There’s something interesting about Occupy Wall Street to me, as I look at the parallels in the church world.  I’ve heard for many years about “revolution” coming but I’ve not seen it.  In some circles it has fast become an overused word, which I’m hesitant to use.   I’m finding more and more people tired of institutionalized religion. The same way something “broke” and the scales tipped and have led to this now global protest, I have been sensing a frustration and “something-must-break” attitude in my spirit and in the general discontent of many of my friends and peers across denominational lines, as well as in older mentors and leaders in my life.  

1) The Pastoral Performance Treadmill will break down eventually

I know many pastors and some individuals think and believe if you’re in full time ministry, you give up any secular work–you’re doing one or the other, not both.  However, that’s not true at all.   So that brings us to the insidious religious spirit-inspired problem that faces many a pastor caught up in the current way ‘church’ as we know it has perpetuated:  if a pastor has a church building that needs paying off, or needs to feed his family, or pay off student loans from seminary or whatever else have you, it’s possible to fall in this rut in order to get people to walk in your door.  You wind up succumbing to the need to perform.

For example, if he and his staff–if he has one–need a minimum amount of money in order to pay the bills, what often inevitably happens results in the need for a minimum amount of people in attendance consistently tithing and giving generously.  Then, one is faced with the temptation–or very real need–to somehow obtain those followers or church members.

What does one do to obtain those?  Well, it’s a lot easier to catch flies with honey than it is using vinegar, so the Gospel message that’s preached inevitably becomes pragmatic and palatable.  A God on a cross who wants you to forsake every thing so you can be owned by Him?  That doesn’t attract masses nearly as much as “you can live however you want and have Jesus as the cherry on the pie”.

2) The malaise of this generation towards hypocritical leadership and empty promises

This current generation, commonly nick-named “the millennials” or generation Y, are now significant in size and number, just barely eclipsing the baby boomer generation according to some reports and studies.  This is no small matter, for in the next 20-30 years or probably even sooner, a lot of things are going to shift to the new largest segment of Western society–these millennials who are usually in effect the offspring of the boomers and the hippy generation of the 60s and 70s.

Generation Y is also a significantly unchurched generation, with only one out of twenty considering themselves to be specifically born again Christians–the number is obviously higher if you count those who consider themselves spiritual in a more vague and broad definition of the terms.   Since millennials are the descendants of those who revolted in the late 60s, many times we’re the children—spiritually through pastoring, or directly, through parenting–of those who got converted in the Jesus People movement of that time and the early 1970s.

For what it’s worth, I’ve read elsewhere that OWS is what a post-modern protest looks like, and we’ll see more like it in the years to come.  What the result will turn out to be remains to be seen, but I think change is inevitable, and I think a parallel exists in the church world right now as well.   

3) Nature Abhors a Vacuum

When you’re starving, you’ll eat anything.  In a land of famine for good theology, and proper Bible teaching, due to reason number one, people swallow whatever junk comes along if they’re desperate and hungry for something.  That being said, in the Body of Christ, in the dearth resulting from the frustrations many have had from “institutionalized” Christianity, abusive spiritual authority, and hypocrisy throughout the previous decades to date, there have emerged many cult-like, heretic and fringe teachings—some scoffing at any forms of accountability, structure, or authority hierarchy.   Some guys have emerged as being non-religious but deeply “spiritual” or “mystical”, which in theory doesn’t pose a problem for me personally.  But I’d dare to say a lot of stuff out there is for the itching ears.  Personality cults have developed, and it’s fed into the first reason I stated regarding what is then used as a measure of success.

4) Personality Cults & Bad Teachings

In such an atmosphere that the most popular or ‘out there’ teachers emerge at the top of the increasingly shrinking dog pile, sometimes correct theology or Biblical doctrine gets tossed to the wayside.   I have a friend in Internet marketing who lamented to me one of the challenges he faces in his membership site, is that as an entrepreneur teaching others how to be successful, he constantly needs to demonstrate success himself, or else his members will not see the benefit of sticking around for a membership fee.  As a result, he told me this helps keep him accountable to be practicing what he’s teaching and learning new things so as to continue standing on the leading edge so people will continue to pay to follow him.  But he’s got to provide something worth paying to be taught.

Sadly, this is where I think a lot of paying church ministries take their cue–they come up with some new anointing you need, some new revelation that if you buy their book you’ll learn.  It’s a gerbil wheel that once leaders get on it they seldom get off.   After a while, you may not even realize you’re being sold a bill of goods but with no substance.  Many ‘out there’ preachers with their revelations and miracles, tend to slip into this trap where they now have to keep outdoing themselves because what worked yesterday isn’t filling the large auditoriums anymore.

Various streams of Christianity have a similar pitfall as this, but I’m talking about the more charismatic and Pentecostal streams on this point.  A culture of expectations has developed over time, and now certain leaders and personality cults slip into the need for “deeper revelations” that somehow heretofore had not been revealed from the Father’s heart, and many of the sheep allow themselves to be fleeced because it’s also part of the culture we’ve developed and grown accustomed to.  There’s always a ‘new thing’ the Lord is doing!  And people like me, and those of my generation who are tired of hearing these shenanigans, want to go after God, but are tired of it in much of Westernized “Christianity”.  Most people leaving “the church” aren’t doing it because they’ve abandoned their faith, but they’re leaving in order to protect it.

By no means do these points represent ALL my thoughts or every reason, but should sow some thought seed out there for others of you to run with and give serious thought to some of these matters and the signs of the times.

Questions to Ponder:

How does what we’re doing and have been doing result in DISCIPLES being made and not just pew warmers to pay our salaries?

If only 1/20 millennials consider themselves Christians, how will the old/current model of “church growth curve” continue without

1. compromising the Gospel in order to cast a wider net and get more people under our umbrellas? or
2. discontinuing the system we’re in, and crashing the whole thing altogether, and rebuilding on a Biblical foundation?

