ELECTRONIC MINISTRY – Part 5 (Open Letter pages 147-153).
Dear Lord Jesus, I now come to Your servant who was the eldest among Your servants, and who is not with us any longer. Let me be truthful and give credit where credit is due, and judgement where judgement is due.
I have not known a Christian who had put so much effort into searching out practical biblical answers to the world’s troubles and dilemmas. Who had visited so many nations and persons in high worldly positions, to deliver to them his plain truth and his answers to the troubles … even his message of the coming King and the Kingdom.
I believe, Lord, that just as many other servants, ministers and scholars, he too started with a sincere heart and enquiring mind … and he was devoted to it for decades. Yea, he had given his long life to it! Yet, many Christians, even leaders, offered nothing but a mockery at the mention of his name or his ministry!
Now, I tell them on Your behalf, Righteous Lord, that they ALL had mocked themselves and their own efforts and their own ministries – for none of them that mocked, or are still mocking, is better than he was … or wiser than he was!!
And unless those that judged him so unrighteously repent, they shall receive their “reward” at the last day!
Since Your servant is not with us any more, I turn to those who are called to “fill his shoes”. If there are any lessons to learn from their predecessor, they are, I believe, the following:
He never broke through that “Barrier”, that division between the soul and spirit (Heb.4:12). All his knowledge and wisdom, all his answers were intellectual. Had he broken through to the Spirit, he would not have been welcomed and entertained by his many distinguished “friends in high worldly positions”. He would have been ignored, uninvited, unwelcome! Because he would have declared to them the full Truth (also about themselves) as revealed by Your Spirit, and they all would have become his “enemies in high worldly positions”.
Dear Lord, even telling the Truth to a Christian, could turn him into our enemy (Gal.4:16), yea, often quite easily; by Your Grace, Lord, I know.
The new Publisher of their magazine, who just might be my fellow countryman, wrote about his predecessor: “He turned his energy and his formidable ability to concentrate on searching out the answers to some of life’s most important questions”. I agree with that statement! But, Lord, that is precisely why the answers and the truth searched for by him correspond to HIS energy and HIS ability – for this is, indeed, the energy and ability of his own intellect. But he had NOT received the answers and the Truth which are BEYOND HIS abilities, which correspond to Your Ability – which NO MAN CAN search out!!
We must receive them in humility, in childish faith and in SPIRIT! (Mt.11:25-29).
His answers and his truth made him “the friend of the world”, Your answers and Your Truth would have made him “the enemy of the world”. Hence, despite often preaching Your Word from James 4:1-3 to others, he himself became a spiritual victim of the very next verse.
Will that be a lesson to his followers? Will they heed these words of mine? Will they ever break through that Barrier and also begin to bring forth true spiritual fruits? I earnestly pray, Lord, they would. Amen.
Again, I would like to insert one or two statements at this point.
Many, many Christians still judge others by appearance, by outer signs, and NOT by inner spiritual realities. Hence, one that may present more confused biblical teachings or more erroneous doctrines is mocked and judged MORE severely than another presenting clearer teachings, more correct or more plausible doctrines! (I do not say this, Lord, to overlook or condone errors and confusion).
Yet, the former one may do it in a frank, open, unassuming, good spirit, while the latter may be of an arrogant, malevolent, servile, fearful or any other devilish, unpleasant spirit. I weigh the spirits, for so You have taught me, and that irrespective of how clear our teachings and doctrines may be, or how clean our ways may seem to be. Indeed, it is written: “All the ways (and teachings, doctrines) of a man are clean in his own eyes, BUT the Lord weigheth the spirits”! (Pr.16:2).
And then, there is another servant of Yours who also built a cathedral, even a crystal clear cathedral, and it seems that he knows what he is doing. Being himself a jovial man, he has been preaching in a popular and attractive style.
He may have a lot of satisfied listeners and also a lot of friends, especially in those circles interested in faith, psychology, parapsychology, victorious Christian walks, and similar goodies. Perhaps, he has even “teamed up” with another minister, well known for his faith teachings.
According to one such teaching of the latter, if a Christian has the faith, he can have one million oil wells in Texas. Well, is it not true, Lord? It is true, although, because of economic reasons, I would not counsel any Christian to do that in 1986.
I wish, Lord, I could write to You many things on the humorous side, for I know how great a sense of humor You truly have. But the true reasons for writing this letter are very serious, and the things to be judged and destroyed in us are equally serious. So much so that I even overcame my fears and trembling to write a letter of these contents to the King of All Creation!
Now, what are these serious things in these two ministers and, perhaps, in many others like them? They have become “blind leaders of the blind”, and unless they wake up and REPENT to You, and to all those they have been leading to a ditch, they will all end up right there – in the ditch! But You, Lord, shall require the account for all their victims from their hands!
Well, what have they done? They have substituted simple, pure faith with positive thinking! So, it is no more “The just shall live by faith” (Rom.1:17), but “The just shall live, even live victoriously, by positive attitudes”! Hence, it appears, Lord, that they were saved because Your Cross appealed to their positive brains, and they adopted a positive attitude toward Calvary. How marvellous … for people can be saved just by right thinking about You … and then live a victorious life by being positive toward their problems and wishes!
They can build Your Body by being positive toward their “brothers and sisters in thinking”. Alas, Lord, the greatest positive thinkers in the world’s history had no chance to write any Epistles in the Bible.
I now turn toward these ministers and in Your stead I am telling them this: You foolish servants … who has bewitched you? You have started with the Spirit, and now will you be made perfect in flesh??? And thereby deceive multitudes of others?
All your positive thinking, so far, was unable to show you that the true faith is a heavenly substance, built and finished by the Lord Himself! (Heb.12:2). This faith has NOTHING to do with our physical or psychological world, with the physical or psychological part of our being. This true faith does not have an earthly origin, nor was it produced by us, nor can it yet be affected by our thinking or feeling or will! It can only be affected positively by our OBEDIENCE, or negatively by our DISOBEDIENCE to the Lord, His Word, His Will!
When the Lord tells us “What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them” (Mk.11:24), He is not telling us to begin to strain our brains, to begin to think positively, to begin to labor in our minds, labor in our imaginations, labor in our feelings, labor in our attitudes … and, finally, give birth to a “faith” and receive “those things” that we managed to be positive about!
If we do not have the true faith in the beginning, we will obtain NOTHING – no matter how positively our minds can work, no matter how excellent the thoughts or imaginations they can produce!! Furthermore, only the Spirit of Christ can produce in our minds a truly positive thought, for it is at the same time a meek and humble thought, a wise thought, a holy thought, a thought which would always correspond with our true faith, should we have that faith.
But your minds, dear brethren, have NOT been renewed in His Spirit, they have only become sophisticated and religious, hence, they are able to produce religious rubbish concerning positive thinking.
In the Name of the Lord Christ Jesus, I counsel you to change your positive thinking into a very positive repentance, a wet repentance; and change your reading of psychological rubbish to re-reading chapter eleven of the book of Hebrews! Ask the Lord why the thoughts, or the attitudes, of the people mentioned in that chapter were not recorded? Ask Him also whether your positive thinking would be good enough for verses 35 to 39 of the eleventh chapter! Above all, ask the Lord for forgiveness … and REPENT also to your followers, for I say again, their account shall be required from your hands!
I am proclaiming this on behalf of the Lord Christ Jesus and bind it in His Name! Amen.
(To be continued next week in part 6)
brother Hanola
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