“A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” [Luke 6:45]
Reflecting on the repeated word “good.” (Principle: when the Book repeats something, it’s worth paying attention to!)
The word for “good” is ἀγαθός, and it “describes that which, being “good” in its character or constitution, is beneficial in its effect; it is used
(a) of things physical, e.g., a tree.
(b) in a moral sense, frequently of persons and things. God is essentially, absolutely and consummately “good. (Vine's Dictionary of New Testament Words)
This tells me something that I don’t actually want to know: what I say (and presumably what I write about on FB) reveals my heart. If I’m talking about things that are beneficial in their effect, if I am pointing out that which is good about things, then this verse declares that I am a “good man” and I have “good treasure” in my heart.
But if what I say (and presumably what I write about on FB) is talking about things that are faults, or problems, or failures, or complaints or even just drivel, then this verse declares that I have “evil treasure” in my heart.
Certainly, I wish to apply this to myself: I can judge my own heart by watching what I say. Are my words revealing good or evil in my heart?
But I probably need to take this a step further as well: who am I reading, who am I following. If they’re speaking things that comfort me or challenge me or cause me to dig deeper into God, if they’re declaring what is true, noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous or praiseworthy (see Philippians 4:8), then I can safely judge the fruit: this is “good treasure” coming from a good heart.
But if I’m listening to people or reports that are bringing fear, or outrage, or self-pity, or resentment, or entitlement, or powerlessness, or reports that are stirring worldly desires (“the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,” 1 John 2:16), then I can – and must – judge that report as “evil treasure,” and recognize that it is coming from a motivation that has evil toward me in it, whether those speaking it mean for it to or not. (I’m not judging their heart; I’m judging their words.)
May I tell you a secret? That’s why I stopped watching the news. Father showed me this, and he called it my “devotional with the world.” I don’t hide from the news, but I get my news on my terms now, not on theirs.
I intend to judge fruit. I choose to be a fruit inspector. I choose to filter the fruit that others give me, to receive the good, and reject the evil.
Showing posts with label discernment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label discernment. Show all posts
Thursday
Walmart: To Shop, or Not to Shop
A few years back, a familiar and none-too-pretty tale was
played out yet again in the Northwest. (It is by no means exclusive to the
Northwest, except that I am more in touch with what happens in the Northwest
than other areas.) I’m going to use Walmart as an example, but the issue is not
about Walmart. It’s about us.
It started with an announcement that Walmart was considering
building a store in a modest-size town. The next phase was outrage from a great
portion of the community, various lawsuits filed, for which Walmart had amply
prepared and easily won, and sales of bumper stickers proclaiming, “I don’t
shop at Walmart!”
Behind the scenes, Walmart built their store, stocked their
store, hired employees and quietly opened for business. The Walmart haters
still hated. People bought stuff. Employees earned paychecks. Life went on.
It strikes me that there are legitimate reasons for
communities to not love Walmart’s influence in their community. Walmart does
business differently, and that has social and economic effect on the community.
There are also legitimate reasons for Walmart to do business
the way it does, and those business decisions have made Walmart incredibly
successful.
And there are people who legitimately need the infamously
low-paying jobs that Walmart offers, if only because they can get work nowhere
else.
Father whispered to me about the protests recently:
o If I refuse
to shop at Walmart, then I have judged Walmart in my heart and in my actions.
That’s not actually good Christian behavior, partly because it opens me up to
judgment, and I’d rather that didn’t happen.
o If a
community joins in loud and apparently united outrage against Walmart, then we
make its employees (and applicants) outcasts from the community. We create a
caste of “untouchables” in our community. I don’t think we really want that to
happen, either.
o If we
declare that “Walmart is evil!” (as I’ve heard many times), then we’re also
making declaration that they become evil, and we’re releasing the power of evil
into those people who are part of Walmart; we’re giving evil a measure of
freedom to work in our community. I surely don’t want that to happen!
o If there’s
truth in the declaration, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be
also,” then the prayers of my heart regarding Walmart will be more effective if
I spend a bit of my treasure there. I bought some supplies there this weekend;
I consider that an investment in my prayers for this economic powerhouse in my
community.
In fact, I’ll confess: I’ve been praying for and prophesying
to my local Walmart since the very first announcement that they were going to
build. I’ve walked through the building’s foundations, declaring that this
store, at least, would be founded on righteousness and truth. They had to cap a
well to pour that foundation, so I declare
springs of living water in them, particularly that they would be a
spring of life to their employees.
I don’t spend much of my treasure there. I believe strongly
in doing business with companies that are locally owned, and Walmart doesn’t
qualify for that one. Besides, I don’t love the quality of a lot of the
products they sell. (There’s a difference between “inexpensive” and “cheap.” I
tend to prefer the former.)
Now, I am absolutely NOT trying to tell others whether they
should shop at Walmart or how to spend their money. I’m describing some results
of our choices.
I was actually shopping at Walmart when Father began to
speak to me about this. It was funny, but I felt his blessing flowing through
me to the store, it’s employees and its very interesting customers.
But as he spoke to me about Walmart, he included other
issues in the conversation. The movie Noah was one. There are many others. We’re giving away influence in the
marketplace when we protest market leaders for acting like market leaders.
We believers have the freedom to spend our money where we
wish. But there are real effects to the words of our protests, and there is an
authority in our prayers that follows the spending of our treasure.
The Vision of the Wooden Spoon
The vision began with a quiet stream, in a quiet, green
meadow; it reminded me of Narnia for some reason: that peaceful. The stream was
wider than one could jump across, and deeper than you’d want to wade across,
and its flow was smooth and fairly fast. All in all, it was a very peaceful environment.
The birds were singing.
