Taking a break

Dear readers,

sorry for the delay in getting back to my blog. My objective of writing one post every week proved to be unrealistic in my present circumstances. There are a lot of work-related duties that force me to slow down and take it one step at a time. So I don't know when I will be able to come back and continue writing. I hope it will be soon. Thanks for your interest and your prayers and support.

Check out this video for the effects of faith in action:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KnLDsq4XXA

Spiritual laws of faith - part I

Originally I intended to leave the general paradigm of the sovereignty of God and the laws of faith this week and start dealing with another faulty paradigm. But during the week I got a message from one of my nephews who is reading my blog, with a theological question. That was really encouraging. Before I continue, I would like to take some time and thank all my readers for your interest and encouragement. On Friday I was at a Christian meeting where a few people told me that they were reading my blog and getting blessed by it. That was very encouraging.

A question from my nephew

So here’s the question I was asked by my nephew. “If God has established laws in the natural realm through His word, and He does not break them, how come Joshua in the bible asked God once to keep the sun shining, so that he could finish his battle, and God actually did it and prolonged the day for several hours? (Joshua 10:12) Obviously God intervened in the “normal” state of affairs and changed them for the sake of one person, who asked Him to do it. Was that an exception? Does that not contradict what I was saying about the trans-personal laws that God has established and that He himself abides by? – Thanks for that question! I’m glad you asked!

The spiritual trumps the physical

God’s word tells us, that the physical laws that God has created are actually not absolute in the sense that they are “unbreakable”. (Einstein discovered the same principle – the relativity theory. But that’s another day’s work). Although the physical laws are very reliable and always relevant, they are subject to influence from the spiritual realm. God is spirit and He created the physical world out of the spiritual realm. And the spiritual laws are of a higher order than the physical. They can actually overcome or transcend the physical laws. But that does not happen haphazardly. It is also always very ordered and according to a higher law that “overcomes” the lower law.

Even in the physical realm we can overcome one law by effectively applying another. The law of gravity is always in effect and it makes us stay on the ground. We as human beings are not able to fly and overcome the law of gravity on our own. But clever engineers discovered that by an effective use of the laws of aerodynamics we can actually overcome the law of gravity to such a degree that we can fly in an airplane. But the airplane is still operating within the confinements of the law of gravity.

God has created both the spiritual and the physical laws. But the spiritual laws are of a higher order, so that they can overcome the physical laws. In my last post I told the story of a boy in India who was electrocuted accidentally by touching a live wire. But that was not the end of the story. A lady of faith was sent by the pastor to pray over the dead body of the boy, and after a few hours the boy was brought back to life. This is one example of a physical law clearly overcome by a spiritual law.

The miracles of Jesus and the disciples

The miracles that Jesus and the disciples performed were clear examples of physical laws that were overcome by spiritual laws. Jesus could walk on water, and Peter did it too. That is clearly not possible within the confinements of just the physical order of things. They did it by way of the spiritual order overcoming the physical. The multiplying of food, turning water into wine, healing diseases and infirmities by just speaking or laying on of hands are all examples of this same principle. I used to believe, like most evangelical Christians who believe the bible, that these miracles were somehow connected to God personally governing them and willing them. But a close look at the biblical record actually reveals that these miracles were working according to trans-personal spiritual laws. Otherwise Jesus would have been very unfair and unjust to get so frustrated about His disciple’s inability to perform a miracle and heal the demon possessed boy. (Matthew 17: 14-22) If it were all down to God’s personal guidance and will, then why would Jesus rebuke them? Obviously Jesus expected them to be able to operate in the spiritual laws that would get the boy delivered by the power of God, but they could not do it this time.

Spiritual laws of faith

According to the biblical world view there is a real, consistent spiritual world that permeates the physical world. God is Spirit and He created the physical universe by His word. (Genesis 1-2/John 1:1-14). Now the Christians are not the only ones who believe that. Most if not all religions of the world believe that the spiritual world exists and that it can be accessed in some way or another. New Age people, Neo-pagans as well as people who practice witchcraft and worship Satan also strongly believe in the existence of the spiritual world. Some of them are able to perform acts of miraculous power that are quite remarkable. In the bible we are told that the sorcerers of Egypt were able to mimic some of the divine miracles that Moses and Aaron performed by way of their magic spells (Genesis 7 and the following chapters). So how can we know the truth about the spiritual world and the God-given laws that govern it?

God’s Word as the only true guide

There is only one source that will guide us correctly in relation to God and the spiritual world. And that is the Bible, the living Word of God. The bible is the revelation of God’s truth, of how things really are in the spiritual realm (John 17:17). Well, some of my readers of a non-Christian persuasion (if there are any) may say, “How do you know? What gives you the right to elevate the bible above all the other sources of knowledge about the spiritual world? Is it not just down to believing? You believe the bible and I believe my stuff. There is no way of knowing for sure who is right and who is wrong.” – This is not so. The bible is true, because what it says about God, His love, His power and might actually does WORK in real life. It can be validated by people’s experience. And the spiritual power that comes from God to people through the bible is higher than any other. BUT they have to learn how to appropriate it and apply it in faith. It does not work automatically. No sorcerer, Satanist, or adherent of any religion on the face of the earth can make a similar claim and prove it. 

