Back to the Mire or Forward to Power?

I’ll tell you what. I am suffering this month.

Every year, our church does a 40-day program of spiritual improvement. A lot of people fast during this time (generally not real fasting, but I guess they give up Butterfingers or something), and you can also do other stuff. Last year I prayed in tongues for an hour a day. This year, I’m going half an hour in the morning and then praying for one specific thing for half an hour, later in the day.

When I decided what I was going to do, I thought I was all set, but I found myself obligated to do one other thing. I had to agree to read The Purpose-Driven Life, by Rick Warren.

I tried to get out of it. Pastor Warren is a Baptist, and he does not believe in a separate baptism with the Holy Spirit, as charismatics do. He thinks you get the whole deal all at once, at salvation, which is very clearly not what we see in the gospels or Acts. Some people get the whole enchilada, and others (I am referring to saved Christians) undergo a second event.

This is important, because there are only two really important things that happen to a Christian. First, you get salvation. Second, you pray in tongues regularly over the course of your life, and God gradually makes you like him, changing your character and giving you power. If you don’t believe in the second process, you’re like a demolition expert who refuses to buy dynamite, choosing instead to claw buildings down with his toenails. Hopeless. You will never have the kind of faith the Apostles had. You will never do the “greater” things Jesus said we would do. You will be stillborn, spiritually. The crucifixion was an act of insemination, and the seed was the Holy Spirit.

I’m seeing a lot of renewed talk about this. I’ve been harping on it for over 20 years, and nobody cared. Now Robert Morris teaches it. So does Perry Stone. And the other day I decided to clean out the accumulated “It’s Supernatural” episodes on my DVR, and I found that Sid Roth had featured several guests teaching the same message.

Sid Roth is a Messianic (I left the “Jew” off to avoid exacerbating Aaron’s ulcers), and his show is about people who have tapped into the supernatural power of God. Frankly, I suspect some of his guests are frauds or just plain wrong, but some are definitely right, and the show is worth watching. Just remember, if some nut goes on the show and claims God made him a jet pack and told him to sky-write the Revelation of St. John the Divine over San Francisco, it MAY not be true.

What can I tell you? Christians see supernatural events all the time, and we are predisposed to believe in the power of God, so we are going to swallow a certain amount of garbage along with the truth. That’s how life is. If you go to enough good restaurants, sooner or later you are going to eat a booger.

Here’s a great episode you might like, if you’re wondering what tongues are all about. Click this link.

Anyway, the Holy Spirit helps individuals understand the metaphors and word plays in the Bible. The Bible is written in code, so Satan and evil men won’t get it, and it’s stirred up, so related passages may be hundreds of pages apart, and only the Holy Spirit (after the baptism with same) can unravel it for you. I’m sorry to say that Rick Warren does not have this edge, and therefore, a lot of what he says is totally wrong.

So I’m reading this awful, backward book, because I was pretty much forced to, while looking forward to the day I can throw it out. I don’t want anyone else to be misled by it, so I can’t give it away.

Jesus called certain Pharisees and Sadducees “blind guides.” He was referring to their lack of Spirit-powered revelation. They had no idea what the scriptures meant, yet they still taught. It wasn’t their fault; no one bothers to mention that. They had no hope of understanding, without God’s help. They were no worse than we are, and in many ways, they were surely superior. Still, they were blind. Modern Christians who reject the baptism with the Spirit and the power of tongues are in the same boat. They are not even slightly better off. Well, they’re better off than Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection. But other than that, no difference at all.

Pastor Warren talks a lot about goodness and hard spiritual and intellectual work. Great. That’s not what Spirit-powered Christianity–the type practiced by Jesus and the Apostles–is about. That’s what pre-Christian belief was about. Jews and Gentile believers had to rely on their own effort, by and large. Paul referred to this kind of walk as “dung.” It was great in its day, but that day is past. Our ride is here. It’s time to open the door, get in, and turn on the AC.

Dung, dung, dung. I’ll say it again. Look it up. That’s the word used in the King James Version. I didn’t make it up to be disrespectful. See for yourself. If you have a problem with it, you have a problem with Paul and with the one who sent him. The Greek word he used means “excrement” or discarded table garbage.