Then a giant hand appeared in the sky, holding a giant
wooden spoon, the kind of spoon that people use in the kitchen to mix cookie
dough. The spoon dipped into the stream and stirred.
For a while, nothing much happened, except the stream became
more turbulent from the spoon’s motion. After a minute or two, the stream
darkened, and soon I could see things in the muddy stream: old tires, boots,
cans, bottles, sticks and stones, jars, bags of rubbish. The hand with the
spoon withdrew into the heavens.
I was kind of appalled. This had been a peaceful stream, in
a beautiful meadow, and now it was full of trash and garbage and muck and mess.
Well, actually, the peaceful stream had always had the trash and muck and
garbage and muck and mess, but it had been lying hidden in the mud on the
bottom of the stream. Now the stuff was out in the open.
The vision continued, and the stream kept flowing, and then
I saw it: the garbage was flowing downstream with the flow of stream. Some of
what had been stirred up came to the top of the stream, and was carried far
downstream, out of the picture. Other things, heavier things, were carried a
little ways downstream but they settled back to the bottom of the stream. Soon
the stream was clear and peaceful again, but I knew that old tires, discarded
shoes, bottles and cans were still there, lying on the bottom of the stream.
The hand with the spoon appeared again, and stirred the water
again, and again the stream darkened with mud, again tires, discarded shoes, bottles,
cans, and other detritus were stirred up, and again they floated various
distances downstream.
The cycle was repeated several times, until eventually, the
stirring from the almighty spoon did not bring up muck and garbage.
The stream returned to peace, but it flowed smoother,
faster, than it had before, and I realized that it flowed cleaner than it had
before. The garbage on the stream bed had settled under so much mud that the
stream flowed smoothly over it, but still the garbage had polluted the stream.
Now the stream was actually clean.
I believe that this is what Father is doing in some of our
lives. He’s stirring things up in our lives, and it’s uncomfortable. It’s easy
to be appalled or offended at what he’s doing, because he’s good at what he
does. Things are being stirred up, memories, habits, relationships that have been
in our lives are being stirred up from the dark depths of our lives, and
brought into the light.
And the reality is that much of what he’s stirring up is
garbage: shame, embarrassment, memories of foolishness, of sin, histories of
unwise choices, character weaknesses. It’s easy to resent these coming to the
surface after how many years of being hidden in history.
But he’s bringing them up in order to wash them away, in
order to remedy the issues. Trust him. Have hope, rest in the confident
assurance that he does know what he’s doing, and that he’s working for good in
you, for the purity that we really have wanted. He’s answering our prayers.
We can trust the spoon. More specifically, we can trust the hand wielding the spoon.
Homosexuals And the Move of God
There’s been a lot of talk about an increase in the movement of God on the earth, and how this is the beginning of a new “wave” of God’s interaction with this planet.
Recently, someone asked me a good question: “Where do gay people fit in the next wave? I heard one prophet say they will be a part of it, and they won’t necessarily be delivered, but that they too can walk with Jesus and be filled with the Spirit. Will the next wave deliver them, empower them wherever they are at, help them live single, or something else?”
I’ve heard testimonies of Spirit-filled homosexual churches. I’ve heard prophets and evangelists testifying that they’ve been among churches that come from the homosexual movement: not “ex gays ministering to homosexuals,” not “former homosexuals,” but “churches made up of people in the homosexual community.”
The testimonies, from reliable sources, are of churches, filled with the Spirit of God, among the homosexual community. (The testimonies, like the churches themselves, are not in the public eye because of all of the wrath they have received from the religious community.)
I’m committed to learning from others’ testimonies (http://j.mp/WUa9gS), so I will not reject these testimonies. In point of fact, they are fulfillment of prophetic words from myself and others, and fulfillment of God’s promise that he would call people to himself from the ends of the earth.
So where do homosexual churches fit into this next move of God? For right now, I’ll employ a new phrase that I’ve only just learned: “I don’t know.” (Whew. It feels good to say that.)
I’ve spoken out publicly about two characteristics that I (believe I) know about the coming wave:
1) It’s going to be so different than what we’ve experienced before and what we expect, that it will be hard for most of us to recognize.
2) It’s going to be so big that it’s kind of overwhelming.
When you combine those two, it makes for a real mess: outspoken church leaders who are overwhelmed by things they don’t understand or recognize. That ought to be interesting. Perhaps MacArthur’s “Strange Fire” conference was a representation of that?
But there’s a third thing that (I believe) I’ve seen: this wave, this move of God, being so big, and being so different, will carry with it things that we’ve always considered heresy, wrong, unclean. (Tsunamis are very seldom sparkly clean.)
This is where I put the reports of God moving freely among gay churches: I know (I’ve seen it in visions) God is going to breathe life into the homosexual community, and I hear reliable reports that he has begun to do this already. But wait! Shouldn’t they repent? Yeah, but I didn’t repent of all of my sin until I understood it was sin, and some of that was decades after I was saved and filled with the Spirit. And I guarantee you that their repentance is not my responsibility!
This is also where I put the (equally credible) reports of the New Age movement coming to Christ. I know God is going to breathe life into the New Age community, and I hear reliable reports that this, too, has begun to already. But wait! Shouldn’t they repent? Yeah, but see above.
So yes, the grace of God convicts God’s children of sin, and leads them to cleansing and repentance! Yes! Yes! But He clearly does that in his own time, not in mine.
So how will homosexuals and New Agers fit into the next move of God? I don’t know. I expect that they’ll be involved, but let’s see what God does, shall we? And let’s welcome those He brings into his house!
