In my last blog I talked about the dangers of compromise in our spiritual lives.  I referenced Solomon in that blog but I think he deserves a closer look than we were able to give him then.

By all accounts, Solomon stunned the world as the King of Israel.  His wealth, his wisdom, his knowledge, and his strategies were legendary even in his own day. He was the son of King David and God had promised David that there would always be one of his descendants on the throne of Israel as long as those descendants followed the commands of God. When Solomon was a young king, he experienced a visitation from God who told him he would grant whatever request he offered.  In a moment of brilliance, Solomon asked for wisdom to rule God’s people.  Because he asked for wisdom rather than wealth, power, or long life, God graciously promised him all those things as well as wisdom.  In a sense, the words of Jesus were fulfilled that if we seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, all the other things needful for life will be given to us.

Solomon began his reign in a stellar fashion.  He secured the kingdom from his enemies, he built the magnificent temple for God that his father David had envisioned, and he built his own palace that amazed all who saw it.  His wisdom was known throughout the Middle East and other kings came or sent envoys just to ask him questions.  God gave him victory in every battle and eventually peace on his borders.

One famous visitor was the Queen of Sheba who said, “The report I heard in my own country about your achievements and your wisdom is true. But I did not believe these things until I came and saw with my own eyes. Indeed, not even half was told me; in wisdom and wealth you have far exceeded the report I heard. How happy your men must be! How happy your officials, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom! Praise be to the Lordyour God, who has delighted in you and placed you on the throne of Israel. Because of the Lord’s eternal love for Israel, he has made you king, to maintain justice and righteousness” (1 Kings 10:6-9).  She was amazed at everything she saw and, as it should be, his giftedness directed her to give glory to his God.

Solomon surpassed every expectation that anyone could have ever imagined for his reign.  And yet, he died as a failure. The text says, “King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women… They were from nations about which the Lordhad told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lordhis God, as the heart of David his father had been. He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites. So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lordcompletely, as David his father had done. On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites. He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods.  The Lordbecame angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. Although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the Lord’s command” (1 Kings 11:1-10).

The question for us becomes, “How could the wisest man in history who had two personal visitations from the Lord and who knew well the promise that God had made to David about faithful sons, lose his way?”

First of all, Solomon asked for wisdom to rule Israel.  That may not be the same as spiritual wisdom.  We can ask God to give us wisdom for business, creativity for the entertainment industry, a best selling book, a mind for science, and many other things that will advance us in this world, but spiritual wisdom to know how things operate in the heavenly realm can be another thing. One type of wisdom is tied to the affairs of this world while the other is tied to the eternal realm.  The silence and submission that promoted Jesus in heaven, got him crucified on earth.

Secondly, years of amazing success and people bowing before you can cause anyone to forget God…I don’t care who you are. Somewhere in Solomon a seed of self-sufficiency and pride was planted, watered and grew.  The time came when he didn’t fear God or see him as the only true and living God.  Many great spiritual men have fallen because they became “stars” and “celebrities” within the church.  They believed their own press and refused to be accountable to others.  David made some huge mistakes but he still had men and prophets who would speak into his life to warn him and even confront him. Solomon seemed to have no one who could speak to him.

Thirdly, he eventually surrounded himself with unbelieving wives which opened the door to Solomon himself being demonized to the extent that he worshipped the most perverse of the pagan Gods…even those to whom children were sacrificed. The word of God clearly prohibited taking foreign wives and making foreign alliances. And yet, Solomon ignored those laws.  Paul declares the same for us in 2 Corinthians 6 when he commands us not to be yoked together with unbelievers.  Solomon had a weakness for women but excused it and fed it until it consumed him.

We need to be honest with ourselves about our weaknesses and vulnerabilities and we need to build guardrails around ourselves in those areas with prayer, confession, and accountability to some people we trust and respect.  These people must always have our permission to ask questions and give correction when needed.

To excuse, minimize, or justify those weaknesses is an open door to the enemy and if we play the game long enough, we will be deceived.  I am certain Solomon himself fell into that trap. I’m sure he didn’t give into the pleadings of his foreign wives at first.  He most likely tried to evangelize them and point out the greatness of his God for years.  But if we surround ourselves with unbelievers long enough, they will inevitably wear us down and we will be drawn to their way of life…little by little…. but drawn, all the same. One good apple placed in a barrel with rotten apples, will not make them healthy, but the one placed there will become rotten as well. Jesus hung out with sinners as ministry, but surrounded himself with those seeking God the rest of the time.

I’m also confident that Solomon’s wealth and success convinced him that God was all right with his foreign wives and foreign alliances.  That can be the danger of success and we all need to be aware of that danger. God is longsuffering, but his patience should not always be taken as approval.  We need spiritual wisdom to know the difference.

So pray for spiritual wisdom more than wisdom to succeed in this world. Be honest with your vulnerabilities and build guardrails for yourself including some who know what is going on in your life. Watch your relationships with unbelievers and do not open the door for the enemy.  If you find one open, shut it because even Solomon in all his glory finished his life as a failure.

I’m reading a book right now by Zack Neese, entitled How to Worship a King. I’ve never been great at worship, so I am trying to grow in that area.  In the opening pages of the book, the author stated his belief that the modern church doesn’t worship God very well…or even at all sometimes.   To make his case, he gave an interesting historical view that I think has merit. Let me quote some of what he wrote.

“How do I know that biblical worship is not commonly in operation in the church? First, we haven’t redeemed what is ours. Almost two thousand years ago Lucifer pulled off the greatest heist in history.  He stole Scripture, worship, and the priesthood from the people of God. Sadly, the leaders of the early church were his unwitting accomplices. This is how he did it: by inspiring well-meaning clergy with a really bad idea. He made them think they had to protect what is Holy (Scripture, worship, priesthood) from what is common (people).”

