Testing the Spirits Part 2

 

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

Testing the Spirits Part 1

 

1 Timothy 4:1

Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons.

 

So, the question is, and it is a question that I have been asked many times: How can you tell the difference between what is God’s spirit or what is my desire or what is a different spirit?

 

I want to give some guidance over the next two weeks on how to decern God’s Spirit.

 

One test is how this spiritual experience affects our relationship to God, our concept of God, and our attitude toward Him.

 

Isaiah 42:8

I am the Lord; that is My name; My glory I give to no other, nor My praise to carved idols.

 

It needs to lead us to praise God as the Lord over all.

 

Revelation 4:11

Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created.

 

It needs to lead us to honor and obey God as our Creator.

 

Psalm 145:3

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable.

 

It needs to lead us to see and experience that God is great. That He is above everything else.

 

The experience has to lead us to have a closer and deeper relationship with God.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is worshiping and serving God as Creator and Lord.

 

A second test is how this spiritual experience affects my attitude toward Jesus.

 

Matthew 3:17

And behold a voice from heaven said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

 

It needs to lead us to know that Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus is God the Son, God in the flesh.

 

Acts 2:36

Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.

 

It needs to lead us to know that Jesus is the Lord and Messiah who died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin.

 

John 14:6

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

 

It needs to lead us to know Jesus as the way to heaven, the truth that leads us to salvation, the life that God created us to live, and the exclusive path to God the Father.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is knowing and experiencing Jesus for who He really is.

 

A third test is how this spiritual experience affects my attitude toward the Holy Spirit.

 

Romans 8:6

For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.

 

It needs to lead us to know and experience that the Holy Spirit brings life and peace to us.

 

Romans 8:16

The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

It needs to lead us to receive from the Holy Spirit the assurance that we are children of God.

 

Romans 8:26-27

Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And He who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing the powerful working of the Holy Spirit in our daily lives.

 

Any experience that enables you to know God more, love God more deeply, and serve God more devotedly is from God. Any experience that does not is not from God.

 

Experiencing Closeness with God by Raising the Roof

and Removing the Walls,

                                                         Joe

Things God Hates

 

God is love. God loves you. Love is the core of who God is. The thing that God loves the most is us, His human creation.

 

He hates anything that harms or damages His human creation.

 

Proverbs 6:16-19

There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to Him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.

 

There are seven things that in this passage we are told that God hates.

 

God hates haughty eyes. God hates when we exalt ourselves. God hates that because He knows that self-exaltation is pride and pride leads us away from God and not toward Him. God knows that when a person depends on self instead of God it will bring that person to failure and even destruction. God tells us to depend on Him and exalt Him, not out of Him needing us to do that but because we need to do it. Humility leads to God; haughtiness or pride leads away from God.

 

James 4:6

But He gives more grace. Therefore, it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is humbling our lives under God’s authority and exalting Him.

 

God hates a lying tongue. God hates deceit, falsehood, sham. God knows that when a person lives based on lies it will bring destruction to that person’s life.

 

Jesus says in John 14:6 that He is the Truth. Everything that Jesus says is truth and that truth brings life and freedom. Lies brings death and bondage.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living based on truth and Jesus is truth.

 

God hates hands that shed innocent blood. When we love others, we will relate to them in love, not in hatred and will not bring harm to them.

 

Mark 12:31 Jesus says that we are to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

 

Matthew 5:38-39

You have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” But I say to you, “Do not resist the one who is evil. But If anyone slaps you on the right check, turn to him the other also.”

 

Matthew 5:43-45

You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For He makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”

 

We as followers of Jesus are commanded to not retaliate but to love and pray for those who are out to harm and persecute us.  God hates when we retaliate with hatred because it doesn’t reflect who He is and turns people away from Him.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is treating others with love and respect, not hatred and harm.

 

God hates a heart that devises wicked plans. God hates it when people plan evil. This involves making plans to commit iniquity, willful sin.

 

God hates sin (missing the mark).

God hates trespasses (crossing the line).

God particularly hates iniquity (disobeying God and knowing we are disobeying God).

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is having a passionate love for God that leads to complete obedience to Him.

 

God hates feet that make haste to run to evil. God hates it when people do things that are evil because evil acts are good for nothing.

 

Galatians 5:22 tell us that goodness is a work of the Holy Spirit in our lives as followers of Jesus. Evil is the opposite of God. Evil are useless acts and good are acts that help others. God is good and wants His human creation to do good.        

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is moving to what is good and running away from that which is evil.

 

God hates a false witness who breathes out lies. Lies go against the character of God.

