Fire On Your Head

“But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matt 13:23)

Recently I had heard about a number of tombs being found in Egypt in recent years which contained mummified remains of people.  In the tombs they also had jars which contained seeds that had been preserved in that state for thousands of years. Someone got the idea to sow them and harvest the corn and such contained in the seed to see if there was any significant difference between what they sowed in Egypt over 2700 years ago, compared to the seeds of those types of crops harvested today.  There was no difference, it yielded the same exact thing.  It didn’t matter how old the seed was, because apparently the seeds we’ve passed on from generation to generation, still contained the same crop as those from thousands of years earlier.  It didn’t expire or reach its ‘best before’ date.  All of the image of what that seed was intended to yield remained intact inside it for over 2700 years until it was harvested.

I thought this was simple yet amazing enough of an example of God’s kingdom worth adding to my series on the ‘imperishable seed‘ lately. I highly suggest going over those posts for the benefit of this entry if you’ve never read them before, as many of the Scriptures I’m referencing or taking for granted in this post I’ve been covering more in depth in previous posts for the foundation I’m building on in this one.

Another way I thought about this: I remember as a teenager the days when I used to make mix tapes – long before we had digital mp3 players and iPods (which I thank God for!).  I would take songs on CDs of mine that I wanted to make a mix tape with, and listen to the tape on my Sony Walkman while delivering newspapers.  The quality of the songs–because they were only a copy–would be degenerated compared to the original CD I obtained them from.  If I wanted to make a copy of that mix tape for somebody, I’d have to go to the original CDs again, because if I copied the tape–which itself was just a copy of songs–then the quality of that next tape would be even worse than mine was.  Such was the quality of copying using analog–it gets worse and worse the more you reproduce it from one copy to another.

Natural seed is not like such, and this is certainly not the case with the imperishable seed either (1 Peter 1:23)–it doesn’t diminish, lose anything, or degenerate from one generation to the next as it’s passed on.

The same seed of Christ planted in a believer who was changed by the blood of Christ having put their trust in Him 2000 years ago does the same work in a believer’s heart today.  The seed has not gotten worse the more it was spread.  Kingdom seed is not analog.  Its ‘DNA’ doesn’t change when it’s passed on from one person to another.  If what’s true of the natural seed is true of the spiritual imperishable seed of Christ in us, then it shines light on passages like when Jesus said in John 14:12  “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.”

We are capable of doing at the very least the works, signs and wonders Jesus did, because His imperishable seed–perfect image of His nature–has been implanted in us (1 John 3:9).  But Jesus didn’t stop there, He said we’d do greater works than these.  Whenever I talk to people of certain evangelical persuasions or denominations who don’t believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit–tongues, healing, and what have you–as being for today, I no longer go to the book of Acts to point out that there’s no reason to believe such activity was to stop in the Church, but I point to this aspect of Christ’s character.  If He did certain things, and said we would also and more, AND has planted His seed in us, then nothing of the image in that seed has depreciated over the centuries or degenerated in quality since.  Nothing of His has been lost or diminished in us. He didn’t even say we’d do at least the same He did, but greater works.  I know that sounds blasphemous to some, and is an abused concept by some people, but it’s still what the Word of God teaches and shows.  So the idea it’s arrogant to say believers can heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons or do things Jesus did and said we’d do (Mark 16: 16-18) is strengthened, and “only He can do it” is nullified, because the very nature of Christ is implanted into us as believers when we’re born again.

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. (John 12:24)

Jesus, our ultimate example, left His abode in heaven, and entered our fleshly earth realm, and lived as a man.  He ‘fell into the earth’ and died, that He may be raised from the dead and conquer sin, and in a sense, plant a new work in mankind that would blossom and flourish and that work itself would overcome the sinful, carnal death nature.  Jesus died in order to be gloried, much like a seed.   Seed gives forth after its own kind, and Jesus’ likeness is reproduced into those of us where His seed is implanted.  Who He is, is spread and reproduced in us as we mature and grow and spread the kingdom of God with evangelizing and manifesting the nature of Christ through healing the sick, and giving freedom to the oppressed.

Likewise, in order to obtain the Christ seed, we ourselves die.  We have to give up our life and no longer be in control, or no longer own ourselves, in order to be a part of this spiritual realm.  In order to manifest this heavenly Christ-ruled kingdom, we die to ourselves, and live through Christ.  There can’t be any ounce of self left, because Christ’s nature abides in the believer.  He was not like ‘us’ in our sinful fallen state.  Therefore such sin nature must die–that nature must no longer be nurtured–but the seed of Christ in us watered and nurtured, and cultivated.  The seed of Christ on the inside of us is as holy as how sinful Adam’s seed inside us is evil–the nature that must be killed in order to mature in the nature of Christ.  Galatians 6:7-8 states “For whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.” All opportunities for this flesh nature to grow, or be nurtured, must be cut off.  I encourage reading a previous post for more about the importance of that.

What Exactly is IN the Seed?

“The seed is the word of God.” (Luke 8:11)  This being the case, I’m going to use the word ’seed’ interchangeably with ‘the Word’ of God, and by no means is the following list exhaustive, but I just want to share a few ideas to drive the point home.

“And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish.” (1 Cor 15:37-39)

• It contains what it is to reproduce after, as we’ve already been establishing.

“The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.”(Mark 4:26-28)

• It contains the kingdom of God.  All that is necessary for revival and the kingdom of power spreading is found first in the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear…

“He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.  You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.” (2 Cor 9:10-11)

“Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.” (James 1:21)

“I write to you, young men, because you are strong,  and the word of God abides in you,  and you have overcome the evil one.” (1 John 2:14b)

• It contains your righteous nature and ability to live holy, and to overcome sin and the evil one, and salvation for our souls.  See also 1 John 3:8-10.

By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. (Hebrews 11:3)

“For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God” (2 Peter 3:5)

• It contains creative forces which create and give life.  As you can see, faith is mixed in with this word of God in order to bring forth any creation.  The same properties as mentioned in Hebrews 11:3 are true of seed.  The wood and leaves and fruit and all such things itself are not present in the seed, but the DNA is and in the right conditions, those things come forth out of the ground when it’s planted and nurtured.

I personally believe this ’seed’ is where gifts, talents, skills, and our calling is located.  I won’t be too argumentative if someone disagrees with me, because I can’t completely ‘prove this’, but hear me out:  the same way each and every individual person has specific and unique DNA that makes them who they are, I believe the Lord does with this imperishable seed in all believers.  The same way that the seed in the womb of a woman contains all the information as to who the baby is and will become, its hair color, its personality, and other traits not just physical, I believe the spiritual seed implanted inside the believer contains all the spiritual versions of such DNA and it’s up to us to water and nurture that seed.  It’s up to us to edify, encourage and exhort each other as well (since we are all the collective Body of Christ) into maturity into such things as God has designed for us individuals to become in Him and in His Body.  That’s why some people are capable of not ‘realizing their potential’.  It’s not that some people fail, and others succeed because God is hyper-sovereign and picks and chooses some to be outpacing others, but because He’s deposited in us all we need, and allows us to be stewards of our own edification and growth.

The point of the seed is that it yields and gives forth after itself, and does not remain a seed.  Therefore in an upcoming post, I’ll share some more on how to extract that information from the seed and grow spiritually.

He said therefore, “What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.” (Luke 13:18-19) 

God’s intention is not that we remain in seed form, but grow in such a manner as to produce fruit some thirty fold, some sixty and some a hundredfold.

May it be so in our lives!

A Study of 1 Corinthians 13:10

For we know in part and we prophecy in part; but when the perfect­ comes, the partial will be done away with.

This is an awesome and powerful statement. Therefore, in order for the meaning to be derived we will take an exegetical approach as we examine the context, the meaning of the times, and the application as applied to us today.

 

Schools of Thought

This is a much debated passage that primarily falls into two schools of the thought: The first being the cessationist. The cessationist believe that the gifts of the Spirit ceased in the church after the death of the last biblical apostle or after the completion of the canon of scripture. The second view is primary adopted by Pentecostals and Charismatics. They believe that the gifts of the Spirit are still in operation in the church today.

 

The passage we are studying is one of the primary sections of scripture that cessationist use to validate their view of the doctrine. They believe that the passage makes declaration of the gifts not being needed, therefore ceasing, when the perfect comes; the perfect being the completion of the scriptural canon, i.e. the finished Bible. Now that the bible is complete, we do not need the gifts of the Spirit, the have passed. To them, the early church was immature and childish (cr ref. Eph 4:11-13, vv 11), the gifts of the ministries and the Spirit were given to mature the church. Now that the church is full grown, with a bible, the things which caused the growth are no longer relevant.

 

The Pentecostal/Charismatic view of the passage is that the perfect speaks of the fulfillment of the ages, when we see Jesus face to face. The gifts were given to grow and mature the church into the body and image of Christ. The bible is the living Word that guides us in the ministries and functions of the gifts. The Charismatic view is that all of the gifts of the Spirit and gifts of the ministries are still in operation today, building up the body to the fullness of Christ.

 

Author and Background of the Letter

The apostle Paul wrote at least 4 letters to the church that he planted in Corinth. This is the 2^nd written around 55 AD. The first letter is probably lost, however part of it may be included in 2 Cor 6:14-7:1; and he makes reference to the third in his last correspondence, 2 Corinthians. The letter was written to address a variety of problems in the assembly, accounting for his sudden shifts in the subject matter.

 

Paul begins the letter reinserting that he is a “sent one” or apostle of Christ. This establishes his authority to address issues at hand. In Ch 1 he starts with a division that has occurred over this issue. Some were declaring their leaders as Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas. He responds with the power of the cross. They were concerned over which man they were under, and he revealed the foolishness of this. They should not boast in man but in God.

 

From this perspective we enter the 2^nd chapter. Here he solidifies the statement:

 

And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. 3 I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling,

4 and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. 1 Cor 2:1-5 NASU

 

This is the foundation of their testimony in the Lord and the pretext from which Paul builds on in the remainder of the letter. Their experience was a demonstration of the Spirit’s power. Preaching not from man’s wisdom, but from God’s power will produce faith in the hearers, just as it had for them. And as he continues, he writes that the Spirit is the One who reveals to us the knowledge of God.

 

9 but just as it is written, “THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND which HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.”

10 For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. 11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, 13 which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.

1 Cor 2:9-13 NASU

For without the revelation of the Spirit we will not be able to accept the things of the Spirit of God.

 

14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. 15 But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. 16 For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ.

1 Cor 2:14-16 NASU

 

We are a spiritual and “peculiar people.” We are people of the Spirit. We have authority and power in the supernatural because the Spirit of God lives inside us (vv 3:16). Paul continues in Ch 3 on the same theme. Through a demonstration of power they came to believe in God and now have access to life and knowledge in the Spirit. This is the building that the Lord is constructing in the earth. And when we are in His church, not only are we being built, but we are also building up (vv11-12). He reiterates that we are building according to God and not divisions of men, for we are of the Spirit.

 

16 Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 17 If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are. 1 Cor 3:16-17 NASU

 

When we believe the Spirit of God takes up residence and makes His dwelling inside of us. In the OT, only one priest, one time per year could enter into God’s presence in the temple, the holy of holies. There he made the atonement for the sins of Israel. Now Jesus has made the permanent atonement for the sins of all mankind, ripping the veil that kept us from God’s presence. Now we are the temple, we have access to God’s presence all the time. And from this understand we realize that we owe everything to Christ and He is the One we should boast in.

 

Chapter 4 begins in this way: 4 Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. 2 In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy. 1 Cor 4:1-2 NASU

 

Paul has established that they are a people born of the Spirit (Jn 3:6), and this allows us access to the power, knowledge, and revelation of God. This is the Gospel that we proclaim, the mysteries of God. And if this is our calling, then we should steward the mysteries of God in a trustworthy manner.

 

This sets the tone for the remainder of the letter; he address a variety of things that they are doing out of the Spirit and in the flesh that does not properly demonstrate the kingdom that God is building in the earth, to the city around them, and even to members of their own body.

 

Developing the Context of the Verse

The following chapters cover various concerns Paul has for the church, which may prevent it from functioning in a trustworthy manner in the Spirit; from lawsuits, to immorality, marriage, and use of liberty… This brings us to Ch 12, and the use of spiritual gifts. Before we tackle the issued, remember the context that we have established for these chapters: a people of the Spirit that must function properly.

