Young boy: “I see dead people … walking around like regular people … they only see what they want to see. They don’t know they’re dead.”

Counselor: “How often do you see them?”

Young boy, in near whisper: “All the time. They’re everywhere.”

If you saw the movie, The Sixth Sense, you recognize this as the pivotal “I see dead people” scene.

Dead Men Walking is what came to mind as I watched/listened to Jamie Walden’s sermon, “The War of Spirits” (even before he uttered those very words). He stated that his assessment, after a decade-plus as a minister and missionary, is that of all those who believe they’re saved, the percentage of genuinely saved people – out of 100% – is about 3%. Then he said some pastors told him that’s too generous a number, that it’s more like 1%.

The movie may have been a thriller but the reality that so many of us are biblically unaware (and some don’t even care) is terrifying – or should be. Sadly, too many who believe they are alive in Christ Jesus, perhaps because of the religion they belong to, or who may read the Bible every day, or who may be involved with their church, and even teach Bible study, or occupy the pulpit, are actually Dead Men Walking. As in the movie scene, they’re “walking around like regular people … they only see what they want to see. They don’t know they’re dead”. This is not the same as the Bible verse about being “dead in Christ Jesus,” that is wholely different. And when Jesus said there will be many who say to Him, “Lord, Lord, didn’t we do … in your Name?” and He will tell them to get away from Him, that He never knew them – how many should, but never do, wonder if they are in that group?

I’m not writing about this in a self-satisfied, self-righteous vacuum: I’m talking with Jesus about which side of Life or Death I stand because it is far too easy to self-deceive, to (as Jamie often says) believe we’re “crushin’ it for Jesus, when the reality is that we’re the god of our life, the idol of our worship. We use His Name, but do not represent Him: we take His Name in vain and vainglory.

Too many Christian claimants do not understand that the Bible is written to the Church, about the Church, rather than to the lost and dying world. Too many Christian claimants do not understand that the apostasy of the Church – not the lost and dying world – has to happen before Jesus Christ returns.  Too many Christian claimants do not understand that the apostasy of the Church is happening now and speeding toward the prophetically inevitable.

Here are several questions we ALL need to ask and answer honestly to ourselves – because Almighty God knows the truth of what’s really in our hearts and will judge THAT, not what we tell ourselves and others:

Have I made Jesus the Lord of my life – not in word, but in living it every moment as one submitted to Him in full? Or do I believe Satan’s lie that I’m to focus on what I’m capable or incapable of doing rather than on what Christ Jesus is capable of doing, including through me?

Have I fully believed and received how His completed work on the cross cleansed me and presents me as cleansed-and-righteous-in-Him before the Father? Or do I believe Satan’s lie that all depends on me and my abilities?

Even if I say I love Him, have I fully believed and received His love for me? Or do I believe Satan’s lie that the Father’s love for me is conditional upon my becoming perfect and my works, as though there is anything I could ever do to “equal” what Jesus did for me on the cross?

These are questions to ask ourselves and take to Jesus now. The Prophetic Clock is ticking and it’s almost Midnight.

KH, whoever you are – thank you for writing this:

I can’t shake it. That tiny plastic cup with the peel-back lid and the tasteless little wafer sealed under crinkly cellophane. It’s supposed to represent the most sacred, most costly sacrifice in history – but instead, it feels like a single-serving symbol of everything that’s gone wrong.

It’s convenient. It’s clean. It’s sterile.

Just like so much of the church has become.

We’ve traded broken bread passed hand to hand for a pre-packaged ritual that requires no mess, no interaction, no vulnerability. No one has to look anyone in the eye. No one has to serve or be served. You just peel, sip, and move on.

That cup… it bothers me.

It’s not that using them is wrong. I’m not saying your church is bad because you use them. I’ve taken communion from them too. But every time I hold one, I feel the sting of what we’ve lost. It’s not the cup – it’s the condition of the western church that the cup reflects.

A Christianity that’s become more about comfort than the cross.

More about ease than endurance.

The early church gathered in homes and maybe even catacombs. Most of Jesus’ disciples were martyred and the early church knew worship might cost them everything. They tore bread with trembling hands and remembered a Savior who bled. And now? Now we pass out sterile cups in air-conditioned rooms and sing songs about doing things we probably won’t actually do. Like surrender our lives and our comfort to do His will.

Jesus doesn’t come in a plastic wrapper.

He didn’t invite us into convenience – He invited us into death, into life, into actually sacrificing something.

So no, I’m not shaming churches that use the cups. That’s not the point.

I’m just saying maybe – just maybe – the plastic is a metaphor or a mirror.

Maybe we’ve settled for a version of Christianity that’s shrink-wrapped, safe, and single-use.

Maybe we’ve learned to worship comfort and call it Christ.

Maybe the body of Jesus shouldn’t be so easy to consume.

Maybe we need to rip open more than the plastic.

Maybe it’s time to rip open our hearts.

Because the body of Christ wasn’t made to be convenient.

It was made to be broken.

– KH

If you, too, are concerned about which percentage you fit into (I PRAY YOU ARE!), please watch/listen to Jamie Walden’s profound, Holy Spirit-led teaching for the prophetic time we’re in. He also covers the current events, especially that of the Israel-Iran (and now U.S.) conflict, plus the effects space weather is having on our planet (it really isn’t cow flatulence or gas-fueled vehicles!). This is a MUST-WATCH – for such a time as this: A WAR OF SPIRITS