Neese goes on to talk about how the great divide between clergy and laity became standard practice in the church…first with Catholicism but later with the Reformation churches as well.  With this mindset of protecting the sacred from the common, the regular church member has become a spectator while the “trained professionals” preach and worship with the congregation providing applause.  God’s design, however, is that every member is to be a priest offering up spiritual sacrifices to God on a regular basis. To do less, leaves us with the notion that only a chosen few actually hear from God or have spiritual authority when, in fact, God speaks to all of us and Christ has delegated his authority to every believer.  Our congregations assume their role as spectators and are surprised and even resistant when we ask them to get in the game.

Neese writes about his feelings as a new Christian. “When I was alone with God, I was an important part of the equation.  I ministered to God and he ministered to me, and then we went out and ministered to people together. When I was in church, I felt like I just didn’t matter. Whether I showed up or not made little difference. Someone else did all the ministering, and I just sat there fidgeting. It was as if the congregation’s main role was to provide an audience for the preacher’s performance…He has called us all to be ministers of his grace. And any church setting that does not place a demand on that calling will either cripple us with an ennui and complacency or frustrate us by underutilizing us. That is why many people have fallen asleep in regard to their callings. They have become spectators – watching as other people live God’s dreams for them.” I know this observation is not true for every church, but I believe it is true for many.

I am reminded of Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth when he wrote, “What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church” (1 Cor.14:21). In the early church, the members ministered to one another on Sundays as well as to God.  What they had heard or learned from the Lord during the week they shared. They fulfilled their roles as priests. It is in the moments that we offer a sacrifice of praise to God, pray with others, teach others, serve others, bless others, share Christ with them, prophecy over them, deliver them from evil, and touch them for healing that we truly feel like an extension of God and, as a result, draw closer to him and his heart.

If we are part of a church that restricts our function as a priest to a great extent, it is hard to draw near.  I do not advocate leaving our churches when they are imperfect or starting little house churches.  I have not seen good fruit from sealing ourselves off from the greater church.  But I would encourage you to become part of a small group somewhere that meets weekly in which everyone can bring a hymn, a word of instruction, a revelation, a prophetic word, a healing prayer, a delivering command, and so forth and minister to one another as God intended.

It is in those settings that we often find our gifts and our passion.  It is in those settings that the presence of God is often thick.  It is in those settings that the Holy Spirit can have his way and not be bound by a pre-planned agenda that must be adhered to. In large churches with multiple services, some of that is unavoidable but we must find ways in which we can regularly fulfill our roles as priests of the most high God.  I want to encourage you to evaluate your spiritual life.  Are you living as a priest?  Are you passionate about your faith?  Are you impacting the lives of other people.  Or have you become a spectator by default.  If so…change it.  The Christian life is not meant to be lived from the stands but out on the field. Blessings in Him.

How many of us have prayed for a change of circumstance for months or years without seeing any significant change? Those prayers may be asking for the salvation of a loved one, a financial increase, a career opportunity, the healing of a damaged marriage, or a solution to a long-term health problem. When we have prayed consistently for a long-term problem, we are hoping for breakthrough. Breakthrough is the moment that a door opens, a heart changes, an offer materializes, or a health solution or supernatural healing arises. It is that moment when progress begins again.

Sometimes, prayer feels like you are swinging a battering ram against a huge iron door. At first, you began with optimism believing that the battering ram of your prayers and efforts would jar the door open. But after days and months of trying, the door may be scuffed but still feels impenetrable. You often think about quitting but something keeps you going. Then one day, with one final swing, the door hinges weaken, then break, and the once impossible door topples to the ground. You can now move ahead for victory. Breakthrough is a biblical theme. There are numerous stories of breakthrough in the Bible. From these, we can glean insights and principles for our own breakthroughs. Some of the best are in the Old Testament.

One of the most interesting stories in all of scripture is the account of the battle of Jericho. After forty years in the wilderness, the second generation of those who came out of Egypt crossed the Jordan River into Canaan. The first order of business was to take Jericho – a fortified city with a huge, imposing wall. Israel had no weapons of war for destroying walls. When Joshua inquired of the Lord about a strategy for breakthrough, the Lord said, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have all the people give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the people will go up, every man straight in” (Josh.6:2-5).

When facing Jericho, the Israelites needed a literal breakthrough. The strategy the Lord gave them seemed ludicrous from a natural point of few. But as the men marched, the priests blew the shofars, and the people shouted, the walls collapsed into rubble. The fighting men then charged into the city and victory was secured.

The first thing we see in this account is that breakthrough does not come by trusting in our own strength and wisdom but in doing it God’s way – even if conventional wisdom says that God’s way is totally contrary to reason. For instance, those who are needing financial breakthrough most likely would be counseled by “financial experts” to stop giving to the church or to certainly stop tithing until they were totally of out debt. The Lord says to tithe first, even in the face of lack, and then he will open the floodgates of heaven (Mal.3:10). The wise man said, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding” (Prov.3:5). Too many times, when we are seeking breakthroughs, we try to engineer the outcomes on our own. We fail to ask the Lord what he would have us do and often are unwilling to wait on him. We plunge ahead and sometimes create more opposition to the breakthrough we need because we were operating out of fear, the flesh, or our own wisdom.

Secondly, the wall fell when the priests blew the ram’s horns and the people shouted. The wall fell when the priests and people expended their breath. The word translated as breath is ruach in Hebrew. Ruach may be translated as breath, wind or Spirit. Breakthrough is the ministry of the Holy Spirit. As we release the Spirit though our prayers and declarations, then breakthrough can come. God declared through Zechariah, “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty” (Zech.4:6). Breakthrough often comes when we stop trusting in out own efforts, our own manipulations, and when we quit striving with God as if we have to talk him into blessing us.