 

John 8:31-32

So, Jesus said to the Jews who had believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

 

Truth, because God is truth, sets us free from the bondage that lies bring.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living free by living based on truth.

 

God hates one who sows discord among brothers. Other translations read “stirs up conflict in the community”. God hates disunity among the faith community of His followers.

 

Ephesians 4:1-3

I, therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

 

God wants His people in unity.

Living in humility

Living in gentleness

Living in patience

Bearing with each other in love

Desiring to keeping the bond of peace in the Holy Spirit

 

We are to live in unity, not uniformity.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living in unity with our brothers and sisters in Jesus.

We are to love what God loves and hate what God hates.

 

Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls with God,

Joe

It is All About God Not Us

 

I am not a very political person. In fact, I don’t like politics. I studied government in college and am amazed at the wisdom that is evident in the way our nation’s government was put together. But I am not political. I am very thankful that God calls men and women to serve in elected offices and am thankful that we have the opportunity to vote.

 

With all that said, God really spoke to me on Monday morning as I read Isaiah 33. God brought two verses to my attention. These verses will not speak to a person who does not have at least a belief in God, but for a follower of Jesus they need to be huge.

 

I believe that the Bible is the word of God. I believe it is, as Hebrews 4:12 says, living and active, meaning it speaks to all time periods. So Isaiah was writing the book of Isaiah to the Jews; God was writing it to the world. 

 

The first is Isaiah 33:5. It says, “The Lord is exalted, for He dwells on high; He will fill Zion with justice and righteousness, and He will be the stability of your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is Zion’s treasure.”

 

Four things the Holy Spirit showed me in this verse:

 

God will be the one to bring justice and righteousness.

 

Wanting our nation to be a nation of righteousness and justice is a good thing and the desire itself comes from God.

 

The problem is our nation is looking to man and man-made things to bring righteousness and justice. It is impossible for fallen humanity to fashion anything that is not fallen outside of God. So, we need to go to God’s word to see how God would have us as a nation establish true righteousness and justice.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is asking God to establish righteousness and justice.

 

God will be the one to bring stability to our nation.

 

God is immutable. That means that God does not change. What is right is right now and always and what is wrong is wrong now and always. He does not move right and wrong, good and bad, or truth and falsehood around. God does not manipulate things to suit Himself or to prove Himself right. God is truth and what He speaks is truth and it does not change. Because God and the things of God don’t change, we can build on them and they will not collapse on us.

 

Everything other than God will change and, when they do, then we have lost our stability.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is having God as our foundation.

 

God will be the one to bring salvation, wisdom, and knowledge.

 

This COVID-19 thing has shown us that whatever opinion a person has, they can find on social media a verification of that opinion. One of the real frustrations most of us have faced in dealing with it is in knowing what is real and what is not.

 

This verse says God brings salvation, so He is our savior. God as my savior means He’s got it and I don’t have to worry or fear. It doesn’t give the license to do stupid risky things or to ignore others concerns. It does give me confidence and assurance.

 

This verse says God brings wisdom. I have not been impressed with our wisdom as human in dealing with the virus or the divide in our nation. God’s wisdom is needed to deal with each in a healthy and productive way.

 

God’s wisdom according to James 3:17 is pure, peaceable (we are really lacking this aspect), gentle, open to reason, full of mercy, produces good fruit, impartial, and sincere. We need this kind of wisdom.

 

This verse says God brings knowledge. We need knowledge. We don’t just need intellectual knowledge, we need spiritual knowledge. We need the mind of Christ to guide us through the issues we are facing in our nation.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is trusting God for salvation, wisdom, and knowledge.

 

A holy awe or holy respect of God is to be our treasure.

 

Luke 12:34 says, “For where your treasure is, there will be your heart also.”

What I treasure, what I value above everything is where my heart, the focus of my life will be.

 

If my treasure is anything attached to this world, that is where my focus will be. If my treasure is God and the things connected with God, then my focus will be God.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is making God my treasure so my heart will be focused on Him.

 

The truth of verse 5 will establish in our lives when God becomes what Isaiah says He is in verse 22.

 

Isaiah 33:22

For the Lord is our judge; the Lord is our lawgiver; the Lord is our king; He will save us.

 

God is the Judge and as Judge He determines what is righteous.

God is the Lawgiver and as Lawgiver He determines how we are to live out righteousness.

God is the King and as King He empowers us to be and live out righteousness daily.

 

God as Judge, Lawgiver, and King provides justice, righteousness, stability, salvation, wisdom, and knowledge. We are not to look to humans to provide these because humans cannot. Only God can provide these things for us personally, for our nation, and for the world.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is trusting God as our Judge, our Lawgiver, and our King.

 

With God as our Judge, Lawgiver, and King, Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

Joe

Jesus and His Followers

 

When I was eighteen years old, I met four people who loved Jesus and were excited about following Him with their whole lives. That created in me a desire to really experience Jesus daily in my own life. I was a believer; I had given my life to Jesus when I was twelve. But my desire to be a real follower of Jesus had become weak at best. It was through what I saw in these four people’s lives that I came to love Jesus and want to be His follower and His disciple more than anything.

 

Jesus became the one I looked to for my life to be like. I wanted my life to reflect Jesus. So, I looked deeply into Jesus to determine how I was to live.

 

These are things I found:

 

Philippians 2:6-8

Who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

 

Jesus gave up His position.

Jesus gave up His rights.

Jesus gave up His privilege.

 

Jesus made Himself nothing.

Jesus became a servant.

Jesus humbled Himself.

 

So, if Jesus gave up His position and rights and privileges, shouldn’t we as Jesus’ followers give up our human-based position and our human-based rights and our human-based privileges?

 

So, if Jesus made Himself nothing and became a servant and humbled Himself, shouldn’t we as followers of Jesus make ourselves nothing, become servants and humble ourselves?

 

As followers of Jesus we have to stop focusing on our positions, our rights, our privileges and focus on making ourselves nothing, becoming servants, and humbling ourselves.

 

We live in a world that is focused on being entitled. Followers of Jesus need to disentitle ourselves and serve others in the name of Jesus.

 

In Mark 10:45 Jesus says, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”

 

Jesus came to be a servant and served others even to the point of dying for us.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is, like Jesus, humbling ourselves before the Father, giving up our rights and privileges, and becoming servants.

 

Luke 5:29

And Levi made Him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them.

 

Jesus ate with sinners

 

John 13:3-5

Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside His outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around His waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with a towel that was wrapped around Him.

 

Jesus washed the feet of the disciples.

 

Jesus did not mold His life to the values of the world or religion.

 

Jesus ate with sinners and earned the title Friend of sinners. This action went against what the religious leaders said to do. They taught people to avoid sinners. Jesus connected with them.

 

Jesus as the teacher or master had no responsibility to do anything as demeaning as washing His disciples’ feet but He did out of love for them.

 

We as followers of Jesus need to follow the values that we see in the life of Jesus, not the world or of religion. 

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is following the values of Jesus and not the world or even of religion.

 

John 6:15

Perceiving then that they were about to come and take Him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

 

Jesus denied the desire of the people to make Him king.

 

Luke 23:34

And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

 

Jesus died for all people, even if they had rejected Him.

 

Jesus did not give in to the temptation to focus on the popularity of the world and chose to follow the Father’s will by giving His life as the sacrifice for sin for all people.

 

We as followers of Jesus are not to focus and desire the praise of the world, but to follow the will and mission of the Father.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is rejecting the desires of the world and doing the will of the Father.

 

As followers of Jesus we are to allow the Holy Spirit to conform us to the image of Jesus and live our lives following Jesus.

 

As a Follower and Disciple of Jesus Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls

                                                            Joe

The Present Riseness of Jesus

 

The resurrection of Jesus is the greatest miracle in history. It is the central event in Christianity. The early Christians were not persecuted for proclaiming Jesus’ birth or His life, but for proclaiming His resurrection from the dead. If Jesus’ resurrection is not real then Christianity is a lie and our faith in Jesus is worthless.

 

All four Gospels record Jesus’ resurrection.

 

Matthew 28:6

He is not here, for He has risen, as He said. Come, see the place where He lay.

 

Mark 16:6

And he said them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; He is not here. See the place where they laid him.”

 

Luke 24:6

He is not here, but has risen. Remember how He told you, while He was still in Galilee.

 

Notice three things:

Jesus had risen, He was alive.

The place where Jesus lay in the tomb was empty, resurrection was bodily.

Jesus had told them before His resurrection that he would die and come back to life.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is believing that Jesus bodily rose from the dead and that He is alive today.

 

So, let me introduce you to a term that I have just came know. The term is “present riseness”. It means that Jesus’ resurrection is to be an everyday reality in our lives. Jesus’ resurrection is not just a historical fact, it is a present reality.

 

So, what does it mean to live in the present riseness of Jesus?

 

It means living with Jesus’ presence in our lives in daily living.

 

Galatians 2:20

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And this life I live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

 

It is knowing that through the Holy Spirit Jesus is living His life in and through me.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living knowing the presence of Jesus in us every day.

