Wake Up Or Miss The Glory!

   Remember when Jesus had a meeting with Moses and Elijah in the realm of glory? (Luke 9).  The disciples, in typical human fashion fell asleep just before glory came down.  How much of the visit of God's glory they missed, I don't know, but they missed it.  They were "heavy" with sleep.  That is the bad news, sad story. The good news is that they did finally wake up and when they did, "they saw his glory".   The truth of this is that when we are not awake spiritually, we are going to miss the glory.  God reveals His glory to us, from "glory to glory".  Sadly, many of his disciples, his children, his church miss the glory.  Missing the glory means you remain unchanged.  The dimensions of your relationship, your understanding of God, your passion for God remain unchanged.  

   I am well aware that for many who claim Christianity, this all means nothing.  You have grown up in a religious environment absent of the glory, the manifested goodness of God revealed to you in a personal way.  My friend, you don't know what you are missing!   The amazing thing about God is that on one hand He is so universally big, beyond comprehension but when His glory touches you, His touch is so personal.  It is real, it is tangible, it is amazing!

   Wake up!  Wake up!  There is a secret to waking up.  The Bible says that if we will wake up "Christ will give us light" (Eph. 5:14).  That is a quote of Is. 60:1, which reads "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee".   If we are not awake, we will miss the glory.  So, the all important question is "How do we awake?".  Here it is: (Eph 5:15)  "See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise.  Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.  And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit"   Keep your vessel full!  Keep your lamps well-supplied on a daily basis.  Never speak of being filled with the Spirit in past-tense. Be ever being filled. Start every day asking for a fresh in-filling of the Holy Ghost.  You never know, that may be the day that glory is revealed around you and if you are not awake, if you are unwise, you will miss it.

Thirteen Easy Ways To Twist The Scriptures

1. Misunderstand the whole thing:  The Scriptures are God's Word. He honors and gives life to them but they are not a substitute for Him. The result?  A worship of the Bible, an abandonment of its Author.

2. Twist:  This man makes the Scripture mean whatever he wants it to mean.  The result?  Very strange forms of religion with no resemblance to anything seen in the Bible.

3. Out of context:  Entire doctrines run through the thinking of the modern church that are based entirely on verses of the Bible taken out of context. The result?  Uncertain foundations producing uncertain believers, producing uncertain results.

4. Out of covenant:   This man seems to be unaware of the new and better covenant. Much of what he believes is drawn from a covenant that has decayed and passed away. The result? He is cheated out of his covenant inheritance and blessing.

5. Overemphasis:  These men take one portion of Scripture or idea they favor and build their whole world of understanding around it. Every word they say may be true, but the pre-eminence of God suffers. The result? Very shallow, often one-dimensional believers.  

6. Fail to take literally:  This person reads with religious sunglasses, tinted by his background, family, religion, etc.. Everything he reads is shaded by those glasses.   The results?   Since he does not literally read and believe what God has said, he seldom ever hears what God is saying.

7. Insists on interpreting where none is needed:  Many religious people, not aware of the new covenant in which God speaks plainly, simply and clearly, insist on interpreting what does not interpreting.  The result?  They only believe what they interpreted something to mean.

8. Piece meal proof:   This religious habit involves taking a verse from the old, one from the new, one from somewhere else, mix in a little interpretation and present it as a truth. The result?  Very strange doctrines. Very little confirming manifestations of God.

9. Trust your own understanding:   This person ends believes only what he understands, which may or not be what the Scripture actually says.The result? Failure to ever mature.

10. Ignorance:  This person does not take the Bible serious enough to pay much attention to it.  His comfort comes from whatever he belongs to. Others can read for him and say whatever they want to say and it doesn't matter.  The result?  The Bible says we are alienated from the life of God by ignorance.

11. Reads backwards: Religion typically tries to interpret the realities of the new covenant with their interpretation of the shadows and types.  In truth, the real explains the shadow, not vice-versa. The result? Religion in which the realities of God never appear.

