Integrity And Our Confession!

    You know, I believe deeply in confessing the Word.  I know that with the mouth we bring treasures out of the heart.  I know we are to hold fast our confession of faith, speaking the Word.  No problem with that message, but, sometimes I wonder if we ought to broaden the message a little.  Is positive confession only about obtaining things from God?   Is that all there is to it?  I think not.   Our confession must also reflect integrity.  We should be good at our word.  There was a day when we actually described men of faith as those who were good at their word. Such men will keep their word and if they can't, they won't speak a word.  If they can't keep their word, they will humbly repent.  The Bible says of such men that they will "swear" to their own hurt.  They will keep their word, even it cost them something.  Integrity must be a governing factor in our lives if we have any intention of allowing our life to speak well of Him. We must not forget that the most important characteristic of the "God kind of faith" is that God is good at His Word. He has integrity!

      Integrity must also  influence what we call prophecy.  More than once in my life I have had someone who thought of themselves as a "prophet" give a word, supposedly from God, and then a short while later take it back. When we say "thus saith the Lord", we are putting His integrity on the line and we better be careful.  Those of us who listen, must judge, and not just the words of the prophet but also his integrity.  We don't stone those prophets who miss it in this covenant, but we should stop listening to them.  One simple reason we have false prophets is that we keep listening to them. When it comes to a prophecy that predicts certain things at a certain time, or manner, etc., and those things don't come to pass, there should be some visible humility. I have yet to hear very many so-called prophets say "Sorry... I missed it", but I think a real prophet should and would.  His, and God's, integrity is at stake.

      People who aren't prophecy types do the same, including leadership.  Leaders who say "God told me" and then a short time later, do the opposite of what they proclaimed God said to do, destroy trust. Or, how about people who say, "God told me to come here to church" and a month later leave the church and go somewhere else. Every pastor knows about those folks.  I once had a person tell me, that God told them, if oil was found on their property, they were to tithe to our ministry and we would have an abundance.  We prayed with and believed with them as asked and some time later, sure enough, they struck oil, gaining great wealth.  It was about fifteen years later before we heard from them again. No tithes, no abundance, no apology.  Such things leave you wondering if God has to do as we humans do on a occasion - say "Oops".  Really, do we think God changes His mind, or errs, so easily?  Did God really say one thing and then take it back? Is He that wishy-washy?  I don't think so.

   Some approach confessing the Word with no integrity.  They may say "I have every thing I say" but the fine print says "Unless I say something else".  They bring harm to this great message by their lack of integrity.  I know of those who seem to get everything they say, from God, but you can't believe a word they say to you.  That is not a good witness.  In some places the political way of speaking has made its way into the church - where we just say whatever we think listeners want to hear. There is not integrity in that!  Friend, it is better to keep the mouth shut then to speak carelessly.  Integrity matters!   ".. LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill?  He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart...He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not..."  Ps.51

No Holiday For Me!

    
     A lady said "happy holiday" to me recently and before I could think, I repeated it back to her.  I walked away kicking my rear-end.  This is not "happy holiday" season to me.  This is CHRISTMAS.  This is the season we celebrate God so loving the world He gave His Son. This is the season we remember that in order to redeem man, God became what He made. What a gamble - to become what you previously made - to fill your creation with yourself.  This is the season we celebrate that God who came as a baby, lived in an earthly body such as our own, yet never sinned, died when He did not have to die, rose out of the grave by the power of the Holy Ghost and ascended on high to be crowned Lord of Lord and King of Kings.  This is the season, if you will, that He will confirm it all to you by the gifts He has prepared, the like of which we should be remembering as we gather around the tree and exchange gifts.  He gave us the gift of eternal life, of a heavenly home yet to come and most wonderfully the gift of the Companion Holy Ghost who is here to watch over us, guide us on our journey and when the call comes, usher us into the Presence of The Giver, the LORD OF LORDS.

    No, this is not a "holiday" for me.  This a season to remember how wonderful God has been to me and how much I thank Him and love Him.   This is a season to give myself and all I have, back to Him.  Oh, I know, I have nothing I could really say that was worthy to give to the King, but He loves me so much, and loves you so much, He will receive anything you lift up to Him - your thanks, your praise, you body, your life, even your sin.  Give it all to Jesus, as an act of your love of Him.  He gave His all for you, give your all to Him.  Its Christmas Time.

Crazy context

  You know, context is important, really important.  Especially in studying the Bible and discerning the things of God.  When you learn to read context and consider context important, you will be amazed at how much you hear thrown out from the pulpits of America that is out of context.  Could be worse and may get worse.  For example, did you know there is a Scripture that says "Judas went and hanged himself..."?  And another one that says "Go thou and do likewise...."?  Why, they go together perfectly don't they?   It is a wonder we don't have church hanging parties.  If verbally stoning wasn't so popular, along with  condemnation by comparison, hanging would probably catch on.  How about this verse designed for every man-hating women, "I would not have you ignorant brethren....".   I am surprised that is not used in divorce court more than it is.  "Imma gonna throw thata ignoramus bum out  and the B.I.B.L.E tells me itsa okay"

    On a more serious note, the rule of contextual study is ignored by nearly everyone. I could, without problem, name a dozen popular doctrines that are being fed into the hearts and minds of God's people right now developed almost entirely from Bible verses out of context.  We charismatics are bad at this.  We easily pick out a verse, or part of one, ignore the context in which it was spoken, and build a whole new doctrine on it.  And, then salute one another for finding "new" truths.  Yet, by ignoring the context, we end up burying or ignoring a greater truth found in the context.

    This I will tell you, the worst out-of-context preaching is preaching from the wrong covenant.  A huge number of the sermons preached every Sunday ignore the new and "better" covenant we have with God. Preachers will, without thought, present a spiritual plan, call it God's plan, demand we give heed to it, and the whole thing will be from the wrong covenant, out of context.  Some, when threatened, or have a desire to threaten, will pull out of the Old Testament a terrible threat of God and use it on their people.  Some preachers will tell of new testament blessing but use the old testament to preach it, creating all sorts of confusion.   Thousands of sermons will be preached,  either promising blessings or, depending on the mood, terrible curses and all out of the context of a relationship with God and out of context with His plans and purposes.  When you begin to see that we have new covenant that is a "better covenant, with better promises", you start to wonder "what part of new do folks not understand?"   My friend, if this new covenant is better, it is different.  If it has better promises, do you know them?  Why would I want the promises of an old covenant when I can have the ones in the new, seeing as how they are  better.

    

Sin & Grace

   You know, we should preach against sin. But, with a lot of humility.  Every time I hear a preacher preach on sin, it all too often is not done with humility.  It comes across as if "I've got it worked out....you don't".  And worse, sometimes it comes across as if salvation came because he got rid of all his sin.  You know folks, that ain't so!  While were still sinners, God started loving us (grace).  You are saved because you have accepted Jesus as Lord, thereby causing a new spirit to be created in you (grace).  And then, guess what?  The benefit of forgiveness became yours (grace).  God doesn't offer forgiveness to those outside of His family (they need to born again), but to His family, the "brethren",  He is faithful and just to forgive (1 Jo. 1:9). 

    Sometimes when we present salvation, we do tend to present it as if getting rid of all our sin by sufficient repentance accomplished salvation.  Folks, that ain't so either!   We are saved by grace - meaning we had no input in the matter. We were dead, doomed, without hope, but just as in the beginning when God gathered up a handful of clay and blew life into it by His choice, He gathers up the hopeless, the dead, the doomed, the undeserving and blows life into us and we are saved - by grace.

   To be saved by "grace" means you have zero reason, zero input, zero influence in the matter.   It was and is a gift! And, guess what, the gift lives on.  Not only were we saved, rescued from darkness and from our lost-ness by grace, we are also kept by grace.  Still as undeserving as we were in the beginning, we are kept by the "word of His power" (grace).  Thank God, grace is an ongoing flow from the throne.  It cleans up the past, surrounds us in the present and goes before us into tomorrow.  Should we ever think we deserve it, earned it, bought it, or inherited it, we have missed it.  Grace is free and unmerited - or - it isn't grace.  Man has a tremendous struggle with accepting grace.  In one way or the other, we want to add something we did to grace and we can't add a thing.   Oh, by the way grace has a name.  Know what it is?  "Holy Ghost", otherwise known as the "Spirit of Grace".