Forget a stock market crash or a credit bubble, either most of the “church” as we know it will implode on itself in the years to come (or sooner,) or we will see some kind of revolution and the real church of Christ emerge from the rubble.

Occupy the Church! 

Further Reading

It’s (Past) Time For A Charismatic Reformation – by J. Lee Grady

A Queer Thing Happened To America &

Revolution in The Church both by Dr. Michael L. Brown

The Millennials - by Thom S. Rainer & Jess Rainer

Steve Bremner is a missionary to Peru, called to raise up disciples who flow in the power of the Holy Spirit. He is general editor of Fire Press, and also produces & co-hosts its podcast called Fire On Your Head. Visit his personal site at http://stevebremner.com 

“But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the LORD.”

Malachi 3:2-3 ESV, emphasis mine.

Charles Finney remarked “There can be no revival when Mr. Amen and Mr We-Eyes are not found in the audience.” That’s to say, if it’s not marked by a holy travail over the lost plight of the sinner destined for hell, and prayer for souls to be saved–you might not be experiencing a revival yet. Finney also stated that “a revival of religion presupposes a declension.“

In order for us to want–and obtain– a heaven-sent revival, we must first come to terms with one fact–that we need it! I’ve heard Art Katz state that the reason we’ve not seen it, is because we’re satisfied without it. God will not force the genuine thing on us if we’re content with the substitute.

That being said, when someone is near death and dying in a hospital bed about to breathe their last breath, they need to be revived if they’re going to live. Such is revival–a drastic measure taken in order bring something back to the life it’s supposed to attain to.

After recently being privileged to be involved in a conference the ministry I’m a part of organized here in Lima, I’ve been compelled to think and process my thoughts on revival and the presence of God. A leader in my life and a spiritual figure whom I personally expect history to remember as a revivalist, Dr Michael Brown, was with us and preached simple yet pointed messages on repentance and holiness in the context of it being a precursor that paves the way for revival. He was a key leader during the Brownsville Revival of the late 1990s, and although that move of God was not without its detractors (just do a Google search), it is also undeniable that one of its hallmarks was repentance and personal holiness.

I’ve got friends all over North America, Europe and on the mission field various places the world over who were all wrecked and never to be the same again, and serving as missionaries spreading the fire they caught as a result of this particular move of God in little ole Pensacola, Florida. So why does it bother me so much when I see people throw the word “revival” around so casually and calling anything the Holy Spirit is doing in their midst a “revival”, when repentance and holiness may not even be a visible sign? I’ve seen various friends ‘like” a statement on Facebook lately about how good it would be to start a Christian revival, but would it really be that great? I fear that whatever it is these dear saints are longing for, may be selling itself short if it lacks tears, travail over lost souls, desire for repentance, and personal holiness. Especially so if the focus is ourselves and how good it would be for us if we had one, and not focused on Christ Himself Who is worthy of all such focus.

I was talking to a Peruvian co-laborer months ago who told me Lima, Peru’s capital is experiencing revival. Out of desire to get in the presence of God myself like I’ve experienced only on rare occasion over the last 10 years, I’ve personally asked this brother WHERE?–since if it’s true, I’d love to “jump in the river.” After realizing we might not really be on the same page and what he would call a move of God might be different than what I’d call one, I finally couldn’t help but ask him “what do you mean by “revival“? I couldn’t honestly see any of the things I’ve come to expect as a result of time in the presence of God and all the things I associated with the move of God in Pensacola, that I was affected by. I don’t say this out of judgmental arrogance either, because I genuinely believe this brother’s sincerity, and would never balk at some of the things I’ve seen God do here when His Spirit was manifest in special ways. When we had this fire conference with Dr Brown who preached repentance and holiness last week and brought the saints to a level many of them who attended have since told me they’ve seldom–if ever–experienced for themselves, I have got to wonder….

The elevator ride, or the destination?

If you have never had a chance to read the book of Dr Michael Brown’s entitled “A Time for Holy Fire“, I highly encourage you to as some of my remarks are gleaning from that book even if not directly making quotes. One of the things he writes in a chapter entitled “The Proof of the Revival Is In The Living“, he quotes some signs 18th century revivalist Jonathan Edwards gave as being positive signs an alleged ‘revival’ is from God, among which included a hunger for the Word of God and desire to study Scriptures, since if something gets your attention away from His word–even if outwardly it appears from God–the fruit very clearly implies otherwise. Other signs: if Jesus is being lifted up as the center and focus; the desire for the truth and to get the sin out of one’s life.

In a special meeting our ministry team had with him, he used an analogy so simple that I can’t think of it in any other way now, but it’s the idea of riding an elevator: If we need to get to the 50th floor of a building, we’re going to take the elevator and not walk, as the elevator will get us there faster than the many flights of stairs. The destination is the 50th floor, and not the elevator itself. Yet many Christians, with good intentions at that–mistakenly desire–and settle for–the elevator ride, when it’s a means to an end. We shouldn’t desire just a visitation from God that helps raise us up to where we need to be as a Church, but we should be a people who ARE raised up and who are a habitation of the manifest presence of God!  Our goal is not the elevator ride, but ultimately the destination it takes us to. Our goal in and of itself is not the revival, but where that revival brings us–back to life from the dead! Simply put, if we were fully spiritually alive, a revival wouldn’t be so necessary and needed, but because of the condition we’re in as a church, we need to be woken up out of our coma-like state.

If some kind of outpouring of the Holy Spirit takes place in our midst and people are getting healed I’m not going to write that off; if something is happening and believers are getting refreshed in God and strengthened in their faith–great. But I will hesitate to throw the word revival on it just because of those things alone if repentance isn’t also a hallmark or fruit. For me, a true revival means fire. Fire burns up the sacrifices presented on the altar. Revival doesn’t just result in a Holy Ghost bubble bath.

