Maybe a better title for this post would be Ah ha! Eureka literally means "I have found it" or figuratively "I figured it out" which is not true in this case since as we all know all too well, I am just not that smart. As you know from the last post, I have been out of sync for awhile--at least I thought I was. The way out of that feeling is a good lesson for me and maybe a good lesson for you as well. I am still processing, but I know that period is almost over. I can still use a vacation for sure, but now I know I can wait at least until after the first of the year. Christmas is not my favorite holiday, (I love Easter) but having the family around for a few days is one of my favorite things. I am looking forward to that.
I made a serious error when I realized I was out of sync. Yes, it happens to the best of us. I guess it does. Perhaps some of the best of you can confirm that for me? Anyway, I lost my focus for a few weeks. I was focusing on being out of sync. You know that because I wrote about it. I was hoping that by processing what was happening I could get out of it. That was a serious error. I know better. There is only one place for our focus to be and it is not on the circumstances. The author of Hebrews encourages us saying, "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith..." (NIV) For those of you old enough to remember Keith Green, he penned a line in a song that said, "It's so hard to see when my eyes are on me."
If you read the previous post you remember me saying that experience leads me to believe getting out of sync is nearly always a spiritual attack. I am chuckling here as I think about having written that without understanding it was the solution in my situation. In fact, as I evaluate what the Holy Spirit revealed to me this morning I realize it might have been a spiritual attack, but I let it get a little out of control. I realized I was out of sync so I focused on being out of sync rather than on Jesus.
I woke up too early today and was not sure I even wanted to go to church. I showered and dressed and sat down to watch a sermon on television. I did not make it quite all the way through the sermon before I fell asleep. I regained consciousness in time to get to the church up on the corner just as they were starting. In truth I probably could have made it to the church I usually attend, but I decided to visit a different one. I am not even sure what the pastor said that sparked the thought--maybe nothing--but I know I heard the word "plateau" in my spirit. So as I listened to the pastor exhort the congregation about the things we need to do to make the Christmas season even more of a blessing in our corporate lives, I was also hearing this post in my spirit.
Sometimes we hit a plateau in the spiritual life. We feel we are not making any progress. You who read this blog are a cut above in the spiritual life or you would not continue reading so I am going to be plain here. Plateaus are very important, but can also be very dangerous places. Sometimes we need a rest. As human beings clothed in corruptible flesh, we can only maintain momentum for a certain period of time. Of course that period varies from person to person, but we all need to rest from time to time. That is the good part. The bad part comes in when we enjoy the rest on the plateau so much we decide to stay there. When we struggle to a plateau the rest and refreshing can be so comfortable we lose a bit of the vision we were working on as we climbed the hill. We forget what we were doing right that enabled us to reach that place of rest. Do not let that be your problem if you find yourself in a place of rest. Enjoy the rest, but listen for the time to move.
Plateaus are the places to rest and refresh. The irony here is that we often bring additional stress upon ourselves by becoming impatient that nothing seems to be happening. I was there. Everything was going so well in my life, I could not think of a thing to complain about. Oh sure, there are always things that I would have changed were I able, but even those things did not seem important. Then I realized I did not even know I had hit a plateau. I just thought nothing was going on. I started wondering if anyone were actually reading the blog. Two of my mighty men got wounded, one critically. (Maybe I can explain that another time.) I just had no idea what was going on. It seemed as thought there was always more to do than I could possibly get done. I was simply out of sync. I am back now. That is not to say anything is likely to change dramatically right away. I am guessing it will be after the first of the year before the Lord calls us to make a push. I am thinking there may be another few things to address before that time. Stay tuned.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Out of Sync
Some of you might remember watching films in school. If I am not mistaken they were 16mm films that were projected on a screen by a complicated piece of machinery that usually made way to much noise. That is not my point. Sometimes the loop of the film was formed incorrectly by the projector operator and the people on the film would be moving their lips slightly faster or slower than the sound was coming from them. I used to have to turn my face away from the screen when that happened. It made me nuts. You possibly have that situation to thank for me being the way I am today. That situation is referred to as the picture and the sound being "out of sync". They were not working together as they should have. That is not a good thing. Some of you may also remember that was sort of what caused Milli Vanilli to have their grammy revoked. You can google that if you want. Actually, they were too much in sync.
I have been out of sync for a few weeks now. You may have noticed. I was coming along just fine with the painting and I got the new blinds hung and suddenly it was the afternoon before Thanksgiving. Everything was put on hold. Yes, I pretty much mean everything. I have barely gotten anything done other than going to work for a full week. That, of course, means the carpet will be laid before the baseboards are finished. That, in turn, means more masking and taping to protect the new carpet.
Sometimes life just gets out of sync. I suppose there are other examples we could use, but as I have to constantly remind my guys at the mission, do not get bogged down in the illustration. When life does get out of sync, we often try in vain, using all our own abilities and resources, to get back where we should be. Sometimes this works better than others, but it never really solves the problem.
Of course this is purely anecdotal evidence, but my experience leads me to believe that getting out of sync is nearly always a spiritual attack. Normally I do not leave fill in spaces between the lines, but I did in the previous paragraph. Did you notice the phrase "our own abilities and resources"? Did you read that as operating in the soul? Spiritual battles can never be won in the power of the soul.
Scripture tell us, "...whatever is not from faith is sin." (Romans 14:23) This means any time we start in the soul we are going to be wrong. There is no way to redeem an incorrect start in this area. We have to go back to the beginning and start all over again.
I am really not sure why I am telling you all this. Well, maybe I do know. Sometimes when I write or say something seemingly at random, I end up hearing something I needed to know. So far I am just out of sync. I am not at all sure what it is going to take to change that, but I do know there is something I am supposed to ask all of you to do.
Today I was in church and you would have thought I had the plague. I was in the third row. In fact I was the only one in the first three rows in that section. Another couple did come and sit in the row behind me. I am not going to give you too much information, but sometimes it is good to be in the presence of God, alone, even in the presence of other people, if you know what I mean. Somewhere along the line I had a random thought which is now obviously not so random at all. The thought was, "Tell the people to pray." It came bubbling up from my spirit and I knew it was time to really begin softening up the spiritual atmosphere. So will you pray, please? If you get a chance let us know what it is you are led to pray? As I said, I am a little out of sync.
I have been out of sync for a few weeks now. You may have noticed. I was coming along just fine with the painting and I got the new blinds hung and suddenly it was the afternoon before Thanksgiving. Everything was put on hold. Yes, I pretty much mean everything. I have barely gotten anything done other than going to work for a full week. That, of course, means the carpet will be laid before the baseboards are finished. That, in turn, means more masking and taping to protect the new carpet.
Sometimes life just gets out of sync. I suppose there are other examples we could use, but as I have to constantly remind my guys at the mission, do not get bogged down in the illustration. When life does get out of sync, we often try in vain, using all our own abilities and resources, to get back where we should be. Sometimes this works better than others, but it never really solves the problem.
Of course this is purely anecdotal evidence, but my experience leads me to believe that getting out of sync is nearly always a spiritual attack. Normally I do not leave fill in spaces between the lines, but I did in the previous paragraph. Did you notice the phrase "our own abilities and resources"? Did you read that as operating in the soul? Spiritual battles can never be won in the power of the soul.
Scripture tell us, "...whatever is not from faith is sin." (Romans 14:23) This means any time we start in the soul we are going to be wrong. There is no way to redeem an incorrect start in this area. We have to go back to the beginning and start all over again.
I am really not sure why I am telling you all this. Well, maybe I do know. Sometimes when I write or say something seemingly at random, I end up hearing something I needed to know. So far I am just out of sync. I am not at all sure what it is going to take to change that, but I do know there is something I am supposed to ask all of you to do.
Today I was in church and you would have thought I had the plague. I was in the third row. In fact I was the only one in the first three rows in that section. Another couple did come and sit in the row behind me. I am not going to give you too much information, but sometimes it is good to be in the presence of God, alone, even in the presence of other people, if you know what I mean. Somewhere along the line I had a random thought which is now obviously not so random at all. The thought was, "Tell the people to pray." It came bubbling up from my spirit and I knew it was time to really begin softening up the spiritual atmosphere. So will you pray, please? If you get a chance let us know what it is you are led to pray? As I said, I am a little out of sync.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
How To Get Along With Everyone All The Time
Here we are again, shortly after 5:00 AM on a Saturday morning. Lord why do we always have to do this so early on a Saturday or Sunday morning? Oh, that's the only time I really listen? There may be something to that. It seems like life is very busy lately and little of it has to do with the holidays. Nonetheless, the Holy Spirit is compelling me to quickly follow up on the previous post. Apparently it sounded a little harsh, cold, or even cruel to some, although I have not received any feedback at all at this point. Perhaps this will bring a little balance.
This title is taken from a teaching done by Pastor Larry Lea in the late '70s. We heard the brief teaching live, and viewed it on video tape at least twice. Larry was teaching on The Lord's Prayer and this was the title of the section on the phrase, "And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors." (Matthew 6:12) As you might know from your study or a teaching on this phrase, it is in the Greek imperative mood. That means we are not begging God to forgive us. Rather we are telling Him we want to be forgiven for our debts incurred toward Him through our sins because we also forgive anyone who owes anything to us. Those things would include such things as common courtesy, assistance with the affairs of life, or real, tangible needs. I would apologize if your theology does not allow you to "tell" God anything, but you will have to deal with that on your own.
Whenever we offend another person with any action, whether intentionally or unintentionally, there is shared responsibility for the offense. Whether our actions should have offended them or not, we bear some of the responsibility for the fact they feel offended. Likewise, and again, whether we were intentional or accidental, they have the responsibility to forgive us. That is indeed a very tall order, on both ends. Nonetheless, it falls into the category of the second greatest commandment, "...love your neighbor as yourself." (Matthew 22:39)
Back to Larry Lea for a moment, he says that if we forgive everyone who will offend us first thing every morning, we will not have problem forgiving them when they do. That gets the old, mental wheels spinning. Forgive someone before they do us wrong? Whoa!
The Holy Spirit just gave me a little test we can all take. Call it a quiz. It is only one question. It will betray our ability to hear Him. Reread the previous paragraph slowly. Let it sink in. How does that concept strike you? The correct answer is something like, "That certainly would work. I would not be offended if I did that." Incorrect answers include, but are not limited to, "That's ridiculous." "How do you expect me to forgive someone before they do something to me?" and even, "I will have to think on that." or "I am not sure how I feel about that." You may have realized that all the wrong answers involve human reasoning or emotions, or both. You can read that as "soul". According to Proverbs 14:12, which you should know by heart by now, that is always the wrong way to look at something. We have not even suggested responses like, "But they hurt me, I have a right to be offended, at least for a little while." We left that one out on purpose. It is a lie of the enemy of our souls.
We do not have the right to hold an offense against anyone, any offense, any time. On the contrary, we have the responsibility to forgive them just as God for Christ's sake has forgiven us. (Ephesians 4:32) When we fail to forgive another person for a wrong done to us, we block the flow of God's blessings toward us. Remember, we are asking forgiveness on the basis of being forgiving people ourselves. It is not that God will not forgive us when we do not forgive, it is that our unforgiveness inhibits the flow of His grace toward us. In any area in which we do not forgive, God's grace is limited because His justice and mercy are always balanced. He would like to be merciful with our failings, and He is, but His justice requires we be just and merciful to receive justice and mercy from Him.
Let us go back to the idea of forgiving people before they do us wrong. Borrowing a phrase from Bill Winston, we learn that, "God did not start until He had finished." There is no time with God. He is eternal. We entered into the eternal, timeless, life of God when we were born again. When we understand the concept of timelessness, miracles, healings, provision, and even forgiveness become possible right here and now (in time). Think about that. We often think (There is that pesky "way that seems right to a man" again.) that because we do not see (and the body) the answer to our prayers manifest in time, God did not answer them.
I recently had a Baptist friend question me on the erroneous concept of "name it and claim it." That is, of course a disparaging way of referring to anyone who thinks God will answer all our prayers. (So much to explain, so little space.) Gave myself away on that one. Anyway, as faithful as Baptists are to Biblical inerrancy, for some reason they almost universally reject the idea that we can ask God for anything and He will answer. Oh, and the answer will be yes. I could launch into a teaching on that concept, but if you study the subject through with your spirit open I am certain you will come to the same conclusion I have. No fewer than four times does the New Testament say we will receive what we ask for. Nowhere in the Bible that I have seen is there even an allusion to God saying "No" to our prayer". That idea is an invention of man to explain unanswered prayer. And do not even bore me with the whole, "If it is in His will" thing. Study 1 John 5:14-15. I will give you a hint. His will is not "what" we ask. His will is "that" we ask. If we need a full teaching on that please let me know. We will be happy to provide it, complete with a Greek grammar lesson, free of charge, as always.
There are conditions to having all our prayers answered. We must ask. (Duh?) (1 John 5 :14) We must ask in Jesus' name. (John 14:14, 15:16). That latter verse also talks about abiding in the vine. Our prayer is strengthened by agreement. (Matthew 18:19)
I do this all the time in class too, start on one subject and finish on another. We were talking about getting along with everyone all the time and we ended with how to have our prayers answered. Yes, I do mean we ended with that. We hope you got something out of this post anyway. God bless.
This title is taken from a teaching done by Pastor Larry Lea in the late '70s. We heard the brief teaching live, and viewed it on video tape at least twice. Larry was teaching on The Lord's Prayer and this was the title of the section on the phrase, "And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors." (Matthew 6:12) As you might know from your study or a teaching on this phrase, it is in the Greek imperative mood. That means we are not begging God to forgive us. Rather we are telling Him we want to be forgiven for our debts incurred toward Him through our sins because we also forgive anyone who owes anything to us. Those things would include such things as common courtesy, assistance with the affairs of life, or real, tangible needs. I would apologize if your theology does not allow you to "tell" God anything, but you will have to deal with that on your own.
Whenever we offend another person with any action, whether intentionally or unintentionally, there is shared responsibility for the offense. Whether our actions should have offended them or not, we bear some of the responsibility for the fact they feel offended. Likewise, and again, whether we were intentional or accidental, they have the responsibility to forgive us. That is indeed a very tall order, on both ends. Nonetheless, it falls into the category of the second greatest commandment, "...love your neighbor as yourself." (Matthew 22:39)
Back to Larry Lea for a moment, he says that if we forgive everyone who will offend us first thing every morning, we will not have problem forgiving them when they do. That gets the old, mental wheels spinning. Forgive someone before they do us wrong? Whoa!
The Holy Spirit just gave me a little test we can all take. Call it a quiz. It is only one question. It will betray our ability to hear Him. Reread the previous paragraph slowly. Let it sink in. How does that concept strike you? The correct answer is something like, "That certainly would work. I would not be offended if I did that." Incorrect answers include, but are not limited to, "That's ridiculous." "How do you expect me to forgive someone before they do something to me?" and even, "I will have to think on that." or "I am not sure how I feel about that." You may have realized that all the wrong answers involve human reasoning or emotions, or both. You can read that as "soul". According to Proverbs 14:12, which you should know by heart by now, that is always the wrong way to look at something. We have not even suggested responses like, "But they hurt me, I have a right to be offended, at least for a little while." We left that one out on purpose. It is a lie of the enemy of our souls.
We do not have the right to hold an offense against anyone, any offense, any time. On the contrary, we have the responsibility to forgive them just as God for Christ's sake has forgiven us. (Ephesians 4:32) When we fail to forgive another person for a wrong done to us, we block the flow of God's blessings toward us. Remember, we are asking forgiveness on the basis of being forgiving people ourselves. It is not that God will not forgive us when we do not forgive, it is that our unforgiveness inhibits the flow of His grace toward us. In any area in which we do not forgive, God's grace is limited because His justice and mercy are always balanced. He would like to be merciful with our failings, and He is, but His justice requires we be just and merciful to receive justice and mercy from Him.
Let us go back to the idea of forgiving people before they do us wrong. Borrowing a phrase from Bill Winston, we learn that, "God did not start until He had finished." There is no time with God. He is eternal. We entered into the eternal, timeless, life of God when we were born again. When we understand the concept of timelessness, miracles, healings, provision, and even forgiveness become possible right here and now (in time). Think about that. We often think (There is that pesky "way that seems right to a man" again.) that because we do not see (and the body) the answer to our prayers manifest in time, God did not answer them.
