THE FLOW OF THE SPIRIT

THE FLOW OF THE SPIRIT

 

What do we mean by the use of this term? I only recently heard this term used in an article by John Hamrick entitled "Unity in Worship". It was an excellent article about how worship should start with praise and then flow naturally into worship. Praise is a function of our soul, whereas true worship of God is a function of our spirit. (John 4:23-24) As we know, when God created Adam from earthly clay, and then breathed life into him, at that point he became a living "soul". (Gen 2:7) God warned Adam the day that he would disobey the one restriction placed on him, he would die. (Gen 2:15-17). We know that Adam did disobey this command of God, but lived for some 900 years. So what part of Adam died that day? His spirit died, or lost the ability to connect with his Creator. All of his descendants down to our present generation have all suffered by this act of this "first" Adam. (Rom 5:12) and (Eph 2:1-10). But we know that God gave His one and only Son Jesus, to become the "last" Adam to reverse the curse brought into creation by the first Adam. Paul speaks of this in (1 Cor 15:45), and we know that anyone who repents of their sinful condition and receives Jesus as Savior has their spirit made alive by a "new birth".

 

So now we can connect with God through our human spirit coming into a relationship with His Holy Spirit. At this point we change from being a natural man, to becoming a spiritual man. (1 Cor 2:10-16). Most versions of English translations of God's Word use "natural" to describe a person who has not received the Spirit at conversion. Actually it should be "soulish" for anyone who is nor spiritual, but our language doesn't have a word for it. But this is a proper word for people who have not yet become followers of Jesus, or even believers who are still not mature. (Heb 5:11-14) These are people that Paul refers to in (Eph 4:14), who can easily be lead into deception by false teachers. This is also very important to realize that in worship services where there are believers, who don't know the difference between soulish and spiritual, they don't know when God is in the process of changing the service from praise to worship! This is what is meant by the term "Flow of the Spirit", and once you have experienced it in its proper context, its hard to settle for anything less! It would seem to me that this is an important principle for those leading worship services to learn, to improve the quality of our times of "gathering together unto Him"!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer

HEAVEN IS NOT THE GOAL

HEAVEN IS NOT THE GOAL

 

The fist time I heard this expression, it was used was by Bob Mumford, in a teaching he gave back in 2008. More recently I read it in his book called "Agape Road", which carries a copyright date of 2002, 2006, which I assume means that he first published it in 2002 and revised it 4 years later. It is an excellent book that I highly recommend every follower of Jesus should read. The first line of the Preface reads "This book was not written-it was a birthing process". He goes on to say "We have made an effort to take you on a journey called the "Agape Road". He then finishes the Preface with "This Agape Road journey does get difficult in places, so that you may want to run, hide, or shift blame. But, it is a journey that we truly believe the Lord Jesus Christ has called us to walk, and hopefully, help others to discover. I have learned that it is literally impossible not to love God once you know Him for Who He really is. This is my own testimony; hopefully it will be yours as well."

 

It is really a sad thing that the "church" had led us to believe that reaching heaven, is a permanent home for all born again believers when we die. As Bob says on page 17 "If you are a Christian and you die, you have to go to heaven; there is no place else to go!" Heaven, as we have come to know it, is not our Eternal home in its present location. In spite of all that we have been told by books and songs and church traditions, it is only a temporary stopping off place. Our permanent address for eternity is the place identified by John in one of his many heavenly visions that make up the book of Revelation. It is properly identified as the "New Jerusalem", which will be located for eternity in space above the new earthly Jerusalem. A careful reading of the last two chapters, if you are able to lay aside all that you have been told about heaven and the "mansion" that Jesus is supposed to be building for you, and receive this as a vision given to John by Jesus, I'm sure the Holy Spirit will reveal the truth to you.

 

The real goal for us followers of Jesus is perfectly described by Paul in (Rom 8:18-25).  As I understand this passage, Paul is trying to tell us that we should be working toward establishing the "Kingdom of God" here on earth, and helping to deliver the whole creation from the bondage caused by the "curse", and not looking to be "air lifted" to heaven any time soon!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer

UNITY IN WORSHIP

UNITY IN WORSHIP

 

We recently discovered an article by this name by John Hamrick, in an old Morning Star Journal published in 1995. He had been in ministry for 40 years, and seemed to have a mature, well balanced understanding of the place of music in worship. He clearly states the difference between praise and worship, and the fact that musical instruments can be used effectively in praise, but when the flow of the Spirit moves from praise to worship, they lose their effectiveness, and often proves to be a hindrance to true worship. He explains that the "flow" of the Spirit is difficult to explain, but can be clearly detected in any meeting, either by its presence or its absence. We have probably all been in a meeting where the flow was moving from praise to worship, when some well meaning saint will start up a song or chorus that surely belongs in the praise category, and the flow is suddenly broken!

 

Praise is a function of our soul, and is used in thanksgiving to God for His many benefits to our lives. But we must realize that true worship is something entirely different. See (John 4:23-24) for a proper understanding of what Jesus considers "true worship". The basic problem is that many people don't know the difference between our soul and our spirit. Our soul is that part of us whose function is that of connecting with other people, but not with God. Our soul's main function is to make sure that we "feel good", but God designed us to only be able to connect with Him through our spirit. Remember that Adam and Eve had an intimate relationship with God in the Garden, until sin entered in when they disobeyed, and the scripture is clear that at that point they "died". But they lived for several hundreds of years after that, so what died? Their spirits died, or lost contact with God, and their soul took control of their life.