In a previous post of mine, specifically on the fire of God, I stated that the closer we are to Him and His consuming presence, the less we are like this world we’re surrounded by. The fire of God purifies and purges (1 Peter 1:22-25, Proverbs 17:3). The fire distinguishes and separates wheat from chaff (Luke 3:16-17), soul from spirit, unholy from holy. It brings to the surface the works of the flesh that they may be exposed and repented of. Fire spreads, it ignites. As Leonard Ravenhill stated, fire begets more fire. Likening this to electricity, Dr Brown states:

Some things are good conductors; others are not. High-voltage wires can carry quite a shock; thick rubber will stop the watts in their tracks. So also in the Spirit: A pure heart is easily ignited; unbelief and sin will quickly quench the flames. A holy life will transmit the Spirit’s jolt; the flesh will blunt the force. What about you? What is your spiritual composition? (A Time For Holy Fire, p 182)

Friend, I guarantee you, either repentance will pave the way for revival, or revival will bring to the surface that sin which may be well hidden from others, since one cannot see revival without a pure heart and life, and in the midst of the fire, the dross WILL come to the surface. I say soberly preaching to myself as well as you dear reader: we better be careful what we’re praying for if we aren’t really ready for it.

Revival Fire or Charismatic Hype?

A few years ago I attended an event commemorating the anniversary of the charismatic movement in The Netherlands while I was living there as a missionary at the time. I got emails from people ahead of time promoting this event to be “history making.” The main attraction was a well-known international worship group. As it got dark that night and the contemporary music blared, people started to wave glow sticks and their cell phones around. Despite all the organization that went into planning this, I was confused and befuddled over one key aspect that I felt was missing. I wondered to myself: where was the fire we were commemorating and celebrating?

What I saw was a bunch of glow stick type bracelets wrapped around thousands of wrists as many hands were lifted up in adoration of one true object of affection–Jesus Christ. I heard amazingly anointed worship and musical stylings I personally enjoy blaring through lots of loud speakers. Surely, I was grateful to have gone, don’t get me wrong. But I wondered: where’s the fire? Is THIS what revival is? Just hype and some Holy Ghost goosebumps?

Nearly one hundred years prior, in Azusa street, in Whales, and the various places of the world where the spark of the new restoration of the power of the Holy Spirit was renewed, it spread around the world so that history was made and the face of the Church changed ever since. Peoples’ lives were impacted; missing limbs grew back; some ministers mounted wheelchairs on the walls of their churches to commemorate God healing peoples’ bodies so they didn’t need them anymore. I wondered to myself, if this move carried on for the last 100 years, then where’s the evidence of it? Shouldn’t we have at least what they had then, and have carried it forth further since? Is all we’ve got to show for it a bunch of glow sticks–fake fire light? Hopefully, I am wrong and despite some of the more hype meetings I’ve been in, I can say God IS moving in various places the world over!

I recall seeing a bunch of young people in this one group on the ground that night, and every time I looked at them, I watched them lay hands on one another and the one whose turn it was to be prayed over was just flopping around on the ground and shaking and then they’d take turns and pray for one another. However, when they were done, I noticed some from this group smoking cigarettes. I don’t know their stories before coming to that event, such as how new to the faith they may have been–and I’m all for striking when the iron is hot and receiving from God. When the anointing is present, go ahead and operate in it while the grace is there to do so. But I couldn’t help but think 100 years of Pentecost and all we do is lay hands on ourselves? Watching this is watching the undirected power of a garden hose just flop around on the grass while it sprays in every direction until it’s picked up and directed at a flower garden or plant that needs watering. The point is not that water flows through the vessel-the hose, but that you direct it AT something and bring life to it.

When I think of Christians just laying hands on each other constantly and imparting the life giving power of the Holy Spirit on one another, I think of children spraying each other with a garden hose in their parents’ backyard, while all the plants in the garden die from lack of nourishment. Is it really revival if we have a dying generation all around us, and all we do is hose each other down with the life of the Holy Spirit and have fun? Is it really that special if we’re just in it for the elevator ride?

The fire of God and the power of the Holy Spirit isn’t meant for us to hose each other down–it’s meant to bring life and power to a sick and dying world all around us. Revival is meant to restore to a proper intended state of life and vitality, and even as I post this article on the subject, it still is not even done justice by my mere illustrations and analogies. It just burns in a way that you WILL know when you experience the real thing.

Friend, what do you mean by ‘revival?’

I thought I’d begin the week with a post that’s a little bit more lighthearted than we’re accustomed to here at Fire On Your Head.  I’ve got other things God’s burning on my heart sitting in draft form that I will post in the coming weeks.  I know my sparkling personality tends to shine forth in the majority of the posts I share anyway, but I usually leave my more lighthearted sarcasm for my own

You’re Not Saved Unless You Speak In Tongues?

I got the idea for such a post after having just watched a video of a guy going on and on (and on and on…) to his church or youth group (I couldn’t tell who) teaching them “if you’re ever around a charismatic who teaches you need to speak in tongues in order to saved, get the heck away from them”, and it made me think of different misconceptions I used to have about charismatics–such as us evangelicals not truly being saved unless one speaks in tongues–that I used to be spoon-fed by various evangelicals in my life with an ‘us versus them’ mentality towards Pentecostals.  Frankly, whenever I hear weird accusations like that I always wonder if these people have ever actually met a charismatic? In fact, recently I found myself visiting an evangelical blog and message board dedicated completely to the charismata, and you guessed it, not a single commenter or poster was actually pentecostal or charistmatic, but ‘knew someone who was’ or ‘used to be a part of a church like that’.  It always led me to wonder where such churches were, since I was learning for the first time just what it was I supposedly believed and practiced.  I would have been more than happy to be consulted about it if they really wanted an objective insight from on the inside.