I recently had a Baptist friend question me on the erroneous concept of "name it and claim it." That is, of course a disparaging way of referring to anyone who thinks God will answer all our prayers. (So much to explain, so little space.) Gave myself away on that one. Anyway, as faithful as Baptists are to Biblical inerrancy, for some reason they almost universally reject the idea that we can ask God for anything and He will answer. Oh, and the answer will be yes. I could launch into a teaching on that concept, but if you study the subject through with your spirit open I am certain you will come to the same conclusion I have. No fewer than four times does the New Testament say we will receive what we ask for. Nowhere in the Bible that I have seen is there even an allusion to God saying "No" to our prayer". That idea is an invention of man to explain unanswered prayer. And do not even bore me with the whole, "If it is in His will" thing. Study 1 John 5:14-15. I will give you a hint. His will is not "what" we ask. His will is "that" we ask. If we need a full teaching on that please let me know. We will be happy to provide it, complete with a Greek grammar lesson, free of charge, as always.
There are conditions to having all our prayers answered. We must ask. (Duh?) (1 John 5 :14) We must ask in Jesus' name. (John 14:14, 15:16). That latter verse also talks about abiding in the vine. Our prayer is strengthened by agreement. (Matthew 18:19)
I do this all the time in class too, start on one subject and finish on another. We were talking about getting along with everyone all the time and we ended with how to have our prayers answered. Yes, I do mean we ended with that. We hope you got something out of this post anyway. God bless.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Why We All Cannot Just Get Along
In case you are wondering, and I know some of you are, this title was there in my spirit at 3:30 this morning. I resisted the urge to get up and write anything about it. I am sure I will get back to it soon and you will not even notice the time lapse. Right now, though, I have to finish the one I started last week and did not get to yesterday because I am still painting.
Ok, I am back. The title of this post is of course a take off of the famous quote from Rodney King who was a victim of police brutality in 1991. After being beaten while resisting arrest, he and some friends tried to turn the incident into a racial thing. He won a civil judgement. The Superior court of Los Angeles County aquitted all four of the police officers involved, but two were later found guilty in Federal court and sent to prison.
The question before us is can we get along with people with whom we are not in agreement? Amos asks, "Can two walk together unless they are agreed?" (Amos 3:3) Clearly the answer he expects is "No". We are all going to have to get on the same page if we want to walk together. We are not only going to have to be on the same page with one another, but on the same page with God as well. I have lost count of how many times we have referred to Psalm 14:12 in this blog, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." Then again, I cannot even remember what all is in the blog without going back and perusing the titles of posts past.
Most people would like to live at peace with their fellow man. Peace is a noble aspiration. Isaiah, speaking prophetically says Jesus will be called the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6), but Jesus Himself said, "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." (Matthew 10:34) In elaborating on that statement He said we are not worthy of being called His disciples if we love anything more than we love Him. That would certainly include peace.
So now we have another question to answer. What is really worth fighting for? My answer may surprise you. Then again some of you know me well enough to not be too surprised by anything. Nonetheless, when we list the things that are important to us in this life, my considered opinion is that we will end up like the Apostle Paul listing his pedigree and accomplishments and coming to the conclusion, "I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ." (Philippians 3:8) This from a man who had been religiously and zealously persecuting The Church before being powerfully confronted by Jesus during a ministry trip. I am guessing his list changed as he considered that encounter. I know my list changed when I truly understood who Jesus is and what He had done for me. I had already been a Christian for almost a decade. Jesus was real and I knew He could be counted on in times of need. I was just missing the power to change from a self-centered iconoclast to a person who can usually put other people's needs ahead of my own. Now that I am thinking about that, maybe that is why I do not offend people as easily as I once did. Hmmm, there may be something to that. I mean some people actually like me now.
Ok, back to the present. Where was I? Was I making a point? Oh yes, I remember. Why we all cannot just get along. If you have been paying attention, the reason we cannot all get along is because we cannot agree on what is really worth fighting for. Even if we could agree on the what, we would have trouble coming to consensus on the how. Thank God He never asks us to come to consensus. You do know consensus of the majority, or majority rule as it is usually called, is strictly a democratic concept that is contrary to scripture? Sir Winston Churchill said, "It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried." (I am assuming he is the one who said it originally and was simply using a rhetorical device here since he does not actually quote anyone else.)
There is another form of government that was tried. God set Israel up as a theocracy. As long as they followed Him, life was good. Whenever they turned to their own way, things did not work out as well. The people were constantly whining and complaining about one thing or another. In breaking down their complaints, they all come down to, "I am not getting what I want." Not much has changed in the intervening millenia. They asked for a king so they could be like everyone else. Samuel, who as leading the nation at the time, tried to talk them out of it. They persisted and God said they were rejecting Him. (1 Samuel 8:7) That is really an ugly place to be, rejecting God.
We cannot form an actual theocracy in this time in history, at least not to any great extent. There is something we can do though. We can make Jesus Lord of our individual lives. That puts us under theocratic rule individually. In truth we have to do that to be part of The Church, but then that is another thing we do not do so well. Oh, I do not mean for us to say Jesus is Lord, I mean for us to do Jesus is Lord.
I suppose we could list all the ways we do not allow Jesus to be Lord even when we say He is. That probably would not be very productive. I think some of me would end up with more conviction that we want. Oh my gosh, did I say some of "me"? I meant some of "us". Anyway, what all those reasons boil down to is fear. Name yours, if you dare. I am not talking about spiders and snakes and things that go bump in the night. I am talking about losses and failures and those times when we become our own worst enemies. I am talking about fears of rejection and others included in the fear of man. (Proverbs 29:25) I feel as though I have entered into rest in that last area. I think we have to be there to truly be free. The Psalmist asks twice (Psalms 51:11, 118:6) what can man do to me?
When we know in our spirit that Jesus has truly set us free, our fears evaporate like a puddle in the desert. Of course, usually it does not happen like that. At least it does not work that way for me. We do not just suddenly become free in our mind and emotions. It is more often what I call a creeping awareness that we are no longer afraid. We just realize we are not afraid anymore.
Even though it is God who works in us for His good pleasure (Philippians 2:13), the previous verse says we have to work out our own salvation. We work then He works. He is waiting for us. We are not waiting for Him. Well, I guess that is the problem after all. We are waiting for Him. We have to overcome inertia and do something then he can direct and redirect our paths until we are moving exactly according to His will. When we do that we will find we are moving in the same direction and we might even find out we like more people than we ever thought we would.
What am I going to say now except to encourage you to get up and move. Do something. God will make sure you get going in the right direction. You can trust Him. Trust me on that.
Ok, I am back. The title of this post is of course a take off of the famous quote from Rodney King who was a victim of police brutality in 1991. After being beaten while resisting arrest, he and some friends tried to turn the incident into a racial thing. He won a civil judgement. The Superior court of Los Angeles County aquitted all four of the police officers involved, but two were later found guilty in Federal court and sent to prison.
The question before us is can we get along with people with whom we are not in agreement? Amos asks, "Can two walk together unless they are agreed?" (Amos 3:3) Clearly the answer he expects is "No". We are all going to have to get on the same page if we want to walk together. We are not only going to have to be on the same page with one another, but on the same page with God as well. I have lost count of how many times we have referred to Psalm 14:12 in this blog, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." Then again, I cannot even remember what all is in the blog without going back and perusing the titles of posts past.
Most people would like to live at peace with their fellow man. Peace is a noble aspiration. Isaiah, speaking prophetically says Jesus will be called the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6), but Jesus Himself said, "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." (Matthew 10:34) In elaborating on that statement He said we are not worthy of being called His disciples if we love anything more than we love Him. That would certainly include peace.
So now we have another question to answer. What is really worth fighting for? My answer may surprise you. Then again some of you know me well enough to not be too surprised by anything. Nonetheless, when we list the things that are important to us in this life, my considered opinion is that we will end up like the Apostle Paul listing his pedigree and accomplishments and coming to the conclusion, "I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ." (Philippians 3:8) This from a man who had been religiously and zealously persecuting The Church before being powerfully confronted by Jesus during a ministry trip. I am guessing his list changed as he considered that encounter. I know my list changed when I truly understood who Jesus is and what He had done for me. I had already been a Christian for almost a decade. Jesus was real and I knew He could be counted on in times of need. I was just missing the power to change from a self-centered iconoclast to a person who can usually put other people's needs ahead of my own. Now that I am thinking about that, maybe that is why I do not offend people as easily as I once did. Hmmm, there may be something to that. I mean some people actually like me now.
Ok, back to the present. Where was I? Was I making a point? Oh yes, I remember. Why we all cannot just get along. If you have been paying attention, the reason we cannot all get along is because we cannot agree on what is really worth fighting for. Even if we could agree on the what, we would have trouble coming to consensus on the how. Thank God He never asks us to come to consensus. You do know consensus of the majority, or majority rule as it is usually called, is strictly a democratic concept that is contrary to scripture? Sir Winston Churchill said, "It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried." (I am assuming he is the one who said it originally and was simply using a rhetorical device here since he does not actually quote anyone else.)
There is another form of government that was tried. God set Israel up as a theocracy. As long as they followed Him, life was good. Whenever they turned to their own way, things did not work out as well. The people were constantly whining and complaining about one thing or another. In breaking down their complaints, they all come down to, "I am not getting what I want." Not much has changed in the intervening millenia. They asked for a king so they could be like everyone else. Samuel, who as leading the nation at the time, tried to talk them out of it. They persisted and God said they were rejecting Him. (1 Samuel 8:7) That is really an ugly place to be, rejecting God.
We cannot form an actual theocracy in this time in history, at least not to any great extent. There is something we can do though. We can make Jesus Lord of our individual lives. That puts us under theocratic rule individually. In truth we have to do that to be part of The Church, but then that is another thing we do not do so well. Oh, I do not mean for us to say Jesus is Lord, I mean for us to do Jesus is Lord.
I suppose we could list all the ways we do not allow Jesus to be Lord even when we say He is. That probably would not be very productive. I think some of me would end up with more conviction that we want. Oh my gosh, did I say some of "me"? I meant some of "us". Anyway, what all those reasons boil down to is fear. Name yours, if you dare. I am not talking about spiders and snakes and things that go bump in the night. I am talking about losses and failures and those times when we become our own worst enemies. I am talking about fears of rejection and others included in the fear of man. (Proverbs 29:25) I feel as though I have entered into rest in that last area. I think we have to be there to truly be free. The Psalmist asks twice (Psalms 51:11, 118:6) what can man do to me?
When we know in our spirit that Jesus has truly set us free, our fears evaporate like a puddle in the desert. Of course, usually it does not happen like that. At least it does not work that way for me. We do not just suddenly become free in our mind and emotions. It is more often what I call a creeping awareness that we are no longer afraid. We just realize we are not afraid anymore.
Even though it is God who works in us for His good pleasure (Philippians 2:13), the previous verse says we have to work out our own salvation. We work then He works. He is waiting for us. We are not waiting for Him. Well, I guess that is the problem after all. We are waiting for Him. We have to overcome inertia and do something then he can direct and redirect our paths until we are moving exactly according to His will. When we do that we will find we are moving in the same direction and we might even find out we like more people than we ever thought we would.
What am I going to say now except to encourage you to get up and move. Do something. God will make sure you get going in the right direction. You can trust Him. Trust me on that.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Perhaps if We Talked Less and Listened More
Someone somewhere said, "God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason." I feel fairly certain that was said as a sublte reproof because most of us do at least as much talking as we do listening. I suppose it is not really fair to indict all of you along with me, but there is another old saying that, "Misery loves company." I admit, I have done my share of complaining in 58 years of treading this soil. Then again, as most of you know, I am an introvert so my talking is, more often than not, consolidated to times when I have to talk, like when I am teaching a class. It did not always used to be so. I craved attention and was pretty good at talking for the sake of getting it. I could throw out a witicism or a barb with barely a thought about how it might be received. I have also been wounded a few times. Trust me, everyone knew about them. A couple friends even told me to quit talking about the wounds and the people who had inflicted them. I do not think either of them read this blog. They probably do not even know it exists. Then again, my guess is neither of them even remember the incidents. Still, I feel like I need to acknowledge David Saltzman and Nancy Ostini who caught me up short on two separate occasions. Thank you.
I, having said that and you having read that, can agree it is good advice to listen more than we talk, but then again, everyone knows we talk too much and do not listen enough. When we do listen, we usually listen to ourselves regardless of who is actually talking at the time. My in house human communications expert tells me that as much as ninety-three percent of our communications with one another is non-verbal. We are communicating by body language or facial expressions. Even voice inflections are considered non-verbal in this regard. When we attempt to communicate with some other person, we are trying to convey to them concepts in our mind which are not necessarily received correctly. Add to that the fact that we often hear what we expect the other person to say and/or hear what we wish the other person would say and it adds up to something well less than perfect understanding on both ends. The bottom line is that we do not hear because we do not listen.
In the last post, I mentioned I try to keep my spiritual ears open to the Holy Spirit regardless of whatever else I might be doing. Some people think that is kind of freaky or mystical or something. Virtually all those people have either not experienced the Holy Spirit speaking into their spirit or simply did not recognize it when He did. Years ago, while trying to explain the concept to a group of brilliant, young, college students (yes, I was definitely over matched intellectually) the Holy Spirit did speak into my spirit with a simile they immediately grasped. The spirit in man is like the operating system in a computer. Once it is connected to the power (Holy Spirit) and turned on it runs in the background enabling everything else to work. All we have to do activate our spirit. It probably is not productive to discuss whether once our spirit is activated, we need to reactivate it regularly. Maybe we can go there another time.
Scripture does tell us to, "be filled with the spirit" (Ephesians 5:18) I am going to throw in a little Greek lesson here, but I will not charge you extra for it. This phrase is in the Greek present tense. The present tense shows continuing action in present time. When we read the phrase in English we are inclined to think it means to be in a state of having been filled. In other words, we were filled once and we are supposed to stay that way. That would be a different tense in Greek (the imperfect tense if you are interested). By being in the present tense, a literal translation would be "be being filled" or to be in a state in which we are continually being filled. (Scripture actually refers to that as a river and a fountain in various places.) That is only possible when we stay connected to the Holy Spirit. He provides the power for our operating system, our spirit, to run in the background regardless of what we are doing or what is going on around us. This is the state of being Isaiah was referring to when he wrote, "You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You." (Isaiah 26:3) The writer of Hebrews tells us essentially the same thing when he writes, "Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest..." (Hebrews 4:11)
Some of you long time readers are surely asking if I have confused the spirit and the soul. Not at all. The mind is what we use in our effort to activate the spirit. Prayer, praise, and worship are all activities that turn our spirit on. Our soul sits between our body and our spirit, listening to the desires of each of them as they play tug o'war with each other. We decide which direction we will ultimately go. We decide whether to do what Jesus wants or what we want. In spite of the fact we know that going head to head with Him ends in a headache at best, we often stubbornly persist in having our own way. We do this knowing the truth of Proverbs 14:12 that our way will always end in death. It occurs to me that is not always a bad thing. Sometimes that death is to our fleshly desires. That death will end up working out well, but my gosh it is so painful to learn things that way. Why not just make it easy on ourselves and listen to what the Holy Spirit has to say to us--then do it.
Maybe this is my post for old sayings. I am in this for a penny, in it for a pound. If you are coming along, it will not be long before the battle is engaged in earnest. Now would be the time to decide. Our encouragement would be to listen to what the Holy Spirit is telling you. Listen all the time. Then do whatever that is. It will not always make you the most popular person in town. That also is a lesson for another time. See you soon. God bless!
I, having said that and you having read that, can agree it is good advice to listen more than we talk, but then again, everyone knows we talk too much and do not listen enough. When we do listen, we usually listen to ourselves regardless of who is actually talking at the time. My in house human communications expert tells me that as much as ninety-three percent of our communications with one another is non-verbal. We are communicating by body language or facial expressions. Even voice inflections are considered non-verbal in this regard. When we attempt to communicate with some other person, we are trying to convey to them concepts in our mind which are not necessarily received correctly. Add to that the fact that we often hear what we expect the other person to say and/or hear what we wish the other person would say and it adds up to something well less than perfect understanding on both ends. The bottom line is that we do not hear because we do not listen.
In the last post, I mentioned I try to keep my spiritual ears open to the Holy Spirit regardless of whatever else I might be doing. Some people think that is kind of freaky or mystical or something. Virtually all those people have either not experienced the Holy Spirit speaking into their spirit or simply did not recognize it when He did. Years ago, while trying to explain the concept to a group of brilliant, young, college students (yes, I was definitely over matched intellectually) the Holy Spirit did speak into my spirit with a simile they immediately grasped. The spirit in man is like the operating system in a computer. Once it is connected to the power (Holy Spirit) and turned on it runs in the background enabling everything else to work. All we have to do activate our spirit. It probably is not productive to discuss whether once our spirit is activated, we need to reactivate it regularly. Maybe we can go there another time.
Scripture does tell us to, "be filled with the spirit" (Ephesians 5:18) I am going to throw in a little Greek lesson here, but I will not charge you extra for it. This phrase is in the Greek present tense. The present tense shows continuing action in present time. When we read the phrase in English we are inclined to think it means to be in a state of having been filled. In other words, we were filled once and we are supposed to stay that way. That would be a different tense in Greek (the imperfect tense if you are interested). By being in the present tense, a literal translation would be "be being filled" or to be in a state in which we are continually being filled. (Scripture actually refers to that as a river and a fountain in various places.) That is only possible when we stay connected to the Holy Spirit. He provides the power for our operating system, our spirit, to run in the background regardless of what we are doing or what is going on around us. This is the state of being Isaiah was referring to when he wrote, "You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You." (Isaiah 26:3) The writer of Hebrews tells us essentially the same thing when he writes, "Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest..." (Hebrews 4:11)
Some of you long time readers are surely asking if I have confused the spirit and the soul. Not at all. The mind is what we use in our effort to activate the spirit. Prayer, praise, and worship are all activities that turn our spirit on. Our soul sits between our body and our spirit, listening to the desires of each of them as they play tug o'war with each other. We decide which direction we will ultimately go. We decide whether to do what Jesus wants or what we want. In spite of the fact we know that going head to head with Him ends in a headache at best, we often stubbornly persist in having our own way. We do this knowing the truth of Proverbs 14:12 that our way will always end in death. It occurs to me that is not always a bad thing. Sometimes that death is to our fleshly desires. That death will end up working out well, but my gosh it is so painful to learn things that way. Why not just make it easy on ourselves and listen to what the Holy Spirit has to say to us--then do it.
Maybe this is my post for old sayings. I am in this for a penny, in it for a pound. If you are coming along, it will not be long before the battle is engaged in earnest. Now would be the time to decide. Our encouragement would be to listen to what the Holy Spirit is telling you. Listen all the time. Then do whatever that is. It will not always make you the most popular person in town. That also is a lesson for another time. See you soon. God bless!
Saturday, November 7, 2009
I Have Been Painting
I have been painting the living room, dining room and hallway, so far. That kind of thing tends to cause delays between posts. The fact is I had decided the painting was a priority and if the blog had to wait, the blog had to wait. I did not expect to be writing this post tonight. I know some of you think the blog is more important than painting the house. Truth be told I would like to think the blog is more important than painting the house too. It certainly is a whole lot more enjoyable. I really do not even like painting, but it is one of those things husbands have to do sometimes. We moved into this house nine and a half years ago and most of the interior has not been repainted at all. The carpet was in pretty bad shape when we moved in. We decided we needed new flooring, but of course the walls needed to be painted first. That is what I have been doing.
As I was saying, I had decided the blog would just have to wait. Now I do not know if this happens to you or not, but sometimes the Holy Spirit sneaks up on me in the middle of some other activity. I neglected to mention that along with deciding the blog would have to wait, I had made up my mind to keep my spiritual ears open, you know, just in case the Holy Spirit had anything to say to me. (It just occurred to me that might be the topic for the next post. I could almost do two in the same week if it is. It has been awhile since I did two in the same week, I think.) As I mentioned, He did have something to say to me. What can I do? Obviously, whatever He says. This time it is kind of interesting. I am going to do my best to explain it to you all.
To make it simple, the Holy Spirit said, "Write." What would you do? I asked what I was supposed to write. No answer. But, that bumped my spirit into action. This is sort of how that went.
(Holy Spirit) Write.
(me) Write what?
(my spirit upon hearing that) Sometimes we need to operate by faith. We do not need to know what we are doing before we do it. That is why many people fail to operate in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. They will not get started.
I had one of my men ask me about speaking in tongues the other day. He was not sure how to phrase the question, but I correctly surmised he wanted to know why he had not been able to speak in tongues since he had received the baptism in the Holy Spirit. I gave him my stock answer. More often than not, the problem is we are waiting for the Holy Spirit to speak through us rather than doing the speaking ourselves. He said nothing was coming to mind except random syllables. Hello? Last time I checked languages are formed from random syllables put together in intelligible ways. The thing about speaking in tongues is that it is the Holy Spirit who is putting the syllables together. They do not have to make sense to us, or to anyone else listening to us and, in fact, they usually do not. Just start speaking those random syllables and let the Holy Spirit turn them into whatever it is He wants to say.
That is fine for tongues, but what about the other gifts? I am so glad you asked. We know that when we exercise a charismatic gift of speaking in tongues in public there needs to be someone present who can then exercise the corresponding gift of the interpretation of tongues. (1 Corinthians 14:27-28) Since the person exercising the gift of tongues has to operate in faith by speaking out random syllables, it only makes sense the person interpreting the message would also have to use some measure of faith and start speaking words, trusting the Holy Spirit to form them into a message intelligible to the people present. How about the gifts of prophecy, or word of knowledge, or word of wisdom? What if it is time to exercise a gift of healing? You get the point.
It looks like I have written something like a blog entry when I had not planned to. I know I am awesome, but of course it is not me. The Holy Spirit gives the gifts. You probably did not know one of the charismatic gifts is blogging. It is listed right there in 1 Corinthians 12. Check out verse 8. "for to one is given the word of wisdom (blogging) through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge (blogging) through the same Spirit," Maybe neither of those fit. Maybe both of them do. Maybe there are more of you out there who could exercise spiritual gifts, but for whatever reason just have not done it. I am pretty sure I have said this before. If not it might be printed on the box that last pair of sneakers came in. Just do it!
As I was saying, I had decided the blog would just have to wait. Now I do not know if this happens to you or not, but sometimes the Holy Spirit sneaks up on me in the middle of some other activity. I neglected to mention that along with deciding the blog would have to wait, I had made up my mind to keep my spiritual ears open, you know, just in case the Holy Spirit had anything to say to me. (It just occurred to me that might be the topic for the next post. I could almost do two in the same week if it is. It has been awhile since I did two in the same week, I think.) As I mentioned, He did have something to say to me. What can I do? Obviously, whatever He says. This time it is kind of interesting. I am going to do my best to explain it to you all.
To make it simple, the Holy Spirit said, "Write." What would you do? I asked what I was supposed to write. No answer. But, that bumped my spirit into action. This is sort of how that went.
(Holy Spirit) Write.
(me) Write what?
(my spirit upon hearing that) Sometimes we need to operate by faith. We do not need to know what we are doing before we do it. That is why many people fail to operate in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. They will not get started.
I had one of my men ask me about speaking in tongues the other day. He was not sure how to phrase the question, but I correctly surmised he wanted to know why he had not been able to speak in tongues since he had received the baptism in the Holy Spirit. I gave him my stock answer. More often than not, the problem is we are waiting for the Holy Spirit to speak through us rather than doing the speaking ourselves. He said nothing was coming to mind except random syllables. Hello? Last time I checked languages are formed from random syllables put together in intelligible ways. The thing about speaking in tongues is that it is the Holy Spirit who is putting the syllables together. They do not have to make sense to us, or to anyone else listening to us and, in fact, they usually do not. Just start speaking those random syllables and let the Holy Spirit turn them into whatever it is He wants to say.
That is fine for tongues, but what about the other gifts? I am so glad you asked. We know that when we exercise a charismatic gift of speaking in tongues in public there needs to be someone present who can then exercise the corresponding gift of the interpretation of tongues. (1 Corinthians 14:27-28) Since the person exercising the gift of tongues has to operate in faith by speaking out random syllables, it only makes sense the person interpreting the message would also have to use some measure of faith and start speaking words, trusting the Holy Spirit to form them into a message intelligible to the people present. How about the gifts of prophecy, or word of knowledge, or word of wisdom? What if it is time to exercise a gift of healing? You get the point.
It looks like I have written something like a blog entry when I had not planned to. I know I am awesome, but of course it is not me. The Holy Spirit gives the gifts. You probably did not know one of the charismatic gifts is blogging. It is listed right there in 1 Corinthians 12. Check out verse 8. "for to one is given the word of wisdom (blogging) through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge (blogging) through the same Spirit," Maybe neither of those fit. Maybe both of them do. Maybe there are more of you out there who could exercise spiritual gifts, but for whatever reason just have not done it. I am pretty sure I have said this before. If not it might be printed on the box that last pair of sneakers came in. Just do it!
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Upside Down Religious Spirit
I was all set to write a post on preparation for entering the promised land. In fact I had already started writing it. Then I had one of those serendipitous things happen that we become accustomed to God doing and not taking the credit. My eldest daughter, Charity, had been on my mind for a few days, but I had not thought of her at the appropriate time to call. I finally got around to it last night--and of course that was not an appropriate time either, but she called me back half an hour or so later. She said she had another book I needed to read. Like I am not already backlogged. Then of course she had to follow up with an email giving me some highlights of yet another book then the one she had mentioned. "Preparation for entering the Promised Land" was one of the highlights listed. Everyone knows I am not a dumb as I look so that post will have to wait until I read that book. I ordered it from Amazon and it should be here next week.
Sometimes I feel like I am completely dragging my feet here and I suppose sometimes I am. However, processing what I just described in the previous paragraph did illumine a very interesting concept. At least I thought it was a very interesting concept and since this is my blog, you can either read it or not.
We are battling against a religious spirit here in the Santa Maria valley. That spirit has infected all the churches in the valley to a greater or lesser degree. Of course the insidious nature of a spiritual attack is such that the spirit is very difficult to identify. That set me to wondering. Well, that and the conversation with Charity did anyway. Since the churches are infected with the spirit, the leaders of the churches are obviously unwittingly in collusion with the spirit or it could not be propagated. I know, that sounds bad and I am treading as carefully as I know how. Let me see if I can explain what I mean. Oh, and the point of this post (I think) is that it is not only the leaders.
Very often a pastor, usually of a smaller church, will not be the one who is unwittingly in agreement with the religious spirit. It is often a layman who holds some office in the local church that will be the problem. This person and the people around him or her become so inflated with their own importance they
seek to, oh gee, I cannot write what I am thinking. What they do is make the pastor impotent because of their self-centered importance. They earnestly play church for their own benefit. It is all part of the greater deception of the religious spirit.
The nature of the religious spirit is such that it causes people to believe they are doing Godly things when they are in fact only being religious. They have the form of Godliness we talked about early on, but they deny the power of God. Do we not all deny the power of God to some extent? That is symptomatic of a religious spirit. Even best, brightest, and most faith-filled among us act as though we believe there are things God cannot do.
The classic question about God's omnipotence is, "Can God make a rock He cannot pick up?" The answer, of course, is "Yes He can." The very simple explanation is however, once he has created that rock, He is also able to pick it up. Now we are not talking about ability, but rather desire. His ability is unquestioned so "Can He..." is not a valid question. "Will He..." is the real question. We can easily get caught in our own story loop when we begin to ask a question like that. It goes something like this. I know God can, but I am just not sure he wants to. So if He does not want to, then He will not so it is the same whether He can or not.
May we settle the question of what God wants for us by referring back to a verse we have quoted over and over in this blog? Jesus said, "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." (John 10:10) If you are still having a problem with this concept let me suggest a slight modification of the Ben Franklin close that salesmen sometimes use when a prospect cannot make up his or her mind. Take a sheet of paper and draw a line down the middle lengthwise. Label one side of the paper, "Thief." On that side of the line write all the things in your life that are missing, lost, or ruined. Label the other side, "Abundant Life." List over there all the things that would be good, beneficial, or would simply make life a little better. That side shows what God wants for you. Now we are back to the question of, "Will He."
Let us finish by reminding ourselves of just how much God loves us. Romans 8:32 asks the question, "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" That only leaves two questions in my mind. Who is included in "us all" and how many things are included in "all things"? Yes, that sounds too simple. Then again sometimes we are the ones who overcomplicate things.
Sometimes I feel like I am completely dragging my feet here and I suppose sometimes I am. However, processing what I just described in the previous paragraph did illumine a very interesting concept. At least I thought it was a very interesting concept and since this is my blog, you can either read it or not.
We are battling against a religious spirit here in the Santa Maria valley. That spirit has infected all the churches in the valley to a greater or lesser degree. Of course the insidious nature of a spiritual attack is such that the spirit is very difficult to identify. That set me to wondering. Well, that and the conversation with Charity did anyway. Since the churches are infected with the spirit, the leaders of the churches are obviously unwittingly in collusion with the spirit or it could not be propagated. I know, that sounds bad and I am treading as carefully as I know how. Let me see if I can explain what I mean. Oh, and the point of this post (I think) is that it is not only the leaders.
Very often a pastor, usually of a smaller church, will not be the one who is unwittingly in agreement with the religious spirit. It is often a layman who holds some office in the local church that will be the problem. This person and the people around him or her become so inflated with their own importance they
seek to, oh gee, I cannot write what I am thinking. What they do is make the pastor impotent because of their self-centered importance. They earnestly play church for their own benefit. It is all part of the greater deception of the religious spirit.
The nature of the religious spirit is such that it causes people to believe they are doing Godly things when they are in fact only being religious. They have the form of Godliness we talked about early on, but they deny the power of God. Do we not all deny the power of God to some extent? That is symptomatic of a religious spirit. Even best, brightest, and most faith-filled among us act as though we believe there are things God cannot do.
The classic question about God's omnipotence is, "Can God make a rock He cannot pick up?" The answer, of course, is "Yes He can." The very simple explanation is however, once he has created that rock, He is also able to pick it up. Now we are not talking about ability, but rather desire. His ability is unquestioned so "Can He..." is not a valid question. "Will He..." is the real question. We can easily get caught in our own story loop when we begin to ask a question like that. It goes something like this. I know God can, but I am just not sure he wants to. So if He does not want to, then He will not so it is the same whether He can or not.
May we settle the question of what God wants for us by referring back to a verse we have quoted over and over in this blog? Jesus said, "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." (John 10:10) If you are still having a problem with this concept let me suggest a slight modification of the Ben Franklin close that salesmen sometimes use when a prospect cannot make up his or her mind. Take a sheet of paper and draw a line down the middle lengthwise. Label one side of the paper, "Thief." On that side of the line write all the things in your life that are missing, lost, or ruined. Label the other side, "Abundant Life." List over there all the things that would be good, beneficial, or would simply make life a little better. That side shows what God wants for you. Now we are back to the question of, "Will He."
Let us finish by reminding ourselves of just how much God loves us. Romans 8:32 asks the question, "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" That only leaves two questions in my mind. Who is included in "us all" and how many things are included in "all things"? Yes, that sounds too simple. Then again sometimes we are the ones who overcomplicate things.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
We Need to Talk About Tongues
We are going to teach you something in this post that only about a dozen people in the world know. That is only because I have taught nine of them. While that is, of course, a tongue in cheek remark, if anyone else is teaching it correctly and completely, we certainly have not heard it. As with a lot of scriptural concepts it is so simple it is difficult to understand why it is not commonly known and taught.
Speaking in tongues is possibly the most divisive concept in the Bible. The interesting thing about that division is that the conflict comes from the people who do not want to believe the gift is still important to The Church. Oh wait, it is always the people who do not want to believe something who cause divisions in the church. Perhaps you have noticed that? In this writer's opinion, it is always better to believe too much than too little. When one believes too much, the Holy Spirit can always reign him in. However, when one believes too little he has set a limit on God. Limit God? God does delight in surprising us, but He will stop at the point of our unbelief. Take my word for that for now.
There is another interesting thing about the gifts of speaking in tongues. Yes, we did say "gifts" plural. It is interesting that Pentecostals and charismatics know there are different gifts of tongues, but virtually none of them know where they are found in the Bible. They know about the charismatic gift of tongues, part of the charismata, which is mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:10. Somehow they make that gift both gifts. They say it is the public gift and also a private prayer language given by the Holy Spirit as the initial physical evidence of His baptism. Were it not for the fact those presenting this teaching are ignorant of what you are about to learn, it would be bad theology and possibly intellectual dishonesty as well. I suppose what is even more amazing, is they are correct--in a way and to a point. There is a personal prayer language, a speaking in tongues that is the initial, physical evidence of the baptism in the Holy Spirit, but it is not a part of the charismata. It is a gift called a dorea (a personal gift in Greek) and it is found in Acts 10:46. The charismatic gift of tongues is given to The Church so that God can talk to us, whereas the other gift, the dorea, is given so that we can talk to God.
We attended a Pentecostal Bible college, sat under the teaching of some of the best Pentecostal theologians and teachers in the world today, and read numerous books on the subject of spiritual gifts. We did not so much as hear there was a dorea gift of tongues until we had the opportuntity to hear a teaching by Dr. E. Craig Hamlin. Dr. Hamlin holds a Ph.D. Psychology. He is not a theologian per se. He is a gifted Bible teacher. Had we not heard this overlooked piece of theology from him, we would not be teaching it here. Dr. Hamlin did not quite complete the teaching the day we heard it. He was exactly right as far as he went.
