Hasten To The Word of God

PRIDE AND ALLOWING OURSELVES TO BE BESTED

 

 

Prov. 16:18 Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall.

Prov. 26:18 ‘And after all this, if you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.19 I will break the pride of your power; I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze.20 And your strength shall be spent in vain; for your land shall not yield its produce, nor shall the trees of the land yield their fruit.

 

Pride is something I’ve pretty much always avoided talking about. It’s not that I think I am so proud and dare not discuss it. Rather I know that I am like most humans and have a natural tendency toward pride from time to time. We generally do some small bit of exulting when we do well, because really we know we are not all that great. We feel good when we accomplish something. The real problem comes when it gets out of balance and we don’t exult in others when they do well or when we don’t give space for them to do well. And that is the point I wish to discuss today.

Leviticus is kind of scary on this subject. God must always be first. God is love and when we keep Him first we love well. When God is not first we love poorly and slip into different kinds of destruction, one being pride. When we walk in God’s Love as we should, God’s Holy Spirit rains on us and we produce the fruit of the Spirit and the anointing of the Spirit flows through us upon others. The peace of God falls upon us, we praise and honor God and rejoice in Him.

When we get off track and give ourselves the credit justly due to God, Leviticus says God will break the pride of our power and life gets hard around us. We know that life around us can be hard anyway. So, the idea that God would make life harder when we take honor upon ourselves is just scary. But the truth is that we humans do it to some degree all the time.

One area I am thinking of this morning is that of churches and leadership. The world teaches us that leaders are supposed to be better than others. Certainly, leaders need to be accomplished to some degree in order to be able to lead others somewhere. Too often I have seen this taken to the point of control. If we control who serves around us and only allow ministry to those who won’t in our opinion do better than us, then we can maintain our position of leadership. If we just don't give opportunities to others to grow, we can prevent them from possibly doing better than us. This is an issue of pride and fear. Keeping this attitude will make life hard around us. It will also make life difficult for those seeking to mature and gain experience in their Spiritual giftings. And that doesn’t please God who loves us all and wants all of us to be released into the fullness of our callings.

Speaking practically, men do this to women, and then women do it to each other. Men and women who believe that only men are to be leaders and teachers or preachers often become inwardly furious when they see women besting them in some area of church leadership. So, they begin to work to prevent and control these women. Pastors and church leaders will do this when they watch someone preaching a better sermon or teaching better. They feel that their position of superiority is being challenged. So, they simply will refuse to honor or encourage that person in those things giving them fewer opportunities. This is the ugly side of pride. And we will sense the heavens becoming like a wall of iron and the earth like a wall of bronze in being immovable. We will be stuck and either go backwards or simply not move forward.

One of the errors in this is thinking that in order to serve well leaders must do better than those around them. In general they should have a certain degree of competency. Men who think men must be leaders, think they must know more than women. Really men just need to give their strengths, whatever they are, to serving those around them. Being concerned over who is doing better than whom is not an option. In this way anointed leaders can allow themselves to be ministered to by whomever God sends. The best leader releases those around them into ministry and service so much so that eventually he or she will be surpassed in excellence from time to time. This has the potential to blossom into amazing Spiritual ministry and growth.

But pride will stop it all, pitting one against another, shutting down the wind of God’s Spirit. Let us instead concentrate on opening doors for others to do well and rejoicing with them when they do.  So, if you suddenly get a lot of bananas, share some.   :)

 

 

3 Wheels of a Church

A wheel in a wheel in a wheel.  

 

Last night in a vision with insight I saw a wheel in a wheel in a wheel describing how a church body works together.  The good success and even the bad success depends on whether or not at least two wheels operate together.  If there is no wheel but only a hub, then all we see is potential.  The hub is the potential core group of a church.  One person is a beginning with a promise not the fulfillment. A healthy hub is 5 men and women, three will end up crippling the hub into a power struggle. God is able to work in a trinity because they are all of the same essence, power and will.  The design for the building up of a church body is a five fold ministry in which all have the same goal, all working together with the same harmonious unity.  It is not necessary for the five fold ministries to be singular, such as one ministry calling for each person.  In real life believers generally weave two or 3 types of callings into one, with one primary.  Then when these men and women are joined together in a hub there is available all the ministries with the attached gifting of the Spirit, and the ministries interweave supporting and giving strength.  That kind of a hub is powerful. It is powerful when each believer is respected, honored, encouraged and released into their callings and gifts.  Generally the one with an apostolic calling is the fulcrum of the nucleus.  But without the interworking of the other five ministries, life is minimal and cannot grow.  