12. Education:  This person sees the Bible as merely an educational tool.  His security is based on his education. The result?  He is ever learning but never coming to the reality of what has studies.  The Word he knows, never comes to life.

13. Hear but never do:  This man never reads the Scripture with the intention of doing what he reads.  The result?  Total self-deception. 

What is it all about?

   

    What is the church about?  What is worship about?  What was the cross about? What is heaven about?    Are these things about man, or about God?  If you answered man, you have totally missed the message of the entire Bible and plan of God. The center of God's universe is not man, but God Himself.   Yet, sad to say, so much of what we call church, what we call praise and worship, what we look forward to in eternity is all about us, not God.  Remember the old timers that longed to go to heaven, just to see Grandma?  A song writer, years ago, got it right.  He wrote "Jesus will be what makes it heaven for me".

   The further we go along in the direction we are going, in America, the more we become centered on the welfare of man and not the wishes of God.  We are at a point now, in people-friendly, people-centered religion that we can seemingly do without God, but we can't do without man.  Seldom do I hear of a Pastor who wept and longed for the manifestation of God in his church, but many are those who weep, fast, pray, exert tremendous energy and expense to get people into the church. That, my friend, is backwards.  The further we go in this direction, the less meaning God has to us.  At best, for some, He is simply a vehicle with which they collect more people.  Churches study on how to make the Holy Ghost relevant to the world today.  That, my friend is backwards.  We ought to be studying on how to make the church and the world relevant to God.  God created us to worship Him!  He did not create man for Him to worship and become a servant of man.  For His pleasure we exist.

    The further we go in this direction, the less the Bible becomes relevant to us.  If you open your eyes and ears, you will discover that so many among those who call themselves Christians, do not use the Bible to define themselves.  They define themselves by whatever pleases.  They obey only what is convenient.  They believe only what is comfortable.  They do only what profits themselves. They worship only when they want to.  They have no need of the Holy Ghost, God among us.  He is too demanding.  He takes away their focus on themselves.

    All of this began in the garden.  When God came looking for Adam, instead of a greeting of love and worship, Adam greeted God with a condition-based response.  God asked, "where are you?".  Adam did not answer that question, and Adamic, natural thinking man does not answer it today.  Adam, instead, answered a question that was not asked. "I was naked and afraid", citing his condition as an excuse for his failed response to God. From that day to now, man without the constant stimulation of the Holy Ghost, will invariable base his religion around the condition of man, not the presence of God.  From that day to now, man without the Spirt of God to continue bringing him out of his fallen-man thinking, will hide from the manifested presence of God. Such a thing is too disquiting, too dis-comforting to Sister Easyfright and Brother Hardhead.  

    My friend, this thing we call Christianity is either all about God, or it isn't Christianity.  We are either in pursuit of God, or pursuit of the pleasure of man.  For me, like the Apostle Paul, I pray that I can "apprehend what has apprehended me".  I want to get hold of what has gotten hold of me.  I am glad God caught me, apprehended me, got hold of me but for the rest of my life, I want to apprehend, get hold of, catch Him.  If the Bible is your defining document, you are to be ever in pursuit of the Spirit of God.

Discipled by Flesh or by the Spirit?

  

     It seems to me that most of our concepts of discipleship, the attempt to produce a healthy mature Christian with some level of purity, might be faulty.  The Bible makes a clear simple statement which is usually ignored. If we "walk" in the Spirit (have an ongoing relationship with the Spirit), we will not "fulfill" the lust of the flesh. Not fulfilling the lust of the flesh is the goal. That is a life where purity and holiness blossoms, where the spirit of man takes ascendency over the flesh and the soul.  One, (Holy Ghost relationship) eliminates the other (lust of the flesh).    The Scripture goes on to say that if we "live" in the Spirit , the very essence of true Christianity, then we should "walk" in the Spirit (Gal. 5:16-25).   If we are not walking in the Spirit  then the opposite is that we are walking in the flesh and the flesh will have its way. All of this, on the surface, seems simple and was meant to be simple.  