Acts Chapter 10 is the story of Peter being introduced to and starting a ministry to the Gentiles. The misunderstanding concerning the dorea is found in verse 46 as indicated above. The point that has traditionally been overlooked in this teaching is the case of the phrase, "the gift of the Holy Spirit" which it is said, "had been poured out on the Gentiles also". We think the Holy Spirit is the gift. That makes sense in the context and when we ignore the case, it is easy to misunderstand what is being said. In fact the genitive (or English possessive) case allows us to say either, "gift of the Holy Spirit" or "Holy Spirit's gift". When we use the latter rendering it is clear the gift is not the Holy Spirit, but rather is one given by Him. We will give you a second to think about that. The gift is not the Holy Spirit. The gift belongs to the Holy Spirit, it is His to give. That gift is the personal prayer language of speaking in tongues.
According to Pentecostal theology (We are not including the charismatics here because there is no such thing as charismatic theology. By definition a charismatic is a person who believes the charismata is for today, but chooses to remain faithful to another branch of The Church. Charismatics hold to Pentecostal theology and usually also to some other denominational, doctrinal position.) the initial, physical evidence of the baptism with the Holy Spirit is speaking in tongues. This tripped me up for a few hours early in my Pentecostal walk. The Holy Spirit was quick to help me understand the principle. In order to help you avoid tripping too, let me say it has to be the initial physical evidence because it is the only physical evidence. All the other gifts of the charismata must be spiritually discerned as such. We hear tongues from a physical mouth to our physical ears. There is no question something different is going on.
The dorea gift of speaking in tongues is given so that we can communicate with God, through the Holy Spirit, according to His perfect will. When we pray in tongues we are engaging our spirit, our soul, and our body all at the same time. Our mind does not understand what we are saying, but it directs our body to say it, when the Holy Spirit calls the prayer forth from our spirit. It is not really a complex process. It is just something we are not used to. However, it is a good idea to get used to it. Do it often. Pray in the spirit as often as possible. You never know when someone might need prayer that you do not know about. The Holy Spirit knows and He is looking for a partner. Is there anyone who really does not want to be a prayer partner with the Holy Spirit? If you answered "Yes" to that question, you might be reading the wrong blog.
Speaking in tongues is possibly the most divisive concept in the Bible. The interesting thing about that division is that the conflict comes from the people who do not want to believe the gift is still important to The Church. Oh wait, it is always the people who do not want to believe something who cause divisions in the church. Perhaps you have noticed that? In this writer's opinion, it is always better to believe too much than too little. When one believes too much, the Holy Spirit can always reign him in. However, when one believes too little he has set a limit on God. Limit God? God does delight in surprising us, but He will stop at the point of our unbelief. Take my word for that for now.
There is another interesting thing about the gifts of speaking in tongues. Yes, we did say "gifts" plural. It is interesting that Pentecostals and charismatics know there are different gifts of tongues, but virtually none of them know where they are found in the Bible. They know about the charismatic gift of tongues, part of the charismata, which is mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:10. Somehow they make that gift both gifts. They say it is the public gift and also a private prayer language given by the Holy Spirit as the initial physical evidence of His baptism. Were it not for the fact those presenting this teaching are ignorant of what you are about to learn, it would be bad theology and possibly intellectual dishonesty as well. I suppose what is even more amazing, is they are correct--in a way and to a point. There is a personal prayer language, a speaking in tongues that is the initial, physical evidence of the baptism in the Holy Spirit, but it is not a part of the charismata. It is a gift called a dorea (a personal gift in Greek) and it is found in Acts 10:46. The charismatic gift of tongues is given to The Church so that God can talk to us, whereas the other gift, the dorea, is given so that we can talk to God.
Most Pentecostals and charismatics have pretty good theology about the charismatic gifts so we are not going to discuss them here. If you feel you need some teaching in that area, send us an email or simply read 1 Corinthians 12-14. Paul gives some detail on the gifts and how to use them. Understanding the dorea gift is the point of this post. Again, do not let this be too simple for you.
We attended a Pentecostal Bible college, sat under the teaching of some of the best Pentecostal theologians and teachers in the world today, and read numerous books on the subject of spiritual gifts. We did not so much as hear there was a dorea gift of tongues until we had the opportuntity to hear a teaching by Dr. E. Craig Hamlin. Dr. Hamlin holds a Ph.D. Psychology. He is not a theologian per se. He is a gifted Bible teacher. Had we not heard this overlooked piece of theology from him, we would not be teaching it here. Dr. Hamlin did not quite complete the teaching the day we heard it. He was exactly right as far as he went.
Acts Chapter 10 is the story of Peter being introduced to and starting a ministry to the Gentiles. The misunderstanding concerning the dorea is found in verse 46 as indicated above. The point that has traditionally been overlooked in this teaching is the case of the phrase, "the gift of the Holy Spirit" which it is said, "had been poured out on the Gentiles also". We think the Holy Spirit is the gift. That makes sense in the context and when we ignore the case, it is easy to misunderstand what is being said. In fact the genitive (or English possessive) case allows us to say either, "gift of the Holy Spirit" or "Holy Spirit's gift". When we use the latter rendering it is clear the gift is not the Holy Spirit, but rather is one given by Him. We will give you a second to think about that. The gift is not the Holy Spirit. The gift belongs to the Holy Spirit, it is His to give. That gift is the personal prayer language of speaking in tongues.
According to Pentecostal theology (We are not including the charismatics here because there is no such thing as charismatic theology. By definition a charismatic is a person who believes the charismata is for today, but chooses to remain faithful to another branch of The Church. Charismatics hold to Pentecostal theology and usually also to some other denominational, doctrinal position.) the initial, physical evidence of the baptism with the Holy Spirit is speaking in tongues. This tripped me up for a few hours early in my Pentecostal walk. The Holy Spirit was quick to help me understand the principle. In order to help you avoid tripping too, let me say it has to be the initial physical evidence because it is the only physical evidence. All the other gifts of the charismata must be spiritually discerned as such. We hear tongues from a physical mouth to our physical ears. There is no question something different is going on.
The dorea gift of speaking in tongues is given so that we can communicate with God, through the Holy Spirit, according to His perfect will. When we pray in tongues we are engaging our spirit, our soul, and our body all at the same time. Our mind does not understand what we are saying, but it directs our body to say it, when the Holy Spirit calls the prayer forth from our spirit. It is not really a complex process. It is just something we are not used to. However, it is a good idea to get used to it. Do it often. Pray in the spirit as often as possible. You never know when someone might need prayer that you do not know about. The Holy Spirit knows and He is looking for a partner. Is there anyone who really does not want to be a prayer partner with the Holy Spirit? If you answered "Yes" to that question, you might be reading the wrong blog.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Sometimes Things Do Change
We have muddled through the crises of the past couple weeks. The DSL has been repaired so I can publish again. The work related stress has been eliminated. Life is good. In fact, life is better than good. The reason for that is exciting things are happening at the mission. Telling you about current events in the lives of two of the program men there should amply demonstrate what I mean.
Tony is at the mission for a second go around. He only spent six months there the first time when the program was a full year for most men. He has come back to do six more months and has been promised a graduation certificate when he completes that time. What you need to know about Tony is that he originally came to the mission as a committed Catholic. Ok, maybe not very committed, but definitely Catholic. He also did not know anything about the Bible. He learned quite a bit the first time through, but it was mostly information and not much revelation to speak of.
Pastor Bill Winston, whom we have mentioned before in these posts, says that the fall of man was a fall from revelation to information. What he means by that is that, man, being in perfect fellowship with God before the fall, received his understanding about God via direct revelation from God. However, after the fall, man became dependent on gathering information about God and the world he lived in. Believe it or not, there are actually some theologians who believe it is not possible for us to receive direct revelation any longer. (I think that is because if they admit it is possible, they would have to explain why they do not receive any.)
Watchman Nee explains that when man fell, his soul came between his spirit and God so that revelation is inhibited because now we have to decide how we think and feel so we can decide how to act rather than simply acting on what God says to us. Both men are saying the same thing in a little different way, placing the emphasis on different aspects of what happened.
Tony returned to the mission with much more knowledge than the first time. Part of his return was precipitated by the death of his mother. Now his sister is trying to settle the estate and that sometimes causes a little stress in his life.
He was walking up the stairs earlier this week and he said, "Deuteronomy." That was it, just Deuteronomy. He did not even know it was a book in the Bible so he asked our chaplain who told him that much. He came to my office and asked me to explain what was going on. Like I would know right? We sat in my office and I began reading him the passage headings from the the NIV Bible and give a brief description of what each passage was about. He kept saying things like, "That is exactly what is happening right now. " We did that through about 26 chapters and he seemed to get something out of most of them. Then he asked me why he said Deuteronomy in the first place. I suggested he might have just given himself a word of knowledge or perhaps a prophecy. Granted it was only one word, but assuredly Tony was hearing from the Holy Spirit. That is huge.
Jon came into the program a little over six months ago. Under normal circumstances (whatever those are) he would have started his second phase last week--except that he was in jail for 37 days. It is not important why he was in jail except to say he was never arrested, only detained. The problem was being detained alerted the parole department and his parole agent placed a hold on him until everything could be sorted out.
You have to understand that Jon is a very intelligent man. There is nothing he could not have already accomplished in his life had he not been distracted by methamphetamine. So he went to jail for 37 days. It was an uneventful 37 days except that he prayed with five fellow inmates to receive Jesus as Lord while he was there. Hey, I would have to take off my shoes and borrow some other fingers and toes to count how many pastors have not lead five people to the Lord in the past 37 days. Of course I guess it helps to be around unsaved people if one is going to do the work of an evangelist. (2 Timothy 2:5) I am thankful it was Jon in jail doing that and not me.
Oh yes, make no mistake, things are going on at the mission. I only chose the most dramatic things, certainly not all the things that have happened recently. Oh, by the way, the mighty men count is up to five. One of them is really a rapscallion, but then such were some of us. Still, he chose to be a mighty man and, although haltingly at times, he is trying to walk worthy of his calling. (Ephesians 4:1) If he is going to follow, I am going to make sure he has the best example possible to follow. See you next time. God bless.
Tony is at the mission for a second go around. He only spent six months there the first time when the program was a full year for most men. He has come back to do six more months and has been promised a graduation certificate when he completes that time. What you need to know about Tony is that he originally came to the mission as a committed Catholic. Ok, maybe not very committed, but definitely Catholic. He also did not know anything about the Bible. He learned quite a bit the first time through, but it was mostly information and not much revelation to speak of.
Pastor Bill Winston, whom we have mentioned before in these posts, says that the fall of man was a fall from revelation to information. What he means by that is that, man, being in perfect fellowship with God before the fall, received his understanding about God via direct revelation from God. However, after the fall, man became dependent on gathering information about God and the world he lived in. Believe it or not, there are actually some theologians who believe it is not possible for us to receive direct revelation any longer. (I think that is because if they admit it is possible, they would have to explain why they do not receive any.)
Watchman Nee explains that when man fell, his soul came between his spirit and God so that revelation is inhibited because now we have to decide how we think and feel so we can decide how to act rather than simply acting on what God says to us. Both men are saying the same thing in a little different way, placing the emphasis on different aspects of what happened.
Tony returned to the mission with much more knowledge than the first time. Part of his return was precipitated by the death of his mother. Now his sister is trying to settle the estate and that sometimes causes a little stress in his life.
He was walking up the stairs earlier this week and he said, "Deuteronomy." That was it, just Deuteronomy. He did not even know it was a book in the Bible so he asked our chaplain who told him that much. He came to my office and asked me to explain what was going on. Like I would know right? We sat in my office and I began reading him the passage headings from the the NIV Bible and give a brief description of what each passage was about. He kept saying things like, "That is exactly what is happening right now. " We did that through about 26 chapters and he seemed to get something out of most of them. Then he asked me why he said Deuteronomy in the first place. I suggested he might have just given himself a word of knowledge or perhaps a prophecy. Granted it was only one word, but assuredly Tony was hearing from the Holy Spirit. That is huge.
Jon came into the program a little over six months ago. Under normal circumstances (whatever those are) he would have started his second phase last week--except that he was in jail for 37 days. It is not important why he was in jail except to say he was never arrested, only detained. The problem was being detained alerted the parole department and his parole agent placed a hold on him until everything could be sorted out.
You have to understand that Jon is a very intelligent man. There is nothing he could not have already accomplished in his life had he not been distracted by methamphetamine. So he went to jail for 37 days. It was an uneventful 37 days except that he prayed with five fellow inmates to receive Jesus as Lord while he was there. Hey, I would have to take off my shoes and borrow some other fingers and toes to count how many pastors have not lead five people to the Lord in the past 37 days. Of course I guess it helps to be around unsaved people if one is going to do the work of an evangelist. (2 Timothy 2:5) I am thankful it was Jon in jail doing that and not me.
Oh yes, make no mistake, things are going on at the mission. I only chose the most dramatic things, certainly not all the things that have happened recently. Oh, by the way, the mighty men count is up to five. One of them is really a rapscallion, but then such were some of us. Still, he chose to be a mighty man and, although haltingly at times, he is trying to walk worthy of his calling. (Ephesians 4:1) If he is going to follow, I am going to make sure he has the best example possible to follow. See you next time. God bless.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
The More Things Change
There is an old saying, "The more things change, the more they stay the same." It is Saturday, just after 5:00 AM and here I am blogging. That is not a problem. I have been mostly awake for about three hours already. I am pretty sure I am going to need a nap later on, but for now God bless Charles Alderton. Oh, he invented Dr. Pepper.
The more things change comes up because I got word of a scheduling change at work which I believe was intended to start next week. In my opinion it is never a good idea to unilaterally and indiscriminately change a person's schedule without considering all the ramifications. The new schedule is certainly less convenient for me, but it is not even about convenience. I have to rework the whole class schedule. It is not even about that though. I recently looked over our success rate to get the big picture overview. When we had to change from one class a day to two our success rate went way down. It probably was not the class schedule per se that caused it, but rather the fact that twice as much teaching left us with much less time to give the program participants nearly as much personal attention. We teach more, but disciple less. We are not able to pour as much of Jesus' life and love into the men. That leaves me sad. Another schedule change is only going to make that worse. I am not sure at this point what I can do to mitigate that.
I am doing some good work at the mission. At least a lot of people seem to think so. If I have to deal with some things I just do not understand I guess I will do that as long as Jesus is pleased to have me do it. I cannot help anyone if I am not there. Still, there comes a time when enough is too much. Not to worry, that time is not yet.
By now you are probably asking if I am just venting or if there is really a reason for all this. There is always a reason--if it is only me venting and processing my emotions in print. You all would probably be gracious with me and finish reading anyway. I am constantly amazed at what you all get out of the things I write when I am not the least bit impressed.
There are life lessons to be learned in any situation we may encounter. By the way, now Saturday has turned into Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. We have been having internet problems for over a week here at home. I had finished this post. When I went to print a copy Monday, the last half was not there. Apparently it got lost Sunday somewhere between my computer and the Google server when I tried to publish it. I do apologize to those of you who might have read the half a post before I found out what had happened. The repairman for the DSL was here yesterday afternoon. Now I can finish it.
Sunday morning as I was almost awake I was kind of complaining to the Lord. I was saying "This guy is a pain in the..." That was exactly as far as I got when the Holy Spirit reminded me of something I have taught over the years about Paul's thorn in the flesh. (2 Corinthians 12:7) Most people want to spiritualize the thorn or say it was a physical illness that Paul could not get rid of. Some even claim this passage is proof Jesus does not want to heal everyone. I doubt Paul would have agreed. In fact, he said his thorn was a messenger of Satan sent to buffet him and keep him humble. What he was saying is he had a spirit following him, stirring up trouble for him and it was a pain in the neck. Of course with the decay of society nowadays we tend to use a lower part of the anatomy in that expression.
R.T. Kenyon, a pastor and author from a previous generation, believes everyone has a thorn in the flesh. I am not sure I agree with that hypothesis. I have never thought myself to need one. I can keep myself pretty humble with my own mistakes. I think that is all I will say about that.
Whether I have a thorn or not, I have been keep off balance for a couple weeks now by one thing after another. I need a vacation. Lord, I need a long vacation--with pay please. You have seen what happens when I am off balance. It has been over two weeks since I published a post. I know most of you are accustomed to me being a more prolific writer than that. I usually am.