The twelfth chapter is a description of all of the gifts flowing together. One is not more important than the other, but all are needed for the “common good” (v 7). He then compares the gifts to a human part and how each part is necessary. This is a set up for the underlying issue that he was addressing. In the church in Corinth, there were people in the church who were not using the gifts in an edifying manner. Some would stand and declare whole messages in tongues, without interpretation, and no one knew what was going on. Next, someone else would stand and try to outdo the last person, and so on.

 

They were members of one body, growing in the giftings the Father had given them, to bring about maturity. In the process, they veered off track, and began to try to operate spiritually, in the flesh (Ch 1). They were not trying to build each other up, but it was a contest to see who was most spiritual, which is why some were even picking captains like Paul and Peter.

 

They were basically assembling together and making a bunch of noise. They were missing the one ingredient that would bring them together in unity that would create a harmonious sounding orchestra; love, thus bringing us to Ch 13.

 

13 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. 1 Cor 13:1-3 NASU

Now that context and background has been established, this passage makes more sense. The Corinthians were not loving each other but were in competition with each other. They missed the purpose behind the giftings.

 

35 ” By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:35

God loved us and desires for us to love each other. Love binds us together in the Spirit. As a body we must love one another. If they had love, they would not have been competing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 1 Cor 13:4-7 NASU

 

This statement is not specific for this section but caps off what we have studied thus far. It solves the problems the church is facing. They are a church being built in the Spirit, and they must keep their vision on the love of Christ, or they begin to digress and get their vision on themselves (Mt 16:23).

 

So in light of the context, if we read the next verses in view of the progression through the book, and at face value; removing all external notions; how would we perceive the interpretation?

 

8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part; 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. 11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. 13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love. 1 Cor 13:8-13 NASU

 

In vv 8-9, He is showing that these gifts are simply part of a greater whole. The very reason we have fellowship is to love one another and contribute to the revelation of Jesus in each of our hearts. And if we are not using them in love they are not effective, because one day it will not be like this. We will not see in part, we will see in whole. Now we get prophetic glimpses of Jesus from His Word, His Spirit and His people, but one day, we will see Him face to face.

 

We will study the Greek in a bit, but I am trying to present this in “an as” mode. How would you interpret this if you just read straight through for the first time, like a story? In the context of the book, and the purpose of the content, it is clear that this means that they need to get spiritually focused because the God that Paul has been basing his letter on will be staring us in the face and the important thing is that we used His gifts in love, because now everything is revealed and we need not prophesy about some that is now known fully. You will see Him. Why would I describe or speak in a heavenly language to you about somebody if you were standing right next to them. They will not be needed, but in that moment, love will remain.

 

This section of 1 Corinthians is a major discourse with a purpose of being aware of the Spiritual gifts (12:1). Paul is describing that love must be present for the gift to function properly. The gifts give us a view into the mystery of Christ. In the end, the perfect state will be our earthly relationship with Him culminates into a heavenly one that will last for eternity. “When we see Him we will be like Him.” We will no longer see parts, we will see Him face to face. We will no longer know only partially what He is like, we will know fully, just as He knows us fully.

 

14 Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. 1 Cor 14:1 ESV

 

Now the foundation is set for the operation of the gifts. We are to pursue love and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts. If he had just made a case for them to cessede in this present age, why would he go on to tell them to earnestly desire them? Reading this through, you would not even think that is what he meant. We are to approach the next section with the understanding of love. This is the obvious flow of scripture here. Why would this section even be in here if it was going to go away with the writing of this letter, which is the Bible, part of the canon? If its part, then its part, you cannot pick and choose a date, there are too many in church history to guess at. If this is the inspired word, then it is sealed in the Spirit as it’s written.

 

Chapter 14 is where he specifically addresses the issues we discussed earlier; the proud tongue sermons that needed to go because they did not edify anyone but the person doing it. Now they are free to continue in their gifts in love, which does edify.

 

This teaching on the spiritual gifts starts off in this way:

12 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware. 1 Cor 12:1 NASU

The teaching concludes in this way:

37 If anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that the things which I write to you are the Lord’s commandment. 38 But if anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized. 39 Therefore, my brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy, and do not forbid to speak in tongues. 40 But all things must be done properly and in an orderly manner. 1 Cor 14:37-40 NASU

 

The Lord’s commandment is for us to prophecy and to speak in tongues. It simply has to be in orderly manner. This is the point of the context.

 

(On a side note, vv34-35, women were not permitted to speak in church. This was also a problem at the Corinthian church, they would speak out of turn and interrupt. They sat on the opposite side from their husbands and would yell across the isle, asking what the speaker meant. This is kind of conduct is what Paul was stopping; we was not permanently barring women from speaking in church.)

 

Context is the key to making proper interpretation and application to understanding scripture in the Spirit. With the understanding of the surrounding verses, v 10 is sandwiched right in the middle, the correct interpretation of the word perfect, should be perfectly clear.

 

Applying the Greek

First, we will give several Greek definitions and applications of perfect. Next, from the meaning, we will derive a context for the Greek, just as we performed an exegesis earlier.

 

Perfect

 

I. Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words

PERFECT (ADJECTIVE AND VERB), PERFECTLY

A. Adjectives.

1. teleios (‎te/leio$‎, NT:5049) signifies “having reached its end” (telos), “finished, complete perfect.” It is used (I) of persons, (a) primarily of physical development, then, with ethical import, “fully grown, mature,” 1 Cor 2:6; 14:20 (“men”; marg., “of full age”); Eph 4:13; Phil 3:15; Col 1:28; 4:12; in Heb 5:14, RV, “fullgrown” (marg., “perfect”), KJV, “of full age” (marg., “perfect”); (b) “complete,” conveying the idea of goodness without necessary reference to maturity or what is expressed under (a) Matt 5:48; 19:21; James 1:4 (2nd part); 3:2. It is used thus of God in Matt 5:48; (II), of “things, complete, perfect,” Rom 12:2 1 Cor 13:10 (referring to the complete revelation of God’s will and ways, whether in the completed Scriptures or in the hereafter); James 1:4 (of the work of patience); v. 25; 18.

2. teleioteros (‎teleio/tero$‎, NT:5046), the comparative degree of No. 1, is used in Heb 9:11, of the very presence of God.

3. artios (‎a&rtio$‎, NT:739) is translated “perfect” in 2 Tim 3:17: see COMPLETE, B.

B. Verbs.

1. teleioo (‎teleio/w‎, NT:5048), “to bring to an end by completing or perfecting,” is used (I) of “accomplishing” (see FINISH, FULFILL); (II), of “bringing to completeness,” (a) of persons: of Christ’s assured completion of His earthly course, in the accomplishment of the Father’s will, the successive stages culminating in His death, Luke 13:32; Heb 2:10, to make Him “perfect,” legally and officially, for all that He would be to His people on the ground of His sacrifice; cf. 5:9; 7:28, RV, “perfected” (KJV, “consecrated”); of His saints, John 17:23, RV, “perfected” (KJV, “made perfect”); Phil 3:12; Heb 10:14; 11:40 (of resurrection glory); 12:23 (of the departed saints); 1 John 4:18, of former priests (negatively), Heb 9:9; similarly of Israelites under the Aaronic priesthood, 10:1; (b) of things, Heb 7:19 (of the ineffectiveness of the Law); James 2:22 (of faith made “perfect” by works); 1 John 2:5, of the love of God operating through him who keeps His word; 4:12, of the love of God in the case of those who love one another; 4:17, of the love of God as “made perfect with” (RV) those who abide in God, giving them to be possessed of the very character of God, by reason of which “as He is, even so are they in this world.”

2. epiteleo (‎e)pitele/w‎, NT:2005), “to bring through to the end” (epi, intensive, in the sense of “fully,” and teleo, “to complete”), is used in the middle voice in Gal 3:3, “are ye (now) perfected,” continuous present tense, indicating a process, lit., “are ye now perfecting yourselves”; in 2 Cor 7:1, “perfecting (holiness)”; in Phil 1:6, RV, “will perfect (it),” KJV, “will perform.” See ACCOMPLISH, No. 4.

3. katartizo (‎katarti/zw‎, NT:2675), “to render fit, complete” (artios), “is used of mending nets, Matt 4:21; Mark 1:19, and is translated ‘restore’ in Gal 6:1. It does not necessarily imply, however, that that to which it is applied has been damaged, though it may do so, as in these passages; it signifies, rather, right ordering and arrangement, Heb 11:3, ‘framed; ‘it points out the path of progress, as in Matt 21:16; Luke 6:40; cf. 2 Cor 13:9; Eph 4:12, where corresponding nouns occur. It indicates the close relationship between character and destiny, Rom 9:22, ‘fitted.’ It expresses the pastor’s desire for the flock, in prayer, Heb 13:21, and in exhortation, 1 Cor 1:10, RV, ‘perfected’ (KJV, ‘perfectly joined’); 2 Cor 13:11, as well as his conviction of God’s purpose for them, 1 Peter 5:10. It is used of the Incarnation of the Word in Heb 10:5, ‘prepare,’ quoted from Ps 40:6 (Sept.), where it is apparently intended to describe the unique creative act involved in the Virgin Birth, Luke 1:35. In 1 Thess 3:10 it means to supply what is necessary, as the succeeding words show.” See FIT, B, No. 3.

From Notes on Thessalonians by Hogg and Vine, p. 101.

Note: Cf. exartizo, rendered “furnished completely,” in 2 Tim 3:17, RV; see ACCOMPLISH, No. 1.

C. Adverbs.

1. akribos (‎a)kribw=$‎, NT:199), accurately, is translated “perfectly” in 1 Thess 5:2, where it suggests that Paul and his companions were careful ministers of the Word. See ACCURATELY, and see Note (2) below.

2. akribesteron (‎a)kribe/steron‎, NT:197), the comparative degree of No. 1, Acts 18:26; 23:15: see CAREFULLY, EXACTLY.

3. teleios (‎te/leio$‎, NT:5049), “perfectly,” is so translated in 1 Peter 1:13, RV (KJV, “to the end”), of setting one’s hope on coming grace. See END.

Notes: (1) In Rev 3:2, KJV, pleroo, “to fulfill,” is translated “perfect” (RV, “fulfilled”). (2) For the adverb akribos in Luke 1:3, KJV, see ACCURATELY; PERFECT in Acts 24:22, KJV, see EXACT. (3) For the noun akribeia in Acts 22:3, see MANNER. (from Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words, Copyright © 1985, Thomas Nelson Publishers.)