   

     To live the pure life, requires Holy Ghost relationship. That is a problem. Seeking God, preaching Holy Ghost baptism, crying our for manifestations of the Spirit, allowing correction by the Spirit is a price religious men don't want to pay.  Many are those who will lead others to salvation and  then no farther.   If we have brought a man to salvation but we do not teach him how to live in, walk in, be baptized with and drink of the Spirit, we have failed.  Many religious workers, including pastors, are willing to accept and live with that failure.  They get people saved, then train their flesh to live a certain way and call it a victory when in fact, Holy Ghost discipleship has yet to even begin. Flesh training becomes a substitute for walking in the Spirit. At this juncture, you have clouds of people declaring they don't "smoke-drink-'cuss, nor chew" who think they now holy. They trained their flesh to suit the mold presented to them by religion. They think they are walking in the Spirit.

   Religious leaders, wanting their people to live clean, and pure and come to holiness set out to achieve that by training the flesh, thus discipleship by the flesh.   For example, I read one discipleship book, about 300 pages long, that didn't mention Holy Ghost baptism until page 275.  What a waste of paper!  Other programs are worse. They don't mention the Holy Ghost at all, except in some abstract way.  According to the Bible, the Holy Ghost is the "Spirit of adoption", or the Child-Trainer.  He doesn't do that training apart from us.  He does that training within relationship with us.  Religious defining has brought us the idea that if, by flesh training, we don't do all those evils listed in Galatians five, then we must now be walking in the Spirit. That is not the case. Many are the cults who produce a life lived free from all those evils.  But they are not walking in the Spirit!   We must not confuse walking in the Spirit with the fruit of walking in the Spirit.

   Holy Ghost discipleship doesn't just produce victory of the evils of the flesh.  It produces victory over the war of the flesh with the spirit of man.  Yes, it produces holiness but it produces an ear that hears God. It produces a radical worshipper. It results in Holy Ghost saturation (baptism).  It teaches men to drink and continue to drink, daily, of living water.  It makes Jesus Lord.  It inflames passion to love and worship God.  It floods the soul with peace, righteousness and incredible joy in the Holy Ghost.  Oh, I pray for great success on those who are soul winners but I also pray that we take those souls and turn them into men, women and children who know, love, worship, live in and walk in relationship with God on earth, the wonderful Holy Ghost.

Drunks Have It Right

     Scripture says we are not to be drunk with too much wine, but, as opposed to that, be ever filled and stimulated with the New Wine, the Holy Ghost.  The alcoholics have it right, they are just drinking the wrong stuff.  "and be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit" Eph. 5:18.   Why?  Anything less, Scripture says is to be "unwise", not understanding the will of Lord (Eph.5:17).  This is the will of God!   We are to not walk as fools, we are to redeem the time because "the days are evil".  

   When a drunk is surrounded by pressures, by the inability to cope, by things he cannot deal with, has no answer for, what does he do?  He gets drunk.  While he is drunk, his cares are over.  According to Scripture (Eph. 5:14-20), we are to also do the same, only make a different choice of what we drink.  We were made to drink New Wine, the Living Water, the Wellspring, the Holy Ghost.  Today, the world looks dark.  Wars and rumors of war, earthquakes all around, financial meltdown looming. It is time!  Go get drunk.  Get filled again and again with the Spirit.

   Have you ever heard about casting your cares on the Lord, for He cares for you?  How do you do that?  This is what the Spirit of the Lord is teaching us in these great verses.  When we are saturated to overflowing (baptized), an event that should occur every day, we are redeeming the time.  Oh, of course, you can moan, groan, fear, tremble and sweat cold sweat, hoping things get better.  Or, you can get drunk.  You can "make merry" with the Father.  You can go to a place where Jesus turns water to wine and you drink it.    It is a shame that religious leaders to to Jesus, who is the bread of life, but do not lead them to the water and wine, the Holy Ghost.  Jesus promised, not only to be our bread, our manna, but also to give us to drink. He promised us a springing up well.