Make no mistake, the devil does not want me to succeed in any area of my life. (Pssstttt...he does not want you to succeed either.) I have been getting dangerous to the kingdom of darkness after all these years. I beat on the serpent's head every day at the mission. Men are coming out of jail, being born again, and turning their lives toward more beneficial pursuits. I blog. Some people read my blog. Some of them find a little help, comfort, instruction or solace in what they read. I am dangerous.
"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28) Some of the newer translations add the causative to this verse so it reads, "...God causes all things to work..." or "...in all things, God works..." As Christians we know regardless of how the verse is translated, God is the one who works and causes all things to work. To finish this post and publish it, let me say that God worked in every situation that was causing me stress over the past week and they have all been resolved. It is possible that not everyone is happy with the way things were resolved, but that undoubtedly means their life lessons in those situations are not yet complete. God is doing good work everywhere I look. I am kind of excited. I had to finish this post so I could get on to the next one. If you are not excited by the time you finish reading it, check your pulse. God bless.
The more things change comes up because I got word of a scheduling change at work which I believe was intended to start next week. In my opinion it is never a good idea to unilaterally and indiscriminately change a person's schedule without considering all the ramifications. The new schedule is certainly less convenient for me, but it is not even about convenience. I have to rework the whole class schedule. It is not even about that though. I recently looked over our success rate to get the big picture overview. When we had to change from one class a day to two our success rate went way down. It probably was not the class schedule per se that caused it, but rather the fact that twice as much teaching left us with much less time to give the program participants nearly as much personal attention. We teach more, but disciple less. We are not able to pour as much of Jesus' life and love into the men. That leaves me sad. Another schedule change is only going to make that worse. I am not sure at this point what I can do to mitigate that.
I am doing some good work at the mission. At least a lot of people seem to think so. If I have to deal with some things I just do not understand I guess I will do that as long as Jesus is pleased to have me do it. I cannot help anyone if I am not there. Still, there comes a time when enough is too much. Not to worry, that time is not yet.
By now you are probably asking if I am just venting or if there is really a reason for all this. There is always a reason--if it is only me venting and processing my emotions in print. You all would probably be gracious with me and finish reading anyway. I am constantly amazed at what you all get out of the things I write when I am not the least bit impressed.
There are life lessons to be learned in any situation we may encounter. By the way, now Saturday has turned into Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. We have been having internet problems for over a week here at home. I had finished this post. When I went to print a copy Monday, the last half was not there. Apparently it got lost Sunday somewhere between my computer and the Google server when I tried to publish it. I do apologize to those of you who might have read the half a post before I found out what had happened. The repairman for the DSL was here yesterday afternoon. Now I can finish it.
Sunday morning as I was almost awake I was kind of complaining to the Lord. I was saying "This guy is a pain in the..." That was exactly as far as I got when the Holy Spirit reminded me of something I have taught over the years about Paul's thorn in the flesh. (2 Corinthians 12:7) Most people want to spiritualize the thorn or say it was a physical illness that Paul could not get rid of. Some even claim this passage is proof Jesus does not want to heal everyone. I doubt Paul would have agreed. In fact, he said his thorn was a messenger of Satan sent to buffet him and keep him humble. What he was saying is he had a spirit following him, stirring up trouble for him and it was a pain in the neck. Of course with the decay of society nowadays we tend to use a lower part of the anatomy in that expression.
R.T. Kenyon, a pastor and author from a previous generation, believes everyone has a thorn in the flesh. I am not sure I agree with that hypothesis. I have never thought myself to need one. I can keep myself pretty humble with my own mistakes. I think that is all I will say about that.
Whether I have a thorn or not, I have been keep off balance for a couple weeks now by one thing after another. I need a vacation. Lord, I need a long vacation--with pay please. You have seen what happens when I am off balance. It has been over two weeks since I published a post. I know most of you are accustomed to me being a more prolific writer than that. I usually am.
Make no mistake, the devil does not want me to succeed in any area of my life. (Pssstttt...he does not want you to succeed either.) I have been getting dangerous to the kingdom of darkness after all these years. I beat on the serpent's head every day at the mission. Men are coming out of jail, being born again, and turning their lives toward more beneficial pursuits. I blog. Some people read my blog. Some of them find a little help, comfort, instruction or solace in what they read. I am dangerous.
"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28) Some of the newer translations add the causative to this verse so it reads, "...God causes all things to work..." or "...in all things, God works..." As Christians we know regardless of how the verse is translated, God is the one who works and causes all things to work. To finish this post and publish it, let me say that God worked in every situation that was causing me stress over the past week and they have all been resolved. It is possible that not everyone is happy with the way things were resolved, but that undoubtedly means their life lessons in those situations are not yet complete. God is doing good work everywhere I look. I am kind of excited. I had to finish this post so I could get on to the next one. If you are not excited by the time you finish reading it, check your pulse. God bless.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Once Upon a Time
Once upon a time in a land not so far away there lived a fairly ordinary man (replace with "woman" if you are female). He had never done much of anything to distinguish himself from his peer group. He was not rich or famous or particularly good looking and though he kept trying to convince people he was just not that smart, many who knew him did not believe it. If he did anything right in his life, it had been to answer the call of God. To his mind it did not much matter what the Lord said, he just did it. Of particular note in that obedience was that, though sometimes easily distracted, the overriding desire of his life was to find exactly where he fit, what his purpose was, in the kindgom of God. He firmly believed that every person is put upon this earth for some higher purpose than to just live and die. Some people are slow learners and it took him the best part of threescore years on earth to finally discover his calling. Even that discovery came about almost by accident.
It certainly would be nice if God sent us to earth knowing exactly what we were doing. In truth, some of us never find out. God has provided all the answers to all the mysteries of life within the greatest of all books, the Bible. The Bible tells us everything we need to know about living life on the earth. It is not about a cosmic struggle in the heavenly realms that makes good reading. It is not even about the history of one people group on the earth and their struggles to obtain and maintain an identity against all odds. Rather, it is the greatest story ever told. It is certainly the greatest because it tells us about Jesus, the Son of God who chose to endure the discomforts of earth for a little while rather than enjoy the comforts of the heavenly throne room while God's greatest creation self-destructed on a blue ball of carbon based materials spinning its way around one of ten septrillion stars in the universe (That is 10 with 21 zeros after it, and no, I did not count them. In fact, I doubt the accuracy of the number, but that is the number astronomers work with.)
To return to our story, one of the things this man did right was to find the right woman to be his partner, his companion, his helper exactly suited to him. God said, "It is not good that man should be alone..." (Genesis 2:18) He almost backed into that one too. Had God not insisted he propose, it is anyone's guess whether he would have gotten that one right. The end of that story has yet to be written, but so far, the four best children in the world have made it to adulthood and today the family totals ten with another on the way. The blessings of God are evident throughout the family. Lest that sound a little too idyllic, the whole group is eminently human with all the same struggles and challenges such as are common to mankind on this earth. Yet they have, and they will, overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony--Jesus is Lord!
Surely there must be a reason we are telling this particular story of this individual man of all the billions that have lived on this earth since its creation. Certainly there is. God always has a plan. We are the ones who miss it or lose sight of it. The book of Proverbs is generally attributed to King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived. (Sorry Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan, and all you others who have not even found the beginning of wisdom. Hint: check out Proverbs 9:10.) King Solomon said, "Where there is no revelation the people cast off restraint..." (Proverbs 29:18) The clear message here is that when we cannot see what God is doing, we do what we want to do. Many of us have spent many years doing what we wanted to do, what seemed right in our own eyes. Of course God warned us about that too. "There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death." (Proverbs 16:25) When we do not listen to Him, we prove how right He is.
A friend had me watch a dumb, old movie a few years ago. Some of you might remember Meatballs. The message of that movie in one phrase is, "It just doesn't matter." It does not matter where your life has been or where it is right now. Jesus' message of redemption is that it can all change right now. If you have made bad decisions in the past, you can change that right now. If you do not know where you're headed, you can change that right now. The past is behind you. It just does not matter. If you want to be intentional about walking free from your past life, again, the Bible has some sage advice. "...forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:13-14) Maybe you have some to forgive. Do it! Perhaps you have some one you need to ask to forgive you. Do it! Leave the past in the past and focus on doing the right things, the right way, right now!
You probably guessed who the man is in the story. At least most of you know. He is you and he is me. Probably more me than you, but you get the idea. We all face the same things as we walk through this life. The challenges, tests, and trials come in different forms and versions, but they really are all the same. We have read the back of the book and we know we finally win. What happens to us in the meantime really does not matter all that much. It is all about getting there and doing the right things along the way. God bless you as you do.
It certainly would be nice if God sent us to earth knowing exactly what we were doing. In truth, some of us never find out. God has provided all the answers to all the mysteries of life within the greatest of all books, the Bible. The Bible tells us everything we need to know about living life on the earth. It is not about a cosmic struggle in the heavenly realms that makes good reading. It is not even about the history of one people group on the earth and their struggles to obtain and maintain an identity against all odds. Rather, it is the greatest story ever told. It is certainly the greatest because it tells us about Jesus, the Son of God who chose to endure the discomforts of earth for a little while rather than enjoy the comforts of the heavenly throne room while God's greatest creation self-destructed on a blue ball of carbon based materials spinning its way around one of ten septrillion stars in the universe (That is 10 with 21 zeros after it, and no, I did not count them. In fact, I doubt the accuracy of the number, but that is the number astronomers work with.)
To return to our story, one of the things this man did right was to find the right woman to be his partner, his companion, his helper exactly suited to him. God said, "It is not good that man should be alone..." (Genesis 2:18) He almost backed into that one too. Had God not insisted he propose, it is anyone's guess whether he would have gotten that one right. The end of that story has yet to be written, but so far, the four best children in the world have made it to adulthood and today the family totals ten with another on the way. The blessings of God are evident throughout the family. Lest that sound a little too idyllic, the whole group is eminently human with all the same struggles and challenges such as are common to mankind on this earth. Yet they have, and they will, overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony--Jesus is Lord!
Surely there must be a reason we are telling this particular story of this individual man of all the billions that have lived on this earth since its creation. Certainly there is. God always has a plan. We are the ones who miss it or lose sight of it. The book of Proverbs is generally attributed to King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived. (Sorry Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan, and all you others who have not even found the beginning of wisdom. Hint: check out Proverbs 9:10.) King Solomon said, "Where there is no revelation the people cast off restraint..." (Proverbs 29:18) The clear message here is that when we cannot see what God is doing, we do what we want to do. Many of us have spent many years doing what we wanted to do, what seemed right in our own eyes. Of course God warned us about that too. "There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death." (Proverbs 16:25) When we do not listen to Him, we prove how right He is.
A friend had me watch a dumb, old movie a few years ago. Some of you might remember Meatballs. The message of that movie in one phrase is, "It just doesn't matter." It does not matter where your life has been or where it is right now. Jesus' message of redemption is that it can all change right now. If you have made bad decisions in the past, you can change that right now. If you do not know where you're headed, you can change that right now. The past is behind you. It just does not matter. If you want to be intentional about walking free from your past life, again, the Bible has some sage advice. "...forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:13-14) Maybe you have some to forgive. Do it! Perhaps you have some one you need to ask to forgive you. Do it! Leave the past in the past and focus on doing the right things, the right way, right now!
You probably guessed who the man is in the story. At least most of you know. He is you and he is me. Probably more me than you, but you get the idea. We all face the same things as we walk through this life. The challenges, tests, and trials come in different forms and versions, but they really are all the same. We have read the back of the book and we know we finally win. What happens to us in the meantime really does not matter all that much. It is all about getting there and doing the right things along the way. God bless you as you do.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
The Anointing, Part 2
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." (Isaiah 61:1,2)
As we mentioned in Part 1, these verses at the beginning of Isaiah 61 are prophetic of the ministry of Jesus on earth. He demonstrated this when He read them in the synagogue in His hometown of Nazareth at the beginning of His Messianic ministry. It is also obvious that the people who heard Him read the verses that day understood them to be Messianic prophecies. When he told them those Old Testament verses were beginning to be fulfilled that day, those who heard Him were at first curious because they had watched him grow up in that town. When He went on to say rather obliquely that His ministry was really only for those who were ready to receive it, they became very angry and attempted to kill Him. You can read that bit of history in Luke 4:18-29.
Again, as we said in Part 1, these verses are also prophetic of the ministry of Jesus' disciples on the earth. No, we do not mean the twelve He chose to accompany Him while He was on earth or even the one who took Judas' place after the betrayal. Of course they would be included in that group, but so would all of us. Yes, really. A disciple is a learner. Most of us do not know much except what we have learned from Jesus. At least we do not know much about spiritual life other than that. Ok, I feel the need to be fair. I should not have included all of you in that blanket indictment. I just know I do not know that much of any real value that I have not learned from Jesus. Sometimes he teaches me through the Bible, sometimes through other people or things those people have written. Sometimes He teaches me directly through the Holy Spirit speaking to my spirit. However it happens, if I learn, I am a disciple--and so are you.
I wonder if you also have the same problem I do thinking about all Jesus might want me to do. I do not know how much that is or how great those things are, but I am pretty sure it is more than I am doing now. In any event, having my ministry compared to Jesus' ministry always leaves me feeling as though I am coming up a little short. I wonder if that might be part of the reason Jesus chose the men He chose to be His first disciples? They were uneducated and untrained men. That is what the religious leaders of the day said. But they also took note of the fact those men had been with Jesus. (Acts 4:13) Maybe if Jesus is just too high a standard for us to reach, we can at least relate to fishermen, tax collectors, and other ordinary men.
One can get all the spiritual and religious education that is necessary to do most ministry without ever darkening the door of a Bible college or seminary. One can also end up holding some pretty ridiculous ideas when he learns theology in a vacuum as it were, without the benefit of people wiser and more experienced than himself. By way of illustration of this, perhaps the most ridiculous idea we ever heard is that the original King James Bible is the onlyEnglish version God has approved. As proof, the man who told us that opened to the first page of his King James Bible where it said, "Authorized Version." Talk about deception. He actually believed God, rather than King James of England had authorized that version. We might as well go on to another subject. There does not seem to be much else we can say about that.
Looking back at those verses from Isaiah 61, and taking a step back to get the bigger picture, we can see Jesus' ministry is all about putting things right in people's lives. He came to bring the Gospel (good news) to those who needed some. He came to heal physical and emotional hurts and to free those who were in bondage. Maybe most importantly, He came to show us that with His coming, all that began. All that began. Twice should be enough to say that. We are not awaiting some day in the future to see Jesus work His love, miracles and healings. He is doing it now. He began to do it when He started His earthly ministry. He is doing it now through His Holy Spirit anointed Church. There are some religious traditions that leave the ministry of the Holy Spirit only within the pages of the Bible. The adherents of those traditions actually believe the gifts of the Holy Spirit ceased to be necessary when the Bible was completed. That is just silly. (I could go on, but I dare not lest I never finish this post.)
Now listen, get this straight in your thinking. Although all three members of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit work together, there is only one of them that carries the majority of the work on earth in any period of time. The Father was the one who worked from the creation until Jesus, the Son, began His ministry. Jesus ministered for a little over three years. By His own words, we know He turned the ministry over to the Holy Spirit when He returned to His place at the right hand of the Father. (John 16:7)
The Holy Spirit has been constantly at work on the earth since Jesus returned to heaven. He works behind the scenes as it were. His job is to glorify Jesus, convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgement, and to lead us into all truth. (John 16:8-14)
As we mentioned in Part 1, these verses at the beginning of Isaiah 61 are prophetic of the ministry of Jesus on earth. He demonstrated this when He read them in the synagogue in His hometown of Nazareth at the beginning of His Messianic ministry. It is also obvious that the people who heard Him read the verses that day understood them to be Messianic prophecies. When he told them those Old Testament verses were beginning to be fulfilled that day, those who heard Him were at first curious because they had watched him grow up in that town. When He went on to say rather obliquely that His ministry was really only for those who were ready to receive it, they became very angry and attempted to kill Him. You can read that bit of history in Luke 4:18-29.
Again, as we said in Part 1, these verses are also prophetic of the ministry of Jesus' disciples on the earth. No, we do not mean the twelve He chose to accompany Him while He was on earth or even the one who took Judas' place after the betrayal. Of course they would be included in that group, but so would all of us. Yes, really. A disciple is a learner. Most of us do not know much except what we have learned from Jesus. At least we do not know much about spiritual life other than that. Ok, I feel the need to be fair. I should not have included all of you in that blanket indictment. I just know I do not know that much of any real value that I have not learned from Jesus. Sometimes he teaches me through the Bible, sometimes through other people or things those people have written. Sometimes He teaches me directly through the Holy Spirit speaking to my spirit. However it happens, if I learn, I am a disciple--and so are you.