Lately I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to teach in a weekly chapel service at a seminary here in Lima, Peru (where I’m a missionary for those who don’t know).  Since I’m encouraging the students in their spiritual walk and the practice of speaking in tongues, I found myself preparing for and gathering every and any objection and misconception people have, and it got me a chuckling to come across some things on the internet.

You see, I grew up in an evangelical brethren church.  Don’t ask me what that means, because when I was a part of it I didn’t know either–I just knew we were “us” (whatever that was) and not “them” (charismatic/pentecostal).   This particular fellowship is a lot more open and progressive now as the years have passed, but that doesn’t stop some of the things dear saints have told me over the years.  I also used to work with a lot of pentecostal Bible college students at a drop-in center back home in my hometown in Canada, and many people from the rival brethren Bible college in town taught me “those pentecostals believe you need to speak in tongues in order to be saved“. So what did I do? I asked the pentecostal students myself!  I was only 17 or 18 years old, but I’ve always had a desire to get to the bottom of things.  Usually the pentecostals would tell me “of course you’re still saved even if you don’t speak in tongues.” And, I have never in 13 years of being a believer actually come across ANY charismatic–or someone who’d call themselves one–say or believe that I or anybody else was not saved while I was unable to speak in tongues.  Probably because statistically speaking, such a huge number of charismatics don’t even speak in tongues themselves nowadays–which confuses me as to how they can even call themselves either of those things if there isn’t a distinction to them, but I digress.

So why do so many non-charismatics peddle this untrue misconception?

At first, I was thinking of making a list, like “top ten weird things charismatics believe”, but then decided to open it up to other authors of this site or regular guests of the Fire On Your Head podcast to see if anybody wanted to make a multiple-part series with me, and give more focus to each point, especially since I didn’t think I’d be funny enough to take the list approach.  I got little reaction, because it turns out everybody else got saved fresh into charismatic churches.

So just what are some weird and silly things that you’ve seen come up in interdenominationalism (is that even a word?) between the pentecostals and the evangelicals that gets touted as matter of fact without question or even talking to a charismatic tongue talker?  I’ve received a few nuggets of feedback I think will help start the discussion.

“Tongue-talkers have a box up at the altar with rattlesnakes in it.”

I had never heard of this one before, but I learned it from teacher Brian Parkman from the FIRE School of ministry, and I have subsequently been told apparently there are fringe groups who practice snake handling.  And of course, people who are adverse to the Pentecostal movement who’ve heard of that,  lump all of us into that category–but this is one of the more laughable misconceptions I’d come across.   Not all of us are snake handlers!

When writing the other FOYH guys about if they wanted to participate in a series or an article about this, Joel Crumpton told me:

“I remember when I was a captain on the Holy Spirit Team at Brownsville during the revival. I found out a lot about what people believe about speaking in tongues. As far as MY experience goes, the only group I saw that was taught you HAD TO speak in tongues to be saved were people from the United Pentecostal Church (UPC).
Because of this many of the members of this group sneaked in to the revival and came back to the choir room (where we ministered to candidates for the baptism in the Spirit).  They stood out from the rest, because they always looked so desperate. I would always take them (and everyone else) through Acts 8, where the Samaritans “…believed Philip… and were baptized, both men and women”. Then “… the Apostles… at Jerusalem sent to them Peter and John… to lay hands on them that they might RECEIVE the Holy Spirit”.

It was a rare thing if any of them left without receiving. But they would always be the most exuberant as they were leaving!   Imagine going to a Church, perhaps for years, and TRYING to speak in tongues so that you would know you were finally saved.

It was an interesting experience, to say the least.”

I remember before I went to Pensacola, Florida (where the Brownsville Revival Joel mentions took place) and had people in my life back in Canada “warn me” about going to it because of rumors or opinions they had about what happened in the Toronto Blessing, and automatically assumed the two things were correlated, and warned me with sincere, but yet silly warnings like:

“If you hear anybody speaking in tongues–run the other way–it’s the devil!”

or “don’t let anybody lay hands on you when they pray for you, so they can’t transfer a demon to you!“

The tongues-being-of-the-devil thing always got me confused, because in the Bible they didn’t seem to be getting filled with demons when they spoke in tongues.  I also never once heard of some heathen rebels, standing on a street corner outside a Pentecostal church while all the congregants exited and were speaking in tongues, and one of the heathen said to the other “what is that thing they’re saying“.

The other responds, “oh, they’re speaking in tongues–it’s of the devil.“

Then the other unsaved guy scratches his head, and says to him “well, if it were of the devil, wouldn’t we be doing it, too?”

Some other thoughts I received from others:

I believe in physical healing and pray for the sick, yet I am thrilled to provide wheelchairs and comfort for the sick. I believe the dead can be raised but don’t “go for it” at every funeral or even talk about it to anyone often, except for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I don’t believe for a minute the nonsense of generational curses in the life of a believer, and believe even less in man-made programs to deal with the devil. Yet I will address the darkness when I know there is something real to be addressed. I believe demons fight a person not because of the past, but because they’re afraid of their future. I believe we are more secure in our right standing with God than classical Pentecostal theology permits, etc…

That’s why I think it would be good to stratify pentecostals.

-Gregg Montella (since he was the first to answer me when I put the feeler out there)

Other amusing and scary misconceptions I received from either our podcast fan page or Twitter when I posed the question:

• “There are Pentecostals who don’t believe you are saved until you are baptized specifically “in the name of Jesus”.

• “Another thing most people believe about Pentecostals, probably because of the loudest and most visible it is true, is that we are the most hateful, negative, judgmental, and sin-obsessed group of Christians on the planet. Not true however of the new generation rising that holds to Spirit-filled ideology but refuses to make mistakes of the Azusa-ites.”