Defeated Foe

   You know, the Bible says things about the devil (since the cross) such has "defeated", "stripped of his power made and open show of", "works destroyed".  Every time I hear someone, especially a preacher, seem not to understand that, I shudder a bit.  Jesus made it clear the devil's power is to lie.  In fact, He called him "father" of lies.  Jesus also called him the "father" of Pharisees, representative of religion.  The enemy has power, but he gets it by lying. Then, the next thing you know, some preaching is expounding on the power of the devil without exposing how the devil got that power. This sets in motion a familiar cycle of confusion that results in him being magnified beyond his measure.

   Since we don't know how the enemy got his power, we then usually don't know how to take it away from him, something that begins with knowing from the Word that he is a defeated foe.  This cycle of confusion also leaves people not knowing how to defeat him.  Just knowing the truth about him, even from the Word, is not enough.  The Bible says the power comes when we submit ourselves to God and action which causes the devil to "flee".  The Bible declares "greater is He" (the Holy Ghost) that lives in us than "he" (the devil) that lives in the world.  The Bible declares we have an authority (name of Jesus) to use that is above every other name.   Know from the Word the enemy and all his lying cohorts are defeated.  Take a big drink of the greater one and shout the name of Jesus.  It still causes demons to tremble.  It even did that before the death, resurrection and crowning of Jesus as Lord.  If it did it then, it most certainly does it now.

Stick in spokes

    You know, I have been around the block a time or two.  I have seen more than one move of God come and go.  Most of them, I am convinced, ended prematurely, get diverted or diluted and all at the hands of man.  One observation I have made is that man has a way of putting a stick in the spokes.   Quickest way to stop a bicycle?  Thrust a strong stick in the spokes.  It will stop - quick!  I have also observed that these spiritual sticks are often good things at the wrong place and wrong time.  Because of that, they are hard to recognize and deal with properly.  The point?  When God moves, agenda driven religious men will pick up a stick (their agenda) and with it bring the move of God to a halt, or divert it to roadside, non-important status. Or, watered down to meaningless status.  Peter tried it.  Remember the moment of transfiguration with Jesus, Moses and Elijah standing together?  Peter picked up a stick and suggested a building program.  Anything wrong with a building program?  No - but the time and place was wrong.

   Let me give this idea to you on a small scale first:  Early in the charismatic move, when praising God was the message, we would go into a church which before had never before even seen someone so much as lift their hands and praise God and there, we would teach on praise.  Then a stick would appear.  That stick would be someone there so physically and emotionally demonstrative in praise, they would just go crazy, drawing total attention to themselves - doing a right thing at the wrong time and wrong place.  All those others we were trying to get to even marginally express praise, would be totally side tracked by the spectacle of the stick in the spoke.  Stick in the spoke!  

   Now lets try a larger scale:  The great Pentecost move of the early nineteen hundreds was marked by people receiving Holy Ghost baptism, people singing in tongues and an amazing flow of healing miracles and signs and wonders.  Want to know what most people knew about it historically?  And thought about it? Wild jerking and rolling on the floor.  Stick in spokes?  Millions rejected the pentecostal move, not because of tongues, healings or miracles but because of that stick.  Is it wrong to jerk and roll on the floor?  No, not until that becomes a diversion from what God is doing, or becomes what you are about and then it becomes wrong.  It becomes a stick.

   Lets go a little bigger scale:  How about the outpouring of joy a few years ago?  Go into one of those meetings and you could not avoid getting great joy.  It was what the move was about.  Your eyes, your heart, your soul all confirmed it was about joy, no matter what anyone said. Then the sticks began to appear. "This move isn't about joy, its about soul winning, prosperity, etc.", said men with sticks in hand. They convinced all others of the power and importance of their stick - and so the move waned and was diverted.  How about the latter-rain move?  Great move of God, great emphasis on worship and on prophecy and then a stick appeared. The stick appeared - men who were convinced they knew the hour the Lord would return.  So, many ended up waiting on their roof top for the Lord to come on a day a stick-prophet said He would. He didn't come - and the move faded away.  How about the kingdom of God move of the 60's and 70's?  The need to be submitted to one another and leadership was a good message but soon the "stick" appeared and had people afraid to go the bathroom unless the leadership over them said they could.  The deliverance move?  So needed, so powerful but a stick appeared that had people casting demons out of everything from rocks to Barbie dolls.  How about the faith move?  Wonderful move, but dear Lord, it had so many stick thrusters it is hard to describe them all. The things that would really change the church (and us) substantially, are often given this stick treatment and people don't even know it happened.

   Where does this tendency come from?  It comes from an unwillingness to just let God be God and do what God wants to do. We want God to do what we want God to do when and how we want Him to do it.  Agenda driven - not Spirit led.  This means that in spite of appearance, we are just doing our own thing.  Religious men spend great effort in stick building.  They send young people to Bible college to help them develop good sticks to use just in case God breaks out among them at some place and time. On a small and large scale, it comes because we do not know how to go with the flow of the Spirit.  Solution?  Learn to go with the flow.

Corrections from the throne! Did you receive?

  
      Every move of God I have been in and others I have studied have been little more than corrections from above.  They did not include anything new, just God re-instituting something we should never have lost.  The great pentecost move of Azuza Street was nothing more than God reminding us that Holy Ghost baptism and healing and speaking in tongues was still His plan for us.  The healing move with the tents and traveling evangelist was a reminder, again, that healing was His will. The mass crusades of Billy Graham and others was God telling us again that He is a saving God.  The latter rain move of seventy  years or so ago?  God reminding us of prophecy and of worship.  The great charismatic move?  God reminding us of Holy Ghost baptism again and of great grace, grace that could reach even down to denominations that had long ago rejected the Holy Ghost.  The praise move?  God telling us again that from everything that has breathe, He desires praise.  The discipleship move?  A reminder that we need to be in relationship with one another and under authority.  The deliverance move?  God reminding us that demons tremble at the name, the authority of Jesus.   The faith move?  A reminder of the value of speaking the same thing as God and a reminder to highly value the Word of God.   The prosperity message?  A reminder that God truly wants to bless us abundantly.  The joy move?  A wonderful reminder that God has always wanted a people, a family, that would serve Him with gladness. 

    Was there really anything new in any of these moves of God, or outpourings, or emphasis-es?  No!  No! They were just reminders of God's desire.   You will notice that many of the moves contained the same message.  There is a reason!  We forget or we miss the point, so God chastises, corrects, re-institutes the matter again.  He doesn't change His mind because we forget.  He just says it again.   Many of these moves have been a part of my personal experience.   I got the point.   Yet, I know of those who went through these same moves and missed the point, as is the way of man.  I always thought it was funny, for example, to be in the joy move and hear people try to tell me it was about something else like soul-winning or prosperity.  Those are good things, but not the point of that move of God.  That is like having been in a Billy Graham crusade and then to declare the crusade was about healing.  Of course it wasn't!  There are always those that will miss the point and if you miss the point,  you essentially stand un-corrected.    And, the move of God holds little value to you other than a memory.

   When God is healing, healing is what He is doing.  When He is emphasizing salvation, let it be.  When He is speaking Holy Ghost baptism, get the point.  When He is making us joyful in the house, let it be.  Get the point.  You don't have to make it something else.  He is capable of doing whatever He wants to do, when He wants, how He wants and we ought not to try to manipulate what He is doing to fit whatever our scheme might be. It is called "let God be God" and as simple as that sounds, it is a struggle for man to accept.  We insist on telling God what we want Him to do, when, where and how we want Him to do it.  And, we continuously have to be re-enrolled in class to learn again what He wants us to learn.

Divine health you say?

   

   I think it is funny to hear people speak of being in "divine health". (I know "divine health" -  His name is Jesus).  Of course, I suppose such a confession is harmless but yet, if they were in divine health, they would not be aging, for aging is a disease, a result of the fall of man.  I chuckle when I see and hear men as old as I am, sagging belly, bald, bad teeth, weak joints, wearing glasses, sporting wrinkles with a face that looks like forty miles of bad road declaring they have divine health.  Really????  The truth is, the moment we left Momma's womb, our body began to die.   Divine health? No glasses, no colds, no pot belly, no bad teeth, no wrinkles, no bald spots, no weak joints, no liver spots, no weakness of any kind - complete immunity from age and all forms of death or sickness. However - it is appointed unto man once to die.  Yep - itsa gonna happen!   Oops, and there goes divine health. No, divine health is when I wake up on the other side with a new body, not subject to age, sickness, balding, colds, cancer, fever, wrinkles, fat, etc.  Divine health is when I shuck of this old tabernacle and put on a new one.  And, man, I am hoping for an improved model over what I got last time.   I want one that dances with lightness of foot, in perfect rhythm - all things I seem not to have now.

