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.

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.

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 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!