• “Definitely worth mentioning is the idea a lot of people have that Pentecostals are ignorant, uneducated people who either prey upon the weak or are preyed upon. Many think of either backwoods religion or inner-city storefront charismata, each complete with their own brands of satan-obsession and superstitious/make believe ways of dealing with “the devil”. A lot of people think Pentecostals take no responsibility for themselves (blaming their woes on either God or Satan), and thrive by keeping their people uneducated (out of “evil” i.e. practical) universities. This stereotype is unfortunately true, as an overwhelming majority of us Pentecostals in America and around the world are without a university education.”

• “We allow ourselves to be guided by emotion alone (which unfortunately some do)”

What are some of the weirdest Pentecostalisms you’ve ever been told or believed?  I started with tongues-related ones since that’s obvious and easy, and probably the most common. 

Steve Bremner is a missionary to Peru, called to raise up disciples who flow in the power of the Holy Spirit. He is general editor of Fire Press, and also produces & co-hosts its podcast called Fire On Your Head. Visit his personal site at http://stevebremner.com 

“O God, we have heard with our ears,
Our fathers have told us
The work that You did in their days,
In the days of old.
You with Your own hand drove out the nations;
Then You planted them;
You afflicted the peoples,
Then You spread them abroad.
For by their own sword they did not possess the land,
And their own arm did not save them,
But Your right hand and Your arm and the light of Your presence,
For You favored them. “

Psalm 44:1-3

Brothers and Sisters,

I know that many of you are seeking miracles and healing; I am too. We read in the Word of the glorious healings and miracles that Jesus performed. He commissioned His disciples to do the same, and they did. He told His disciples to teach their disciples to do these same works, and their disciples did!

When you study Church history, you see that the gifts of the Spirit, including miracles and healing did not die out with the apostles, but in the following centuries they became scorned and people stopped walking in them. The Bible never gives any indication that the gifts should cease. God reveals Himself from the book of Exodus 5 on as “The Lord your Healer.” So why do we see a lot less healing than we would like to see?

I feel like God is helping me to understand part of the problem. Feel free to disagree if this doesn’t bear witness with you, but I feel like it may be helpful.

Think about this: when a person has been bound to a wheelchair for years and the Lord heals them, they often need help to get out of their wheelchair and begin walking, they lean on someone, they take a few steps—more than they could take before—and then they need to sit and rest. We say, “His leg muscles haven’t been used in years. Though God has healed him and his legs work again, his muscles need to readjust.”

Well unfortunately for centuries the Church has put the gifts of healing and miracles into a wheelchair and declared they don’t work anymore.  There has always been a remnant who still practiced healing and miracles, and today many people believe and see healings and miracles, and many more pray and want to see them on a regular basis and believe that God still does these things through us.

So what’s the big deal?

Our expectancy for healing and miracles is kind of like that man’s legs: we know it’s available, but we are slowly moving into the ability to walk in these gifts. Why? Because we “retired” them for so long that when we were saved, born into faith, we saw no expectancy to see healings. It’s not the Christian culture we were born again into, it wasn’t “ordinary Christianity” to us. So though we believe it can happen, our faith is hindered because our expectancy is low.

Here’s another example. I have lately observed that brand new Christians who are in an environment where the believers pray in tongues, prophecy, and so on,  have complete expectancy that they will receive the gift of tongues or that they can hear from God. Why? Because what they see in the Christians around them is what they perceive to be “normal” for Christians. They put two-and-two together, and think “I’m a Christian, so I can be filled with the Spirit and speak in tongues. I can hear from God in prophetic dreams or words, etc.” So when someone asks them, “Would you like to be filled with the Holy Spirit and receive a prayer language that will help you to walk in the rest of the gifts God want to use you in?” The new believer says “yes”, we lay hands on them, and 3 minutes later, they are feeling the power of God on their bodies and they’re off babbling in tongues. A week or two later they’re sharing a dream that they had and saying, “God spoke to me in this dream.” And sure enough, it comes to pass. However, myself and others who came to Christ in churches that didn’t believe in tongues have had to spend a year or two just wrestling with whether or not it’s right for today. Then when we realize we believe it is right, it often still takes months (for me it took a year) to receive and walk in the Baptism of the Holy Spirit with tongues. Why? Because even though we believe it will happen, our expectancy has been hindered by what we saw or didn’t see in our early days as a Christian. In fact our experience has taught us they don’t happen.

So it is with healing. I believe that as we continue to press in in prayer and in praying for the sick to be healed, the dead to be raised, the demonized to be set free, those in need of miracles to receive them, meals to be multiplied, water to be walked on, walls to be walked through, and every need to be met by our wonderful Father–WE WILL SEE THEM COME TO PASS, AND THEY WILL BEGIN TO HAPPEN WITH REGULARITY! What God wants to do in and through us surpasses our wildest (holy) imaginations!

I believe that we need to realize that we are seeking to recover the ability of the Church to walk in the power she was intended to walk in that has laid dormant for centuries, just like a man reclaiming the ability to walk on his once-paralyzed legs. Even though we believe these things can happen, our expectancy is limited by our experience. When it doesn’t happen, we don’t change our theology! We just realize that we are still trying to get the blood flowing in our numb legs! We try again and never believe that it’s not God’s will because it didn’t happen.

Friends, let us not give up! Keep pressing in! Keep pressing in! Keep pressing in! There will be a day when the uncommon is commonplace if we do not lose heart!

Father, give us the faith to believe beyond our expectancy! Poor out the power of your Spirit without measure! Give us a breakthrough in our expectancy, that we will believe to see things we’ve never seen before!  Amen.