In the bible we read that the sorcerers of Egypt had to admit that the Power of God was superior to their power (Exodus 9:11). The prophet Elijah actually challenged the adherents of the pagan religion of Baal along these lines. He said to them: “Let’s have a competition. The God who answers with fire from heaven and actually does something in answer to prayer is the true God.” And God honored his faith and sent fire from heaven and consumed the offering. (1 Kings 18) I am very tempted to tell you modern day stories that prove that principle. But the space is limited, so I will have to restrain myself. I just wanted to establish this principle that the only legitimate and valid way for us Christians  (and for every human being) to ever learn anything about the spiritual world and the laws that govern it is the bible. 

In the bible God strongly forbids and warns His people about trying to access the spiritual world in any other way. Why? - Because it is very dangerous and harmful, and it leads into all kinds of errors and deceptions. (Leviticus 19:26  etc.) Not everything that is supernatural and works is actually of God. There is an evil force active in the spiritual world that has the goal to deceive and lead people astray. The devil has the agenda to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10), and he can appear as an angel of light, trying to persuade people that he is actually the good guy (2 Corinthians 11:14). His most successful lie is to say that all religions are the same, all “spirituality” is good, and there is no absolute truth, just go for what you feel best about. The bible says it very differently: There is one true God, revealed to us as the Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He is absolute. His word is absolute truth. Jesus, the Son of God, is the “way, the truth and the life, No one comes to the Father except through HIM.” (John 14:6) – Having established that, let’s have a look at some spiritual laws that are revealed to us in the bible.

Spiritual laws revealed in the bible

The main spiritual principle in the bible is the principle of FAITH. Faith is the most important “spiritual law” that governs the way we relate to God and the spiritual realm. The apostle Paul calls it the “law of the Spirit of life” (Romans 8:2). In the book of Hebrews Faith is defined as “confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1) In verse 6 of the same chapter it is stated that “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” This is a trans-personal principle that applies to everybody. As human beings we can only relate to God through faith, through believing Him. This is the first dilemma that we are confronted with: How can we believe someone whom we don’t see? How can we be assured about things we don’t see? In human terms this is impossible. We cannot make ourselves believe. We have to receive faith as a gift. And this is exactly what the bible as the Word of God does – it works faith in a person. “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. “ (Romans 8:17) True faith in God is impossible without the Word of God. We need to first hear or read it, then the Holy Spirit quickens it to us, so that it generates faith in us. Only then are we in a position to respond to God. That’s why it is so important to share the word of God with people. It is like a seed that has power in itself to grow and transform a person’s life. The word of God works faith.

Now the post has gotten really long. I will have to come back to this topic in my next post and write about the actual spiritual laws that we find in the bible. How did the people perform the miracles? How did Joshua get the sun to continue to shine? How did Elijah call fire down from heaven and raise a boy from the dead? How did Jesus and His disciples perform their miracles? – They all applied faith.  So next week I hope to be able to expand these principles or laws of faith in the bible. Be blessed and encouraged, everybody! Until next week.  

The Personal and Trans-personal dimension of God's dealing with people

I am still dealing with the topic of the sovereignty of God and the problem it presents to us in our thinking. God has got quite a bad press from the common belief that he personally controls everything, or at least allows everything that happens to happen. That is not true and the bible does not teach that. I’ve dealt with this in my previous two posts. Today I want to specifically deal with the personal and trans-personal aspect of God’s dealings with us. Understanding the difference has helped me a lot in my relationship with God, especially in the realm of prayer and how to receive from God.

The trans-personal dimension of God’s dealings with us

When I say trans-personal, I mean that it is always the same and it is the same for everybody, it transcends the personal dimension of human beings. God has created the physical universe to run according to very stable, trans-personal laws. They never change, and they are totally equal for everybody. They act like a framework within which we have to learn to lead our personal lives. They are commonly referred to as natural laws – because they are consistent and they never change. As humans we find ourselves in this universe, and we can’t change anything about these laws. We can only discover them and use them, live within them. But we are not able to alter them in any way. If we learn to cooperate with them, we can use them to our advantage. If we violate them, we suffer damage or loss. And it doesn’t matter if we are good people or bad people, rich or poor, beautiful or ugly – they always work in the same way for absolutely everybody. For example: electricity will always work the way God has created it to work. If you touch a live wire, you will get a shock or be electrocuted, no matter what kind of person you are, good or bad… You know what I mean. If somebody accidentally dies from electrocution, we don’t say: “I wonder why the electric company let this happen to this man. He must have been a bad person…” No, it has nothing to do with the electric company. The man just violated the law of electricity and he had to bear the consequences. It is not personal, it is trans-personal.

I recently read about a young boy in India who was a child of Christian parents. He got electrocuted accidentally by a live wire that he had touched. Although he was a child of Christian parents and loved and cherished by God, he died a premature death. The law of electricity killed him. It wasn’t personal. It just happened the way it always happens if a human being is earthed and touches a live wire. It always kills. It is trans-personal. This was not the end of the story, though. Because there are spiritual laws that can help undo the damage. In this case the parents of this boy knew that God has the power to bring people back to life as an answer to prayer. So they called their pastor, he sent a woman of faith over to the house. This woman prayed over the dead body of the boy for several hours, until God brought him back to life. The boy is now alive and a living and walking testimony to the power of God.  (James Rutz: Mega Shift, Empowerment Press, Colorado Springs)

The personal dimension of God’s dealings with us

God’s personal dealings with us happen within the framework of the trans-personal dimension. As we learn how to live in the universe that he created, we learn how these trans-personal laws of God work and we learn how to use them. As babies, we learn how to crawl, then walk and then run and jump and do flip-flops. We learn how to live within the trans-personal law of gravity. Now the natural laws are so consistent and so stable that they actually leave us with the impression that they kind of are running by themselves. We take them for granted and think that the universe could not be any other way. That’s just how things are. – Well, the bible says that God - or to be more specific - Jesus upholds everything by the power of his word. Hebrews 1:3 says “He (Jesus) is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.”The laws of nature reflect the faithfulness and absolute dependability of God – he never breaks his word. He cannot lie (Numbers 23:19 : God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?). He is always faithful. That’s why we live in a universe that is so precise and predictable and ordered. God is keeping it that way through the power of his word. And he does that in a trans-personal way. These laws work for everybody, for the good people and for the bad ones. Adolf Hitler used the same natural laws to perform his atrocities and evils as Mother Theresa did to perform her acts of kindness, love and mercy. And God didn’t suspend the laws of nature, in order to stop Hitler. He couldn’t do that, because he has limited himself to work within the framework of these laws. And he cannot (= will not) break his word.

Now within this trans-personal framework of reality God calls us into a personal relationship with himself through faith in Jesus Christ. He has put an innate knowledge of himself into our system that works like a homing device, directing us to seek him and to ask about him. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says “He has also set eternity in the human heart.” Every human being is born with eternity in their hearts, a spiritual hunger for God. We instinctively feel that the physical universe is not all of reality, that there is more. The good news of the Gospel is that God, the creator of the universe, has made a way through Jesus Christ for us to have a personal relationship with him that will go on forever. This is mind-blowing and awesome. As we read the revelation of God in His word, we discover that at the root of the trans-personal, orderly universe that runs like a clockwork, is a personal creator, who created all of reality and who calls us into a relationship with himself. – This is the nearly-too-good-to-be-true message of the Gospel. You can get to know the maker, creator and sustainer of this vast universe in person. You can become a son or daughter of the living God and live in a close, intimate, personal relationship with him. – But does that mean that we can just walk into such a relationship as we desire, in any way we want? – No, definitely not. We can only come to God on His terms. We have to get to know how this spiritual relationship works.

Trans-personal laws in the spiritual realm

As I have already mentioned in one of my previous posts, most people have no problem accepting the trans-personal dimension of how things function in the physical realm. But when it comes to the spiritual realm, we tend to think that God can do whatever he likes, in whatever way he likes and at whatever time he likes. We think of God as having no restrictions and limitations whatsoever in how He acts and what He does. So whenever something bad happens, we wonder: Why did God allow this to happen? Or if our prayers are not being answered we wonder: why did God decide not to answer our prayers? We tend to totally disregard the trans-personal dimension within the spiritual realm and think of God in only personal terms. But this is not accurate thinking and it leads to all kinds of wrong conclusions. Remember, the sovereignty of God means that He is like a king, ruling over a kingdom – not a dictator, or “big Brother” who controls everything and is personally involved in everything.

If we realize that the spiritual world functions according to very stable, reliable and unchangeable laws that God has put into place by His word, similar to the way the physical world functions, many things start to make sense that did not make sense before. God is almighty, but he has put laws into place. And He himself abides by those laws.

Examples for the trans-personal dimension in the bible

The personal will of God is, that not one single human being would perish and go to hell. He has made hell for Satan and his angels. God does not want that any man should perish. This is the explicit will of God. 2 Peter 3:9 says “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”  - if God was only dealing with us in the personal dimension, then we could say: “Well, God, if you want that nobody should perish, just save everybody. Just let us all into heaven. You are almighty; you can do whatever you want to…” But this is not so. There are trans-personal laws that govern the way we can get into right standing with God. If we ignore them, we will miss the salvation and go to hell. God has established in His word that salvation is only possible by faith in Jesus Christ. So I can be a very good and decent person, doing a lot of good works and have very high moral standards. But if I refuse to believe in Jesus and accept his atoning sacrifice for my sins, I still will perish and go to hell. Why? Because God has established this law in his word. 1 John 5:12: “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.”

Laws that govern how we receive from God

When it comes to prayer and receiving from God, the same principle applies. There are many things that God wants to give us in prayer.  The New Testament alone is brimming with promises of good things that God wants to bless us with. They are really amazing. And God personally really wants us all to have them and walk in total victory, abundance, peace, blessings and prosperity. So why does He not just shower us with all this good stuff, if He wants to and He is so good? – Because He has bound himself by his word to act in a certain way. There are trans-personal spiritual laws that govern how we receive from God. And we can be really good persons, love God with all our hearts and have a really intimate love-relationship with him. But if we don’t know these laws and don’t know how to operate in them, we will still miss out and not receive a lot of what God wanted to bless us with.

