So, what spiritual truth would Our Lord desire to show believers today? Let us see three of His practical points.
01. The Lord does not need (more) men in His Church, who can read and write, study, prepare sermons, teach and preach. There are plenty of such. He needs (more) men, who are crucified (Gal. 5:24) and thus able to SEE IN SPIRIT AND TRANSFORM BELIEVERS INTO THE IMAGE OF CHRIST AND NOT ONLY TEACH THEM FROM THE BIBLE! BIBLE TEACHING HAS NOT CHANGED ANY ONE INTO THE IMAGE OF CHRIST.
They must see beyond their intellectual understanding whether their words are dead or living; whether it is all intellectual or spiritual. There is NO LIFE in our reading or studying, there is NO LIFE in our natural mind! Are their words “spirit and life” (Jn. 6:63) or are they only logical thoughts? There IS NO LIFE IN THOUGHTS OR IN LOGIC either. Even if carnal, fleshly preachers should preach the Cross, it would be of no effect (1Cor. 1:17) because such preachers have never been to their cross! They have no personal experience with the Lord and thus, for them, His Cross is a theory, doctrine, which may be the basis of their true faith, but not necessarily of their life. Their own cross is also only a theory and not their life.
Many are quite able to produce interesting even fascinating sermons or stories and bring God into them and achieve their own goals and purposes thereby. Many ministers have to keep those thousands of believers coming back, filling the auditoria and paying their tithes and offerings. The Lord does not even ask whether their work or sermon contained sufficient truth or not, but whether it gave out spiritual life or death. Don’t we see that WE MAY SPEAK TRUTH IN DEATH OR IN LIFE? All our ways and works are “clean in our own eyes”, but the Lord weighs our SPIRITS! (Pr. 16:2) Are they living or dead? Are they from our nature or from His Nature? Is their source our natural, religiously educated soul or is it His Spirit? Can we tell the difference?
THE LORD SAYS THAT HIS CHURCH IS WRETCHED, AND MISERABLE, AND POOR, AND BLIND, AND NAKED! HE COUNSELS HER TO BUY FROM HIM GOLD TRIED IN THE FIRE THAT SHE MAY BE RICH; AND WHITE RAIMENT THAT SHE MAY BE CLOTHED… AND EYESALVE THAT SHE MAY SEE… FOR SHE HAS NO SPIRITUAL DISCERNMENT! (Rev. 3:17b,18)
The ministry of teaching or preaching in the Church is too often an INTELLECTUAL STRIVING to persuade believers about the matter taught or preached WITHOUT realizing that “the servant of the Lord MUST NOT STRIVE;” (2Tim. 2:24)
Also, it is based on showing logical connections in the Word of God and their logical explanations WITHOUT THEIR SPIRITUAL MEANING. It is further based on a continuous repeating of the “sweet” promises of God to believers WITHOUT explaining God’s conditions for us that would enable us to receive His promises. It is based on showing what God will do for believers WITHOUT explaining what believers must first do for God according to His Word. It is also based on taking one or two “harmonizing verses” of the Scripture on any chosen topic of the sermon WITHOUT considering also the verses which may “change the harmony” of our intellectual understanding of the chosen verses, etc. Believers then clap their hands and “praise the Lord” and jump and are happy and go home deceived possibly even more than they were before they came to such a “ministry”.
Let us give another, deeper example of spiritual seeing and life as opposed to spiritual blindness and death.
An honest, sincere, devout, faithful, diligent, trustworthy but “uncrucified, soulish preacher” gives a sermon. His congregation may be excited even fascinated at the way the topic was preached, explained and substantiated from the Scripture.
Let us assume that what was preached was truth from the Scripture and the notes and explanations were correct. Yet, it all was intellectual information from the mind of the preacher to the minds of the listeners, who may have made notes into their notebooks. But after the initial excitement and fascination with the topic, these believers leave for home the same as they were before they came in with no new and living change in their spirit or in their perception. The new and fascinating information was absorbed by the same old character. They can still see nothing in spirit because the preacher sees nothing in spirit.
Another preacher comes and he may preach EXACTLY THE SAME TRUTH. The congregation may not hear more truth than before. Yet they receive something living, something that will not leave them the same. Something that has the power to “move them to execute in their soul the truth received”. They have SEEN something, which they have never seen before while hearing the same truth…and may have a hard time to explain it. So what made the difference? THE PREACHER IS CRUCIFIED IN HIS FLESH AND THUS HE COULD SEE IN SPIRIT THE TRUTH HE HAS PREACHED BECAUSE HE IS ALSO LIVING THAT TRUTH IN HIS OWN LIFE AND CAN THEREBY BRING LIFE, PROGRESS AND GROWTH TO OTHERS. HIS WORDS ARE SPIRIT and they ARE LIFE. Therefore the believers that are truly “hungry and thirsty” can be filled and grow up into Christ. (Mt. 5:6// Eph. 4:15)
Have you ever eaten food that was pasteurized? It may look the same, taste the same as the non-pasteurized one… but THE PASTEURIZED FOOD IS DEAD! All the living enzymes in it were killed by the process of pasteurization. Your body had received the “same food”, but not the living nutrition, not the energy required for your body to function properly. So it is in our spiritual life! While in grocery stores we can see on the can or package the written note “Pasteurized”, or even “Ultra Pasteurized”, we cannot see such a note on the “package” of any sermon, teaching or on any “Christian book” written and published by carnal authors.
OUR NATURAL SOUL WITH ITS THOUGHTS, EMOTIONS, REASONING, DOUBTS, PREJUDICES AND SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS IS WELL ABLE TO EFFECTIVELY PASTEURIZE THE LIVING WORD OF GOD AND MAKE IT A SPIRITUALLY DEAD FOOD!… WITH NO SPIRITUAL NUTRITION AND ABILITY TO GIVE LIVING ENERGY AND LIVING FAITH TO THOSE THAT “EAT IT”. DO YOU SEE IT?
SHOULD WE NOT PRAY TO OUR LORD, WHO IS THE LIVING WORD TO KEEP US FROM THIS SIN EVEN IF WE DO IT IGNORANTLY AND WITH ALL OUR GOOD INTENTIONS?
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To be continued next week in chapter 3 – part 16
brother Hanola
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