The Symphony
I enjoy classical music. More than any other kind of music,
the composers of great classical music wove melodies and harmonies together, often
mixing layer upon layer of different music, weaving it together into a glorious
piece. The fact that some, like Beethoven, couldn’t hear what they were
composing overwhelms me.
You couldn’t ever play a symphony on a single instrument.
Which melody would you play? They’re all woven together, each instrument taking
our turn at the forefront, taking a turn in the background. When they’re all
playing the symphony together, the result is glorious!
“Symphony” is an interesting word. It’s actually a Greek
word that’s so unique that we don’t translate it, we just use English letters
to pronounce it with.
The Greek word συμφωνέω
(“symphōneō “) means “to agree together,” or “to agree with one in making a
bargain, to make an agreement, to bargain.” Our working together – not all
doing the same thing, but working, each in our own way, toward the same end – is a symphony.
Our word συμφωνέω is
the heart of Jesus’ declaration in Matthew 18:19: “Again I say to you that if
two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done
for them by My Father in heaven.” This is a symphony.
I suppose that there are a few things that stand out to me
in this:
§
Our “agreeing together” makes beautiful music in
heaven. I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that it makes Jesus really
happy.
§
This isn’t about numbers. He doesn’t say
anything about “If you gather all the Christians in the city….” The symphony begins
with “two of you.” I think we miss this one sometimes.
§
Our “agreeing together” isn’t about us doing
stuff in unison. If every instrument played the same line, the only variation
would be when someone missed the note, and it would sound like a junior high
school band concert. There is nothing beautiful in the “symphony” produced that
way, except that little Johnny is actually playing something; I sure wish he’d
practiced his part.
I think we’ve missed this one sometimes as well. I’ve been browbeaten in the name of “unity” to do the thing that the browbeater is doing, in the way the browbeater is doing it, rather than playing my own part on my own instrument. I’m not sure that browbeating someone into submission is the best method of achieving beautiful music. I grieve that we’ve done that.
I think we’ve missed this one sometimes as well. I’ve been browbeaten in the name of “unity” to do the thing that the browbeater is doing, in the way the browbeater is doing it, rather than playing my own part on my own instrument. I’m not sure that browbeating someone into submission is the best method of achieving beautiful music. I grieve that we’ve done that.
§
Our “agreeing together” is powerful. That
symphony moves Father’s hand to do “any thing” (“each, every, any, all, the
whole, everyone, all things, everything”) that we agree about. This is some of
the beauty of the symphony, I think: actually seeing “on earth as it is in
Heaven” happening, and us getting to take part in it.
The fact that we don’t see as much of Father’s hand being moved by unit may be a good clue: maybe the way we’ve been striving for unit isn’t the most effective way.
The fact that we don’t see as much of Father’s hand being moved by unit may be a good clue: maybe the way we’ve been striving for unit isn’t the most effective way.
I suspect that we’ll accomplish the symphony of unity much
better if we’re all playing the music that our great Conductor places before us:
following the Conductor will be more symphonic than following another musician,
no matter how good they are. The trombonist will never make beautiful music if
he’s trying to play the timpani’s part. Or the piccolo’s part. Or the violin’s
part.
More to the point, the trombonist will never be judged for how well he played the second violin’s part. His only reward will come from how well the trombone part came out when it was called upon.
More to the point, the trombonist will never be judged for how well he played the second violin’s part. His only reward will come from how well the trombone part came out when it was called upon.
My encouragement is for us to look to the Holy Spirit for
the part you’re to play in this whole symphony, not to human leaders. We must
fellowship together, yes. We can learn from each other, of course. We do well
to “encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.”
Don’t follow the leader of the brass section just because he’s
loud. Learn to play your own instrument, your own calling, your own gifting.
And having begun, follow the Holy Spirit who’s conducting this symphony.
God, the Murderer
Since the character of God was brilliantly defined by
Jesus, we can trust that if God is a murderer (as some claim, when they read of
Ananias and Saphira), then Jesus would have clearly and intentionally revealed
the murderous nature of God.
Curiously, I don't read about Jesus ever murdering
anyone, not a single person. Nor did he teach his followers about when and how
to properly murder sinners in the Father's name. He did not praise a single
murderer or extol a single act of murder.
Therefore I conclusively deduce that God is not a
murderer. (In fact, Jesus revealed that someone *else* has the job description
of "steal, kill & destroy.")
And if God is not a murderer, then he did not, in fact,
murder Ananias and Saphira. If God does not kill, then he did not kill them. If
God *does* kill, then Jesus would have revealed that, since he revealed
God.
If you hold that God killed these two - or any one *else*
- in spite of the clear testimony of Jesus, then either you are confused, or
you are uneducated about the nature and ways of God, or you believe God is an
intentional and malevolent liar.
Hint: there is someone ELSE who is the "father of
lies," and he has a documented history of slandering the good character of
your loving Father. I urge you to reconsider whom you accuse of lying.
QED.
("Logic. Why don't they teach logic in these
schools.")
Whole Lotta Shaking Going On
Hebrews, chapter 12 has been rather a seminal passage for
many of God’s people in recent days.
For a long time, we were focused on verse 7, “Endure
hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children…” and we comforted
ourselves that rather than always expecting to be comfortable, God’s children
might need to expect to be trained, disciplined.
And more recently, we’ve had our attention drawn to verses 1
and 2, paying attention to the “great cloud of witnesses” that are watching us,
and “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.” Living
our lives with heaven in view has been a great focus.
There’s a third part of the chapter that’s capturing my
attention. Late in the chapter, the author writes, “now He has promised,
saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.” Now this,
“Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken,
as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.”
I find that my own attention is drawn to these statements
from two directions.
First, many of my brothers and sisters are having their
lives shaken pretty formidably right now.
