Truth Beneath The Dung

   You know, the devil has a clever way of stealing truth from us. He buries it under dung.  Every truth the Spirit puts forward, the enemy puts some dung on it.  And, the greater the truth, the bigger the dung heap becomes. You know the result don't you?  Soon the dung heap becomes a reason for people to say "I don't want that".  I know, I know, you are going to want me to explain - so here are a few examples:  (I'll give you the truth and then a little bit of the dung, without digging into the pile too deep).

   Truth?  "saved by grace". Dung? clean up and keep the rules so you can be saved.  Truth?  "be baptized you with the Holy Ghost and fire".  Dung?  If you get holy enough, you might receive (if you could get holy without Him, why would you need Him?).  Truth? Be holy as God is holy.  Dung?  Dress up, or down, in order to look holy. Truth?  New and better covenant.  Dung?  Insist on preaching nine out of ten sermons from the Law of Moses and define Christianity by those sermons.   Truth?  God wants you to prosper.  Dung? accumulate weath and brag about your money.  Truth?  God wants to make you joyful.  Dung?  Better jokes to imitate the joy.  Truth?  Prophesy unto edification, exhortation and comfort (New Testament demand).  Dung? The Bible is not complete, let the prophet fill in the blanks.  Had enough?  I could go on.

   Just since the 60's, great truths have emerged from the charismatic move which began in the 60's;  praise restoration, discipleship, word of faith, deliverance, prosperity, joy, etc.  I have loved them all! They have come like waves of glory, only to soon be buried under the dung.  As men and women of God, we have to sort out the truth from the dung.  In every area the truth is still there, under the pile, but now you have to look past the dung in order to find it.  I urge every believer to never, ever fail to search the word to see if what you are hearing or reading is true.  The truth will be simple, straightforward and universal in application. The dung will make it complicated and legalistic.  I urge you to be one of those Bereans in the Bible who were known for searching the Word to see if the things they had heard were true.  Never be afraid to question.  Search the New Testament, carefully observing context and literal meaning. If you don't....you are going to step in it!

   Above all, don't be a dung spreader.  We don't have to exaggerate. We don't have to add to the simple truths of God's word.  We don't have to interpret with exaggeration.  We don't have to take things out of context in order to make a point. We don't have to stretch truths beyond simplicity.  We don't have to create man-made rules and formulas.  All such things will eventually become dung. 

Come on now, Is it really faith?

  

    You know, I am constantly amazed at what gets accepted as faith, but in fact, is fear.  I saw this years ago when a family member was going for marriage counseling with a pastor known to be a faith preacher.  After a few visits, he canceled all counseling saying "I don't want to hear anything that might hinder my faith".   How strong was his faith?  I know of pastors, who when they do hospital visits, have to bind up all kinds of demons and curses before they go in the hospital door, fearing what might get on them. Is that faith?  I know of pastors who won't minister to people in the altar anymore for fear they might hear something that would hurt their faith.  Is that really faith?  

   When you begin to look for fear, it is everywhere, including our charismatic type churches.  (We just cloak it better).  So many of us are attracted to the "I can have everything I say" message is often because fear of lack drives them to it.  Around people who have embraced the confession message, it isn't unusual at all to find people full of fear - scared witless that a slip of the tongue will bring failure and ruin.  They have moved from trust to must and don't know the difference. People often go with the healing message because they fear dying and being sick. They run to the prosperity message for fear they won't have enough. They absolutely don't won't to hear the message of Paul who knew how to be abased (be in want) and how to abound (have abundance).  Legalism (relating to God by laws and rules) gains easy access to us when fear rules us. When we are lacking in trust, we are attracted to rules. Soon our hope, our justification is based on having kept those rules, not on the greatness of our God. Without trust, soon we are doing what we do because we must - for fear we won't be accepted, loved, blessed or have whatever is it we want from God. Our actions are not longer a part of a relationship with God, they become the substitute for a relationship.

   Fear does have a place in our lives. Some of us, had we not been fearful of hell, might never have gotten saved.  If you fear the lion, you won't stick your hand in its mouth.  Yet, we must recognize fear for what it is. We must govern it and not allow it to govern us.  If we don't, it becomes a spiritual force that begins to direct our lives and if we are not careful, it will steal our love, power and sound mind. It will substitute itself for faith.  It will hinder faith and we may never know what is wrong.  When fear becomes an underlying, masked, force in us, trust flies out the window.  Soon, we go from trust to must.  Soon we are keeping rules and missing grace.  Listen carefully and it won't take you long to hear someone, some leader, tell you that you must do such and such, or else.  Be careful...those are words are often the beginning of fear. 

Check your belly!

 
   The center of your being, your belly as the Bible calls it, establishes everything about you.  Your center, you "belly" can be you, it can be family, money,  career, etc.  In the spiritual realm, it can be some doctrine, faith, good works, prophecy, prosperity or any number of other seemingly good things.  From your belly, the center of your being, flows all your dreams, desires, actions.  Your theology is established from your belly. Your relationship with God is affected by what the center of your being happens to be.  