When we finally say that we are done, that we are helpless, and that we have no ability to affect the outcomes, then God often moves. Otherwise, we would assume that victory came through our efforts and our brilliance. Throughout scripture, God instructs his people to follow many unorthodox (crazy) strategies. They were strategies that would utterly fail without the Spirit of God giving supernatural victory. David Hernandez puts it this way. “Breakthrough does not come in your struggle; it comes in your surrender. It won’t be found in some brilliant strategy or aggressive action. Only when you do as God commands is the Holy Spirit able to bring down the walls that inhibit your progress” (David Diga Hernandez, Encountering the Holy Spirit, p.73).

For those seeking breakthrough, I believe this is spiritual counsel. It stands on two basic beliefs: God is good and God is powerful. Because he is good, he hears our prayers and is willing to act. Because he is powerful, nothing is too hard for him. He can do more than we can ask or imagine and is willing to do so when we trust in him rather than ourselves. Of course, there are things that may get in the way…unbelief, unrepented sin, unforgiveness, etc. that God wants us to remove so that his blessings are not bottlenecked. But, I think the bigger issue is trusting him enough to do it his way and depending fully on him. Just wanted to share some thoughts on breakthrough and may the Lord give you the breakthrough you need.

Spirit-Led is one of the most common terms batted around in the modern church today. We even have it in our Mid-Cities Community Church Mission Statement. It has become part of our Christian jargon to the extent that we may say it without really having much understanding of the term. It is a biblical term. Paul wrote, “but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Rom. 8:13-14).

There is an encouraging move in most denominations today toward an understanding and acceptance of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. More Christians are becoming comfortable with the idea of God speaking to us through his Spirit (The View not withstanding), not just through the written word, and many are opening up to the possibility that all the gifts of the Spirit may be in operation today. So the term Spirit-led is gaining wider usage…which I think is a very good thing.

However, we need to be clear about what it means to be led by the Spirit. I sense that what many mean by Spirit-led is that they are responding to a voice or impression they have received in their mind or emotions. I agree that the Spirit does lead us by those expressions and others, but not every voice or impression we experience is from the Spirit. Because of that, John cautions us, “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God” (1 Jn.4:1).

We should all want to be Spirit-led but we should also rigorously test what we are hearing or feeling. It is helpful to have a grid by which you can test the spirits so I want to offer a few bench marks for testing those things we hear, sense, or feel.

The first question should always be whether or not what I believe to be the leading of the Spirit lines up with scripture? All scripture is God-breathed (2 Tim.3:16) and the breath of God is his Spirit. Since the Spirit “inspired” the writers and since God is unchanging, then whatever we hear from him now will not contradict or disregard scripture. Everything we need to know for living a life pleasing to God is written in scripture. The first facet of being Spirit-led then is to live a life consistent with biblical principles and commands. If we are not willing to obey what is clearly written, we may not hear from the Spirit at all since only those who are faithful in little will be given more.

The written word is always our plumb line and first test for authenticity. Of course, we must know scripture in order to determine if what we are hearing lines up with it. If we don’t know scripture, then we should find someone who does. We should also remember that although God will never contradict his word, he may contradict our understanding of his word. If we are to be Spirit-led, we may need to be open to a fresh understanding of his word and his ways from time to time.

Secondly, does the message you are hearing reflect the Spirit of Christ who is humble, gentle, and loving…even in a rebuke? If the voice you are hearing as you attempt to be Spirit-led is angry, demeaning, threatening, or abusive in any way, it is not the Holy Spirit. If the voice is troubling rather than depositing peace in your heart, it is not from the Lord because Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (Jn.14:27).

Another test is whether the voice is calling you to holiness or is giving you permission to satisfy the desires of your flesh. I have known too many believers who have determined that God told them to leave their spouse for someone they had developed an emotional relationship with at work, church, or the gym. Their rationale was that God wants them to be happy and the other person is what would make them happy. However, God is much more interested in our holiness than our happiness. I have also known too many who were “told by God” to find another church as soon as they experienced some disappointment or relationship problem in their current church. And I have seen too many take the higher paying job although it would leave them no time for their family – confident that they were being Spirit-led. All of those scenarios turned out badly so we need to be sure that if we do whatever we are hearing, it will honor God, draw us closer to Jesus, and call us to a righteousness based on God’s standards not the standards of the world.

Another important test is confirmation. God is fine with us asking him for confirmation that what we have heard is from him and not from ourselves or the enemy. When you are hearing a voice that is calling you to significant life change or risk, you may want to have other godly people who regularly hear from the Lord pray for that confirmation as well. You may experience that confirmation as peace in your heart or an unusual experience that clearly points you one way or the other. Gideon asked God for confirmation that what he was hearing was from God rather than his own fantasy about being a hero for Israel. He set out a ram’s fleece twice asking for a different sign each time. God provided the confirmation without rebuke. He will do the same for us. Asking for confirmation is not doubting God, but is rather the recognition that we are fallible.

To be Spirit-led we must be sensitive to his voice or promptings. It is not so hard to hear his voice in our quiet times, when journaling, or in worship. But for most of us, it is much more difficult to sense his promptings in the crowd, in the midst of a busy day, or in the heat of crisis. At those moments, we may not have time to search the word, call others to pray for confirmation, or scan our hearts for selfish motives. When we feel prompted to pray for a stranger, share what we hope is a prophetic word with someone, stand up and speak out in a meeting, or share the gospel in the checkout line at HEB we will have to respond quickly. The basic question then is whether what we are about to do might be something Jesus would do. If the answer is “Yes,” then do it. Willingness to act on the prompting of the Spirit is more important in heaven then whether you heard The Spirit accurately or not.   A willingness to risk embarrassment for obedience is highly valued in the Kingdom of Heaven. As long as you act in love, you probably can’t go wrong. As we “experiment” with those spur-of-the-moment promptings, we will learn better how to discern the Spirit’s leading in those moments.