 

We know that as believers in Jesus, our spirits are "born again", but our soul still wants to control our lives. Instead of being "spiritual" believers, we are often "soulish", or controlled by our soul which cannot connect with God. You can easily see how this can affect a service where our intention is to connect with God in true worship. Our soul doesn't want to flow from praise to worship, because it knows instinctively that it can't go there. It can function quite well in praise, where our intellect, will, and emotions can be involved, but to move to true worship, would cause it to lose control. Remember back in the eleventh chapter of Genesis when the people attempted to reach up to heaven by building a high tower? God came down and scattered them. I see this as a soulish attempt on their part to reach heaven by their own way, and not God's. Today people do the same thing by practicing various "religions", trying to please their god, or gods, instead of coming to Almighty God through the way He has provided, through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross! In a similar way I see believers in Jesus trying to come to God in various forms of "worship", which are soulish and not really spiritual. Derek Prince states that "when our worship becomes play, it ceases to be spiritual, but becomes soulish". He goes on to say that much of what he has seen in Charismatic circles has become just that. Derek was a very sincere well balanced teacher, and I think we have much to learn from his teaching on worship.

Sincerel submitted.

Dave Jamer

HONESTY

HONESTY

 

I was impressed by the devotional from ODB on April 30, 2010. The author said that someone in the USA had chosen this day back in the early '90s to be called "National Honesty Day". His rationale was that since April 1 was referred to as "April Fools Day", a day that promoted lying, then April 30 should be declared a day to honor truth. He said "April begins with a day dedicated to lying [April Fools Day] and should end on a higher note". Although I might agree with his thought, I have never seen a calendar with this day marked as a special day, so I assume he never gained much support for his good intention!

 

God's Word does have a lot to say about honesty, for example we read in (Numbers 23:19) NLT "God is not a man so He does not lie. He is not human, so He does not change His mind." Also we know that He hates falsehood (Prov 6:16-19), and of course Jesus said that Satan is the father of all lies (John 8:44). As opposed to that Jesus stated clearly in (John 14:6) "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me." So, on the basis of these scriptures alone we can safely say that this man had a solid foundation for his declaration about this day being called "National Honesty Day"!

 

But we see so much dishonesty in the world around us, in all segments of society, especially in governments and the financial world! During the recent credit crisis in 2008 we saw probably the worst case scenarios, with many large corporation CEO's giving themselves huge bonuses, while their companies were going bankrupt. This is nothing but "greed", which is listed in scripture as one of the seven deadly sins! It was also stealing from the shareholders of that company, in my opinion.

 

I think honesty and truth go together in one camp, and dishonestly and lies are in an opposite camp. And if we know that Jesus is "truth", and Satan is the father of "lies", then our choice should be rather simple. But the problem is that because Satan is a liar, and the father of all lies, he is therefore the "arch deceiver" who is behind all deception. And remember how Jesus warned us about the danger of being deceived by false teachers in these last days (Matt 24: 5, 11, 24), and by Paul in (2 Thess 2:1-12), that's why we did supernatural discernment (1 Cor 12:10) to escape deception!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer

SAFEGUARDS AGAINST DECEPTION

SAFEGUARDS AGAINST DECEPTION

 

In the last chapter of Derek Prince's little booklet entitled "Protection from Deception" he lists four safeguards that will prevent us from deception. For the benefit of those who have never read his booklet, I will briefly give you these four safeguards. Because deception by false teachers is a real danger in these last days, Jesus, Paul, and other NT writers warned us to beware!

 

The first safeguard is given by Peter in (1 Peter 5:5-6), where we read "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble", or in other words "humble ourselves"! Pride is described in scripture as the first sin, and probably together with rebellion, which was the cause of Lucifer being cast out of heaven, could still be the chief sin of the 21^st century. Pride is so deceptive that even followers of Jesus can become "spiritually proud", and lose their effective witness! The answer for pride is "humility", and this is something that we have to initiate, because God will never do it for us! We must humble ourselves, repent of our pride, and be led by the Holy Spirit.

The second one listed by Derek is based on (2 Thess 2:9-12), where Paul states clearly that it is only by "receiving the love of the truth" that we will be able to resist deception when the Antichrist appears on the scene with his lying "signs and wonders". The charismatic church scene is probably where he will show up first, because many charismatically inclined followers of Jesus are quick to be led into chasing after the "supernatural", believing that because it is supernatural it must be the Holy Spirit. The Lakeland Florida experience with Todd Bentley in 2008 would be a case in point!

The third safeguard listed by Derek is to "cultivate the fear of the Lord" in our heart. The scriptures are full of passages about the fear of the Lord. It might be a profitable experience to take a concordance and look up a few like (Ps 2:11, 19:9, 34:11-14), or (Pr 9:10-11, 19:23, 22:4) and see for yourself how important this is in the eyes of the Lord!

The fourth and final safeguard he mentions is to "make and keep the cross central". I believe one of our greatest needs is to focus on the cross where Jesus died to pay the price of our redemption! When we really see the cross we have nothing to boast of. (Gal 6:4). So to sum up, the safeguards against deception are 1/ Humble ourselves, 2/ Receive the love of the truth, 3/ Cultivate the fear of the Lord, 4/ Make and keep the cross central! If we diligently follow these instructions, we should be able to remain safe from the deception that is coming our way in these last days!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer