Several years ago I witnessed the aftermath of a fatal car accident. A Friend picked me up from the airport and we were exiting the parking lot onto the multilane throughway that feeds the airfield. Traffic was stop and go along the the overpass and onto the onramp and we were both frustrated. Time was of the essence. Then we saw the cause.
A man in a minitruck, perhaps you remember the mid ’70’s Chevy Luv and the Datsun/Mitsubishi offerings, had taken a wrong turn and come up the onramp the wrong way and been run off the road. The truck had hit a piling and teetered precariously on the edge of the ramp. Our lane of traffic inched along the road, pressed as far to the right as possible as we passed the lifeless body of the man who hung halfway out the driver’s side window.
There is nothing quite like seeing a dead human body in the place where it died, only moments after the life has fled. There is something missing, and you can’t define it emotionally. A statue is expected to be lifeless as is a picture, but this lump of flesh that had life and motion, lying where it has fallen, still bearing all the form and potential that it once had, but robbed of the something that made it live– It’s an eerie experience.
Similarly, the Christian church, the body of Christ lies dead today. There is growth in numbers of members. There are even teachings that benefit some by encouraging People praise God and perform, They use stage magic and lighting tricks, neurolinguistic programming in the form of mind-numbing repetition of verses. In some cases they are so bold as to use cold readings, shills who feed preachers info, etc. They create a warm fuzzy emotional feeling. But they fail utterly to invite and encourage the awesome presence of the Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit of the Living God.
God is not an emotion.
Let me repeat that. When you feel a warm emotion in your heart, that emotion is not the Ruach Elohim, the Spirit of the Sons of God that participated in the creation of the Universe. The Spirit of God is not an emotion.
When Abraham was in the Spirit his face had such a glowry, people were blinded by it. When Peter was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and Annanias and Sephira lied to get credit for their monetary sacrifice in the offering plate, they dropped dead. When the church worshiped (not praised, worshiped) the living God in concert and prayed for a solution, steel manacles spontaneously shattered, an earthquake opened the doors of a maximum security prison and hardened prison guards begged the inmate, Peter, to save them.
When the Holy Spirit is present, the false doctrine of Eternal Security is forgotten because people have the supernatural power to live in obedience, the fruit of the Spirit are evident in their lives. There aren’t any psychological profiles to assess your aptitude, because God tells you what you need to do, and the ability is not a natural, testable talent, but a supernatural gift.
The Gifts and Callings of the Lord are without repentance. This has many layers of meaning. One is that the church is still gifted, so long as the spirit of rebellion doesn’t talk them into keeping the Holy Spirit in check. Where are your tongues with interpretation, your prophecy, your healing, your miracles. Tongues have not ceased, knowledge is still required, that which is perfect is still bidding time awaiting the command of God to initiate the second coming.
Spiritual Life is living in God’s presence, allowing him to work the way He decided and with His paradigm, and living in obedience.