Spirit-led is our goal. It begins by allowing the Spirit to lead us through the written word and then comes to maturity as we learn to hear his voice and know it so well that we no longer need to question what we are hearing or even seek confirmation. Jesus said that he would send us the counselor, the teacher, the one who would lead us into all truth, and the one who would reveal the secrets of the Father’s heart to us. What an amazing gift. I’m thankful that more and more believers are beginning to discover that life can be Spirit-led and when it is, it is amazing. Blessings in Him.

Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Ephesians 5:15-19

The idea of being filled with the Spirit is an important and consistent theme throughout the New Testament. Apparently, it is not a steady state in the life of a believer or Paul would have no need to admonish the church to abstain from drunkenness and instead be filled with the Spirit. Although the Holy Spirit is always present within a believer, we are not always “filled with the Spirit.” Not only that, but since Paul commanded the church to be filled, we apparently have a part to play in that filling or refilling. So what does it mean to be filled with the Spirit and what is our part?

I don’t know that I fully understand everything having to do with being Spirit-filled. In fact, I’m certain that I don’t. But I would like to share some thoughts on the subject. First of all, I am led to think about the symbols of the Holy Spirit in scripture. He is likened most often to fire, to wind, to oil, and to water. We typically think about being on fire rather than being filled with fire. We think of being blown by the wind or overpowered by it rather than being filled with it. We think of oil being on us rather than in us. But Jesus likened the Spirit to streams of living water pouring out of us (Jn.7:38), so I think water may be the thing we think about when attempting to understand being filled.

Water is powerful, cleansing, refreshing, and life giving. No water, no life. No Spirit, no spiritual life. When filling a vessel, water intrudes into every nook and cranny of the vessel but does not truly fill it unless it is empty of everything else. For instance, we ordinarily speak of filling an aquarium with water but that language is inaccurate. The truth is that the aquarium can still be half full of gravel, plants, coral, and fish. Accurately, it is only half-filled with water. To be fully filled with water means that everything else has to be removed. Most of us, as believers, are only partially filled with the Holy Spirit while our container is still significantly filled with self, worldly desires, and sometimes an occasional demon or two. That, of course, is the average condition of most new believers. The idea is for a new believer to begin to let the Spirit displace and push out everything else so that we become Spirit-filled. In the New Testament, men and women who showed exceptional boldness or who operated in signs and wonders were said to be filled with the Spirit. It didn’t take years for that filling to occur. It only took faith and surrender and could happen in a few minutes if the heart was right.

That idea of being Spirit-filled is still somewhat vague so let’s define it in practical terms. Being filled with the Spirit is about the degree to which the Spirit manifests his character and power in us which ultimately depends on the level of control we turn over to him. When we are filled with the Spirit, the Spirit is leading and manifesting his presence so that the works of Jesus might continue through us. The more of our life we release to his direction, the more the old man and the demonic is displaced. Both the old man and the demonic are all about self-sufficiency. The lure of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was the capacity to obtain wisdom without God and in doing so to become like God ourselves. To become God-sufficient removes self and Satan so that the fullness of the Holy Spirit can be expressed through us.

Jesus expressed this condition when he said that he could only do what he saw the Father doing and could only speak what he heard the Father saying. I believe he chose that condition daily. Jesus was so submitted the Spirit that he waited for the Spirit to initiate his actions, his words, and his decisions. When we willingly become an extension of the Holy Spirit he will fill us and then we will do the works of Jesus. So how do we move in that direction?

A great deal of the ground we take in our effort to be Spirit-filled will be gained through prayer. The first baptism or filling by the Spirit occurred at a prayer meeting on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2). We can safely assume that those gathered together in prayer were surrendering their hearts and lives to Jesus not offering up a shopping list to satisfy the natural man.

First, we must maintain a sincere desire to be filled with the Spirit – to be fully directed by the Spirit and to manifest his character, his values, and his priorities. Inviting him to take the lead, to reveal our self-sufficient strongholds, to change our hearts, and to give us a sensitivity to his leading will likely need to be a daily prayer. Fasting will help break the power of the flesh and the Word will feed and shape the spiritual man.

Secondly, obedience to the directions and urgings of the Spirit will be paramount. Jesus said that if we love him we would keep his commandments. We simply exchange our agenda with his on a day-by-day basis. Sometimes we resist this kind of surrender because we fear that we will be lost in the process and no longer have any identity or significance. This surrender of control isn’t giving up who we are but rather discovering who we were meant to be.

Gifted athletes engage coaches and them give up control of their diets, workouts, and strategies to the coach so that he can help them to become everything they can be as an athlete. It is the coach who through an objective eye can see faults that the athlete himself could never detect. It is the coach who will push the athlete to run one more lap or do one more set of exercises that the flesh of his client would never be willing to do. By giving up control to the “expert,” the athlete will become much more than he could have ever become on his own. God has carefully and uniquely made each of us and does not want to erase us or our individuality, but rather to maximize who he made us to be in partnership with the Spirit. Our part is to fully cooperate in that enterprise.

When we willingly and consistently surrender to his leading, then the Spirit can radically transform us into the image of Jesus Christ. He can entrust gifts, spiritual power, and kingdom responsibilities to us that will be world-changing. When the Spirit is directing us we can walk in boldness knowing that we are on an assignment from God and that he will resource and protect us as we complete his assignments. When we begin to experience the fullness of the Spirit then revelation will flow our way because we will be living in intimacy and friendship with Jesus who will tell us all things because we have become friends and not just servants.

