Reversing the gospel

One of most subtle but effective way religion defuses the gospel is to simply reverse it or reverse the principles therein. Once you see this in action, you will see it everywhere the gospel is preached.  This is one of the ways religion kills, steals and destroys all the while its victims think they are standing on the truth.  They plant their feet on what they think is a truth and slowly slip into sinking sands. Let's try a few:

1. Get holy so you have have the holy Spirit.  Truth?  You get the Holy Spirit and He leads you to holy.Why would you need Him if you could get holy without Him?

2. Repent of sin so you can receive God. Truth?  While we yet sinners, He commended His love to us.

3. Give so you can get.  Truth?  Get so you can give!
4. Pray for revival.  Truth? Pray for a Holy Ghost outpouring and rivers of living water (revival) will begin to flow.
5. Get rid of sin so you can have revival.  Truth?  Have revival so you can get rid of sin.
6. Purify your heart so you can worship.  Truth? Worship so he can purify your heart.
8. Your confession creates faith. Truth?  Your faith creates your confession.
9. Repent in His presence.  Truth? Repent so you can get in His presence.
10. Pray for the harvest.  Truth? Pray for the rain. Pray for the laborers.

I think I could go on and on and never uncover all the subtle flip-flops religion has brought into our thinking.  Every principle reversed equals robbery.

Is money the answer to everything?

     Years ago, I attended a conference with a well known preacher, known for prosperity teaching.  In his first sentences he said "Preachers, you don't need more God, you just need more money".   My stomach turned but most everyone else enthusiastically shouted "amen". Recently, I heard another fellow preach from Ecclesiastes that "money answers all" or in his words "money is the answer for everything". He didn't seem to know he was quoting Solomon describing his own back-slidden folly and vain thoughts.  And, my stomach turned.

   I am all for the prosperity message.  I am against people making a mess of it and this is one message that gets messed up often. Jesus said riches had deceitfulness in them, but the attitude some have is "who cares?".  It seems that the promise of wealth will cause some people to overlook about anything.  They will ignore context, meaning,  greed, pride and arrogance when the promise of wealth grabs hold of them.  In the Bible God said He would give the people the power to get wealth in order to establish the work of God, not to accumulate for the sake of having more.  Jesus actually warned us not to lay up treasures here on earth, a warning unheeded by some prosperity types. I have heard some of these characters openly boast of their accumalated wealth and measure their spirituality by their accumulations. Jesus did promise us "abundant life" and no matter how often people try to equate that promise to money, the key word in that promise is life, not money.  Life is about God, not money. Money does not equate to life nor has it ever, nor will it ever.  If it did, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet would be running over with LIFE...but they are not. 

      Paul said he knew how to be abased (dirt poor) and how to abound (rolling in cash) and either state, he said he had learned to be content. You too just may have to attend both those same classes.  Will you pass the test, being able to say it made no difference whether you had little or had plenty?   Some leave God when the going gets tough and they fail the abased class.  Some fail the abounding class.  Their riches capture their heart.  They began to rejoice over their mammon instead of their God. They make a mess!

    I believe God wants His people to prosper and that He raises up people to teach us how to prosper. I also believe religion and the devil raises up those who will bring ruin to the message.  For me, I love to pay my tithes and give my offerings.  I have found I can not out give God.  However, I will not be manipulated into giving by pity emotions or promises of great wealth.  I heard one preacher say we should make friends with rich people and hang out with them more because they would give us more money. I would rather go hungry.  I will not give to the crazy, flaky schemes seen so often often on religious television.  When a man wants my money and brags about how much he already has, my cash stays with me.  When a man ridicules those who have little, who can't even afford a nice meal at a restaurant, my cash stays with me.

   Why write this blog?  Because I know God does want us to prosper.  That is a true and needful word from Scripture.  God does not want us to surrender that truth. He also does not want us to be deceived by those who make a mess of the message.  Be a giver but better yet, be a Spirit led giver.  Don't be manipulated into giving by the glitter, gold, vain promises and crazy schemes.  Don't let emotions or greed direct your giving.  Let God direct it.  Decide to sow and reap as a way of life, not as a way of getting rich quick. 

