Month: September 2019

“Then the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.'” – Genesis 3:4-5

There is nothing new under the sun.

Solomon proclaims this in Ecclesiastes, and it remains true today. So much of what we see today is nothing but the re-heated, re-hashed, and regurgitated garbage that has always existed. You can gift-wrap rubbish in a different pretty bow, but it remains the same as it was the first time. However, the new presentation will always be enough to fool a great number of people. These people aren’t evil. They aren’t malicious. They are simply deceived.

Deception is our enemy’s primary weapon. But if he uses it so often, why do we still fall for it?

While it is not the only answer to this question, the main reason is subtlety. Satan is so subtle in his maneuvering and positioning that he has a foothold before we even realize he is at work. This is also not a new thing! Genesis 3:1 reads, “Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, ‘Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?’” At this point, Satan hadn’t even had thousands of years to practice his deception on mankind, and he was STILL considered the most cunning (clever, manipulating) creature that existed.

This brings us to an interesting point. Many Christians would halt this line of thinking right here and say “The Bible says I have authority over the devil.”  And they would be right. Philippians 2:10 says, “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth,”. We have more power, through Jesus Christ, than Satan. He is a created fallen being. The devil isn’t the equal and opposite of God. The idea of Satan being even a fraction as powerful as God is laughable. However, don’t ever fool yourself that you can outsmart the enemy. Satan has been deceiving people, believers and non-believers alike, for generations. He’s subtle. He’s unassuming. And he’s clever.

The newest (and oldest) doctrine to circle back around is the “anything past salvation is error” gospel. And it sounds good. It sounds spiritual. It sounds biblical. This is the subtlety at which the enemy excels. This doctrine asserts that making Christ your redeemer and striving to eliminate flesh flaws is the end goal of every believer, and everything past that is not only unnecessary, but dangerous. I’ll give you some examples.

This doctrine teaches that prophets were used to foretell the coming of the messiah. True. Therefore prophecy has passed away. Most definitely NOT TRUE. In I Corinthians 12:27-31, Paul writes, “Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually. And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way.”

Christ is the head of the church and he left the disciples to establish the church. In this church God has appointed apostles, prophets, teachers, etc. God doesn’t appoint unneeded positions. While I, to some extent, agree with the sentiment of eliminating titles (Jesus Himself spoke about the superfluous use of titles in Matthew 23), eliminating the offices of prophet, pastor, or teacher is in direct violation of scripture. Rightly dividing scripture is not permission to start cutting passages out of God’s word. In fact, Paul also writes in I Corinthians 14:1, “Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophecy.” The author of 2/3 of the New Testament advised to desire and go after prophecy above any other spiritual gifts. This wasn’t a letter to non-believers but to the church!

This new doctrine says we also shouldn’t seek after signs, miracles, and wonders, and that the age and dispensation of miracles and signs is gone. Again, such a subtlety. We shouldn’t be seeking miracles and signs for the sake of miracles and signs, but we should be fully expecting to see them as a result of the gospel of Christ! Paul writes in Romans 15:19, “in mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and round about to Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.” Jesus Himself declares much the same in Mark 16:17 saying, “And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” I could easily bring up the prosperity gospel here as well. There are certainly some who are mistakenly preaching a “give to get” philosophy, but similar to the unavoidable side effect of signs and wonders, blessings (both spiritual and financial) WILL come to those who give in accordance to the voice of God and out of a motivation of gratitude.

God is not a cosmic slot machine. The “give to get” proposition is wrong, as is seeking signs and miracles for their own sake. However, downplaying or even outright despising the goodness of God (having all sufficiency in all things) or the miraculous nature of God (and greater works that these will he do, because Jesus went to His Father) will put us in a dangerous place. We seek after God first. We want to see signs and miracles because we are so close to Him. We do not want to get close to God SO we can see signs and miracles. The difference is subtle, but unfortunately the enemy loves working with subtleties and semantics.

So why are we so easily deceived?

Not only is the enemy crafty and unassuming, but he uses our lack of faith and lack of experience. We are all too often guilty of watering down the word of God to match our experiences rather than getting on our face and seeking God for the deeper things. It is much easier to rearrange our beliefs than to spend time studying and seeking after the maturity and meat of the Bible. How many times are we admonished not to remain a baby, but to go from milk to meat and grow? This same doctrine that has circled around again and again is not malevolent. It is not wicked. However, it is lazy. Even more detrimental, it creates division and resent. If we follow this doctrine to its end-game, we will be mistrustful of any minister of the word. We will doubt any axiom of reaching beyond oneself and stepping out in faith, and it will usually culminate in an outpouring of venom toward anyone who believes different from us. The very foundation of the Christian life: love God and love one another can be eroded away without our even realizing it.

