Why Am I Bored

Sid Roth

Why Am I bored - Sid Roth & Humility: The Ultimate Freedom - Joyce Roth

Sid & Joyce Roth

Dec 24, 2004

For thirty years I have gone to church twice a week minimum and loved it. But lately I have been bored. It's the same-o, same-o patterns of service every Sunday. I love the worship. I love the messages. I love the people of God. So why am I restless?

Because I know there is so much more of God's Spirit available to us today. Even a quick read over of the New Testament reveals a level of power and miracles among the early believers that bears little resemblance to what we now call "church."

Since God doesn't change, it doesn't take a mental giant to know who is responsible. In Judaism we have a favorite word—"tradition." Jesus said to the humanistic synagogue of His day: "Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?" (Matthew 15:3).

Tradition robbed the majority of Jewish people of God's power and salvation at the first coming of the Messiah. The Jewish people had added so much tradition to the laws of Moses it was impossible to obey (Matthew 23:4). Will tradition rob the majority of Christians of God's power and salvation just before His return?

Where Did We Go Wrong?

Let's examine the first church and perhaps we can find what traditions have short-circuited the 21st century church of the power of God. They met in homes, not buildings. The leaders were laymen, not professionals. The concept of sermons every week had not been established.

The service was not a one man show. In fact the Greco-Roman form of entertainment Christianity had not started. The people did not sit in theater-style seats. Most likely they were in a circle because the attention was not on one man or woman. Everyone participated. First Corinthians 14:26 states: "Each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation." Everyone was equipped for ministry. Everyone was a worker.

Where were the children? Sunday school or children's church had not yet evolved, so the children were with the adults. Today if the children are forced to sit through the service most will hate church. But back then church was exciting for the children and the adults.

Nothing was predictable in these early congregations. The power of God was free to flow. People were instantly healed and delivered before their eyes. Even the children participated in the supernatural. They would prophesy or have a tongue or tell about a dream that came true. No two services were the same because the real leader of the meeting was the Holy Spirit.

The offerings were not for mortgages because they did not have buildings. And since it was a laymen's movement, they had no salaries to pay. The offerings were for the poor, the widows, and orphans.

The early believers left these house meetings so full of the Holy Spirit and faith they had to pray for every sick person they saw on the way home and to tell everyone about Jesus.

The Best Wine is for Now!

There is coming a fresh new wind of the Holy Spirit. God is looking for people who are more passionate for Him than for their comfort zone of tradition. Repackaging the church will not work. Jesus said we need new wineskins. The old wineskins will not be able to contain this glory. And Jesus has "kept the good wine until now"! (John 2:10).

Most pastors are unwilling to let go of their traditions to embrace change. Or they are dependent on the current system for their salaries and pensions and don't want to rock the boat and lose tithers.

I don't have all the answers, but I know that what we have called the 21st century church will not contain the glory. Better than 90% of what we call "church" or the office of "pastor" is based on tradition. I am willing to scrap anything that stops the flow of the Holy Spirit. I am willing to experiment and find out what pleases God. I am hungry and thirsty and desperate for a fresh move of God's Spirit.

Let me be your Holy Spirit cheerleader. Let's join hands together and run into the greatest revival in history. I call this next move the "One New Man." The old one man show will be replaced by the One New Man! (Read my book, The Last Lap, to understand this next great move of God.) Don't look back. When God shows up, you will not be bored!

Note: One way to begin to move closer to what God wants is through humility. I urge you to read the article below by my wife, Joy. Her life was dramatically changed when she read Andrew Murray's book, Humility. Some may say, "Sid, you need to read this book rather than criticizing the church system." God loves His church and will use the current system. But there is more—so much more! True humility is surrendering to God and allowing His Kingdom to come now! Joy and I are walking this road together.

If you have not read Andrew Murray's book, please order a copy today. Rosh Hashanah begins a period of ten days in Judaism to soul search and repent. Let's walk this walk together.