Paul commands us to be filled with the Spirit because to give up control and dominion is an ongoing decision of the will. Being “filled” is a constant goal of every mature believer. In reality, the flesh works to erode our dependence on God and push us back toward self-sufficiency. Some days the flesh will win a few battles and we will have to retake that ground. However, if our heart is sincere in seeking and surrendering to the Spirit, then he will do marvelous things with us even when our “spiritual aquarium” still has some rocks, plants, and coral in it. As we persist in prayer and obedience to the Spirit, the debris in the aquarium will diminish year after year. Our goal is for only water to remain. When that occurs, then we will have truly become like Jesus.

When I came to you brothers…My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power. 1 Corinthians 2:1, 4-5

I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in him you have been enriched in every way—in all your speaking and in all your knowledge— because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you. Therefore, you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. 1 Corinthians 1:4-7

When Paul arrived at Corinth, he arrived feeling defeated. He had just come from Athens where he had gathered with the cream of the Greek philosophers and had offered his best arguments on behalf of Christ. Paul was a brilliant man who had studied at the feet of Rabbi Gamaliel and had undoubtedly memorized most of the Old Testament and studied its theology thoroughly along with a critique of Greek intellectualism. Now he was presenting sound, intellectual arguments for Christ. For the most part, the philosophers of Athens thought the beliefs he presented were strange and foolish. To his dismay, only a few responded. By the time Paul arrived at Corinth – a center of commerce and pagan religion – he had reconsidered his strategy.

You will notice that he no longer wanted the faith of believers to rest on the wisdom of men, but rather on the power of the Holy Spirit. There is an old saying that goes, “A man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument.” If my faith is based on information only, then more information or contrary information can turn my thinking, introduce doubt, and undermine my faith. That is what happens to many Christian college students who have grown up being taught the basic truths of the faith without any significant experience with Jesus. When they arrive in a university classroom with a professor who throws out well-articulated arguments for atheism and quotes numerous “unverified facts” in contradiction to the Bible, these students become victims of men’s wisdom – their own and the professor’s.

In any number of American churches, the underlying theology of their leadership is that spiritual experiences cannot be trusted. Spiritual experiences, they say, open the door to demonic deception. Therefore, an intellectual approach to faith is best. However, the New Testament record seems to speak against that approach.

Imagine, any first century Christian trying to convert Saul of Tarsus with “better arguments” from the Torah. If that had been the best approach to Saul’s conversion, God would have sent a man like Apollos, a brilliant believer from Alexandria who was a powerful teacher of biblical truth. God, however, had something else in mind. He arranged an experience with Jesus on the road to Damascus, three days of blindness, and a moment of healing at the hands of a believer whom Paul would have arrested 72 hours earlier. An experience, rather than arguments brought Saul of Tarsus into the fold.

Then there was Peter. If you read all the gospel accounts of Jesus calling the twelve, you will sense that Peter had heard Jesus preach on several occasions. In fact, in Luke 5, Jesus had just preached a sermon from Peter’s boat when he coaxed Peter to put out into deeper water and let down his nets after a long night of fruitless fishing. When the nets were filled to the breaking point with fish, Peter fell on his knees and proclaimed, “Go away from me Lord, I am a sinful man.” After that, Jesus told Peter he would teach him to catch men and Peter left all that he had to follow Jesus. An experience with Jesus was needed, even after the sermon, to get Peter to fully surrender his life to Jesus. Later, it took a rooftop vision and witnessing the Holy Spirit falling on the household of Cornelius (Acts 10) for Peter to be convinced that Gentiles had been accepted into the kingdom.

Mary Magdalene was one of the faithful followers of Jesus in his early ministry. We are told that Jesus cast seven demons out of her. I am persuaded that the experience of deliverance and the ensuing freedom she felt was what compelled her to follow Jesus. We could go on and on. I’m not saying that preaching and teaching are not important. They are essential. Both provide the framework for understanding God and understanding our experiences with God. Experiences, however, also help us to understand the scriptures in a deeper way Experience is what solidifies what has been learned, so that man’s arguments cannot shake the faith of those who follow Jesus. There are two primary words for knowledge or for knowing in Greek. One means to have information about or to know about something or someone. The other means to have experiential knowledge of something or someone. The one used most often regarding our knowledge of the Father denotes experiential knowledge.

Notice what Paul wrote to the church at Corinth. He said that his preaching or testimony about Christ had been confirmed in them so that they lacked no spiritual gifts. The implication is that the spiritual gifts experienced by the church at Corinth had confirmed who Jesus was for them and had confirmed the presence of God’s Spirit in them.

It’s one thing to be told that the Spirit of Christ now lives in you because you have believed in Jesus. It’s another thing to begin to operate in healing, deliverance, prophecy, words of knowledge, teaching, encouragement, speaking in tongues, etc.  The experience of doing something that you know you could not do without the Spirit of God working in you, confirms your faith like nothing else. It also confirms the faith of those to whom you minister. Paul was very clear that spiritual gifts are given to build up the body of Christ and he urged those at Corinth to eagerly desire those gifts.

Churches that distrust the exercise of spiritual gifts deny their people many experiences that would build faith and intimacy with Jesus. When believers are not hungry for spiritual gifts they deny the body of Christ the strength and life that their gifts would lend to the church. A great number of churches today would not miss a beat in their ministries and worship if the Holy Spirit withdrew tomorrow because they operate in their own gifts, strength, and talents rather than in the gifts of the Spirit.

Of course, many churches will affirm that they believe in spiritual gifts, but they actually believe in only a partial inventory of the gifts. Mercy, encouragement, hospitality, administration, creative gifts and so forth all seem safe enough and carry little risk in their exercise. Those gifts are welcome and have little spiritual aura around them. Healing, prophecy, deliverance, words of knowledge, miracles, and tongues are not so safe and are usually rejected as gifts that “no longer operate” and, yet, those are the very gifts that demonstrate the presence of the Spirit in the most indisputable ways.

I served in churches for many years that limited the current ministry of the Holy Spirit and I have served the last 13 years in churches that pursue and value every gift. Where the gifts operate life happens more abundantly, extreme life change is the norm rather than the exception, and faith grows with every miracle. Paul understood the principle and he would want us to understand that principle as well. “Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts…” (1 Cor.14:1).

We need to pay attention to our words because our words are windows into our hearts. Our words expose our deepest thoughts – especially those words spoken under stress. Jesus told his disciples, “But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean.’ For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander” (Mt.15:18-19). He also declared, “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks” (Lk.6:45).

In our unguarded moments, our words give us away. The words we speak, when we feel threatened or angry, expose thoughts and beliefs deep in our hearts. How many of us have spoken something hurtful, sinful, or unbelieving only to say later, “I don’t know where that came from, that’s not who I am?” I have certainly said that at times but, the truth is, the words came from part of who I am. To be sure, we are flesh and spirit, the new man and the old man, the spiritual man and the natural man. To be sure, the flesh wars against the spirit (see Romans 7), but our goal is to bring everything within us into alignment with the Father’s ways and the Father’s will.

Our words reveal places of misalignment in our hearts. Our words are clear indicators of areas that need the work of the Spirit and our cooperative efforts. Remember, unattended misalignment gives the devil entry into our thought life. Our words are a road map to the places in our spiritual walls that need repair. Pay attention to your words and don’t dismiss those that are misaligned as meaningless. Our words are symptomatic. They reveal spiritual health or spiritual weakness. A wise person will be encouraged by the health that he or she discovers and will take action on the areas of spiritual infirmity that are indicated.

Anything we speak that is contrary to or misaligned with God’s word, values, or priorities gives the enemy a place to slip into our lives and create havoc. The principal is illustrated in Paul’s letter to Ephesus where he counsels, “In your anger do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold” (Eph.4:26-27). Anger is a work of the flesh characterized in Galatians 5:20 as hatred, discord, rage, and dissensions. Paul allows that we may become angry and not sin. Anger is a very human emotion and even God is said to become angry at times (his being a righteous anger). However, when we hold on to our anger, nurture it, or refuse to forgive, then we are moving into the arena of sin.

The original word translated as foothold is topos. It means a place, a territory, or even a sanctuary. It was used of sacred places, including the high places where false gods and demons were worshipped. When we nurture our anger we give Satan a place, a sanctuary, or some territory in our lives. In the same way, words spoken frequently that are aligned with Satan rather than with the Father, can give Satan a foothold as well. Eventually, a foothold will become a stronghold and Satan will wield tremendous influence in some part of our lives because he will strongly influence our thinking in that area. Our words will reveal that influence but it may take others to point out how misaligned we are in that slice of our life because the Satan is a master deceiver.

A wise person, then, will monitor his speech and ask others to alert him to speech that is misaligned with God’s truth.  Our words are symptoms of something in our heart that may need to be touched by the grace and healing power of God or that may need the balm of repentance.  They are great indicators of spiritual and emotional health or a lack of health and, like blood pressure, need to be checked on a regular basis.  Remember, the tongue has the power of life or death.  Choose life.

If you read this blog on a regular basis, you are probably interested in increase – more of the Spirit, greater expressions of your spiritual gifts, and more kingdom power operating in your life. All those are legitimate desires if we want them in order to be more effective in representing Jesus on the earth. If you desire an increase, then you are probably praying for the increase and pursuing it through books, conferences, and hanging around men and women who operate in the gifts you want to develop. You are probably going after impartations of the gift as well. Praying for increase tracks with Paul’s injunction to “eagerly desire spiritual gifts” (1 Cor.14:1). In order for us to receive the increase we desire, we need to make sure that we have dealt with any hindrances in our lives that may be inhibiting that increase.Let’s consider a few so that each of us can perform a spiritual CT scan to see if something needs to be dealt with.

First of all, in his extensive writings on spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians, Paul discussed the need to be motivated by love and a desire to build up the body of Christ. As you read Paul’s entire letter, it’s easy to see that the church at Corinth was extremely spiritually immature. They were exercising all the spiritual gifts in impressive ways but, apparently, the motive of many was self-serving: celebrity status, power, a sense of spiritual superiority, and so forth. Paul was quick to condemn any sense of spiritual elitism in the church or self-promotion, along with divisions and confusion in the church prompted by wrong motives in the exercise of spiritual gifts.

Spiritual gifts are to be an expression of God’s love directed toward those to whom the gift is touching. “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms” (1 Pet. 4:10). Any other motive will hinder the exercise of the gift and God will certainly hesitate to give an increase. We should check our motives from time to time. I’m not saying that we should not experience some kind of personal fulfillment through the exercise of gifts. We should and will. But if your thoughts are constantly about others admiring your for your gifts, advancing in personal influence in your church, or experiencing financial gain though your gifts, then check your heart.

A second hindrance is found in giving into the desires of the flesh and giving those desires a higher priority than the priorities of the Spirit. Paul says, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please” (Gal. 5:16-17). Since our gifts operate as an extension of the Holy Spirit, anything in us that is in opposition to the Spirit will hinder the flow of the Spirit in our lives.

Very few of us have all of our actions, thoughts, or emotions fully submitted to Jesus. We tend to be spiritually mature in some areas of our lives while still giving in to the flesh in other areas.

Some of us operate well in mercy gifts but have no boldness to confront sin or share out faith. Some of us are great intercessors but have little compassion for the poor. Some of us have great leadership qualities while harboring a secret addiction. Others of us prophesy while our eating and health habits are out of control. Others lead amazing ministries in their church while their marriage is rotting at home. You get the picture.