    Now, Jesus had divine health.  He said no one could take His life unless He laid it down.  His immune system was so powerful He would have healed faster than sickness or injury could hurt Him.  With no sin, He was not subject to death (incipient death or sickness, or threat of death).  Death, as the Bible says, came because of sin.  He had no sin!  Thus, divine health.   One of the greater and more unique miracles related to Him was not His resurrection.  Others were resurrected.  Others ascended into heaven. However, no other being on earth, before or since, died when He did not have to nor was He even subject to death.  Yet, divine health laid down His life for me.  Wow!  And, until He calls me up and away, when I need healing, divine health reaches out and touches me.  Sometimes instant healing, sometimes with endurance, sometimes with comfort.  Sometimes with a whisper of a promise to be with me though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.   Oh, yes I have had divine health for sixty one years now.  I found Him when I was eight.

Resistance to Christianity. Is it what we think?

   

    Jesus said He was leaving in order to send "another" Comforter, one like Himself, (Jo. 14:16).  Who is He?  You can't see Him with the natural eye but that doesn't mean he isn't here.  Jesus said the world would not receive this Comforter simply because they couldn't see Him.   He is like the wind.  You can't see the wind, but if you are in the wind, you know it.  You can feel it, you can see the affects of it. 

    Who is this Comforter?  He is God (Jo. 4:24).  He is not a vapor, a force, an impersonal power, a bird or flesh.  He can be "grieved", Eph. 4:30, "quenched", 1st Thes. 5:19, and "blasphemed", Matt. 12:32.  He is gentle but powerful.  He was the power to Moses, Joshua and David.  He was not only the Father of Jesus (Matt. 1:18), He was the hovering Spirit over Jesus, the anointing on Jesus to do miracles (Lk. 4:18).  He is the breath of God (Gen. 1:2).  He is the power of creation by which God "adorned" the heavens (Job 26:13).  He is that One who leads us in the reality, the truth, of God (Jo. 16:7-15).  He is the power of resurrection that raised Jesus and will raise us.  Even now He "quickens" us with a touch of that power (Ro. 8:11).  He is our prayer partner (Ro. 8:26-27).  He is the "oil of gladness" and the "oil of joy".   He gives us manifestations, or "gifts" that are called the "testimony" of the Lord Jesus.  He is the "earnest", the beginning, the down payment of all Jesus provided for us on the cross.

    You want to know the sad truth?  The resistance we think we see to Jesus or God in heaven is, for the most part, meaningless.  It does little good for enemies to resist Jesus for His role, His work, His identity is settled.  For His obedience He was crowned LORD.  We can accept that, or not, but that is done!  No, the resistance to Christianity is not to Jesus, but to the One He sent to take His place, the wonderful "another" Comforter. The Bible says only by the Spirit can we call Jesus Lord, (1st Cor. 12:3).  How much Spirit you embrace determines how much Lord you enjoy.  We can just shout about Jesus all day long, sing a thousand songs, preach a million sermons, but if we do not fully embrace the Holy Ghost, we may still be falling short. And something else: with Jesus, you can get by with just believing in who He is.  But the Holy Ghost?  Oh, you have to experience!   Communion with God is communion with the Holy Ghost.  And, we were made to "drink", experience, taste, be filled with, touched by this other Comforter. And, as we embrace Him, who He is , what His mission is, Jesus rules over us as Lord.

Iniquity will work for you! But, what then?

 
    A lot of folks do not know how iniquity works or the power of iniquity.  Spiritually speaking, iniquity is to do something you own way, without regard to the Word, the Spirit or the government of God over your life.  Basically the word means "to be without law", or "law-less".  Basically, it means to just do your own thing in spiritual matters. 

  The destructive power of iniquity is not that it won't work, but that it will work (sometimes).  When we do something on the basis of iniquity, it will work and then we are stuck with something in our thinking, our theology, our spiritual life that seems to work for us, but is still wrong.  Let me give an example:  One fellow I know was enticed into one of the many schemes presented on so-called Christian television to get people's money.  The promise was that if you sent them money, as a way of keeping a certain Old Testament feast day,  you would prosper prosper greatly.  So, this fellow did it and it paid off handsomely. When confronted with the New Testament knowledge that we do not keep feast days, or that we are not longer under the law (feast days being a part of that),  etc., he shrugged it off with "It is okay, it worked".  So what is wrong with that?  Now, he has inserted an iniquity into his theology that will forever mar him and eventually rob him. He has accepted the philosophy of humanism, "if it works for you, do it".  

    Another example:  remember the stories of an old time evangelist punching people and then they get healed?  We have all laughed at those stories and even admired the boldness.  But, we just accepted an iniquity.  Is there anything in God's word, any example of Jesus, Paul, Peter or any leader doing such a thing?  Is there any instructions for us to physically strike someone, for any reason?  Can anyone honestly say that is what Jesus would do to a person hurting with appendicitis?  I know, according to the stories, it worked. But, we entertained an iniquity.  The fact that it worked is the worst thing about it. You can start counting the cost of such iniquity by taking note of how many people were turned away, turned off, rejected completely the healing move of God by that iniquity.  So one was healed, but what about the thousands who turned away?  Did the gain out weigh the loss?  Example:  Remember how Jesus cast out devils just a simple command?  I knew a fellow who developed a method of ministering deliverance by having demons crawl out of the victim, in to him, and then he cast them out of himself.  He said it worked well. Can you imagine Jesus doing it that way?  How many did he turn away from deliverance?  How secure were those he ministered to in their deliverance?

    Want another sad example?  From the days of my youth, a few were saved by the harsh, hell-fire condemning preaching that threatened destruction for the slightest offense.  A few were saved, but what about the millions who turned away? Our way of getting people saved was to scare the hell out of them, to heap condemnation upon them, to threaten them with the wrath of God, etc., etc.   Did it work?   Yeah - for a few.  How many did we lose? God only knows but far more than we gained.   Worse, we gained a reputation that dampened our effectiveness, even to this day.  Think about it - one one hand we are telling people to come to God and love Him, but that He might kill you if not completely pleased.   Did some come - yeah.   How many didn't?  The list of things like this could be almost endless.  Across the church world today gimmicks abound.  Instead of preaching the gospel with demonstrations of the Spirit, the power of God in the spirit of the love of God, religious men just resort to gimmickery. They just trick,  manipulate, bribe, threaten people into doing whatever we want them to do.  Does it work?  Sometimes - but long term, gimmicks are costly.  We must learn  that whatever we catch a fish with, we have to keep feeding him that or he will die.   It seems that the verse which warns us that unless we do what we do "lawfully",  we will not be crowned, not rewarded, has been forgotten,  (2nd Tim. 2:5).

   Satan, the very spirit of lawlessness does not work on a short term basis.  He works on long-term basis.  He is perfectly willing to allow short term gain to increase long term loss. People for many, many generations have been turned away from God by iniquities, things which at the time seemed good to few folks, but in the end the cost was enormous. Taking a step back and looking at the church world, those things that have hindered, (and do hinder), us the most are things that should never have been accepted in the first place.   Once stuck with them, having called them "of God", letting go is an enormous challenge we seem not to be able to rise to.

Faith formulas

   

     You know, the Bible says the just live by faith, going from "faith to faith".  Some think this describes levels of faith, and we can and do move to higher levels of faith, but actually this is about kinds "kinds" of faith, or faith that requires different actions in different situations.  Ignoring that sometimes reduces us to robotic, formulized little one dimensional saints. We grab hold of one concept, one little formula, start working it, have it work for us and then attempt to apply it to everything under the sun.  Sooner or later, we go bust.  Sooner or later we hit an area of life where those little rules we were applying, don't fit any more.  For example, among us faith folks, many of us only seem to think faith works one way.  We speak to the mountains, don't doubt, they move and we have what we say.   However, what if you encounter a situation where those rules do not apply?   Like a parrot, do you just keep squawking at the mountain?  Or, do we go from "faith" to another "faith"?