II. Thayer’s Greek Lexicon

NT:5046 te/leio$, ‎telei/a‎, ‎te/leion ‎(‎te/lo$‎), in classic Greek sometimes also ‎te/leio$‎, ‎te/leion ‎(cf. Winer’s Grammar, § 11,1), from Homer down, the Sept. several times for <l@v*‎, <ym!T*‎, etc.; properly, brought to its end, finished; lacking nothing necessary to completeness; perfect: ‎e&rgon‎, James 1:4; ‎h( ‎‎a)ga/ph‎, 1 John 4:18; ‎o( ‎‎no/mo$‎, James 1:25; (‎dw/rhma‎, James 1:17); ‎teleiotera ‎‎skhnh/‎, a more perfect (excellent) tabernacle, Heb 9:11; ‎to/ ‎‎te/leion‎, substantively, that which is perfect: consummate human integrity and virtue, Rom 12:2 (others take it here as an adjective belonging to ‎qe/lhma‎); the perfect state of all things, to be ushered in by the return of Christ from heaven, 1 Cor 13:10; of men, full-grown, adult; of full age, mature (Aeschylus Ag. 1504; Plato, legg. 11, p. 929{c}): Heb 5:14; ‎te/leio$ ‎‎a)nh/r ‎(Xenophon, Cyril 1, 2, 4f; 8, 7, 6; Philo de cherub. § 32; opposed to ‎paidi/on ‎‎nh/pion‎, Polybius 5, 29, 2; for other examples from other authors see Bleek, Brief a. d. Hebrew ii., 2, p. 133f), ‎me/xri ‎… ‎ei)$ ‎‎a&ndra ‎‎te/leion‎, until we rise to the same level of knowledge which we ascribe to a full-grown man, until we can be likened to a full-grown man, Eph 4:13 (opposed to ‎nh/pioi‎, 14); ‎te/leioi ‎‎tai=$ ‎‎fresi/ ‎(opposed to ‎paidi/a ‎and ‎nhpiazonte$ ‎‎tai=$ ‎‎fresi/‎), 1 Cor 14:20 (here A. V. men); absolutely, ‎oi( ‎‎te/leioi‎, the perfect, i. e. the more intelligent, ready to apprehend divine things, 1 Cor 2:6 (R. V. marginal reading full-grown) (opposed to ‎nh/pioi ‎‎e)n ‎‎Xristw=|‎, 3:1; in simple opposed to ‎nh/pio$‎, Philo de legg. alleg. i. § 30; for /yb!m@‎, opposed to ‎mantanwn‎, 1 Chron 25:8; (cf. Lightfoot on Col 1:28; Phil 3:15)); of mind and character, one who has reached the proper height of virtue and integrity: Matt 5:48; 19:21; Phil 3:15 (cf. Lightfoot as above); James 1:4; in an absolute sense, of God: Matt 5:48; ‎te/leio$ ‎‎a)nh/r‎, James 3:2 (‎te/leio$ ‎‎di/kaio$‎, Ecclus 44:17); as respects understanding and goodness, Col 4:12; ‎te/leio$ ‎‎a&nqrwpo$ ‎‎e)n ‎‎Xristw=|‎, Col 1:28 (cf. Lightfoot as the synonym above: see ‎o(lo/klhro$‎, and Trench, § xxii.).* (from Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, PC Study Bible formatted Electronic Database. Copyright © 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)_

 

III. Strong’s

NT:5046 te/leio$ teleios (tel’-i-os); from NT:5056; complete (in various applications of labor, growth, mental and moral character, etc.); neuter (as noun, with NT:3588) completeness:

 

NT:5056 te/lo$ telos (tel’-os); from a primary tello (to set out for a definite point or goal); properly, the point aimed at as a limit, i.e. (by implication) the conclusion of an act or state (termination [literally, figuratively or indefinitely], result [immediate, ultimate or prophetic], purpose); specifically, an impost or levy (as paid): (Biblesoft’s New Exhaustive Strong’s Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright © 1994, 2003, 2006 Biblesoft, Inc. and International Bible Translators, Inc.)

 

Perfect here is according to the Greek, the definitions and language used referring to a state of perfection, in which all things are complete. It has almost an apocalyptic tone to it. This the fulfillment of the Body of Christ into perfection. I gander it is safe to say that that has not yet happened, and can only see true fulfillment when the church is glorified in His presence.

 

Originally I was going to hit all of the surrounding Texts, highlighting the key words with their Gr definitions, and that would cause this study to turn into a book. For the remainder of this section I am just going to report to what I have studied.

 

Partial

This is the Greek word meros, from the word, meiromi. It means the receiver’s of one’s portion; a part; a share; case. This is the same Gr word used for “part” in vv 9 and 12.

 

Perfect and partial are the two contrasting elements here. The perfect is the complete, the whole, the end, perfection. The partial is individual pieces of that whole. As the pieces come together, as they were supposed to in proper function within the Corinthian church, then a revelation of an aspect of the mystery of Christ that the Spirit was speaking at the time would have unfolded, causing them to become more mature, growing up into all things, leaving the childlikeness (v 11) resulting in manhood. This is Christian growth.

 

They Lord may give me yellow and you blue, and unless they come together, we will never see green. This is the beauty of the fellowship of believers, the church. This is the masterpiece God is painting in the earth.

 

Eying the Perfect

The Greek language in the following verses I believe is key into tying in the interpretation of the Gr context, specifically v 12.

 

12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. 1 Cor 13:12 NASU

 

Have you ever looked at your reflection on a unpolished or blemished surface? You may see your reflection, an it may even look like you, but it still imperfect, still is not the real thing. In the time of the Corinthians, this is all that they had:

1 Corinthians 13:12

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

Through a glass ‎di’ ‎‎esoptrou‎. The English Revised Version (1885): “in a mirror.” Through ‎dia ‎is “by means of.” Others, however, explain it as referring to the illusion by which the mirrored image appears to be on the other side of the surface: others, again, think that the reference is to a window made of horn or other translucent material. This is quite untenable. ‎Esoptron ‎“mirror” occurs only here and James 1:23. The synonymous word ‎katoptron ‎does not appear in the New Testament, but its kindred verb ‎katoptrizomai‎, “to look at oneself in a mirror,” is found, 2 Cor 3:18. The thought of imperfect seeing is emphasized by the character of the ancient mirror, which was of polished metal, and required constant polishing, so that a sponge with pounded pumice-stone was generally attached to it. Corinth was famous for the manufacture of these. Pliny mentions stone mirrors of agate, and Nero is said to have used an emerald. The mirrors were usually so small as to be carried in the hand, though there are allusions to larger ones which reflected the entire person. The figure of the mirror, illustrating the partial vision of divine things, is frequent in the rabbinical writings, applied, for instance, to Moses and the prophets. Plato says: “There is light in the earthly copies of justice or temperance or any of the higher qualities which are precious to souls: they are seen through a glass, dimly” (“Phaedrus,” 250). Compare “Republic,” vii., 516.

Darkly ‎en ‎‎ainigmati‎. Literally, “in a riddle or enigma,” the word expressing the obscure “form” in which the revelation appears. Compare ‎di’ ‎‎ainigmatoon ‎“in dark speeches,” Num 12:8.

Face to face. Compare “mouth to mouth,” Num 12:8.

Shall I know ‎epignoosomai‎. American Revised Version, rightly, “I shall fully know.” See the note on “knowledge,” Rom 3:20. The King James Version has brought this out in 2 Cor 6:9, “well known.”

I am known ‎epegnoostheen‎. The tense is the aorist, “was known,” in my imperfect condition. Paul places himself at the future standpoint, when the perfect has come. The compound verb is the same as the preceding. Hence, the American Revised Version, “I was fully known.” (from Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament, Electronic Database. Copyright © 1997, 2003, 2005, 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)_

We have yet to see Jesus face to face. We have a relationship with Him and the Spirit and the Word. They are here to guide us, to make us more like Him until we get to see Him as He is in His glory. This has not happened yet, so we need the gifts that He has given us by His Spirit, along with the Word to help lead us through this like so we can mature and grow and become complete in Him. This is why I entitled this Eying the Perfect, for we are beholding an image, the image of God, greater than our selves. The more we see this image, the more we are changed into that image, transformed from glory to glory.

Application of the Times

In the times in which Paul wrote this letter, this is what he meant. We will never have the correct application for our day without an understanding of what was meant when it was first written. With this knowledge we can then apply it to our day and generation. This is why some people think women still have to wear their hair in a bun. There is a need in the earth for the truth, a plumb line that stretches throughout Scripture to be revealed. The following are some excerpts from commentaries to add to the background of the passage.

IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Teatament

1 Corinthians 13:8-13

13:8-13. As in verses 1-3, Paul demonstrates here that love is a greater virtue than the gifts; in this case it is because love is eternal, whereas the gifts are temporary. Some *Old Testament prophets predicted the outpouring of the *Spirit in the final time, accompanied by ability to speak under the Spirit’s inspiration (Joel 2:28); but other *prophecies noted that all the citizens of the world to come would know God, hence there would be no reason for exhortation (Jer 31:33-34). Paul believes that the time of the Spirit’s gifts, including mere human knowledge, is the current time, between Jesus’ first and second comings (cf. 13:10,12).

 

Mirrors (13:12) were often made of bronze, and given the worldwide renown of Corinthian bronze, would perhaps strike the Corinthians as a local product (also 2 Cor 3:18). But even the best mirrors reflected images imperfectly (some philosophers thus used mirrors as an analogy to describe mortals’ searching for the deity); contrast the more open revelation of Ex 33:11; Num 12:8 and Deut 34:10.

(from IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament by Craig S. Keener Copyright © 1993 by Craig S. Keener. Published by InterVarsity Press. All rights reserved.)

Barnes’ Notes

1 Corinthians 13:10; 1 Corinthians 13:11; 1 Corinthians 13:12

 

1 Corinthians 13:10

But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

[But when that which is perfect is come] Does come; or shall come. This proposition is couched in a general form. It means that when anything which is perfect is seen or enjoyed, then that which is imperfect is forgotten, laid aside, or vanishes. Thus, in the full and perfect light of day, the imperfect and feeble light of the stars vanishes. The sense here is, that “in heaven” – a state of absolute perfection-that which is “in part,” or which is imperfect, shall be lost in superior brightness. All imperfection will vanish. And all that we here possess that is obscure shall be lost in the superior and perfect glory of that eternal world. All our present unsatisfactory modes of obtaining knowledge shall be unknown. All shall be clear, bright, and eternal.

1 Corinthians 13:11

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

[When I was a child] The idea here is, that the knowledge which we now have, compared with that which we shall have in heaven, is like that which is possessed in infancy compared with that we have in manhood; and that as, when we advance in years, we lay aside, as unworthy of our attention, the views, feelings, and plans which we had in boyhood, and which we then esteemed to be of so great importance, so, when we reach heaven, we shall lay aside the views, feelings, and plans which we have in this life, and which we now esteem so wise and so valuable. The word “child” here

neepios

denotes properly a baby, an infant, though without any definable limitation of age. It refers to the first periods of existence; before the period which we denominate boyhood, or youth. Paul here refers to a period when he could “speak,” though evidently a period when his speech was scarcely intelligible-when he first began to articulate.

[I spake as a child] Just beginning to articulate, in a broken and most imperfect manner. The idea here is, that our knowledge at present, compared with the knowledge of heaven, is like the broken and scarcely intelligible efforts of a child to speak compared with the power of utterance in manhood.

[I understood as a child] My understanding was feeble and imperfect. I had narrow and imperfect views of things. I knew little. I fixed my attention on objects which I now see to be of little value. I acquired knowledge which has vanished, or which has sunk in the superior intelligence of riper years. “I was affected as a child. I was thrown into a transport of joy or grief on the slightest occasions, which manly reason taught me to despise” – Doddridge.

[I thought as a child] Margin, “Reasoned.” The word may mean either. I thought, argued, reasoned in a weak and inconclusive manner. My thoughts, and plans, and argumentations were puerile, and such as I now see to be short-sighted and erroneous. Thus, it will be with our thoughts compared to heaven. There will be, doubtless, as much difference between our present knowledge, and plans, and views, and those which we shall have in heaven, as there is between the plans and views of a child and those of a man. Just before his death, Sir Isaac Newton made this remark: “I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself by now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me” – Brewster’s Life of Newton, pp. 300,301. Ed. New York, 1832.

1 Corinthians 13:12

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

[For now we see through a glass] Paul here makes use of another illustration to show the imperfection of our knowledge here. Compared with what it will be in the future world, it is like the imperfect view of an object which we have in looking through an obscure and opaque medium compared with the view which we have when we look at it “face to face.” The word “glass” here

esoptron

means properly a mirror, a looking-glass. The mirrors of the ancients were usually made of polished metal; Ex 38:8; Job 37:18. Many have supposed (see Doddridge, in loc. and Robinson’s Lexicon) that the idea here is that of seeing objects by reflection from a mirror, which reflects only their imperfect forms. But this interpretation does not well accord with the apostle’s idea of seeing things obscurely. The most natural idea is that of seeing objects by an imperfect medium, by looking “through” something in contemplating them.

It is, therefore, probable that he refers to those transparent substances which the ancients had, and which they used in their windows occasionally; such as thin plates of horn, transparent stone, etc. Windows were often made of the “lapis specularis” described by Plint (xxxvi. 22), which was pellucid, and which admitted of being split into thin “laminae” or scales, probably the same as mica. Humboldt mentions such kinds of stone as being used in South America in church windows-Bloomfield. It is not improbable, I think, that even in the time of Paul the ancients had the knowledge of glass, though it was probably at first very imperfect and obscure. There is some reason to believe that glass was known to the Phenicians, the Tyrians, and the Egyptians. Pliny says that it was first discovered by accident. A merchant vessel, laden with nitre or fossil alkali, having been driven on shore on the coast of Palestine near the river Belus, the crew went in search of provisions, and accidentally supported the kettles on which they dressed their food upon pieces of fossil alkali.