Without condemning ourselves, we need to acknowledge areas of our lives in which we are not walking by the Spirit. Paul clearly says that if we walk by the Spirit we will not carry out the desire of the flesh. He doesn’t say that our fleshly desires will disappear, we just won’t give into them and their attraction will diminish overtime if our desires for the things of heaven are greater than the promptings of our flesh.

In order to surrender an unsubmitted part of our life to the Spirit, we need to acknowledge it first. The truth is that some of us are unaware of our unsubmitted parts or rationalize them as being spiritual in some way. A rude and critical person may frame those qualities as being honest and transparent. A stingy person may call his lack of generosity good stewardship of his God-given finances. A judgmental person may define that judgment as a “gift of discernment.” We can all have blind spots. David knew that so he prayed, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Ps.139:23-24) Ask God to show you any unsubmitted areas and ask your friends or spouse to tell you kindly, but honestly, what they see.

Once we have discovered an area of our life that is out of step with the Spirit, then we should search to see what the Word says about our thoughts or behaviors and then repent. Having done that we need to make transformation in that part of our life a point of prayer until we know we have matured in that area. Asking a few close friends to hold us accountable for change is typically needed as well.

A third step is to check to see if some demonic influence is keeping us out of step with the Spirit and, in doing so, limiting the increase we desire. Satan certainly doesn’t want you to have more of the Spirit, be more effective with your gifts, or walk in greater spiritual power. Many of us believe that if we are in church, serving in ministries, and even serving as leaders in the kingdom, we could not possibly be under the influence of a demon.

My experience is that leaders and spiritually gifted people are often under the influence of a spirit that has subtly gained entrance through the years and that is manifesting in subtle ways. A spirit of heaviness may simply be written off as stress and fatigue – for the last eighteen months. Many leaders struggle with discouragement, frustration, anger, nagging jealousies, lust, love for money, loneliness, condemnation, and so forth. A demonic spirit may well be the source. A wise believer and a mature believer, from time to time, should have someone who is experienced in deliverance check out the possibility that a spirit is hindering his/her walk.

As we seek more, we should be wise enough to stop occasionally to determine whether there may be something in our lives that is inhibiting the increase. A hunger for more is a positive spiritual quality but it is not the only condition for receiving more. Perfection is certainly not required but ignoring glaring issues in our lives is not the way to increase. There may be something we need to submit to Jesus before we can be good stewards of more gifts or greater anointing. Blessings in Him.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.  For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

In the middle of the apostle Paul’s extensive discussion of spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12-14, he inserts a chapter on love. As you read the entire letter to the church at Corinth, the need for such a chapter becomes painfully obvious. The church was not a very loving church. In fact, early in the letter he scolded the believers there for being carnal or fleshly instead of spiritual. As you read through the entire letter you discover divisions in the church, jealousies, pride, quarrels, taking one another to court, open immorality, and the use of spiritual gifts for personal gratification to establish a “spiritual pecking order” within the church. The good news is that they were still loved by God and were still the church of God at Corinth. They did, however, need to grow significantly in their spiritual lives.

In this letter, we discover some very interesting realities about imperfect believers and spiritual gifts that are worth considering. First of all, spiritual giftedness is not always a sign of maturity. In the opening to his letter, Paul asserts, “You do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed” (1 Cor.1:7). In chapters 12-14 he lists a plethora of spiritual gifts including healings, miracles, tongues, prophecy, interpretation, discerning of spirits, words of knowledge, and so forth. That is an impressive list of gifts that we may assume were being exercised in the church there. And yet, Paul admonished them by saying, “Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly-mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly” (1 Cor.3:1-3). In Corinth, their “giftedness” ran far ahead of their spiritual maturity.

It makes you wonder why God would entrust such impressive spiritual gifts to the spiritually immature. I have two thoughts on that. One is that our gifts have the capacity to help us mature as we experience the Lord himself through the exercise of gifts. For instance, praying in tongues has the side effect of building us up spiritually as the Holy Spirit prays through us ( Jude 20). Prophecy is intended to build up the body of Christ and is expressed primarily to strengthen, encourage, and comfort people (1 Cor.14:3). Speaking the love and destiny of God over other people should also establish those things in our own hearts which produces spiritual growth.

Spiritual gifts are also God’s tools for building up the body of Christ, in general, so that a brand new church, planted in one of the most pagan cities in the world, would still need those gifts to grow even though there would be very few mature believers in that church. Perhaps, the immature expression of gifts is still less damaging than the absence of gifts altogether.

I also have another thought about Corinth. If you read the book of Acts, you discover that Paul experience a great disappointment in Athens just before he arrived at Corinth. He had gone to Mars Hill, the place where all the Greek and Roman philosophers gathered to discuss ideas. Paul presented his best, most rational, and most compelling arguments for the truth of the gospel. To his dismay, only a few responded. He left there feeling as if he had failed and he recalibrated his approach to evangelism.

We Paul arrived at  Corinth, he preached only Jesus Christ and him crucified and then demonstrated the kingdom through displays of the power of the Spirit. It is possible, that Paul imparted many of the gifts to a young church as a tool for evangelism only to learn another lesson about when to impart those gifts. Later, he would tell Timothy to refrain from laying hands on any man quickly (1 Tim.5:22). The idea was not to appoint a man to leadership or to impart a spiritual gift until he had a read on the man’s maturity and character.

The issue of free will always comes into play in God’s dealing with man. God gives good gifts with the opportunity to use them well, but man always has the option to use them for selfish purposes. At any rate, there were many believers at Corinth who exercised impressive gifts that were not always Spirit-led. That is why Paul told them to test all prophecies to see if they were from God (consistent with his will and confirmed by the Spirit in the hearts of other believers).

An important take away from this letter is that because some believers abuse spiritual gifts, it does not mean that the gifts are invalid or that they do not bring tremendous value to the church.

