Wonderful, Wonderful Freedom

    

     Here is one of my all time favorite Scripture passages:    "When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.  Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The LORD hath done great things for them. The LORD hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad. Turn again our captivity, O LORD, as the streams in the south. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him".  Jesus once told the Pharisees they were in bondage but the "truth" would make them free. They said, blindly, they had never been in bondage. That is the problem with bondage.  It is blinding!  Oh, but how wonderful to be free.  It is like waking up from a dream.  Your mouth is filled with laughter and your tongue can't stop singing.   Sad to me that there are so many Christians are in bondage and don't know they are?  How do I know they are?  No laughing, no singing.  

    Does it matter, this laughter and singing?  Oh yeah!  First of all, freedom feels good.  You start feeling like David "I can run through a troop and leap over a wall".  Secondly, the heathen start noticing and saying "the Lord must be doing something for them".  Oh, I declare to you who remain in bondage, if I were you, I would sow tears until freedom came.  How would you know freedom came?  You start living your best dream.  You start laughing and singing.  You start expressing your love of Jesus the Lord, with "unspeakable joy" that is full of "glory", or praise.  Oh yeah.....it is good!

    Oh, I know the excuse.  "We are just too serious for that...not my personality ... I'm too burdened for the lost".  Get over it! Get serious - serious about being free.  Otherwise, you really have no witness heathen can appreciate.  Freedom!  Oh, thank God Almighty, we can be free at last!   And, this is not just freedom from petty sins. This is freedom to walk in the glory of God - from "glory to glory". You might ask "how do I get this freedom?".  This kind of "liberty" only comes where the Holy Spirit is Lord (2nd Cor. 3:17).  Seek to be filled and filled and filled with the Spirit until He grabs your tongue and turns it into an instrument of praise, (Eph. 5:19) and fills you mouth with laughter.   You see, where He is Lord, we are exposed to God's "glory".  In fact, we go from "glory to glory".  And, in the glory we are changed, set free.   Without the Spirit, we are blinded. With Him, the veil is lifted.  Without Him, we are committed to the Law.  With Him we are committed to the glory.  Without Him we remain the same.  With Him we are changed by the glory.   

God Speak Dimensions

    The amazing thing about God and the way He speaks, including through the Bible is that He speaks with varying viewpoints, dimensions, facets and nuances.  With us and our English, we speak bluntly, our language being blunt.  However, God is not so restricted.  The study of the Word is made so wonderful when you can discern how God is speaking at a particular time and you begin to see the different dimensions .  Let me give you some examples

Viewpoint:  In the Bible God speaks from the view of a fallen man, a redeemed man and mature man and most importantly, from His own view.  Usually when we begin our Christian journey, we see the fallen man view but as we truly mature we begin to see from God's view. All views are correct and they were all there, all the time, only our understanding was not sufficient to see and hear all that God was saying.

Condition & Position:  Watchman Nee wrote of this many years ago. The same Bible shows you both your condition and your position. If you don't understand this, you might think there is a contradiction but that is not true.  For example, your condition is that you are on earth, going through earthly trials but your position is that you are already seated in heavenly places. Your condition says you need healing, you position says you are already healed.   Agreeing with your position ultimately changes your condition.  

Signs, Wonders and Growth:  Often God speaks by a sign, wonder or sovereign display of His power.  Then, He teaches us how to step into and walk in that same thing without the sign and wonder.  For example, He sometimes heals the most unqualified faithless person in the building.  Sign and wonder!  And then, He teaches us how to apply the Word, walk in faith and arrive at healing the slow route.  He gives joy like a cloudburst (sign and wonder) and then sets out to teach us how to enter in and walk in that same joy.

Extremes Variances:  The Bible is filled with extreme variances.  For example, you won't know how wonderful heaven (variance) is if you do not know how horrible hell (variance) is. Same Bible tells you both.  If you don't know how awful it is to be lost, you won't know how wonderful it is to be found.   If you don't know how much you could be held accountable for, were it not for mercy and grace, you won't know how wonderful is mercy and grace.   Same Bible tells you both.

