It is good to learn of the others. There are the others who have been the forerunners and who have learned of their real life experience what to do, and what not to do. It is simple wisdom.
And then there are certain things which we cannot obtain without our own real life experience. If we rely only on the experience of the others, then our Christianity is rather theoretical and without any empirical experience.
We do not build upon our experience. But experience matters.
We are called to know the Word.
And then we are called to take the same Word and apply it to our real life circumstances.
God is all about life.
He is not just some theological formula behind things.
Jesus is Life.
Hence, arguments about the nitty-gritty are not the wisest path to take.
I have been reading in these days a few books which sustained me previously.
It is the Bible which sustains us, true that.
And then there are books written by the ones who have gone ahead and learned a few things.
A few years ago I shared something Holy Spirit had impressed into my spirit, and led me to pick up from one of the books, written by Rick Joyner.
I shared this with my pastor, and it seemed that he was rather unappreciative.
Yet, he was rather prophetic. And we had apostolic weekends with well-known established prophets visiting and ministering to us. They called my pastor a prophet.
I am revisiting this book and the contents of it in these days.
Rick Joyner teaches there that although he has had extensive hardcore prophetic experiences, he had not acquired a habit to build anything on them.
Our foundation has always been the Word of the Bible.
The Spirit and the Word agree.
But there is this old saying which states that if we take only the Word, without the life-giving Spirit, then we might easily dry up. And if we rely mostly on the spiritual experiences, we might blow up.
It takes both, in agreement.
Now when we have established it, let us be comfortable in that knowledge, and expect the spiritual. Although it is never good to try to initiate anything, or seek the spiritual experiences.
We seek the face (or the opinion) of God.
When God initiates the spiritual experiences, then it is although good to have an open mind like Peter had when he was taken into trance which revealed that the gospel was for the entire world and not just for the select few.
That said, the book of Rick Joyner which I mentioned to my pastor at the time, seemed to be unknown to him. And hence, he could not see what I had seen, and this was alright too.
The book under discussion is called "The Hordes of Hell are Marching". It is about spiritual warfare.
We may not believe it happens, but it is a real thing.
There is a conflict between the light and the dark forces.
We have an enemy who does not take it well when the people of God advance.
We must learn to understand that warfare means also some hits and casualties.
Similar to the world with its battles and sicknesses and troubles unleashed against the humans, people do take the hits.
And they need a helping hand to help lift them up.
Prophet Elijah sat after a huge victory under a tree and begged God to take his life.
Now, of course he did not want to die - he wanted to live. But he had succumbed to the dark mood and let it temporarily overwhelm his mind, to the degree where darkness seemed to overtake the light in him.
God did not make an issue out of it.
He sent His angel to minister to His weary servant, and he rose and walked on with God.
The book of Rick Joyner includes a series of visions God gave him regarding the warfare in the ranks of the believers, where the believers turn against each other, seeing their fellow believers as the objects of their warfare, fighting against them while thinking that they are doing God a favour.
In the worldly natural warfare such action is known as a friendly fire.
Of course there is nothing friendly about it.
It is devastating when there is an infighting within the ranks of the same army.
A house divided shall not stand, but it will certainly fall.
Paul mentioned that he took some hits from the fellow believers.
Now, a strong leader will regain his strength, stand, and continue walking on with God.
Paul was stoned to death, yet, he did exactly that - stood up, and walked on.
Leaders can experience an unnatural amount of warfare, not just from the dark demonic forces, but from their fellow believers and leaders alike.
There are different issues taken up in different church ranks.
Some believe that woman's place is in the kitchen, or taking care of the children, and a woman is supposed to be in the role of a housekeeper only.
Where does it leave the women who are not married, to begin with?
Or the woman who are childless?
Needless to say, this is religion.
Religion is based on the opinions and interpretations of men.
Religious thought killed Jesus.
God is all about giving and ministering life, and hope for the future.
Jesus taught by the example of the Good Samaritan and was all about compassion and mercy.
Religious thought tries to introduce the infighting, inciting a believer against the other.
I mentioned the other day Brian Simmons who is a fine minister and Bible translator.
Since I have earned my bread with translations myself, I am aware of the art of translation, or conveying the thought of another in a most accurate way possible.
While inaccuracies may happen (in spite of our best efforts to avoid them), it is rich of the fellow Christians to paint a Bible translation in dark colour and call both him and his work as New Age.
There is also a Mirror translation, and Francois du Toit who has merited a similar response from his fellow believers.
The resistance, the opposition is always there.
It is up to us to awknowledge the fact, and yet keep going with whatever God has entrusted to us and called us to do.
The others have not been in the counsel of God, pertaining to His call and plans for us. These are between us and Him, and better for us to follow Him when He has called us.
The others might recognise the hand of God and His call upon us and choose to believe and follow by being supportive and see it as a blessing.
And then there are always the ones who do and think different, and who might end up going against us and this is fine too.
Of course, it is not a fine experience, and it is not fine of them to do so, but the truth is often just a revelation away. People like to cling to their opinion and that makes them sometimes wage a wrong kind of a war.
The spiritual war takes place in a human mind, or human soul in general.
The mind is the battlefield.
It is although up to us to acknowledge the fact that there is warfare, and resistance and opposition, and downright incendiary feelings and actions accompanying the above. There may be wrong assumptions, and ideas sent into circulations, with the aim of stealing and robbing and killing.
Of course the ones who have lent themselves to such warfare, brother against brother, they do not think they are being used by the enemy - they think they are doing a service to God.
There are blind spots. We all have had them. We all have needed the enlightenment of our eyes of understanding, and when Christ came in, He brought life and light.
When we encounter such resistance from our fellow believers, then while it may make our going tough, the tough still keep going.
It is a Christianese phrase, but there is truth in it.
We simply need to understand that there are things which have been revealed to us during our times in the company of the Holy Spirit, and these things are not necessarily understood or seen by the others, and hence the potential wall-effect.
We might want to be selective with our audience, when it comes to the revelations we have received regarding our call.
Now what does this mean?
It means that there are things to be shared and revealed to the right audience, or we might end up in the shoes of Joseph, who shared the visions regarding his call and gifting with a wrong audience and we know where it took him.
To prison.
Until the time came.
PSALM 105:19
Until the time when his word came to pass, the word of the Lord tried him.
We can learn of the experience of Joseph, and do different. We do not need to learn it firsthand. It is alright to take the lessons the others have learned from the Bible, and try to do different. It is wisdom. And the application of wisdom can help make our path less painful.
Theory is helpful. But ultimately, theory will be always proven in practice. A bible school is helpful, but if we rely only on it without cultivating our own relationship with the Spirit of God, we do not go too far.
We get our instructions and guidance and directions from above. And then we build. It is good to build with God. It is good to be led by the Holy Spirit and learn to do the things He calls us to do. That includes also learning to stop when He tells us to stop. And sometimes He tells us to be silent. Sometimes He tells us to speak up. He gives us the right words to say, and strongholds will be broken, and the captives released.
We do not need to try to wage a war in a natural, earthly way. It escalates into a war, and arguments can easily destroy relationships, with no benefit to anyone. But it is possible to say a right thing at the right time, and there will be revelation light, and understanding. All it takes is an understanding.
Jesus told at the Cross to His Father that the ones who had come against Him had done it out of blindness. They thought they did God a service, while they went against Him. They tried to help God the way Uzzah did, by touching the ark which was something God had forbidden to do. His eyes were on the oxen who stumbled, instead of the Ark.
Many mistakes have been made for we have kept our eyes on the secondary, instead of the primary - the Ark, the Presence of God, His direction and guidance for us.
We think we know, but when it comes to the others, it is often just an assumption. We have not been in their shoes, and hence it is characteristic of us to understand the others around us based on our own experience and history. We have not walked their walk, and when we are not like a wise king who is set to search out the mind of God, we make mistakes by relying on our assumptions. And hence, we can easily come to erroneous conclusions, the way priest Eli thought about a broken woman, who had crashed due to devastation and heartache, after pouring her heart out to God.
How was a priest over the House of God able to see a drunk, instead? His eyes, his vision was not straight and clear enough. He saw and interpreted via the lenses of his own opinions and assumptions. But he was not right. His vision was skewed. And his judgments were exactly what they were - judgments.
God has not called us to avoid making any judgments. He has told us to take care first of our own spiritual household, and then we can see better and clearer, and our vision allows us to pass better judgments, when it comes to the others around us. We are all a work in progress.
Acts 4:13 ► |
King James Bible Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. |
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