Freedom Guns and Jesus

• cause (someone) to make maximum use of their talents or abilities.

“it’s too easy—it doesn’t stretch me”

• adapt or extend the scope of (something) in a way that exceeds a reasonable or acceptable limit.

[I omitted the many definitions that don’t support the intent of this post]

Yesterday, I had the privilege of sharing aspects of my faith with 5 or 6 young adults “down by the river”.  One was local, the rest were not, all were Christians and demonstrated a hunger and desire to learn that is uncommon for their generation.

The local guy (let’s call him Will, because that’s his name), attends a local church that I would describe as pragmatic, based on the other folks I know who go there, and based on Will’s questions, responses, and challenges to my statements.

In my QT this morning, I was directed to write this post, and “randomly” came across a nearly 10 year old post entitled Process.

One of the things I told Will was that I was where his is now, 10 years ago–questioning theology, Holy Spirit Baptism, the use of spiritual gifts, etc.  He obviously has a call and concern for teaching, discipleship, and evangelism, and wants to be sure that he doesn’t fall in with a group or people who believe and teach things that are not in the Bible, which is the agreed standard by which Christians should compare their theology.

Will (and everybody like him), here are a few reminders that will help you in your journey:

1. “You don’t know what you don’t know”.  So when you are presented with a new concept, receive the lot, process it through discernment, measure it against the written Word, and keep the goodies and throw out the rest.
2. Consider the source.  Is there any motive that would cause you to question the intent of the teacher?  Pride, a paycheck (if the love of money), fear of man, fear of failure, fear of being wrong?  Every one of those is evil.  If you are tempted to hold on to “fear of error” to keep you on the straight and narrow, remember that we grow from learning good.  Avoiding bad can only keep you where you are.  [review step 1.]
3. Experience trumps theology [warning lights go off here].  If your church tells you that Christians are impervious to demons, and you see a demon leave a Christian, you need to revisit your theology.  The answers are in the Word, they often are just not understood and taught properly.  If you believe that the gift of healing was only for the original apostles at the start of the Church, your ability to do what Jesus told us all to do will be completely nullified, and your effectiveness for the Kingdom will be greatly diminished.
4. If you fear the idolatry of valuing the “experience” of God, his power, and miracles to the point where you spend all your time only studying the written Word, you will miss the richness of relationship, with God and those He loves.  Faith that is limited to only the study of the Word is like one who goes to a restaurant, reads the menu and leaves… meal after meal.  You have your reservation, the best chef in the universe and money in your pocket, but if you never get the food delivered (it never costs you anything), you miss the fun of the fellowship of eating together, shared experiences, and the nutrients that cause growth (hopefully higher, rather than wider!).

You (Will) asked me about the Biblical precedent for the type of prophecy that involves “finding the gold”, words of knowledge and the like.  I haven’t done my study yet, perhaps you can help me develop “the teaching of 3’s”

I did, however think of a few examples in scripture:

Jesus’ statement in Mark 5:34, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.” was the best one I could think of.  Jesus showed the woman with the issue of blood her identity, and instructed her based on the revelation of that identity.  The word “be” is not just a filler.  It is a present-imperative instruction to continue to walk in her healing, even though her healing was immediately manifested.

Additionally, the “word of knowledge” is also a non-future-predicting form of prophesy, and it was clearly demonstrated not only in Jesus’ consistently knowing “the thoughts in their hearts”, but also with Peter’s dealings with Ananias and Sapphira, which led to their demise.  Since we are not into killing people as a form of ministry, we steer clear of sensitive topics as a general rule. 

The reason many churches never teach us to prophesy (v.), is that there are many considerations which must be weighed, and a mature (non-milk) understanding of the ways of the Kingdom are needed to guide the believer in the use of the gifts:

1. If God tells you a secret, are you supposed to immediately blurt it out to the person or audience?  You should then ask the Lord, “now what do you want me to do with that information, if anything?”
2. Pride and Fear of Man:  Two sides of the same coin.  Pride will cause you to have to deliver a word to appear knowledgable, and will often have you attach head knowledge or insert a back-door (way out if you are wrong).  Fear of Man may cause you not to deliver a word, or will often have you attach head knowledge or insert a back-door (way out if you are wrong).
3. Some things are better left unsaid:  God’s second greatest gift is choice.  When you “prophesy” a spouses name, a pregnancy or name of a baby, or some other weighty matter, you may be messing with that person’s sense of choice, which to me seems like manipulation at best, or witchcraft at worst.
4. You have choice!  You get to decide on which topics you partner with the Kingdom.  You will “pay for disobedience” only by the amount that you “store up your treasures in heaven.”