It is necessary to have some understanding of the five fold ministries.  They are life callings, not gifts or grace effects of the baptism of the Holy Spirit.  Of course those personal callings will grow and must have the support of whatever gifts the Holy Spirit chooses to equip them. Ephesians 4:11 tells us that Jesus Himself personally calls those in the fivefold ministries.

The first wheel around the hub is the beginning of the life of the Body of the church group.  It is composed of those who are supported, encouraged and held together by the core group.  Jesus painted a picture of service and leadership in Matt. 20:25-28 in which Jesus suffers death (came to give His life for us) and came to serve and support life in others.  This is how life is brought forth. If the core group in strong unity does not call forth, encourage other's (outside the core) into service themselves, then there is no life, only the potential for life. The first wheel is composed of elders and deacons.  These are people who desire to work in the ministry of the church and who join "hands" with the core like the spokes of a wheel.  They must be individuals with good character, mature in Christ. My understanding is that elders are more mature individuals having been in Christ longer, who hold enough wisdom and example to be good role models for new believers. Deacons do not need to be older or as mature, but must be as dedicated to serve.  But they must have something to contribute.  Elders may not have a life calling to teach or evangelize but they must be able to do so on some level. There must be wisdom learned from being a long time believer. The deacons are often the ones who faithfully keep up the daily work of worship, Sunday morning services, keeping up the church grounds, kitchen service, helping in all areas of the daily needs of the church.  All must be ready and willing to faithful lift up a body of believers in prayer.

A church can be strong even though small with this one hub and one wheel.  The second wheel are those who come supporting the ministry of that church.  Many churches have a crippled hub and a crippled first wheel, or even no first wheel, only the second wheel which is those who attend.  That is like a wheel with missing spokes and missing spots on the wheel.  Those who attend need the personal support of dedicated spiritually anointed elders and deacons.  They are the hands that reach out in the personal lives of believers to fill in the areas the hub/core cannot reach or fulfill.

Throughout this picture of interlocking wheels attached to a center hub must be men and women with not only a true commitment to Jesus as savior and Lord but the hub and the first wheel need to be dedicated believers who have the anointing of the Holy Spirit working in their lives.  If we only have one gender in the hub and in the first wheel, then the church is imbalanced. And since the one gender is usually male, the imbalance is usually one of authoritarianism. But that imbalance can happen even with a good mixed group and must be diligently guarded against.  If we have true believers in these places but who have not been baptized in the Holy Spirit then we are imbalanced and flesh will work against the Spirit.  

 

This is the vision and the insight I saw.  I will update as I see things I may have missed.

Elders, Women and 1 Timothy

 

Briefly here are some of my thoughts on how to deal with 1 Timothy, women, and the subject of teaching elders.

 

Firstly, Timothy was having a problem with wrong teachings.  We see this in Paul’s first responses in chapter one.  Men and women were trying to teach about things they really knew little of.  Here is where some scholars believe Paul is referencing gnostic ideas being taught which may have come from the teachings of the Diana worshippers.  New converts.  Of those people Paul only names two whom he handed over to Satan because he thinks they are not teachable, and they have rejected good conscience. And one wonders if they were true believers.

 

At least one of these debaters was “a woman”.  Paul has more compassion for this person as he first reminds others about his own ignorance before He believed.  He reminds Timothy that God treated him with mercy and patience.  So, while he admonishes the whole group of debaters to cease fighting and to pray, and to the women in general to dress more modesty (possibly relevant to the flamboyance of Diana worshippers), he speaks of this one woman (or perhaps a few women) differently.  In a different tone of emphasis Paul says to LET the woman learn.  Paul uses a common phrase applied to learners, that of learning in quietness and full submission – yielding their attention to the teacher.  And the woman is not to attempt to teach or usurp the teacher’s position of teaching.  