The river sand above which this operation was performed was vitrified by its union with the alkali, and thus produced glass-See Edin. Encyclopedia, “Glass.” It is known that glass was in quite common use about the commencement of the Christian era. In the reign of Tiberius an artist had his house demolished for making glass malleable. About this time drinking vessels were made commonly of glass; and glass bottles for holding wine and flowers were in common use. That glass was in quite common use has been proved by the remains that have been discovered in the ruins of Herculaneum and Pompeii. There is, therefore, no impropriety in supposing that Paul here may have alluded to the imperfect and discolored glass which was then in extensive use; for we have no reason to suppose that it was then as transparent as that which is now made. It was, doubtless, an imperfect and obscure medium, and, therefore, well adapted to illustrate the nature of our knowledge here compared with what it wilt be in heaven.

[Darkly] Margin, “In a riddle”

en

ainigmati

. The word means a riddle; an enigma; then an obscure intimation. In a riddle a statement is made with some resemblance to the truth; a puzzling question is proposed, and the solution is left to conjecture. Hence, it means, as here, obscurely, darkly, imperfectly. Little is known; much is left to conjecture; a very accurate account of most of that which passes for knowledge. Compared with heaven, our knowledge here much resembles the obscure intimations in an enigma compared with clear statement and manifest truth.

[But then] In the fuller revelations in heaven.

[Face to face] As when one looks upon an object openly, and not through an obscure and dark medium. It here means, therefore, “clearly, without obscurity.”

[I know in part] 1 Cor 13:9.

[But then shall I know] My knowledge shall be clear and distinct. I shall have a clear view of those objects which are now so indistinct and obscure. I shall be in the presence of those objects about which I now inquire; I shall “see” them; I shall have a clear acquaintance with the divine perfections, plans, and character. This does not mean that he would know “everything,” or that he would be omniscient; but that in regard to those points of inquiry in which he was then interested, he would have a view that would be distinct and clear-a view that would be clear, arising from the fact that he would be present with them, and permitted to see them, instead of surveying them at a distance, and by imperfect mediums.

[Even as also I am known] “In the same manner”

kathoos

, not “to the same extent.” It does not mean that he would know God as clearly and as fully as God would know him; for his remark does not relate to the “extent,” but to the “manner” and the comparative “clearness” of his knowledge. He would see things as he was now seen and would be seen there. It would be face to face. He would be in their presence. It would not be where he would be seen clearly and distinctly, and himself compelled to look upon all objects confusedly and obscurely, and through an imperfect medium. But he would he with them; would see them face to face; would see them without any medium; would see them “in the same manner” as they would see him. Disembodied spirits, and the inhabitants of the heavenly world, have this knowledge; and when we are there, we shall see the truths, not at a distance and obscurely, but plainly and openly.

(from Barnes’ Notes, Electronic Database Copyright © 1997, 2003, 2005, 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)

 

Life in the Spirit New Testament Commentary

 

Love in an Eschatological Context (13:8-13). The opening and closing statements of this section underscore the eschatological context: “Love never fails”; faith hope and love remain… “but the greatest of these is love.”

 

Verse 8-10 highlight the permanence of love and the impermanence of spiritual gifts: “Love never fails [pipto]” (v 8). Pipto means to fall, collapse; in context, it here means that love will never cease to exist. On the other hand, prophecies, tongues and knowledge (word of knowledge?) will cease “when the perfect comes” (v 10). They function, nevertheless, in the here and now and contribute to the upbuilding of God’s people. “Knowledge and prophecy are useful lamps in the darkness, but they will be useless when the eternal day has dawned” (Robertson and Plummer, 297). The termination of these gifts is expressed by two different verbs: katargeo, used with “prophecies” and “knowledge,” means to render ineffective or inoperative, to cease or pass away; pauo, used with “tongues,” means to stop or cease. Paul is not suggesting a subtle difference between the two words, the variations is for rhetorical reaons (see Carson, 66-67).

 

The reason for the cessation of the gifts is that knowledge and prophesying (also tongues?) are only “in part” and are consequently imperfect (vv. 9-10); they will no longer be needed when “the perfect” (NASB) comes. Knowledge in this present life, whether acquired by human effort of by revelation, will never be complete. The statement about the coming of the perfect must be understood here in an eschatological sense, as the consummation of all things (Hering, 141-142). At the coming of the Lord, we will be like Him (1 John 3:2) and will transcend the need for partial, imperfect, and temporary insights and revelations.

 

Verses 11-12 illustrate the imperfect-perfect contrast in two ways. (1) Speaking in the first person. Paul says that childhood speech, thinking, and reasoning are appropriate for a child, but the child must not remain a child. There is a twofold purpose in what Paul says: (a) The Corinthians are in a state of arrested spiritual development (3:1-3), particularly in the present context in their understanding of spiritual gifts. (b) In this present life all Christians are immature to some degree. Complete maturity will take place at Parousia.

 

(2) Paul draws on the analogy of a mirror. “Now we see in a mirror dimly [en ainigmati]” (NASB). The English word “enigma” (riddle) transliterates the Greek noun ainigma; in using it Paul probably had in mind Numbers 12:6-8. First century mirrors were polished metal; some of the finest were made in Corinth. Only the more wealthy could afford a mirror of good quality, and even those were not always free of imperfections. Furthermore, a mirror by its nature distorts because its reflection is the reverse of the person or object before it. But someday we will see “face to face,” which is “almost a formula in the Septuagint for a theophany” (Carson 71, who cites Gen. 32:30; Duet. 5:4, 34:10; Judg. 6:22; Ezek 20:35).

 

The now-then motif continues: “Now I know [ginosko] in part; then I shall know fully [epiginosko], even as I am fully know [epiginosko].” Epiginosko is a compound form of ginosko and here denotes knowledge that is full and complete. For the believer such knowledge will take place at the coming of the Lord. The last clause is best understood to mean, “as I was fully known [by God]” (see comment on 8:3). God’s full knowledge of Paul is already complete; Paul’s full knowledge of God is yet future.

 

Throughout this chapter Paul corrects the mistaken notion of some Corinthians that they had already entered the age to come. Applications of his teachings on love to that situation are obvious though chapter 14 will make some of them specific. (Life in the Spirit New Testament Commentary, 879-880.)

 

Conclusions

God is building His people in the earth. A nation, Israel was formed through which a Messiah would come to save the world by restoring their relationship to the Father in the Holy Spirit. Jesus life was an example and testimony of how to live this way. He died and resurrected to reproduce Himself in individuals that constitute a church, His body; doing grater things than He did in the earth.

 

12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. 13 ” Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.

John 14:12-14 NASU

 

If He died to create this in the earth then why would He undo shortly thereafter?

18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. Rom 8:18-22 NASU

I have studied a number of cessationist’s views and their reasoning comes primarily down to two things. They believe that the Bible is the perfect in itself, the fulfillment of Christ in the earth. The bible is the key to unlocking the fullness in someone’s life through the power of the Spirit living in them. And to, simply, they wither do not see miracles, so the gifts, they conclude, must have passed, or they just don’t believe.

 

After the joining of the church with Rome the ones of the Spirit became a remnant that spanned throughout church History. Just because the church compromised, and the gifts were rarely seen by the powers that be, doesn’t mean that the gifts ceased. I am reminded of a comment made in church history. One said, “The church can no longer say, silver and gold have I none,” in which the other responded, “No longer can we say, In the name of Jesus, rise up and walk either.” The world needs a demonstration of the Spirit’s power in His people (1 Cor 2:4). We are supposed to be a supernatural people reflecting Jesus in the earth.

 

Do you honestly think that the church today is the fulfillment of the Body of Christ in the earth, the mature man walking in fullness. I mean seriously, the canon being closed, how do we get that, unless we add it. The canon being applied to this term in context would not make sense because the people he was writing to would have been dead for three to five hundred years before the matter was finalized. The bible is here to guide us to maturity, to be Christ like, He was the embodiment of power from on high, and the church is now supposed to be that image in the earth doing greater things. If the canon was the fulfillment then why are we here? Oh? we have to preach to the nations? Preach what?, read this book, no we illustrate the book by walking in power it describes!!!

 

The point of these letters was the need for the gifts to reach maturity, and that is why we read them today. Where is the transition into the supernatural? We were not created to live mundane, natural; we are the children of God the nations long to be revealed. Why read a book full of power, stories, and experiences with God that clearly states that the promise is for us too, on a greater level, and then say we don’t need that because we have the book! This is missing the whole point. It is the same thing the Pharisees did that caused them to miss what God was doing in their generation. They looked for something in the letter so intently that they missed the application of the heart. The book is here for the experience, to ignite our relationship with God into a fire that lights up the whole earth.

 

How will those around us see Jesus, through the mirror of our hearts. This is a dim view, but soon they will come to know Him personally, which is the means to seeing Him face to face. What do I have to prophecy about Jesus when I am looking Him in the face? There will be no need. But here The mystery is constantly being revealed, and The Holy Spirit leads us in His likeness and shows us in essence, ”what would Jesus do?”

 

If we are His body, and He we know from the BIBLE, would heal someone, then how can we justify that we have a book, so we should not, when the very book commands us to? One word in one verse doesn’t eliminate chapter after chapter of the absolute essentialness of the Gifts of the Spirit and the relationship with His Spirit to effective minister the Gospel in the earth.

 

An instruction manual will not put together a new cabinet for you, it will guide you properly.

 

Read the Bible for what it says and start a revolution against the powers of darkness. Kick out diseases, and enforce the kingdom saving power of grace preaching the word at all times everywhere the opportunity presents itself.

There comes a time in every believers life that the opportunity for growth comes. It is my experience that those waho are hungry for the truth are fed by the Lord. The truth is Jesus. The Christian life is one of growth, and growth brings discipline, change, trials, pruning, and also maturity and fullness for those who are willing for it. It is no accident that the those who seek truth fine it. Often they find themselves in situations they did not anticipate nor expect that require change that they did not know they needed, in order to engae in a greater reality than they realized even existed. This is the very process being described in 1 Corinthians 13:10-13.

 

Father, I pray in the Name of Jesus that Your words prevail in this teaching. May that which is of the flesh fall to the ground and that which is of the Spirit bring life and fruit. May all who read this be ignited with a passion for you and a desire to function in a worthy manner of love in the gifts of the Spirit. May all of us be eying the perfect. Amen!

Over the past few months I started writing down some of the things that God has done in my life and in the lives of my friends. The Psalmist says “One generation will commend your works to another; they will tell of your mighty acts.” Psalm 145:4. So I just want to take this time and talk about some of the things that happened in my last trimester of FIRE school of ministry.

I was at a prayer meeting and I told a guy named Ernie that I felt like there was anger and fear coming against him. It turns out there is a lot of anger coming against him.
I was emailing my friend Matt back home and I just wanted to encourage him that I was praying for him and not to feel alone because God is with him. And he emailed me back really encouraged and said that he had felt alone because he had just moved into a duplex from a dorm and was feeling really alone.

In the mall I prayed for Heather with a brace on her arm and all the pain went away except when she stretches sometimes.

God gave me the opportunity to go home from school to be at my grandmother’s funeral and on the way back in the airplane I met a really cool hunter from Colorado named Steve. And God just gave me the boldness and grace to share the gospel message with him. It was the first time I had ever done that on a plane so it was a cool day for me and he was a really genuine and nice guy.
At my brother’s wedding I got to pray for my best friend Rob for his voice to get higher again and Rob kept praying after that and God totally restored his voice range one day.
At Christmastime we prayed for my good friend Thomas because of intense sleep problems, they were really messing him up and two days later it broke and he was able to sleep great again!

My roommates and I were all praying together one monday night and Mike Prayed for our neighbours to hear the gospel. And then honestly like just a minute or two later they walked into the house and totally sobered up when they stepped on the carpet even after they drank 12 beer that day. Mike shared the gospel with them and really challenged them to have more than just a mental assent to who God is, they need to live their life for Him.
Mike and Eddy and I were at the Circle K during treasure hunt time and we talked to the lady at the counter and Mike asked her about her daughter and how she was doing. She said “My daughter was kidnapped a year ago” somebody just came to me today asking about her. It’s the saddest thing in my life, I wanted to commit suicide. And we prayed for her and she just felt a refreshing I think and a bit of her burden lift. It was really cool.