“O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the crannies of the cliff, let me see your face, let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely. Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom.“ Song of Solomon 2:14-15 (ESV)

I originally wrote an article on this a number of years ago specifically about the insights I had at that time about the effects of praying in tongues, but with the revelation and insight into this Bridal paradigm God’s giving me lately–and to flow with the articles I’ve been posting in the last few months–I couldn’t help but feel that a re-working and revisit to this subject were necessary.  Especially in light of our spending significant time lately reflecting on truths of Christ based in the Song of Solomon and talking about “love being more excellent than wine”.  I have always had a profound revelation from this passage about the way speaking and praying in tongues builds up the believer and helps them overcome in their life and ward off the foxes and demons trying to ruin the work of the Spirit in our lives.

The whole book, whether you read it allegorically or just as a song, is about the love between the Bridegroom and His Bride.  We can glean from it in more specific and personal ways for our individual journeys with the Lord, and not just the collective Body of Christ.  When I read these simple yet profound verses in the Song, I’m compelled to think of passages like the following in the Gospel of John:

I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that does not bear fruit He takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in Me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. (John 15:1-8 emphasis mine)

We go to the “hiding place”, signifying a place of privacy, but more specifically that of intimacy with Christ in our relationship with Him.   It speaks of letting Him hear our voice, hence re-enforcing that you can’t only think your prayers, but He desires to hear it out of our mouths as well.  Click here for more articles on the importance of confession and just what it is exactly.  Hearing our voice is also applied to our worship of Him.

The Hebrew for the word “ruin” in S.O.S. 2:15, is Châbal: A primitive root; meaning to wind tightly as a rope, or to bind, specifically by a pledge. It also means figuratively to pervert, or destroy; also to writhe in pain, especially of parturition.  The English Standard Version I quote from uses the word spoil, which shows the same concept.

The foxes represent the devil or demons, and could also be applied to our flesh and our carnal leanings & tendencies.  I believe it represents both: in our own neglect of our relationship with Christ, the opportunity is created for outside spiritual and demonic schemes to come in when we’ve let our guard down through neglect or lack of personal devotion.  In either case, if the foxes are not dealt with at this time, they will cause more damage and be more difficult to overcome.  When we’re growing and the vineyard is in bloom and ripe, THAT is the time they are the most vulnerable and sensitive.  Little foxes can destroy the vine that yields fruit. They do this by gnawing and breaking the little branches and leaves, and the bark, by digging holes in the vineyards, and so spoiling the roots by eating the grapes, and any other way to hinder the growth of the vine.

Our First Fruits

What are vineyards for? Grapes.  And what are grapes used for?  To produce wine.  Chapter 5:22-23 of Galatians lists the fruit of the Spirit, and these are some of the evidences there will be in our lives if we’re intimately connected to the vine, we’ll produce fruit and become more like Him whom we’re beholding and Whose image we’re being transformed into. Though many times different symbols are used in different ways in Scripture, the vineyard is often a type or a symbol of the Church in the New Testament, Israel in the Old Testament, and just the people of God in general. And of course, if you’ve been reading my series on “Love, the More Excellent Way” you’d already be familiar with examples of how wine is correlated with the work of the Holy Spirit, and used in chapter 1:2, and 4:10 in the song as representative of GOOD things and finer pleasures of this world.  The devil is always seeking to destroy us in any way he can.  He desires to ruin the work of the Spirit, in our lives individually and collectively as the Body of Christ, and there’s no better way to do it than at the foundational root level, like the foxes seek to do to the vineyard.

More specifically, we know one symbol for the Holy Spirit is new wine–which is made from fresh just-picked grapes, and the passage here in Song of Solomon talks about how the foxes ruin the vineyards that are in bloom–when they’re young, tender or sensitive.  Most plants and trees require that you remove the first fruits as soon as they appear, and then after that the fruit appears in larger size and more quantity.  But if it’s not obtained properly in that first fruit stage, the tree will never grow properly and yield very much fruit–in other words, will never realize its full potential.  I’m sure there’s a sermon in that on giving God our first fruits with all things in our lives, but that’s another post.  Suffice it to say, it’s the first fruits the foxes are trying to spoil, so the vine never comes to its full potential.  Therefore it’s at this crucial moment the foxes must be stopped from doing any damage or else it will be irreparable and the young one in Christ may not fully recover from the damage caused.

Intimacy with God

God calls us through this passage to the hiding place in the rock (the Rock Christ Jesus) and wants to see our face and hear our voice.  This is indicative of prayer, and definitely indicating intimacy.   Viewing these verses in that lens, we see that going and being alone with God and praying, we’ll wind up “catching those foxes” that ruin the Spirit’s work in our lives because we’re bound to them instead of walking in freedom.  When the vineyard is getting watered with the Word of God (Eph 5:26), then the things of the Spirit, such as the gifts and the fruit, and new wine revelation will flow, and it’s THIS the foxes try to destroy, stop or pervert and prevent from happening.

If you are struggling with fleshly tendencies, or overcoming habitual sin, experience and my understanding of this passage encourages me to encourage you to go be alone with Christ and ‘behold Him’ in this manner. Doing so will help you catch the foxes in your life that spoil the work of the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit in turn will help you grow strong in your inner man to overcome these areas.

Notice how it states in verse 14 that He loves the sound of her voice, so what better thing to be offering up with our voices than tongues since according to Romans 8:26 we don’t know what we ought to be praying?  Jude 20 mentions praying in the Holy Spirit to build ourselves up in the the most holy faith.  Another way of saying it, is that praying in tongues builds up the inner man and helps keep those foxes from spoiling the vine.  Jude was writing to the early Church–which was young and still in formation like ‘tender grapes’–to contend for the faith because false doctrine (foxes) had gotten into the Church and was rendering it powerless at this crucial moment in its history.  Early on, while the Body of Christ was still young and getting established, much like the vineyard with grapes in bloom in spring time–was the most sensitive and important time for false doctrine to be weeded out from spoiling things.  So the remedy to that is verse 20, praying in the Holy Ghost. Praying in the Spirit is our inoculation against false doctrine (the foxes) because it is how the Holy Spirit teaches us.

