Be Critical of Criticism

I attended a very small college. As a result I was actually able to make the baseball team. In fact, I was on pace to lead the team in strikeouts through the first three games. The problem was that I was not a pitcher. I was zero for my first eight at bats. I had only contacted the ball three times. I needed help.


There was a fellow in the dorm who had played baseball all his life, went to baseball camps and the whole deal. I asked for his help with my hitting. He gave me a bat and a few tips. During warm ups for the next game I almost hit the batting practice pitcher several times, stinging the ball back up the middle. The first swing I took in the game should have resulted in a single, but it was misplayed into a triple. Had I not received those comments about my hitting from my friend, that would not have happened. He was critical of my swing, my stance, and where I had my eyes focused. I received his criticism and it helped me.


We all do it. We hear something that does not sound quite right to our ears or we see someone doing something we think is not quite right and we criticize them for it. In the best sense there is nothing wrong with that. As the story above illustrates, we all need someone who knows more than we do to help us see the things that need improvement. Even batting champions have hitting coaches. Tiger Woods has a swing coach. Here, of course, we are talking about constructive criticism. Most often though, we do not offer critical comments sincerely wanting the best for the other person. Something to think about anyway.

Most people do not like to be criticized. Trust me on this one. A suggestion made with the best of intentions can be understood as a biting indictment by a person who thinks he is right or who has a poor view of himself. I have to tread softly here lest anyone think this is intended as a personal statement about them. It is not. I understand that our battle is not, "...against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against the spiritual hosts of darkness in the heavenly places." (Ephesians 6:12) So unless you fit into one of those categories, I have no axe to grind, no quarrel with you, and no criticism of anything you are doing, except where we can agree my advice might be beneficial.

Those of you who know me, understand I am more of a counseling, mentoring, teaching type of guy. Like most teachers I teach better than I do. You know, as in, "Those who can do. Those who cannot teach." I may not be able to do anything better than any number of you reading this, but there is a possibility that I can teach you how to do it better or maybe tell you why you need to follow the instructions in the package. I said "possibility." ( Trust me on this too. There are people who would read that sentence and mistake me for someone who is very impressed with himself.) I know me. I live here. There is not all that much with which to be impressed.

I was not always this way. I not only found things that needed to be corrected, I was very straightforward in telling anyone if something was not done correctly or not said the way I thought it should be. Essentially there was one right way to do anything and that was the way I thought it should be done. That is not to say I did not sometimes give good advice, maybe even excellent advice. I even thought I was doing it with the most virtuous of motives. As I said, I know me. I really wanted to help, but I also wanted others to know how smart I was. I have outgrown most of that. I am not as smart as I once was. Thank God Jesus left the Holy Spirit to help us in our weaknesses. (Romans 8:26)


There really is a point to all this. Any time we start to do something we should not do, like criticize someone else, we can go into a death spiral. Whatever it is that we are doing wrong colors everything we think and everything we do. If we think in terms of criticism, we become critical of everything. When there is nothing to criticize, we look harder.


Some time ago it occurred to me, or I heard someone say that I could be a blessing to others if I would only use my mouth for blessing. I know, get real. We live in a real world. Okay, so maybe 100% blessing is too much to hope for. Maybe we really cannot ever utter blessing every time we open our mouths. However, we probably can do better than we do. I am in a generous mood tonight so I am going to be generous with myself. I am going to say that 20% of all my discretionary words are blessing as opposed to criticism. Also being realistic, I am going to say I might be able to do half again that much. (Yes I am being facetious. I really hope I am much better than that.) I have decided to speak blessing rather than criticism as much as possible. I wonder if you would join me in that?

Shaken and Stirred

A former pastor, a giant among men, once correlated spiritual happenings with earthquakes. It was his contention that the shaking of the physical earth is a response to shaking in the spiritual realm. He probably was not far off. I am willing to take his word for it anyway.

My younger son-in-law, the Coast Guard officer and certifiable, Apple fanatic, was the last encouragement I needed to get an iPhone. It has been one of the better purchases I have ever made. I mention that because it has an app that displays all the recorded earthquakes that occur, or most of them anyway. I counted fifty earthquakes worldwide in the past two days. Yes, fifty, yesterday and today and it is just past 7:00 AM. Would that fulfill the definition of , "earthquakes in various places" that Jesus talked about in Matthew 24:7? To be fair, Luke adds the word "great" when he records what Jesus said and only a half dozen of those earthquakes were magnitude 5 or higher.