Mike and I were walking out of Sam’s club and he sees a big black woman and he asks her if she has “arthritis” she says yeah and we ask if we can pray for her and she says “Yes, as long as you don’t lay hands on me” so that was kind of interesting, we prayed and she said thanks and walked away quickly.

At the bass pro shop we see a guy in a motorized cart. We pray for his ankle that he hurt in a fight and he gets up, he’s like 6′7″ and he looks at us like “Whoah, what did you guys do?” but then as he tests it out the pain started returning to the level that it was normally. But it was really exciting at first!

At Wal-Mart today God blessed us with a lot of people in our path that wanted a touch from him. We prayed for a few people and they were really appreciative and one of the guys named Chuck said “I feel something that I can’t even describe”.

Last week I was in worship and I saw an angel feather fall into my hand and then disappear immediately. The day before another hit my chest and dissapeared. It was just a really cool reminder that God is working and there are things going on in our midst that we can’t even alway see.

We prayed for my sister as a house and she stopped needing sleeping pills for the next while.

Mike prayed for my stuffy nose and all the snot turned to liquid and started pouring out.

I just had been feeling this week that Mike had been thinking less of me that I was wasting time when I would study on my computer. And so I just asked God to remove any bitterness in my heart but I also asked God that Mike would appreciate me and understand me better. And honestly like 30 seconds later he opens my door and says “You’re awesome David”. And we had a really good conversation. It was just a simple little thing but it meant a lot to me.

Wade and a some roommates pray for Mikes back and almost all of the pain goes away

Praise God!!! Every testimony that we hear sets a standard as to what is possible and what is available to us. I’m even just encouraged hearing these again. Feel free to post any of your own in the comments section. God bless.

As it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”–in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.
In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.”
He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb.
No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God,
fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.
That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” (Romans 4:17-22, ESV)

Look at this testimony about Abraham. It says he didn’t waver in his faith. But is that true? I want to show you something interesting. Recall with me if you will that in Genesis 15, he and his wife Sarah were promised the child Isaac, but it was not for roughly 25 years before the child of promise was born. In the next chapter, Sarah gave her maid Hagar to Abraham to bear a child with her, after growing weary of waiting for the promise to come about, and how often are we like them, and we think God needs our help to bring about His promises? How many Ishmaels do we have in our lives because we resorted to “plan B” while waiting on God to fulfill his Word?

Abraham wavered not? Did not weaken in faith? No distrust made him waver? Did the apostle Paul actually read the story of Genesis? Oh, he did alright, and he caught on to something I didn’t necessarily notice until recently. God didn’t look completely at the 25 year span of time it took since the promise was given and the boy Isaac was actually born and find in Abraham a man of doubt. He saw a man of faith ultimately in the whole of the picture. Clearly, we can learn from the life of Abraham two things (at least two from this passage, I’m sure there’s way more things to learn if we went into more thorough study of Genesis). Also, praise God that He looks at the cry of our heart instead of just the last mistake we made or doubt we acted on.

The first one is evident, the second observation of mine is a little more speculative, but not completely unfounded.

First, Abraham clearly didn’t begin with “great” faith to see the promise come about. His faith grew or his heart was changed over time. This is stated in verse 20.

Second, could it be said that we ourselves are in charge of how long it takes for us to believe the promises of God? Can our faith or lack of it accelerate or slow down the process of receiving the promises we’ve been given? I believe so.

Romans 4:20 states that Abraham “grew strong in his faith.” If you can grow strong in your faith, then evidently you can stay weak and not grow at all in faith. I’ve taught that faith is like a seed and we are in charge of watering it ourselves. I believe God gives each of us a seed (so to speak) of faith to each one of us, and some people have greater faith not because God gave them “greater faith” but because they’ve taken more time to grow their seed. Others, keep their seed small, thinking “God will only do what God wills” and take no initiative of their own to believe for greater things. It makes people angry to be told it, but if all it took to move the mountains was faith that stayed the size of a mustard seed, then we’d have all the mountains moved already.

Keep in mind the parable of the sower (Matthew 13:1-9) for a quick sidenote/reference, and how in each instance the seed actually is planted and goes into the soil, but for various reasons like shallow soil, or weeds choking it out, the result is unfruitful, but the one that goes in properly is up to a hundred times more fruitful than its initial form. Do you notice something implicit in the passage? Let me ask you this way: what is easier for the devil to steal–a seed or a tree? That is why we must water our seeds so they grow and become established, making sure also what kind of soil we’re planting in. The conditions of our hearts and minds are important.

Could it be possible, that Abraham is a man whom it took twenty-five years to reach the place where his faith was strong enough to finally receive the promised son? I know some reading this will totally object, because some believe everything is based on the sovereignty of God, canceling out our actions and decisions. But God’s sovereignty is just one side of double-sided coin, and it seems way too many believers only accept one of either sides of it. But that’s for another entry.

For a real cool example I’ve heard and I liked , there’s a difference between how far a car will go if the gas tank is full or if it’s empty. So it is with our faith—are we full or running on empty?

Faith is not believing that if you sit in a chair it will hold your weight (maybe some reading this need HOPE that chairs will hold your weight!)–Faith is not mental, it’s in fact the action of going ahead and sitting in that chair knowing you can.

Let’s also look specifically at the things highlighted in our selected passage:

Do we believe God (v. 17)? I don’t mean mental ascent to what the Bible says. Believing the Bible is like the ‘entry level’ faith. Do we LIVE beyond the mental agreement like it is real?  Is it normal to our lifestyle and beliefs that He gives life to that which is dead, spiritual and physical (v.17)? Do we KNOW and not just think that through him, that which does not exist can be brought to existence?

This statement is one that rocks me when comparing it to my life: Belief against hope (v.18). What does this mean and look like exactly? Remember, Sarah wasn’t the only one that was barren—they were both old, and in Genesis 18 when the three angels/men come to tell Abraham they’d bear a son a year from then, Sarah laughed to herself, saying “After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?” (v.12) We’re all mature who are reading this right? So Abraham’s body was just as unable to take part in creating a child as Sarah’s at their age, but yet he believed against the circumstances, he believed what God said, not what his body demonstrated to be true. So technically two bodies were touched by the power of God to make this miracle happen.

With that said, faith changes circumstances.

Do you weaken in faith (v.19)? Or do circumstances make you change your mind? Do you look at your body and say “sorry God, it just won’t happen.” Or do you look at your body and say “sorry body, but God said________ will happen” and have expectation that things will change?

Some of these truths are life-changing and I know there are pessimistic Christians content to stay in the ruts they are in, but if you really want to rise above circumstances, meditate on this passage and ones like it and really absorb the principles in it, and get to a point where your life resembles who this passage says Abraham was.

That is all for this time.

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

Someone was telling me recently about some observations they’ve made concerning a vine his parents have in their front yard. He was telling me that when the useless branches are cut off, they really don’t do anything but die and need to be thrown away or used in a fire. He went on to explain to me, that if you don’t prune the branches that are bearing fruit, then the vine grows very large, and has leaves and branches everywhere, but only very tiny grapes. The reason you prune the branches is so that the ingredients that travel from the roots in the ground and through the stem will make it all the way to the grapes on the ends of the branches, and thereby produce more in quality and size. The less spread-out their pathways are, the more ‘focus’ and concentration–if you will—the juice will have, so that the fruit that is coming forth will be larger and more plentiful.

So in other words, the energy is channeled into specific branches, instead of spread too thin all over the whole vine.

Time and again, the Bible uses the imagery of wine to describe the Holy Spirit and His work in our lives. We obviously get wine from grapes, and so the implications of this passage and the work of the Holy Spirit are made clear, especially given that in the previous chapter and the one following, Jesus went into detailed explanation of the role He’d play in the believer’s life.

The clearest I have ever been able to hear God clearly, has been when I cut out of my life the junk that kept me just bearing leaves and tiny grapes. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be a leaf-bearing tree. There’s nothing wrong in and of itself when a tree has a lot of leaves—that’s just the point. It may look nice from a distance, but in your hunger when you approach that tree looking for food, you are sadly disappointed and go elsewhere to satisfy that hunger. Jesus cursed a fig tree that only had leaves, but nothing to feed his hunger. What does He think when He comes to your life expecting fruit? Does He find any?

Jude also called such people ‘clouds without water’ (Jude 12), when talking specifically of false teachers. There’s many trees in our midst but since the tree looks good, we think nothing of it. But is your hunger and thirst for spiritual matters satisfied by such? Is there healing in those branches? There’s many false teachers out there, making rules like ‘tongues are not for today‘ and ‘it’s ok to ordain practicing homosexuals to the ministry.’ But the culture around us disintegrates because we the church are mostly clouds without water, trees without fruit substituting power and truth with proper theology.

Jesus Himself told the scribes and pharisees “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” (John 5:39-40).  What kind of vessel does the Holy Spirit use–one who has their theological ducks in a row and is not too “imbalanced”, or one who is YIELDED to Him fully, in whatever HE may desire of the vessel? The Holy Spirit and His work is just as resisted, rejected and taught against and ignored as something demonic and not heavenly, as Jesus’ was when He walked the earth in His day.

Now, of course I’m not saying that Jesus ‘curses’ us, His children for not bearing fruit. But we do have texts like the one quoted at the beginning of this entry that we have to contend with. What do eternal securists who believe once you’re saved you’re always saved do with passages of Scripture that say things like ‘if you the branch don’t bear fruit you’re cut off and thrown into the fire?!’ But that’s another topic for another time, sorry to digress.

But everything in God’s kingdom gets the knife. The second verse of John 15 states that the branches that don’t bear fruit, get cut off, and the branches that bear fruit get pruned, so they can produce more fruit. Either way, we can decide if we’ll give certain things up in our lives so that we can be more fruit-bearing, or we can let God cut them off Himself. When we wait for Him to do it for us, it’s always more painful than if we just willingly lay things down on the altar of His grace.

Everything in the kingdom of God gets the knife one way or another. Does God have to prune you, or does He have to cut things off? When He prunes, it’s so that we bear more fruit, and can yield “larger grapes”. So that the Holy Spirit wine can flow through the veins of our branches all the more easier. But in order to discuss the Holy Spirit as wine flowing through our lives, it’s necessary to make a little detour for a moment.

Fruit vs. Gifts
The Holy Spirit’s work within the believer produces the following fruit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). When Jesus comes to you looking to quench His thirst, does he find fruit like this in your life? The fruit of the Holy Spirit is not to be confused with the gifts (or more appropriately, enablements of power) of the Holy Spirit. Jesus told his disciples the Holy Spirit would be with them and in them (John 14:17), but then he also told them to not leave Jerusalem until they received power from on high. This obviously is a different experience altogether than when they received the Holy Spirit within, or else Jesus would have been mistaken or foolish to tell them not to leave Jerusalem until they received something they already had!

The baptism in the Holy Spirit is not a synonym for receiving the Holy Spirit upon salvation. For one thing, Jesus told them to tarry in Jerusalem until they received power, and did not tell them to wait until they “got saved”, “reborn”, or “regenerated” or any other synonym used to describe the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives upon salvation. They were bearing evidence of salvation already when they met to pray in the upper room every day until that famous day of Pentecost. And lest you think otherwise, let me remind you how rare it is to find unbelievers gathering in groups to pray every day to God! The burden of proof is on those who say we’re baptized in the Holy Spirit AND indwelt by Him both at the point of salvation, to explain away Scripture; for example how come it happened as separate experiences in the Bible, and to explain how the disciples could not possibly be saved already until Acts 2. The explanations I’ve been given or heard take hermeneutical and logical acrobats in order to hold water, and aren’t persuasive enough for me to list and refute all here.