 

The word translated as “exercise authority” is more complicated than that.  Exousia means simply to exercise authority as in giving permissions, etc.  Authentein, the Greek word used here, is only used this one time and is an old term possibly having a narrow audience of use.  It was used of forceful activities including murder, forcing another to one’s will and the like.  While this can seem like referring to exercising authority over another, it is harsher.  The question comes up as to why he used it.  Perhaps, that is the way the woman or women were behaving; with forcefulness, pushiness, pressuring and intimidatingly.  Perhaps, they acted a lot like Paul did before Jesus stopped him.  And Paul thought he had the higher road.  But he found out he was mistaken.  This woman or women needed to find out they were mistaken, by learning.  Because like Eve, they had been deceived.  One of the many gnostic teachings about creation taught that Adam was deceived, not Eve.  And they taught that women could not be spiritual unless they forsook bearing and raising children. (Paul mentions again in chapt. 4 verse 3)  This then makes sense of verses 13-15.

 

So, then the question becomes why did Paul then start talking about being elders/overseers.  Firstly it is likely that elders were a primary source of teachers.  While it is understood that a special anointing of more scholarly and spiritual teaching was only given to some who would be willing to spend most of their lives researching Scriptures prayerfully, like Paul; yet there had to be others who would spend time and effort mentoring and sharing the apostolic teachings in many venues.  These would be the elders who in supervisory caring ways would be easily available to the community in teaching, caring, counseling, etc.  Paul served in many areas: apostle, teacher, elder and servant.  :)

 

I believe that Paul progressed from warning about gnostic teachings, to admonitions to pray and not fight, and to strongly urging Timothy to let the status seeking, Thunder Brothers type woman (or women) learn, SO THAT they might in time qualify to be an overseer or deacon at some point in the future.  Overseers and elders are sometimes referred to in the same ways.  This points to them being older people who minister in supervisory works.

 

Contrary to what traditionalists and patriarchalists have trampled the Word to say, chapter 3 is not to men only.  It starts out with “some” or “someone” (Greek, tis), which is highly inclusive.  So, it is acceptable if someone aspires to the work of overseer, as that one desires a good work.  I’ve always loved Paul’s writing style.  And here it is notable that he starts off with “the saying is trustworthy”, and then his first qualification is to be “above reproach”, I.e. Trustworthy.  And then the second qualification is to be trustworthy in marriage.  Aner heis gyne, is a common phrase meaning “man of one woman”.  We still use this phrase today when referring to someone who is a faithful.  He is a one woman man.  Or she is a one man woman.  When used generically the gender falls back to masculine.  We see this in verse 12 where Paul is referencing both male and female deacons, but still says they must be a “man of one woman”.  Unknown or mixed audiences typically default to the inclusive masculine.  

 

This phrase was found on the tombs of both men and women in Asia and surrounding areas by a Frenchman, Lucien Deiss, his notes to the French Bible, TOB, edition Integrale.  It is noted in a book, “Familiar leadership Heresies Uncovered” by Bruce C. E. Fleming.  He also wrote a series of books called “Think Again”, which are excellent.

 

Verse 7 is often thought to be only pertaining to men.  However, the word is tis, which mean anyone, just like verse one says  “anyone who desires”.  One of the qualifications is that anyone who desires to be an overseer must manage his or her own home, household, business, etc.  The rest of the qualifications of being a deacon or an overseer/elder are undisputedly good advice for both men and women.

 

This is a short version of how I see Paul progressing his instructions on the subject of handling disorderly people with compassion and firmness.  He points out their errors, dispenses with those who he sees as unteachable, encourages Timothy in how and what to teach the rest.  And Paul does it all while reminding Timothy that he, Paul, was like them at one time, and look at where he is now.  There is indeed redemption and new life in Christ.  