Rick Warren’s approach is retrogressive. Jesus died to give us power tools, and people who fight the message and power of the Spirit haven’t picked their tools up yet. There is nothing noble or admirable about wanting to do God’s work without help. The admirable thing is to give up your pride and ask for help. Don’t be like a man who drives in circles all day because he won’t open the window and ask for directions. If you insist on doing it without help, you are proud. End of story.

What if Joshua had insisted on attacking Jericho with swords instead of marching around it, glorifying God? There would be a big pile in the desert near Jericho, with thousands of Jewish skeletons under it.

Look, you can have what Spirit-unfriendly Christians have, if you want. You can get salvation and then work your behind off trying to please God, and you can remain weak and unenlightened. Then at judgment, Jesus will discount the things you thought you were doing for him, and he will call you “lawless” and a “worker of iniquity,” and he will say he never “knew” you as a husband knows a wife. You don’t need a book to get that. You already have it, if you’ve received salvation. But what if you want to receive information directly from God? What if you want to KNOW–not just believe–that you’re getting what you pray for? What if you want to physically and emotionally feel God’s presence, not just during worship, but at random moments when you’re all by yourself? What if you want all your illnesses healed? What if you want to be able to get God to send powerful spirits and human beings to help your lost loved ones enter the kingdom? If you want those things, you’re going to need to grab the plug and insert it in the receptacle. The power doesn’t flow where there is no circuit!

God’s power truly does work like electricity. You have to give it a destination, or it doesn’t move. This is why he tells us he prunes unfruitful branches. The power is supposed to flow from us into the world, generating fruit in the lives of others. If you’re not hooked up on both ends–to God and people–you’re an open circuit. A limb with a tourniquet. What happens when you put a tourniquet around a limb? It stops feeling, it becomes paralyzed, and it eventually rots and falls off. As it is on earth, so it is in the kingdom of heaven.

I’ve read up on Pastor Warren’s efforts, and it’s not pleasant news. He teams up with New Age people and unspiritual Christians, in an “inclusive” and “seeker-friendly” theology. Was Jesus “seeker-friendly”? Was he inclusive? Did he invite Buddhists to help him preach? Of course not. He welcomed SINNERS, but only on the condition that they repented. He associated with the lost, but he did not have any interest in their “wisdom”.

I believe preachers who rely on unbelievers to help their flocks are trying to simulate God’s power and blessings. The juice isn’t flowing from God, so they get counterfeit power from secular or idolatrous sources and present it and say, “Look what God has for us. All good stuff is from God, so don’t worry that we’re listening to Dr. Phil or Mehmet Oz or Oprah or whoever.” When people aren’t blessed, they like to pretend they’re blessed, or they make excuses for God, saying he doesn’t really want to bless them (so unnecessary defeat and suffering are actually righteous and productive!). If you can’t get God to heal your flock and give them peace and help them succeed in life, get Dale Carnegie and CLAIM God sent him! No, sorry, I want what the Apostles had. Keep your dung. I’ve had plenty.

I keep trying to push my way through this book, so I can put it in the trash and say, truthfully, that I read it. But it’s very tedious. It reminds me of the lifeless churches my mother used to drag me to a hundred years ago. I have been where this message leads, and God dragged me past it, over my brilliant objections. There is no possibility that I could go back, and I don’t want other people taking this path.

There’s plenty of useful stuff in the book. You should try to determine your purpose in life. You should give. You should pray. You should return your library books on time, always floss once a day, and eat plenty of fruits and vegetables. Okay, I made that last bit up. What I’m trying to say is, the good parts are obvious to anyone who has ever opened a Bible. And they’re not valuable enough to justify drinking the rest of the brew.

What I’m presenting here is the argument that got Jesus and Stephen martyred. The ancient Jews believed they had to earn their righteousness, and Jesus came along and said they were wrong: God wanted to put us on welfare. Faith was more important than actions. Inner change would occur supernaturally, not through our effort. And we were to receive an inner Torah that superseded the animal-hide version, because it was even more alive and relevant. I would never say the written word of God is not alive, but as wonderful, as astounding, as it is, it can’t compare to having God inside you, telling you things and changing you in real time.