Amazing Box Building

  

     Religious box building is a strange art.  And, a bad thing.  Did you know our early day Pentecostal fathers, upon receiving Holy Ghost baptism felt they were delivered from the box of denominationalism?  They swore they would never be part of another, they did not like being boxed in by man's rules, theology and understandings.  Then, early on, in order to protect themselves against one brother straying a little theology-wise, they met secretly in a back room and organized in order to get rid of that one brother.  Thus, a box was born!  Just as did the denominations they were delivered from, they soon had developed that box so well that nothing else, no other ideas, revelations, etc., was allowed.  Walled out!   In my early days of the charismatic move (60's), the boxes started coming apart.  For a while, it was "wow"!!!  We were ministering in Catholic basements, Episcopalian, Baptist, Methodist, Congregational and Pentecostal churches. The box walls crumbled and the message was simple, just as it was in the early days of Pentecost.  "Be filled with the Spirit".   

    And, then!  And, then!  Religious leaders got busy re-enforcing their boxes and roping people back in.  And, worse!  Those charismatics scurried like little beavers building their own boxes.  And, no one has done a better job!  Those who believed in one thing a little stronger than others - no longer talked to the others.  They built the deliverance box, the discipleship box, the confession box, the prosperity box, the healing box, etc., and locked the doors.  They walled in our converts and walled out those with a different idea about anything related to their box. In their simple mindedness, they thought they had to protect their truth, as if truth needed protection.  The only protection truth needs is to be free from those who seek to protect it.

   Box-building is the end of learning and eventually the end of the true Spirit-filled and the Spirit-led life.  Now, in our little box, we are sustained and led by that little box.  No one from outside of our box can make an input to us or us to them.  Are you in a box?  One way you know you are in a box when the box-controllers tell you things like this, "If you leave this box, you are going to die early", or "Your blessing is connected to this box and this box only",  or "God will never use you again if you leave this box", etc.

    Several years ago I tried to tell a fellow who was sitting comfortably in his box about revival going on in other parts of the country.  I tried to encourage him to go and see for himself, that he might get a fresh anointing and bring revival at his box.  He responded "Oh, yeah, I've heard of those meetings...didn't go..don't want to..(and here is where he got real spiritual) "but if God wants me to have revival..he will just send it...I'm waiting for a sovereign move of God".  In other words, he was not going to get out of his box. He was not really thirsty for revival, just something that would bless and enlarge his box.  I have since really come to understand that people use the word "sovereign" as a way of protecting their box and it has nothing to do with wanting the will of God.

    In closing, I can only say "Lord, deliver me from boxes, building boxes and box builders".

Can you really have everything you say?

 
   You know, confessing the Word,  having a positive confession and avoiding bad confession are good messages.  Faith works as the Bible says "I have believed, therefore I speak".  Being good truths as they are, you can expect them to be trashed. Example?  Remember the conversation Jesus had with his disciples about moving mountains and cursing fig trees? Read the whole chapter and you will see the context was about doing what had to be done to make the Father's house a house of prayer.  If we have faith in God, or the same faith, the same convictions about the house of prayer, then whatever  mountains hinder the "house of prayer" we are to command to move.  If we don't doubt our command of authority, then we will have what we say - moved mountains! 

     Notice it does not say "you can have everything you say". No matter how many times you have been told that it says that, it does not. And, in any translation you care to read, it does not say that and you can't make it say that.  It was talking about what it was talking about - not life in general.  It is about your authority not your wish list.   Don't you know God is your Father and what good father would give his child everything that child said?  I tell you no good father would do such a thing.  To try to make this verse say that  means we miss what the verse is actually saying and telling us to do.  The result is harm to a great word and failure to assume responsibility to do our part in making the Father's house a "house of prayer".

   Want to know where you should exercise this principle?   Desire God's house to be a "house of prayer", a place in which He promised to make us joyful (Is. 56). Want that so bad you begin to command hindering mountains to move!  Try it on your way to church next Sunday.  Do it when you drive by a church on the roadside.  Command hindering things to move away.    Result?  If you don't doubt your authority to command, mountains will begin to move and the house of prayer will begin to come alive with the power of the Holy Ghost. God will meet us and make us joyful in the house, but our role to play is to use our authority to make hindrances move.  Then, in that powerful house of prayer, when you pray, what things you desire, you can ask, believe and receive. The condition of the church has an enormous affect on our prayer life, even our desires. 

  

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.

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.