I wonder if you also have the same problem I do thinking about all Jesus might want me to do. I do not know how much that is or how great those things are, but I am pretty sure it is more than I am doing now. In any event, having my ministry compared to Jesus' ministry always leaves me feeling as though I am coming up a little short. I wonder if that might be part of the reason Jesus chose the men He chose to be His first disciples? They were uneducated and untrained men. That is what the religious leaders of the day said. But they also took note of the fact those men had been with Jesus. (Acts 4:13) Maybe if Jesus is just too high a standard for us to reach, we can at least relate to fishermen, tax collectors, and other ordinary men.
One can get all the spiritual and religious education that is necessary to do most ministry without ever darkening the door of a Bible college or seminary. One can also end up holding some pretty ridiculous ideas when he learns theology in a vacuum as it were, without the benefit of people wiser and more experienced than himself. By way of illustration of this, perhaps the most ridiculous idea we ever heard is that the original King James Bible is the onlyEnglish version God has approved. As proof, the man who told us that opened to the first page of his King James Bible where it said, "Authorized Version." Talk about deception. He actually believed God, rather than King James of England had authorized that version. We might as well go on to another subject. There does not seem to be much else we can say about that.
Looking back at those verses from Isaiah 61, and taking a step back to get the bigger picture, we can see Jesus' ministry is all about putting things right in people's lives. He came to bring the Gospel (good news) to those who needed some. He came to heal physical and emotional hurts and to free those who were in bondage. Maybe most importantly, He came to show us that with His coming, all that began. All that began. Twice should be enough to say that. We are not awaiting some day in the future to see Jesus work His love, miracles and healings. He is doing it now. He began to do it when He started His earthly ministry. He is doing it now through His Holy Spirit anointed Church. There are some religious traditions that leave the ministry of the Holy Spirit only within the pages of the Bible. The adherents of those traditions actually believe the gifts of the Holy Spirit ceased to be necessary when the Bible was completed. That is just silly. (I could go on, but I dare not lest I never finish this post.)
Now listen, get this straight in your thinking. Although all three members of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit work together, there is only one of them that carries the majority of the work on earth in any period of time. The Father was the one who worked from the creation until Jesus, the Son, began His ministry. Jesus ministered for a little over three years. By His own words, we know He turned the ministry over to the Holy Spirit when He returned to His place at the right hand of the Father. (John 16:7)
The Holy Spirit has been constantly at work on the earth since Jesus returned to heaven. He works behind the scenes as it were. His job is to glorify Jesus, convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgement, and to lead us into all truth. (John 16:8-14)
The apostle Peter, in explaining God's plan of salvation tells us that, "...God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power..." (Acts 10:38) Sometimes the prepositions can help us understand the concepts in the Bible. In this case, "with" indicates the Holy Spirit is the substance of the anointing. The ability, the power, to do the works comes along with the Holy Spirit. This can be a little confusing, but the Holy Spirit is what Jesus was anointed with, while power is what was observed as a result of that anointing. In this case, the power was Jesus' ability for "...doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil..." (Acts 10:38) Wait, you get more.
The apostle Paul tells us, "Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God." (1 Corinthians 1:21) Hang on now. The clear teaching, when we put these two verses together, is the same God who anointed Jesus has also anointed us. That almost sounds too good to be true. It is not. All we have to do is add one more verse from the apostle John and we know we are anointed. "But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you..." (1 John 2:27) Notice that we have already been anointed. That applies to everyone who has made Jesus Lord of his or her life. No exceptions.
To put the bow on this package, a quick recap is in order. We learned the anointing breaks the yoke of bondage. The anointing was given to Jesus. We were also anointed with Him and by Him to carry out His work on earth. That means we have all the ability Jesus had to do the things He did while he walked the earth in flesh and blood. The anointing that gave Him that ability was the Holy Spirit. We have also been anointed with the same Holy Spirit. About all we can say to end this is that we all have the ability to work the works we are called to. All we need to do is to go do them. Whatever God has called you to do, just do it.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
The Anointing, Part 1
Please pray for me. I have been struggling. I have to assume it is my fault since we know the Lord does not make mistakes. There have been more random thoughts rolling around in my mind lately then there have been focused thoughts. That is why these posts are so far apart lately. I refuse to do shabby work. There just has not been any inspiration. There has been a lot of stress and distraction lately and apparently I do not handle those things as well as I might.
I started writing a post last night, but that would have ended up being shabby work I think. If one simply wants to write, that is not a problem. The substance of the writing is the point. Perhaps there will be more substance here. Plato said, "Wise men speak because they have something to say, fools because they have to say something." No, we are not often inclined to quote Plato in these pages, but truth is truth. In any event, I guess my soul was quiet enough in the shower this morning to hear one word, "anointing". Now I have something to say.
When I hear a word or phrase in my spirit, other words, thoughts and Bible verses often begin to tumble out. This morning, "ability" was right behind "anointing". Behind that, Isaiah 10:27, "...And the yoke will be destroyed because of the anointing oil." Following on its heels was Luke 4:18,19 which is a quote from Isaiah 61:1,2, which you regular readers may remember are the verses the Lord gave me oh so many years ago as my call to the ministry. About the time I heard those verses today I knew there would be too much information to get everything that needed to be said about the anointing into one post.
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." (Isaiah 61:1,2) Let me add a disclaimer to that.
Believe it or not, I have actually had people say to me that God would not have used those verses to call me to the ministry. Their reasoning (read as soul) brought them to the conclusion that these verses only apply to Jesus, not anyone else. I am not allowed to use profanity in these posts so may I just say, the ignorance of such a belief is, well, beyond ignorant. In fact, I began to protest when I realized what God was saying to me during that time of calling. He assured me He wants me to be just like Jesus. Let me let you in on a little secret. God wants you to be just like Jesus as well. These verses actually represent exactly what God expects us to do as the body of Christ on earth in these last days.
When we see references to the anointing in the Old Testament, as in the verses in Isaiah quoted above, they do not refer to the results of the anointing, but rather to the action or the substance (oil) of the anointing. In other words, we do not see the enabling or ability that results from one being anointed. Instead, we see the noun "oil" or the verb, "to apply the oil". In fact the two passages in Isaiah show us both those things. The yoke is broken by the anointing oil (noun) and the Spirit is upon Jesus because God anointed (verb) Him. We will come back and discuss those two passages in more detail later in this series if not in this post.
Our real anointing comes from the Holy Spirit in these last days. That anointing was not available before Jesus returned to heaven. Many churches will anoint people who are starting in new places of ministry or are being sent out from their fellowship to begin some other ministry. There is, of course, no magic in the oil of the anointing or in the prayer per se, but we are invoking the real power, the Holy Spirit, to work in and through the ones being anointed. The anointing in the Old Testament points us toward the coming of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. He is the real substance, if you will, of the anointing. When He anoints us, we have the ability to do those things in the spirit we would never have been able to do without His help. He also does anoint our own natural abilities so that our minds and emotions are elevated to levels that would otherwise not be possible.
I started writing a post last night, but that would have ended up being shabby work I think. If one simply wants to write, that is not a problem. The substance of the writing is the point. Perhaps there will be more substance here. Plato said, "Wise men speak because they have something to say, fools because they have to say something." No, we are not often inclined to quote Plato in these pages, but truth is truth. In any event, I guess my soul was quiet enough in the shower this morning to hear one word, "anointing". Now I have something to say.
When I hear a word or phrase in my spirit, other words, thoughts and Bible verses often begin to tumble out. This morning, "ability" was right behind "anointing". Behind that, Isaiah 10:27, "...And the yoke will be destroyed because of the anointing oil." Following on its heels was Luke 4:18,19 which is a quote from Isaiah 61:1,2, which you regular readers may remember are the verses the Lord gave me oh so many years ago as my call to the ministry. About the time I heard those verses today I knew there would be too much information to get everything that needed to be said about the anointing into one post.
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." (Isaiah 61:1,2) Let me add a disclaimer to that.
Believe it or not, I have actually had people say to me that God would not have used those verses to call me to the ministry. Their reasoning (read as soul) brought them to the conclusion that these verses only apply to Jesus, not anyone else. I am not allowed to use profanity in these posts so may I just say, the ignorance of such a belief is, well, beyond ignorant. In fact, I began to protest when I realized what God was saying to me during that time of calling. He assured me He wants me to be just like Jesus. Let me let you in on a little secret. God wants you to be just like Jesus as well. These verses actually represent exactly what God expects us to do as the body of Christ on earth in these last days.
When we see references to the anointing in the Old Testament, as in the verses in Isaiah quoted above, they do not refer to the results of the anointing, but rather to the action or the substance (oil) of the anointing. In other words, we do not see the enabling or ability that results from one being anointed. Instead, we see the noun "oil" or the verb, "to apply the oil". In fact the two passages in Isaiah show us both those things. The yoke is broken by the anointing oil (noun) and the Spirit is upon Jesus because God anointed (verb) Him. We will come back and discuss those two passages in more detail later in this series if not in this post.
Our real anointing comes from the Holy Spirit in these last days. That anointing was not available before Jesus returned to heaven. Many churches will anoint people who are starting in new places of ministry or are being sent out from their fellowship to begin some other ministry. There is, of course, no magic in the oil of the anointing or in the prayer per se, but we are invoking the real power, the Holy Spirit, to work in and through the ones being anointed. The anointing in the Old Testament points us toward the coming of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. He is the real substance, if you will, of the anointing. When He anoints us, we have the ability to do those things in the spirit we would never have been able to do without His help. He also does anoint our own natural abilities so that our minds and emotions are elevated to levels that would otherwise not be possible.
Before we collect too many more passages on the anointing, let us first discuss the two we have already mentioned. In Isaiah 11:27 we are told the anointing oil breaks the yoke. Again, there is no magic in the oil used for anointing. Isaiah is foretelling the future in this verse as he is in 61:1,2 which we will discuss shortly. In context, God is telling Israel they will be punished for turning away from Him. He will use the Assyrians to bring the punishment. Once that is done, Israel will return to God and the Assyrians will be punished for not honoring God. This kind of thing seems to trip some people up. It is simply the classic battle between good and evil. The only real difference here is that God is telling us beforehand what He is going to do. It would all be the same if the Assyrians (God's enemies) attacked Israel (God's people) and were punished for it. We would have no problem with that. There should be no problem in understanding this scenario either. The Assyrians are going to attack Israel because they are just that kind of people. That is what they do. God is going to use that attack and the subsequent difficulties to show Israel His power in bringing them back to their land in peace. He is also going to punish Assyria for attacking His people. The spiritual lessons for us here are that God will bring punishment on us for disobeying His commands. He will also punish those who attack us--regardless of their reasons for doing so.
When we disobey God we allow the devil to place a yoke on our necks. He uses this yoke to make us do his work. His work is to steal and to kill and to destroy. (John 10:10) In an honest moment, most of us would have to admit we do the devil's work much more often than we would like to. The remedy for this situation, the release from the yoke is the anointing. Note that this scenario plays itself out in the lives of believers every day. We sin. When we do not immediately confess our sin and repent, Satan has the legal right to place a yoke on our necks. The thing that removes that yoke is the anointing. That anointing comes from the anointed One, the Christ (the term Christ literally means "the anointed one"). Jesus Christ is still the anointed One. His anointing is also upon His anointed ones, acting in His behalf, doing His work on earth today. It is the anointing that is the ability to do the yoke breaking work that can be done no other way.
Ok, so we are not going to get to Isaiah 61 this time. We will not keep you waiting too long for the second installment, Lord willing. In the meantime, begin to recognize the anointing in your lives and in the lives of others. See you soon. God bless.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Cause and Effect
In the physical world we are pretty good at understanding cause and effect. We know, for example, that if we do not take care of our bodies, we will suffer various health issues. Likewise, if our car breaks down, we can often trace the problem to a lack of proper maintenance. Most of still have a problem believing that if a butterfly flaps it's wings in an Argentine rain forest the effects will be felt very far from that butterfly. Although, of course, that action is a micro-example of the chaos theory which is used to determine the effects of seemingly random occurrences. I really do not know exactly what I am talking about there, but I hope it sounded good.
When it comes to the world of the spirit, that realm where God lives and functions, we are a lot less capable. We tend to think things just happen and sometimes there is simply no explanation for them. We see things happen in the physical world and often do not consider that we are seeing things with spiritual roots or origins. We need to clear that misconception up right now. Nothing happens for unexplainable reasons. The closest that concept comes to reality is if we change a few letters and make the word "unexplained" rather than "unexplainable". Sometimes we simply do not know the reasons. God always does. Not only does He know the reasons things go right, He knows the reasons things go wrong. If we are able to tap into the Spirit of God, we then become privy to things that are beyond our scope of knowledge or understanding.
The purpose of this blog is to make The Church in Santa Maria aware of the presence of a religious spirit over this valley. We are delighted to have people reading and praying and agreeing with us to win the victory in seeing this spirit vanquished. It is interesting to us that, at least to this date, we have not had a backlash from the religious spirit, or have we? I am doing a little "writing therapy" right now. I do not expect to hit the publish button before I go back to bed. It is shortly after 1 AM. I do not do well with much of anything at this time of day. Right now I have an unusual amount of stress to deal with. I will not give details except to say yesterday's staff meeting, my email box, and a bunch of whining from adult men almost did me in yesterday. I actually got angry for a moment and said something I had to apologize for. That has not happened for awhile. That is either confirmation of my humanity or spiritual warfare or maybe both.
Remember, the religious spirit is insidious and entrenched to the point that people who know there is spiritual warfare going on think they are winning. In fact, there can be no victory as long as the religious spirit is holding the reigns. It allows a victory here and there such as happened recently when a large church was given a very large check to pay off the mortgage on their building. God is still working. Make no mistake about that. He could simply wave His hand and vanquish the religious spirit. He does not work that way. He works through His Church to accomplish His will on the earth. He is literally waiting for us.
We have given a lot of information over the past several months about the religious spirit, it's works, and a little bit about how to defeat it. This will be the 47th post to this blog. God bless you if you have read them all! Something tells me that number 50 will be somehow significant. I hope it is the Holy Spirit I am hearing. The stress I mentioned earlier is either going to cause things to get better where we are or move us along to who knows where. It is almost time to rise up and join the battle.
I just received an email from Dani Johnson inviting me to her Los Angeles seminar. I am not going, but part of me would certainly like to. Dani is an awesome business woman and carries a definite, prophetic anointing as well. I mention that because, as a business woman, she mentioned in the email that it takes around ninety days of hard work to know if you are going the right direction in a new business venture. We know we are going the right direction in this spiritual venture. So far we still do not know how well what we are doing is working. We are simply being faithful to our plan, which is to do as the Holy Spirit directs. We are just not quite sure at this point what the next step is. We will be giving definite strategies for winning spiritual warfare possibly as soon as the next post. One thing about being led by the Holy Spirit is there is no point in concerning ourselves with the future because He is holding it and only revealing it at the proper time. I suppose we could worry about it. You know, just because it is unknown and all, but what a futile, waste of time that would be. God has it all under control and His promise is that He will cause everything to work together for our good. (Romans 8:28)
I am not sure whether to call this an exhortation, a word of encouragement, or perhaps even a little bit of comfort. Then again, what is in a name anyway? (That was William Shakespeare was it not?) We are going the right direction. It looks like this time is the time to come together as those who see the battle. Others will join one or two at a time. We might even win the battle and no one will know what happened, how it happened or who was involved. Who said, "It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit."? Oh yes, it was President Harry S. Truman. He was president when I was born, you know. See you soon. God bless.
When it comes to the world of the spirit, that realm where God lives and functions, we are a lot less capable. We tend to think things just happen and sometimes there is simply no explanation for them. We see things happen in the physical world and often do not consider that we are seeing things with spiritual roots or origins. We need to clear that misconception up right now. Nothing happens for unexplainable reasons. The closest that concept comes to reality is if we change a few letters and make the word "unexplained" rather than "unexplainable". Sometimes we simply do not know the reasons. God always does. Not only does He know the reasons things go right, He knows the reasons things go wrong. If we are able to tap into the Spirit of God, we then become privy to things that are beyond our scope of knowledge or understanding.
The purpose of this blog is to make The Church in Santa Maria aware of the presence of a religious spirit over this valley. We are delighted to have people reading and praying and agreeing with us to win the victory in seeing this spirit vanquished. It is interesting to us that, at least to this date, we have not had a backlash from the religious spirit, or have we? I am doing a little "writing therapy" right now. I do not expect to hit the publish button before I go back to bed. It is shortly after 1 AM. I do not do well with much of anything at this time of day. Right now I have an unusual amount of stress to deal with. I will not give details except to say yesterday's staff meeting, my email box, and a bunch of whining from adult men almost did me in yesterday. I actually got angry for a moment and said something I had to apologize for. That has not happened for awhile. That is either confirmation of my humanity or spiritual warfare or maybe both.