  In recent times I have began to see that revival also has to do with what is our center.  If a person's center is a particular message or doctrine, when that doctrine is preached again, they feel renewed or reaffirmed in what they are. They may call it revival.  For example, people whose center of being is the faith confession message will feel renewed when that message is preached and reaffirmed to them.  Their world revolves around that idea.  People whose center is heaven experience the same thing when they hear heaven preached or sang about in a strong convincing way.  They feel renewed.  However, if such a message is not your center, you may not share that feeling of renewal.

   Here is the problem:  The Bible declares that "times of refreshing" (revival) come from the manifested presence of God (Acts 3:19).  If the Holy Ghost, God manifested among men, is at the center of your being and you get close to His presence, you feel revived, or refreshed.  That is the revival the Bible points us to.  That is the revival I crave!  Jesus told us that if we believed and came to Him thirsty, He would give to us a drink of the Holy Ghost such that out of our "belly", (the center of our being) would flow rivers of living water (Jo. 7:37-39).  That is revival - if the center of your being is God among us.  This process of coming to Jesus, beliving, thirsting, hungering is the process by which He establishes, renews, revives, the belly of our being and make it what it should be - a fountain from which "rivers of living water" flow.  That is what a revived belly looks and feels like. 

   A "belly" change is truly what Holy Ghost baptism is about - it is a change of the center of your being.  It puts Him in your belly.   And, being filled and refilled with the Spirit is about the center of your being experiencing revival.  Every time you get a fresh drink, fresh touch, fresh anointing, you belly flows life again and that flow affects your whole being, your witness, your ministry.   Those whose center / belly is something other than the Spirit, will let Holy Ghost revival, the manifested presence of God pass them by quite easily, since it had no affect on the center of their being anyway.

   For me, I can't be deeply renewed by a message or a particular slant on the Word.  Oh, I can enjoy,  be challenged and educated but not really revived.  Revival, renewal comes for me with a time in God's manifested presence, the wonderful Holy Ghost, the center of my being, the axis my world rotates upon.  When I get around those whose center is different I am well aware of it.  What excites them does not always excite me.  The Bible says that he that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit.  Every now and then that becomes experiential and we call it "revival".  Paul once said that Christ must have "preeminence" in all things and that only happens when the Spirit of God is the center  of our being.  The Bible says only by the Spirit can we call Jesus Lord.

Don't take the long way around

   The way some people approach obtaining the blessings of God is the long way around. Israel demonstrated this well. They went in circles for forty years, headed for the promised land but they took the long way around.  What should have taken them two weeks took them forty years.  Imagine me, living in Kentucky going to New York by way of Florida.  Oh, I'll get there but that is the long way around.  The long way may not seem like the wrong way, but it is wasteful.  Having, by nature been an observer,  I have observed a lot of people wanting God's blessings take the long way around.  What they want is right, it is theirs, they can have it, but they take a long route to get there.  That is one of the ploys of devilish religion.  It will point you to the wrong way if it can, but failing at that, point you to the long way.  Going the long way delays victory and as well encourages failure and surrender.

   Examples: People claim eternal life and then spend a life waiting on it.  Long way round!  Eternal life is the Spirit. People want the grace of God and do flip-flops to find it.  Long way.  It is in the Holy Ghost.  He is the Spirit of Grace.  People want signs and wonders and do all sorts of things to obtain them. Long way!  They are in the overflow of the Holy Spirit.  People want the love of God and go to great measures to obtain or earn.  Long way!  The love of God is shed abroad by the Holy Ghost.  People want to walk in the Kingdom of God and some even await heaven so they can finally be in the Kingdom.  Long way!   The Kingdom of God is in the Holy Ghost.  People want great faith and develop all sorts of formulas designed to produce greater faith.  Long way!  Faith is to be based upon the demonstrations and power of the Holy Ghost. People want to hear God and work hard to do so.  Long way!  The Holy Ghost communes with us the will of God.  He is the voice of God to us.   People want to know Jesus as Lord and study hard to do so. Long way round!  Only by the Spirit can we call Jesus Lord.  People shout and sing over their rich inheritance God has given them, but yet they wait until heaven to enjoy. Long way around!  The Holy Ghost is the "earnest", down payment, security deposit, beginning of that inheritance.  We don't have to wait for heaven to enjoy our inheritance.  Need I go on?  These are all wonderful things we seek, but all are found in the Holy Ghost according to the Bible. He is the short way.

   Stop taking the long way round!   The Bible says that in order to not be "unwise" concerning the will of God we need to "be ye ever being filled and stimulated with the Holy Ghost" (Amp. Vs.).   And, most wonderfully so, God gave us a picture of what that looks like when it happens.  You are filled with the music of praise.  That is the short way around.  All the promises of God are indeed yes and amen to those who are in Christ but the short way is grab hold of the Holy Ghost who Jesus clearly said would come, upon His departure, to tell us about Jesus, to show us what is ours and make it a reality.  The Holy Ghost moves those promises from the realm of words to the realm of experience and fulfillment.  When we are not filled with the Spirit, the other side of this coin is that you are "unwise" concerning the will of God, so chances are you will keep taking the long way to victory.

   Oh, if you want, go ahead and take the long route but as for me, I want to get into the things of God the express way. It's the free way!  It's the short cut!  It's the fast lane!   "Baptize me Jesus, again and again, in that which you died to give me - Holy Ghost rivers of living water".  Don't put your faith in your religious formulas. That is the long way.  Don't put you faith in your faith.  Put your faith in God.  That is the short way.