Subtlety.

Let’s examine our hearts and motives. Let’s not run people down, even if we think they are wrong. Let’s take a quick peek inside and make sure we aren’t cherry-picking God’s word. Let’s renew our minds in this! Let’s let God take us from faith to faith and glory to glory. Let’s make up our minds not to dilute the scriptures to match our lives, but let God bring our lives up to match His description of what Christians are supposed to look like!

“Then the Lord said to Moses: ‘How long will these people reject Me? And how long will they not believe Me, with all the signs which I have performed among them?'” – Numbers 14:11

It’s no secret to any Christian that a life of faith can result in some extraordinary circumstances. Stepping out beyond your natural ability and relying on God to make up the difference will open up new opportunities in your life. We see countless examples of Jesus telling people that their faith was the active ingredient in their miracle. In Matthew 22:21 Jesus says, “And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.” He makes it clear that the advantages of having and using faith are immeasurable. Paul writes in II Corinthians 5:7, “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” If nothing else, this verse affirms the notion that we aren’t just encouraged, but EXPECTED to live by faith.

But what is the flip side of that coin? In the eighth chapter of Matthew, Jesus and his disciples experience a great storm when out to sea. Matthew 8:25-26 reads, “Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, ‘Lord, save us! We are perishing!’ But He said to them, ‘Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?’ Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.” Jesus considered lack of faith to be worthy of a rebuke! Hebrews 11:6 reads, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” We obviously never want to put ourselves in a position to be displeasing to God.

One of the most extreme examples of this is a story in II Kings. There had been a famine in Samaria because of an enemy siege that had cut off the city from outside trade. The siege had lasted so long that they were selling dove’s dung and donkey heads for food inside the city. Some had even resorted to cannibalism.  God then spoke to His prophet. II Kings 7:1-2 reads, “Elisha replied, ‘Hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Lord says: About this time tomorrow, a seah of the finest flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.’ The officer on whose arm the king was leaning said to the man of God, ‘Look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?’ ‘You will see it with your own eyes,’ answered Elisha, ‘but you will not eat any of it!’” That afternoon God drove off the enemy and they left their entire camp, provisions and all. Some lepers discovered this and told the king and the rest of the city. When the city found out about the abundance of food and provisions free for the taking, they rushed out of the city. Verse 17 of the same chapter reads, “Now the king had put the officer on whose arm he leaned in charge of the gate, and the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died, just as the man of God had foretold when the king came down to his house.” Why was this man struck down? It was his refusal to believe the prophet of God as he spoke God’s word.

In II Timothy, Paul writes that all scripture is given for doctrine, correction, and instruction in righteousness. This story of the doubting soldier of the king should be taken as a stern warning to all of us about the danger of unbelief. Today we primarily hear the direction of God though His word, but God does not change. Whether through a prophet or through the God-breathed word of the Bible, we can ill afford to ignore or scoff at God’s promises.  I’m certainly not saying God will strike us down, but He isn’t any more pleased with lack of faith now than He was in Bible times. We must get some mind renewal about this and stop professing things that go strictly against God’s promises!

God doesn’t promise us perfect health, but He does promise us healing. God doesn’t promise us a life free of financial worries, but He does promise us that our needs are met, and that he delights in the prosperity of his servants. He doesn’t promise us a life free of trouble, but He does promise to ALWAYS cause us to triumph. We can’t be overcomers if there is nothing to overcome. Sickness, poverty, and fear are NEVER sent from God. God gets no glory in our being sick, broke, or afraid. God gets the glory for healing, provision, and setting us free! Let’s stop taking ownership of things from which God promised to deliver us! We claim healing because God says Jesus already paid for it (I Peter 2:24). We claim abundance because God delights in our prosperity (Psalms 35:27). We claim freedom from addictions, anxiety, and fear because God has given us the spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind (II Timothy 1:7). Every curse of the law was crucified with Christ and while we may experience that curse because of the fall of man, we are not subject to stay under it. Galatians says we have been redeemed from the curse of the law. Let’s not displease God with our lack of faith. Let’s not water down the promises of God to match our experiences. Let’s bring our lives up to His standards!

“I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” – Philippians 3:12-13

It is certainly a wonderful thing when God gives me a revelation while reading His word. I also love when I get insight and wisdom when spending time with God in prayer. However sometimes, lessons learned by experience are more powerful and leave a greater impression on us than lessons learned in any other way. While I may prefer the first two types of learning environments, the experience based lessons tend to be how God speaks to me most of the time.

