sent the blessed Holy Spirit to come and endue men with power to reach their Jerusalem and Judea and so on. I am not telling you anything new, oh saint of God, but it could almost seem like it, because, it seems you have to search far and wide today to find a preacher and a handful of saints that believe their bible as it stands. We excuse away our lack of power and we try to agree to disagree, which by the way is not a biblical principle.

I said all this to tell you about the vision the Lord gave me for what I call “remnant believers” or the “remnant church” here in the state of Wisconsin. God made it very real to me that he is going to revive His remnant church, those faithful believers that have remained steadfast to Christ and the word of God in spite of all the apathy and worldliness that has come into many of our churches. Some may not have even remained so faithful, but it is in their heart to really serve God if there would only be a very real presence of Christ amongst a true New Testament body of believers. Some remnant believers are living in revival, some have grown disgruntled, some are hanging on in their dead church while others have had it with church. Some are happy, some are sad and there are even some that are mad. Whatever condition these believers are in, God is ready to do a powerful work amongst His remnant church. One of the main reasons people despise church and Christians have given up on it is because so much of the church is just a form of religion, “having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof:..” There is so much politics, so much structure, and way to many tares in the church for her even to be called a church. Something we forget so often is that a church isn’t a building, it is a people, a called out people, that come together to worship God in Spirit and truth. When you got saved, you became a member of the body of Christ and therefore you become part of the church. We are not to avoid church, neither are we to attend one for religious sake. The church is God’s vessel to speak to this fallen world. Whenever the church gets together it is to encourage and strengthen the saints. Then after they are set ablaze by a Spirit led and Spirit powered meeting, they will bust open the doors of the church and shout, look out devil, here we come. Hallelujah!

So, back to the vision of the remnant church. As I said, God has stirred me and my church, which is called, THE CHURCH IN WISCONSIN, to start praying for and believing God to revive, gather together and empower His remnant church here in Wisconsin. We have been praying for that since the spring of 2007 when I shared with my church the vision the Lord gave me. This is His desire, He wants His church to give Him the glory He so deserves. As long as man gets the credit, man gets the glory and God is out of the picture. This work that God is going to do is first of all, so huge that no single man or church could carry out such a work. He will get the glory. Second of all, it will be a work that the Holy Spirit will do in individual believers all over this state whose heart is perfect toward the Lord.

This vision is likened to the valley of dry bones found in the 37th chapter of Ezekiel. Those very dry bones can be likened to the dry and dead churches in our state. God caused Ezekiel to circle around those bones to take notice of their dry state, not so he would get cynical about them or throw up his hands in disgust but that he would get the burden and desire to see something impossible happen. Same with you and me, we must not get a bitter or cynical attitude against Christ’s church but instead believe God enough to say YES, when He asks us, “can these bones live?” What were the instructions that God gave to Ezekiel to bring those bones to life? God said to prophesy, to preach to those bones and then to prophesy to the wind. Yes saints of God, that is what God is going to use today to revive His remnant church. “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” (1Co 1:18) So with this mandate, my church and I have set out to travel around this state to hold revival meetings, believing that God will use them to strengthen and gather His remnant church together.