   Friendly advice?  Start every day asking to be filled with the Spirit. With your confession and meditation, develop a thirst, an appetite, for the HOly Ghost,  (the manifested presence of God on earth).  Pursue the Holy Ghost with your actions, your thoughts, your prayers, your confession.  Ask Jesus for the Holy Spirit.  Jesus said if you do, that is what He will give you.  He won't play games with you (Luke 11).  Make the Spirit of God the center of your being and He, in turn, will make the Lordship of Jesus a powerful reality.

  

Should We Worship The Spirit?

  

   I have had some really good questions about whether Christians should worship the Spirit. I thought this would make a good blog, which, if read, will help people understand and answer this question should they be asked.  Here are some reasons we should worship the Spirit:

"Should we worship the Spirit?"   Yes, yes, yes!!  He is God. That alone demands worship.  One of the classic resistance tactics to the Spirit is to diminish Him to some status beneath God, such as a "force" or a "vehicle" or some mere extension of God.  He is God.  He is the one who over shadowed Mary and ushered the Son into the world.  He is the one who raised Christ from the dead.  He is not a "force" or a "vehicle"., He is God. Jesus explicitly said the God we are to worship is "Spirit" and we are to worship Him in the arena, authority and power of the Spirit, Jo. 4:23-24. That is God, the HOly Spirit, the manifested presence of God on earth.

"He does not speak of Himself"  He does not speak (boast) of Himself anymore than did Jesus.   He is not here to promote Himself is all that means. His mission is to promote the Lordship of Jesus.  Of course, the Spirit actually does speak of Himself considering He wrote the Bible and He is all over almost every page of the New Testament.  He has plastered His name all over the book.  However, every thing you see about Him is a message about the Lord.  The church began in a blazing outpouring of the Spirit and event which confirmed the glorification of Jesus to Lord, Jo. 7:37-39.  Every act of the Spirit exalts and testifies of the Lord Jesus. The Bible calls the gifts of the Spirit the "testimony" of Jesus.

"What is His mission?"   In the same manner as did Jesus, the mission of the Spirit is to reflect and provide access. Jesus came to reflect the Father and provide access to the Father. When you see Jesus on Bible pages, you are looking at a express image of the Father, Heb. 1:3. He said he only did and repeated what He heard from the Father. In the same way, the Spirit is here to reflect Jesus to us. To worship Jesus requires the Holy Ghost. No man calls Him Lord (the way He is to be worshipped) except by the Spirit, 1 Cor. 12:3. Our access to worship Jesus as Lord comes through our relationship with the Spirit.  God receives worship by reflection. The Son reflected the Father. Those who loved the Son, loved the Father who gave the Son. The Spirit reflects the Son. All worship drifts upward from the representative among us. Worship God, by the name of the HOly Ghost, or by the name of Jesus, or the Father and it all drifts upwards to heaven like vials of incense.  When you love on the Holy Ghost, that love makes its way upward like vials of sweet incense.

    It is important to understand that religious resistance to God is always against God as He is, not as He was or even will be.  The Pharisees had no problem with God as He was in their history, but they greatly resisted Him when He became flesh and dwelt among them. Stephen's last words "you do always resist the Holy Ghost" lives on.  It is what was happening in our background when religious men told us not to worship the Holy Ghost, by that insinuating He was not God, by that insinuating He was irrelevant, by that insinuating an absence of God among us, by that limiting our access to God, and by that robbing us of communion with God.  We have grace from the Lord, love from the Father but we have communion, the interchange between us and all that God is, by the Spirit, 2nd Cor.13:14.    Where people will get full and continuously drink of the Spirit, love and worship Him, the love of Jesus, and of the Father soars.  The Lordship of Jesus becomes real and powerful.   The love of God is "shed" abroad in us by the Holy Ghost. That is relational love. That is His love to us and our love directed back to Him, shed, distributed, related by the Holy Ghost.