When Paul wrote to the Ephesians, he was writing to a group of believers who already had both experiences—this is where many people make their exegetical (fancy Bible interpretation word) mistakes and start making assumptions about all that’s promised in the empowerment from on high is included in the role the Holy Spirit plays when he dwells in us upon getting saved. The two experiences, in my opinion were never meant to be separate but all believers should have and want this baptism for power in their witness for Christ, and the earlier they get it the better. When I witness to people and pray alongside them giving their lies to Jesus, I also take them through the steps of how the Holy Spirit will come on them also for power to witness for Christ, as well as in them for lifestyle–and it’s SO much easier to lead someone in this prayer as a baby Christian because they don’t have all the bad theology to unlearn and years of living without the power of the Holy Spirit to resist. But it sure would be nice if this experience DID happen at the point of salvation with every individual believer!

Interesting to note also, is that we have two groups of nine connected with the work of the Holy Spirit; nine fruit in Galatians 5, and nine gifts in 1 Corinthians 12:7-11.  The fruit might be referred to the character traits resulting from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit: fruit grows on the branch because of the life within the tree. The fruit of the Spirit is demonstrative of the indwelling and fruit-bearing of the Holy Spirit in our lives as individual believers. The gifts of the Spirit are for service to the Body and the lost, and not ourselves, as a community where each individual constituting the whole, does its part.

We need to stay connected to the vine, and abide in Him or we’re not going to produce any character traits of the Spirit, or flow more fluidly in the gifts of the Spirit.

If you enjoyed this post or were blessed by it, then you may enjoy mp3s we have for free download on our podcast dealing with these same subjects:

Fire On Your Head Episode 21: Spiritual Disciplines
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Transformed into the Image of Christ – message by Bob Gladstone
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Hindrances to the Baptism in The Holy Spirit
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More Hindrances To a Spiritual Life
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In John 14:17 Jesus said the Holy Spirit will be with us AND in us. These are two different things. The Holy Spirit is with us corporately as a body of believers and He’s with the individual believer, on the inside of us. He builds up the Church, and He builds up the individual believer.

In 1 Corinthians 3:16 Paul tells the church at Corinth they collectively as a church are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Not every Bible translation makes that obvious. The Amplified translation brings out that the church is the temple of the Holy Spirit collectively, and the individual is the temple of the Holy Spirit individually. Compare this with 1 Corinthians 6:19 where we’re told our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit.

This is also part of the reason why when believers are baptized in the Holy Spirit sometime after their salvation experience, there’s different varieties of the gift of tongues available to them. Each version of the Holy Spirit’s “temple” has this phenomena manifested. In the corporate setting, the Holy Spirit distributes gifts freely as He sees fit, but we can seek after and desire to operate in some more than others for the benefit of the rest of the Church Body. One person can have the public corporate version of the gift of tongues, and another believer the interpretation (in a public setting). It’s true, that not every believer has the corporate version of the gift of tongues.

However, every gift of the Holy Spirit that operates collectively in the body of Christ has an “individual” version of for the believer. All may prophesy (1 Cor. 14:31), all believers can/may speak in tongues (Mark 16:17), anyone who believes may lay hands on the sick (Mark 16:18), and so on. When you’re not around other believers, do you really refuse to operate in a spiritual gift because you don’t think it’s the one you have? Of course not! But corporately in meetings like Church services, Bible studies, home meetings, some will be the one to demonstrate certain giftings instead of us.

That being said, there’s the gift of tongues that edify the collective temple of the Holy Spirit (see 1 Corinthians 14: 5, and 22), and there’s a tongue that edifies the individual Holy Spirit temples. First Corinthians 14:4, 13-17 go into a bit of detail on this, and Romans 8:26-7 speaks of intercessional groanings and ‘praying when we know not what we ought to pray‘. Tongues for the individual is available to every believer. If you are saved, you are a candidate for it. It’s not something special only some have and others don’t—or that has passed away with the early church. Two types of the gift of tongues are for the Body of believers, for their benefit and edification, and one of them is accompanied by an interpretation. The tongue could be a natural language. The other two types of the gift of tongues are for the individual believer, and the interpretation comes in the form of revelation and/or strength in the believer’s spirit. Every believer can benefit from this personal use of tongues, but misunderstanding and lack of familiar experience are the main inhibitor preventing many evangelicals from entering into this realm of the Holy Spirit.

But Brother Steve there’s other gifts besides tongues that the Holy Spirit distributes besides the gift of tongues. How can you sayall are supposed to have one of the gifts above the others that the Holy Spirit gives?

As I’ve just said, the gift for personal use is something that every believer can have following the baptism in the Holy Spirit. If tongues were not of any significance other than being ONE of the gifts that accompany the baptism in the Holy Spirit, then in the book of Acts chapter 2, more gifts would have been mentioned, but there are none. It says they ALL began to speak with other tongues when the enduement of power (not the regeneration of the Holy Spirit they ALREADY had) came on them. Each instance the baptism in the Holy Spirit is talked about in Acts, the manifestation of other tongues accompanied it, and in Acts 19, prophecy did also. Both are revelation/edification tools that involve speaking something.

So, to keep in mind the framework I’ve been setting up lately in my entries on words and confession, I’ll say that the “confession” that accompanies the baptism in the Holy Spirit, as demonstrated in the book of Acts, is the gift of tongues—for personal edification. I have decided to use the term “inner-fortification [of the inner man]” interchangeably with ‘edification’, but you’ll see that’s naturally what I mean by that.  In general, people won’t desire to operate in something if they aren’t persuaded by the benefits of doing so, so allow me to mention a few more things related to praying and speaking in tongues, hopefully to whet your appetite and make you desirous for it.

The role of this ‘confession’ in personal revelation.

I was reading an article on the website of a well-known and well-respected preacher that undoubtedly some reading this are familiar with. In the article he was talking about how He heard the ‘audible voice of God’ recently, but went on to downplay it and teach that the Holy Spirit always speaks to us through the Word, and only the Word. I have no disagreement necessarily with that because the Holy Spirit and the Word are one (1 John 5:7), but I cringed as further on in the article he started to teach that his personal experience and understanding of how this worked is pretty much the only way God spoke to the believer. He went on to tear apart an example of a charismatic minister hearing God tell him specifically to give some funds to one of his students in his Bible school. I felt sorry for the author of the article for dismissing a simple and practical way the Holy Spirit works in our lives. I might make him and many others like him think I’m a flake if I said I “hear” from God regularly. Matter of fact, that’s what praying in tongues helps do in the believer’s life. If you don’t believe me, then do it a lot and see for yourself!

Can you imagine what we look like to the world when we tell them we can have a personal relationship WITH God Himself, and that He sent His Son to die for us, and that He sent a version of Himself—the Holy Spirit—to live in us—but we can’t hear Him? What on earth?! What kind of relationship is that if you can’t hear from the other person? Do you see how ridiculous this sounds to say the only way He speaks to us is if we read His book?

Frankly, even evangelicals who don’t believe in speaking in tongues or operating in the prophetic and prophesying fail to practice what they preach themselves oftentimes as there’s many decisions we’re to make in life that we can’t find a chapter and verse for in the Bible but undoubtedly many Christians know they’ve obeyed God’s will for their life in various ways in the jobs they’ve gotten, places they’ve moved to, ministry they’ve started. Actually I dare to say much ministry going on in the world today is man’s idea and not the Holy Ghost’s–but that’s another entry!

Hearing God is NOT some difficult thing only really special spiritual people get to do. This should be NORMAL for all believers! How can God live in you and you NOT learn directly from Him with an inner witness and something other than just reading His book?

But back to this stuff about the Holy Spirit being inside of you. I’m loosely basing my thoughts on texts from John 14-16 when I say this. For the sake that you don’t mistakenly think I’m pulling things out of context I highly recommend reading those passages and meditating on them for yourself.

When John tells us the Holy Spirit will teach us  ALL things, the disciples–who were the ones being spoken to here–didn’t have all of Jesus’ words written down in a Bible yet for the Holy Spirit to bring revelation from. Jesus was not telling them the Holy Spirit would help them memorize the Romans Road or the Sermon on the Mount. They had to rely on the Holy Spirit bringing to remembrance what He had told them personally—not from mental or spiritual recollection of the Bible merely as a living text. The disciples had the Word Himself in their midst for 3 and ½ years to learn from personally. However, 2000 years later, since we did not have that exact same experience as them, it’s not a misinterpretation to take this text to say the Holy Spirit brings life to the written Word for us this way.

The very first few verses of the book of Genesis mention how the Spirit of the Lord was hovering over the face of the waters. He was involved when God SPOKE the Word and brought forth life and all therein. The Psalms mention how God knew us before He formed us in the womb. Before we ever set foot on the face of the earth and began to have some goo-goos and ga-gas, the Lord had a plan for your individual life. That is what the Holy Spirit brings to remembrance in us as we pray in tongues. The Holy Spirit living in you, repeats to you and gives you revelation and insight into the things God has spoken and decreed about your life before the foundation of the world, and Holy Spirit helps build you up and qualify you into that plan/will–remember before I’ve said I’m not a Calvinist in the traditional way it’s taught–I will post what I think about God’s sovereignty at a later date. God has a will for us that we can miss. He has set up in his unending wisdom a way to deposit that will on the inside of us, and then let us unpack at our pace, through praying in tongues–edifying ourselves in the spirit.

Jesus in that chapter of John was not exclusively talking about the Word of Jesus He spoke 2000 years ago—the Holy Spirit is capable of remembering words spoken no matter how long ago they were spoken—He is not bound by time–we are. Everything that ever has happened or will happen, has already happened and not yet happened (in a manner of speaking) from His point of view already. The moment that He was hovering over the waters in Genesis 1:2 and the moment He speaks of in Revelation 22:17 inviting the Lord Jesus to come back—are on the same level plane in the history of existence.

Am I shaking your brain yet? This stuff is hard for us finite beings to understand since we’re linear and bound by time. The Spirit of God takes the things He has heard about your life and the plan God has for it, and reveals them to us. The fact of the matter is that the Holy Spirit, according to Jesus, takes what He has heard, and repeats it or makes it known to us. When and where exactly did the Holy Ghost hear things to tell us? Did you know this includes things that are not ‘written in the Book’? This includes the calling God has for you. This includes whom you’ll marry. This includes what you should do today. But, my friends, He’s never going to contradict what He has allowed to be written down in this book we call the Bible. The Author of that Book is never going to give you revelation that contradicts the Book He Himself penned through human hands! Remember, the Spirit and the Word are one (1 John 5:7). If you ever hear someone teaching some “new teaching” that they say God revealed to them, ask them for at least three Scripture passages to back it up!

Brother Steve, what does this revelation stuff have to do with the gift of tongues?

As I’ve said before, extended tongue praying is directly related to personal edification and revelation–and inner fortification. I’m just saying all this stuff to get you jealous to be doing it more in your life if you’re not already. This process of personal tongue speaking, God set up in His infinite wisdom to allow us to be the stewards of our own edification. He doesn’t force His will and His plans on us, but allows us to pray ourselves into His will and our calling at our own pace. Slowly or speedily, it’s up to us–the same way an athlete decides how much time he’s going to spend in the gym working out and developing his muscles. God doesn’t sovereignly “ordain” him to just get buff overnight. The athlete is in charge of how much he’s going to do this practice, and likewise every believer is a steward of their own spiritual edification.

If then, this is part of what speaking in tongues a lot does, then why would anyone NOT want to do it or find a way to relegate to some spiritual ecstasy or some weird thing only believers in the first century could do, but now we “don’t need” for the various reasons many evangelicals teach and preach we don’t need it for? I guarantee you, I’m not speaking gibberish and being “self-hypnotized”. Look at the fruit and the insight it results in in those who do it a lot, and try telling me that’s from the devil of someone hypnotizing themselves! When we fear things we don’t know explain or aren’t doing ourselves, we can come up with all sorts of silly misunderstandings about it, but God desires every one have this gift. It’s just people decide not to take it or believe that because of their understanding of God’s sovereignty and will, that if God wants us to have something He’ll force it on us or do it Himself without our own initiative in the receiving it.

I’ve accepted it and after over 7 years of being filled with the Holy Spirit I’m still just as excited to run deep into these realms of the Holy Spirit as I did the first week after getting baptized in Him. I’m taking in all I can get, and if others don’t want it, I truly can say it’s their loss.

Be blessed, and may God draw you into deeper and deeper realms of His Spirit.

If you were blessed by this article, you may like the following podcast mp3s free for download:

Hindrances to the Baptism In The Holy Spirit
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More Hindrances To a Spiritual Life
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Holy Spirit: Baptism in Power
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“For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”
Luke 6:43-45

This is a passage that pretty much anybody who is saved has heard, quoted, maybe memorized or studied. It’s “christianese” to most of us, but let’s look at something usually overlooked, especially in light of the theme of my posts lately concerning the words we speak and the power of them. Much of what I’m going to present should be familiar passages of Scripture, but presented from angles you might not have taken time to consider.

When reading and studying Scripture it’s extremely important to keep context in mind, and it’s highly recommended that the Sermon on the Mount in either Matthew 5-7 or Luke 6, is something believers study and meditate on. In fact, there’s plenty of gold to unpack in the end of this chapter of Luke, and things are in the order they are in because there’s a correlation between each thought, and the Holy Spirit saw to it that our writings are the way they are–and written in the order they are–for a reason.

I don’t think many of you need to be told or have explained to you what a treasure is. The Word of God says elsewhere that where your treasure is, there your heart is also (Matt 6:21). If your treasure is valuable to you, its protected. Strong’s Concordance says of treasure, that this is the place in which good and precious things are collected and laid up. Is it not true that many people keep valuables in things like chests and safes, hidden somewhere that can’t be reached easily by just anybody except the persons entrusted with it? In fact, safes are made out of such strong metals and materials, that even if a house burns down, whatever is in those safes is still protected and you still can’t hardly break into them to get what’s inside! That’s why they call them ’safes’, eh. Then it’s no secret as to why Solomon said the following:

“My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh. Keep [guard] your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you.” Proverbs 4:20-24, emphasis mine. Again remember how these passages deal with the tongue bringing forth what’s in the heart. Guard your treasure.

What are you saying?

Ephesians 5:18-20 states: Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The implications are clear: When we’re filled with the Spirit, we’re saying something. We’re singing something. There’s something different about our hearts and words. There’s rivers of living water that flow out of us (John 7:37-39). It’s incredibly obvious that words and speaking are one of the tell-tale signs of this. Blessing and cursing cannot be coming out of the same overflow (James 3:10), anymore than fig trees don’t bear thorns, and vice versa.

Look at how the Amplified Bible translates verse 45 of our text (emphasis mine):

“The upright (honorable, intrinsically good) man out of the good treasure [stored] in his heart produces what is upright (honorable and intrinsically good), and the evil man out of the evil storehouse brings forth that which is depraved (wicked and intrinsically evil); for out of the abundance (overflow) of the heart his mouth speaks.”

What are you storing up in your heart?

I’ve said before in my posts,  if you sit and watch hours of TV a day or play video games constantly and spend only 15 minutes in the Word, you’re not in a healthy place as far as your spiritual inner man is concerned. The stuff you feed your heart is what will be there to come out of your mouth. You can’t speak to mountains and tell them to move if you’ve got nothing in there to say. You are what you eat. Everything we watch, read, spend our time doing–is feeding our spirits in some way, whether good or bad. “Harmless” things–even if not outright sinful–if they aren’t things that produce growth in our spiritual lives, then they are useless foods. Junk food in the natural doesn’t prepare us for extensive muscle use, neither does spiritual junk food prepare our use of spiritual muscle during fiery trials and tribulations. Jesus Himself said anyone not working for Him is working against Him. I’m not against TV and movie watching in and of itself–I’m against how much time people spend doing these things. Most Christians don’t want to admit it, but Hollywood and Nashville are preaching to them more than the Lord is, and these things filter their understanding of spiritual things. I know it’s impossible to chart every single thing we watch, talk about, do, read and make sure none of it is wasteful, but trying to live by that standard is definitely better than not bothering to at all–for the sake of your heart.

I know I’m sounding legalistic to some readers. But I’ve written before on how discipline is needed in the Christian life, but it’s not the same thing as legalism. I read some of the blogs out there, Facebooks, MySpace sites and just plain talk to some of you who will be reading this, and I cringe at some of the things so many believers are comfortable participating in!–in any of the cultures I have set my foot in. As a sidenote, can you really picture the disciples with Jesus in the boat or laying around a camp fire, and discussing the latest episode of The Office that was on the night before? Or if anybody had downloaded the newest Spiderman movie illegally on the internet? I’m not preaching against those idols in particular, it’s up to you to decide if idols in your life are idols that need to be destroyed.

But it’s also up to you how much you want to hear the voice of God clearly in your life and have more of the Scriptures come up from inside your spirit more often and more deeply, then I guarantee you–I say from experience–the junk needs to be cut out! It dulls you. Too many Christians are insensitive to the Holy Spirit because they’re too desensitized by the junk and dope of this world. Unblock and unclog the things in your life/spirit/heart/soul/[whatever the spot is exactly]–and remove the things that are in the way and polluting your vessel. Yes, God uses impure people to accomplish His will. Yes, God ‘uses us in spite of us‘, but imagine how much more He could have His way if we were giving ourselves more to His purposes than our own vain pursuits and entertainments?

That is not a rhetorical question, by the way!

If you enjoyed this post or were blessed by it, then you may enjoy mp3s we have for free download on our podcast dealing with these same subjects:

Fire On Your Head Episode 21: Spiritual Disciplines
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Transformed into the Image of Christ – message by Bob Gladstone
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“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.” Psalm 1:1-2

“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” Joshua 1:8

If you’re a good Jesus-loving, sin hating, Bible reading follower of Christ, you’ve probably come across passages like this and many other ones in the Psalms, that talk of meditating on the Word of God, ‘day and night‘. This is not some new-agey practice. But seriously, if the Bible talks about something a lot, then we need to take seriously what it repeats, and find out what it means.

The word for meditate used here in the Hebrew is ‘hagah‘. It comes from the root word ‘hagiyg, which literally means “whisper, musing, or murmuring”. Hagah literally means “to moan, growl, utter, muse, mutter, meditate, devise, plot, speak.”

Interesting isn’t it? I don’t know about you, but I think moaning, growling and muttering are kind of aggressive or at least deliberate speech in nature. Almost all of these renderings involve speaking, or orating in some fashion. When the word of God talks of meditating on the law of the Lord, this is not some kind of setting where you sit on the floor with your legs crossed and quietly ponder something, with candles and incense burning and other weird new age type of concepts that come to mind when we think of meditating. Biblical meditation involves speaking.

How do I know this for certain?

For one thing, you don’t need to look up the original Hebrew in order to come to this conclusion, for the passage in Joshua says in the same sentence “this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth.” The writer defines what meditation is. This makes a lot more sense when you read the psalms, where much of the time the psalmists talk about meditating on the book of the law, the same word hagah or hagiyg is used in the Hebrew. Have you ever wondered how on earth it’s possible to ‘meditate’ on the Bible day and night? According to the common modern day understanding of meditation, this would be an impossible feat, since no average Christian has the time or self-discipline to give this much focus to studying and focusing our attention ‘day and night’ on the things of the Lord. It’s simply impossible with all the other daily responsibilities the average Christian and human being needs to tend to.

But we can speak any time we want to, day or night. Alone or in public. Walking somewhere or laying still in our beds.

You can speak Scriptures out loud concerning topics that are important to where you are at in your relationship with God right now. If you need physical healing, ‘meditate’ and speak out loud (confess) Scriptures on the subject of healing, and you will build your spirit up and increase your faith in that area. The Bible says in Romans 10:17 that faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. In order to be hearing the Word of God, someone needs to be saying it, correct?

Notice the rendering in the King James Version for Psalm 2:1: “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine (hagah) a vain thing?” Remember the way we looked in a previous blog entry about how the heart/beliefs are intertwined with the mouth/words. So say and imagine the Word of God and things of the Lord, day and night, and then like the rest of Joshua 1:8 says “so that you may be careful to do all that is written in it (the things written in the book of the Law). For then you shall make your way prosperous and then you will have good success.

Look at some other uses of the word (in the ESV translation):

“Those who seek my life lay their snares; those who seek my hurt speak of ruin and meditate treachery all day long.” Psalm 38:12

“When I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night.” Psalm 63:6

“When I remember God, I moan; when I meditate, my spirit faints.” Psalm 77:3

In the New Testament, the Greek word that gets translated is not much different than the Hebrew Old Testament one. In the KJV, Jesus tells his disciples in Luke 21:14–in the context of impending persecution they’d face–to “Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer.” In the same translation, Paul told Timothy “Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all.” 1 Timothy 4:15. The English Standard Version replaces meditate with the word ‘practice’.

In the Greek, the original word for ‘meditate upon’ is 1) to care for, attend to carefully, practise 2) to meditate i.e. to devise, contrive a) used of the Greeks of the meditative pondering and the practice of orators and rhetoricians.

Again, this is directly tied into to SPEAKING the things of God and His Word.

If you’ve ever tried memorizing anything, Scripture in particular, you’ll know that the most effective way you’ve retained what you tried memorizing, was from repeating it to yourself or someone else over and over again. There’s something about being able to store information in our spirits from speaking it a lot. So, with all this in mind, I highly recommend doing so. In Hebrew culture, much orating was done at young ages, in order that the law of the Lord could be remembered. If they were doing that with the Old Testament law, then how much more us with the words of life!?

If you’re struggling with a besetting sin, then I’d recommend meditating and speaking about verses from places like Romans 4-8 and just feed your spirit stuff on practical holiness. If you are facing a mountain in your life, speak to it and confess the Word of God concerning the promises He makes in the Bible concerning that thing you’re believing for, and like the Bible says, you can cast that mountain into the sea.

If you enjoyed this post, you may enjoy the episode of our podcast where we discussed these concepts in more depth:

Download mp3 (right click and save)

I am just finishing up a new biography on one of the most beloved prophet-hearted teachers in American history. It’s entitled A Passion for God: The Spiritual Journey of A.W. Tozer, and it’s written by Lyle Dorsett. I have long loved Tozer’s writings and messages. For over a decade I’ve relished in his insights and fed off of his knowledge of God, and the intensity of his worshipping heart. I’ve read some of the other bio’s on A.W., but this biography is a real gem, and I’m commending it to all of the pastors and laborers in our fellowship here in Kansas City.

It tells of his formation as a man of prayer and incessant worship. It tells of the trials he endured and the stretchings he experienced. It inspires us to forsake a vain pursuit of ministry-breadth, and calls us back to the pursuit of depth in the secret place. Tozer’s relentless longing for the presence and person of God grabs us by the collar of our professional or subjective ideas on ministry, and plops us down in the dust on the backside of the desert. Before long we see the glow of the bush again, and remember why and how we ever put our sandals back on and proceeded to face the people.

I am jolted again. This man labored for 4-plus decades- contending for the faith, reaching out to souls in darkness, setting aright faddish movements and faulty doctrines. Most of all, every soul that was remotely close to A.W. Tozer knew that there were at least 5 hours a day where he was intently removed from all contact with anyone other that the God of Majesty. He knew what it was to behold the uncreated One, to love Him, to listen to Him, to gaze upon Him with delightful and sometimes awe-full attentiveness. He didn’t need adrenalin, entertainment, or programmatic pick-me-ups to bear up his walk with the Lord. He had what Moses had…what David had…what the prophets had…what Paul had. He had a singleness of heart in pursuit after the God of Israel, and he was not willing for anything to stand in the way of that impassioned vision.

I wonder how far we have fallen from this kind of Davidic intensity.

Still, there is another stinging thing in the story of A.W. Tozer. Many believers who have been profoundly affected by his teachings are unaware of the manner of his life at home, and even the manner of his death. He died in a Canadian hospital room in the year of 1963. He was all by himself. He was alone in his death as he was in his life.

One of his colleagues noted that one of the last remarks he ever heard Tozer make was this:

“I have had a lonely life.”

The young revivalist may read this and unleash a heroic cry: “Yes! This is the price that every true man of God pays. You cannot follow the Lord and make friends with every one around you.”

Indeed, this is true. When we cling to the Lord in this life, there will be great opposition and trial. But mere loneliness is not a sign of prophetism, and isolation from family and friends is not necessarily a hallmark of an eternity-centered life. We were created for community.

As Gordon Fee points out, the idea of salvation in the mind of Paul was never primarily a thought toward whether an individual person would be able to make it to heaven or not. Salvation, in the hebraic mind of the early apostles, was a picture of God’s Kingdom breaking into a society and wrenching loose a group of souls from the spirit of this age, that they might be formed and fashioned together by the power of the Spirit into a Body that expresses the very nature of Christ. In other words, we need Christ (!), but we are not likely to experience Him fully if we don’t also experience Him through our experiences in family life and church life.

Life is a fragile thing. “Man is but a mere breath,” the psalmist declares (Psm. 144.4a). I wept on numerous occasions in the reading of Tozer’s biography. For the first time I saw areas of his life that I had never seen before. Gaping holes. Perhaps he was oblivious to them. Perhaps his engagement with ministry travels, reading, writing, preaching, and the remarkable amount of time he spent in “speechless adoration” of Christ filled his plate to the extent that he was incapable of figuring in other necessary Kingdom responsibilities and privileges.

The most heart-wrenching of these blind-spots was his inability, over the course of 40-plus years, to connect relationally with his wife Ada and their 7 children. He also struggled with connecting relationally to the vast majority of the saints who were under his care for all of those decades. They say that he and Ada never fought or argued (as best as we know), nor was there ever a known issue of infidelity or abuse. There was simply this radical, unexplainable inability to relate with his wife and kids to the extent that he would be a presence in their lives. He would be drawn to them as long as they were babies, but when it got past that, he struggled to father them. The story goes that his father was a hardworking farm-man who was quite non-relational himself. I would assume that this passed to his sons and daughters, and it certainly seems that way with A.W.

When Tozer died, though Ada had scarcely (if ever) complained about their distant relationship, she made several things clear. Both she and the children (all adults by the time of his death) were in agreement that they knew very little about this man whose teachings and writings have sent waves of revelation through many hungry hearts. This, to me, is a tragedy of tragedies.

It is not enough to say that “a prophet is not without honor except in his own town.” (Mt. 13.57) Too long have preachers been presumptuously putting themselves in the sandals of Jesus, and blaming the unhealthy condition of their families on the requirements of ministry. We are not Jesus, friends.

Most of us have spouses. Most of us have children. What shall they declare at our funerals? What will our children leave with when they move on into adulthood?

I was told that after A.W. died, Ada was asked if she missed him. She had been re-married by this time. Her reply was tragic to me. She said something like this: “A.W. was God’s man, but my new husband is my man.” Oh, that it would not be said of us! May we be wholly given to Him, and to those whom He has given us.

Ironically, a few weeks ago I had just picked up this Tozer bio, and was really getting into it. The kids were playing outside so I decided to sit on the patio in my chair. The plan was to get into the bio (I have a thing for books, in case you didn’t know) while being close enough to supervise the children. As I was reflecting on the fact that Tozer’s children barely knew him, I was looking at his face on the front of the book. Just then, my son Simeon said,

“Daddy, will you play ball with me?”

There was a trembling that went through my soul, and it was as if Tozer was bellowing from the heavens, “Bryan! Don’t look at him the way I looked at mine. Look him in the eye. He is a little boy with a soul, and with his own thoughts, and he is sensitive to you. His heart is beating for you to father him. He is awaiting you, and he will never forget your response to him in this moment. There is a vast difference between ’supervision’ and fathering.”

I set the book down, and played catch with my son.

I do tremble, friends. I tremble at the busyness of our American ways. I tremble at the awesome responsibility and privilege of raising these boys and girls. I weep over the fact that it is so easy for us to be engaged in ourselves- even religiously- to the neglect of our spouses, or children, or congregation members, or unbelieving neighbors.

As I was praying into this some days later, I had a strong word of Fatherly caution from the Lord:

“You’ve got one shot at this, son.”

18 or 20 years is all we have with our children. What shall they take from us? Will they feel like it was a mere obligation for us to feed them and care for them? Will they feel like we really didn’t want them around? Will they feel like all of our talk about the nature of God was mere flourish or rhetoric? Will they feel that they are valued and cherished? Will they have been fathered? mothered? Or just raised? I believe that God desires to give us wisdom and love enough to be a literal representation of Himself in the home. We will certainly miss the mark here and there, but He will enable us to actively engage them with a whole heart. To hear them, for real. To speak into them, for real. To love them, for real. That’s fathering and mothering, and it’s an awesome privilege available to us all.

“One shot…”

The great revivalist Leonard Ravenhill, who was in many ways mentored by Tozer, used to say that you can’t catch up your prayer life when you get to the judgment seat of Christ. I certainly agree, and he was a man to back up his talk with a real value for prayer and intercession.

I’d like to acknowledge another cut in this fine diamond of discipleship. We can’t catch up our parenting, or the way we treated our spouses, or the depth of our humility toward others at the judgment seat either. We have one shot, saints. It will be a journey, and we will all trip up and fall in one way or another along the way. But abandoning ship is not an option. We’ve got to face our spouses, face our children, face our congregations, knowing that we’ve got “one shot” with all of them.

Whitefield said to speak every time as if it were our last, and “compel them to cry, ‘Behold, how He loves us.’”

I want to burn with a passion for God like Tozer did. I want to know the long seasons of adoration, awe, and intercession. I want to stand as a pillar in the household of faith. I want to exalt Christ and cling to the cross, fixing my eyes on Him while the latest fads rise and fall.

I also want to love and tremble toward those who are closest and most familiar to me. We all have those who are most familiar…spouses, children, parents, neighbors, fellow believers. I want to see a generation of preachers raised up who are aware of the mercies of God, are immersed in His love, and who walk with a “one shot” consciousness. They look at each person with a radical value, a Spirit-dependent outlook. They make priority for prayer and scripture as Tozer did, while stretching out the tent of time and relationship for those whom the Lord has given them.

Every occasion is another “shot.” Every conversation with the wife…”one shot.” Every seemingly irrelevant question from a child…”one shot.” Every interaction with an unbeliever…”one shot.” Every time of secret prayer and scripture reading…”one shot.” Every opportunity to father our sons and daughters…”one shot.” The self-absorbed are distracted, double-minded and cowardly. But the true servant of the Lord sees the “one shot” and takes it, while others are passing by as the proverbial stranger in a rush-hour traffic jam. May our eyes be opened to see that every occasion is another shot at learning and dispensing the very love of Christ.

Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
May your deeds be shown to your servants,
your splendor to their children. – Psalm 90.12, 16

Well it’s Friday night before the first day of this year’s summer school and this will probably be the final blog entry I’m able to pen—err, type before a little hiatus while I’ve got limited internet access. I’m writing this at the Firehouse after a lengthy time of praying and making full use of my iPod before arriving here. In fact God’s spoken to me or made spiritual concepts come alive to me lately through my MacBook and iPod.

I’ve been using my Apple MacBook for a few months now, and I’m still getting used to the differences between Apple and Microsoft. No, I’m not just going on about my MacBook, I AM making a point and heading to a spiritual application with this! There’s vast differences, and as a Dutch computer engineer at the HRO told me recently, the “architecture” of an Apple computer is totally different than that on Microsoft. When you’ve had many laptops like me (I think the count was 4 in 6 years), and all of them have had Windows operating system on them, and then buying a MacBook and using Apple’s OS Tiger system, you find is like entering a whole other world and re-learning how to use a laptop computer. You have to forget some things you’re used to, and frankly, learn how to use a better computer. How many Appler users can I get an amen from on that one?

How many believers are like this analogy?

When we first get saved, we aren’t changed overnight. We go from darkness to light, positionally, yes. But thought and behavior patterns that have been years in the making and long-established, aren’t just changed the instant we pray a sinner’s prayer and dedicate our lives to Jesus. We grow. Things are gradual—the seed is planted and with proper care, watering, nurturing, and cutting out of your life the old destructive habits, you gradually grow strong and sink your spiritual roots deep into God.

Have you ever noticed that?

I’ve known people who’ve been so radically affected by previous pre-conversion lifestyle choices, that years after they’ve gotten saved, they’re still affected by the thoughts, and making decisions through the eyeglasses or filters of their past. How many Mac users out there have tried figuring out how to do something on your Mac the same way you used to on your old Windows machine? The way files are stored is totally different. The way things are organized takes some getting used to. In Christ, you are a NEW creation, the old has passed and all things have become new (2 Cor 5:17). Get used to it.

If you’ve been radically saved from a lifestyle of all manner of rank sin, and gotten saved, it took some “getting used to” and a HECK of a lot of mind renewing (Romans 12:1-2). But I’m sure if someone’s first computer was a Mac, and it was all they knew and were experienced with, and then someone put a Windows computer in front of them, they’d have a hard time understanding how come things work (or don’t work) the way they do.

“Why do I get error messages all the time?”

“Why does this thing keep crashing.”

“How come this thing works so slow?”

“What are spyware and viruses?”

Can you imagine, in a spiritual sense, if you were an angel or some kind of human being who had lived in heaven for about a thousand years, and then came to earth and operated in the realm of human flesh?

“What’s a sickness or a disease?”

“Why do I suddenly after about 15 hours need to close my eyes and lay down—sleep? What’s that?”

And while I’m at it, we’re told to pray for God’s will to be done on earth AS it is in heaven (Matthew 6:9-14). What does that look like exactly?

I recently got an iPod, and you plug the thing into your computer—in my case, a Macbook, just in case that part was lost on you so far—and you download files onto it, primarily people use it for music, and download songs in a program called iTunes. The transfer takes place directly from the computer, and onto the iPod device. If you decide to delete something from your iTunes, then the next time you synchronize your iPod with your iTunes, it will erase the song from your iPod as well. If you add new things to a play list, then as you synchronize your iPod, it will add those files to itself as well.

How many of you are continuously synchronizing yourself with the heavenly realm?

I was walking around a corner on the Nieuwe Binneweg recently (a major busy street in Rotterdam the Firehouse is near) and listening to my new iPod when it hit me like a ton of bricks—curiosity as to how much ministry goes on in the name of the Father, but is not in any way originated or birthed in Him.

All of us reading this can appreciate this thought—how many of us can honestly say we’ve NEVER ever–since the day we got saved–messed up and done something thinking it was God’s will but had no basis in Him whatsoever until we found out after the fact or through trial and error? How many people are building their own ministries, in the name of God in name only, but not with His Spirit? We’ve all done it—gone about our own business for a while, asking God to bless something we thought was a good idea or that we figured there’s no way He would not be against, and then simply spent 5 minutes asking Him to put His blessing on it after we’ve already gone about our own plans—but never finding out if it was His will in the first place. How much “ministry” going on in the Church today is a big waste of time? I am sad to say, probably lots from what I’ve seen and experienced. Much damage has been done in countless lives and ministries from such an attitude as I described.

Are you in sync with Jesus?

If one goes a long time with their iPod, and doesn’t syncronize it with their computer, it takes longer to accomplish when you finally do it. But when you are doing it daily, or often and perpetually, then it just takes a moment. When you pray, is it once in a while, and only talking AT God and bringing your requests to Him? Or do you ever sit and listen, and let Him download of His Spirit into yours?

Just pray a lot in the Spirit and read your Bible lots, and you’ll experience something from other “Christians” for yourself—when you are constantly synchronizing yourself with the heavenly source, then people who aren’t doing so for themselves start thinking you’re weird. The ones who only do a little bit of it once a week—attend a sermon or two here and there, but otherwise have no functional relational experience with the Father, Son or Spirit for themselves start thinking YOU are the one out of sync, because you start differentiating yourself from the status quo. You slowly, but surely, will no longer fit into the system or the consensus. You know who I’m talking about: pew warmers will start telling you to chill out, and tell you to just join the majority who do no such synchronizing, and go with the flow.

If you leave your iPod unplugged from your source for two long, all the while making constant changes or deletions to your music library, eventually the two are out of whack with each other. When we are out of whack with the Father, HE is not the one who changes, capiche? Get yourself plugged in.

“We’re all fine the way we are.” The majority say to you.

“God only speaks to prophets—who are you to think you hear from God?”

People who voluntarily stay out of proper sync with the Father usually find it insulting if you tell them what you are accessing. When they miss out on the awesome realities they could encounter for themselves if only they wanted to, they will slander and willfully misunderstand you because you contradict their old out-dated downloads.

I don’t know exactly how that ties into Macbooks or iPods, but they made a reality clear to me this week.

I hope you all are blessed and I’ll see some of you at the summer school.