Tune In

One of the wonderful things about being connected to the Holy Spirit is that he constantly confirms his presence. One way he does this is by revealing the same thing to different believers, independently.

Last night I was watching Perry Stone with Marvin, and he talked about the items found in the Holy of Holies in the temple in Jerusalem. One such item is a huge seven-branched menorah.

A long, long time ago–maybe twenty years–it occurred to me that the menorah represented the post-resurrection baptism of the Holy Spirit, which is available to all believers. In the Bible, olive oil often represents the Holy Spirit. The Bible says there are seven Spirits of God. Light represents illumination, and the Holy Spirit illuminates, explaining things to believers from within them.

Perry Stone confirmed this in the DVD! He said the menorah represented the Holy Spirit, and he mentioned the seven spirits. That was neat. I’ve never heard any other Christian say those things, but God said them to me during the Reagan years.

He added some other interesting information. Jewish accounts tell us that God used to communicate with the Jews in the Holy of Holies, through the menorah and the 12-stoned costume the priests wore. Hebrew letters on the costume would light up, and so on. The Old Testament is full of symbols of things that came to pass in the New Testament. It makes sense to say that the communications the priests received are like the things the Holy Spirit tells Spirit-filled believers by supernatural means.

Yesterday a commenter mentioned the practice of asking the Holy Spirit for guidance. We should do this dozens of times every day. It actually works. For example, some believers think there is a spiritual gift of “discernment” which helps them tell whether a teaching comes from God or elsewhere. I think that’s probably a little off; Robert Morris says there is no gift called “discernment,” but that there is a gift called “discerning of spirits,” which means the ability to detect the presence of spirits with your ordinary senses. I’ve experienced that at least twice, including the time I got a good long look at a spirit on the wall of my house. I think what some people call “discernment” is actually either the word of knowledge or the word of wisdom.

The word of knowledge means God tells you a fact you could not have learned through natural means. Example: Jesus tells the woman at the well she has had five husbands. The word of wisdom means God gives you supernatural understanding, more or less. I think everyone knows what “wisdom” means.

It makes sense that a doctrine denying true discernment of spirits would arise. Ordinarily, evil spirits are invisible. Surely they like it that way. It would be odd if they didn’t fight the notion that they could be exposed. Also, people like to make excuses for God when the things he promises don’t seem to be materializing. If God says we’ll be able to see spirits, and then we don’t see them, it’s human nature to decide he said something else. But I’ve seen them, so it doesn’t trouble me to say this gift exists.

Robert Morris also says every believer can exercise each of the nine spiritual gifts, and that it’s a mistake to get the idea that you only get a certain number of them. I suppose that’s right. Like he says, you wouldn’t want a situation where a believer needs a certain kind of help and can’t get it because another believer with the needed gift has wandered off somewhere.

Anyway, a Spirit-filled believer can ask for guidance and receive it in a hurry.

God reveals the same things to different believers at different times and in different places, and one good conclusion to take away from that is that you should be humble when the Spirit works through you. If God tells you something, it’s not because you’re wonderful or because he needs your help. It’s because he’s wonderful and you need HIS help. God can reveal his mysteries to a chair or a rock if he feels like it. If he tells you something, you have nothing to be proud of. It’s no reflection on your or your brilliance or your super righteousness.

It’s natural to feel important when God works through you, and it’s natural to admire people through whom God works. But “natural” is bad. We’re not supposed to be natural. Apes are natural. Like Rose Sayer said in The African Queen, “Nature, Mr. Allnut, is what we were put in this world to rise above.”

Pride is a tough thing to fight, because it’s so sneaky. It takes so many shapes, it’s not always easy to spot. I think many of us are going to get humbling lessons at judgment, when we find out how little we earned, after lifetimes of doing impressive things via God’s power. It’s impossible to know who is really making God happy, or whom he will reward. I think many of the people at the top of the list will be nobodies who barely got noticed at their churches. I don’t think the list of notables will be heavy with mega-church pastors and TV preachers.

God told me some stuff. He told other people the same stuff. I didn’t deserve it, and it wasn’t my stuff. It didn’t come from my mind. It was all handouts and alms. I try to remember that I am a welfare case.

Today I was working on my latest psalm, which is number 32. I thought I understood it pretty well when I chose it, but now I see that I was wrong. It’s largely about the necessity of being honest with God. People complain that their prayers aren’t answered, when they’re holding onto worldliness and sin and rationalizing what they do. If you want God to do what you ask, you should confess everything you can think of (in addition to making sure you’re not asking for stupid things like a pony or a closetful of Jimmy Choos). Paul made it clear that holding onto sin and iniquity (the inclination to sin) could result in the destruction of the flesh. You can become very miserable and physically sick from it; this is why communion, with real confession and repentance, are important. It’s why you have to forgive.

The fifteenth psalm says you have to speak the truth in your heart if you want God to give you a victorious life.

This is important to me because I know a couple of people who have terrible problems and who need to forgive and repent, yet who are pretty far from the turning point. I’m trying to be honest with God in my own life, for fear of earthly misery. It happens. It’s not a joke. This stuff is like pus inside a wound that has only healed on the surface. It will break out over and over. You have to debride the wound and get the garbage out.

Now that I think about it, this was the main subject of Perry Stone’s DVD. He was talking about the things Christians do that give Satan legal access to their bodies, minds, and spirits. He’s right. Running around claiming your rights won’t work, if you’re still rebelling. The notion that faith, all by itself, will keep you safe is not correct. If it were, you wouldn’t have much incentive to keep growing and improving.

We’ve promoted a lot of dumb “name it and claim it” ideas that put our desires above Matthew 6.33. Above God’s desires. “Believe for” a Bentley all you want. You only get what God thinks you should have.