The Barren Bride

​[2Sa 6:16, 23 NKJV]
16 Now as the ark of the LORD came into the City of David, Michal, Saul's daughter, looked through a window and saw King David leaping and whirling before the LORD; and she despised him in her heart. ...
23 Therefore Michal the daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death.

The American Church is in trouble. By all accounts churches across our nation are struggling, some to the point of closing their doors for good. The point of this post is not to rehash all of the numbers that are already out there but let me list some quick bullet points of what we are seeing happening to the American Church.

1. Less than 20 percent of Americans regularly attend church—half of what the pollsters report.
2. American church attendance is steadily declining.
3. Established churches—40 to 190 years old—are, on average, declining.
4. The increase in churches is only 1/4 of what’s needed to keep up with population growth.
5. In 2050, the percentage of the U.S. population attending church will be almost half of what it was in 1990.

I grabbed these statements from a blog post you can find here:

7 Startling Facts

I have heard numerous explanations about why all of this is happening but I believe there is one foundational issue behind all of it.

The Bride of Christ is standing in judgement of her King. 

All across our nation there are supposed men and women of God who are compromising on fundamental biblical issues because they think the bible needs to be more relevant for today. Theses people are elevating themselves to position above God's word, so they can look down upon it and interpret it in a way that no longer offends sinners. Their intentions are good but their ways are wicked. 

When Michal, David's wife, stood in the window and watched her husband and king coming into the city dancing, she despised him in her heart and because of this God made her barren the rest of her life. She was never able to have children because she judged her king! Now more than ever the world needs a church that operates in demonstration and power of Holy Spirit but our churches have no spiritual fruit in them because we have been standing in judgement of our King. We have declared that his word is out of date and irrelevant to society today. We have taken it upon ourselves to reinterpret the scriptures so that the Church won't find itself on the wrong side of history. Unfortunately, this has left the Church on the wrong side of God's judgement.

We are not a bride without spot or wrinkle, we are a bride with a barren womb. 

Let our hearts cry be one of repentance! Let us stand in unity declaring that we will no longer be a church that stands at the window in judgement but goes and joins her king dancing and celebrating in the streets because the presence of the Lord has come in to the city!