    To have the God kind of faith means you have the same convictions, producing the same desires as God about things.  Through your whole life, living in the Spirit, you come to places where God's faith rises up in you and orders your steps.  Yes, at the mountain of hindrance, you command.  But, what about at the altar of the worship of Jesus?  What does your faith demand there?  You stop talking to mountains and "rejoice with unspeakable joy full of glory".  That is what faith, at that moment requires you to do.  If you believe in Him, though you have not seen Him you love Him, you rejoice, you laugh, you give Him glory,  (1st Pet. 1:8).  Are you too busy commanding mountains that are hindering you to offer up the faith that rejoices in Him?

   What is the point?  I am so glad you asked!  Faith is a relationship with God.  It doesn't just produce a relationship, it is the relationship.  It can't be reduced to a singular formula.  At the mountain it requires one thing, at the fiery furnace perhaps another.   Our fathers in the faith lived by faith.  Some, walking in faith, subdued kingdoms and others walking in faith the same way, were sawn in half.  God's convictions about eternal destiny, a city not made with hands, drove them forward to pay whatever it cost to make it to the end.  It was not victory in that one battle or that other battle, but staying on the journey, walking with God, that brought them the prize.  Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before Him.  He didn't have to.  He could have called ten thousands angels and destroyed the world and all the human population.  He could have dropped back to His own formula of Mark 11:22-24 and commanded the mountain of murderous people around Him to just drop dead, and they would have.  But, faith asked for something else.  This time faith did not ask for cursing trees or moving mountains.  This time faith took Him past Mark 11:22-24 to Mark 11:25 and asked of Him, "when you stand praying, forgive if you have ought against any..." Mark 11:25.  Come on now, are you not glad He was not restricted by formulas?   Had He acted on a different faith formula, my friend, you and me would be lost.  Are you not glad, that from the cross He could say "Father forgive".  Whew!  "Oh, say but I'm glad, I'm glad"

Your Faith and God's Faith. Are they the same?

    

   You know, sometimes I get bothered by so many little faith formulas.  Just about everybody has one. Some good, some not so good.   For example, this faith formula which is a good one.  "If you have the faith of God, speak to the mountain, don't doubt, and you will have whatever you say".  This one work,  but do you know the context of this verse?  A lot of those who use this formula miss the context in which Jesus spoke it. The context is about having the same faith conviction about something as does God and in this case, the house of prayer being a place where He could make us joyful.  The context is about wanting that so bad you will speak to mountains, curse fig trees (empty religion) and do whatever you have to do to be able to pray the desire borne of your conviction.  The mountain moving was about getting to where you want what God wants, getting to where you can pray your "desire" (craving), which is also His, and then receiving it.    

     How many, using the above mentioned formula are using it in order to have the Father's house become more than a den of thieves?   Let's assume we all went to work on the above mentioned formula, took those actions, but never got the context:  we would move a lot of mountains but still miss the purpose of God revealed in the context.  Would we be any better off?  What if we moved all mountains and cursed all the barren fig trees?, Oh, we would have smooth sailing, but still going nowhere!  Oh, for the Fathers house to become a place where whatever we bring Him is accepted and He makes us "joyful" in the house? (Isaiah 56:3).  That is a desire we should share with our God.

    You see, there is more to this than merely dealing with things that hinder you in some way.  There are things that hinder the will of God that this little formula has a great bearing on.  True faith produces deep desires.  When you have the same faith (conviction) as God, you will have the same desires.  Prayer becomes so much more powerful when our faith, our convictions, our deep craving desire is the same as the Father.

God In The Box!

    Many people have a fixed idea of what God must be like and anything beyond that idea is rejected.  When God shows up in a different way, they quickly say "Oh no, that can't be God".   They have, so they think, God in a box and that is sad. They are cheating themselves out of so many wonderful things.   How about you?  Could you accept God the wine maker?  Wouldn't you love to see the wine maker show up on Christian TV, see the host get looped on wine, start dancing like King David with wild contortions of the feet and a certain pink wig go flying off?  How about God the water walker?  The disciples thought he was a ghost. Today, if it happened people would say "Look, he can't swim".  To Moses He appeared as a burning bush, a snake on a pole, a rock in the desert, a cloud by day,  a fire by night and a staff in his hand.  He came as a baby when so many were expecting a king.  Mary, at the tomb thought He was a gardener.  The disciples on the road to Emmaeus didn't recognize Him at all. Their eyes, like so many today, were "holden".  To the early church He came like the wind with tongues of fire and then as intoxicating new wine.  Isaiah saw Him high and lifted up.  John saw Him and said His eyes were like a flame of fire.  On earth to some He manifested as a deliverer, healer and provider. To others He showed Himself to be One who could say "peace be still" and the wind and the waves obeyed.

How many of the forms, these manifestations could, or would you accept?  Where would you have turned back, as have so many along the way.  Eventually, only accepting God as you have him boxed in, or as you might dream Him to be or even seen Him to be previously will cut you off from God.  He does not stay in boxes!   He comes as He wills to come.  Sadly, a huge portion of the church pines for God as He was, manifestating in flesh form among men.  Folks, that is over.  He left.  But He sent the Comforter.  Many are those who will not accept God in that form, simply because He does not fit in box they have molded for God to fit in. Too bad!   He is wonderful!

Are you a "concept" worshipper?

  
    You know, as the revelator,  the Holy Spirit uses illustrations, analogies, allegories and concepts to communicate a truth.  However, the way of man is to fixate on the concept or allegory, etc., and miss the point.  He so fixates on the concept that it becomes the whole truth to him.  The resulting cost is that he generally rejects all other concepts and thereby misses any further truth revealed.  When and where this happens the concept you love becomes a problem rather than a blessing.

     There are many examples of this, the most common one being that "Jesus saves". There are those so fixated on that concept that no other truth ever enters their head.  There are those so fixated on that truth that they reject divine healing, Holy Ghost baptism, gifts of the Spirit, etc.   How about the "new birth"?  Or, the "family of God"?  Push those concepts too far, commit to them exclusively, and then you will have eliminated, even rejected a lot of other truths that are not expressed in those concepts.  You may even arrive at a spoiled child viewpoint, thinking you can do no wrong, you can't be lost and you can have or do anything you want - you are family. There are other concepts that so elevate who a Christian is, his blessings, his authority, etc., that they consume people and turn them totally inward, yet every word may be true. All those and many other concepts, allegories, illustrations, etc., can be true, yet without understanding the truth being communicated, can become misleading.  They notoriously are divisive with man picking his favorite concept and only associating with those who share his favorite concept.

      How about the concept of us as the "body of Christ" and other similar concepts?  These concepts are used to communicate precious truths to us, but if not viewed for what they are, they can blur that distinction between man and God. When you read Revelations, you get the eternal truth that was there all along, through every teaching, every illustration and concept and it is the truth we must remember. When we gather round the throne, this eternal truth comes into view.  There is God, on the throne, and there at His feet is man.  When glory is revealed, there is God and then there is man, there is God and then there is me.  Yes, I am in the family.  Yes, I am a part of the body. Yes, I am a soldier in the army.  Yes, I citizen of the Kingdom.  However, there at the throne, from my bowed position, there is God and there is me. I am one of the people of His hand, a sheep in His pasture.  In the end, I am not God. In the end, He is there on the throne and there I am, at His feet.  And, you know, in the end, we will all discover that we were all made by Him and for Him and for His pleasure we were created.  This is eternal truth.

 

Second greatest power?

  
    You want to know what the second greatest power on earth is?  This power is so great it can overcome the power of the Word of God.  That is powerful!   Strangely, this power is so great, yet it comes at us so smoothly, so slyly, that we don't even see it coming.  Rather than resist, man often just embraces and gives it aid in its mission.  What is this power, you ask?  I am glad you asked!  Religion traditions! Religion which gives traditions more importance than the commands of God and ever manages to even turn the Word of God into a mere tradition.   Here is what Jesus said to the Pharisees:  He said they were  "Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.", Mark 7:13. Even though they knew truth and had the promises, they had turned everything to tradition and ritual. It is almost unimaginable that something could be more powerful than the word of God, by which the world was created, but there you have it.  Traditions and things like traditions. 

     This powerful tool of religion, which captures millions and holds them in weakened conditions, works by ignoring the present reality, present manifestation of God and cling to the historical manifestations and symbols of God. Religion always speaks of God  in some other tense than present.  God as He was or God as He will be, but never as He is, the Holy Ghost among us.  This works to keep the Spirit from giving life to the letter of the Word.  This turns relationship with God, meant to be a vibrant, experiential, real relationship, into tradition.  This same thing was what had become wrong with the Pharisees.  When Jesus, the Living Word of God came, they rejected Him, preferring their traditions and traditional concepts of God over God Himself.  When Jesus spoke of the "thief" that would come to kill, steal and destroy the abundant life He offers, He was referring to religion, not the devil as is so often assumed. How do they do their work?  Just make the Word of God of   "none effect".  Today, this same spirit is doing the same thing to God's people.  It turns the Word to mere tradition, it speaks of God but rejects the present manifestation of God, the Holy Ghost.

    Lest you think I am just harping on some of the older more traditional denominations, think again.  The way of man is to turn everything to tradition as quickly as possible.  Once, during the plague of snakes, God told Moses to put a brazen serpent on a pole and all who looked on it,  would be healed.  Nine hundred years later they were still worshipping that snake. What started as a word from God, became a deadly tradition.  Traditions easily become a substitute for the voice and presence of God. Many of the traditions we see across the whole spectrum of the church, started with God but now men use them to avoid God.  God can't do anything new because we our traditions won't allow it.  We are in bondage to our traditions. And, we present day faith-charismatic type folks are just as guilty of all this as anyone else.  We so easily turn a word from God in a ten-step formula and the next thing you know, that formula is what we lean on, even judge others by.

   Quickly, when faced with this argument, voices will arise to defend the tradition, pointing out scriptural accuracy.  However, they must understand that a Bible verse is no substitute for a walking, talking relationship with the Spirit of God.  Yes, the formula is correct but the voice of the Living God is something you cannot dismiss or do without.  Sound doctrine is a valuable thing, but sound doctrine must never become dogma and it won't if we continue to walk in the Spirit.  Sound doctrine does not dismiss the voice of the Spirit.  What a lot of folks think is doctrine is not much more than a box we have built that has become our prison. What is the answer?  How do we defend against this power?   Be ever being filled and stimulated with the Holy Ghost!  His presence gives life to the Word.  His presence gives power to our spirit.  His presence makes Jesus Lord indeed, Lord experientially.  Being filled with the Spirit keeps us wise concerning the will, the heart wish of God (Eph. 5:14-20).
   




   

The Power Of Forgiveness

  
    You know, you can shout at the mountain, curse the fig tree and pray your greatest desire, but if you have offense in your heart toward your brother or sister, you are just blowing hot air.   Why?  'Cause if you don't forgive, neither will your heavenly Father, and if He doesn't forgive - quit praying and save your breath.  At that point, if you are going to pray, pray for forgiveness for your sin of un-forgiveness.   Now, with un-forgiveness in your heart, what your brother or sister did, or did not do, becomes irrelevant.  Your problem isn't with them any longer.  It is with God!  When you suspend yourself from His forgiveness, with your petty problem, you have suspended yourself from grace, the substance from which prayers are answered. And, before  you tell me your problem isn't petty, measure it against the loss of God's forgiveness, the absence of His grace and then tell me about it. With your unforgiveness, you have stopped faith which works by love, love best expressed by forgiving those who deserve and those who do not deserve it
.

    Over the years in the ministry, I have seen people sacrifice the grace of God, their relationship with Him, answers to prayers and valuable family and church relationships for some of the stupidest, dumbest, petty things. I have known of churches to split and people to risk everything over a disagreement of the color of the carpet.  Really now, compared to what they lose, how important is the color of the carpet?  Instinctively I would love to deal with such folks like dealing with a Missouri mule - which is a thumping over the head with a 2X4 until they pay attention.  Oh, I know, I can't do it but you see, I know it would shorten their misery considerably.  And, they are going to have misery.  Sooner or later, you will hear them say, "Oh, I just don't know why God isn't answering my prayers".  Or, "the devil is really giving me a hard time".  Or, "things are falling apart".  Or, "everything is going wrong".  Or........(should I go on?)

   I dread the day (if I am still on earth) when persecution comes, and it may well come.  Jesus said it would and it already has for a lot of Christians around the world. I am afraid that in the modern church, there may not be a lot of leaping and rejoicing as God expects from those persecuted. We can't even handle a cross-eyed glance from the fellow Christian on the same pew without a fuss and possible a changing of churches. A small inconvenience is likely to cause us to disown friends and family.  Somebody calls us a  bad name and we return the favor with whatever name we can think of that is worse. Somebody slightly inconvenience us, insult us, neglect us and we are DONE WITH THEM!   Yessiree Bob!  DONE - cut them off.

   Seriously, was it worth it?  Do you know the risk in being so easily de-chipped (having chip knocked off shoulder)?  Is it worth separation from the grace, mercy and forgiveness of God just so you could feel bad toward someone?  Having to get even, having to win a struggle is a curse on people that Christians should not be under.  If we our life having to always be right, always win, always be treated fairly as we see it, we exclude God from so much of our life.  For me, no sun is going down on whatever petty wrath, grievance, hurt feelings, inconvenience, etc., that I might have.  It is not worth it to me!  I value being able to walk in the grace of God.  I value having my faith be effective.  I value having God fight my battles and not have to fight them on my own.   There are two pieces of advice I would give to you Missouri mules:  One, forgive quickly, no matter what the other party says or does.  God is more important than them.  Two, stop getting your feelings hurt so easily.  Grow up and toughen up.  Just sayin!

Tunnel Vision?

  

   Have you ever heard the term tunnel vision?  It is a real physical condition.  It is even a condition some creatures have genetically.  For example, a dove has little or no peripheral vision and "dove's eyes" for God is a wonderful condition and phrase used in the Bible (Song of Sol.) which means you have eyes only for Him.  However, to have tunnel vision spiritually, beyond that, is not a healthy condition, yet it is a condition that is quite common in the church.  It is a condition that divides and ultimately denies the blessing of God to so many of His people.

   What the enemy does, without us seemingly being able to resist, is that he gets us fixated on one concept, one truth, one way of looking at things and traps us in that view - hence tunnel vision.  It works like this:  suppose you are in your house, looking out the north window.  You see quite well all the details, the trees, the grass,etc., everything in your field of vision out of that north window.  However, you see nothing out of the south, east and west window. What is seen out those windows is just as real as what you see, but in your fixation, you don't believe it.  You start a denomination that only views things thru the north window vision and by that vision, resist all other visions, judging and rejecting all who do not look out the north window.

   What you see out of that window is good and true but what you miss is three times bigger.  What you receive is good, but what you missed is three times more.  My friend, this describes much of modern Christianity.  Those looking out that north window see that Jesus saves.  "Wonderful, wonderful"  they shout and build their whole denomination around that vision, that one truth.  Do not tell them that God baptizes with the Holy Ghost, a view from the south window, or that He heals, a view from the west, or that He prospers, a view from the east.  "No, No!" they will shout defiantly.  "Jesus saves, Jesus saves...that is it!" defending their view from that north window.  Though they have absolute truth on their side, they are being robbed of other equally wonderful absolute truths.  They cling to that north window view with white knuckle tenacity.  Others, looking out a different window, do the same with their view.

  God saw this coming, which is why Paul prayed that the eyes of our understanding would be opened so that we would know the "hope" (what to expect to come with our calling) and that we would know the "riches" of our inheritance.  We are to know, not just some part of our inheritance, but the riches of our inheritance.  The opposite of understanding is ignorance and the same Bible book tells us that ignorance blinds the eyes and by that alienates us from the life of God.  I found myself praying for the church (and not just my church) would have eyes opened to the riches of God.  That it would begin to lift up its eyes and look to every direction and see the rain of God coming from every direction

Study How?

   How do you study the Word, the Bible?  To just study is a good thing, but don't be surprised if along the way,  how you study and what you seek to know as you study changes.  As a young Christian, I just read the Bible, I didn't study.  Later, as I grew, I started studying, memorizing, trying to understand the things of God.  I started studying to know the principles of God that run thru the whole Bible.  Then, I started studying to know the promises of God that were for me.  Then I started studying to know how to minister the Word and the Spirit  to people.  Good!  All good!  Along the way, I also studied to find out what God was looking for in me and what was missing in me.  Painful, but good!  All good!