    Even the languages God chose to put forth the documents that make up the Bible (Greek, Hebrew, Arabic) are languages that lend themselves to multi-dimensional speech.  There are some words, for example, in the Greek that have no English counterpart.   As a result, English translators often had to translate and spell different words all the same way.  For example the word "will".  There are two different words with different meanings but  when translated into English, come out the same.  One word means the iron clad will of God with no human influence, (boulema). Another word, spelled the same, means the heart-wish of God with great possibility for human influence, (thelema). Then there are some words that cannot be accurately translated.  You have to see the circumstance in which they were spoken and try to discern the sound that was made in order to fully understand.  This is why, as you study the Word, and do word studies, it is important to take note of the place and circumstance.  

    Does it all matter?  Maybe not, for some, but as for me, it makes the study of the Word wonderful.  I am continuously learning and re-learning.  This does not mean what I first learned was wrong, but now God allows me to see a different dimension of the same truth.   Of course, for those who take comfort in "formulas" this can all be disconcerting.  We want to trust our formula, which may be one dimension and quite accurate.  It might also just be our understanding at the present time.  We tend to not want to go beyond that trusted formula.  Oh, but the Word is richer than our comprehensive skills allow us to see at any given time.   My faith in God's word remains the same, but my faith in my understanding is to be constantly challenged.  You see, we really do not lean upon our own understanding but we trust in the Lord with all our heart and in all ours ways acknowledge Him.

Context?

   I know it probably is not something that bothers most believers, but when it comes to the Word of God, context is important to me.  Things preached, said, or believed out of context, bug me.  If you want to ignore context, you can make the Bible say about anything you want.  For example, how about the woman preacher sharing the platform with a group of male preachers, who thought little of women preachers and gave her a hard time. When she stepped up to preach, she took this as her text, "..I would not have you ignorant brethren...." Ro. 1:13.  So there, the Bible reaffirms prejudice against men, right?   How about affirming suicide? "Judas went and hanged himself...."  and "go thou and do likewise".   It must be true, the Bible says so, right?

     On a more serious note, how about things said, preached, or believed that are out of the context of the new covenant.  There is an old covenant and a new covenant we have with God.  The new one is better with better promises.  So, then why do we so often work hard to claim a promise from the old covenant. The work of the enemy has been so effective, many are those who do not even know that we have a new and better covenant.  Nearly all their information, nearly all the preaching and teaching that they hear, consist of things out of the context of the new covenant. Even though something may be true, out of context it becomes a weapon against us. If you really pay attention to what Paul dealt with in so much of his Holy Spirit inspired writings, he was trying to keep people in context of the new and set them free from the old. In the book of Galatians, he made it clear that a bewitching was going on, drawing people back into the Old and out of the new.

 

    You can preach about anything, with supporting Bible verses, and your words will be true, but still wrong.  For example, you can preach about the wrath of God falling suddenly, at any moment, on unsuspecting people with just any number of confirming Bible stories.  Of course, you are talking to the wrong people out of the wrong covenant using stories out of context.  You can even teach about some blessing promised to Old Testament saints if they do such and such.  Every word you teach being the absolute truth, but you are out of context.  The bewitching work of the devil, just as with the Galatians, is to use whatever means possible to lure you away from grace, from the Spirit and back into another covenant, every word of which is true.  The bewitching work of the devil lures people into just lumping all of the Bible, front to back, and calling it Christianity.  Be careful!   A lot of the Bible, true to the letter, was about what it took for God to bring Christianity into being.  Christianity is here now. What it took to get it here is history. 

   Thank God we have a new and better covenant. If it is new, if it is better - it is different.  Oh, and by the way, any blessing you find promised under the Old Covenant, know this, things are better now.  We are redeemed from God's wrath. We have been birthed into the God-family.  We have been given the daily companionship of God the Holy Ghost.  We are under the covering of the Lord of Lords, who from His exalted position has chosen to bestow upon us mercy and then grace upon grace upon grace.  Better yet, He now calls us friends. 