 

It means knowing that what I face, I face with Jesus living in me.

 

Jesus tells us in John 16:33 that while we live this life, we will face troubles. He also tells us that we can have peace in the midst of these troubles because He has overcome the world and thus it troubles.

 

As you and I live in the midst of this Covid situation, we have new and different troubles than we have ever had before. But because of the fact of Jesus’ present riseness, we can know peace in the midst of chaos.

 

Rise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing the peace of Jesus in a confusing and chaotic world.

 

It means I can live in complete trust in Jesus because He is always with me and He is all-powerful.

 

In Matthew 19:23-24 Jesus tells His disciples that it is difficult for a rich person to get into heaven and that it is actually easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.

 

The response of the disciples is to ask who then can be saved.

 

Jesus then responds in Matthew 19:26, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

 

God is all-powerful so what can overpower us or overwhelm us cannot overpower or overwhelm Him. When I live in the present riseness of Jesus I know that whatever comes against me, God is bigger than it.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is trusting Jesus with everything in our lives.

 

It means that I am never alone.

 

In Hebrews 13:5 we are promised that Jesus will never leave us or forsake us.

 

Jesus will not abandon me.

Jesus will not ignore me.

Jesus will not forget me.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living with the total assurance that God is with me no matter what.

 

May you and I live every day with the present riseness of Jesus filling our lives. May you and I experience the fullness of God’s presence, power, love, and grace daily.

 

In the Present Riseness of Jesus Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls

                                                     Joe

Success is Obeying God

 

What is success? I have asked myself that question for forty-five years. Is it numbers of people, is it numbers of baptisms, is it the number of compliments?

 

Listen to John 14:15, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”

 

Success to Jesus is obeying God.

 

There were great people of faith in scripture who would not be considered successful in today’s church culture.

 

Jeremiah who preached for about forty years saw little or no success as far as people who changed because of his preaching.

 

Noah is called a preacher of righteousness in 2 Peter 2:5. No one responded to his preaching and only his family was saved.

 

Most of the Old Testament prophets were not listened to, rejected, and even persecuted.

 

So, were they successful? Yes, because they obeyed God.

 

In Ezekiel 3, God gives Ezekiel an unusual command.

 

Ezekiel 3:4-7

And He said to me, “Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with My words to them. For you are not sent to a people of foreign speech and a hard language, but to the house of Israel – not to many peoples of foreign speech and a hard language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely, if I sent you to such, they would listen to you. But the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, for they are willing to listen to Me; because all the house of Israel have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart.”

 

God tells Ezekiel to take His word to the people of Israel, God’s chosen and beloved people. Then God tells Ezekiel that the people of Israel will not listen to what Ezekiel has to say because they will not listen to Him. The people of Israel have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart.

 

God calls Ezekiel to be a prophet to His exiled people and then tells him that the people will not listen to him.

 

Then why bother? Then send me somewhere else! That is what I would have been saying to God. It would be like God telling me to go pastor a church and that the church will not listen to what I preach or follow my leadership.

 

What we see in the rest of the book of Ezekiel is that God was right and the people ignored what Ezekiel proclaimed to them.

 

What does this truth in Ezekiel teach us?

 

That God isn’t interested in His followers trying to produce results, He is interested in His followers being obedient and faithful to do what God tells them to do.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about faithfully obeying God.

 

Now, God hasn’t told us that all the people we proclaim the gospel to will not listen and reject it. But we know experientially that most people won’t believe. As we watch our nation move farther and farther away from God, we know to two things; God has called us to proclaim the gospel in word and in service, and salvation belong to God and to Him alone.

 

That means that as I obey God to faithfully proclaim and live out the gospel, I am successful regardless of the response of people.

 

Now, in verse 8 God does something extraordinary in Ezekiel.

 

Ezekiel 3:8-9

Behold, I have made your face as hard as their faces, and your forehead as hard as their forehead. Like emery harder than flint have I made your forehead. Fear them not, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house.

 

God did not violate the free will of His people by forcing them to listen and accept His word but He gave Ezekiel a godly determination in continuing to share His word with the people of Israel. He gave Ezekiel a forehead like flint.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is allowing God to place within us a persevering spirit.

 

There are have been many times in my life when I have felt like a failure because people were not responding to my teaching or that my church was not as large another church or that people thought another pastor was a better preacher than me. I have even thought about quitting because I didn’t feel or see myself as being successful.

 

But as I grow older and hopefully wiser, God has shown me that success is obeying God by doing what He says and doing it when He says and doing it the way He says to do it.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is obeying God.

 

Obediently Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                       Joe