    In in the last few decades have I began to study to know God, not just know about God, and in a different way.  I know you are thinking, "he is getting a late start", but, not so fast my friend. Knowing God is multi-dimensional, lifetime endeavor.  In these last few decades, God has taken me back over all those previous studies, and taught me to see it all through His eyes.  Same lessons, different viewpoint.  In some cases, I saw my previous conclusions were not so great. In some of those studies, I only saw "me" and what was in it for "me".  In some cases, what was a seed of information became a tree of knowledge. Some were "ah ha!" moments.   In every case, as God put me back in class, I saw seen things I had never seen even though I had studied the subject before.  Here is what I have learned:  you can know about God and even know God, but not really know Him at the highest level (and I am not yet sure I know what the highest is).  However, what I do know is that knowing God at a higher level requires seeing what you see, in the Word and then in living, through His eyes.  Being "seated" in heavenly places, for me, has become about vision and maturity of vision.  From there, in the Spirit realm, you begin to see what God sees and only then can you sort of begin to understand what God was, or is, desiring, wanting, aiming toward. And in that, your knowledge of God increases.

   Here is another interesting conclusion:  in all those previous studies, what I learned was not wrong or false. They were truths, but lower level truths. Example?  I learned that God saved me by grace (lower level truth) then I learned why He saved me which was to worship Him (higher level truth).  Both true, both good, but from very different views.  Through my eyes, I was glad to just be saved and miss hell.  Through His eyes, I began to see there was more here than just missing hell. I began to have understanding.  It is easy to have knowledge without having understanding but as we grow in God and His Word, seeing from His vantage point, so does our understanding grow.  Nothing changed in those studies, except my understanding.

   Here lies the problem: The spirit of religion will do all it can to get you to hold fast to one understanding while rejecting all others.  Result?  Babyhood, meatless, infancy.  These are those Paul wrote of who should have been eating meat but were only able to take milk. Problem?  In spiritual infantile thinking, we adopt a one-size fits all mentality.  Everything for everybody has to be exactly the same, and then of course, we have then established ourselves as judges responsible for making sure we all have the right size truth.  From this comes group think, denominational-ism, traditional-ism and collective salvation.  As a result, any true forward movement in understanding gets rejected by men for it means different size truths for different folks, and that then ends men's ability to judge one another. And, that would means, to religious folks, a loss of control, something people don't want to give up. We love playing God and judging others.  Problem?  If our understanding does not grow, then our knowledge of God does not grow.  Problem?  If we do not graduate in our understanding, we demote ourselves to tradition.  What we believe then becomes just our tradition.  Our truths may have come from and started with God, but we made it our tradition.  Suffering a plague of snake bites, God told Moses to put a brazen snake on a pole and all who looked on it would be healed.  Soon the plague was over, no more problem, except, it took 900 hundred years to get those people to quit worshipping the snake on the pole.  That snake on a pole started with a Word from God but those folks turned it to tradition.  According to Jesus, the one thing capable of making the Word of God "of none effect", without power,  is "traditions".

   The ultimate problem?  The ultimate problem is that failure to grow in understanding eventually eliminates a true relationship with the Spirit of God.  The job of the Spirit is to reveal, to bring understanding, to give us God's view, to reveal the "deep" things of God.  However, if we are totally convinced we already have the deep things, then we get no more deep things of God revealed to us.  We put the lid on!  You are then back in the same shape the Pharisees were when they encountered Jesus. Your traditions and traditional thinking keeps you from having an ear to hear what the Spirit of God is saying and is saying.... NOW!   The Bible says of itself that the "letter" kills but the Spirit give life to the letter.  The way the letter kills is that you make it a tradition and refuse to grow in understanding.  Our life with God is to be from truth to truth, faith to faith, glory to glory, change to change.  Tradition digs a rut and there you plunk yourself down and go no more, grow no more.  Of course, a rut is a grave with both ends kicked out.  You can escape, but you have to move.

   

   

Has God changed?

  

     Has God changed?  The answer is emphatically "NO"!!!!  But, how He feels about things can change, that being a part of His being.  How He relates to man may change, hence the various covenants in the Bible including this "new" and better one we are in.  Most importantly, how He relates to us, in this covenant versus the old covenant has changed and if you do not know the difference, you are, right now, being robbed.   The unchangeable God has within Himself the ability to be righteously angry. Being a just God He had within Him a demand for justice for the sin of a perfect man, Adam.   When Adam sinned, God was made angry.  That wrath stayed in Him until the cross.  When precious Jesus blood was shed on the cross, that anger, that wrath was propitiated.  Propitiation is a wonderful word which means an act that turns wrath to mercy.  By precious blood we have been redeemed from the wrath of God.  A price we could not pay was paid by one who could.  God did not change, but his wrath was propitiated when a sufficient price was paid.  The capability of wrath is still in Him should there be, or had there been, another perfect man who could and did sin original sin as did Adam.  However, thank you Jesus, that is over and done with.  

    When you read the Old Testament, and you see what you consider the most wonderful picture of the goodness of God, it is exciting to know, that the best He was then, He is better now.  As good as He is seen there, He is more "gooder" now. There was a shadow over God then.  Justice had not been met, wrath was in Him.  Now, halelujah, glory to God, the best promise you see in the old covenant, is better now.  Has He changed?  No, but his wrath has been turned to mercy. The shadow of His wrath is gone.  All the good promises you see in the Old Testament, were promises made with a cloud of wrath over God. They were made without the demanded penalty of sin being paid.  Reading this, you might not fully understand if you do not know how great was the wrath of God about the sin of a perfect man that roped all man-kind into one doomed family. His wrath was fierce beyond words.   As good as God was, all through the Old Testament, He wanted to be better and is better now.  No, He has not changed, but his unchangeable demand for payment of the sin of Adam, has been met.  Now, glory to God, we have a new and better covenant that our unchangeable God wanted to have with us all along.

     The amazing thing to know, once you know we are in a new and better covenant, is how good God was, in the old covenant, even though His wrath was unrequited. Those promises of His love and goodness found there, were made by God, still unsatisfied over the fall of man, yet so willing to be merciful, even in His wrath.  For Adam's sin, God cursed all man-kind, yet showed love, mercy and goodness to the very people He had cursed.  How could He?   I don't know.  I know at times He was on the brink of starting all over, He was so exasperated.  He told Moses that at one juncture.  But, He didn't.  Whew!

    Maybe it is a stretch to compare anything about us with God, but have you ever carried a grudge, an anger or sense of injustice in your heart for a long, long time with it getting heavier and heavier with each passing day?  Maybe not, but if you did and then one day, justice transpired, the anger lifted, the burden passed. "Glory to God"   you shouted with great relief.  This was God's life until Jesus paid it all.  When Jesus paid the price, a burden was lifted in the realms of glory. When Jesus whispered from the cross "it is finished", I don't think He was thinking of us.  He was thinking of His Father, carrying a burden we can only imagine, suddenly made free.  The price had been paid!  All of heaven must have echoed "it is finished..it is finished...it is finished!.   Now, and only now, God could sweep the ugliest among us imperfect beings, descendants one and all of Adam, into His arms and say "Welcome".   Now, and only now, God without wrath could say to us frail, imperfect beings "Oh yes, I forgive".

    Has God changed?  No!  If He could be loving and forgiving then, without the cross, with unsatisfied wrath in His being,  how much more can He be loving and forgiving now.  He always wanted to be this way, that was His unchangeable self, but He couldn't until the cross.  But, but, but HE CAN NOW!  Now, to whosoever will, He says "I love you" and He started the conversation while we were yet sinners. Before we even cleaned up one stain, He commended His love toward us (Ro. 5 :8)

  

Prosperity boundaries

     
    If you observe the boundaries God puts on prosperity, as found in the New Testament, seeking godly prosperity is a safe thing, even tho' the love of money is a root of evil and riches are specifically said, in the Bible,  to have deceitfulness within.  When we miss the boundaries, deceitfulness of riches takes root and a good word can become a wrong word.  One important New Testament boundary put on the idea of prosperity is that we are to prosper as our soul prospers, (3 Jo. 2).  Notice this is your soul that is to be prosperous?  This is soul, not spirit and not body. Your soul is your rational, emotional, logical being.  It was not born again, as was your spirit, and it requires saving through the "engrafting" of the Word of God.  In terms of prosperity, your rational, emotional and logical being needs to be in healthy condition in order to handle money and not have money handle it.  In other words, you don't need any more riches than your soul can properly handle.  That is a boundary.   You don't have to be a genius to see that some folks get the prosperity message a little too early in their Christian walk and instead of them getting money, money gets them.  And, they make a mess of the message. Chances are, eventually, they will make a mess out of themselves as well.

