I have mixed feelings right now. This week I feel as though God is moving us into the next step for our lives, specifically our spiritual lives. I’ve felt this during the past couple days. I want more than anything to experience more of God in greater fullness and truth. But I know at the same time, this does not mean running around everywhere looking for a word of knowledge or new prophecy for our lives. Honestly, looking for a word or new ‘move’ of God can be dangerous if it is not founded on spiritual discernment and foundations of truth. As much as I don’t like the word ‘skepticism’ when it comes to churches and movements, I do know that we have to be careful and discerning and when something is in question, we do need to check the Word of God to see if it’s a sure word.
I’m disgusted by emotionalism and hype. Plain and simple. Humans have emotions, God has emotions and often enough I’ve felt His presence strongly and my emotions are most certainly involved. But we need to be so careful that our emotions don’t trump discernment of truth and whether His Word and works are really evident.
Recently, I was reminded of the account in Scripture about Elijah and the pagans at Mount Carmel. Not that I’m referring to anyone as pagans here, I’m not! Just thought I’d clear the air on that. However, the pagans were shouting and repeating things over and over trying to get their god(s) to move. But Elijah simply and directly called fire down from heaven and *bam!* - it happened! I specifically recall (and with amusement) Elijah mocking them saying “Maybe you should call out louder, maybe you’re god is sleeping and doesn’t hear you”. Yet, haven’t some of our churches and ‘movements’ been doing the same? Y’shua said in one of the Gospels that we needn’t babble like the pagans with many words so that He hears us. I see a lot of this all over the place and to be honest, it kinda creeps me out!
I know my post may sound judgmental or harsh, I don’t intend it to be. I really do want to see Him working in our churches with deeper understanding of the Word and with power. I want our churches to be all about Him and I go to various meetings hoping to see the real deal. But more than not anymore, I find myself disappointed. Yet in this disappointment, there is wisdom to be gained. It stirs up a lot of questions and searching of Scriptures and that’s a good thing. It also teaches me just how important discernment is and I pray more diligently for His wisdom, presence, and power to be ever stronger in me for the sake of His Kingdom.
I know that my husband and I are called to be testers of the people, specifically God’s people. We both know this and it is a difficult calling at times. It is so much easier to just let things go as they are. But sometimes we are (and have been) called to address matters as they arise. I am aware that there is a time to speak and a time to be silent. This too takes discernment. Really, it would seem everything takes discernment and that’s not a bad thing, but it does take being developed by Him and being developed means spending a lot of time in His presence which in turn means simplifying my life in such a way that my life is about Him. I truly want to live according to the verse: “In Him, we live and move and have our being.”
Our spirituality on an individual level and as churches do need to be based on the truth and power of the LORD. We can’t count on our emotions, we can’t count on numbers, and we can’t even count on signs and wonders, because not everything we hear and see is of God. But I pray that the LORD purifies His church, my family, and myself included and that we truly see the move of God in which “the blind see, lame walk, dead are raised, and the poor have the Gospel preached to them” (Matthew 11:5). It’s not a ‘new’ move, but it’s simply what being in the Kingdom is all about – truth and power!
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