Remember, the religious spirit is insidious and entrenched to the point that people who know there is spiritual warfare going on think they are winning. In fact, there can be no victory as long as the religious spirit is holding the reigns. It allows a victory here and there such as happened recently when a large church was given a very large check to pay off the mortgage on their building. God is still working. Make no mistake about that. He could simply wave His hand and vanquish the religious spirit. He does not work that way. He works through His Church to accomplish His will on the earth. He is literally waiting for us.
We have given a lot of information over the past several months about the religious spirit, it's works, and a little bit about how to defeat it. This will be the 47th post to this blog. God bless you if you have read them all! Something tells me that number 50 will be somehow significant. I hope it is the Holy Spirit I am hearing. The stress I mentioned earlier is either going to cause things to get better where we are or move us along to who knows where. It is almost time to rise up and join the battle.
I just received an email from Dani Johnson inviting me to her Los Angeles seminar. I am not going, but part of me would certainly like to. Dani is an awesome business woman and carries a definite, prophetic anointing as well. I mention that because, as a business woman, she mentioned in the email that it takes around ninety days of hard work to know if you are going the right direction in a new business venture. We know we are going the right direction in this spiritual venture. So far we still do not know how well what we are doing is working. We are simply being faithful to our plan, which is to do as the Holy Spirit directs. We are just not quite sure at this point what the next step is. We will be giving definite strategies for winning spiritual warfare possibly as soon as the next post. One thing about being led by the Holy Spirit is there is no point in concerning ourselves with the future because He is holding it and only revealing it at the proper time. I suppose we could worry about it. You know, just because it is unknown and all, but what a futile, waste of time that would be. God has it all under control and His promise is that He will cause everything to work together for our good. (Romans 8:28)
I am not sure whether to call this an exhortation, a word of encouragement, or perhaps even a little bit of comfort. Then again, what is in a name anyway? (That was William Shakespeare was it not?) We are going the right direction. It looks like this time is the time to come together as those who see the battle. Others will join one or two at a time. We might even win the battle and no one will know what happened, how it happened or who was involved. Who said, "It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit."? Oh yes, it was President Harry S. Truman. He was president when I was born, you know. See you soon. God bless.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Our Salvation--Yours and Mine
My wife reminded me the other day, of a verse of scripture that had come to mean a great deal to me in the early '90s at a time of great financial stress and lack of suitable employment. Without going into a lot of detail, suffice it to say the economy was nearly as bad in this area as it is now. The space shuttle Challenger had been lost in 1986 and the United States Congress had subsequently decided to shelve Space Launch Complex 6 at Vandenberg AFB which was to have been the West Coast Shuttle launch facility. Many people who had been working on the project found themselves unemployed by 1988 and were looking for any kind of employment so they could keep their homes and stay in the area. That was not the best time for us to have returned to Santa Maria, but we still feel it was the right time. We humans learn a lot from stress as we work our way through it and come out the other side in victory.
The verse she reminded me of is Isaiah 30:15, "...In returning and rest you shall be saved; In quietness and confidence shall be your strength..." Returning, of course, means coming back to the Lord. That does not necessarily mean we have turned away from God. It is any area in which we are not pressing in as we once had been. In our case it meant giving all our challenges and stresses over to God. We had been operating in our own strength, thinking we could solve those challenges on our own. Of course we knew better, but times of stress sometimes cause our emotions to take over for our good sense and keep us from hearing our spirit. The meaning of the word returning is to turn and go the opposite direction from that which we had been going, to repent. Rest is to rest in the Lord. Come back and rest He says. Give him the trials and challenges and rest in the assurance that He is handling them. The promise He gives when we do that is salvation. Turn from the way you have been going, handling things you cannot handle anyway, and give them over to Jesus. Trust Him to be Lord of your life. The result of that is salvation.
Salvation is so much more than being born again. In fact, being born again only gets us going the direction of salvation. We discussed this recently, but in case you missed it, the new birth is salvation from the guilt of sin. The process that begins there is called sanctification. That is the process of being made holy, having our sin fall away from us as we progressively walk with God and press into His way. It is the process of becoming free from the power of sin in our lives. Ultimately, salvation is being saved from the very presence of sin when our mortal bodies are miraculously changed and we go to live with God. Those are the things we are saved from, but even then we have only discussed part of salvation. The other side of salvation is what we are saved to. We are saved to having access to all the riches of God, all His power, and all His authority. It is true! God has placed all those things under mankind's authority on the earth. We live so far below His resources, most of us do not have a very good idea just how much more there is.
In one of his early books, perhaps even his first one, Prayer is Invading the Impossible, Dr. Jack Hayford had original quotes at the beginning of each chapter. The one I think I will never forget said, "When sub-normal is considered normal, then normal is thought to be abnormal." Normal for the Christian should be the envy of the world. We should be examples of love, happiness, security, fulfillment, and rest, just to mention a few. Our normal should look abnormal to the world.
When God handles things, they get handled. Sometimes we do not even understand how they got handled. It is almost like things just happened, almost as if miraculously. There are no miracles in heaven. Most people do not realize that. We rarely think about such things. God works in heaven. His works look like miracles to us because we do not know how they happened. Oh, sure, we might be able to follow the process from point to point to point. We know what happened, but we do not know how or why it happened. That is the work of God and it looks miraculous to us.
The reason we are telling you all this is because we are asking and believing God right now for something that will look like a miracle. (I almost made a BIG boo boo. I almost said it would look like a miracle if it happens.) It is going to happen. We are believing for a house where we can have a sort of on-site discipleship program. We expect people to come and live there for some period of time while they learn the lessons the Lord has for them to learn. After that, they will simply go wherever the Lord calls them to do whatever He tells them to do. We expect to have space available for itinerant ministers who need a place of rest or refreshing themselves. This has been a longtime vision that has looked more like a dream for years. Now the Lord is putting it together and it is exciting. In fact we already have a couple people interested in living with us and the Lord is speaking about some others as well. We will be interested to see how that all works out.
We already know where the house is. The problem is, we have no ability to possess it physically at this point. It is for sale so that is not the issue. The asking price is more than we have ever conceived of being able to spend for a house. Thankfully, the how to of the situation is not ours to worry about. We are working on possessing the house in the spirit and we know when we do that it will be ours in the physical realm.
What we are really asking you to do is to combine your faith and your prayers with ours. Looking at it naturally, we need to have the house by around the first of the year. Of course this is also one of those sooner is better things. That, of course, could cause us to take off in our own strength and really mess things up. We do have a considerable amount of experience in doing that. Please join your faith with ours and pray as the Lord directs. As always, let us know if you know something we need to know. God bless.
The verse she reminded me of is Isaiah 30:15, "...In returning and rest you shall be saved; In quietness and confidence shall be your strength..." Returning, of course, means coming back to the Lord. That does not necessarily mean we have turned away from God. It is any area in which we are not pressing in as we once had been. In our case it meant giving all our challenges and stresses over to God. We had been operating in our own strength, thinking we could solve those challenges on our own. Of course we knew better, but times of stress sometimes cause our emotions to take over for our good sense and keep us from hearing our spirit. The meaning of the word returning is to turn and go the opposite direction from that which we had been going, to repent. Rest is to rest in the Lord. Come back and rest He says. Give him the trials and challenges and rest in the assurance that He is handling them. The promise He gives when we do that is salvation. Turn from the way you have been going, handling things you cannot handle anyway, and give them over to Jesus. Trust Him to be Lord of your life. The result of that is salvation.
Salvation is so much more than being born again. In fact, being born again only gets us going the direction of salvation. We discussed this recently, but in case you missed it, the new birth is salvation from the guilt of sin. The process that begins there is called sanctification. That is the process of being made holy, having our sin fall away from us as we progressively walk with God and press into His way. It is the process of becoming free from the power of sin in our lives. Ultimately, salvation is being saved from the very presence of sin when our mortal bodies are miraculously changed and we go to live with God. Those are the things we are saved from, but even then we have only discussed part of salvation. The other side of salvation is what we are saved to. We are saved to having access to all the riches of God, all His power, and all His authority. It is true! God has placed all those things under mankind's authority on the earth. We live so far below His resources, most of us do not have a very good idea just how much more there is.
In one of his early books, perhaps even his first one, Prayer is Invading the Impossible, Dr. Jack Hayford had original quotes at the beginning of each chapter. The one I think I will never forget said, "When sub-normal is considered normal, then normal is thought to be abnormal." Normal for the Christian should be the envy of the world. We should be examples of love, happiness, security, fulfillment, and rest, just to mention a few. Our normal should look abnormal to the world.
When God handles things, they get handled. Sometimes we do not even understand how they got handled. It is almost like things just happened, almost as if miraculously. There are no miracles in heaven. Most people do not realize that. We rarely think about such things. God works in heaven. His works look like miracles to us because we do not know how they happened. Oh, sure, we might be able to follow the process from point to point to point. We know what happened, but we do not know how or why it happened. That is the work of God and it looks miraculous to us.
The reason we are telling you all this is because we are asking and believing God right now for something that will look like a miracle. (I almost made a BIG boo boo. I almost said it would look like a miracle if it happens.) It is going to happen. We are believing for a house where we can have a sort of on-site discipleship program. We expect people to come and live there for some period of time while they learn the lessons the Lord has for them to learn. After that, they will simply go wherever the Lord calls them to do whatever He tells them to do. We expect to have space available for itinerant ministers who need a place of rest or refreshing themselves. This has been a longtime vision that has looked more like a dream for years. Now the Lord is putting it together and it is exciting. In fact we already have a couple people interested in living with us and the Lord is speaking about some others as well. We will be interested to see how that all works out.
We already know where the house is. The problem is, we have no ability to possess it physically at this point. It is for sale so that is not the issue. The asking price is more than we have ever conceived of being able to spend for a house. Thankfully, the how to of the situation is not ours to worry about. We are working on possessing the house in the spirit and we know when we do that it will be ours in the physical realm.
What we are really asking you to do is to combine your faith and your prayers with ours. Looking at it naturally, we need to have the house by around the first of the year. Of course this is also one of those sooner is better things. That, of course, could cause us to take off in our own strength and really mess things up. We do have a considerable amount of experience in doing that. Please join your faith with ours and pray as the Lord directs. As always, let us know if you know something we need to know. God bless.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
The Work of God
Sometimes we get it right. Sometimes we get it wrong. That applies to all of us who tread this sod in human form. God never gives ministry to people who always get it right. Nobody does. Let the record reflect: I am not as smart as you probably think I am. My IQ tests put me a couple steps above average and I have a fairly good memory for things I consider important, although it is not nearly as good as it used to be. Still, at family gatherings, I look at several people, including my own children, who are smarter than I am. By the way, for the record, I live right here in this skin. I am not all that impressed. I am just a guy doing my best to do what I am supposed to be doing. There is one thing I do better than most that makes people think I am smarter than I am--and I can only wish I did it better than I do.
The inter-working of the spirit, soul, and body has long been an area of interest to me and is a specialty in my teaching. We have discussed that before. (The Image of God--Spirit, Soul, Body 6-14-09) I claim some level of expertise in that area. It is because of this expertise that I feel fairly comfortable saying, I seem to have an above average ability to function out of my spirit rather than out of my soul. That is strictly an observation on my part and admittedly subject to personal bias. Nonetheless, living in the spirit is something I aspire to do more and to do better, and it is my considered opinion that you should too.
Functioning out of the spirit is foreign to the human nature. As with most things in the kingdom of God, what we think to do, feel to do, know to do, and will to do are almost exactly opposite from what we should be doing. King Solomon recognized this concept when he wrote, "There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death." (Proverbs 14:12) What we think, feel, and do out of our human nature will always be wrong. That is why it is imperative that we think, feel, and do as Jesus would. He was our perfect example of how to live life on this earth, and He operated out of His spirit through the power of the Holy Spirit. Of course, it also did not hurt that He did not have to deal with a sin nature every day.
Most Christians, it seems, think they operate out of their spirits, but most do not. There are a couple axioms that will help in determining how effectively we are operating out of our spirits besides the one from Proverbs mentioned above. The first axiom is that believing is seeing. In our minds, seeing is believing. The word for this is counterintuitive. That means it seems backwards to our intellect (soul). The second axiom is that the physical world is the real world. In fact, the spiritual world affects everything that happens in the physical world. That is not some sort of mystical, or religious science concept, it is simply fact. The enormity of the ramifications of this second axiom are impossible to overestimate. (I know. I actually wrote that sentence in such a way that most people would have to stop and think about it after reading it more than once.) That means if we really understand the second axiom, the benefits to us are huge.
When we understand the physical world is subject to the spiritual world we understand we need to do things differently. One example of this is that we would never try to hoard the resources God puts into our hands. The Bible is full of instructions to give. The great verse we see almost every Sunday of football season in the endzone is the ultimate example of this principle. John 3:16 tells us that God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son, Jesus. Jesus did not hold onto His equality with God, but gave it up to go to the cross for us. (Ph. 2:6-8) God gave His Son. The Son gave His life. We have not begun to touch that level of giving.
I remember shortly before Christmas in 1979 I was ushering at church, probably for a Sunday morning service. One of the men I was working with asked me how I was doing, you know, one of those polite, friendly questions. My answer became a revelation from God to me. I listened to myself say, "I am great! This is my first Christmas with a son." It instantly became very real to me what God had done in giving His Son. I am not giving up my son. (I actually have a word from the Lord that I will not have to give up my son. That is another story.) Do not misunderstand me here. I love my girls. I am not giving them away either, but in that moment I really knew what God had done. Ok so I already gave two of my daughters to husbands, but I told every one at the wedding receptions the daughters and still mine and now I have more sons as well.
The Bible tells us why God gave His Son. He did it because He made the laws by which the universe is governed. One of them says whatever is given will be multiplied and given back. It is called the Law of Sowing and Reaping. Because it is a law it always works. God applied this law in giving His Son because He wanted more sons. There was no way for us to be born again and be sons of God (rather than being just His creations) until Jesus submitted Himself and became the sacrifice for our sins. If one accepts the Law of Sowing and Reaping, he does not even need to be spiritual to understand this. Simply apply logic and we see God giving, Jesus dying (giving His life), people being born again and becoming sons of God.
"...now we are the children of God," the apostle John says, "and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him..." (1 John 3:2) That sounds a little oblique. What does it mean anyway? Perhaps it is not the whole answer, but Jesus has been revealed to us, so at least part of the answer has to be that we are to work the works of God on the earth while we are here. He did say we would do the works He did. (John 14:12) There is also a future element here which is the usual interpretation. Jesus is coming back and our mortal bodies will be changed. Then we will be doing the same work He is doing somewhere else.
This is sort of sounding like the previous post. Suppose we leave this one right about here and start doing whatever it is the Lord is calling us to do individually.
The inter-working of the spirit, soul, and body has long been an area of interest to me and is a specialty in my teaching. We have discussed that before. (The Image of God--Spirit, Soul, Body 6-14-09) I claim some level of expertise in that area. It is because of this expertise that I feel fairly comfortable saying, I seem to have an above average ability to function out of my spirit rather than out of my soul. That is strictly an observation on my part and admittedly subject to personal bias. Nonetheless, living in the spirit is something I aspire to do more and to do better, and it is my considered opinion that you should too.
Functioning out of the spirit is foreign to the human nature. As with most things in the kingdom of God, what we think to do, feel to do, know to do, and will to do are almost exactly opposite from what we should be doing. King Solomon recognized this concept when he wrote, "There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death." (Proverbs 14:12) What we think, feel, and do out of our human nature will always be wrong. That is why it is imperative that we think, feel, and do as Jesus would. He was our perfect example of how to live life on this earth, and He operated out of His spirit through the power of the Holy Spirit. Of course, it also did not hurt that He did not have to deal with a sin nature every day.
Most Christians, it seems, think they operate out of their spirits, but most do not. There are a couple axioms that will help in determining how effectively we are operating out of our spirits besides the one from Proverbs mentioned above. The first axiom is that believing is seeing. In our minds, seeing is believing. The word for this is counterintuitive. That means it seems backwards to our intellect (soul). The second axiom is that the physical world is the real world. In fact, the spiritual world affects everything that happens in the physical world. That is not some sort of mystical, or religious science concept, it is simply fact. The enormity of the ramifications of this second axiom are impossible to overestimate. (I know. I actually wrote that sentence in such a way that most people would have to stop and think about it after reading it more than once.) That means if we really understand the second axiom, the benefits to us are huge.