Not having this clear in my thinking was the primary reason for my frustration that caused my spiral into midlife-crisis. (see one of my earlier posts for details)  I thought that God was dealing with me only on a personal level. And because of that I was thinking that He didn’t treat me very well, because I felt that He didn’t answer my prayers, and that I just wasn’t able to walk in the degree of victory, power and authority that I so clearly saw in the bible. That is also the reason, why Jesus got frustrated with his disciples, when they couldn’t heal the boy with the seizures. (Matthew 17). They were not able to do that, not because God decided not to answer their prayer this time, or because he had something different in mind. No, they were violating a spiritual law. When they asked Jesus, why they couldn’t heal the boy, His answer was very revealing: Matthew 17:19-20 “Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out? And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.”

God's goal for us - the personal and trans-personal 

God’s goal for our lives is a two-fold one: he wants us to have a deep, real and loving personal relationship with himself. (John 3:16/John 17:3) That is the primary goal of Salvation. He loves us and he wants to be loved back by us. The second goal for us is simply this: that we grow up into Christ (Ephesians 4:15) – that we learn how the trans-personal faith-laws of the spiritual world function, so that we can walk as Christ walked and do what He did; the same works that he did and greater works that these (John 14:12).

Satan has managed to steal the knowledge of these two goals from the body of Christ by introducing a lot of false teachings into Christianity. The first Christians clearly knew them and walked in them and saw very powerful results. Then the church deteriorated into the dark ages where very few people knew about these things. The protestant Reformation, and the subsequent Moravian, Methodist etc. revivals brought back the knowledge about the personal relationship with God. That’s great. But the second one was still largely forgotten. Only with the rise of the Pentecostal and Charismatic revivals the body of Christ started again to wake up to this second goal: That we can actually grow up to walk as Christ walked, in the same degree of holiness, power and authority. And now this is beginning to sweep the body of Christ. Individuals everywhere are starting to discover these truths and putting them into practice. A huge revival is on the way. We live in exciting times. As the darkness is deepening and increasing around us, the body of Christ is awakening to its full potential. Praise be to our wonderful God! Until next week! Be encouraged and blessed everybody!

God's sovereignty and our responsibilty

Sovereignty of God continued
I would like to continue on the topic of the sovereignty of God, thinking through some of the implications of what I wrote last week and applying it to our lives. Clarifying these issues is critical for a healthy spiritual development, as we are growing up into Christ. If God is not controlling every detail of our lives and the lives of others, if there is great scope for freedom in both directions, obedience and blessing, but also disobedience and rebellion, then we have a critical role to play in God's economy here on earth.
He is relying on us to learn, grow and develop, so that we can act as true sons and daughters of God, bringing in the kingdom of God into the world around us and driving back the kingdom of darkness. Knowing and believing the truth of the bible, of how things really are, - and then acting on it in a persistent and deliberate manner, is key if we want to really learn how to walk in the new identity that we have as believers and do what Jesus did.

I haven't arrived 
God often speaks to me through memories and analogies from my own experience. This is how my brain works, I guess. Well, anyway, as I am writing about these things on my blog, I am painfully aware of the fact that I am still not able to demonstrate a lot of it in my own life. I haven't seen a major healing miracle occur in my ministry yet, I am not walking in the financial abundance and provision that I believe God has for me yet... my life is far from being perfect. In my former paradigm of thinking I would have blamed it all on God and his sovereignty. And I would complain in prayer and ask God to pour out his Spirit, to give me a breakthrough, to bless me and change my situation. Or I would just decide to "Don't worry and be happy" and accept it as God's will for my life. - But recently God spoke to me through a memory of my childhood to explain, why I am not seeing the results that I am believing for.

An analogy from my childhood
Here's the story: When I was still very young, about 5 years of age maybe, my granny sent me to the shop to buy a loaf of bread. That was the first time I would purchase something on my own. She apparently couldn't leave the house and she needed the bread, so she asked me if I could do it. I agreed. So she counted the exact amount of coins into my hand - I think it was 25 kopecks, the equivalent of 25 cents. I got two small silver coins of 10 Kopecks and one large copper coin of 5 kopecks. At that age I wasn't used to handling money. Remember, it was my first time ever to purchase anything on my own. She instructed me to ask for a certain loaf of bread and then to give the money to the person behind the counter. So I went, shaking and trembling inside. When I arrived at the shop, I asked for the loaf of bread and then reached into my pocket, took out the large copper coin of 5 kopecks and offered it to the man behind the counter. He looked at the money and said that it wasn't enough. At that stage I was so frightened and shy that I was dumbfounded. I froze with this coin in my hand, looking at the guy and not able to say a word. I don't know why I didn't reach down into my pocket and got the rest of the money out. For some reason, I couldn't do it. And the guy behind the counter couldn't give me the bread for that amount. So I gave up, ran out of the shop crying, and went back to my granny without the bread, but with the coins still in my pocket. I had all I needed, to purchase that bread, but my own shyness and childish stupidity prevented me from experiencing the result that my granny intended for me to have. I just messed up, I still had to learn some things. It wasn't long after that experience, that I actually did buy something on my own and it worked. I learned to overcome my shyness and fear and just buy what I needed and have the money for.