 

Teachers, Bible Study, Kittens and Believers

 

I love animals, especially baby animals.  Their joy in life, innocence of evil intent and “grouchlessness” is engaging.  As I sit typing I hear the pile of reading papers, magazines, and articles sliding off the footstool along with the kittens.  Reminds me of diving off of cliffs in Hawaii, running back up and diving off again and again. Thrilling really! Oh and now my camera and purse hanging off the back of the dining room table chair has dropped to the floor for more intense inspection by Greyling, kitten #1.  So now Calley, kitten #2, and WildBoy my 2-yr (teenager) cat have all come to inspect and crawl in the purse.  Yes, I’ve done my best not to leave too much stuff available for their joyful runabouts and damage prevention.  But for a healthy kitten’s growth, I must leave something for them to inspect and experiment with.

 

TALK, TALK, TALK……

We as humans are all like God's children and precious to God. As a grandmotherly senior, teaching and occasionally preaching is my passion and has been for many years.  I was thinking this week how Bible study groups can sometimes be like a group of old and young cats of every age.  The older want to prove their prowess, the babes want to have fun, and the rest want to “get into it” much like cats crawling into my purse to investigate.   I’ve learned that I must let this happen both for the cats and for fellow believers. Such freedom creates an atmosphere of real joy in whatever we are doing including reading God’s Word. 

 

WHERE IS THE WISDOM

James 3: 13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. 15 This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, and demonic. 16 For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. 17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. 18 Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

Wisdom is both the proper application of knowledge as well as godly love directed toward all for their productive benefit.  The word translated as ‘wise’ in vs. 13 above is Sophos and means skilled, expert, cultivated, learned, etc.  It is sometimes aimed specifically toward theologians, philosophers and teachers and those who want to become such.  We should encourage those seeking to become wise.

 

THE KNOWLEDGEABLE MUST LEAD AND STEER

I’ve found that Bible Study for adult believers must include things they can inspect and experiment with like kittens and my purse, but not too much.  They still need the guidance of those who have studied deeply the subject.  Someone is bound to puff up like a turkey or the arched back of a challenging kitten and proclaim that his or her answer or insight is the only reasonable one.  That is when biting and fighting can begin.  Wisdom loves them all, encourages and applauds the real insights and steers all toward more thoughtful discussion.  As Paul noted in 1 Timothy 1 some people want to be teachers of the Law, but really don’t have a good grasp of the Word, nor on the things they proclaim so confidently.

1 Tim. 1:7 desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm.

 Unless they are infiltrators from an ungodly belief system and not really Christians, it really doesn’t matter who is going off track, the answer should be the same to all believers: help them to learn.  Don’t try to silence them forever or be harsh with them.  This was Paul’s answer regarding the women in Ephesus who were desiring to be teachers.  “Let them learn”.  The principle is the same for everyone.  Encourage them to learn in quietness (not fighting) with expectations to receive something of value.

 

POINTING IN THE DESIRED DIRECTION

Sometimes, I preach a bit in our Bible groups, laying history and foundations for what is being studied.  As I do this I’m doing my best to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit in directing discussion.  I stop in the midst of discussion and offer them nuggets of information they may not have.  And I ask questions that will make them really think.  Believe me, many are waiting for their chance to contribute.  Welcome it and leave time and space for it.

 

CONTROVERSY

If a section of Scripture is controversial, I’ve learned that it is best to note the controversies and help believers think about it.  This is much like ancient Jewish practices of citing scholar’s words that differ, such as Hillel, or Gamaliel.  There will always be scholars and teachers that differ on certain points.  We who teach must inform the Body of Christ how to deal with this and how to properly inductively and contextually research these different opinions.  And we should give them good researchable reasons why we believe as we do especially on controversial subjects.  Don’t run away from it and leave them hanging.  Do your research and teach them how to study inductively.  Unfortunately, too often some things are taught from poor research leaving behind context, history, grammar and whole Bible harmony.  That is why we who know better must share what we know with our brethren with wisdom, compassion and sincere affection. 

