Fire On Your Head

Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual.
The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven.
As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven.
Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

At the place I currently work, new molds are set up on a regular basis in any of the dozen or so machines throughout the plant. When the material is being fed through the injection process and into the mold itself to see how the parts will run, we will always have a bunch of scrap parts in the first several cycles. These scrap parts could have too much material, resulting in wings and extra “flash” on the edges. Or they could have holes in the part where the liquid plastic didn’t quite fill out the mold, resulting in it being short on material. Or maybe markings that shouldn’t be there from some of the dry pellets that didn’t quite melt and created a ‘cold slug’ in the part that is visible, making it no good.

Once the job is finally running according to plan, the supervisor on that shift–as well as maybe some of the quality inspectors–depending on the shift and who is around–one of them will approve of the part, which is referred to as a “first-off“. Once the mold is running smoothly and has produced a perfect or satisfactory part, the supervisor will take it, and put a sticker with their signature and date on it, signifying they are giving it their personal approval. It will then be put it in a plastic bag and left at the work station of the machine it was produced from, so that as that job runs, if a questionable part comes out of the machine, it can be compared with the first-off to determine if it is acceptable or not. If a job runs for several days or weeks, the employee can have the sample part to see what is acceptable.

When I find a marking or a little bit of excess plastic forming on an edge or in a hole, then I’ll look to see if the first-off has the same blemishes on it. If it does, then I know the parts I’m getting from the mold are acceptable. If the first-off has less, then that means there’s too much blemish or too many defects with my parts, and what I’m getting are scraps, and the machine may need to be adjusted.

Oh how this has amazing parallels to our relationship to Jesus Christ, who in many ways is our “first-off”.

I tell unbelievers and those with a real aversion to Christianity and the church in general all the time–go according to Jesus Christ Himself to get an idea of what true Christianity is supposed to be, not the hypocrisy, or blotches in our history that bring shame to the body of Christ worldwide. There are plenty of scraps all over the body of Christ, and the point is not to let them be a distraction to us and those honestly and sincerely seeking Him.. If we want to know if someone is like Jesus, they will be like Jesus. Pure and simple. Compare the person’s life to that of Jesus’–who said things like We must be perfect as our heavenly Father is (Matt 5:48). As Tommy Tenney says, “Godly people are godly people or else they’re not godly.”

As for hypocrisy, in a perfect world–or heck, according to the Bible–we have a blueprint for what the life of a believer is supposed to be like. In short, Christians are supposed to be like Jesus Christ.

Sounds simple enough right? Really, there is no excuse for some behavior of believers.

Please forgive my using another separate work-related example, but I remember when I worked at Subway over 5 years ago, and was filling the slot created by a guy who quit. This employee quit so he could go to college out of town, and had left on significantly bad terms. He used to be the drummer for a well known Christian band in town at the time, that almost got a record deal but had basically parted ways to pursue other goals. Well anyway, on busy bar nights–Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays– a second employee would be scheduled to come in from midnight until 3 am when the store closed, to help with the busy crowd that would be created by the bars downtown all closing at 2am and people seeking something to eat afterwards. This particular ‘brother’ was known for coming in for those shifts after going out clubbing, and being drunk on the job. So drunk that he passed out one at work. When he quit, he burned his bridges so badly, that the employer who hired me was making special effort to make sure I wouldn’t do the same things he did on his last shift, when I quit–such as leaving the store without doing any of the chores required (violating numerous health codes, I would assume). I had to live down the bad taste someone else had left in their mouths.

It was pretty pathetic, since I knew this brother was a professing believer. One of the employees who worked with him was telling me this stuff and I immediately said “he’s a hypocrite then” (I used to be blunt back then, which is a far cry from how I am now, I know). This co-worker I was speaking with thought I was being judgmental of the guy I replaced, and had a mistaken belief that all Christianity was about was mental beliefs and church attendance but not practical difference in lifestyle, which I more than happily explained to him using whatever I could off the top of my head in that moment from the Bible, to say things such as “you will know a tree by its fruit” (Matt 12:33), or the world will know we are Jesus’ disciples by our love (John 13:35).

