How Does the Holy Spirit Lead Us?

In the previous blog entries I have attempted to understand how the Holy Spirit leads us. This brings me to a place in my understanding which seems to differ somewhat from the way in which the institutional church presents it. In this blog entry I will attempt to delve further into this important topic.

The I.C.s Perspective on Being Led

I cannot help but feel that where the church often misses it in this area is that it interweaves truth about the subject with the typical demand for performance. This demand for performance in the form of principles just brings us back to Old Testament rule-keeping. This harkening back to the law is merely an attempt to overcome inner dysfunction with something that the believer should do. I am convinced that a proper perspective on grace should be sufficient to deal with this dysfunction, thereby allowing the believer to be led, guided, motivated and prompted by the Holy Spirit.

Just Go With Peace

A friend of mine on Facebook who is mature in the grace message and whom I respect very much often says that we should just go with peace. This concept gets us away from the typical focus on principles and formulas, providing a simply way of responding the leading of the Holy Spirit. There are indeed many times when the Holy Spirit gives us a profound sense of peace in relation to something and we can just submit to that and act as necessary.

But I find that there are also times when that peace is not in such abundant supply. There have been moments in my life when I have not felt such a sense of peace about something; in fact, I have felt unsure about it and even a tinge of fear. Nevertheless, in such circumstances I have committed to a course of action that has been right for me at that time.

Do It…Afraid

I suppose this supports some of the teaching of people like Joyce Meyer who uses clichés such as, “Do it…afraid”. I’ll admit that I couldn’t stand Joyce’s preaching on this subject because I felt like I was being provoked and intimidated to do some typical church thing that I did not want to do. Susan Jeffers wrote a popular secular self-help book entitled, Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway. This was meant to inspire shy and apprehensive people into living their dreams – but I wonder to myself if this message really has the intended effect. Perhaps the fear that a person experiences in response to the intention of committing to a certain course of action, means that the person is not meant to do that thing? Fear is the opposite of love. The Bible tells us that he who fears has not been made perfect in love. But even those who have been made perfect in love will experience fear or apprehension at least, in response to a situation that is not in accordance with God’s will for their life. Therefore, there is a healthy application of fear. God shines His light along our path – if we stray from the path and experience darkness – that darkness is not God’s doing. We experience the darkness in our life, the fear, when we stray from God’s will for our life.

I cannot help but feel that there is something amiss about this “do it afraid” approach, because it can cause insecure people to look at their life, compare themselves with other people and then resolve to make themselves all sorts of things that they assume they “must” or “should” be or do. But a lot of these “musts” and “should” arise as a result of the expectations that are imposed upon us by society, particularly our peers. There is the supposed need to be exciting, slim, attractive, and adventurous and extravert. But these imposed social norms are often at odds with our personality and who God created us to be. God created people to be introverts and some to be extraverts, the two work hand-in-hand. Yes, I agree that introversion can be an aspect of a lack of confidence – but there are secure minded people out there who simply keep to a low-key approach when interacting with others.

Get In Tune with Your Own Heart

I think there is a need to depart from the need to perform the typical routines and duties that the institutional church foists upon its members. There is a need to get in tune with your own heart, without the need for spiritual motivators such as Joyce Meyer and church pastors. I love listening to The God Journey podcasts: Wayne Jacobsen often repeats his beliefs that we should just love the people around us and do what is on our hearts to do.

This is a radically different approach to following principles and aligning yourself with the corporate vision of your pastor. Such corporate visions include building sufficient funds to purchase a new building for the youth or getting a hundred more people making a first time commitment to Jesus in the church. Goals such as these sound noble and Biblical, but they are often a million miles away from the individual destiny and purpose that God has planted in each and every one of us.

Sure, we can play our part in the role of the church, but we often miss the fact that we are the church! This earthly vessel we live in and the other people we interact with on a daily basis should be our primary focus. But we often downplay the importance of those little, everyday events and the people we meet: we dismiss as unimportant, when we chat to someone at the bus-stop, hairdressers or whatever – this is where real community, and real-life, is to be found.