I am a Disney nerd. There are far worse things that I could have as an interest, so I don’t apologize for it. This fascination began about three years ago and in that time I have practically become a Walt Disney World theme park encyclopedia. My wife tolerates it as she loves Disney World as well. My kids and some of the rest of my family think it’s a little weird, but hey, everyone needs a hobby. I watch YouTube channels devoted to WDW, read blogs and websites about WDW, and more recently listen to podcasts discussing the parks and theme park touring strategies.

I was amazed when I found this constituency out there on the interwebs that was entirely devoted to the “House of Mouse”. Private Facebook groups, DisTwitter, and entire Internet forums created for the WDW loving community make up this amazing niche. One of the things I have really enjoyed has been the online communication and banter with the Disney World community. There are a few podcasters out there with which I’ve even formed some friendships.

One such group of podcasters recently celebrated their 150^th episode and invited anyone who lived locally to come out to a café in their hometown to join in the live recording of the episode. I decided to make the almost four-hour drive down to join in the celebration. They were recording early in the morning, so I knew I needed to drive down the night before the show. The town in which they were recording didn’t really have a hotel to speak of, so I stayed in a larger town about 45 minutes away at a fairly reputable chain hotel.

It was here at this hotel that God taught me a valuable lesson in a rather unorthodox way. Upon arriving, I went to my room to discover a few things amiss about the room. There was no shower curtain and the remote wouldn’t change the television channels. Admittedly, I’m not much of a TV watcher. I didn’t really think I would watch TV that evening, and it being a solo trip, the shower curtain was not a huge deal either. However, I called the front desk and let them know the issues. They offered to bring a new remote and shower curtain or I could just move to the room next door as they weren’t at capacity that evening. I chose to just move rooms.

At approximately 4:45 AM the next morning a strange sound awoke me. I rolled over and the door of my room was standing wide open and there was a man standing in the doorway. It effectively scared the stuffing out of me. I shouted something completely incomprehensible and he immediately slammed the door after yelling a hurried apology. I got up, bolted the door, and somehow went back to sleep.

The next morning, I went to the front desk and told them they needed to increase the door key card security for the rooms because I was intruded upon in the middle of the night. She asked if I was in room 206, to which I answered yes. She shamefacedly told me that it was her fault. Apparently when I switched rooms the evening prior, the front desk clerk never made the adjustment in the computer. Room 206 still appeared to be empty; therefore the night clerk rented that room to someone else. So what I thought was a case of a poor door lock was simply a consequence of a hastily made decision to move from my assigned room.

On my drive that morning, my mind was mulling over the hotel incident and I felt God speaking to my spirit. I felt like He was saying (and I’m paraphrasing), “This is what so many of my children do. They see some imperfections and some inconveniences and instead of letting Me do the work and fix the situations, they just move to a location in which I didn’t call them. When My people move without consulting Me, they get out from under the protection that I provide and open themselves up to attack.” He then started showing me places in scripture that backed up what He said.

Jonah was on a boat heading to Tarsus when he was supposed to be going to Nineveh. He stirred up trouble, not only for him, but for every sailor on that boat. Samson was a judge in Israel and was supposed to be in his home territory but was instead in the land of Sorek which was at the border of enemy territory. (How many of us want to tip-toe that line of where we need to be, and enemy territory? Okay, that’s probably a whole article on its own!) It was there he met Delilah, and we know how that turned out.

Then there was King David. II Samuel 11:1 reads, “It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.” As king, David was supposed to be with his army, but instead he stayed at home. He was walking around on his palace roof and he saw Bathsheba bathing. The simple decision to stay home, instead of being where he was supposed to be, caused an illicit affair, a cover-up, and finally a murder.

God has called each one of us to be in specific places at specific times. We can certainly request a transfer, but we need to be sensitive to the voice of God and obey what He says. Being a believer isn’t always comfortable. Whether it is a church, a job, or even a marriage; discomfort and irritation are not always signs that we need to get out of our current situation. Sometimes we need to stay put and let God work some things out in our life instead of just packing up and hitting the road. When we get out from underneath our destiny, we are also opening ourselves up to attack. Being outside of the will of God will always produce discord in our lives. As we can see in the biblical examples above, God WILL get our attention. How far we travel from His plan for us will usually determine how drastic the measures He will use to get us back in line. Let’s not so quickly throw away the protection that comes from being in our God-ordained place! We all want to do our part to see the kingdom of God move forward, but it is hard to do when we’re not at our designated location. Let’s decide to live out our short time on this earth doing things that have eternal value, and doing it from the place to which God called us!