Friends, do our lives match the life of our first-off, Jesus? Are we known for being gossips? Are we backbiters and divided? One time recently, someone I met in a birthday party or a similar type of setting began telling me this guy in her class in college–who I knew of personally–she didn’t have any clue he was a Christian because of how much he cusses, and she thought believers don’t do that (so did I!). Do the people around us find themselves shocked if someone told them we are a believer in Christ? If so, what kind of lousy example of Jesus is that?

I speak to myself as I always am when issuing challenges like this in my blog entries, but friends, I am tired of pathetic testimony after pathetic testimony I hear of friends of mine and acquaintances. I don’t want it to be said of me–or if it’s said, I don’t want it to be true of me–that I’m a hypocrite or that I have no business bearing the name of Christ.

Don’t get me wrong. There will be people in our lives who are unreasonable and nothing we do will ever satisfy them. And also don’t think I’m saying that being immature in the faith is the same thing as being a hypocrite. Peter denied Jesus, yes, but picked himself back up. Judas didn’t. There’s a difference between tripping and falling while walking on your way to the cross, as opposed to not going that direction at all.

Anyway, let’s be all we are supposed to be, and they will know we are like our first-off, and approved of by our Father in heaven.

“In general, the myths and fallacies about the prophetic and spiritual gifts were created by caring church leaders in reaction to the mistakes of the spiritually immature. Recognizing this, we should understand that these teachings were noble attempts to bring correction in specific, localized situations. While they may have accomplished that purpose, their enduring legacy is that they have kept multitudes from experiencing and walking in the spiritual gifts God has provided for the church.”  - Steve Thomspon, You May All Prophesy, p 16.

It’s in light of continuing debate a few people in my life engage me in both in person, and in email/MSN conversations that I use this entry to hash out my own thoughts in a manner that I can refer people to this post later instead of having fruitless debate with people that don’t want to let go of their biases or straw-man arguments against the charismatic gifts. This is going to serve for me as a reference point with my thoughts.

So, I really recommend the book “You May All Prophesy” by Steve Thompson. I own several books on the prophetic, all from different angles and with different spins on the subject, and it has dawned on me that it’s a pretty inexhaustible topic in the Bible and spiritual life. Most people’s aversion to the prophetic, the gifts of the Spirit, and baptism in the Spirit, as well as praying in tongues are ALL based on misunderstanding or sometimes willful rejection. This book by Steve Thompson in particular is relatively user-friendly, and in my opinion, if people were to only read one or two books on the subject, then this one should be it.

With the backdrop of sharing some insights from this particular book on the topic of prophesying, I’d like to take the time to quote pretty heavily from one of the earlier chapters, called “Prophetic Myths and Fallacies” and though I may not “quote” directly, I want to say at the outset, I’m relying heavily on this chapter of the book for this post, so in that manner I want to give credit where credit is due.  In a sense, you could call this a book review but focusing on one specific chapter for your benefit.

The five myths he lists are the following, and I will not give equal attention to all of them, but just the ones I feel will diffuse some tired old straw-man arguments that get used on me time and time again–or at least try to provide answers to.  I post this here just in case it bears fruit for someone’s questions and understanding.

Myth #1 “We don’t need the gifts of the Spirit; what we really need is the fruit of the Spirit!”
Myth #2 “Seek the Giver, not the gifts.”
Myth #3 “Seeking spiritual gifts is selfish.”
Myth #4 “Asking for spiritual gifts opens us up to demonic deception.”
Myth #5 “Only a special few people are called to prophesy.“

For the purposes of this particular entry, I will omit myth # 4, and maybe deal with it on its own at a later date in a separate entry, with more of my own experience and not so much quoting from the book, other than using Scripture references Steve Thompson uses there.

Myth #1 “We don’t need the gifts of the Spirit; what we really need is the fruit of the Spirit!“

This may sound balanced, but it’s Biblically inaccurate. While seeking spiritual gifts without cultivating spiritual fruit is an error, we should never attempt to correct it by denigrating the importance of spiritual gifts. This teaching also belies a subtle form of pride that implies we do not need spiritual gifts. When we understand that spiritual gifts are empowerments provided by God to manifest His kingdom, our attitude toward them will change. No longer will they be seen as optional. Words of knowledge, words of wisdom, and discerning of spirits are gifts in the same way that guns, ammunition, and grenades are gifts for a soldier.

At the beginning of his letter to the Corinthians, Paul makes a statement in 1 Cor 4-7 that shows he understood the importance of spiritual gifts in his ministry; he said his testimony was proven to the Corinthians by the fact they were functioning in the spiritual gifts. Paul further goes on to say in this letter that his testimony concerning Christ was with power and demonstration and not [just] words of human wisdom (1 Cor 2:1-5). Also, Acts 17:22-18:1 could be used also to demonstrate how Paul had limited results when he preached in Athens using only his intellect and ability to reason, but I won’t be dogmatic about that suggestion.

Myth #2 “Seek the Giver, not the gifts.”

While this makes for a great sermon, it is also biblically inaccurate. In a sense, if we reject the gifts God has for us, we are in some ways rejecting Him, since He has given spiritual gifts because they are a manifestation of Himself in our midst, and for witness to a dying world around us.

We must understand, the Corinthians were already functioning in the gifts when Paul made this statement to them, but they were abusing the gifts, speaking out of order, and so on. To bring balance, Paul–a mature man of God (and apostle, of course!) offered instruction about the gifts, and wisdom for their use. But he never instructs them not to seek the gifts, nor criticizes them for being too focused on spiritual gifts, but the exact opposite and urges them to earnestly covet them. The same Greek word translated “earnestly covet” can be translated “zealously lust.”

Then, immediately following, in the ‘love chapter’, Paul proceeds to launch into a profound discourse on the proper motivation and manner in which the gifts are to be used, which is love. When reading this book of the Bible, the point is not to overemphasize chapters 12 and 14 at the exclusion of chapter 13, nor is it to read chapter 13 but shut one’s brain off when reading chapters 12 and 14 which give clear teaching on tongues, congregational tongues with interpretation, and prophesying corporately in particular–they all are a part of the same package.

Paul is imploring them to operate in the gifts out of a heart of love for one another. In fact, Thompson goes on to compare the type of “zealous lusting” we are to have over the gifts, with Jacob’s attitude for his blessing, deceiving his own family to get it! This kind of reasoning is offensive to our senses, but God *loves* that type of heart–the one that hungers for His presence and hungers at all costs. “Jacob I have loved”. But anyway, that’s bit of a detour from where I’m going with this.
“While we may judge those who hunger for God’s power and authority as being extreme and unbalanced, God may be more pleased with them than those who appear humanly righteous, but who, like Esau, are unconcerned with spiritual matters.” (p.21) Keep in mind, Scripture also says God hated Esau.

Myth #3: “Seeking spiritual gifts is selfish.”

This is similar to the ‘seek the Giver not the gifts‘ myth. While it’s true that some will have questionable motives, God will ultimately deal with character issues as He sees fit, but this concept is still Biblically inaccurate since spiritual enablements are given IN ORDER to minister to others. Serving others is not selfish. Just because it’s possible to desire to minister with a heart full of mixed motives, doesn’t mean we are to not bother seeking ways to minister to others. Has anyone reading this ever been used of God even though you have or had issues to deal with?

That’s what I thought.

Think of Paul’s response in Philippians 1:15, 17-18 when talking of people ministering with questionable motives–he didn’t react to the fact people were preaching the Gospel out of selfish ambition–he rejoiced that the Gospel was getting preached! Again, Paul never discouraged anyone from seeking the gifts, and so neither should we. Let God deal with people and their bad motives.

Myth #5: “Only a few special people are called to prophesy.“

Again, I love my evangelical brothers and sisters in Christ of other expressions of faith, but I do not understand the mental and hermeneutical acrobats required to arrive at some conclusions, such as that statement, or how I’ve heard it said to me Paul means something else other than what he says in the last verse of the chapter before “The Love Chapter“, and the first verse of the one after it. And, later on in chapter 14:31, Paul addresses this so clearly, I still don’t get for the life in me how people ignore his words: “For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and be encouraged.”

If you ask me (or read this blog), that one verse settles the issue!

A good definition for prophecy in its most basic form, is “hearing what God is saying to or about someone and relaying it to them”. Fair enough? If all believers can hear God speak, then all can prophesy. If you are born again, you can do this. It is not some gift God delegates to a few as if the enablements of the Spirit are given out randomly and arbitrarily to whoever He feels like and we’re “stuck with whatever He gave us”. There are a couple of things (among others) that any believer can do: Lay hands on the sick and see them healed without “having a gift of healing” in order to do so–this is something several Scriptures command all believers to do. And the second is prophesying as we’ve just briefly skimmed on.