The Apostle John stated in his epistle: “I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. But the anointing [of the Holy Spirit] that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.” (1 John 2:26-27, emphasis mine, and parenthesis mine).  The Holy Spirit, and abiding in Him IS the way you’ll avoid and be protected from deception.

So the application of this teaching?  Be intimate with Christ, and pray a whole lot in tongues as well. Not only will it help with your understanding and revelation of the Word of God, but it will help crucify your flesh and overcome the foxes that are holding us back.  As you dwell in the pure Word of God and allow it to ‘water your vineyard’, it will result in wine being produced.

The Holy Spirit is more easily able to flow through those who are intimate with Christ.

Related posts:

What Are You Feeding Your Tree?

How’s Your Connection To The Vine?

“How much better is your love than wine, and the fragrance of your oils than any spice!” (Song of Solomon 4:10b)

“And I will show you a still more excellent way.” (1 Corinthians 12:31b)

In the opening of the Song of Solomon—my favorite book in the Old Testament—the Shulammite shepherdess states of her lover that his love is better than wine (SoS 1:2).  Then, midway through the song when he speaks of what fascinates him about her, we’re told the same thing.  This writer believes the Song of Solomon is to be interpreted as a representation of the Bridegroom’s love towards the Church, His Bride.  We know that Jesus is better than anything in this world, and the obvious interpretation of that phrase would lead the believer to say “of course it is!” and agree.

Therefore, if He is saying of her that her love is better than wine, then we can automatically rule out that He’d be saying her love is better than anyless life and died to save us from our sins, and would not have engaged in any carnal pleasure that he’d compare her love with. sin since he lived a sin

No, she finds His love to even be better than the good pleasures of this life, even things that aren’t inherently sinful or wrong and He finds her affection and devotion to Him better than wine–He finds our love towards Him to be more intoxicating than wine, for Scripture says God desires obedience, and loyalty more than sacrifice (Hos 6:6).  If the believer in Christ would get a revelation that they are the apple of God’s eye, and that your love back to Him blows Him away–I’m convinced it would change and sustain us in deeper ways in life and ministry.  So what is the significance of this?

The Love of God as a Motivation for Service and Operation of the Spiritual Gifts

“Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit…To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” 1 Corinthians 12:4,7

In this first entry in our study, we’re going to start by looking at the work of the Holy Spirit involved in our motivation, but in the next study, hopefully we’re going to focus on the role of the Holy Spirit getting us there to maturity in the Love walk.

Oftentimes in the Old Testament, wine is used symbolically to represent the Holy Spirit.  The oft-quoted Ephesians 5:17-21 is not saying the Holy Spirit IS wine or that being filled with Him is like being drunk, but instead when we’re filled we won’t act drunk, but we’ll do the things listed such as “addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.“  We’re going to spend more time on this passage in a later part of this study.

In chapter 12 of First Corinthians, Paul goes into significant detail about the gifts of the Holy Spirit and their operation.  There’s been much debate within the Body of Christ about their use, their importance, which ones are significant, and so on and that’s not the direction I’m going in with this post because there’s other articles on this site that deal with that more effectively.  We’re beginning today with the premise that functioning in the gifts of the Spirit is the norm for the contemporary Church, and that they are exactly what a gift is–something GIVEN to us freely without earning it.  Paul states at the end of this chapter, I will show you a still more excellent way. (v.31)

A more excellent way than what?

The answer is in verse 11: All these [gifts] are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.” Most in the Church emphasize chapters 12 and 14 but skip chapter 13–the “love chapter.”  Then others, fearing misuse of the spiritual enablements, over-emphasize chapter 13 to the exclusion of the other two chapters surrounding it.  Both are necessary, for Paul said “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.“ (v.1-2)

The lesser is included by the greater, but not diminished by it.  The lesser in this case is that the gifts are distributed as the Spirit wills, and the greater work is love.  But, I repeat: the greater doesn’t nullify or do away with the lesser. For example, it is out of love that you will most effectively minister in the spiritual gifts. Maturing into love doesn’t mean you no longer need the gifts.  On the contrary!  Paul didn’t say “instead I will show you a more excellent way“, but he says AND.  The two go together, and the fact he goes into talking about love, is building on the foundation [of the basic use of the gifts], not replacing it.

^“When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” (v. 11-12)

When we are children in the Lord, it is necessary for the Holy Spirit to distribute the gifts in our lives and in the members of the Body of Christ as He sees fit.  When children are little, there is more supervision needed in their lives, even of some good and ‘safe’ gifts they’ve been given.  Maybe, as an example, they are given a computer and hooked up to the internet, but the parents will still put limitations on it such as time allowed, and filter what sites they visit.  But as time goes on and the child matures and is more disciplined and knows how to manage his time well, he proves to be faithful with what he’s been entrusted with, and gradually needs less and less supervision.

But not only that, now the child becomes a fully mature adult, and knows how to use the internet for profitable purposes and no longer uses it just to play video games.  He starts an online business, and donates a large portion of his profits to those in need in other places in the world.  He hears of problems people are going through, and writes e-mails to encourage them.  Now motivated by maturity and love, he knows how to do things without being instructed or given suggestion.  His relationship with his parents has not changed in the fact he’s still their son and they his parents–but he has changed his childish ways and no longer needs the same type of involvement of monitoring his activity online.  Now, he’s grown and is in a relationship with his parents of a more mature nature.  He can be depended on to make right decisions because he is no longer a five year old child.