 

IN CONCLUSION

Teaching with wisdom, knowledge, good research, compassionate steering of conversation as well as using the basics of a good scholar of the Word (history, grammar, context, whole Bible harmony) and sincere affection toward all believers is bound to produce the joyful communication and discussion of a group of happy cats and kittens.  I’ve seen it happen many times.  My church’s Sunday morning Bible group which I steer is known for their laughter echoing up into the sanctuary, and our “lively” discussions.  When this happens it is not attributed to just the one teaching and steering.  The one teaching is like the good mountain guide who has been there before and just keeps walking them in the best paths of which he/she knows.  Then the Holy Spirit takes over and the unity and fellowship of the Spirit leads us toward the mind of Christ, which is to love one another, put other’s first, consider other’s interests before our own. Then we learn to wash one another’s feet in our spiritual discussion.  We learn to see the value in others that Christ saw in humanity when He gave His life and suffered death for the benefit of those who would come to Him.  To see this glorious hint of unity of the Spirit is worth all the work it takes, all the trials and failures it takes, to keep doing what God calls a teacher to do; and often brings joy to my heart and tears to my eyes.  

 

Phil. 2 Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, 2 fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. 3 Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. 4 Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.

 

 

 

 

It is a Horrible Thing for Humans to Exact Vengeance

Romans 12: 17-21  “19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.

Hebrews 10:30 For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The LORD will judge His people.”

 

It is a fairly normal response that when people think someone, or some organization, or group of people has taken or desires to take from them what they feel belongs to them, that they will consider seeking vengeance.  The problem is that only God knows all the elements of such situations.  Only God knows what is true and what is not true.  For this and likely other reasons, we are admonished as Christians to bless and not curse those we consider enemies.

Ultimately, this desire for revenge will give birth to hate.  It is clearly written that we are not to hate our brethren.  Those who hate are not walking in the grace and mercy of God.  The two do not mix.  As hate grows it inspires people to do unimaginable things against others.  Vengeance and hate magnify the negative elements of life and change our ability to embrace full truth. 

It is tough when someone hurts us and blocks us from getting something we want or deserve. But only God can sort it all out.  Sometimes we don’t deserve what we think we do.  Sometimes, we aren’t meant to get what we want when we want it.  Sometimes, we get what we don’t deserve and yet we can learn deeply beneficial truths from these experiences that deepen our walk with God. Only God knows the depths of our hearts and yearnings and pain.  Only God knows the right timing or the best timing for things. 

Pain and wounds are one of the most important times to take it all to God in prayer.  God knows all and loves all.

SO:  is there someone in your life that you just cannot stand, or that continually tries to get in the way of your walk with God, or that has done something that has hurt you deeply?  Have you thought of punching their ‘lights’ out, or at least sticking your foot out just enough to trip them and watch them fall on their face?  Unfortunately, this rarely makes one feel any better.  It doesn’t heal the inner pain. It doesn’t correct a bad situation, and generally makes it worse.

Really, it’s better to lift these people up in prayer, asking God to put their hand on them and help them draw closer to God.  The Greek  “eulogeo” means to invoke blessing or praise.  It is to ask God to work good in their lives.  The Hebrew equivalent is “barak” which means to kneel.  So, let us kneel before God and petition God to work goodness in the lives of those who have brought us harm.  We know that when God works goodness in our lives, He has to expose the sin and wrongdoing, and remove them in order to enable us to do good.  So, all in all, blessing our enemies is truly the best approach. 

 

The Fallacy of the Firstborn Right of Leadership

There is a long time popular fallacy and misinterpretation of Scripture that declares only males can be public leaders because the male was created first in the record of Genesis.

Recently, one of our Bible Study groups had the privilege of reading through the book of Genesis.  One of several things that stood out was that God never choose the first born to be leaders.  God always choose the one whose heart and intent was righteous.  Put these very clear facts of history together with the other glaring omission of God ever stating that the first born had leadership rights, and we see that this concept is man made and inserted into the interpretation of what is said in Genesis.  It is also inserted into the interpretation of what Paul said in 1 Timothy 2. 