Ultimately, the safe guard against abuse is not forbidding the exercise of gifts but using them in the context of love. Spiritual gifts are an expression of God’s love for his body delivered through his people. When someone is healed by a gift of healing, it is simply God’s love being delivered through the hands or commands of one of his children. When a gift of encouragement is exercised, it is the encouragement of God flowing through a believer. When hospitality is exercised, it is God making strangers feel warm and welcome.

Every gift reflects a facet of the nature and character of God and should be governed by love. Even with the extreme abuse of spiritual gifts in Corinth, Paul did not shut down their exercise but taught them how to use the gifts as they were intended. The church should respond to any abuses or misrepresentations of spiritual gifts in the same way today. (More from I Corinthians 13 in my next blog).

Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them: “Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall. If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? I say this because you claim that I drive out demons by Beelzebub. Now if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your followers drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you. (Luke 11:17-20)

The gospel of Luke gives us insight into the mindset of the Pharisees regarding Jesus. Jesus did not match their preconception of what the Messiah would look like. Jesus was not raised in a noble family; he was not educated at the feet of great Rabbi’s; he had not presented himself to the Sanhedrin or the Pharisees asking for their seal of approval; and he did not covet their favor at all. In fact, rather than courting their support he had confronted them on numerous occasions about their religious hypocrisy. As a result, they rejected him as the Messiah. They did have a major problem, however, in their attempts to discredit Jesus. His miracles were extreme, public, numerous, and undeniable.

Their final ploy was simply to ascribe his miraculous works to the power of Satan. They were most clear about their accusations when Jesus was casting out demons. Jesus’ response was simple. Why would Satan (Beelzebub) cast out his own minions who were doing his work? Wouldn’t that kind of contradiction undermine the kingdom of darkness? And…if demons are only cast out by the power of Satan, then how did they explain their own exorcists who cast out demons?

Ultimately, his response came down to a declaration regarding the kingdom of God. The Jewish leaders were very keen on the Messianic kingdom being established in their own day. They anticipated that it would be a kingdom of politics and military might backed up by the power of God. They had thought that they would all be given positions of power and influence in that kingdom. Jesus’ disdain for them and his disinterest in a political or military solution did not “fit their theology.”

Jesus, however, made a definitive statement about the nature of the kingdom of God as proof that he was a bona fide representative of that kingdom. But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you (Lk.11:20). A mark of the true kingdom was to be supernatural power. It was not power to be used politically or militarily but to destroy the works of the devil. The mark of kingdom would be the preaching of the good news, healing, casting out demons, raising the dead, etc. It still is.

Jesus declared that the kingdom the Pharisees would have ushered in was not the kingdom of God but rather another earthly kingdom devised by men. The question arises – does any view of the kingdom of God that does not claim and demonstrate supernatural power correctly represent God’s kingdom? In his letter to the Galatians, Paul expressed a great concern about the so-called gospel that was being preached. “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned” (Gal.1:6-8)!

Paul’s primary concern in this text was a gospel that included works for salvation and not grace alone. But the warning is not to change or pervert the gospel that was declared by Jesus and taught by the apostles. Throughout his letters, Paul frequently talked about the power of the kingdom of God and demonstrated it time and again. Is a gospel without power, a true gospel at all? Is a miracle drug that is eventually dispensed with only part of the formula, still the solution that was promised or is it something else? The gospel is not only the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus but also the promises attached to what Jesus did. Without those promises the gospel is no good news at all. The forgiveness of sin, rebirth into God’s family, the indwelling Holy Spirit and the power of the Spirit in our lives is all part of the package. To leave out any of those components makes the gospel less than it is meant to be.

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul wrote, “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms” (Eph.1:17-20).

Wisdom, revelation, spiritual eyes, hope, inheritance, and incomparable power are key words that he prayed over and over again for the church in Ephesus. Without a demonstration of power, Christianity will be viewed, by most, as just another philosophy of life. But…we teach peace and love. So do Eastern religions. The historical fact of Jesus’ resurrection sets us apart but the power of the gospel is what confirms that resurrection. The psalmist declares that God forgives all our sins and heals all our diseases (Ps. 103). When Jesus was questioned about his authority to forgive sins on the earth, he simply healed the man as proof that the man’s sins were forgiven. Matthew records the moment when Jesus said, “For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’?  But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins’—he then said to the paralytic—‘Rise, pick up your bed and go home’” (Mt.9:5-6). A demonstration of power, governed by love, confirmed the reality of forgiveness.

We need those same demonstrations today. A gospel that preaches forgiveness without demonstrating the goodness of God through the supernatural intervention of his Spirit falls short. The charisms or supernatural, spiritual gifts of the Holy Spirit are not just power but expressions of God’s love for people. That is why Paul devoted a whole chapter to love in the middle of his discussion on spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12-14.

I am still frustrated that so many Christian churches today continue to deny, teach against, and even forbid the exercise of spiritual gifts such as healing, deliverance, prophecy, tongues, and so forth. Like the Pharisees, many still argue that the exercise of those gifts is satanic deceptions. The real deception is found in the prohibition of their exercise. Paul declared, “Therefore, my brothers, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues” (1 Cor.14:39). He also charged, “Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt” (1 Thess.5:19-20).

I am not saying that the churches that deny the full ministry of the Holy Spirit do not love Jesus. I’m not saying that they do not do good. I am saying that they operate with an incomplete gospel because the promises attached to his good news are incomplete. Trying to push back the powers of darkness without the manifest power of the Holy Spirit is like hunting with a gun that is not loaded. That was never the Lord’s intent. Regardless of where you attend church, I hope that you will pursue everything the Spirit promises because those promises validate the resurrection of Jesus and the presence of his kingdom. They are continuing expressions of God’s love in a dark world. But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you (Luke 11:17-20). Be blessed.