  
     A soul that is not prosperous, who hears the message too early or in the wrong condition, will soon have nothing to talk about, except money.  He will pick up the Bible and every verse to him will be about money.   He will follow the money trail in every way he can.  If in the ministry, he may very quickly become a prosperity specialist. A soul that is not prosperous will hear this pitch, maybe from his television,  "send money and God will give you three times more money, more anointing, more of everything.  No wait...if you call now....He will give you ten times more".  Off his money goes and one of two things will happen, both terrible!  One, he will grow old and gray and his seed will never come back. And, he will forever bare the bruise of disappointment. Two, and maybe worse,  it will come back and he will forever think that the things of God can be bought with money.  Everything wrong about his concepts of prosperity will be affirmed. He will begin to sound like this one prosperity specialist I heard who declared to a bunch of preachers, including myself, "you don't need more God, you just need more money".  That tells you everything wrong about that man's concept of prosperity. His money had satisfied his soul. His hunger for and dependency upon God was over. All he wants is mo' money!!!

    
    The lack of prosperity in man's soul will cause his money, for a time, to satisfy his soul.  He will begin to feel that the presence of money is somehow spiritual affirmation. How much money, mammon, stuff he has becomes his boundary line.  And, that is a faulty measure.  Hear it?  "Look here, I have a Mercedes, airplane and a ton of gold.  I have great faith and am God's favorite son".  This is the condition a lot of folks, having heard just such a pitch, or something like it, find themselves in.  They yielded to the pitch, gave money and it seemingly worked. They got money back and deemed it to be good.  The noose tightened as they began to identify God with their money. Instead of a conduit through whom God can flow, they soon become a vault stuffed with "stuff".  Instead of being a river, they became a pond.  I shudder at some of the schemes going on that seem to work and at the willingness of participants to call it as being of God, though it has zero Bible basis.  Their proof of validity is the money in their pocket, not the Bible, not the voice of the Holy Ghost, and not even the flow of giving.  "It worked - so it must be God"  they say. I questioned a pastor once, who had given in to one of these schemes, so blatantly inconsistent with the New Covenant.  It had worked for him, in that money did seem to roll in. When questioned about a New Testament basis for the scheme, his attitude was "don't care...it worked".  My, oh, my is that a prescription for deceit or what?    That a perfect definition of iniquity.

    My advice is that we must never forget that the true measure of success for any prosperity plan, a boundary to be observed,  is not does it work to bring you money or "stuff", but does it work to make you a giver.   Does it fit  in the New Testament covenant we have with God?  Can we teach it to others, using words from our new covenant?   And, another measure of success is not how much flowed in, but how much flowed out.  God does not particularly love "cheerful" rich people but He particularly loves "cheerful" givers, be they rich or poor. Believe me, the devil uses the love of money and knows that if we accept money as a God thing, he has a handle on us and will begin to manipulate us away from God. He knows we can be bought.

    My friend, you cannot buy the things of God.  You cannot buy anointing.  You cannot buy riches, healing, gifts.  You cannot buy more Holy Ghost.  If you could, Bill Gates could become the Pope of the church world wide.  But, you can't.  What you can do is involve yourself, including money, service, praise, love, spiritual gifts, knowledge, giftings, and anything and everything you have with God. At every chance, give.  Listen to the Holy Ghost, and when He says "give", give.  His voice is another safe boundary for prosperity.   Know what you are doing.  You are showing grace.  You are sowing grace.  And, what you get back is grace.  Priceless grace. For involving yourself in the affairs of God (grace), He involves Himself in your affairs (grace). And, His grace comes back "abundant".    What you can do is work on having a prosperous soul, so that when and if success / riches come, it won't make much difference to you as a Christian person.  Have you seen a person go from rags to riches and become a different person in the process?  It is a sad sight.  Have you seen that poor person, whining and groaning because he was broke, get money and then become radical in his praise?  That too is a bit sad. 

    A prosperous soul?  One that values God and the touch of God above all.  One, that with or without money, abased or abounding, finds satisfaction in God, not in the things of the earth.  One that looks at "stuff" and says  "I would like to have some of that stuff so I could give it away". A prosperous soul is one emotionally free to enjoy God and the things of God, with or without money.  Like the Apostle Paul, he knows how to be abased or how to abound and in whatever state he finds himself in, he is satisfied. His sustaining strength comes from Christ, not his stuff nor lack of stuff (Phil. 4:11-13).  Money will not satisfy this man's soul.  It is too healthy to be decieved by money.  A prosperous soul never falls in love with his mammon (stuff). He knows the boundaries. He knows Jesus said you "cannot" (meaning impossible) serve both God and mammon.  It is not forbidden, it is just impossible, even if you wanted to.  God will not compete with man's "stuff".

Radical Grace

   You know, God never discovers or finds out anything.  And, nothing ever occurs to God. There are no secrets with God.  In His secret place, the place of His presence, there are no secrets.  Isn't that amazing!   Some folks seem to think things might have escaped His eye since He didn't strike them dead.  But, no, He knows it all.  And, He has chosen to accept us, love us and hold us with the power of His love in spite of all He knows about us.  That is radical grace!

   I know many will read such words as these and either not believe them or just dismiss them, not understanding.  But, they should know that when Jesus shed precious blood on that cross, God was propitiated (anger turned to mercy).  The original sin of original man, passed down to all of us, is forgiven.  Now, based on the value of that precious blood,  God knowing all that He knows, all that we have done, all the weaknesses we possess, now says to all who will, "Come on in". Even better He says "Just as you are - come on in"

   This is not merited grace.  This is unmerited grace.  Completely unearned, undeserved.  It was on day one and is the same the day we draw our last breathe and slip away from this life.  There was a Clint Brown song of a few years ago that said it so well, "a hopeless case, an empty space, if not for grace".  Driven by the guilt of religion, men struggle to believe that.  They want to clean up sufficiently, work hard enough, give up enough stuff to feel like finally they might be accepted.  No, no, no!  Still an empty space, a hopeless case if not for grace.   Grace has captured you my friend!  Yield to your captor.

    Grace did not just reach into the muck and mire and pluck you out.  It did that, but it surrounds us, keeps us, protects us, loves us and maybe even eventually cleans us up.  Grace even goes behind us and begins to erase our tracks.  It goes before us and makes straight the path and should we stumble, grace quickly pulls up and points the way to go on. Even when we waste so much of what we have been given in the pigpen of life, grace still says "Come home...let us make merry"!    Amazing grace?  The more you know, the more amazing it becomes.  Radical grace?  Yes, indeed!

  

Generic god

  
     You know, you can get a generic of about anything these days, including religion. You can get a rip-off copy of about anything too, for a fraction of the price. Most people don't know the energy the devil, and religion he fathers, puts into creating generic religion.  And, it isn't just that sickening sight of politicians suggesting we, and the Muslims, or some other dufus group all worship the same God.  No, that springs from the popular generic religion already developed in our mind.  These days, the word "God" is a generic term for whatever god you want it to describe.  That watering down process has been going on a long time.  And, then there is the  reluctance clearly seen now in our society to say "Jesus".  Because of our generic understanding, we can say "god" because it stands for whatever, but of course saying "Jesus" gets to Christian specific and that is a "no no".  So, the spectacle of politicians having a prayer meeting where Christians meet with religious screwballs and they all pray to a generic, all purpose  "god".  Of course, that has been the Masonic and other cultish approach to the matter for a long time.  For them, god is whatever you think he is, whatever you want to call him.  Yet, in the bigger scope of things, all this probably doesn't matter as much as we think. 

   Let me suggest to you that the generic "god" problem goes back much farther than what we are presently seeing unfold.  All of that razz-ma-tazz has come about because of something else that has been going on even longer.  Understanding begins here:  when Jesus went away, He left another Comforter, one like Himself, in His place. This Comforter happens to be God in Spirit form, otherwise known as the Holy Spirit.  It is by the presence of this Comforter, a direct representative of the Lord Jesus, that every man's relationship with God can be personal.  This is a million mile difference from just believing there is a God off somewhere in space or even that there was a great man named Jesus that once walked the earth and may return some day.  This Comforter has the sole responsibility to reveal Jesus Christ to us as LORD and to enable us to personally know and call Him LORD.  The Bible declares that only by the Spirit can we do that. This Comforter has the sole responsibility to dwell with us, lead us, guide us and empower us.  As Stephen was dying, he said to his murderers "you do always resist the Holy Ghost, just as your fathers did".   That describes a battle that has gone on, and is still going on, for a long, long time.  Jesus died to give us the Spirit because only by the Spirit can Jesus be our Lord and only if Jesus is Lord can He be our Savior (Ro.10:9-10).

