Reverend Fun - Wolf in Sheeps Clothing

Labels: cartoon, Reverend Fun

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posted by Mal @ 9:51 am 1 comments

Accurate Listening

One thing we are learning through ministering to others is the need to listen accurately.

It is possible to get so excited when we finally begin to hear in the spirit that we will listen to anything, and accept it as from God. There is such a contrast between our old conservative, 'Bible only' Christianity and being a 'living supernaturally' follower of Jesus, that we forget that not all spirits are Holy Spirt, and not every thought that pops into our head is necessarily from a spirit at all. We can still hear our own head, just as we did before.

It is interesting when ministering to dissociated people, knowing when they are hearing their own thoughts, a dissociated part, a demon, or Jesus. These seem to come in pretty even proportion most of the time, and we need to discern which is which. There is sometimes a lot at stake if we are wrong.

The standard tests can be applied: is it consistent with the Bible, is it consistent with God's character, is it something Jesus would do, is it conformed in other ways, etc. However, in the context of ministry it is usually easiest to discern demonic utterances by the fact that while they try to pretend to be Jesus there is always something that gives them away if you are alert.

For example, we've had a false Jesus show up, who looked and sounded like the real Jesus, but his eyes were cold, or he was carrying a knife, or when looked at hard he seemed fuzzy, and so on. They try hard, but they are just not good at it.
When they speak an alert listener can find the subtle flaw in their logic. While they have to tell the truth when commanded, so often it is done in a cryptic way. If you give up too soon, which is what they hope for, you will miss some really useful information. Percever, and make them explain every point and the truth is arrived at.

The ones I suspect the most are the stereotype ones that look like a Sunday School picture, with long hair and wearing a clean white robe and sandals. This is so unlikely - Jesus always appears appropriate to the person and the situation. To an Austrlain Aborigine, for example, he would also probably appear black and have fuzzy hair. And why not? The resurrected Jesus is not a Jew from Palestine. He has a new body which can take any form he needs it to.

I've found it particulary useful, when a demon is being more uncooperative than usual, to tell them to ask Jesus what he wants them to say. They come back telling the truth through gritted teeth as if every world causes them pain, but tell the truth they do.

When dialoguing with dissociated parts you need to use a lot more grace. Parts never try to deceive, but they don't always have full knowledge about a situation or a very well developed worldview. After all, some of them are only equivalent to babies or young children. They haven't had time to learn much. Again, checking with Jesus helps a lot, plus using the person's own background knowledge.

The Holy Spirit, or Jesus always speak so graciously and respectfully, even when they are being tough on a person. You never feel condemned, even when convicted or challenged. With a demon you hear about how bad you are and that there is no way out. With Jesus hope is always offered, but the choice is still yours.

Jesus does want to teach us how to hear, and he intends us to hear easily, accurately, and quickly. And when we hear and act, things always happen!

Labels: accuracy, demons, dissociate parts, hearing God's voice, listening, prayer

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posted by Mal @ 3:27 pm 1 comments

Dreaming with God - A Sanctified Imagination

Since we wrote our Hearing God's Voice course a number of new books have come our way which touch on aspects of that course. One of them is Bill Johnson's Dreaming with God.

In chapter 4, The Language of the Spirit, Johnson speaks about the role of a sanctified imagination:

A yielded imagination becomes a sanctified imagination; and it's the sanctified imagination that is positioned for visions and dreams. there is great paranoia over the use of the imagination in the Church of the Western World. As a result; unbelievers often lead the way in creative expression - through the arts and inventions. They have no bias against imagination. The imagination is like a canvas to a painter. If it's clean, the artist has much to work with. God would love to use our imagination to paint His impressions upon; He just looks for those who are yielded. However, those who are preoccupied with "not being worthy" are too self-centered to be trusted with much revelation. At some point it has to stop being about us long enough to utilize the benefits of being in Christ for the sake of those around us. Such a position gives us unlimited access to the mysteries of God that enable us to touch the needs of a dying world.

Johnson goes on to outline some of the reasons people do not recognise God speaking to them and some of the ways his voice may be heard.

This book resonates closely with much that we have already taught. I recommend you obtain a copy and read it.

Labels: Bill Johnson, dreams, hearing God's voice, imagination

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posted by Mal @ 3:16 pm 1 comments

Reverend Fun - Do Loud Prayers Get Answered Faster?