"Humility: The Ultimate Freedom"

Joyce Roth

Well, here I am again writing about humility. What a journey this has been! I wrote an article for the March 2003 Messianic Vision newsletter, which I thought would be my one attempt to explain the path of humility in my daily life. At the time I thought I had said everything I needed to about this subject, and could just merrily go on walking in humility and serving God in my highest and best. WRONG!

My biggest test of humility came when my husband, Sid Roth, decided to have hip replacement surgery. Much to our surprise, his surgeon announced the day after the surgery that Sid was to be homebound for six weeks! Further instructions were to walk only with crutches or a walker. Sid had so many restrictions on his movements that it was difficult for him to do most of the everyday things we all take for granted. So it fell to me to do the things for him that he couldn't. After Sid's return home from the hospital, the first ten days to two weeks were a real challenge. I came to experience a level of exhaustion that I had not known before.

Now don't misunderstand me, Sid was an excellent patient, but the pain and fear of moving in the wrong way and causing a problem with the prosthesis was foremost in his mind. I slowly but surely began to lose my connection to humility. The monster within me—and I don't say this lightly since it really felt like a monster—rose up. I felt powerless to turn myself around even though I knew what was happening. I felt helpless and discouraged. Sid saw my change in attitude and actions. He began to try to take care of me, which made me feel even worse because he was in such a bad place himself. That was true humility on the part of my wonderful husband. I was in a real downward spiral, and it felt horrible.

I made it through the six weeks with a renewed commitment to seek God in my struggle for humility. Humility is mentioned some 90 times in the Bible with the majority indicating the need to "humble yourself." Humbling myself involves a daily, and sometimes moment-to-moment, choice to prefer others to myself.

I must confess that I have been an extremely judgmental person and now see that that had been a source of fuel for my pride. I believed that my judgment was accurate and if others didn't recognize that then they were surely not my equal. What an abomination to God!

I am now overwhelmed by the magnitude of my pride. Pride is a root of all kinds of evil. The Bible says we are born into sin. Children don't need to be taught to be selfish and to always seek what they want. The "I" is in us from the moment we are born and the "I" is PRIDE.

Why did God banish Lucifer from heaven? Pride, of course. So when we walk in pride, we walk in tandem with Satan. When we walk in humility, we walk in tandem with God. Pride is the ugliest of sins because it flaunts in the face of our heavenly Father who created us the idea that we are greater than He is.

The journey to true humility is to empty myself of pride and the preoccupation with ME so that I can walk wholly and completely in tandem with God. Then He will bring me to my place of destiny in HIS plan for me. I can only walk into my destiny as I walk in humility.

Recently, I spoke about humility at a small gathering. At the conclusion of the meeting, the leader thanked me and then remarked that talking about humility was like "sandpaper." In my opinion it may feel that way at first, but when you fully embrace humility, it becomes the Balm of Gilead, the ultimate freedom.

Perhaps we are fearful of the prospect of humbling ourselves because we think that we will become a doormat for others or will be prohibited from having any ideas of our own. I have found that it is quite the contrary. I am more willing to share my thoughts and ideas with others because I am not afraid of what they will think of me.

Our culture promotes everywhere the concept that our thoughts and the essence of who we are is of paramount importance when in reality this is the exact opposite of what God has called us to. We come into the true knowledge and rest of who we are, a real sense of self, when we are in humility. Humility is God's best for us. When I am in humility I am at peace with others and myself and when I am in pride I have NO peace.

Can we be humble in our daily lives and harbor anger or unforgiveness against another or even God? I think not. We will discuss these stumblingblocks to humility at another time. To all of you who wrote me about the previous humility article, I thank you for sharing your thoughts and affirmations. It was very encouraging to know that there are many of you who have embraced humility. I am no longer young, so I don't know if I have enough years to come to "true humility," but it is my heart's desire. God bless you all and I pray we all walk in humility before God and man.