We've already got everything we need
The analogy that God showed me was: I was given everything that I need to see the power of God manifest in my life. God has already provided for me all that it takes to live an absolutely victorious, joyful and abundant life. My problem is, I am not using all that I've got yet. I am not playing with the full deck. I have still to learn some things, to act on truth and get this going. The problem is not with God. It is with me. I need to grow up into Christ (Ephesians 4:15). And I firmly believe that I will be able to walk like Jesus and do what He did.

God's design for my life and for that of every Christian is that we live as sons and daughters of God, be like Jesus in this world, do what He did. And He has given us everything that we need in His word, to learn that.

John 14:12-14 "Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask anything in my name, and I will do it.

Mark 16:17-18 "And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hand; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well."

1 Corinthians 2:4 "My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power..."

What if it doesn't work?
The problem with such scriptures is - that often our own experience seems to disprove them. We all have probably tried at one time or another to pray for healing of some person, and nothing happened. Or worse, the person died. We tried to believe for some breakthrough and it didn't happen. So the usual explanations often go like this: "It must have not been God's will... God's ways are higher than our ways... You never know what God is going to do... This is not my calling and not my gifting. I am just normal and ordinary..." And most Christians just give up, settle for a substandard life and wait for heaven, when we all will experience God face to face.  With this childhood memory God encouraged me to keep going, keep seeking God, keep searching until I experience the truth of God's word. I have all it takes already. God has given me everything. I just need to learn how to use it. That's all. And I am adamant to not give up.

The bible is true. God's word is true. So maybe it is time we stopped elevating our own experiences and the experiences of others above what the Word of God says and just trust his word and pursue it until we experience the truth of it in our own lives?

An encouraging example
I have been greatly encouraged by the story of Curry Blake, a man who is teaching a lot of people around the globe the truth about healing, and how to minister God's healing power to the sick. You can look him up on the internet. When Curry was a young man, not long married, he and his wife got a daughter who was born with a tumor in her tongue. The tumor was gross and the doctors could not operate it, because of the blood vessels that were intertwined in that tumor. So Curry and his wife started to pray, to seek God for healing and to do all they could to see their daughter healed. And they were seeing progress, things were improving with her. But at the age of two or three the little girl died of that tumor. Now the average Christian would conclude - it must have not been God's will for that girl to live. Or some other explanation, why the prayers went unanswered and the girl wasn't healed. You would have expected Curry and his wife just to accept it or to get bitter at God. Instead, he decided to pursue healing until he really understood it. He didn't blame God and his sovereignty on that. He had the courage to admit, that although he was doing everything he could, he probably just didn't know enough to see his daughter healed. - And God has given him understanding and revelation since. Curry is now seeing countless people healed through the power of God, and he is teaching believers all over the globe how to walk in this power and to have faith for healing.
He learned how to use all that God has given him in the bible. You and I can do the same.

The downside: we have responsibility
There is a downside to that truth, though: It puts a huge responsibility on us, right? If we don't believe God and learn how to walk in His power, it won't get done. Many people will die, who could have been healed through our hands. Many people will go to hell, who could have been reached with the Gospel through our witness. This is just a daunting thought, isn't it? And it can be taken as condemning and hard. Does that mean that it is my fault that this person didn't get healed? ...

No condemnation 
For me it is a great comfort to know that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). God does not condemn us if we don't get it right, if we fail and mess up. He is like a loving father. When I came back to my granny without the bread and told her the story, she didn't get mad at me and tell me how useless I was. She encouraged me, explained what I missed and let me try again. That's how God is. He won't condemn us for our past failures. And when we seek him with our whole hearts - we will find. He will explain to us things in His word, He will give us revelation and knowledge until we learn how to walk in all the fullness of God. That's what revival truly is - God's people bringing God's light and power into this world, building His kingdom.

I want to learn to do that. No matter what it takes and how long it may take me. I want to go for it. How about you? Until next week.

The Sovereignty of God - one of the biggest misunderstandings in Christian thought

Today I want to start dealing with a faulty paradigm that has caused an awful amount of damage in the lives of Christians and unbelievers alike. It is commonly referred to as the "sovereignty of God". Now, before you stop reading and write me off as a heretic, let me state right at the start: I firmly believe in the sovereignty of God. The Bible teaches it and I believe it with all my heart. He is the highest authority in the universe, all things are subject to him and He reigns! There is no doubt about that. And yet, my understanding of the sovereignty of God has dramatically changed within the last two years, which has brought great liberation into my life and has caused my love for God and trust in him to soar to much higher levels then before. It all depends on how we define the word sovereignty.

Dictionary definition of sovereignty
The dictionary defines the word sovereignty as follows: a). supreme power especially over a political body, b) freedom from external control: autonomy and c) controlling influence. The bible teaches that God is sovereign in this sense. He is the supreme power over the universe. Everything is subject to him. And he is free from external control. Nobody tells God what to do. He is independent and autonomous. And he has potential controlling influence over everything that exists. In the bible God is very often referred to as a king. A very good and wise king who runs a kingdom. As King he is the highest authority over all his subordinates. I agree with this kind of sovereignty.

