I had one of those uh huh moments the other morning while thinking about how to explain some of my choices to non-believers. Where this revelation led me was to walking in the Spirit.
Now this topic is unfortunately twisted by some theologians to mean speaking in tongues. I couldn't disagree more. My attitude is that of the Apostle Paul, "I would rather you spoke 5 words with your mind than 10,000 words in tongues (a strange language incomprehensible language). The gift of tongues offers a number of benefits; edification of our own spirit, priming the pump to get the Spirit moving, speaking to others of a language you don't understand and a sign to believers and nonbelievers.
But on fortunately some think it is the main gift, that it is the gift that everyone should seek (even though Paul tells us otherwise). We are told at the end of chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians (in the form of rhetorical questions which expect a negative reply) that not everyone speaks in tongues, not everyone prophesies and so on. If we look closer at theses passages (from the beginning of Chapter 12 to the end of Chapter 14 of 1 Cor.) you will see that the main purpose of the gifts is for the building up of the body/one another. Speaking in tongues does little toward that end, in my mind.
So getting back to where I was headed with this, I see spiritual gifts as a necessary part of the body life so that we can be built up (become mature in Christ). I don't see the gifts as mystical per se. I seem them as very practical tools to help us help one another. But in order for us to help each other with the gifts, they must be employed. Our regular Sunday services are just not structured to make room for the proper exercising of the full range of Spiritual gifts.
I firmly believe that the spiritual gifts are not to be relegated to some obscure corner of the Christian life, rather I see them being meant to be employed in our everyday life. Imagine if you are dealing with a child who is lying to you about where they have been and by a Word of Knowledge you were informed of exactly what they were doing and who they were with. Doesn't that sound pretty practical.
I see the gifts helping us live out the fullness of what it means to be a Born Again Christian. The gifts equip us to speak with supernatural knowledge and understanding to anyone around us. Employing them as God intended would mean that we become the kinds of emissaries that God intended when the Apostle Paul told us we were Christ's Ambassadors and Ministers of Reconciliation. Our lives would reflect the fullness of Christ in his love, power, mercy and righteousness.
But unfortunately we often try to do this out of our own intellect. And our wisdom is foolishness in God's eyes. Yes spending time in the Bible is a good thing. Yes sitting under good teachers is helpful. But ultimately we must become people who walk by the Spirit and not just by our human knowledge, wisdom and understanding.
You cannot love your enemies, speak well of those who curse you or reach out to the outcasts of our society in the power of our flesh and intellect. This Christian life we are living is intended to be supernatural. First Christ laid it out for us in the Sermon on The Mount, then He demonstrated it in how He ministered and finally He sent us his Holy Spirit to empower us to live the life that He had intended for us.
Later the Apostles gave further instruction in how and why we should lives this way. My job as a pastor is to continue that tradition by pointing people to Christ, Living a life worthy of emulation and encouraging, rebuking and teaching these new children of God how to live as mature disciples of Christ.
I cannot do this only on Sundays, I need to find ways to encourage, teach and rebuke on the other 6 days of the week. My job is not just to prepare sermons or to manage programs. My job it to be training future leaders how to live by the Spirit, how to walk in the gifts and eventually how they too can be people who make disciples.
Have I got it all figured out? No. If you want someone who has a much better handle on it then go talk to Francis Chen. I really think that I could learn a few more things from him. But the reason I am writing this article is not to point you to Francis Chen, but rather to encourage each and everyone of you reading this to hunger after the things of God. To become people who chase after everything that God has for you. I don't want to be satisfied with just hanging out with some fellow believers on Sundays and go home and just sit and wait until our next encounter.
This is why I attend two small groups during the week. One is to for an opportunity to operate in the gifts to encourage others. The other group is where I teach from the Word of God, encouraging those attending to walk in the ways of God. This is also why I write articles like this to try and encourage others to live the kind of life that Christ died for. He didn't die the death of a sinner just to pay for our sins, but He died such a death to open the way for us to live in such a way that people would stop and ask us, "How come you have such love, joy, peace and hope in your life?" So that they would be envious of us in such a way as that they too would want to learn how to live such a life.
I am convinced that if we don't walk in the Spirit and by the Spirit then we are barely more than animals. It is in the Spirit where we come into God's true intent for us as humans made in His Image who can live in this world and transform it. Yes there is evil a foot, but the more of us that are walking in the fullness of God's power, in His Spirit, then the more evil is pushed back.
God hasn't called us to a fortress mentality where we hunker down waiting for His return. He has equipped and empowered us so that no even the gates of hell will stand in our way. The enemy would try to convince you that you are powerless. He would say, "Your not Christ, you can't live that way!" But the Truth is that Christ was given us everything that we need so that we are more than conquerors. As I have heard it put once, we are to become people who when we wake up the devil says, "Oh sh_t they're up again!"
I want to be someone who shows all my neighbors that I am one who walks with Christ, one who loves authentically, lives out the principles of The Golden Rule. I want my neighbors to be glad that I am here. I don't want to be a religious nut but rather someone who walks by the Spirit in such a way that they might say about me, "There goes the man who walks with God".
Am I there yet? Not at all! Even still I won't give up on Christ working in me. I fully trust that He will complete the work that He has begun in me, as I trust that He will complete the work He was begun in you. To that end I will continue to pursue the purposes and gifts that God has invested in me. He didn't save us to sit on the bench for the rest of the game. His desire is that His gifts would be employed as each of us does our part in the greater tapestry of God's Will in The Kingdom of God.
He didn't leave us to figure it out by ourselves and He doesn't want us just sitting around waiting for something to happen. He has equipped each and every one of us to play a part, to be a friend and good neighbor, to be a vital part of the Body of Christ. Not everyone is called to be a Leader in the church, but everyone has been given a part to play in His Kingdom.
If you think that God couldn't use us, that somehow you are disqualified, you are wrong. God has a part for each and everyone of us to play in His plans for humanity Christ died to qualify those who were once called enemies of God. He has made a way for us all to play a part.
So I encourage you this week to think on these things, to examine your life and pray that God would reveal to you some small glimpse of what He saved you for. Your part may not be a great spectacle, but it will make a difference. When you visit those who are homebound, when provide a listening ear to a hurting co worker or neighbor, you are making room for God to use you and to touch the lives of the lonely and hurting.
If you find yourself saying, "Oh, I could never do that" Chances are that that may be the very thing God has for you, but the enemy is trying to discourage you from stepping out in the Spirit and letting God use you. The enemy hates it when we trust God and try things that we would have never tried. The enemy uses lies and fear and shame to try to disqualify us while Christ has redeemed us to serve God's purposes.
Fear not, be strong and courageous for Christ has overcome the world and His intent for you is to live an abundant life. A life filled with a cornucopia of God's grace and mercy. You don't have to grunt it up in your own strength and will, but as you trust in He who saved you, you will do more than you could have ever thought or imagined.
When we look at the Spiritual big hitters, like Mother Teresa, Albert Schweitzer, Smith Wigglesworth, Sister Aimee Semple McPherson and others. It wasn't that they were so great, it was that they trusted God at his Word and walked by the Spirit to demonstrate the reality of God's power, love and mercy.
I am encouraged in the story of an older woman, who after examining herself she realized that she had the gift of hospitality decide to invite her neighbors over, one at a time, for a cup of tea and fellowship. In the decades that she did this she led dozens of people to Christ.
Ask God to reveal to you, who you are in Him. Trust Him to put the gifts He has already provided to show when you take a step of obedience and expect Him to show up. Get in the game. We are not called to be spectators in the Great game of Life. We are meant to be participants, benefiting those around us as we let 'The Great I Am' reveal Himself in our lives.
May God's gifts and his Spirit move mightily in your lives as you seek his Face and His love, living as children of God redeemed to be salt and light in the earth.
In His Glorious Name,
Preacher Al
Tuesday, September 1, 2020
Friday, August 28, 2020
The attitude of Walking in The Way - The Continuum Revisited
I actually preached on this subject quite some time ago but it has stuck with me all this time. I really think that this is the first topic or lesson that brought me to thinking about how we could know if we were Walking in The Way. I am not really sure that "attitude" is the right name for this aspect of the walk that I plan to examine here. Maybe it is more about self-perception in relationship to God and others.
• The extremes of hopelessness/defeatedness vs. Arrogance
• What the source of our personal esteem is
The two key factors or lane markers I see which help us to Walk in The Way are humility and confidence. I see humility marked by the scripture that says, "We can do nothing apart from Christ" and I see confidence marked by the scripture that says "I can do all things through Him (Christ) who strengthen's me." But it is not one or the other rather it is a blend of both. I realize in my humility before God and men that it is only through His working in me that I am able to do anything, which then leads do a sense of confidence that realizes that with Him there is no limit to what we can accomplish. Maybe we might call this right esteem.
There has been a lot of talk in past years about children who have low self-esteem. This topic has worked itself into the church as well. I really think that it is a bit heretical. In the OT when men were building the tower in Babylon, God said that we can accomplish anything, so He then confused the speech of humanity to keep us from thinking too highly of ourselves. There is an inherent problem in thinking that we are good in and of ourselves; this is the basis of Humanism. Pretty soon we begin to think that we can accomplish anything and that we don't need to listen to someone else. I have read a few articles where people are recognizing that some children/people's esteem in themselves is so high that they think themselves better than others or more deserving than others. This leads to problems like sociopaths who view other people as mere objects to be used for their benefit.
Now I admit that there are also people out there whose esteem of self is so low that they they can only see themselves as failures. They see their future as nothing more than a long series of potential blunders. I do not think this as humility but something else entirely.
When we are walking in the Way of God our self-perception is almost a contradiction or paradox. In part we see that we are powerless apart from God, but then we see that in Him or by Him, we can do anything He sets before us to do. I believe that our true esteem is found in that we are created beings, who are redeemed to live a life worthy of God according to his work in us. Our esteem is not found in our perception of ourselves (good or bad) and our esteem is not to be found in the eyes of others (whether that be positive or negative). Our true esteem should only be found in the eyes of our Redeemer/Creator as tempered by his Grace and Mercy.
Our Redeemer knows everything there is to know about us. He knows our thoughts, our intentions and our motivations, and yet He still chooses to love us. Some people think that they must earn their ways in to his heart, others think that it doesn't matter what we do; both are wrong. We are reminded by scripture that we cannot earn our salvation through works, but rather it is a free gift from God. Yet on the other hand we know that there are behaviors that are hated by God (God hates sin if not sinners). Even if our salvation is a free gift, once we have it we are called to walk it out or work it out with fear and trembling.
So when I consider people who are walking in hopelessness or defeat (I also refer to this as brokenness), I get images of them saying how bad they are and how irredeemable they are. It's as if they are saying that their actions or their perception of self are beyond God's ability to forgive or redeem. I am convinced that this is a form of idolatry. I believe it is rooted in a lie from the evil one. These people have come to believe a lie that says their sin is too great or their hurt is too terrible for God to forgive or heal. This is typical of most lies from the devil. He twists or perverts God's word to serve his desires. Nothing pleases him more than being able to convince us that we are beyond the reach of God's love and mercy. But when we believe that our sin is so great that God cannot forgive us, we make our sin greater than God and that is idolatry.
The flip side of this also a form of idolatry, but here the person has become convinced that they in and of themselves are sufficient to every problem they face. They are convinced that they do not need God or anyone else. I think this is similar to the lie that the serpent used in the Garden of Eden. He convinced Adam and Eve that they could be like God if they just followed his advice. Arrogant people are just as deceived as those thinking they can do nothing good at all.
Now in our culture we tend to see defeated people as being victims and we tend to see some arrogant people as successful and confident people. I think it is really important that if we are to walk in the Way of God, then we must forsake these cultural ideals and instead embraced the ideals/values of The Kingdom of God. We are sinners redeemed from our former ways by the grace of God in the Person of Jesus Christ and his sacrifice upon the cross. We have been sealed with the Holy Spirit and now belong to God. As God's children, our thoughts, intentions and actions should be shaped by this redeemed relationship.
I would like to remind you that my writings on walking in the way, are not a "how to be more godly" plan. But rather indicators that we should use to examine ourselves. Neither of these articles are meant to condemn anyone. If you find that you are off the path, it is just a reminder of where you need to be. When we find that our ways do not align with the Path/Way of God, then we must confess our wrong attitudes, repent of, change our ways and return to God, seeking his help and his wisdom so that we might live as children of God. It is an ongoing process, that refines us much as gold and silver are refined by fire.
I pray then that you will learn to experience the freedom and joy of walking in God's ways. Jesus himself has gone before us to show us how to live for God. Jesus sent his Holy Spirit to remind us and help us that we might live as the children of God. I pray that you will learn to fully cooperate with the work that God has begun in you, that you may see it completed and experience the fullness of a life in and with Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior.
Key themes:
• The pathway markers of humility and confidence• The extremes of hopelessness/defeatedness vs. Arrogance
• What the source of our personal esteem is
The two key factors or lane markers I see which help us to Walk in The Way are humility and confidence. I see humility marked by the scripture that says, "We can do nothing apart from Christ" and I see confidence marked by the scripture that says "I can do all things through Him (Christ) who strengthen's me." But it is not one or the other rather it is a blend of both. I realize in my humility before God and men that it is only through His working in me that I am able to do anything, which then leads do a sense of confidence that realizes that with Him there is no limit to what we can accomplish. Maybe we might call this right esteem.
There has been a lot of talk in past years about children who have low self-esteem. This topic has worked itself into the church as well. I really think that it is a bit heretical. In the OT when men were building the tower in Babylon, God said that we can accomplish anything, so He then confused the speech of humanity to keep us from thinking too highly of ourselves. There is an inherent problem in thinking that we are good in and of ourselves; this is the basis of Humanism. Pretty soon we begin to think that we can accomplish anything and that we don't need to listen to someone else. I have read a few articles where people are recognizing that some children/people's esteem in themselves is so high that they think themselves better than others or more deserving than others. This leads to problems like sociopaths who view other people as mere objects to be used for their benefit.
Now I admit that there are also people out there whose esteem of self is so low that they they can only see themselves as failures. They see their future as nothing more than a long series of potential blunders. I do not think this as humility but something else entirely.
When we are walking in the Way of God our self-perception is almost a contradiction or paradox. In part we see that we are powerless apart from God, but then we see that in Him or by Him, we can do anything He sets before us to do. I believe that our true esteem is found in that we are created beings, who are redeemed to live a life worthy of God according to his work in us. Our esteem is not found in our perception of ourselves (good or bad) and our esteem is not to be found in the eyes of others (whether that be positive or negative). Our true esteem should only be found in the eyes of our Redeemer/Creator as tempered by his Grace and Mercy.
Our Redeemer knows everything there is to know about us. He knows our thoughts, our intentions and our motivations, and yet He still chooses to love us. Some people think that they must earn their ways in to his heart, others think that it doesn't matter what we do; both are wrong. We are reminded by scripture that we cannot earn our salvation through works, but rather it is a free gift from God. Yet on the other hand we know that there are behaviors that are hated by God (God hates sin if not sinners). Even if our salvation is a free gift, once we have it we are called to walk it out or work it out with fear and trembling.
So when I consider people who are walking in hopelessness or defeat (I also refer to this as brokenness), I get images of them saying how bad they are and how irredeemable they are. It's as if they are saying that their actions or their perception of self are beyond God's ability to forgive or redeem. I am convinced that this is a form of idolatry. I believe it is rooted in a lie from the evil one. These people have come to believe a lie that says their sin is too great or their hurt is too terrible for God to forgive or heal. This is typical of most lies from the devil. He twists or perverts God's word to serve his desires. Nothing pleases him more than being able to convince us that we are beyond the reach of God's love and mercy. But when we believe that our sin is so great that God cannot forgive us, we make our sin greater than God and that is idolatry.
The flip side of this also a form of idolatry, but here the person has become convinced that they in and of themselves are sufficient to every problem they face. They are convinced that they do not need God or anyone else. I think this is similar to the lie that the serpent used in the Garden of Eden. He convinced Adam and Eve that they could be like God if they just followed his advice. Arrogant people are just as deceived as those thinking they can do nothing good at all.
Now in our culture we tend to see defeated people as being victims and we tend to see some arrogant people as successful and confident people. I think it is really important that if we are to walk in the Way of God, then we must forsake these cultural ideals and instead embraced the ideals/values of The Kingdom of God. We are sinners redeemed from our former ways by the grace of God in the Person of Jesus Christ and his sacrifice upon the cross. We have been sealed with the Holy Spirit and now belong to God. As God's children, our thoughts, intentions and actions should be shaped by this redeemed relationship.
Final thoughts
I would like to remind you that my writings on walking in the way, are not a "how to be more godly" plan. But rather indicators that we should use to examine ourselves. Neither of these articles are meant to condemn anyone. If you find that you are off the path, it is just a reminder of where you need to be. When we find that our ways do not align with the Path/Way of God, then we must confess our wrong attitudes, repent of, change our ways and return to God, seeking his help and his wisdom so that we might live as children of God. It is an ongoing process, that refines us much as gold and silver are refined by fire.
I pray then that you will learn to experience the freedom and joy of walking in God's ways. Jesus himself has gone before us to show us how to live for God. Jesus sent his Holy Spirit to remind us and help us that we might live as the children of God. I pray that you will learn to fully cooperate with the work that God has begun in you, that you may see it completed and experience the fullness of a life in and with Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior.
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