The Bible tells us that, "the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now." (Romans 8:22) This verse is part of the explanation of why the whole of creation is waiting for the revelation of the sons of God. (verse 19) Most of you who read this blog are relatively advanced in Christianity and spiritual life so we are not going to connect all the dots in this post for the sake of space. (Although I used to love dot to dot puzzles when I was younger.)

We have had a little shaking at the mission lately. I know it is anecdotal and personal, but it is shaking nonetheless. Our chaplain resigned suddenly, we had to let an intern go, and one of the men who had been doing well decided to return to the behavior for which he was sent to the recovery program. I am fairly confident the shaking is not over yet.

The last sizable earthquake we had in our area was just before Christmas in 2003. My son and I were the only ones home at the time. I probably should not admit this, but I sort of enjoy earthquakes. That is probably because I have never been in one that has thrown me around or caused anything to fall near me. This particular day, I felt the shaking and went to stand under a doorway, which I am now told is not the best idea. As I approached the door, Steve came from the other direction with the largest eyes I had ever seen and asked, "Was that an earthquake?" This little story illustrates that people respond to shaking in different ways. One thing is for sure though. The earth is not supposed to move under our feet. When it does it has every one's attention.

I work with recovering addicts. An addict almost invariably responds to shaking by revisiting his drug of choice. Of course that does nothing to stop the shaking, but the addictive soul believes that changing the body chemistry for some period of time will. Of course, in more lucid moments, they freely acknowledge they know it never works. Then again, for some, anything can be seen as shaking.

What would be the proper response to shaking? We have already acknowledged it gets our attention. The greater the shaking, the more our attention is drawn to it. The title of this post is intended to give a clue. When we are shaken, we need to be stirred as well. The response to anything God does should be to be stirred to some kind of action. What kind of action is determined by the kind of shaking. For instance, if the shaking involves the loss of a job or property or some relationship, the best course of action may not be to try and replace what we lost. We must first ask what God is trying to say now that He has our attention.

What God is trying to say will vary with the individual. Just to make an educated guess or two, He might be saying we had extra baggage we need to throw off so we are better able to run our race. (Hebrews 12:1) He might be attempting to show us where our weaknesses lie so that He can make us perfect with His strength. (2 Corinthians 12:7) The possible answers to that question are as many as there are people who are shaken. We are all shaken. The shaking does not come without reason. If you are feeling shaken, seek God as to the reasons for the shaking. Whatever the reasons, you can be sure the shaking comes to stir you to some kind of action.

With Liberty and Freedom for All God's People

"God's kingdom is a kingdom of liberty in which everything is permitted unless specifically prohibited. Satan's kingdom is a controlled hierarchy in which nothing is permitted unless authorized." That quote from Taking Our Cities for God by John Dawson hit me especially hard when I read it this week. This is what the religious spirit is all about, control. We have said it in these pages several different ways so one more is not going to hurt. Let us get to that in a minute.

Sometimes when confronted with a spiritual truth, I am almost dumbfounded. It hits me and then I wonder why I had never thought of it in exactly that way before. I know it is true, but I could not have formed the words to express it myself. That is exactly what happened when I read the quote above.

I always thought it would be great to know things other people do not know or to see things other people do not see. It seems as though television and movies are replete with people who have special abilities in those areas. It used to be they were ordinary people who aquired the abilities. Lately though, the whole concept has just gotten weird. I think we may be being set up for something.


There are people with unsual abilities to see into the spiritual realm. Let us be careful to not let our minds translate that into something freaky. When we think if unusual, spiritual insight, we often think of some wild-eyed prophet bellowing about the end of the world. Or perhaps our minds run to someone who is so spiritual we, mere mortals can only hope to ever acheive that level of insight. The truth is, everyone who has accepted the Lordship of Jesus has the ability to see into the spiritual realm. That ability comes right along with the Holy Spirit coming to help us and to guide us into all truth. (John 16:13)



A religious spirit cannot allow freedom. It has to sit in some position of authority in a religious hierarchy and call the shots, so to speak, or it has no power. This is such a core concept regarding religious spirits that I almost wanted to make this its own post in the series, The Workings of a Religious Spirit. Some people mistake a religious spirit for a controlling spirit. This too is deception. Why is this so? Controlling spirits affect many people from every walk of life. Religious spirits are present in our churches and corollary ministries. This makes them more heinous and deceptive. Those who are supposed to be the more spiritual among us are the perpetrators, the hosts if you will, of the religious spirit. They think they are doing the right things when in fact they are in agreement with the religious spirit. Is it then any wonder that we do not see more of God's power expressed through The Church?

