Facts are facts part 3

 

An infant cannot understand what an adult can understand.  An infant cannot chew and swallow meat. He cannot receive sound, mature, "present truth" doctrine, unless the Holy Spirit reveals it to him. Young, brand new Christians today, can understand and digest more than the adults around them, if the Holy Spirit is the one feeding them. "And when they came that were hired about the 11th hour, they received every man a penny. But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny.  And when they had received it, they murmured against the good man of the house, saying, these last have worked but one hour, and you have made them equal to us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day. But he answered one of them, and said, friend,  i do you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a penny? Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do what i will with mine own? Is thine eye evil because i am good? So the last shall be first and the first last, for many be called but few chosen."

We must not begrudge the Holy Spirit if he quickly raises up the babies among us to maturity - " behold the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed." If God chooses to reap what He's sown in the same day, what is that to us? We should rejoice! We should never think evil of the Lord when He is doing good! We should never begrudge Him the anointing and understanding He gives to the young among us. We should never take the attitude of the Prodigal son's older brother. We should always esteem our brothers more highly than ourselves,  and rejoice to see them blessed. We should take the attitude Jesus took with his disciples "greater works than these shall you do." 

It is a proper and healthy and good stage in our lives to be babes in Christ but if the baby never matures into the adult God meant for him to become,  it is a tragedy.  God cannot marry babies! The Bride of Christ is mature, mature in her understanding of Him, mature in her walk with Him, her relationship with Him. Mature in her ability to give Him pleasure.  Maturity pleases Him! Babies will reject meat in favor of pablum. In their infantile understanding of God, they reject strong meat, present truth, not because it's false doctrine but because they do not understand it - and rejection of Truth comes with a heavy price for it reveals their hearts are not right with God. When Jesus said to them "follow Me" they chose instead to sit in a pew and follow a man. They reject meat as being not of God because they cannot see Christ- for the light that is in them is darkness.  They can stare a scripture right in the face and not see the truth of it. I've personally experienced this many times. In so many churches today we have babies teaching babies! When this happens- no one grows up! When the blind teach the blind, they all fall into the ditch of false doctrines.  This is a major reason why Satan tries so hard to keep true Apostles and Prophets from impacting the nurseries,  excuse me, churches in our present world. Apostles,  Prophets and Teachers, anointed and sent by God, will chew and digest strong meat, then regurgitate it in a form babies can swallow,  till the babies develop spiritual teeth and are able to see and chew mature truth on their own- without our help. The goal is not to make them constantly dependant on us for revelation, but to teach them to be totally relient on God for revelations.  We want them to walk daily in the Holy Spirit  - not in our own spirits.  We want their faith to grow till their experiences match the truth they've learned - not the other way around.  

Part 4 soon

"Facts are facts" part 2

 

Spiritual truth takes on context and meaning when we're in a relationship with the source of all truth. Truth without Çhrist  quickly spirals into deception.  Yea, hath God said? 

We may honor a man who had a real experience and relationship with God. We may learn from him butvwe must not limit our theology to whatever God has revealed to another man or woman 150 years ago or yesterday.  Wherefore i will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things (remember the truth you've been taught that was revealed in times past) though ye know them, and be established in the present truth - know and hear and accept the truth the Holy Spirit is currently revealing to the Body of Christ at large, as well as to your own heart, personally.  Remember: truth is revealed to us line upon line, precept upon precept,  here a little, there a little.  We cannot understand nor digest as babies truths we learn as adults.

If we cling to teachings from a man who died hundreds of years ago we will miss what the Holy Spirit is teaching today. That man or woman's teachings may have been "present truth" a hundred years ago but since then the pillar of fire and cloud has moved on, far beyond, what they taught. The Holy Spirit leads us deeper, ever deeer into Christ,  if we're willing to follow.

An added danger of basing our theology on one man's teachings,  alive or dead, is that if that man has error in his doctrines,  we will swallow it along with the truths - for most who choose to submit to and follow men are immature and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For everyone that uses milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness for he is a babe. But strong meat belongs to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses excercised to discern both good and evil. 

Men who excercise their spiritual senses, hearing and seeing and tasting, through ongoing, uninterrupted fellowship with the Holy Spirit,  can discern between truth and falsehoods,  false doctrines.  They are eating from the tree of life, not from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil- for often what men call "good", God calls evil and what men call "evil" God calls good.

If we allow him to, the Holy Spirit will personally feed us truth, line upon line, till we steadily mature, increasing in knowledge and wisdom,  till we arrive at spiritual adulthood and we can understand and digest "strong meat". The knowledge and understanding an adult has is far beyond what he knew as an infant. Yet many denominations camp around the teachings of men dead for centuries- Martin Luther, John Wesley, Calvin etc. They even name themselves after men, declaring themselves to be a man's disciples (Lutherans, Calvanists, etc.) They more identity with a man, with the denomination built upon that man, than they do with Christ! They remain fixated on whatever that man taught,  truth or not (in his latter years, Luther taught much error, for example). They build Bible colleges and Universities to disseminate a dead man's understanding of scripture because they themselves are not willing to press in close enough to God to hear him for themselves. They never let the Holy Spirit become their personal teacher and guide, choosing instead to be fed by men and in so doing they remain spiritual infants- drinking spiritual milk, for what was meat hundreds of years ago is milk today. 

Part three soon

 Facts are unassailable. Facts are truths. They are not flexible,  changing with the prevailing winds of public opinion.  They are rock solid - when the rock is Christ,  strong enough to build an entire life upon, sure enough to guide us right to heaven's door (Jesus) and beyond.

Sherlock Holmes said we should never theorize before we have facts - because then we twist facts to suit theories rather than twisting theories to suit facts. This happens in theology all the time, particularly with denominations. People base their theology on someone's teaching, rather than on facts. The problem is,  if one does not know the author of the book, the truth of his words can be misconstrued.  Indeed, with scripture, experience and truth go hand in hand or we've missed the point of holy scripture- which is to lead us and guide us into a relationship with God - the author of all scripture. Knowledge in and of itself is not the goal - we must seek to know Him, not merely know about Him.

Spiritual facts are just as true, just as solid as natural facts. They are just as reliable and sure. Yet rather than basing their experiences on truth, people base their truth on their experiences. This results in all manner of false doctrines.  Example: I've never spoken in tongues, neither have my spiritual elders or anyone else in my church, therefore tongues must not be of God, no matter what the Bible says. Churches are full of theories about God that have no basis in reality because they twist scriptures (facts) to suit their theories. 

A heart that loves and seeks truth will accept truth no matter what his experiences may be, even if it doesn't fit into his theology,  even if the mind cannot yet understand what the heart knows to be true. When Jesus met Phillip he simply said to him "follow me". He did not try to convince Phillip why he should follow him. He did not try to make his case and present Phillip with facts. He said only "follow me". I believe Phillip's heart instinctively knew what his mind would only come to know later - backed by innumerable facts and experiences - we have found Him of whom Moses and the prophets wrote of, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.

At this point his understanding was still limited to the fact that Jesus was the son of Joseph- later he would grasp and understand that Jesus is the son of God. Why? Because he obeyed Jesus' first words to him - follow me. He then experienced Jesus for himself- not just what others said about him. His mind came to know what his heart first knew - this Jesus of whom you speak should be followed, should be obeted. Even if, especially if our carnal minds do not understand what, or ehy, he's telling us to say or do something.  Go dip in the Jordan seven times. What?! That makes no sense! It's a tiny, filthy river compared to my homeland's! To transform our carnal mind to a spiritual mind we cannot lean on our own understanding but trust in the Lord with all our heart. Indeed, a carnal mind is the enemy of a spiritual mind and cannot even understand it. Spiritual truth to a carnal mind is abhorrent.  It is mocked, despised, maligned and ultimately crucified.  Instead of crucifying self, their own understanding,  they crucify Christ, the living embodiment of truth. They put truth to death and allow the lie to live in their hearts. They turn the word of God into a lie, believing the lie to be the truth, that they are gods and therefore they can decide what is truth and what isn't.  Their experiences show what they really believe, for they are based on lies, therefore they cannot bear the fruut of truth in their inward parts because they do not walk and talk with Jesus themselves.  They cannot bear the fruit of a relationship with him. Only those who walk and talk with Jesus can truly understand him. If not, they only know what men say about him. Carnally minded people are ever seeming to seek truth but never find it, believing their theories about God instead, presenting their theories as facts, like men do with their "theort of evolution".

Part two soon

Kingdom vs. Kingdumb

 

In my ongoing effort to point out there is a huge difference between God's Kingdom on earth and the false religion men call Christianity....I've decided to compare the two by asking you the question: Is it Kingdom or Kingdumb? Feelnfree to add to the list by commenting below with examples of your own....

One man in charge deciding all that takes place in every service: KINGDUMB

The Holy Spirit in complete control of every service, start to finish: KINGDOM

Telling people how much to give and when to give and taking up offerings during every gathering: KINGDUMB

Letting people give as the Holy Spirit leads them, when and how much, and only taking offerings when the Holy Spirit instructs us to, for the reasons he instructs us to: KINGDOM

Focusing every service on doctrine, on knowledge, on teaching....constantly talking about God or his Word but never encountering him: You guessed it KINGDUMB

Focusing every service on knowing Christ, and encountering him (there i am in the midst of you....therefore the miraculous is in the midst of us) : KINGDOM

Getting offended by someone and going behind their back to everyone but them, telling them what they did to offend you: KINGDUMB

Getting offended by someone and going to them and discussing it privately....with love in a spirit of gentleness and,meekness: KINGDOM!

 The best i can do

 is become so transparent 

 that people see You.

 The best i can be

 is more of You

 and less of me.

 For You are beautiful, 

 while i am ugly.

 Your touch heals

 while mine does nothing.

 Your words are Spirit 

 while mine are flesh.

 Your words are life

 while mine are death.

 And this one thing i know too well - 

 You alone can keep me from going to Hell.

 My greatest desire is to die

 that i may be buried in Christ,

 so that my rotteness can't be seen,

 only the Lord of my life....