   Watch television as Christian peripheral people, including politicians discuss religion or what they think is Christianity.  A few will speak of God, less will speak of Jesus, even less speak of Jesus as the LORD, and none will speak of the Holy Ghost.  They will just chatter away about everything except God among us, representative of all God is everywhere.  There was a reason Jesus said we could say anything about Him or the Father, but not the Holy Ghost. Blaspheming the Spirit puts in risk of hell. Lesson?  It is not what you say about God off in the sky or a name in the historical past that matters, but what you say about God among us that matters.  Yet, it is almost as if those words were never spoken and have no meaning.  And, they don't in generic religion.

    I think we could pass a law stating everyone must say "Jesus" and even worship Him, enforcing it with all the entire military and police might possible, and it wouldn't make much difference.  We could pass another law stating the only true God is Jehovah God, the God of the Old Testament.  It would make no difference.  The Holy Ghost, Him who Jesus died to give us, Him who is the "earnest" of our salvation inheritance, would still be hidden.   We could stand around in our little groups, go on TV, talking about God as He was or God as He will be, 24 hours a day and we would still be slipping away from our inheritance.  Only when we accept what Jesus died to give us will we be what we were meant to be.  I know, somebody is going to say "he died for my sins".  Yes, but he had a purpose greater than just rescuing you from you sins.  He dealt with your sins for the purpose of giving you the Holy Ghost.  This is the blessing of Abraham that is ours.

    My friend, the gospel is not merely a story consisting of nice words about Jesus.  The gospel is that the Cross of Christ provided a way for every man to know God personally, to have personal relationship, to have personal empowerment, to worship intimately, to even speak to God in a Spirit language. But, it is all in the realm of a relationship with God among us, God who is a Spirit, God the Holy Spirit!   My friend, Jesus is gone from among us, seated at the right hand of God in heaven. It is amazing how many religious people don't actually believe that.  Jesus, God in flesh, is gone, but, God is not gone.  He is here. He is Spirit. Those who truly worship God must know that He is Spirit in order to worship God in Spirit and in Truth (Jo. 4:24

How to resist the Holy Ghost

   Since people seemingly are going to resist the Holy Ghost anyway, I thought I would help them out and give them some pointers on how to do this effectively.  These methods work well for churches, leaders and individuals as well.

1. Simply do not believe.  Much of the church effectively resists the Holy Ghost by just not believing in Him.  This works best when you stay in the Old Testament which seldom mentions the Spirit and away from the New Testament where He is mentioned quite often.  

2. Minimize the Spirit.  You can do this by staying ignorant and keeping others ignorant of His work or power.  If the subject comes up, just give Him some flattering lip service and then change the subject. You can also do it by simply ignoring Him. This trivializes Him in the minds of most people.

3.  Focus on man.  Stay focused and keep others focused on the comfort and pleasure of man.  This will effectively keep the Spirit at a distance.  Carefully guard against a surprise break through of the Spirit for it will upset religious folks.  This often mean a loss of tithes and even church members.  

4. Redefine who he is.  Resist the Holy Ghost by making Him out to be anything but God.  Call him the “force”, the power, an angel, etc., anything but God.  

5. Redefine what he does.  Never admit that we are saved by an act of the Spirit whereby He puts a new spirit within us.  Give the credit for this to anything or anybody other than the Spirit.  And, for sure, don’t let it out that the purpose of having a new spirit is so the Spirit could dwell there.

6. Redefine benefit of cross.    Do your best, when it comes to the cross, to either keep the focus on man’s sin, or, on the suffering Jesus on the cross.  Never admit that the work of the cross was done in order to give us the Holy Ghost. 

7.  Redefine how to know Lord.  If you should lead people to salvation, have them confess Jesus as Savior or something else, but never Lord. Say things like “Dear Jesus come into my heart, be my Savior”.  Keep the verse hidden that says no man can call Him Lord except by the Spirit.  Do not, under any circumstances tell them the way to salvation is to confess that He is Lord.  

8. Refuse Holy Ghost baptism. Resist this any way you can or else you will be faced with the disruptive power of God.  Just tell people this happened once,  in the Bible days, but no more since then.  

9. Legalism.   Never tell people that the Holy Spirit is our new law, the “law of life in Christ Jesus”. Use a lot of pop-psychology, self-improvement stuff or man made formulas. If you are a preacher and don’t know pop-psychology, go to the book store, get some books of that nature there, and just copy from them. Or, you can resort back to using condemnation and repentance demands with a lot of “or else” threats thrown in. 

10. Substitute anything for the voice of the Spirit. This could be prophets preachers, teachers, or the Bible.  Do not tell anybody that the early church did not have a Bible published by an publishing company, that they just had an ear to to hear the Holy Ghost. This is important because if people start hearing God for themselves, it can ruin your ministry as a preachers or prophets if you have presented yourself as God’s voice.  Worse, it will cause the Bible to take on life and power.

11. Accuse the Spirit of division and confusion..  If revival should break out, as quickly and loudly as possible blame it on the Holy Ghost. This will keep revival from spreading.  Tell people, “we don’t want that kind of revival” otherwise some important religious folks may get offended, leave the church and take their tithes with them.. Be extra careful not to tell them they need to repent or they may turn on you and get you fired.  They will not only blame the Spirit, they will blame you.

12.  Refuse to worship the Holy Ghost.  Be careful not to admit that He is God for then some might realize that if He is God, then He must be worshiped.  Skip over the passage that says that “God is a Spirit” and that we are to worship Him in that form.  Read it and say “amen”, then move on quickly. 

13. Refuse the gifts.  Do not tell people the gifts of the Spirit are the “testimony” of Jesus or that we are to not come behind in these gifts until Jesus comes. If they should start operating in the gifts and become effective in their testifying of the Lord, it can cause real problems.

14.  Refuse speaking in tongues.   If someone should point out Scriptures about speaking in tongues, nod your head in agreement and then tell them to only do it in private but not in church.  You don’t want people talking to God in church, especially in a language only He understands.  If that doesn’t work, drop back on the old standard that every message in tongues must be interpreted.  That will ultimately discourage this. And, if that doesn’t work, you might just have to run them off, calling them troublemakers or something like that.

15. Deal with sin without Him.  Push people hard to stop sinning and fulfilling the lust of the flesh but do not tell them that the way to not sin, or fulfill the lust of the flesh, is to walk in or have a relationship with the Spirit.   This will keep condemnation at a nice high peak.

16.  Never tell them what faith should stand on.  For example, tell them, with convincing tones, that their faith is to stand solely upon the Bible, or maybe the “gospel”.   Never, ever, tell them the Bible says faith should stand on the demonstrations of the Spirit and the power of God.  

17.  Always teach Christianity from a past or future tense perspective.  (This will turn it into religion).   Focusing on Jesus on the cross, God in the Old Testament, even the second coming of Jesus, while studiously ignoring God already manifested among us.  You can do this with great enthusiasm, every word being true.   Of course, this means you have to come up with some way to explain away Jesus leaving but sending the Comforter to take His place.

18.  Resurrection teaching.  It is okay to say there will be one, but don’t let people know that they can experience the power of resurrection right now and thus be assured of resurrection.  You don’t want them to know that the Spirit is resurrection power, and that He likes touching us with resurrection power, even before we are dead.  If, by chance, someone should get a touch of resurrection power, during church, it could be bothersome to those who want order in the building.

19.  Stay away from New Covenant.    If the subject comes up about a “new and better” covenant, change the subject quickly.  Quickly skip over the matter of being redeemed from the curse of the law so we could have the blessing of Abraham and the Holy Ghost.   If you are a preacher and people find out you have been teaching them out of the wrong covenant, it could jeopardize your future.

20.  Repentance.  Repent and keep others busy repenting of everything you can think of except turning to a full embrace of the Holy Ghost.

     If all these things fail you and you find yourself confronted with the Holy Ghost, in spite of these best efforts, you might consider just surrendering.  Then, if you live long enough, you will find yourself in the majority for one day the whole earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord.