To Experience or Not To Experience

That is the question.

My wife wrote a wonderful document. In fact it is a book. In this book she describes the many different relationships she has had in her life, with friends, parents, teachers, work colleagues, partners.
She also explains what she enjoys and doesn't enjoy, such as foods, drinks, holidays. She also explains what kind of relationship she desires, what attitudes she enjoys and doesn't enjoy. She tells of the places she would like to visit. She also tells of the places she has already visited and how she felt when she went there.

I enjoy reading this book. It helps me to know her better. I also get to see her from time to time, we talk and laugh, have the occasional meal together. Sometimes I sing to her, which she enjoys. Every so often we are intimate with each other. These are very meaningful times because I actually get to tangibly touch her and experience the exhilaration of this intimacy and face to face communion with her. Every time is different and I can't control how it goes. What happens happens. But every time we connect like this it is amazing.

I try to keep these times to a minimal as I don't want to have excessive experience with her because I am concerned that I might head into error. I know others who have ended up becoming so obsessed with physical contact that they have ended up in adulterous relationships with multiple women, including prostitutes. So I exercise wisdom in how I meet with my wife, what those times are like, and how often we should meet. Sometimes we will be talking and then it starts to get romantic. This often makes me nervous, again due to the many errors others have found themselves wondering into. So generally when I feel the romance kicking in, I prefer to end it there and leave.
For now it's good enough that I have her book to keep our relationship going. I love reading about what an amazing person she is. Maybe if there wasn't so much error in the world I would be able to spend more quality time experiencing and encountering my wife; exploring her in ways I haven't done before.

Oh, how I wish the world had not messed this up for me. I love her so much. But my fear of the mistakes of others is keeping me from really getting to know her on a deep level. But, again, as long as I have that book, I can have a relationship with her that is satisfactory.

Obviously by now you know that I'm not speaking about my wife. But as ridiculous as this would sound with regards to our relationship with our wife, we tend to deal with our relationship with God in this way.

Because of the errors made by others we have settled rather for not having experiences/encounter with God, especially if it doesn't fit into our interpretation of scripture. As Bill Johnson says: "The Holy Spirit will never violate the Word, but He has no problem violating our interpretation of it."
A few years ago while I was still in Dubai and we were, as a church, experiencing a renewal with regards to signs, wonders, and miracles, I began to search scripture to confirm and back up what we were experiencing. I found that the entire bible was filled the testimonies of men and women who had encountered God in one way or the other. Some of those encounters were "mild" (they would be accepted in todays standards) and others were quite "radicle" (most of them would not be accepted today). One thing is for sure they were incredibly diverse in nature. Moses experienced God first through a bush that was on fire and that spoke to him.Then after that in some pretty extreme ways. Jacob encountered God is a way that left him with a physical limp. King Saul, on one occasion, had the Spirit come upon him so that he ended up stripping down and fell to the floor prophesying. David had a similar experience of taking off some of his cloths during a time of praise while bringing the Ark back to the city. Jonah was swallowed by a huge fish. John on the island of Patmos had a pretty radical encounter in seeing the glorified Lord. Cornelius had a vision of an angle. Peter was lead from prison by an angle. Paul had some serious third heaven encounters.Elijah and Elisha both struck the river with their cloak and it parted. Elijah called fire from heaven. Not to mention Daniel, Gideon, Abraham etc.

It's illegitimate to allow fear to keep us from pursuing a deeper encounter/experience with God. To embrace this fear will cause a failure to the other extreme, which is more culturally acceptable, therefore we tend not to have an issue with it.

A lack of encounters can lead to a misunderstanding of Gods word, and a lack of Gods word can lead to a misunderstanding of encounters.
I do note however, that some people have been caught up in sensations. It's all about what they "feel". Many have no grounding or understanding of the scriptures nor do they have revelation of the word; it's all about how they "feel" right now. I know that most of us have engaged with people like this, and so we might tend to pull right back, change our language, and stick to what we know is safe. But this might not be best option. We have always heard that the right response to abuse is not non-use, but correct use.

I put it this way: since there is so much abuse in bad eating habits, and people are becoming obese, the only corrective is to no longer eat any food at all. Now this will cause us over a period of time to die. The obvious response to bad eating habits is to eat good healthy food. However, when it comes to the things of the Spirit, the supernatural, and God encounters/experience, we tend to be comfortable with non-use. But as with the example earlier of the relationship between man and wife, the relationship would not be healthy at all, and will eventually die.

We were created to experience God. What that looks like is the question. But I would suggest that we need to allow God to be God, and to embrace us however He feels He wants to. The scripture says "that those of the Spirit are like the wind, you don't know where it has come from" (paraphrased).

I believe that God will give us the answers to ground us in the encounters we have with Him because He would want us to be able to teach others and bring others into similar encounters with Him. When those answers come is another thing. We need to be comfortable with not having all the answers first, before we will "allow" God to move. We need to learn to let God move in, on and with us and the church, then diligently, from a place of hunger, search out the word to ground us in what has happened.

I am amazed at the scripture the Holy Spirit brought to Peters attention on the day of Pentecost. It hardly seems sufficient to explain what was happening. In todays standards we would not accept such a scripture, and many would think it was a scripture used out of context, by Peter.
This group of people who were making a huge noise, behaving as if drunk on wine, and talking in languages that were foreign to them (although they were declaring the wonders of God. But only to those who could understand their own language. The rest were talking nonsense to them). It seems like it was a joyous and festive occasion. Peter stands up and uses the text from Joel about this being the outpouring of the Spirit that was promised.

For us reading this 2000 years later, this makes sense. We have the opportunity of knowing what Jesus told them before ascending. We know what happened in the upper room prior to the outburst into the streets. But to the hearer of Peter, this would be a bit strange. Drunk, joyful men who are speaking strange languages? That text just does not seem like the best one to use in order to give adequate backing for this behavior. Yet because it was the Spirit, these people were cut to the heart.

Similarly we have had, or watched others have, an encounter/experience with God, use a text and to us it seems out of context. Yet we have had no opportunity to see the prelude. What happened in their "upper room" experience. Why did God give them that text to confirm their encounter. We are all too quick to write it off as fringe fanatical, unbiblical, extreme, and ungodly.

The question we need to ask ourselves is: have we become comfortable and reliant on our intellectual understanding of the sacred texts, to the point that we are satisfied with our relationship with God, based on how much of His autobiography we know cerebrally.
Or are we willing to put aside fear of the fruitcake's surfacing, and abandon ourselves to a God who wants to experience us, and who wants us to experience the vastness of who He is, and His kingdom.

I know this is a subject of much conflict and many a discussion and argument. But we really need to allow ourselves to embrace the more dimensions of God, no matter how unreasonable they may seem to our 3 dimensional minds, and no matter how wild they may be, and at times how offensive they may be to our intellect.

Fear of error can lead us into error. In fact to have fear is error. We are to be people of faith.

I'm keen to explore God in the safety of His Word and Spirit, and in the safety of relationships with sound men and women.

Wake up from your stupor

1 Cor 15: 33 - 34

" Do not be deceived, bad company ruins good morals. Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame"

I have seen this scripture used out of context so many times. I believe when we look at this scripture in the context of what is actually being said it will enlighten our hearts to Gods grace.

What is the drunken stupor that he is talking about? What sinning are we to stop?

Take a look at the context of what Paul is busy addressing to the people. He is talking about believing in the raising of the dead, particularly about the raising of Jesus. There were people who were saying that there is no raising of the dead, thus challenging the very core foundation of our belief as Christians. He mentions that if Christ was not raised then we are still in our sin (condition of sin).

It is clear here that the drunken stupor and sinning that they are involved in is 'unbelief'. The very sin that caused man to stumble in the garden. Man did not believe.

He does not just throw in a verse commanding moral living to deal with behavioral patterns. The whole issue he is addressing with regards is that the are being stupid in not believing in justification through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

Quite simple really.

Blessings.

Loosing Focus on the supremacy of Jesus

There are a lot of Christians who are loosing focus on the supremacy of Christ. Other things, even things of the kingdom, are taking over the centrality of Jesus. People pursue many other things except intimacy with the Father, which we gain through Christ.

Hebrews 1

¹In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways,²but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. ³The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. ⁴So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.Christ. ⁵For to which of the angels did God ever say,

"You are my Son;
today I have become your Father"? Or again,
"I will be his Father,
and he will be my Son"? ⁶And again, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says,
"Let all God's angels worship him." ⁷In speaking of the angels he says,
"He makes his angels winds,
his servants flames of fire." ⁸But about the Son he says,
"Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever,
and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom.
⁹You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;
therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions
by anointing you with the oil of joy." ¹⁰He also says,
"In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands.
¹¹They will perish, but you remain;
they will all wear out like a garment.
¹²You will roll them up like a robe;
like a garment they will be changed.
But you remain the same,
and your years will never end." ¹³To which of the angels did God ever say,
"Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies
a footstool for your feet"? ¹⁴Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?

Here the writer of the letter is pointing out that it is not even messages from angels that are important anymore, since God has now spoken to us through His Son, Jesus. The Hebrews were very accustomed to receiving messages from angels, this was normal to them. The writer is trying to point to he fact that they need to be listening to Jesus. Granted, angels do come an assist us in ministering as seen in verse 14, but we hear God primarily by the Holy Spirit Whom He has given us. The Holy Spirit is the One Who takes from what belongs to Jesus and makes it known to us.

We must be aware that we don't find ourselves be more captivated by the helpers, that we do by the One Who sent them. We are all able to hear God's inward audible voice for ourselves. Angels come, but I believe they always point us to Jesus. God, I believe, would rather us hear the voice of His Spirit rather that Him have to get our attention through the voice of angels.

In our ministry we have seen had angles minister along side us, they have been in our meetings. One thing I have found that attracts them is when we worship the Lord and when we are preaching Jesus. Another thing I have found that they do, is point us to Jesus and then move out of the way. They will also spend more time telling of what they have seen, rather than preach the gospel or the kingdom.

Colossians 2: 18 - 19

¹⁸Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. ¹⁹He has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.

We also need to know that the devil will come as an angel of light. He also knows the scriptures very well and can quote them, but he does not like us to have a clear view of Jesus or hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. I always take note when I hear someone always saying that angels have told them things, but never hear them speak of the Holy Spirit, or Jesus is not often heard of in their message.

As we become more intimate with Jesus and with the Father, we will hear more clearly the voice of the Holy Spirit.

A sure sign that someone is loosing focus of the centrality of Jesus and slipping out of His rest is the following: Frustration, lack of grace for others, anger, strife, striving for things, fear, fear of control, fear of law, selfish living, argumentative, chasing every wind of teaching.

As Paul said:" I claim to know nothing while with you except Christ and Him crucified"

He also says: " If only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me, The task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace"

We need to keep the focus of Jesus, on His gospel. In Him is the power, in the gospel is the power. If we make every effort to enter His rest, then we will begin to see the supernatural as an automatic consequence of our rest in Him.

The gospel announced to Abraham - nations will be blessed through you!

Galatians 3:8 (New International Version)
The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: "All nations will be blessed through you."

What a strange scripture to pick up on. I have read over this many times before, but never saw it the way i did the other day.

Have a look at what it is saying. The gospel was announced in advance to Abraham, rigtht?
What does it say next? "All nations will be blessed through you" WOW.

Is it saying that a part of the gospel, the good news, is that nations will be blessed through us? It most certainly is.

The bible says: "So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith."

I would like to proclaim to you today, that a part of the gospel, is that we will be a blessing to all nations. We become the blessing. This is because of the Holy Spirit living in us. The main purpose here is not to draw towards ourselves or take anything for ourselves, but so that we can reflect Jesus, to honor God in all we do. We are a blessing to all nations by showing them who Jesus is and showing off His glory. Not so that people will be impressed with us in any way, but that they will be impressed by our Lord and saviour. We must always be pointing to Jesus.

How do we become a blessing? By not being a curse!
We counter the ways of this world, we counter the system of the ruler of this world. Where people fight against each other, we bring peace. Where people turn away from each other, we turn towards. Where people run, we stand. Where destruction comes, we bring restoration. Where sickness come, we heal. Where demons oppress, we set free. Where people steel, we give. Where there is poverty, we bring abundance. Where there is hate, we bring love.

We opperate under a different, oppossing kingdom to the one of this world. And the more aware of the kingdom we are acctually living in, the more we radiate that kingdom, and that power begins to bring the change.

Too many christians live no different from this world, we do the very things they do. This is because we do not have revelation of the gospel. When we grasp this revelation of the gospel and the power we have, then we begin to steward that correctly, and naturally bring change.

Let us mature in the gospel of grace, let uis mature into the full stature of Christ and we will see the world naturally change just through us being who we really are.

Legalistic about the signs will lead to forfeiting the presence

1 Corinthians 1:21-23 (New International Version)

²¹For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. ²²Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, ²³but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,

There has been something that I have noticed as I have spoken to people and seen on my travels around the world. It is something that is of concern to me. This scripture above has helped me to understand what it is.

There are many believers now who are becoming 'sign junkies'. They live to see the signs of God manifesting. Desiring to see signs is not the problem because signs will follow or accompany the preaching of the Gospel. The early church saw signs, and I myself have seen it many times while ministering. But desiring this signs at the expense of intimacy with Jesus and with the Father, this is a problem.

Like a drug addict these believes hang for a visual sign that pleases them, if no sign is seen the way they expect it to be seen, they leave disappointed. They run around from conference to conference, from speaker to speaker, as a drug addict would run from club to club or from dealer to dealer, looking for the next fix, that will satisfy until the craving starts again. They miss the one who can completely satisfy, Jesus.

According to the scripture above, the Jews ( religious, legalistic people ) where looking for a sign. Jesus wasn't enough for them. They were not satisfied with Him. They needed, in their religious minds, a sign to satisfy. They missed the very one, the giver of the signs. This is happening today, christians all over the world are forfeiting intimacy for a quick fix, pick me up. I have seen God move in a meeting, I have felt the weight of His glory, I have seen people change in the presence, yet many of these brothers leave unsatisfied as they did not get to see what they felt they should have seen. They missed the living God, by His Spirit, walking among us.

Lets use the Israelites as an example. They saw the plagues come upon the Egyptians, they saw the red sea open, they saw the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, they saw manna from heaven and ate of it, they drank water from a rock ( water from a rock, what and amazing thing ), yet they still did not believe in the goodness of God.

Many will say, ' signs show that we have God's favor and that we are believers, they are proof of us being christians.' I would like to point out that no where in the bible does it say that this will be the distinction between non-believers and believers. In fact Jesus says in John 13: 33 - 36

³⁴"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

We see here that it is through our love for one another, our brotherly love, that the world will recognize that we are the disciples of Jesus.

In fact, God said to Moses that He would send an angel with the Israelites. How many believers today would be over excited about that. Think about it, we would have an angel with us, manifested for us and others to see. I would want that, and many times we have had angels appear in our meetings, one in our living room while we were in Dubai. We want more of that for sure. But that is not the issue. The issue is taking that instead of something far greater. Moses responded in an amazing way. He said (and I am paraphrasing ) Unless Your presence goes with us, we will not go. WOW. Now lets remember that no one was able to look at God or they would die. So Gods presence going with them meant that no one would actually see Him. They would feel Him, and know that He was there, but they would not see Him. They could have had the angel, and spoken about it and seen it and it would have told them what God wanted them to do, but, they wanted God's presence instead.

We can learn from this. You see it is not those things that we should be captivated with. The bible says that there will be false signs and wonders, so who knows. We want the real. We are to be captivated by Jesus, lost in His presence. When this happens I believe we will become mature, stewards of the glory, and we will see healing, deliverances, signs and wonders. This will be a natural overflow, not a strive, not an imbalanced lifestyle. And the fruit of the Spirit will be evidenced in our lives.

It saddens me at times, to see people in worship of the Father and of Jesus, and the presence and glory of God is in the room, and then I look around and see people looking at their hands for specks of gold or oil. They would leave a place of worship to look for something. Who cares if we are covered in gold, oil running from our hands, feathers falling all over, gems on the floor, if we are in a place of absolute worship of the lover of our soul, the ancient of days, the great I am, why does anything else matter. All else is just a by-product.

Please note, i am all for these amazing signs. I have seen them both through others ministering and through myself ministering, so how can I deny. I also desire to see an increase of these things. But we need to be seekers of the one who gives these things. We can't be junkies for them, conference junkies, looking for a fix. We see the sign and it should point us to the one who gives them. don't be satisfied with the signs, be satisfied with the presence.

Ministry of Reconciliation

2 Corinthians 5:17-21 (New International Version)

17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

This is an amazing scripture. Not only did God reconcile us to himself but He has given us the ministry of reconciliation. Take a look at verse 19: ' And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation.' It is us who point people to Jesus who has reconciled man to God. This is why it is imperative that we are preaching the correct message, we need to be preaching the gospel. It is only by people seeing the grace (favour) of God found in Jesus that people will understand and see the truth that they have been reconciled to God and that access to Him has been opened.When law is brought upon people they are unable to see the door clearly, this does not make clear the reconciliation that has been achieved. This happens because when law is preached, the focus is taken off Jesus and placed on man, man can but only try to perform when faced with the law. The law will activate us into self-effort mode, placing man into a 'works' frenzy, which has no end except failure. But we have been given the amazing task of ministering reconciliation to man. We have the most amazing message, which is the truth, and which places peoples vision on Christ and thus opens the door to new life, a life lived with God and God in us.

Since we have such a great privilege, let us preach the truth and see people reconciled to God.

David's Tent and Beyond our walls

Hi All

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http://www.ustream.tv/channel/crossing-point