Christians hate this message, because they are no better than the ancient Jews. Think about it. The ancient Jews went to heaven. What? You don’t believe that? Then how did Moses and Elijah manage to appear with Jesus? What was Yom Kippur all about? Of course they went to heaven. Just like Christians. What, then, was the benefit of accepting the sacrifice of Jesus? For one thing, it enabled Gentiles to enter heaven without learning the Jewish law. For another, it paved the way for the baptism of the Holy Spirit, who had the power to make every one of us as powerful as Jesus.

Jesus said he–personally–would baptize us “with” the Holy Spirit. Look it up. He said we would get power. Look it up. I don’t make these things up.

Spirit-rejecting Christians don’t want to hear it. It sounds lazy. It sounds like we want to be spoiled, instead of working hard and proving we are worthy of God’s power and help. Well, I DO want to be spoiled. Just like Adam, before the fall. This is our natural state, when we are in God’s will. God never intended for us to be self-sufficient. How can you honestly glorify God, when you earn what you receive? If you claim you worked for it, you make God a liar.

Does it seem unfair for God to give you an inherited leg up? What about the unfairness of being pitted against billions of ancient, powerful spirits we can’t even see? Don’t you think God wants to balance that? Our enemies and their attacks come freely and in abundance. Are we, in our tiny spans and with our dim minds and weak characters, supposed to fight that on our own? Are you serious? Make me a Holy Spirit trust-fund baby, PLEASE. Doesn’t the Bible call us the “heirs” of righteousness? What do you think that means? What does an heir do to get his money? Seriously.

“Coincidentally,” I met John Bevere during the same month I was ordered to read the Warren book. John Bevere’s message is the direct opposite of Pastor Warren’s. He says it’s about GRACE, which simply means things we do not earn or deserve. He says one manifestation of grace is POWER, like the power to raise the dead. Look at the New Testament.

Who is right, Rick Warren or John Bevere? Name an Apostle who received the power to work miracles because he did lots of good stuff. Show me someone who was healed because God felt he owed it to him. On the other hand, look at Cornelius, the Roman centurion who was the first Gentile to receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit. What did he do to please God? Acts of faith. He prayed and gave alms. If you think giving to the poor is an ordinary “work,” you couldn’t be more wrong. It has much more to do with faith than human effort. When you give generously, unless you’re a fan of poverty, you have to believe God will take care of you and not let you regret it. Furthermore, godly giving is done at the urging of the Holy Spirit. If you give money to bums, without God’s urging, and they blow it on malt liquor and whores, you’ve actually sinned.

The sad thing is that I spend so much time with the backward book, I don’t have time to read John’s book, Extraordinary: The Life You’re Meant to Live. This is one reason I’m trying to get The Purpose-Driven Life behind me. My days are full. I don’t have time to do what I need to do AND read things I know are wrong.

Wow, what a glaring contrast. I just noticed it. I can have a life which is merely purpose-driven, just like the lives of ambitious unbelievers, or I can have the extraordinary life I was meant to live. I’m sure God had nothing to do with THAT juxtaposition. And Buddha is secretly Jesus, and socialism is a great idea that hasn’t been given a fair chance. And three is two, and trout live in trees.

The power message is very simple, when you boil it down. Get the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Pray in tongues three minutes a day, using a timer. Never stop. Eventually, you will find power in your life. Because three minutes of tongues will make all the difference? No. Because if you start with three minutes and you don’t stop, you’ll grow until you find yourself doing much, much more. It’s kind of a bait and switch, but I admit it up front. Jesus said he came in through the front door, not the window. Give him a little of what he really wants, and he will eventually take your whole life, but unlike Satan, who tempts you with addictive and destructive things, he won’t make you regret it.

Jesus compared the Kingdom of God to a mustard tree. It starts with a seed, and you water it, and it grows. A growing plant between two rocks will break the rocks open and push them aside. Prayer in tongues is the “living water” (look it up). This is the water with which you feed the kingdom, which is inside you (look it up), not in the world. Supply the water consistently, and the rocks that sit on top of you will crumble, and your righteousness will come forth as the light and your judgment (justice and restitution) as the noonday.

Or do it your way and be satisfied with the crumbs that fall from the table.

It works. It works. It works. A tree does not grow overnight, but it does grow.

In conclusion, I disrecommend The Purpose-Driven Life. Call me divisive; I don’t care. The ratio of harm to good is just too great for me to sit by idly and say nothing.