I think of filling a container with something that is not
liquid (perhaps cereal, or spices, or nuts and bolts). When I’m filling the
container, I pour into the new contents into it, until it begins to over flow.
And then I shake the container; I might bang it on the counter once or twice.
Inevitably, after shaking, there’s more room in the container now, so that I
can pour more in. Shaking makes more room in us, to hold more of God, to care
more for others, to understand (and experience) more of his kingdom.
I also think of paint. When I buy paint, they add the
colorant to make the paint match the architect’s plans. And then they shake it,
so that the architect’s influence is permeated throughout the paint, so that
everything it touches conforms to the architect’s plans. Shaking makes us more
consistent throughout our lives.
And I think of quality control testing. When I build a
cabinet, to hold my tools and such, I often pause during construction and shake
the cabinet pretty aggressively: I’m testing to see how well it’s been built.
If it is going to come apart, I’d rather it did it early in the process – and
this is why buildings are earthquake-tested during the design phase – so that I
can correct the defects, and have an effective cabinet to hold the tools that I
use. Shaking reveals weaknesses, not to draw attention to the, but to correct
them.
The second reason my attention is drawn to these verses
about shaking is because a number of the prophets I am in relationship with are
hearing God use this passage to explain the season we’re in. We’re in a shaking
season.
Add 1 Peter 4:17 into the conversation (“For it is time for
judgment to begin with God’s household…”), another verse that prophetic people
have been hearing for a while. We could make a number of inferences about our
churches, our culture, and our nation, based on this combination, but that’s
not my primary goal here.
The main focus I’m coming away with is this: if you’re
following God, you’re either being shaken, or about to be shaken. It’s for your
good, it’s to make you more like him. Don’t freak out when it happens.
Celebrate your advancement in the Kingdom.
Monday
Judgment for Sins Already Judged
I’m
tired the foolishness of all the “God is going to judge America !”
proclamations.
But
first, a warning: don’t read more into this than what I’m actually saying. This
may trigger some sensitive spots, it may be similar to words others have used
on their way to a different destination. If you’re going to react, react to
what I AM saying, not to what others have said.
OK.
Let’s start again.
I’m
tired the foolishness of all the “God is going to judge America !”
proclamations. They make the proclaimers feel better, but they aren’t
consistent with scripture. And they paint God as a smiter, a big, stern guy who
wants to make everybody pay the price for their sin.
But
the price has already been paid for their sin. If Jesus died for sin, then sin
is dealt with, at least for now. (I’m not saying Rev 20 doesn’t apply; I’m
saying it doesn’t apply NOW.)
If
God judges America for sin, then that means that either a) for some reason
Jesus missed somebody’s sins while paying for sin on the cross, or b) America
would be judged a second time for sins which have ALREADY been judged.
If
God were to judge America for sins that Jesus already judged, I think maybe he
would need to apologize to Jesus, because that would mean that Jesus suffered
and died without accomplishing what he died for. Personally, I don’t think
Jesus failed in his mission.
Biblically:
Father handed [past tense] all judgment to the Son (John 5:22), and Jesus
judges [present tense] no one (John 8:15). I repeat: this does not even talk
about the Revelation 20 judgment [which is future tense].
Having
said that, I am NOT saying that there are not consequences for the sins in
question, and which can certainly LOOK like judgment. And I’m NOT saying that
some people don’t bring nasty things upon themselves and/or their communities
because they partner with demons. That looks like judgment too, but it’s not.
I’ve
come to realize that the greatest danger from sin is not that it will separate
me from my Father – the Cross is proof that it won’t – but that it empowers my
enemy, it gives him permission to wreak his havoc in my life, my community, my
nation. That’s a good enough reason to repent, and isn’t the only one in
Scripture, but it’s not to avoid God’s judgment: it’s to avoid empowering the
demonic.
The
bottom line: There were no sins – there were no American sins either – lying
around at the foot of the cross when Jesus was dying for sin. God is not
actually looking for reasons to smite you.
Let’s
get our understanding of Father right, people.
Dealing With New Evidence
There’s a principle that we all deal with. When we discover
new evidence about something that we already have an opinion about, we are
required to re-evaluate our opinion. If the new evidence contradicts what we
believed before, then we probably need to change our previous opinion.
It happens in movies:
Throughout the movie, you’re led to believe a particular opinion about one of
the characters (perhaps “the butler did it!”), but at the end of the movie, new
evidence is revealed, or old evidence is shown in new light. All of a sudden,
everything changes. My favorite for this was The Sting. When they got up off the floor, it floored me! I
realized that I had seen things wrong, interpreted things wrong. And suddenly,
I understood previous bits of the movie in a whole new light! Suddenly I
understood the characters completely differently.
I saw Philadelphia
Story recently. Throughout the movie, Clark Gable’s character looked like a
troublemaker, but in the denouement at the end, it’s revealed that he did it
all out of love. Suddenly, I understood Mr. C.K. Dexter Haven completely
differently!
It happens in TV
shows: Well, it did when I watched TV, anyway. In the old courtroom series Ironsides, Raymond Burr’s character did
that every week. Barretta, a slightly
less antique show, did the same thing. I imagine that many crime shows use this
pattern regularly.
It happens in real life: We interpret
the news one way, but then something happens that reveals that maybe things
aren’t the way the media spun it the first time.
It happened in the Bible: Throughout
the Old Testament, we were shown evidence that suggests certain things about
the nature of who God is: what His character is like, what moves Him, what’s
important to Him. But the New Testament is all about the denouement: Jesus
himself is the new evidence, and it reveals a whole lot more about God, and
reveals Him more clearly than we’ve ever seen before. And suddenly, I
understand previous bits of the story in a whole new light. Suddenly, I
understand God so differently, so much better.
For
example, throughout the Old Testament, God seems far off and aloof, not really
interested in hanging around the human race; after all, He keeps sending
prophets to lead them instead of coming Himself. But in the New Testament, we
see God in human form walking the streets of a subjugated city in order to be
among humankind. Maybe He’s not really far off and aloof! Maybe that’s not a
good picture of Him.
The
stories of the Old Testament, the way that they were told and re-told and
translated, and interpreted through countless pulpits, suggested that God
rather enjoyed smiting people; a lot of smiting sure went on in those stories,
and sometimes they’re described as God’s actions, and other times, the perpetrator
isn’t really identified, but everybody “knows” that God did it, because “that’s
what God is like.” (Compare 2 Samuel 24:1 with 1 Chronicles 21:1 for one
example.)
But
in the New Testament, Jesus, the “God in human form,” the “exact representation
of the Father,” who “always does what the Father is doing,” never smites a
single person, not even once. And it’s certainly not like he doesn’t have the
chance! Rather, he reveals a God who not only turns the other cheek, but lets
himself be murdered rather than smite a few deserving Pharisees. The God that
Jesus reveals is not a smiter, isn’t eager to judge, always brings healing and
life abundantly, and never brings death or destruction. We had understood him
wrong before, but now, we have new evidence.
We’ve
found ourselves in an interesting place. We have lots of evidence – and I’m
going to call it inferior evidence –
about who God is and what He’s like. And we have, in some measure, allowed that
evidence to create or to inform our opinion of who God is and what He’s like.
We
know better now, or at least we should. We have been given better evidence,
been adopted into a better covenant. The evidence we have now, in the person of
Jesus, and in our own relationship with God, tells us that the wrathful,
judgmental, distant smiting God of the Old Testament is not a true picture of
who God is. We have better evidence than that now: if we don’t believe it, then
it’s our own fault that we’re deceived.
Second Hand Smoke
I felt God drawing my attention to second hand smoke today.
Second hand smoke is smoke that you breathe from someone else’s cigarette, or pipe, etc. It doesn't come as a result of your actions, but its smell still clings to your clothes, and it exposes you to lung cancer nearly as much as if you were smoking yourself.
In some ways, it's more dangerous: pipe-smokers (and some cigar and cigarette smokers) don't generally inhale their own smoke, but if you're in their company, you don't have a choice about whether you inhale their secondhand smoke: it's just part of breathing when they're smoking around you. Your body actually experiences more of the deadly smoke than their body does.
In my own experience, there are far more times that people around me are smoking, than there are times when I am the person smoking. (Full disclosure: I do occasionally smoke a pipe.)
Second hand smoke happens in the spirit realm as well. We experience things – smells cling to us; we’re exposed to deadly danger – not because of things that we’re doing, but because of things that others are doing around us. I suspect it is true here: there are far more times when people around me are doing things to stir up the hornets' nest, than when I'm stirring that nest. After all, there are many people around me, and there's only one of me!
May I encourage us: when we're feeling the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" coming against us, avoid the foolishness of self-accusation: "Well, I must have done something wrong." Sure, sometimes we do something stupid and open a gate to give the devil permission to steal, kill & destroy. And he generally makes use of those opportunities. In that case, all we do is repent, kick him in the teeth, and move on.
But sometimes the troubles coming against us are brought about by the actions of others: maybe stuff passed on by parents, or foolishness committed by people we're in covenant relationship with, or maybe we've associated ourselves with a group that has given place to some sort of stronghold. Just because we're in relationship with a number of people, there's secondhand smoke around.
It's probably appropriate to remember that our own actions affect many of the people we're in relationship with; in another way, there's no such thing as a "secret" or a "victimless" sin.
I'm not trying to bring a teaching on how to overcome demonic attacks: there's lots of that around, and we all remember: repentance is a super-power, and I suspect the 'kicking the devil in the teeth" exercise will still be valuable.
Rather, this is about diagnosing the source: when trouble comes our way, it isn't always about us; sometimes it's from second-hand smoke
Thursday
Milk or Meat?
There are a couple of places in the NT where
the apostles contrasted the intake of believers, using the metaphor of “milk”
as the food for babies against “meat” as the food for mature men & women.
(1 Corinthians 3, Hebrews 5, 1 Peter 2 are the clearest.)
The apostles (Paul, the anonymous author of
Hebrews, and Peter) all seem to reference something similar to John’s stages of
Christian growth (1 John 2:12-14): that there are clearly stages of growth for
us as Sons of the Most High. John makes it clear: believers in different stages
of growth have different needs (for a discussion of those stages, see here: http://bit.ly/QMANqF)
§
There are several places where
believers are described as children, as milk-drinkers, often bemoaning the fact
that by this stage of their growth, they should be eating meat and changing the
world.
§
There appear to be NO places where
any of the apostolic writers of the NT acknowledge a group that has progressed
from milk-drinking to meat-eating. This may be simply because the epistles were
all written to address problems among one church or another, and the churches
that made the transition didn’t need corrective letters. There is no epistle to
the church at Antioch ,
for example; it may be that this early center of the Church may have gotten
some things right, though we have no record of it.
§
When we are young believers, we
require milk. And when we become mature believers, milk is still good.
§
We are expected to progress beyond
the basics. We are expected to graduate from being nourished by the “elementary
principles” of “milk” to digesting and being nourished by “meat.”
§
So much of the church in our day
has not even well learned the “elementary principles”; These are the “milk” or “baby
food” of Christian nurture (Quoting Hebrews 6:1 here):
1. repentance
from dead works and of
2. faith
toward God, of
3. the
doctrine of baptisms (note the plural), of
4. laying
on of hands, of
5. resurrection
of the dead, and of
6. eternal
judgment.
A number of prophets and apostles are
speaking of the need, now upon us, but growing in necessity, of believers being
established enough in theses topics that they are comfortable (and safe) moving
on to more challenging topics. In fact, Holy Spirit has been speaking to a
substantial number of believers about what some of those more meat-like
discussions will be about, but they would only serve as a distraction in this
conversation.
As He speaks to me about some of the meatier
topics of growth that I see coming to us, I am reminded of two applications
that have relevance in this conversation:
1) There will be people (possibly people who
are invested in a spiritual “milk-delivery service”) who will not understand of
believers’ need for meat, who will speak against it (even accusing meat-eaters
of apostasy and heresy), and, sadly, who will succeed in preventing hungry
believers in their sphere of influence from obeying the scriptures and pursuing
more advanced topics.
2) Those who choose to leave the discussion
of the elementary principles of Christ, and go on to perfection, not laying
again the above foundation, will likely have to go on in the face of such
opposition. A very likely booby-trap will be to engage argumentative
milk-delivery devotees in extensive discussion about the need for meat, though
it will be necessary to discern between those committed to not moving on from
milk from those who have only known milk but long for more. A wiser response
may be just to “set our face like flint” toward digesting and practicing that
which Father is feeding us, and leaving the nay-sayers to themselves.
I believe it will be valuable to recognize in
advance (if it is in advance) the opposition that will be confronting us more
and more as we run the race set before us. Such battles are often won in
advance, when we make our determined decisions of how we will respond before we
meet the opposition.
How will you respond when faced with this
choice? Will you choose a steak knife, or a warm bottle?
Bring the Light
How many times have
you heard this warning: “Brother, we got to be
careful because Satan comes as an Angel of light.”
I’ve been “warned” by sour-faced people not to
trust my Father’s voice, warned not to trust Holy Spirit, warned to stay away
from Father’s angelic messengers, warned against healing the sick or raising
the dead or any of the fun things that Father has prepared for his children.
Apparently, because the devil, who is a copycat and a corrupter, copies and corrupts some of God’s generous gifts, there are some who think that the right answer is to avoid the gifts.
Apparently, because the devil, who is a copycat and a corrupter, copies and corrupts some of God’s generous gifts, there are some who think that the right answer is to avoid the gifts.
That’s like warning me to never use $20
bills, because criminals counterfeit $20 bills. Or never to drink water,
because vodka is clear like water, and you know vodka’s not as good for you as
water. What?
First, let’s abandon this foolishness that we
need to run screaming away from anything the devil does. Yeah, I get it: he’s a
pain in the butt: he’s a liar, and his work is about stealing, killing & destroying. And yeah, I have figured out that those are bad things. I get that.
Here’s the thing: if I’m watching to make sure that I never do anything the devil is doing, then A) my eyes are on the devil, not on Jesus, and B) the devil is directing my actions; Jesus is not. That would, under normal circumstances, mean that I was being led by the devil rather than by God. That’s not acceptable to me.
Here’s the thing: if I’m watching to make sure that I never do anything the devil is doing, then A) my eyes are on the devil, not on Jesus, and B) the devil is directing my actions; Jesus is not. That would, under normal circumstances, mean that I was being led by the devil rather than by God. That’s not acceptable to me.
You see, the devil’s under my feet. He and his realm
are required to submit to me and the authority I carry from my place in Jesus,
from being the Creator’s beloved son, with whom He is well pleased.
In fact (and this will be scary to some folks),
the devil and I have one job description in common: we are both working to
expand our kingdom as far and as wide as we can. Of course, he’s working to
expand the “kingdom of darkness” and I’m working to expand the Kingdom I share with my
Father: the kingdom of light. And you know what happens when light and darkness
collide: nothing. Light shines unhindered in the darkness; if anything, the
enemy’s darkness only serves to show off God’s light better.
So should I be afraid because the devil
counterfeits some of the good gifts Father gives me? No way! Fear is not my inheritance!
Should I at least try to avoid the devil’s deception? Um… duh! Of course.
Should I at least try to avoid the devil’s deception? Um… duh! Of course.
But just because I’m avoiding the counterfeit
doesn’t mean that I run whimpering away from the real thing that is being
counterfeited. The fact that there is a counterfeit proves that the real thing
is valuable, it’s profitable. In fact, it’s worth the risk of counterfeiting and getting
caught.
Yes, there are false spirits. I don’t listen to
them. Yes there are demons masquerading as angels of light. I don’t fall for
that. Yes, there is such a thing as demonic healing. I don’t go there. In fact, don ’t even pay attention.
My job is not to run from darkness. My job is
to bring the light.
Tuesday
Running the Race
In the past couple of decades, God has awakened a bunch of
stuff inside of me, and I’ve gone from being a “faithful churchgoer” and a
“good Christian” to being a lover. I’m running this race with more passion and
more determination and more energy than I have since I was first saved.
As a result, I’m further along in the race than I used to
be, the race I refer to as “That I might know Him!” Some of the people I used
to jog alongside are still jogging, and we don’t fellowship as much any more,
because I’m running with pretty much everything I have, and they’re still
jogging. I don’t mean this to sound prideful, but I’m running ahead of where
they’re running, and we aren’t close enough in the race to treasure the same
things any longer.
Recently, a friend got in my face. He’s running the race,
and very recently, God has lit the fire in him that He has lit in me, so my
friend is running as hard (at least) as I am now, but he’s starting from way
back there, from among the joggers. Among the joggers, my friend is now leading
the pack.
He read some of the things that I’m posting, describing some
of the new treasures that Father has been unveiling as I’ve run hard these last
couple of decades, and my friend, who is still running among the joggers,
didn’t understand the treasures that I’ve recently found. So he got in my face,
and frankly, he ripped me a new one. “I’ve never heard of these things! These
new revelations can’t be from God! Nobody that I’m running with has ever heard
of them.”
Frankly, it hurt. It hurt a lot. But “Praise be to the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of
all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles.” Father comforted me, and
showed me the race we were running. And then he showed me the bigger picture.
My friend was making a mistake: he was running ahead of a
pack of runners, ahead of everyone he used to be jogging with. That was a
glorious thing, and Father is real proud of him. But my friend was only looking
at the people that are following after him: he’s only looking behind him, and
so he thinks that he’s running at the head of this race, leading everyone who
is running in this race, able to speak and able to correct every runner in the
race. He’s not looking ahead, not seeing the multitude of runners that are ahead
of him, many of whom have been running hard for so long that they’re several
turns ahead of him, out of his sight beyond him.
And so it’s hard for him to think of others running ahead of
him, who might have revelation that he doesn’t have yet, but which he will
have, if he keeps running as well as he is now. But when he encounters those
other runners now – on Facebook or some other social venue – he thinks they’re
running the wrong race, because they’re running a path he knows nothing about,
and he thinks he has to correct us.
So I get hit with this fiery dart, and so I look back to see
where the “attack” is coming from, and I see it’s coming from my
friend running behind me, my friend who doesn’t yet understand the things that
I’m discovering in God. I realize, it’s out of love – or at least out of
concern for his friend – that he’s wounding me, that he’s slowing me from my
own race, that he’s drawing my attention behind me.
And my attention is indeed behind me, helping some people
catch up, dodging others who want to “fix” me, and remembering how I used to be
a contented old jogger, back in the day, thankful that I’ve learned to run.
Part of me wants to slow down my pace, to drop back in the
race to where I can run side-by-side with my friend. But Father reminds me that
this can’t be a solution: there will always
be someone slower than me, maybe someone who’s dropped out of the race
altogether, who’s offended by the fact that others are making progress and he
is not: someone will always be offended at those who are running the race. It’s
death to stop running, and Someone else has already died for them, Someone else
is encouraging them to run their own race, and He’s a capable coach: I can
trust my friends to Him.
Father then gently pointed out that I’m doing the same
thing. I’m looking behind me, at the people I’ve passed, at the people catching
up. I’ve taken my eyes off the prize. I had started to measure my progress by
those behind me. That’s a mistake!
He reminds me of the rules for this race: “And let us run
with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the
pioneer and perfecter of faith. Consider him who endured such opposition from
sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”
Looking forward, I’m startled to discover we are in fact surrounded
by such a great cloud of witnesses! Oh my! I’d lost track of them.
Come on! Let’s run!
Wednesday
Properly Discerning Judgment
Recently,
I'd been asking Father for an upgrade in the gift of discernment, as He’d been emphasizing
1 Corinthians 14:29 to me (“Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others
judge.”). And what do you know, but suddenly I began getting scores of
submissions for the www.northwestprophetic.com
website, many of them with what I would call a fairly judgment-oriented interpretation.
Cool! I was getting schooled!
Cool! I was getting schooled!
So I
brought each word to Him for my lessons, and he’d have me separately discern
the revelation portion of the prophecy from the interpretation portion.
In those particular prophetic words, over and over, I sensed the Holy Spirit in the revelation, but
not in the interpretation.
“They’re
interpreting through their expectations. They’re not listening to me, but they’re
listening to what they already believe,” he said.
One
illustration from this season: one of the prophecies came from a fairly mature
prophet, a mature man whom I knew and trusted personally. It spoke about the county where
he lived, and it carried a deadline: two weeks away. The revelation spoke of
earthquakes and volcanoes, and I could sense God in it. The interpretation
spoke of disaster and judgment, and I did not sense God on it (whew!). I heard
Father say, “This is not a literal revelation; it’s a metaphor. The earthquakes
are about things that he thought were stable getting shaken, and the volcanoes
are about deep, hidden things being brought to light, violently.” I had the
fairly strong sense that the word applied to him personally.
I
asked the prophet if maybe that word could be metaphorical rather than literal, and he rejected
it out of hand. OK. Maybe I’m wrong. But God was not directing me to respond as
if it were literal and I did not publish the prophecy on the website.
Three
weeks later the deadline was behind us, and no earthquake or volcano had struck. He called me: “That word was
right, but I got the date wrong!” and he gave me a new date. Then he added, “But
could you pray for me? My whole life is getting shaken, and there’s stuff I
thought was way behind me that’s becoming public now!” The revelation had been correct, but the interpretation, and therefore the application, were incorrect.
Frankly, I’m
one of those prophetic folks who was always quick to interpret prophecies with
words like “judgment” or “the remnant.” He corrected me: in this season, Father
asked me, “Son, why do you expect judgment? Everything – every sin – that deserved
judgment was paid for in the Cross.”
I have since come to believe that one day, those who rejected his payment for their sin would have the “privilege” of paying for their own sin (Revelation 20:12), but there were no sins – past, present, or future; individual or corporate – that were not covered by the blood of Jesus on the Cross.
I have since come to believe that one day, those who rejected his payment for their sin would have the “privilege” of paying for their own sin (Revelation 20:12), but there were no sins – past, present, or future; individual or corporate – that were not covered by the blood of Jesus on the Cross.
This
is not to say that I don’t think
real trouble is coming to America ,
and to our region in particular. I actually do believe we’re in for tough times,
and I’m asking for more revelation for how to prepare. But from the way I think I’m learning to understand the
cross, those troubles are not about judgment, certainly not about judgment from
God, and a good number of the prognostications of disaster are errors in interpreting true prophetic revelation.