What God did say in Genesis is that it was not good for the human to be alone.  This had nothing to do with authority or leadership, but aloneness. AFTER the man discovered what God already knew, that there was no one LIKE him (not different than), God proceeded to take of the man’s own essence and reform and refine it into the only one who was like the human enough to allay his aloneness — another human, but female. All of this had nothing whatsoever to do with the females fitness for leadership because God gave humanity, not male humans, the responsibility of leadership over the creation. The ability to compassionately lead, guide, protect and direct to promote life is part of the image of God that all humans share. Some are more gifted than others. But it is not imparted by being born first. It was imparted to all humans by the supernatural hand of our Creator. 

 

 

SUPERNATURAL FAITH



Supernatural faith is when we are in the flow of God’s heart and our heart.  We are in the moment of realness, real life and pure truth. It is not about doing something.  It is about being in truth what God is drawing up in our soul and heart. We don’t have to try or strain, we need only respond to what the Holy Spirit is releasing within us.  It is not a skill or a character trait, yet we can learn to do it. First we must know God’s voice and the urging of the Holy Spirit. Then we must learn to trust God. And then we must learn to yield to God’s urgings.

Knowing God’s voice will come naturally as we spend quality time in conversation with the Lord. I say conversation because it involves listening as well as sharing our hearts in honesty. Honesty is key.  Sometimes we will struggle with being honest because we don’t know our own heart. As we struggle to release our own hearts to God in truth, the Holy Spirit will help us.  Step by step we will learn to hear and recognize God’s impressions and directions in our lives.  It is a process that takes time just like an athlete get’s stronger with practice and a painter gets more precise with practice.

Trusting God is learned by obedience to His directions.  It also involves knowing God’s voice and knowing God’s inspired words in Scripture. Jesus is the Word and the Word is God. This is why Isaiah 55 says that the Word that goes forth from God’s ‘mouth’ will not return void but it will accomplish that which He purposed and it will prosper in the thing it was sent for.  This is tricky because most believers do not know God’s written word well at all.  As we learn God’s written Word and His living words on our soul, we will slowly mature in trust because our heart will learn that ultimately God’s loves us more and better than any living soul is capable.  Whatever the Lord says and directs is for the purpose of lifting our hearts with good news, with binding the inner wounds of our soul, to release those bound in sin and darkness so that they may experience the light and life of God’s goodness.  While it is true that sometimes healing is painful and being released from our addictions is frightening, the end result is holy freedom and living life such as we’ve never lived it before.

YIELDING TO GOD’S URGINGS involves both hearing and trusting God.  We cannot yield to what we cannot hear and our own conscience will not allow us to yield to what we do not trust.  But when we trust God’s ultimate goodness then we can learn to put aside fears of what if’s, insecurities, and a lack of trust in ourselves.  It isn’t about us.  What God wants to live through us is His Love for us individually, for all people, and for His people, the Body of Christ. We are to be His hands, His arms, His eyes, and His mouthpiece.  So, yielding to and obeying the Lord allows us to experience more of Him in special and particular ways.

 

Thus, as we like godly sheep recognize the Good Shepherd’s voice and respond to it with trust that the Lord does not deceive us (if we ask for an egg He does not give us a stone), then we will be living in moments of supernatural faith.  

 

Kevin Giles review of a recent Equal and Complementary seminar

The following link is to a google article by well known scholar Kevin Giles who calls himself a non-hierarchical complementarian (I consider myself the same).  In this article Giles is critiquing the teachings of some hierarchical complementarians who claim an interpretation of Scripture that is gender biased toward male dominance in church and home.  I find Giles review of their seminar very informative.

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B58yzgL3ovUUZmFiNTMyMjktOTg2MS00YWRlLTljOTktYjE4YjgxM2M5YTFm&sort=name&layout=list&num=50

I will be interested in any questions and comments regarding what Giles has to say on this.