Somehow have been persuaded to believe that the vision of a pastor is more important. Oftentimes, the vision of the pastor is nothing more than religious games and a massive ego trip – not all the time, mind you. I think God’s purpose for our lives looks a lot more like normal life than we could ever begin to imagine. I like what Brad Cummings said once on The God Journey podcast: he said something along the lines of miracles being all-well-and-good – but how is that anything more amazing than the wonderful things of life that we often take for granted? By this he was talking about a couple having their first child, or someone meeting a friend they haven’t seen for a while.

Will You Take the Blue Pill or the Red Pill?

Morpheus: This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.

I’ve been giving the subject of community and church a lot of consideration recently. I’ve basically been considering the whole concept of community in relation to Christians. I intend to publish some blog entries about this soon. For now, I’d like to share an analogy which I thought of today. This analogy is based on the film The Matrix (1999) – so it won’t make much sense unless you’ve seen the film.

The Blue Pill

The typical church-going Christian is like a person who has taken the blue pill. He drifts along in an illusory world, feeling as if he’s going somewhere and that things will all work out well…someday. But in actual fact, he is just being duped by the system, which actually has him brainwashed to believe that the world in which he lives is real – when it is not.

In church, the blue-pill Christian claps his hands in delight in response to being told to go-all-out-for-God and other such challenges. Little does he realise that Christianity is not about being “challenged” or being told to keep rules – Christianity is all about being persuaded of God’s love for the believer in Christ.

Blue-pill Christian gets all excited when the pastor preaches that he will reap a harvest if he sows his finances in the right soil (which is his church); he laughs at all the pastor’s jokes – even though he’s heard them time and time again; he pretends that he really likes the people who meets and greets in church – oblivious the fact that, to be honest, he really can’t stand them; he is willing to commit to roles and duties in church that he simply cannot stand – anything to simply fit in with the crowd and to not draw attention to himself, in the wrong way.

Taking the blue pill causes a Christian to get all excited when a Televangelist announces his or her latest book or CD offer; he simply must buy the latest Joyce Meyer or John Bevere book which gives a mixture of grace and law, which simply leads to frustration, guilt and wasted time and effort.

Mr. Blue Pill just assumes that all is well in his world and that his efforts are actually making a difference to the unreal world in which he finds himself. Little does he know that his efforts are getting him nowhere and he is just drifting along with a belief system which is actually poisoning his life.

The Red Pill

When a believer takes the red pill – he is suddenly shaken free from his comfort zone and thrust into an unknown and somewhat scary new existence. He does not know what will happen next - but it is exciting, fresh, invigorating, new and full of potential. He decides that he would rather forfeit his right to exist in a comfort zone and drift along with the status quo – than to be denied the truth.

Truth becomes more important to him than a cosy exist of conformity to the accepted norms; even if it means disrupting the world that he has known all his life; even if it means questioning all the concepts that he has been told are true most of his life; even if it means losing the friendship and support of those people who he has known for years and considered to be close to; even if it means falling out with his own family.

If you take the red pill of truth you don’t always know what will happen. The message of grace seems to be the latest chapter in the great Book of Life – in which we all play a part. Taking the red pill can cause you to draw unwanted attention and criticism to yourself from believers you once had an accord with.

The red pill will not necessarily give you a super-duper anointing which will bring peace showering down from heaven so that everyone around you likes you – neither will it draw to you instantaneous riches and fame.

When you take the red pill your eyes might hurt – because you’ve never used them before. When you live in an illusory Christian world – you give away your power to other people, and therefore, your own powers of discernment diminish.

Taking the red pill will not guarantee and easy life – but it will invite the truth and it will allow you to live in the real world and to live in integrity.

The Danger of Teaching “Principles”

For the past couple of months or so my house group was working through a book by Dr. Henry Cloud, entitled: 9 Things You Simply Must Do to Succeed in Love and Life: A Psychologist Learns from His Patients What Really Works and What Doesn't. I think it's actually a self-help book more than a Christian book.

I recall this guy on a few of Joyce Meyer's podcasts. Basically, this book and the podcast messages featuring these two people, focus on principles. Principles are compelling because it gives us the feeling of control over our lives, according to something that appears to be "doable" on the surface. However, it is a subtle form of getting you into the law. Bertie Brits defines "the law" as "by my efforts I will become".