Faulty understanding of sovereignty
Unfortunately, in the minds of many Christians the word sovereignty has taken on the meaning of absolute control. Many Christians believe that nothing happens, unless God either actively wills it, or passively allows it. This is taught in many churches. After all, he is God. So he can do whatever he likes, and he can stop whatever he likes. This is not true and this is not biblical. If you think that, you will end up believing in a God who is ultimately responsible for all kinds of atrocities, murder, violence, rape, torture and the like, because he allowed it. It is very difficult to completely trust and fully love such a God. But God is not like that. He does not control everything and he does not allow everything! He has limited himself by his word. Psalm 138:2 "for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name". He has organised the universe according to certain laws that he set in motion by his word, and he himself never breaks his own word. That's why bad things happen in our world, things that God never intended to happen, things that break his heart, and yet he can't stop them just like that, because he has limited himself by his word. The only way he could stop them would be by total judgment - by calling it quits and stopping the whole course of history. One day he is going to do that. But until that day, we, other people and Satan have freedom to go against God's will, and he won't stop us or intervene in most cases.

God is ONLY good
Only good things come from God: James 1,16-17 "Don't be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."

Four factors that are potentially involved in everything that happens
So instead of believing that God controls everything, the biblical truth is that everything that happens here on earth is determined by at least 4 factors:
1. You and I as an individual have been given free will by God. We can choose our actions and thoughts. That makes us responsible creatures that will be judged for our choices and actions.
2. Other people with their freedom of choice influence us or intervene in our lives. They have been given freedom of choice as well.
3. God with his good will, wanting to bless us and pour goodness into our lives. He does not do it without our consent and cooperation. He has limited himself and he respects our choices.
4. Satan with his intention to kill, steal and destroy all goodness (John 10:10). He wants to destroy our lives but his power is limited as well. He gains access to our lives through lies and deception. He needs our cooperation as well to be able to come in and destroy our lives.

We play a much more active role than most people think
This means that we play a much more active role than most of us like to admit. God does not just do what ever he pleases. He has given us freedom to choose and also authority and responsibility. As we recognize this authority and learn to cooperate with God, our lives get increasingly free from Satan's deceptions and bondage and we learn how to live in the victory that Christ has won for us. That is an awesome truth.

Resisting the devil
Understanding this will also enable us to resist the bad things that Satan tries to bring into our lives instead of attributing them to God and thinking that God wants to teach us something through them. Sickness, poverty, depression, defeat, discouragement... all this is not from God. He didn't want it for our lives and he didn't allow it. He wants to set you and me free from all that junk and give us an abundant, free and joyful life! But we need to learn to cooperate with him. And then we become his agents for liberating other people and bringing his goodness into the life of others.

Becoming like Jesus
We will be like Jesus. Acts 10:38 "How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him."

Will you believe it?
Maybe this leaves a lot of questions for some of you unanswered. This post is far too short to be able to exhaustively deal with this subject. But if you study the bible with an open heart you will see that this is exactly what God's word teaches. We are in a war. God is good and the devil is bad. We are in between. We can choose to cooperate with God, resist the devil and he will flee from us. (James 4:7). We are called to bring the kingdom of God into the fallen world that we live in, in the authority of Jesus Christ. You are an "ambassador for Christ" (2 Corinthians 5:20) if you are born again. You have the power inside of you that raised Jesus from the dead. (Ephesians 1:20). But this does not happen automatically. It has to be activated by faith.

Until next week. And be encouraged everybody. God has ONLY good things for you. He loves you so much that he sent Jesus to die for you. He wants your life to be absolutely awesome! Will you believe it?

THINKING AND ACTING - FAITH AND WORKS

So far I have been highlighting the importance of paradigms of thinking and how they affect our lives. Before I go on and describe some of these faulty paradigms, I felt that I needed to insert a post on the importance of our actions. Correct knowledge, right paradigms of thinking are extremely important. But they are only half of the deal. Knowledge needs to be acted upon to become effective in our lives. Faith without works is dead. Once we get hold of the truth in the Word of God, we need to start living it out; otherwise it will do us no good.

Rich without knowing it

Let me illustrate what I mean with the following story that I read in one of my devotionals: There was this uneducated, simple lady, living in Europe somewhere, about a hundred years or so ago. Her son went off to America and became rich and successful. He kept in touch with his mother, sending her kind letters. In the letters there were always included some nice looking pieces of paper with pictures and numbers on it. The lady treasured the letters and the pictures. One day her pastor was visiting and she showed him the letters and the pictures. When he saw the “pictures” he exclaimed: Woman, you are rich! This is American money. You can exchange that in the bank and buy whatever you like! – She was rich, but she didn’t know it. She was ignorant of it, and so all these riches didn’t really change her life for the better until somebody came along and told her the truth.

My story

In so many ways this is my story. I always had the bible with its great and exceeding promises. I knew that the bible was the love letter of God to me. I loved His letters of love and kindness, acceptance and forgiveness. But I didn’t know that enclosed in that love letter was much more than words of love. I didn’t know that I was rich as well. Well, let me rephrase it. I think I was even aware of the fact that these riches are somehow there for me. The problem was I didn’t know how to cash them, how to make them work in my life. The Freedom in Christ Course started to open my eyes as to how I could actually start to avail of the riches that are ours in Christ. The main thing is FAITH – accompanied by ACTION. Although this story involves money, this is a parable. I hope you can see that I am not writing about getting selfish and covetous. I am talking about the blessings that are promised to us in the Bible by faith.