Perhaps you are sitting there and do not believe what I am saying is even happening. Whenever I come up against that situation, I always ask the Lord to give me a reason the other person should believe me. That is for those of you with whom I have no credibility and those of you who do not have the insight and experience to know this by the spirit. It may be for you if you are being deceived by the religious spirit. Ask yourself a question something like this, "When I know the Lord is speaking to me to do something with whom do I check for permission?" Now compare your answer with the quote at the beginning of this post.


I can hear the protests now. Pastors, elders, deacons and whomever else shares the leadership in a local church cannot let anyone who thinks they have a psalm, a teaching, a tongue, a revelation or an interpretation just blurt it out. They have to protect the people and maintain order. Oh really? Before you completely make up your mind about that, read 1 Corinthians 14:26.


What is the pastor's job? The answer is in Ephesians 4:12 and there is some elaboration in the next several verses. There really is not anything there about protecting the sheep from the sheep. I am probably being overly simplistic, but I am of the opinion the Bible is not difficult to understand unless one listens to differing theological points of view. I honestly do think that in most cases the newest Christians have the best theology. That is because the church has not had the opportunity to mess them up yet. I also think people study theology in an effort to convince themselves and others of what God cannot do. Enough about what I think.


We could now begin to quote scripture after scripture about the blind leading the blind (Luke 6:39) and to not lord it over others (Matthew 25-26). Quoting scripture to people who are deceived serves no practical benefit. By definition, those who are deceived cannot see the truth in the area in which they are deceived. I am speaking from experience here by the way.

The single antidote against living in any kind of deception is to walk in the spirit. Deception comes when we rely on the power of our soul to determine what is right and what is wrong; to do what seems right to us as men. That always leads to death. (Proverbs 14:12) Those who live in the spirit do not make any provision for the flesh. (Galatians 5:16) "...where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." (1 Corinthians 3:17) So walk in the spirit. You will find liberty and freedom.

Hearing the Voice of God

In my line of work, my teaching ministry is largely limited to men who have little or no knowledge that a personal relationship with God is even possible, much less likely for them. One question that invariably is on the minds of those men is how one hears the voice of God. It is often phrased something like, "You mean you actually hear God speaking to you?" It is almost never asked in a belligerent manner. The man asking sincerely wants to know if it is possible to hear God speaking. The short answer is an unqualified, "Yes."

When one has been around as long as I have, if he is paying any attention at all, he learns things. One of the things I have learned is that God does indeed speak to His people, clearly and distinctly at times. Sometimes He even speaks so clearly and distinctly that one wonders if this time he actually heard an audible voice. God more often speaks to our spirits than to our ears. I will never forget something I heard the late John Wimber say at a conference when referring to a specific experience he had. "I think God spoke to me in an audible voice. My theology allows for that, but I am a little short on experience."

My personal experience is much the same as John Wimber's. I can recall a few times when God's voice was so clear that I wondered if I had heard an audible voice. One time I even looked around to confirm there was no one there who could have said what I heard. There was no one there, but I am still not going to affirm that I know I heard an audible voice. It may as well have been because, in my mind, I heard words. In case you are wondering, those words were later confirmed by another person as being true.

That brings us to a basic, physiology lesson. We do not hear sounds with our ears anyway. We hear them with our mind, which is part of our soul. Sounds enter our ears and cause our eardrums to vibrate. Those vibrations in the air are first converted to mechanical vibrations in the bones of the middle ear, hydraulic vibrations in the inner ear, and finally to electrical impulses in the auditory nerve. All that to hear a simple sound. Sounds mean nothing unless they are translated. That translation occurs in the brain, the physical part of the mind. So, again, we hear audible sounds with our soul.

There is another way to get information to our soul. God does not work around our ears, so to speak, when He wants to communicate something to us. He can speak it into the other part of our being, our spirit. From there the physiology is much more simple than that described above. There is no physiology. God speaks into our spirit and the impression, the thought, the idea, the concept, or possibly even the words, are sent directly to our soul. Throw your science out the window on that one. It is not quantifiable. It cannot be demonstrated by research or experiment. It is not an hypothesis, theory, or law. Well, not in the scientific sense anyway. Let's call it a law of the Kingdom of God. (Someone ought to make a list of Kingdom Laws sometime. Any volunteers for that assignment? Maybe it has already been done and we have not heard about it.) You know, like the Law of Death, and the Law of the Spirit of Life from Romans 8. Spiritual hearing is a Law of the Kingdom of God.

