Finding Balance in God's Mystery

We must find that balance of knowing God’s Word, meditating on scripture AND CONTEXT daily in order to know Him & what His Word REALLY SAYS….all the while balancing the fact that…

There will always remain some level of mystery with God!!  HE is God. WE are not.  (THANK GOD!!)

He has 3 parts: God the Father, Jesus our friend. And the Holy Spirit. Let the HOLY SPIRIT be the Holy Spirit. That’s not our job

The Holy Spirit guides, counsels, comforts, strengthens, reveals, convicts, blesses, transforms, knows, revives, warns, protects, rewards, sanctifies, enriches, speaks, brings JOY…. NEED I SAY MORE??! It’s in the scriptures

In those “grey areas”…the places “unknown”…FAITH & DISCERNMENT ARE ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. We MUST get to know God’s voice. Only God knows what man does not, and HE CAN REVEAL TRUTH to use at any moment when we are walking in step with Him, when we have received a baptism of the Holy Spirit, and we are in tune to HIS VOICE.

If we are not hearing clearly from Him, we can humbly ask the Lord to reveal any sin in our lives. Repent for what He reveals. Receive HIS forgiveness & grace (don’t let condemnation try to rob you of God’s grace!!). Ask for a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit or a baptism of the Holy Spirit if you have never done that before. And then simply move forward. TRUST GOD to complete His good work in you We are all sinners in need of forgiveness daily.

Luke 11:13 NIV
If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
This is where the rubber meets the road. This is where our knowledge of scripture, wisdom & faith collide in real life as we learn to navigate those “grey areas”…the uncertainties, the unusual experiences, the supernatural, the things that happen outside the box. The radical healings. The miracles! The true FREEDOM. Much of our “church” today is scared to death of REAL FREEDOM. FREEDOM IN CHRIST…not freedom to do as we please as the world sees it. MUCH of “American church” has quenched the working of the Holy Spirit, with our hyper-literal thinking, our legalistic or false teaching, and our controlling (fear-based) ways of thinking and living. We live in a world that goes to the ends of the earth to “figure everything out”, and it has spilled over into our faith (or lack thereof). This world is so obsessed with science, self-help books, me-first, “what will people think”, more, more, more, GOTTA HAVE A PLAN, and where’s the coffee & someone-looked-at-me-funny-in-church kind of problems…We don’t “need” a lot of faith in America.

May we remember Jesus had no letters behind his name, no “scientific” background, spoke in parables, had no place to lay his head, did not wear name-brand or “professional” clothes before He went to speak, and was qualified by God alone…and He conquered MILLIONS, defeated death, LOVED ALL, and spoke to more life issues than anyone or anything else (put together) in ancient and modern times!  WORD!!!

This is often where churches & friendships divide. Those raised under legalism can tend to be afraid of the movement of the Holy Spirit. Judgemental and overly-literal. They throw people in “spiritual jail” for living out the prompting of the Holy Spirit simply because the movement of the Holy Spirit “looks different” than anything they have seen or experienced. Those not rooted in sound doctrine can get out of order and “hyper-charismatic”. Both are simply another example of humans acting in the flesh. We are all human! We ALL battle our flesh. Salvation issues and fundamental doctrine….we must KNOW IT and be willing to stand for it at all cost. The other stuff…when we don’t understand someone else, when we have different convictions, we disagree with them, or we don’t relate because of different backgrounds/flavors/giftings/style/life experience, whatever…we must communicate in LOVE. We do not need to divide over these issues! And how about exercising FAITH?! If that person is saved, then the Holy Spirit got ahold of them that ONE TIME remember?? And we can TRUST, BY FAITH (pray!) for that person, that they would receive a fresh filling or baptism of the Holy Spirit…and that GOD WILL BE GOD and gently make their way straight 

Takes A LOT MORE FAITH, obedience, maturity, discipline to sit back, be quiet and TRUST doesn’t it? Don’t we tend to think things would happen a LOT FASTER if we just “told them” what they’re doing wrong instead of waiting on & trusting the Lord (aka: praying for them and BELIEVING GOD CAN).

I realize there is a time and place to speak up or share something from the Lord with someone else…but I have been challenged to ask myself…haven’t I gotten ahead of the Lord before?

How often have I taken a “feeling” and thought it to be a “Holy Spirit nudge” and responded to my flesh vs the Spirit? WE ALL DO. None is exempt …and isn’t this the same thing we are judging in other people? OUR “mistakes” in trying to be HOLY can cause a lot of damage. I’ve been on both sides of this. If we ARE to speak up, I pray we have the courage to do so, and most importantly, we speak in LOVE, keep our opinions out of it, and seek only to BUILD THAT PERSON UP.  Lord, help us all!

Let “worshippers” be free to sing & dance. Let “literalists” be literal. Let GOD be GOD. 

PRAY for one another. GOD IS THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN CHANGE PEOPLE. We are FREE from the BURDEN of trying to control or change people!!! Hallelujah!!!!

1 Peter 2:9 We are a CHOSEN GENERATION, A ROYAL PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PECULIAR PEOPLE!! REMEMBER: the Holy Spirit moves different in different people. We cannot box him into our small capacity of life experience. BE FREE within the confines of scripture not man’s misconceptions.

God is omnipotent (all-powerful, all Mighty), omniscient (all-knowing), omnipresent (everywhere). We must be careful not to put God in a box and assume we know the recipe for how He works & moves in other people’s lives. LOVE people. TRUST GOD to complete the work in his people (not us!) Edify the body of Christ. Build people up! Speak life. Forgive quickly. Judge slowly. Quit trying to control things. GOD IS ABLE, and HE LOVES US ALL.

Ecclesiastes 11:5 NIV As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.

It’s not about us. It’s about HIM.