A parable on knowledge and action

I think this story is a great parable about these paradigm shifts that I am writing about. Our thinking and acting determines if we can ever get into the will of God for our lives and walk in it. We don’t accidentally “slide” into it. We have to “know” certain truths and then we have to “act” in a certain way in order to get the full benefit of the Gospel.

This woman knew that her son loved her, that he was doing well there in the states and that he wanted her to do well too. He sent her American money. Obviously, he wanted her to cash the money and buy stuff of necessity for herself and others. But here was her problem. She was ignorant of the fact that the “pictures” in the letters were really money. Somebody had to tell her that. She needed revelation on that truth. – However, that was only the first step. Knowing that she was rich would not have helped her one bit if she wouldn’t go and find out, how she could actually cash this money and make it work. She could have gone with the money to a grocery store and try to buy things. But that would lead to a disappointment, because the grocery store would not accept foreign currency. So she needed more knowledge. She needed to find out how to turn this foreign money into the local currency. The teacher told her that she would need to go to the bank for that. But even all that correct knowledge – the correct paradigm of thinking would not have done her any good if she would have remained passive, sitting at home. What would have made this money work in her life would be correct knowledge + correct actions. She would have to go to the bank, hand in the Dollar notes and exchange them for the local currency. And with that local currency she would be able to avail of the good things that her son had been sending her.

Laws in the spiritual realm

This is a simple and straightforward story. And it makes sense in the physical realm. This is how things work. You need correct knowledge and then you need to act on that knowledge. Every Christian, I believe, would agree with me on that. But when it comes to spiritual things, we somehow change our approach (speaking of me and many others that I encountered, maybe that does not apply to you). We think that God “sovereignly” controls everything. In the spiritual realm God just acts unpredictably, and you never know what He’s going to do next. It’s all a mystery and an enigma. But nothing could be further from the truth. God is a very consistent and organized God. Just as the physical world functions according to very precise laws, the same is true about the spiritual realm. And He has revealed to us all that we need to know, in order to be able to avail of the good things that He has for us. God has given us the Bible as a love letter to us. And enclosed in that letter there are immeasurable riches, blessings, goodness and provision, protection and victory. We are incredibly rich, blessed with “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 1:3). We are given “exceeding great and precious promises: that by these we might be partakers of the divine nature” (2. Peter 1:4). Wow. That sounds great.

What if it doesn’t work?

But then we go and try to “cash” some of these promises, and we get disappointed. It doesn’t seem to work. So we try to explain why it didn’t work. “It must have not been God’s will. God is trying to teach me something through this failure. Or maybe one day in Heaven I will experience all this, but here on the earth I will have to put up with lack, mediocrity, failure and defeat.” This is not true! You and I - we can live an absolutely blessed and victorious life. Every Christian is called to become like Jesus, to grow up into Christ. But it does not happen automatically. We have to believe the Word of God to be what it says it is. And then we need to get knowledge about what God has for us. We need to change our faulty paradigms of thinking to the correct ones of the Word of God. And then we need to act it out. We need to start living it and applying it in our lives.

An example from history

A great example from history out of the evangelical realm that comes to mind would be George Mueller of Bristol. As a young man He determined that He would believe the bible and act on it, no matter what. He would pray to God and trust Him with all his needs. God called him to take care of orphaned children in Bristol. So he took these Children in and fed them and gave them an education. But he would not ask people for financial help. He would just pray and believe that God would provide all his needs. When He started out, he had some real difficulties to get this going. He was learning by doing. But with tenacity, faith and perseverance He learned how to actually “cash” the promises of God. He lived to be over 90 years old and several million Pound Sterling went through his hands throughout his life – all given to him as an answer to prayer and God’s provision.

Ordinary people doing extraordinary things

We tend to glorify such persons and put them on a pedestal, thinking that they must have had a great “spiritual gift of faith”. They were somehow out of the ordinary, we think. But that is not true. They just dared to believe God and act on what they believed. And they saw very powerful results. They would not give up when things seemed not to work. They would just stick with it until they got the revelation they needed. You and I can do the same. Until next week! Be blessed and encouraged everybody!

More on the Reality of our Spiritual Identity

Hello again. Happy New Year to all of you! I don't know how my last post impacted you. Was it a new idea for you that you have a completely new identity in the Spirit, if you have been born again? That you are no longer a sinner by nature, but a saint, holy, justified, blessed and accepted in Jesus? And these are not just figurative or symbolic statements but realities, albeit spiritual realities that have to be believed in order to be fully experienced and activated?

A lost truth
The full impact of the biblical truth about the spiritual identity of the believer seems to have been lost in the body of Christ for the most part of church history. These truths are now spreading very rapidly throughout the body of Christ, so chances are that many of my readers are already familiar with this paradigm of thinking. When I first encountered it a few years ago through the Freedom in Christ course, I didn't realize how far reaching and tremendous the implications were. This has the potential to completely revolutionize your Christian walk. That's what it did for me. It has literally set me free and has given me access to the life of abundance and victory that I always sought but never seemed to be able to find. I want to take some time to spell out the implications of these truths as I keep writing.