I realize this example is far from perfect, but I wish to draw the point that the gifts of the Spirit are basic at the fundamental and foundational level–not the “be all and end all” or the telltale sign of spiritual maturity–but the opposite: they’re just a beginning and we’re to move on in maturity from there.  The entire book of Corinthians shows that flawed, imperfect and even selfish people DO still operate in the things the Spirit has enabled them to, but does not signify that they are mature or walking in love toward one another.

So back to the Song of Solomon for a moment: the shepherdess is saying His [Christ's] love is more excellent than the wine–good and noble things, even though they may be Holy Spirit inspired.  If you are being filled with the Holy Spirit–as our familiar passage in Ephesians 5 says–you won’t just be speaking and making melody in your heart, but you will also be “submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ” (v.21).  What is submission more than merely preferring the other person more than yourself, out of the agape love poured out in your heart the more you continually receive infilling of the wine of the Holy Spirit?

Now “your love is better than wine” and “I will show you a more excellent way” both have more significant and impacting meaning to me than they did before the Lord showed me this stuff I’m sharing with you now.

For more on this until I post the next part of our study, it would probably be of benefit to the reader to check a previous post of mine birthed out of meditating on the Song of Solomon, titled Behold, I Stand At The Door and Knock.  I was merely beginning to unpack in that post some of the stuff God has since been impacting me with.

The letter to the Ephesian believers is a vast treasury of wealth and knowledge containing the riches of the spiritual realm. It instructs us with the influence and power that the Church, the fellowship of believers, has as an inheritance in the heavenly places. And it is a declaration of the fulfillment of the times in the church attaining to the prescribed calling and being in the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.

Preface

This is the first of a series of blogs that will contain a study I did a while back outlining key points in Ephesians. This is an exegetical study, one where we go either verse by verse or section by section through the book, and summarize the conclusions derived from the sections in context with the theme of the study.

Introduction

Ephesians is a deep revelation knowledge that only gets deeper and harder to understand, it seems, the more of it you understand and have revelation of. In other words; this is a deep and radical book that reveals mysteries. And the more that the  mysteries are revealed, the more mysteries they lead to.

Ephesians is a revelation of what, how, and why the Church is. This manuscript reveals Jesus’ plan for His church in the earth and in the supernatural realm. I feel that the first three chapters describes who the Church is and what she is called to do, and the second three chapters describe how to attain to this calling and identity. Essentially, I feel the letter to the Ephesians is vital in the understanding of the Church, the direction we must go, in order to get where we are called to be. Therefore I have entitled this study; The Mystery of the Church.

Background

Acts 19 describes when the apostle Paul first came to Ephesus. This is background and context for understanding his intent in the letter which he would later write to them.

There were disciples in the city of Ephesus but they had only received John’s baptism. Paul preached Jesus to them and they believed and were baptized in His name. Next, Paul laid his hands on them and they were filled with the Holy Spirit (vv 1-6). And now a church has been planted in the city.

Paul and his 12 disciples (v 6) began the work of the kingdom in the city. God began to move in very powerful ways. Handkerchiefs that had touched Paul’s body were being brought to the sick and healing them while driving out the evil spirits. The people of the city brought their magic books together and burned them and the word of the Lord was growing mighty and prevailing (20).

To say that this church started in revival would be an understatement. This is a fellowship that knows the power of God and the function of a church in the midst of a society that is steeped in witchcraft. They were able to overcome these things in their foundation as a church.

These are the same people Paul is communicating with in his letter and this will help us understand the context better. He is writing to believers who are filled with the Holy Spirit, on fire with God, healing the sick, driving out demons, and overcoming witchcraft!

In Ephesians 1, he hits the ground running right away in his description of heavenly places. Even though he is not there, he knows they are still in the midst of this supernatural battle and encourages them that in this place, they are blessed (see verse 3).

For more background and information, you can read any commentary, also read Revelation 1-3, where Jesus writes his own letter to the church at Ephesus.

So, we have our context set up to begin going through the book. My aim is to post 1 blog per week on the chapters. Each chapter will consist of 1 or 2 entries, so check back regularly for updates.

I pray that this will be a blessing to you, with a fresh outlook on a deep and rich portion of Scripture that many of us cherish and admire, as with all Scripture.

“Scripture quotations taken from the NASB.”

Disclaimer

These are notes of mine compiled while doing a study of Ephesians at our church. This is not a dogmatic declaration, but one of many views of Ephesians. I am sharing these notes will all because my heart burns for theses things. Feel free to do with them as you like in a way that benefits the kingdom and builds you up. I trust the authorship will remain as it is. Feel free to copy and study, however, copying in any name other than the author is prohibited. If you would like to receive a notebook with all of the notes you may email me at daefire@gmail.com. Thank you for honoring the wishes of FireOnYourHead.org.

These notes are written by David Edwards and are not to be confused with the publication: Ephesians, The Mystery of the Church, A Commentary by MacDonald, William Published in 1968, H. Shaw Publishers (Wheaton, Ill).

[This study is influenced by the leaders who have taught and influenced me; particularly Robert Gladstone of FIRE School of Ministry. Many details in these notes I learned directly from his classes, messages, and notes. To hear Mr. Gladstone's newest messages click here.]

Links for the individual articles are below. Click here for the entire study.

Ephesians Part 1: Introduction

Ephesians Part 2: Chapter 1

Ephesians Part 3:  Chapter 2

Ephesians Part 4: Chapter 3

Ephesians Part 5: Chapter 4a

Ephesians Part 6: Chapter 4b

Ephesians Part 7: Chapter 5a

Ephesians Part 8: Chapter 5b

Ephesians Part 9: Chapter 6a

Ephesians Part 10: Chapter 6b & Conclusion

Ephesians Part 11: Heavenly Places