We
will continue to examine how to test or try the spirits. We will look at how to
know if the spiritual experience we have gone through is from God or not.
How
does the experience affect our view of God’s Word, the Bible?
Does
the experience lead you to believe what 2 Peter 1:20-21 says, “Knowing this
first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own
interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men
spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”
Does
the experience enable you to believe more fully in the infallibility of the
Bible? Does it enable you to see the Bible as God’s Word?
Does
the spiritual experience enable you to more fully believe what 2 Timothy 3:16
says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for
reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness”? Does it enable you to
believe that the Bible is God-inspired, not man and is for helping us to know
how to really believe and follow Jesus?
We
have to take the view that anything that originates outside the Bible is
suspect until it can be confirmed in the Bible.
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is accepting the Bible as the authority of our
lives and living based on that authority.
How
does the experience affect how we view ourselves?
In
Romans 3:23 we are told all people have sinned and come short of the standard
of God. Then Romans 3:24 tells us we can be justified or forgiven of our sin
and failure by grace as a gift from God. We are born with a nature or desire to
sin but, by God’s gift of grace, we can be changed. Does this spiritual
experience enable us to believe that?
After
we have experienced salvation by God’s grace, does this spiritual experience
lead us to see ourselves as righteous, holy, children of God; who God loves
unconditionally? If it does, this experience is from God and that is where it
will lead. If it is not from God, it will lead us to see ourselves as still in
our sin and worthless people.
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is accepting what the Bible says about us and
letting God change us or living in the reality of the change God has already
made in our lives.
How
does this experience affect how I view fellow believers?
If
this spiritual experience is from God it will lead us to love our fellow
believers more deeply.
1
John 4:8-9 says, “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is
love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His
only Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
If
this spiritual experience is from God it will lead us to not isolate ourselves
from other believers but desire more fellowship with them.
Hebrews
10:25
Not
neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one
another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
God
wants His children to love each other and do life together as a faith family.
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is loving our fellow believers and living in
unity with them.
Not
all spiritual experiences come from God. We need to know how to judge the ones
that are and the ones that are not.
Knowing and
Experiencing God by Raising the Roof
and Removing the Walls,
Joe
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