That is probably not all that helpful for those of you who think you have never heard God speak to you. Think of it this way. I have been told many times I have a distinctive voice. Were I to call you on the phone right now, would you recognize my voice? Your answer would have to be "No" if we had never talked before or if we had talked only infrequently. However, were you to talk to me on anything like a regular basis, you would immediately recognize my voice. The difference is familiarity. If you are familiar with me, you recognize my voice. The more familiar one is with the voice of God, the easier it is to recognize it.

When asked what the voice of God sounds like, I often tell the men in my classes that, while they are in my classes the Holy Spirit will most often speak to them in a voice that sounds very much like mine. That is only partially tongue in cheek. Sometimes because of what I say, and sometimes in spite of what I say, they do hear God's voice. It sounds possibly evasive to some, but the truth is that when you hear God's voice, you will know it. The more you hear it, the better you will recognize it. Jesus said His sheep hear His voice. If we follow Him, we will hear His voice. (John 10:27)

But what does His voice sound like? I doubt it sounds the same to any two people. We each hear God individually. There is one thing to keep in mind that is supremely important. Whatever God says to you will always agree with the Word of God, the Bible, always. The Bible is God's entire revelation to mankind on this earth. Should you hear something you are not quite sure about, go back to the Bible and see what is says on the subject. If you cannot find anything that seems quite right, consult with someone who is further along in his or her walk with God than you are.

There is one other thing you have to do if you really want to hear the voice of God. It is possibly the most difficult thing for most of us to do. Are you ready? Be quiet! God speaks a lot more than most of us listen. There is no way to know how often we have missed a word from God because we were being too noisy, or listening to the wrong things, or the wrong people. (Make your own list.) Talking to God is only half of praying, or praising, or worshiping. You would not consider it fellowship if you did all the talking while the person you were talking to did nothing but listen. Prayer and worship are the vertical equivalent of fellowship. Perhaps that makes a little more sense. Hearing the voice of God is not magical, mystical, or even difficult. It is a Christian discipline we all need. Please allow me to exhort you that if you have not, are not, or are not often hearing the voice of God, ask Him to help you. He wants you to hear His voice.

Holy Boldness

Perhaps I am like a lot of you in this regard, or maybe you have never actually thought about it, but I sincerely appreciate when I get a glimpse of what God is doing in me personally. I understand and appreciate that God is working in my life on a daily basis. As a result, I complain about my circumstances a lot less than I used to.


First thing this morning, before I even got out of bed, the thought danced through my head that God has been working holy boldness in me. Many of you remember me as a brash and often an almost rude young man. I was going to deliver the truth as I saw it. If anyone did not like it, what was their problem anyway. Life does have a way of tempering us.


There is a line in my favorite all time movie, Field of Dreams, where the main character, Ray Kinsella, is talking about his father. He says he did not know his father until after he had been beaten down by life. I have seen that movie several times over the years since it came out on VHS and just today that line took on special meaning to me.


We are all subject to the difficulties and unpredictabilities of life. Life is kinder to some than to others, but the human condition, born in iniquity and shaped in sin (Psalm 51:5) is common to all. One of my former pastors was convinced and pretty well convinced me that everything that reaches us has come through God's hand. I do not recall him ever giving a scriptural basis for that, but the story of Job in the Old Testament would seem to validate that concept. Some of you have already thought of 1 Corinthians 13:10, "No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able..."


Stuff happens to all of us. Sometimes we are knocked down. Why not let Paul explain this. He did it better than I could anyway. "We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed." (2 Corinthians 4:8-9) Before you tell me I have that out of context because Paul was writing about himself and his fellow apostles, grab a larger picture of what God is trying to say. This passage applies to anyone who is ministering to anyone else. Now, is that you? Above all, apostles are sent to be examples for us to emulate.

The question is not what will we do when if we are knocked down. The question is how will we respond when we are knocked down. Will the fall make us bitter or will it make us better? Had Paul not been knocked down on a trip to Damascus, he would not have picked himself back up to become the writer of much of the New Testament.

I am almost out of breath explaining why I can say what I am about to say. I have been inclined on a couple occasions to complain about the past 22 years of non-productivity, shall we say. I did not feel like I was in the wilderness during that time, but I did seem to be going around in circles for the most part; not making any progress. Now I can see that all that time was working a greater weight of glory in me. (2 Corinthians 4:17) Oh my gosh, is that the same context as the passage we were to grab a larger picture of above? (Sometimes I just have to do that in case you are inclined to miss it without some additional prompting.) I have become the voice of one crying in the Santa Maria valley. We have to throw off the yoke of this religious spirit so the glory of God can once again warm this valley. He has set Himself to do a great work here. He is waiting for us to do our part. Wow, that is bold!

We are all products of the totality of our experiences here on earth. Someone once asked a pastor how long it takes to make a sermon. His answer, "All my life." is right on. Were we never beaten about, we would never know how to fight back. Were we never knocked down, we would never be able to get up. Were we never in want or in need, or sickness or affliction, we would not know God is the only answer to those conditions.

I remember hearing a sermon once, the name of the person who presented it escapes me right now, but there was a line that I have never forgotten. He said when you find yourself overcome by any of life's trials, thank God. He exhorted us to not nurse it, curse it, or rehearse it. When we can learn to do that, we will begin to see that greater work of glory manifesting in us. We will have holy boldness to do His work wherever we are.

The Fullness of Time

I am not the least bit embarrassed to borrow a title from another blogger, especially when two things are true. 1) I have known this particular young lady (Deborah Downs Basehore, http://debbase.blogspot.com/2009/08/fullness-of-time.html) since before she was born and 2) It is a scriptural phrase. I cannot say we are good friends, but her parents pastored the church where I was on staff during the time Deborah was in the womb. I have seen her maybe half a dozen times throughout her life although I have been able to see her older siblings on something of a regular basis.


This time I was sitting in my home office, minding my own business, when I pulled up the email introducing me to Deborah's blog. So you know, I preached a sermon by the same title at the Christmas service in the Little Rock, CA Foursquare Church in 1974, as a college senior. I suppose I have taught on the surrounding scriptures at least a handful of times throughout the intervening years. I am not unfamiliar with the phrase by any means.


As so often happens with familiar, scriptural, passages, they sit in our subconscious minds, unused, until the Holy Spirit recalls them when they are needed. When I read the post in Deborah's blog the thought rose from my spirit that our time is not quite full. That is why it seems as though there has been little or no progress in our battle. The army is still being assembled. (I suspect Deborah will be joining us in prayer when she reads this post.) That does make me wonder, however, what it will take for someone with a more prominent voice than this one has been so far, to glimpse the battle and lend that voice.

One of my favorite books all time is Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears A Who. To explain why that is so, probably all I need to do is tell you my favorite movie is Field of Dreams, and I have a print of Picasso's Don Quixote on the wall behind my desk at work. (I have to think a psychologist would have a great time analyzing me.) For those of you who still have not quite caught the picture, each of those stories are about people who faced impossible odds and persevered until they won. Horton only needed the voice of one more "Who" to save Who-ville from destruction. Who knows whose voice that might be in this case. Maybe it is even one of you who are reading this.


I am not a young man anymore, but I do still see visions (Acts 2:17) although I will also admit to dreaming dreams from time to time. I have seen things no one else I know has seen. They were mostly, personal things, but not entirely private things. I have been able to use some of those things to help other people along their way. Make no mistake, these are things born of the Spirit. The proof is in the pudding as the old saying goes. If you hang around long enough, you will get your serving of pudding.


Jesus promised us that He would send the Comforter, The Holy Spirit, to lead us into all truth. (John 16:13) In fact He said it is better for us if He went away so The Holy Spirit could come. (John 16:7) Only one member of the Trinity carries the primary work of God on earth at any one time. God the Father worked until Jesus came. Jesus worked for a comparatively brief period of time before turning the work over to The Holy Spirit who will be working in and through us until Jesus returns. Misunderstanding of this relatively simple point of theology has stifled untold ministry amongst those who believe The Holy Spirit has ceased His work on earth. Those who believe that are never quite so direct with their teaching. They cloak their teaching in a thin veil that says the gifts of The Holy Spirit are no longer needed in The Church. They may not be needed in their church, but they are needed in The Church. God help us if we start thinking we can do the work of the ministry without the manifest presence of The Holy Spirit.


I am not really sure how we got here from there, but the main thesis is still valid. We are not late. We are right on time. Right now it is time to meditate and pray and write. Very soon it will be time for action. That time will be The Fullness of Time.