Consider your approach to Holy Ghost power

   You know, before the mighty outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, an outpouring that turned a coward to a bold preacher, an outpouring that released an anointing to heal, an outpouring that released a measure of New Wine that intoxicated, something else was going on.  Before the outpouring, before the anointing, before the dramatic thunderous roar, tongues of fire and great joy described in Acts 2, something else was going on.  Jesus spoke, for the last time before ascending and gave them instructions.  Following those instructions these things came into play:   "and it came to pass, while he was blessing them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven.  And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. And were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God", Luke 24:50-53.

Number 1:  He blessed them and they received the blessing.  A great hindrance to Holy Ghost power is to not know, not recieve, not believe that God wants to and is blessing you, choosing to favor you.  You have to know - God is for you and not against you.

Number 2: They worshipped Him.  The absence or presence of worship greatly affects the level of power you are going to experience from God.  To worship is to pour out adoration to the person of God.

Number 3:  They walked in great joy.   Not only do you get joy when the Holy Ghost touches you, approaching Him with joy greatly increases the possibility of gaining more and greater joy.  

Number 4:  They continuously blessed and praise God.  Having led thousands to Holy Ghost baptism, seldom have I seen anyone receive who would not open his mouth and heart and praise God. 

    

    People tend to say "Oh, just receive by faith".  That's good, but faith is not just mentally believing something, or wanting something.  It is that, but it is also aligning yourself, you behavior, in such a way as to allow and encourage what it is you are expecting from God.  Today, shallow Christians say "oh, if God wants me to have...he will just drop it on me.  I'll just wait until he does".   Well, my friend, you may have to wait, but don't wait idly.  Do what they did.  Want Holy Ghost power?  Make up your mind to believe in the favor of God, to worship Him, to walk in great joy and to consistently praise God.  The rain will come and when it does, you will not be among the on-lookers asking what it all means.  You will be in the midst of the rain, enjoying saturation walking away from there anointed.  In fact you will walk away doing the same things you were doing  before the outpouring, only now at a greater level, a greater empowerment.

Cousins Fear and Faith

    

    You know, if you are not wise with the Word, you can use it wrongly.  You can use it to strengthen your Spirit, or, you can use it to strengthen your old flesh.  If we mind the things of the flesh, even with supporting Bible verses, we are in trouble.  We are not to mind the things of the flesh but the things of the Spirit.  It actually takes a bit of wisdom, especially in preaching, not to mind the things of the flesh with our preaching.  Without wisdom, without close leadership of the Holy Ghost, the things we are preaching may well be appealing to the flesh in some of those we are preaching to and doing them harm   For example, when we preach about earthly blessings we may be appealing to greed in people to have "stuff".  Or, preach the prosperity message and appeal to the greed for riches that so many  have.  We can preach about God supplying all our needs and appeal to the terrible fear some have of being not having enough.  Sometimes the message of healing appeals to the fear people have of dying.  They grab hold of it, not because they have faith in the will of God to heal, but because they are scared to death of dying, or even being sick.   In such an instance, what motivates the listener is really not faith at all, but fear.

    Faith and fear could be first cousins, if such were possible.  In some ways, they are so alike. They are both deep inward convictions that motivate and drive us in life.  Sometimes they may seem like the same thing, speaking the same thing, but they are not.   God has not give us a spirit of fear but He has given us faith, or a sound mind.  When we confuse the two, failure follows.  Then, after failure usually comes a change in doctrine or belief.   Since something didn't work, as we supposed it was going to, so we assume it was all wrong. And then, more failure follows that.  Maybe it was wrong,  but then maybe we weren't operating in faith at all, but fear, or greed or some other earthly human emotion that we thought was faith.

   When it comes to healing, we are fighting a battle of death - incipient death, or death hanging over us or death threatened.  That is the battle.  When we are sick, we must rise up with the boldness of a lion and resist it with everything within us, but not with fear. Fear enlarges the power of the enemy.  With poverty, we must not fight that fight because we are afraid of doing without but because we know it is God's will that we prosper.  If we don't prosper, then we learn to be content in whatever state we are in, we learn how to be abased.  Those are the words of Paul, who knew both how to abound and how to be abased.

     Maturing as a believer means we are constantly vigilant about what is behind our beliefs.  Sometimes flesh will slip in where we thought there was faith.  We must always be checking our motives, on the lookout for faith substitutes such as greed, or fear, or ambition or insecurity.  Faith is basically wanting, desiring, having the same deep convictions as does God, about matters.   A few simple question may make it clear where you are in this; "Do I want the same thing God wants?  Do I want it because He wants it?"

    

Desire the Spirit or have faith for the Spirit?

      You know, sometimes I cross wires with some faith preachers.   Especially when it comes to the subject of "desire".  You see, there is an idea of faith that presents it as something void of feeling, just a matter-of-fact, non-emotional, it-is-done kind of approach.  That is good, sometimes, but sometimes it really backfires.  Your faith and desires must agree and both must agree with the Word.  If all of that is not true, like electric wiring, you are going to have a short-circuit. Perhaps the most damaging area where this short-circuit happens is in the realm of the Holy Ghost.  Some faith people will say "The Bible says I have, so therefore I have".  Sounds good?   Oh, but wait!  The Amplified version of Ephesians 5:19 says we are "ever be ye being filled". That is ongoing.  If your faith says "I have" and you put a period at the end of that statement, you have missed God's will by a country mile.  Of course, the crowd around you will be huge, seeing as how this is the thought life of so many.  Walking in the Spirit, drinking of the Spirit, being anointed by the Spirit, being baptized with the Spirit, living in the Spirit are all ongoing activities.  You can't look at them and say "Done".  You can only say "It is being done"  In other words, you can't have the Spirit but you can be having the Spirit.  The cost of having this ongoing business with the Spirit is "thirst" (hunger, desire, want, crave).  

    The same error occurs among denominational folks who say things like, "My faith is in the Bible. I don't need signs, wonders, or activities of the Spirit."  Or, "my faith is in the gospel".  That all sounds good, but the Bible they says our faith rests upon say our faith should stand, or rest, upon the "demonstrations of the Spirit and the power of God".  Our faith must settle the issue, and it will, but only if it agrees with the Word.  You can't have faith in the Word and pay no attention to what the Word says have faith in.  You can't  have merely a factual relationship by "faith" with God or your wife, husband or anyone else.  You can believe and claim the promise of having one but you can't so easily call it "done".  You either have one or you don't.  You can't just "know about" someone in order to have a relationship.  You have to know them.  You can't just believe you have a relationship because you read, or know some facts about someone.  That is called obsession, fixation and is delusional.  The touch of God is real, the voice of God is real, the presence of God is real, the power of God is real.  Being filled, baptized with, anointed with, walking in and with, living in the Spirit is experiential as well as factual. Both are required.

   Part of this problem comes because in the Greek, and in other languages, there are words for factual knowledge such as derived from education and there are other words for experiential knowledge, knowledge derived from experience.  The Bible uses this latter word a great deal.  You can be one of those who are ever learning but never coming to the experiential knowledge of what you are learning.  This is how the devil has stopped, or quenched the flow of the Spirit.  He has allowed factual knowledge to supersede and dismiss experiential knowledge.

   

   All of this is why our approach to the Spirit is presented to us as the drinking of water.  You can never rely on the drink you had twenty years ago. You must drink more often than that to stay alive.  The Bible says we were made, created, to "drink" of the Spirit.  Just like water, you can't get along without it.  This is why the Holy Ghost is presented to us as a "river".  Try drinking a whole river in one drink.  Won't happen! This river is bigger than your containment ability.  This is why, when you do drink, He oozes out like "rivers of living water".  You overflowed.  And, in closing my brethren "I  LOVE THE OVERFLOW"   Okay, so you had a drink twenty years ago.  Stir yourself up, go to the River and have another sip.  The more you drink, the more you can drink.  The more you drink, the greater the overflow.  And, in closing, my brethern, "I LOVE THE OVERFLOW'.