Too good to be true?
But maybe some of you think - this can't be true. It sounds too good to be true. Such a vital truth cannot have been hidden from the body of Christ for centuries. This must be heresy. Well - just think of Martin Luther and the great reformers. The biblical truths of salvation by grace alone through faith had been lost for over 1000 years until they surfaced again at the time of the Reformation. I believe something of similar proportions is happening in our day and age. As today's believers are receiving revelation about who they truly are in Christ, they are increasingly able to walk by faith in a similar degree of authority, victory and power as the first Christians were, whose accounts we read in the Bible. Throughout Church history there were times that this kind of power and authority came to the surface in limited pockets in the Church around the globe. We call these times REVIVALS.

The new identity surfacing in revivals
I was always fascinated by the stories of revivals. During those times believers often seemed to be able to do the same things that Jesus and the Apostles did in the Bible. One such move of God took place in Indonesia during the sixties and seventies of the last century, and the impact of it is still felt in that area. It began by a mighty outpouring of God's Spirit on the Isle of Timor in a little town called Soe, and also simultaneously on many other islands of this huge country. I warmly recommend two accounts of that revival: "Like a Mighty Wind" by Mel Tari. And a German Book by Otto Riecker, called "Ruf aus Indonesien" (A Call from Indonesia). Two German missionaries were involved in that revival - Detmar and Volkhard Scheunemann. They visited Germany in 1970 and gave an account of what was happening in Indonesia. Dr. Riecker published the sermons in the little book mentioned above. It is out of print but some used copies are still available in retail.

A movement of ordinary people
What is so fascinating about the Indonesian revival is the fact that there was no single one "anointed" leader or apostle. It was a revival of ordinary people who heard from God and obeyed. They went out in teams to preach the Gospel where God sent them, and they experienced the same provision, protection, power and anointing as the first Christians did. There are accounts of people speaking in Languages they never learned, like English and French. Accounts of healing incurable diseases through the name of Jesus, dead people raised to life, turning water into wine, walking on water over a swollen river, commanding the weather, multiplying food, calling fire down from heaven just like Elijah did... The German theologians recall that prior to the revival a move of prayer and repentance went through their bible school, a turning back to the Bible as the fully inspired and infallible word of God, a cleansing from sin and deliverance from demonic bondage... And then they were able to walk by faith in their new identity as sons and daughters of the living God.

A problem with my thinking
I always believed that these accounts were true. My problem was that I had a paradigm of thinking that prevented me from seeing the significance of these accounts for me. I thought that God in his sovereignty poured out His Spirit here and there and refused to pour Him out in other places. But this is not New Testament thinking. The New Testament does not speak of God taking His Spirit back anywhere. Jesus won ALL authority in heaven and on earth through His redemptive work on the cross. And He sent His followers to go into all the world in HIS authority and preach the gospel and disciple nations. So God was never the problem. When things got bad in the church it always happened because His people lost sight of His promises, followed deceptive philosophies and teachings and turned away from the simplicity of the Gospel. God never ever took His Spirit back. We have quenched Him, we have lost sight of the walk of faith, we have allowed our hearts to be hardened by sin and unbelief.

Revival starts with me
This is a very liberating truth. Because if I am the problem - then I can do something about it. I can change. If it was up to God then I would have to just beg and plead and hope that He would change. This is what I had been doing for years. Begging God to pour out His Spirit and thinking that He somehow had to be changed. But if it is up to me, I can start changing, I can start believing, I can start repenting, changing my thinking and my actions. Revival always starts with me. It is personal.

Believing God
So instead of asking God to pour out His Spirit again I needed to start believing God and acting on what His word said. This is how revival comes. God flows through people. The founder of the Salvation Army, William Booth, allegedly said: "I am not praying for a move of God, I am a move of God!" There is a deep truth in His saying. You and I, all born again believers, have God living inside of us. We are saints, anointed with the Spirit of God, our lives hidden in Christ. The power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in us (Ephesians 1:20). We are one with God in the Spirit. We have the same authority over all evil, over sickness and disease and over nature as Jesus had. This is what the New Testament teaches in absolutely unambiguous terms (John 14:12). But this authority is a SPIRITUAL reality. It must be believed and activated  by faith before it can be seen and experienced in the physical realm. And the enemy has brought in a huge amount of lies, deception, philosophies, theologies and the like into the church in order to prevent Christians from seeing it and walking in it. To the degree that we change our paradigms of thinking - to the degree that we renew our mind by the word of God  (in other words: repent) - to that degree we will be able to walk in the power, freedom, victory and authority that the New Testament is speaking about. Isn't that just an AWESOME truth?

Be blessed and encouraged everybody. If you have been born again, you have God Almighty living on the inside of you! You are a son/daughter of the living God. Deeply loved and cherished! Equipped with everything you need to live an absolutely victorious, free, joyful and abundant life in Christ. Will you believe it? Until next week.