LIVING TEMPLES OF THE LIVING GOD

WE ARE A SPIRITUAL PEOPLE

We are spiritual people.  We need to participate in spiritual things in order to be happy in life and fulfilled in our souls.  Nothing in the world can take the place of God, who is Spirit, functioning in our lives.  God means for us to be the people that the world turns to for help when their hearts and souls are in pain. And there is much pain in life because of sin.  This is why we are born of water and of the Spirit. We are of the earth and we are also of the Spirit.  These two aspects need to be balanced.

 Because the Spirit of a Holy God dwells within believers we have access to understanding and wisdom that the world doesn’t have.  And because the Holy Spirit of God does dwell within us our liveliness depends upon us worshiping God from our hearts and minds in sincerity and truthfulness.

 John 4:24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

 

Because of this we must pray for one another, and intercede for one another that God’s Will is done in all our lives.  The miracle of Christ is that He is both human and divine in a perfect balance.  Jesus contained His power in order to walk and fellowship among us as human. We need to expand our spirituality in order to walk like Jesus among fellow humans.  Our belief will prove itself by our fruit.   Do your contributions to other’s lives produce good fruit in their lives. And what does that good fruit look life. This is important because we are to be known by our fruit. (Matt. 7:17-20/ Luke 6:43-45)

 Does your love of God produce the fruit of godly love in others?  Does it bring them to repentance or draw them closer to God in awe of God or do they run to God because of the pain you deposit in their lives.

While it is true that often we don’t know, because our contributions are in the form of seeds that will mature later.  Sometimes we do know and it is good to take stock of our effect upon others.  There are times we find ourselves caught in a cycle of bringing each other pain.  It’s important that we discontinue those cycles and share the blame.  Look at them as opportunities for God to mature, heal and bless.  (Gal. 5:22-26)

 As spiritual people we thrive when we are doing spiritual works of any sort.  Being spiritually minded is our source of liveliness and the peace that goes beyond our intellect. This is something we do best together by supporting one another and keeping an eye out for the best interest of others.  (Phil. 2:1-4, Eph. 5:17-21)

We all discover at some point that in order to actually live as spiritual people we need help.  For this reason before Jesus ascended into heaven he breathed the Holy Spirit upon the disciples. (John 20:22)  And in that special time of their first gathering together on the day of Pentecost, God released the manifestations of the Holy Spirit in their lives enabling them to praise and worship God together and admonish one another toward holiness in other languages. (Acts 2:1-18) Because of what Peter spoke it is likely that some were prophesying as well.  In effect because of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit within all true believers, all believers are able to be moved by God in spiritual manifestations that God uses to help us live as spiritual people. WE HELP ONE ANOTHER. We are an interdependent body.  We are meant to allow God to use these gifts to help each other and also to minister to the world of unbelievers. God does the work of saving unbelievers. Our job is to allow Him to work through us. In fact we would do well to do more that allow God to use us.  We would do well if we strongly beseeched and implored God to use us in whatever God is busy with whereever we are. (Lk 11:9-13)

 

Luke 11:“11 If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

 

 

 

 

Who Are We To Be. That Is The Question!

IMO one of the biggest evils that "Christiandumb" produces in fellow Christians is a falseness of persona that happens when we box groups of people into categories. God loves and delights in each individual human that has ever lived and ever will live.  In the womb God weaves a personality that is wonderful and awesome.  In Christ, it should be our desire to release each person to be themselves as God created them to be and to encourage them to seek and operate in the gifts that God wants them to minister to the world in.

To sway a person from being who God wants them to be can only be wicked; it cannot be good.  Yet, the church in general throughout history has mirrored itself with the world in wanting to segregate and divide the people of God in ways contrary to God’s desire.  Christ said that we should be One, united together serving His Love to each other and the world.  Yet, in many churches today we still want to control who does what, when and where to the degree that is so often not all that enjoyable in attending the required Sunday services, sitting through the controlled same type of services all year long, with the same people doing the talking…. And so on.

 From my observations, many are tired of the divisions.  What people want is to be surprised and blest by the uniquenesses and creativity of Christ in others.  Why do you suppose?  Perhaps, it encourages them to learn to be the pure good personality that Christ created them to be and whom the Holy Spirit wants to use to serve God's Love to others with.