Answer: This is a common phenomenon in the religious world. Brothers and sisters in the churches cannot get the life supply from the meetings and they haven’t had any spiritual growth for a long time. Thus, they often feel weak and negative in spirit and don’t hate sins. Instead, even some of them follow the evil social trends, greedy for the money and indulging themselves in sinful pleasures. All of these are the manifestations of losing the work of the Holy Spirit. So, what causes such a condition in the church?
Let think back to the end of the Age of Law. At that time, the temple, once so full of Jehovah God’s glory, became desolate. The Jewish people didn’t hold to God’s laws, improper sacrifices were made, and the temple became a place of trade, a den of thieves. Why did this happen? Primarily because the Jewish religious leaders didn’t abide by Jehovah God’s laws, and didn’t fear God in their hearts. They abided by men’s traditions, but rejected God’s commandments. They used man’s words to teach people and exalted the authority of the Bible, but never exalted and testified God nor led the Israelites to know and worship God. They departed completely from the way of God, and were loathed and abandoned by God. So, they didn’t have God’s discipline even though commiting sins, just gave free rein to the spread of sin, which caused the temple became a den of thieves. Besides, there was another reason that God had been incarnated to do the work of redeeming mankind in the Age of Grace. God’s work had changed. All those who accepted the Lord Jesus’ redemptive work received the work of the Holy Spirit, and had a new way to practice their faith, but those who rejected and resisted the work of the Lord Jesus were eliminated by God’s work, lost the work of the Holy Spirit and fell into dark desolation.
Nowadays, it is the late period of the last days, and the religious world, just like the previous temple, also appears the desolation. The Lord Jesus once prophesied: “And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold” (Mat 24:12). Lawlessness in the world of religion is growing. Lots of religious leaders regard their obligation and duty as the status and livelihood, take for themselves the sacrifices that the believers offered to God, and also fight both openly and in secret with their co-workers for status. They themselves don’t practice the Lord’s word nor lead the believers to practice it. They don’t testify to God or exalt God at all but only preach biblical knowledge to show off and testify to themselves. What’s more, they often preach man’s words in the Bible instead of God’s words, leading others to obey man’s words but abandon the Lord’s words and commandments. They’ve completely departed from the Lord’s way, causing the believers have nolife supply and cannot overcome Satan’s temptation.Thus, many believers live in weakness and negativity; some of them follow the evil social trends, indulge themselves in sinful pleasures, and stray further and further from God. How can such churches obtain God’s blessings? How can they have the work of the Holy Spirit?
In addition, there is another important reason for the church desolation, that is, the work of the Holy Spirit has transferred. It is prophesied in the Bible: “And also I have withheld the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain on one city, and caused it not to rain on another city: one piece was rained on, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered” (Amo 4:7). “Behold, the days come, said the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD”(Amo 8:11). The church desolation in the end time is predestined by God. The Holy Spirit ceased the work in the churches of the Age of Grace but started the work of harvesting and winnowing, so the churches without the work of the Holy Spirit naturally appear the desolation. Now the most important thing we have to do is seek God’s footprints and the church with the work of the Holy Spirit. As long as we find the words the Holy Spirit speaks to the churches, then we’ll receive the watering and supplying of living water of life from God and regain the work of the Holy Spirit, just as God’s words say, “God will accomplish this fact: He will make all people throughout the universe come before Him, and worship the God on earth, and His work in other places will cease, and people will be forced to seek the true way. It will be like Joseph: Everyone came to him for food, and bowed down to him, for he had things to eat. In order to avoid famine people will be forced to seek the true way. The entire religious community is suffering severe famine, and only the God of today is the wellspring of living water, possessed of the ever-flowing wellspring provided for the enjoyment of man, and people will come and depend on Him.”