Important to note

If you go on reading the chapter, Steve shares how Proverbs 14:4 says “where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but much increase comes by the strength of an ox.” Meaning, yes, there will be messes, there will be mistakes. People will think they are hearing God’s voice and speak inaccurately into peoples lives. This is why we’re told to test the spirits (1 John 4:1), and judge what people say when only two or three in a meeting say anything (1 Cor 14:29)–because there is potential for it NOT to be really from God. I’ve spoken presumptuously before, and had it done to me. 1 Corinthians 14:30 and 32 says “If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent…and the spirits of the prophets are subject to [the control of] the prophets.“

The more we practice hearing God’s voice clearly and drowning out the dope and distractions of this world, the more efficient we will get at operating in our prophetic giftings. In fact, nobody ever did their first act of ministry perfectly. Look at Jesus’ disciples. Look at the life of Samson and see how God used someone while totally in sin (NOTE: I’m NOT advocating living an impure sinful lifestyle and lacking repentance and holiness–I AM saying you can’t wait until you’re perfect before deciding you think God can use you! Big difference).

If you’d like to buy You May All Prophesy, consider clicking here to purchase it from Amazon.

I really enjoy working where I have been for the last 4 months. Seriously. Not just because I can blare my radio and listen to preaching mp3s or whatever music I want on my boom box without affecting anyone else at their work stations–but because I see and learn new things every day about how things are made that I never would have given the thought or knew was made by a mold press. Especially about the character of God. You’d be surprised.

Scripture talks of how the Lord is a potter, and we are His clay and in His hands he forms us into His desired masterpiece. We are all His workmanship.

I work as a temporary employee in a molding factory. And this place reminds me of when we played with Play-doh as children; that we’d close a plastic contraption with the plasticine in it, and it would come out the desired shape.

How fitting of an analogy this work environment is to the dealings of God in our lives and our growth.

You see, no two plastic products that get made require the same amount of plastic material to make the finished product. Nor do any require being heated in the mold for the same amount of time. Or have the same dimensions in the mould itself. Nor do they all come out the same sizes, or colors even.

For those of you who can’t get a mental image, let me try describing it to you:

The machines there all have a hose or some kind of hopper that the feed (plastic pellets) are fed into. They then are melted at a high temperature into a liquid form and passed through the machine through an opening that pours it all out into the mold, and then is cooled down while in the mold itself, to be shaped by a lot of pressure and weight into the solid form it will take on permanently. When the mold opens, the part is ready, and the operator (employee) opens the door/gate, and removes it and does anything extra that needs to be done to the part while it cools down or maybe is put directly into a box to be sent eventually to the customer.

If for example, the part will have the company’s name on the part, then the mold in the machine would have the name backwards and inside out on it, so that in the mold as the liquid plastic is cooled down into a solid form, the letters would be pressed into the part to create its opposite image. Everything on the mold is the opposite of how it will show up on the part itself, of course.

So at all times, most of these machines need human involvment, to open the door, remove the part from the mold or catch it when it would fall off at the end of its cycle, and then in most cases, you need to either cut off excess plastic around edges or things, or sand rough edges and surfaces down, or maybe sometimes even just leave them on the table as is, and cool down before they’re ready to be boxed.

I constantly think of how God’s dealings with us must be almost exactly the same, and see the parallels in such biblical imagery as Him being the potter and we’re clay in His hands.

God’s dealings in our life may make us feel like we’re being closed in on, and put all sorts of pressure on usand use all sorts of heat to burn away any impurities that aren’t desired in His finished product. And then once the heat has cooled down He pulls out a knife and cuts off any excess in our character or of our fleshly nature that needs to be disposed of. But more importantly how I am made to realize how no two people are designed alike in His sight and how we’re all going to go through our own tailor-made situations and experiences to mold us and form us into what He wants us to turn out like.

It may make no sense to you now as you are going through whatever you are going through, but trust me, the Master and Potter knows how He wants you to be and turn out, and only has your best interests in mind while dealing with you the way He is. As Dr. Michael Brown says, everything in the kingdom of God goes under the knife–either to cut back or cut off. The tree that bears no fruit gets cut down, while the tree that bears good fruit gets pruned.

I can see God even in a factory job.