When we understand the physical world is subject to the spiritual world we understand we need to do things differently. One example of this is that we would never try to hoard the resources God puts into our hands. The Bible is full of instructions to give. The great verse we see almost every Sunday of football season in the endzone is the ultimate example of this principle. John 3:16 tells us that God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son, Jesus. Jesus did not hold onto His equality with God, but gave it up to go to the cross for us. (Ph. 2:6-8) God gave His Son. The Son gave His life. We have not begun to touch that level of giving.
I remember shortly before Christmas in 1979 I was ushering at church, probably for a Sunday morning service. One of the men I was working with asked me how I was doing, you know, one of those polite, friendly questions. My answer became a revelation from God to me. I listened to myself say, "I am great! This is my first Christmas with a son." It instantly became very real to me what God had done in giving His Son. I am not giving up my son. (I actually have a word from the Lord that I will not have to give up my son. That is another story.) Do not misunderstand me here. I love my girls. I am not giving them away either, but in that moment I really knew what God had done. Ok so I already gave two of my daughters to husbands, but I told every one at the wedding receptions the daughters and still mine and now I have more sons as well.
The Bible tells us why God gave His Son. He did it because He made the laws by which the universe is governed. One of them says whatever is given will be multiplied and given back. It is called the Law of Sowing and Reaping. Because it is a law it always works. God applied this law in giving His Son because He wanted more sons. There was no way for us to be born again and be sons of God (rather than being just His creations) until Jesus submitted Himself and became the sacrifice for our sins. If one accepts the Law of Sowing and Reaping, he does not even need to be spiritual to understand this. Simply apply logic and we see God giving, Jesus dying (giving His life), people being born again and becoming sons of God.
"...now we are the children of God," the apostle John says, "and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him..." (1 John 3:2) That sounds a little oblique. What does it mean anyway? Perhaps it is not the whole answer, but Jesus has been revealed to us, so at least part of the answer has to be that we are to work the works of God on the earth while we are here. He did say we would do the works He did. (John 14:12) There is also a future element here which is the usual interpretation. Jesus is coming back and our mortal bodies will be changed. Then we will be doing the same work He is doing somewhere else.
This is sort of sounding like the previous post. Suppose we leave this one right about here and start doing whatever it is the Lord is calling us to do individually.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Right Time, Right Place, Right Now
I am tired already. I came back from vacation tired. Apparently a body this age does not do as well with even a small amount of jet lag as one would hope. I did pretty well at recovering over the first weekend at home, but one thing and another have happened this week to make the first three days at work seem like an entire week.
The week started shortly after 6:00 AM on Monday with a call from the director of the mission telling me the fire alarm had gone off--meaning that I needed to get to work as soon as possible. Of course I knew it was just one of my mighty men burning bacon or something, but I nonetheless hurried out the door after also taking a call from the police dispatcher who was under the impression we did not yet know what had happened. I was almost fully awake by the time I made the drive to the mission. When I arrived the Santa Maria fire department confirmed what I had thought, laughed about our lack of cooking skills, and headed back to the fire station.
Monday evaporated as Mondays have a tendency to do in catching up with the needs of a dozen men from the weekend, and doing a few extra pieces of work this particular Monday for various reasons (including the fire alarm). Try as I might, I still was not able to sleep through the night Monday night. I was awake in the middle of the night writing a position paper for some gentlemen who have various levels of oversight or interest in my life. That paper is still in the works. As a point of instruction, it is always wise to proofread what one writes in the wee hours of the morning. I am almost ready to send that paper out.
As a result of that middle-of-the-night respite from sleep, Tuesday found me struggling through the day to stay alert. It did not help that Tuesday also started with a little frustration caused by a miscommunication with a co-worker from the evening before. That situation did get resolved by the time I left for the day. Fortunately I managed to escape before the CEO showed up for the advisory board meeting.
We had company for dinner so of course we did a special middle of the week meal. The barbecued tri tip was pretty good, if I do say so myself. The after dinner conversation went on for over four hours. For much of that time I was defining some of the workings of the religious spirit and what some of the anticipated results will look like when we win. He was interested, but seemed to be more interested in where we were in our lives. It is hard to say what the results of that meeting will be, but it will be interesting to find out.
God is putting together an army. My job right now is to make you aware there is a battle going on. Because spiritual battles are intangible, most folks are not even aware they are going on. Even many who do understand that do not entirely grasp the magnitude of this battle. The religious spirit in this valley has been having his way for much too long. One thing our guest did say is that our church is being populated by people who have been battered, bruised, and beaten by the religious spirit we are talking about. He did not use that term, nor would most of those bruised, battered people. There really is no doubt about who the aggressor is in these kinds of situations. He has to be one of the minions of he who comes to steal and to kill and to destroy. (John 10:10)
We try to shrug off disappointments and, as most of you know, we have had lots of practice doing that. As I have mentioned before, in the past five months or so I have moved from frustration in not knowing what I was supposed to be doing, to apathy where I simply did not care what happened, to peace, in that I now know what I am supposed to be doing and I am doing it. Our heart's desire for each and every one of the readers of this blog would be that you too would know that you are exactly where you are supposed to be, doing exactly what you are supposed to be doing. When you find that place, God will be able to work in your life in ways you probably never thought possible. The Bible tells us, "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him." (1 Corinthians 2:9) If you can imagine it, God can do more. He is only waiting for you to partner with him. Start today. As you begin to do that, please remember the battle is bigger than you are. Join with us in seeking God's direction as to how to engage the enemy and prosecute this battle. God bless.
The week started shortly after 6:00 AM on Monday with a call from the director of the mission telling me the fire alarm had gone off--meaning that I needed to get to work as soon as possible. Of course I knew it was just one of my mighty men burning bacon or something, but I nonetheless hurried out the door after also taking a call from the police dispatcher who was under the impression we did not yet know what had happened. I was almost fully awake by the time I made the drive to the mission. When I arrived the Santa Maria fire department confirmed what I had thought, laughed about our lack of cooking skills, and headed back to the fire station.
Monday evaporated as Mondays have a tendency to do in catching up with the needs of a dozen men from the weekend, and doing a few extra pieces of work this particular Monday for various reasons (including the fire alarm). Try as I might, I still was not able to sleep through the night Monday night. I was awake in the middle of the night writing a position paper for some gentlemen who have various levels of oversight or interest in my life. That paper is still in the works. As a point of instruction, it is always wise to proofread what one writes in the wee hours of the morning. I am almost ready to send that paper out.
As a result of that middle-of-the-night respite from sleep, Tuesday found me struggling through the day to stay alert. It did not help that Tuesday also started with a little frustration caused by a miscommunication with a co-worker from the evening before. That situation did get resolved by the time I left for the day. Fortunately I managed to escape before the CEO showed up for the advisory board meeting.
We had company for dinner so of course we did a special middle of the week meal. The barbecued tri tip was pretty good, if I do say so myself. The after dinner conversation went on for over four hours. For much of that time I was defining some of the workings of the religious spirit and what some of the anticipated results will look like when we win. He was interested, but seemed to be more interested in where we were in our lives. It is hard to say what the results of that meeting will be, but it will be interesting to find out.
God is putting together an army. My job right now is to make you aware there is a battle going on. Because spiritual battles are intangible, most folks are not even aware they are going on. Even many who do understand that do not entirely grasp the magnitude of this battle. The religious spirit in this valley has been having his way for much too long. One thing our guest did say is that our church is being populated by people who have been battered, bruised, and beaten by the religious spirit we are talking about. He did not use that term, nor would most of those bruised, battered people. There really is no doubt about who the aggressor is in these kinds of situations. He has to be one of the minions of he who comes to steal and to kill and to destroy. (John 10:10)
We try to shrug off disappointments and, as most of you know, we have had lots of practice doing that. As I have mentioned before, in the past five months or so I have moved from frustration in not knowing what I was supposed to be doing, to apathy where I simply did not care what happened, to peace, in that I now know what I am supposed to be doing and I am doing it. Our heart's desire for each and every one of the readers of this blog would be that you too would know that you are exactly where you are supposed to be, doing exactly what you are supposed to be doing. When you find that place, God will be able to work in your life in ways you probably never thought possible. The Bible tells us, "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him." (1 Corinthians 2:9) If you can imagine it, God can do more. He is only waiting for you to partner with him. Start today. As you begin to do that, please remember the battle is bigger than you are. Join with us in seeking God's direction as to how to engage the enemy and prosecute this battle. God bless.
Friday, August 21, 2009
The Weapons of Our Warfare, Part 10
Praying in the Spirit can be a controversial subject in the church. Many people think they are praying in the Spirit because they think they are being directed in their prayers by the Holy Spirit. We will not enter into a debate as to whether those prayers are, in fact, directed by the Holy Spirit. Undoubtedly some are, and equally as undoubtedly, some are not. (This sounds a little like it might get ugly already doesn't it?) Trust me when I tell you, I have pretty much heard all the arguments on both sides of this issue. I used to be a Methodist and then a Baptist. I attended a Nazarene church for a period of time. I embraced Pentecostalism, much to the chagrin of my maternal grandmother who was in eastern Kansas when Aimee Semple McPherson, founder of the Foursquare Church came through there on her way to California. I graduated from a Pentecostal Bible College and an Evangelical (non-Pentecostal) seminary. If, after you have read this post, you think you have an argument I did not do justice here, please call, send an email, or post a comment. That way we might all learn something.
Praying in the Spirit is part of the armor of God. It must be. It says so right there in the Bible. (Ephesians 6:18) Ok, so I had not thought about it quite that way before today. It is obvious really when we think about it. Before we discuss that, though, perhaps we should define exactly what praying in the Spirit really means.
One thing I do know from the discussions I have had about the present day working of the Holy Spirit is that anyone who is willing to discuss the issue with me has as strongly held beliefs as I do on the subject. They also, as I do, hold those beliefs based on their understanding of scripture. It is really not productive to exegete the scripture to show why anyone with such strongly held beliefs is wrong. They have already done that and decided they are right. I am including myself in that. The better way to approach that kind of issue is to just present the teaching and, if it makes sense, let them go back and look at the scripture with a different understanding of the big picture.
Without doubt, as we Pentecostals know from scripture and personal experience, praying in the Spirit means praying in tongues. The vast majority of us know (still talking about Pentecostals) there are two different gifts of speaking in tongues. Most of us know that because someone older, and wiser than us told us so. Rarely did those older, wiser people tell us how they knew that and show us the different gifts from scripture. The dirty little secret there is they probably did not know both of the gifts are shown in the Bible. They simply believed it because the older, wiser people who told them believed it. The term for that is unsconscious competent. They are right, but they do not know why they are right.
Most people, including most Pentecostal ministers, only know about speaking in tongues as the charismatic gift mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:10. We should make the distinction right now that in this gift, God is speaking to His people through one of our own. Again, research this and get back to us so we can discuss it if you disagree.
The other gift of speaking in tongues in the Bible is sort of tucked away and almost hidden apparently. It must be because almost no one seems to know about it or teach it correctly. Most of that problem is our English translations. We will explain that shortly. It is the gift given to believers at some point after they are born again. According to Pentecostal theology, this happens at the time the believer is baptized in the Holy Spirit. That is not what we are discussing right now.
Acts chapter 10 records the beginning of Peter's ministry to the gentiles. In verse 45, the men with Peter acknowledge that a gift was given to the gentiles and 46 tells us they recognized the gift as speaking in tongues. If you have ever heard a teaching on these verses, you have probably heard the gift is the Holy Spirit, or perhaps even that it is salvation. Reading verse 45 in English we see, "the gift of the Holy Spirit". It is almost always taught that the Holy Spirit is the gift. That is what the English text looks like it says. It does not say that in the original Greek. What it says there is, "the Holy Spirit's gift". Does that make a difference? Can you see it? Either phraseology is correct in the English, possessive case. We just do not get the correct meaning as easily with the translation we usually see in English Bibles. For your reference the Greek is in the genitive case which equates to the English possessive case. When we know that, there is no question the gift is given by the Holy Spirit rather than the Holy Spirit being the gift. The gift He gave is the gift of speaking in tongues that Peter and his companions heard.
Now that we understand that, we can see that praying in the spirit is an invaluable piece of our spiritual armor. With this gift we are speaking to God things we would not otherwise know to speak. The Holy Spirit directs our prayers in a different language so that they are perfect prayers. Our minds are set aside as our spirit prays. (1 Corinthians 14:14) Note that this is the same whichever gift of speaking in tongues we are talking about. If you are inclined, as I am, to have your mind get in the way at times, you will appreciate all the more being able to pray in the spirit.
There is no way for us to really understand in the natural what happens when we pray in the spirit. Imagine being in the heat of a battle with danger all around. As you pray in the spirit, you know which way to move and what to do. The Holy Spirit is guiding you away from danger to safety. He tells you when to be still and when to attack, things you could not possibly know for sure regardless of your experience in battle.
Put on the armor of God, and do not forget to pray in the spirit on all occasions. It will protect you even if any of the other armor fails. Our success in battle will be guaranteed.
Praying in the Spirit is part of the armor of God. It must be. It says so right there in the Bible. (Ephesians 6:18) Ok, so I had not thought about it quite that way before today. It is obvious really when we think about it. Before we discuss that, though, perhaps we should define exactly what praying in the Spirit really means.
One thing I do know from the discussions I have had about the present day working of the Holy Spirit is that anyone who is willing to discuss the issue with me has as strongly held beliefs as I do on the subject. They also, as I do, hold those beliefs based on their understanding of scripture. It is really not productive to exegete the scripture to show why anyone with such strongly held beliefs is wrong. They have already done that and decided they are right. I am including myself in that. The better way to approach that kind of issue is to just present the teaching and, if it makes sense, let them go back and look at the scripture with a different understanding of the big picture.
Without doubt, as we Pentecostals know from scripture and personal experience, praying in the Spirit means praying in tongues. The vast majority of us know (still talking about Pentecostals) there are two different gifts of speaking in tongues. Most of us know that because someone older, and wiser than us told us so. Rarely did those older, wiser people tell us how they knew that and show us the different gifts from scripture. The dirty little secret there is they probably did not know both of the gifts are shown in the Bible. They simply believed it because the older, wiser people who told them believed it. The term for that is unsconscious competent. They are right, but they do not know why they are right.
Most people, including most Pentecostal ministers, only know about speaking in tongues as the charismatic gift mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:10. We should make the distinction right now that in this gift, God is speaking to His people through one of our own. Again, research this and get back to us so we can discuss it if you disagree.
The other gift of speaking in tongues in the Bible is sort of tucked away and almost hidden apparently. It must be because almost no one seems to know about it or teach it correctly. Most of that problem is our English translations. We will explain that shortly. It is the gift given to believers at some point after they are born again. According to Pentecostal theology, this happens at the time the believer is baptized in the Holy Spirit. That is not what we are discussing right now.
Acts chapter 10 records the beginning of Peter's ministry to the gentiles. In verse 45, the men with Peter acknowledge that a gift was given to the gentiles and 46 tells us they recognized the gift as speaking in tongues. If you have ever heard a teaching on these verses, you have probably heard the gift is the Holy Spirit, or perhaps even that it is salvation. Reading verse 45 in English we see, "the gift of the Holy Spirit". It is almost always taught that the Holy Spirit is the gift. That is what the English text looks like it says. It does not say that in the original Greek. What it says there is, "the Holy Spirit's gift". Does that make a difference? Can you see it? Either phraseology is correct in the English, possessive case. We just do not get the correct meaning as easily with the translation we usually see in English Bibles. For your reference the Greek is in the genitive case which equates to the English possessive case. When we know that, there is no question the gift is given by the Holy Spirit rather than the Holy Spirit being the gift. The gift He gave is the gift of speaking in tongues that Peter and his companions heard.
Now that we understand that, we can see that praying in the spirit is an invaluable piece of our spiritual armor. With this gift we are speaking to God things we would not otherwise know to speak. The Holy Spirit directs our prayers in a different language so that they are perfect prayers. Our minds are set aside as our spirit prays. (1 Corinthians 14:14) Note that this is the same whichever gift of speaking in tongues we are talking about. If you are inclined, as I am, to have your mind get in the way at times, you will appreciate all the more being able to pray in the spirit.
There is no way for us to really understand in the natural what happens when we pray in the spirit. Imagine being in the heat of a battle with danger all around. As you pray in the spirit, you know which way to move and what to do. The Holy Spirit is guiding you away from danger to safety. He tells you when to be still and when to attack, things you could not possibly know for sure regardless of your experience in battle.
Put on the armor of God, and do not forget to pray in the spirit on all occasions. It will protect you even if any of the other armor fails. Our success in battle will be guaranteed.
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