I downloaded a total of 318 Joyce Meyer podcasts from 27/09/07 to 24/04/09 (U.K. date notation). I found myself resonating with Joyce Meyer's podcasts. I found that Joyce would say some really powerful things. Sometimes, though rarely, Joyce would deliver a pure grace message, focusing on our right-standing through Christ; as message that did not focus on rules and self-effort at all. But then the next time, she would say something along the lines of, "It's up to you, you've got to make an effort."

Sometimes, Joyce would be really patronizing and basically just mock people (in general, not specific people as such. Here is a link to a video in which she does her famous "What About Me" robot move (which I find rather patronising). You can see a video clip of this robot move here.

Even though I've been into the message of grace for several years now, I kept on downloading the Joyce Meyer MP3s. But this kind of preaching just subtly brings people into legalism. I wonder why I listened to it for so long. Sure, you can pick-up some nuggets of wisdom: Joyce preaches some great truths. But with such an availability of pure grace teaching - why bother with anything else? I wonder why I continued to listen to that mixture of law and grace teaching for as long as I did.

John Bevere is the same: he teaches some really good concepts such as the need to respect authority. But there is such an emphasis on what the believer must do, that the good news of the finished work is drowned-out. The end result is just frustration and guilt. Bevere teaches that there are many people he has known who have suffered hardship because they failed to respect authority.

This concept sounds rather plausible, but I wonder if there are further implications to this: perhaps the ability to respect authority was the result of not having a heart of love, which in turn was the result of not knowing they were loved by God, which all boils down to not truly believing that they are right with God through Christ. Making a rule out of respecting authority, backed-up by some horror stories, is not an effective way of eliciting respect of authority, as far as I’m concerned.

Conscious Awareness of Negative Mindsets

I’m still growing in the grace message and I don’t have it all figured out yet. I tend to vacillate between believing that it is good to make yourself consciously aware of negative mindsets, and not. The notes I have made in the past as a result of my own Bible studies tend to focus a lot on exposing negative mindsets - with a hint of basic Psychology. It is one thing, I suppose, to make yourself consciously aware of past mistakes and missed opportunities – it is another to make yourself aware of wrong, negative patterns of thinking.

But the Bible does mention the concept of our conscience being purged of sin in Hebrews 9:14, 10:22. Hebrews 10:1-4 relates how animal scarifies in the Old Covenant created a reminder of sin ever year, because the blood of animals covered sin, but could not take it away.

I believe it is important to highlight some of the common misnomers we tend to pick-up in church. But to a great extent, just the conscious awareness of something is insufficient in bringing about peace and a change of behaviour. The Ten Commandments were supposed to bring about a change of behaviour by making people consciously aware of what was right and wrong – but it in fact it had the opposite effect.

The Gospel Message is a Short Message

The more I soak in pure grace teaching, especially that of Bertie Brits, the more I come to realise that perhaps the only message that we really need to hear is that of our right-standing with God through Christ. Everything else, I believe, or to a great extent at least, flows from there. It amazes me all the junk and excesses the church has been through, including persecution and manipulation during the time of the early church and Middle Ages, right the way through to the excesses of the charismatic movement during the nineties.

To a great extent I believe that the only message that we need to hear is about what Jesus has already done for us on the cross and who we are in Him. I like what Bertie Brits says in that the Gospel message is a short message. Over the years, the church has made the Gospel message into something rather complicated by adding to it principles, formulas and outlandish, supernatural testimonies.

Bible Teaching Which is too Specific

I have found that as soon as Bible teaching focuses on specific circumstances and people – it can cause people to go off on a tangent (myself included). This is what happened to me when I read Kenneth E. Hagin’s books from 1997 to about 2005.  Hagin’s teaching has often been compared to that of E.W. Kenyon. In fact, some people have even accused Hagin of plagiarism (you can see an example of that here and here).

I have been exposed to Bible teachers I previously never heard of, on my journey into the grace message, such as Norman Grubb, Major Ian W. Thomas and so on. The concept of union with Christ has been reinforced in me as I have read or listened to their teaching.

I cannot help but think that the writing of such people is akin to that of E.W. Kenyon, who focuses on a revelation of the Pauline Epistles and who we are in Christ. Kenyon focuses on the power of Christ living in us, rather than principles and formulas that we can exploit in order to get God to bless us in some way – something that I see in Kenneth E. Hagin’s teaching. Therefore, as I have gradually moved out of Word of Faith teaching and into Grace teaching – I have found myself moving away from Hagin’s teaching and back to Kenyon.

Bible Teaching I Listen to Now

Just this year I decided to get rid of my large collection of Christian books, because they just did me no good whatsoever. I used to love books but now I find they just take up space. I noticed just how much my books weighed as well when I last moved house.

Now, I only listen to pure grace teaching that I download from the internet. Check out my Grace Preachers List for some great websites were you can download pure grace messages, often for free. I now tend to keep away from even a hint of law.

A couple of weeks ago I sent an email to the host of my church home group to say that I would no longer be attending and I told her why - in a pleasant, but assertive way, of course.

Intimidation in the Battle between David and Goliath

In his book, Breaking Intimidation, John Bevere quotes the epic battle between David and Goliath: the way in which Goliath (and David’s own kinsmen and family) intimidated David.

I have my own thoughts about intimidation in relation to David and Goliath – some of which, I suppose, is based on John Bevere’s take on the story.

David did not repeat faith affirmations that God would make him a ten-foot giant and a skilled swordsman. No, David simply trusted God and stepped out in faith. I'll bet David did not even know what would happen next - he didn't even have a plan. All that David knew was that he would have the victory because God was with him. Also, did you notice where the intimidation was coming from? Not just from the enemy: David was also intimidated by those on his own side - even his soldier brothers! Doesn't that sound familiar to those who are believers of the message of pure grace?

Sometimes we come to God with our plans and expect Him to bless them. We think of the most logical course of action, which is often a plan that sees us looking good in front of others, saving face, settling old scores, getting one over on the other person or making up for past mistakes and embarrassments. But a lot of the time we don't have that luxury.

God anoints us in our weakness so that His glory might be known (2 Cor. 12:9). If David was able to square up to Goliath and fight him on his own terms - David could have claimed the glory - but it wasn't the case. We ought to consider what we would be like if God answered our prayers and gave us the power and the “victory” that we often demand from Him. Is it possible that we would be just as competitive, demanding, intimidating, proud and obnoxious as those we are trying to compete with and impress?

Have you ever noticed that most of the time that Christians want to be blessed in the typical ways that the world impresses upon us? Then, we think about the spectacular miracles that we get told about in church and treat them like some sort of lottery ticket. We have the idea that if we hear about the way in which God blesses some people in unconventional ways, and if we read the right books and make the right faith confessions, our "numbers might come-up". But until that day comes - we look to God to empower us to fulfil certain criteria so that we qualify to be blessed in the conventional ways of the world. This manner of thinking creates intimidation and a sense of rejection when we don't meet those requirements – requirements that are foisted upon us by the world.

There is a balance to be struck here: on the whole, I believe we should look to God to bless us in ways that should be considered "natural". I suppose the key to this is having an open mind and not trying to fulfil certain criteria as a means to being blessed and favoured of God. See my blog entry on The Everyday Supernatural:

http://thedivinenature.blogspot.com/2009/06/everyday-supernatural.html

Just consider how long it would have taken for David to train in the military, to become big and strong, so that he could fight a physical fight with the giant. God took David, as he was, young, ruddy and good-looking, as the Bible puts it (1 Sam. 17:42).

God anointed a shepherd boy's sling and turned it into a might weapon that could defeat the strongest of foes. David did not struggle too long with Saul's armour: as soon as he could see it was not going to work - he put it aside and trusted God for his protection (1 Sam. 17:38-39). Why is it that we use faith formulas to try and strap-on the armour of the world? The armour of the world is heavy and cumbersome. Our armour is spiritual and consists of salvation, righteousness, peace, faith and truth (see Eph. 6:13-17). There is nothing more powerful than that.

