A Time to Heal

Brother Lloyd Goodwin said on February 9, 1985:

“The followers of Brother William Sowders, the Israel of God in our day, must close ranks, experience a healing, before we will be in shape to face God’s enemies out there. But peace among us will only come when the war among us is over.”

At the time, many of us did not believe or see how there could be a healing of the fractured and divided groups that were once a united fellowship. But this man of God just kept preaching that message. Later, he began to repeatedly say, “A healed beast necessitates a healed body; not the entirety but a remnant of the whole.”

We are living in historic times. The war among the divisions of the body of Christ is over. Not everyone is ready to lay down their armor, but God has moved in the lives of so many ministers and saints. Continued division and bickering is unthinkable. But it wasn’t that way just a few short years ago. God is working.

Brother Narain Richard, Brother John Githinji, and myself recently visited Brother Billy Brown’s church in Houston, Texas, and Brother John Budd’s church in Sebastapol. The gracious manner in which we were received attests to the healing of the wounds. Recently, eight of our pastors from Africa attended the Shepherdsville Camp Meeting. Brethren from other branches of the fellowship have been attending and speaking in our meetings.

Communication, contact, and visiting are occurring. Long-severed friendly relationships are being restored. Amazingly, this is not being done through politics or chance for advancement. Each party is taking significant risks. But the Lord is speaking, and someone must hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

Every movement that God has raised up to be His people in the last 2,000 years has drifted off the foundation into apostasy. The powerful churches the apostles built in the first century were destroyed by the “mystery of iniquity”. 2 Thessalonians 2:7. Religious Babylon was raised on the ashes of the truth. Great reformers stepped out at times depending on God, but their movements drifted into institutional harlot daughters. What about our fellowship, the body of Christ?

Are we destined to fail? We would, if the Lord tarries. See Luke 18:8. But time is on our side. The Lord is healing and restoring His church. There is still a great work to do. Some men and women may fail, and even assemblies may fail, but the body of Christ as a whole will not fail. It has a destiny foreordained in the plan of God. May God help us to see His will, and be a part of His end-time work.

While we were in Texas, Brother Richard preached a message analogizing the history of the body of Christ to the story of Isaac’s wells in Genesis 26. When Isaac’s servants dug the first well, they found springing water. Genesis 26:19. The center column reference says the Hebrew would be better translated as “living water.” During the time of Brother William Sowders, we had living water in a wonderful fellowship.

The next well was called “Esek”, or contention, because there was strife between the people. Verse 20. As a fellowship after the death of Brother Sowders, we moved from living water to contention. The third well was enmity, called “Sitnah”. Verse 22. We are at a time where there is room for all and no strife. it is an exciting time as we see peace, communion, friendship, and fellowship.

Isaac did not stay there, however. He moved on to dig yet another well. The first wells were re-digging that which his father Abraham, had dug. See verse 15. Isaac moved on beyond his father’s wells to dig his own. Verse 32. There he built a city. Verse 33.

We need our own well. We cannot just restore what our fathers had – as wonderful as that was. We need to move on, to dig our own well, sufficient for our time and build our city. It must be a city set on a hill and a city of refuge. May God help us to heal the wounds of the past and go forward into the future He has appointed for His people.