More
recently, He’s been teaching me more about the power of our declarations as
believers. It’s a lot. We’re made in God’s image, and he did his first big
project by words: “And God said… and it was so.” That’s my Dad! I'm in his line of work.
Here’s
where I’m going: there are a lot of believers who don’t understand the cross
very well. (Yeah, I was one for a bunch of decades, durn it.) And a lot of
believers have been declaring disaster coming to America , or declaring Mr. Obama’s
incompetence, or similar things. Recently, I’ve begun to question whether our
declarations of disaster may have a hand in causing disaster to come about,
about whether our declaring icky things about Mr. Obama are bringing some of those
things to pass, whether we are seeing the fulfillment of our own declarations.
By
way of illustration, God himself (Genesis 18:21) seems to declare that the
reason that Sodom & Gomorrah were judged was because of the
outcry against it. I wonder– if there is judgment coming against our nation, or
against “famously sinful” cities in our nation (San Francisco, Las Vegas, New
York, New Orleans, etc) – whether the judgment is not from God, but from God’s
people.
So
I’m pretty careful about speaking un-lovely things about people or nations; I’m
really, really careful that I’m not
interpreting prophetic words according to my own expectations.
Correcting What is NOT Being Said?
It
is clear that there is a fair bit of new revelation in the air nowadays; God is revealing new truths, and new application of old truths.
Anytime that happens, the enemy likes to fill the air with smoke in order to confuse God’s people. Discernment is needed: we must eat the meat & spit out the bones; we must reject revelation that is outside of “Spirit & truth,” remembering “Thy word is truth.” Godly discernment and the Bible are the standards by which we discern truth.
Anytime that happens, the enemy likes to fill the air with smoke in order to confuse God’s people. Discernment is needed: we must eat the meat & spit out the bones; we must reject revelation that is outside of “Spirit & truth,” remembering “Thy word is truth.” Godly discernment and the Bible are the standards by which we discern truth.
But
I have a growing conviction that much of what is being both corrected and
rejected is not actually what is being revealed or declared. I am observing,
with disconcerting frequency, a troubling pattern:
I’m
seeing correcting what people are not saying, or at least what people
mean to not say.
Here’s
what the process looks like; perhaps you’ve seen it happen:
- Someone declares a
revelation which is not entirely
familiar.
- That revelation
reminds a listener (or a reader) of something else, something
uncomfortable or something false. Perhaps they encountered this revelation
with an error in the past, or perhaps it’s just similarity. For example,
the revelation that we are “saved by faith” often triggers “license to sin”
warning lights, even though the person preaching salvation by faith has not promoted a license to
sin.
- As a result, we
argue against the something false (in this example, against a license to
sin) even though it is not the revelation that was
being presented.
- The result of that
argument is multiple:
ü
the
original revelation (in this example: that we are saved by faith) is lost in
the confusion.
ü
an
expression of the Kingdom is perverted in the direction of the Tree of the
Knowledge of Good and Evil, not the Tree of Life
ü
the
one who brought the original revelation may become confused, discouraged, or
frustrated.
ü
an
opportunity to expand the Kingdom is missed.
ü
we
as a community are less willing to consider new revelation, concerned that it
will confuse/offend some, or for fear that they’ll be persecuted for it.
ü
relationships
in the Kingdom experience unnecessary stress.
In
other words, there is really nothing good that comes from arguing with what
people have not said.
First
cousin to “arguing against what someone has
not said,” is the idea of “fine tuning what someone has said.” The process is similar:
- Someone declares a
revelation which is not entirely
familiar.
- One of the
listeners (or readers) immediately notices that it is possible to take
this truth too far. So they immediately post their warnings about the
truth.
- As a result, people’s
attention is taken away from the truth of the revelation (for example, “salvation
comes through faith, not works,”) and focused on irrelevant details (“Yes
but you MUST pray the sinner’s prayer or it doesn’t count” or some such).
- The result of that foolishness
is remarkably similar:
ü
the
original revelation (in this example: that we are saved by faith) is lost in
the confusion.
ü
an
expression of the Kingdom is perverted in the direction of the Tree of the
Knowledge of Good and Evil, not the Tree of Life
ü
the
one who brought the original revelation may become confused, discouraged, or
frustrated.
ü
an
opportunity to expand the Kingdom is missed.
ü
we
as a community are less willing to consider new revelation, concerned that it
will confuse/offend some, or for fear that they’ll be persecuted for it.
ü
relationships
in the Kingdom experience unnecessary stress.
Frankly,
these processes are often a real clear example of manipulation and control:
they’re an attempt to draw attention to ourselves, instead of the person with
the revelation, or the Spirit who gave them that revelation. Or they’re the result of believing a lie: “The Holy
Spirit needs ME to correct people, or else they’ll fall into error!” That’s
rather a problem. In a public conversation, there is no good thing that comes from correcting an imaginary error in a
friend.
Of
course, the recommendation is to listen to what the other guy is saying, and
then maybe even listen to what Holy Spirit is saying before shooting our mouths
off.
Some
disclaimers are appropriate:
- There is real
heresy out there. For example, some people are promoting grace to the
point of throwing out some of the authority of scripture. It really is
happening, and it needs to be opposed in
the places it is happening. It does NOT need to be opposed whenever
someone says something similar to what those people are saying: that would
be correcting what people are not saying, and that would not
be helpful.
- For some of us recovering
from the error of Bibliolatry, the place of scripture in our lives is
changing. It is no longer the legalistic trump card, cancelling personal
relationship with God that it used to be: it really is being demoted from
its place as the 4th person of the Trinity, and it should be. (And this in
itself is triggering this process!)
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