   Jesus said the world could not receive the Holy Ghost because they could not "see" Him  and that they therefore would not know Him, (Jo. 14:17).  But, He said we would know Him because He dwells in us.  The resistance to the invisible God is resistance to the Holy Ghost.  We may not see Him, but we know Him, we feel Him, and we see what He does.  You can't actually see the wind outside your kitchen window, but you can see what the wind does.

What is your "Turn On" Button?

  Did you ever hear the question "What turns you on?"  or the phrase  "Different strokes for different folks"?.  Each implies that something gets to you, sets the wheels in motions, pleases or maybe irritates you.  There is truth in the idea in the natural and in the spiritual.  Different things appeal to different people or groups of people. Sometimes this is by divine design, somtimes because of growth levels, and sometimes because of religious structure. And, different buttons turn on different things as well.  Testimonies, songs, sermons about God's gifts to us may inspire us to give thanks. Others, about the greatness of God, may turn on the praise button.  There is also in us a worship button.  Testimonies, songs and sermons that speak directly to and of God, if you are a worshipper, will turn your worship button on.

  Nothing is as opposed by the enemy as is worship.  It is opposed in every way imaginable.  Perhaps the most clever opposition is to just keep the worship button hidden.  Ever listen to a song, a prophecy, a sermon that hit the button and suddenly you were so aware of His presence?  So aware that things beyond words just flowed out of you and time stood still?   A lot of folks haven't.  They may be turned on by songs about victory over the devil, their salvation, maybe a trip to heaven, but not God.  It is why nine out of ten songs in the church world are not about God, not addressed to God and don't inspire worship.  They were written to men, about men, intended to at best, turn on the thanksgiving or praise button in men. Unfortunately, many don't even do that, they just focus man on man.

   Every now and then a song comes forth that instantly connects the spirit of a worshipper to God.   I remember one such song that so affected me powerfully.  I played it for some other folks and they just went "duh".  They said "it didn't affect me like it did you".   I puzzled over that for a while until I think I realized the answer. I know those folks are great Christians but their worship button is not activated yet.  They will have a shouting spell over the blessings of God. over victory, etc., but not so much over God. They may have been trapped, as so many are, in responding to music or other things that are designed to express what it is they happen to like.  Youth music, a fine way to reach the youth, often gets substituted for songs that might reach and please God.  Old hymns, old songs of another generation are often intended to reach an older audience. All that is fine, but it may never lead to worship.

   Every move of God brings new worship music because every move, no matter the outer wrappings, is about God.  As God reveals Himself, we tend to adddress our self to Him.  As the move wanes, so do the worships songs.  Soon, we are only excited over the wrappings, the periphals and not God.  Our worship button is never pushed. Songs that connect us, spirit to Spirit don't come from the talent of the musician. They come from the spirit.  They are not meant to appeal to young people or old people or in between people. but rather express our inner man to God.  They are the expression of the spirit in communion with the Holy Spirit.

   There are a number of reasons why worship seldom happens for so many.  The biggest one is the continuous resistance to the Holy Ghost.  Where He is not resisted outright, He is resisted by minimization.  We have the grace of the Lord, the love of the Father but communion, the realm of interchange, the realm of intimacy and worship, is with the Spirit.  Explicitly Jesus told us that God is a Spirit and  we are to worshp Him as such.  Worship is within that Spirit realm where we are connected and communing with Him.  When God taps your worship button, my friend, it can be breathtaking.  It can be joyous.  It can be awesome. And, it is always about God and you.  Not His stuff, not your stuff, just Him and you.