Labels: cartoon, prayer, Reverend Fun

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posted by Mal @ 4:35 pm 0 comments

New Article Series on Speaking in Tongues

The Spiritual gift of speaking in tongues is an important part of the believers arsenal in listening to and obeying the voice of God. However, a great deal of the available teaching is misleading, and sometimes deceptive. There is a strong focus on the dangers, prompting believers to live in fear rather than faith, with almost no teaching on the uses of this gift.

Prompted by a comment by a friend about my old article on speaking in tongues: Tongues - making it happen, on the Healing Prayer Ministries Network website, I've writen the first of a series on this topic on my Speaking-in-Tongues blog. The first of these new articles is called Tongues five years on.

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posted by Mal @ 12:14 pm 0 comments

Testing BlogJet

I have installed an interesting application - BlogJet. It's a cool Windows client for my blog tool (as well as for other tools). Get your copy here: http://blogjet.com.

It allows you to edit posts for your blogs while you are offline and publish them later.

"Computers are incredibly fast, accurate and stupid; humans are incredibly slow, inaccurate and brilliant; together they are powerful beyond imagination." -- Albert Einstein

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posted by Mal @ 8:36 pm 0 comments

Approaches to Listening to God

There are many approaches in the church to listening to God. Three that have been part of my own church experience are:

1. Traditional/Evangelical churches often equate hearing from God with reading the Bible, hearing powerful preaching, listening to authorities, or using some kind of democratic process to decide between alternative opinions. This is what I encountered in the Gospel Mission, Methodist and Baptist churches I have been a part of. There is an implication that God spoke in the Bible, and now we must apply what he once revealed, adapting it to our present circumstances.
   
   
2. Some churches try to use spiritual gifts, but place much reliance on sometimes hit or miss guesswork. Some will speak and trust that God will make their words right, with little or no testing of their accuracy. Any testing tends to be left to the person speaking, especially if they have a track record, or to whether the hearer likes what is being said. I found this approach in my early experience of charismatic renewal.
   
   
3. Some realize that God still speaks today as he did in Biblical times and determine to learn to listen. They use all means provided by God to test what is heard, not just so that they can know what he is saying, but to learn to recognize God’s voice by means of experience and experiment. Such hearing is both a personal and corporate. This has been my more recent experience among combined meetings of people from across a wide range of denominations, including some of those above. It is typical of true intercessors, healers and prophets in any branch of the church.

The first relies primarily on the human mind and on trust relationships between people. Our reasoning about the content of the Bible is the principal resource. God no longer needs to speak. The strongest opinion or the person with the greatest following can carry the decision. While the motivation is to allow God to be completely in control, the result is that the control is taken by people.

The second is similar to the first, relying partly on the mind, but also on emotions and the character of individuals. Whether or not what we hear is from God is left to how it makes us feel, or how someone else says it makes them feel. God is only in control as long as we like what he wants.

The third uses a balance of mind, emotions and spirit, and depends on a good relationship with God and with each other. This requires a balance between diligent study of scripture, the ability to be honest about our feelings, openness with each other, willingness to defer to each other, trust of God’s giving us the freedom to make mistakes, and an acceptance that God can still do today what he used to do in Biblical times. Here the issue is not about who is in control at all, but in each taking responsibility for their part of the mandate. A true cooperation between God and people becomes possible, which is in line with God’s intention in creating them.

Which one sounds most like a truly Christian approach?

An important way that I think the first approach comes undone is in its insistence that the Bible is the only authority for Christian practice, but at the same time dismissing much of what it teaches. By this I mean we tend to accept the propositions that the biblical writers make, but ignore the way they came to the things they say. For example, God spoke to the prophets, both Old and New Testament, but the instruction we are to receive from their books is not limited to what they say God said, but also their descriptions of how God said it to them. Surely we are meant to also learn to listen to God like a prophet does, not just listen to the prophet!

The second approach acknowledges this, but then ignores the fact that in his training of a prophet God was not at all interested in whether the prophet liked what God was saying. He was interested in obedience. People’s lives depended on a quick and faithful response to God’s word. Their feelings were irrelevant, as was their convenience. We forget that true joy comes from dwelling in God’s presence and acceptance, not in getting our own way. When our desires become the same as God’s desires we will get everything we ask.

This is not to say there are not dangers in the third approach. But life has no guarantees, except that it will end, at least on this earth. Safety too often equates to uselessness to be a good guide for living. Obedience and its accompanying fruitfulness is a far better measure of success.

I forget where I heard it but I remember someone using this illustration. Suppose that you are a soldier in a trench during a battle, and someone shouts “Duck!” Do you look around to get a second opinion, or do you first duck to avoid a possible bullet in the head, and then check to see whether you needed to or not?

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posted by Mal @ 9:38 pm 1 comments