Intimidation in My Own Life

In my own life, I feel intimidated a lot of the time. What annoys me a lot of the time are people who seem to "have it all together", people who are non-believers but appear to have the hallmarks of the abundant life that the Bible seems to only promise believers. I really wouldn't mind, I'm sure, if I was blessed - but I'm not (at least I don’t feel as if I am).

What makes me feel even more intimidated is when these people take it upon themselves to say, "Paul, this religious stuff is really not helping you...” They are of course referring to my Christian beliefs. But I think that they have a point: the religious, legalistic aspects of my belief system, ingrained in me over the years, really has not helped me one bit! I suppose this corresponds with the Psalms when the Psalmist is venting frustration to God about the ungodly being blessed.

In his book, Breaking Intimidation, John Bevere does touch upon what he believes to be the root cause of intimidation: loving your life (selfishness) (see Rev. 12:11 and John 12:25).

I believe that my intimidation is more than likely to be caused by my trying to prove myself by my works. I have been trying to compete with the world so that I can prove that I'm better than them; so that I can fulfil the religious demands put upon me by the legalistic church; so I can put demands on other people that they can't attain; so that I can justify to myself and others; so I can deserve blessings and favour from God and tell other people why I deserve to live an abundant life and they don't. I suppose I've been no better than other, intimidating people.

Breaking Intimidation

A little while ago, I read a book called Breaking Intimidation by John Bevere. This was quite a good book that highlights something that happens in the lives of many Christians. But what I didn't like about the book was that it was rather legalistic, something that the Christian "must do", rather than what Christ has already done.

Most of the anecdotes from this book were focused on people in full-time ministry. This is something that really does my head in, because I feel that it fails to address everyday, "real-life" issues. I honestly thought at one stage that I had to be in full-time ministry to be an effective Christian, because all the testimonies of victory were centred on full time ministry.

John Bevere's anecdotes were pretty much the same throughout the book: a pastor of a church would be intimidated by Christians who had wrong ideas and were living in sin. Bevere would goad the pastor to confront these intimidators. It seems to me as if John Bevere was being almost as intimidating as the people in his stories!

Restoring the Sinful Believer – Part 1

I recall reading a book called Breaking Intimidation by John Bevere. He provided anecdotes of how he witnessed intimidation in some churches, towards himself and/or others, and that it was only overcome when the Pastor confronted the intimidator.

In one such anecdote, Bevere recounted that he felt intimidated by the worship team in a church. It transpired that there was sin in the lives of some of these people (adultery being one of them). Only when these people were confronted, did the intimidation stop. Some of these people were restored to the church, some left.

I like the book Breaking Intimidation, it provided me with a lot of insight into the subject, but I could not help but feel that it emphasised confrontation as something that the believer should or must do. For me, that gets us back into the law, rather than grace, because it is all about coaxing someone to do something in their own effort. Remember, His yoke is easy and His burden is light (Matt. 11:30). To be spiritually minded is life and peace (Rom. 8:6). The Holy Spirit should lead us who believe, in a way that is clear, yet peaceful and gentle.

The analogy that the Bible uses in regards to being led by the Spirit is that of a Father leading His child (Rom. 8:14). What father would lead his child by dragging him along, kicking and screaming? Either a father who has no ability to love and care for that child or a father who is aggressive and violent. Perhaps if the father is normally gentle and kind but the child is unruly – then the father has to be aggressive with the child. This reminds me of the analogy of the horse or mule in Psalm 32:9. But surely, the focus should be on learning how we can surrender our souls to God so that He can lead us as a child, without having to resort to all the rough stuff?

Another thing that I disliked about the book, something which is often a common theme amongst Christian books, is that the anecdotes were all from the perspective of someone who is in full-time ministry. I suppose it is often a difficult thing to avoid, but I think it would serve the Body of Christ a lot more if Christian books were written from the perspective of everyday life situations.

This theme of confrontation seems like a common-sense principle and it seems that this could be done out of love. But is it really our business to do so? Perhaps, as a pastor, it is his business to safeguard the flock from the wolves?

How does this figure in the message of grace I wonder? Seems rather Draconian to me. All I know is that when I don't accept other people, just as they are (including me) – it hurts on the inside.