Love’s Expression

I spent eight years in a major Evangelical movement. They were for the most part, good years for me. I grew tremendously and healed from major trauma. It was because the focus of that body was on the the tender aspects of Jesus. But the more I grew, I started being disquieted regarding what seemed an unbalanced view of Him. Based in the notion that He is mainly positive and doesn’t go around upsetting people’s apple carts, it didn’t appear the well-rounded Jesus we see in the Bible.

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t run around longing for the warrior side of Jesus to be expressed to me or to those whom I care about. But, He is that and more. And in these last days in which we are living, it is vital that the Bride know that. Preferably before He proves the point by some manifest means, as he warned the seven churches in Asia.

So the next time you’re in that place of intimate worship where it seems you’re sitting in His lap with your head against His breast, meditate on the fact that it’s a Lion’s heartbeat that you’re listening to. Then let the awe of that and who He fully is, take you to a new and deeper place in Him.

Does It Pass?

I’m a firm believer in the power of God. According to the scriptures, it is the hallmark that follows the proclamation in the true Gospel of Jesus. The proof of God’s love, demonstrated by signs and wonders. Apart from such affirmation by the Lord himself, the message and/or the messenger are suspect and could be proclaiming “another” gospel. Such are accursed. The Lord’s words, not mine.

Knowing that God chooses to make himself known to His children in a visibly manifest way, our enemy seeks to discredit Him through imitation. All for the purpose of leading the elect astray and into heretical practices. He has been fairly successful of late, it would seem.

We’re told that the Holy Spirit bears witness to the truth. When He lives within us, He makes known to us the real from the fake. It’s called discernment. We’re admonished to employ it, by “Do not despise prophetic utterances. But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil.” 1 Thessalonians 5:20-22.

It’s past time that we became doers of the word here, and ceased allowing any and everything that claims to be of God to flourish in our midst. If it doesn’t meet the test, kick it to the curb. We’d better, else we be found cohabiting with serpents.

Clarification: The apostle Paul knew one Gospel, that of the cross of Jesus and His grace to save, the proclamation of which always being affirmed by the manifest power of God in signs and wonders. To him, proclamation and manifestations were inseparable, and together comprised what he knew as the Gospel of Jesus. They still are when the true Gospel is presented in the power of the Holy Spirit. Don’t let man or lying spirits tell you otherwise. Read the Bible and see what God says to you about it.

Stop The Presses!

There is a teaching that is making the rounds in the Body of Christ today. It is that Adam was culpable in the temptation and subsequent fall of his wife. There’s a bit of a problem with that. It isn’t supported by scripture.

Prior to the fall, everything was perfect. Including Adam’s relationship with his wife. The first mistake that was made, was her listening to the serpent. The fact that Adam didn’t intervene, in no way mitigates her choice. Where he was, is not known. Was he right there when it happened, or off naming some animals? Even if he was right there, how was he to know what was going on in her head, as that is where the serpent was doing his thing? No, the sole responsibility for her choice, according to scripture, falls on her. No other argument can be made.

I have to wonder, if this isn’t a beachhead into the Body of Christ by the man-bashing spirit that so pervades the world’s thinking. Is its ultimate goal, to rewrite the story and place the blame on man? Well, this one isn’t buying the pitch. My choice is to believe what God had to say about it, and let every man be found a liar, if it comes to that. I’m just stubborn that way.