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.