Of late I have really begun to see a major problem that is not being addressed in the Messy/HR community and in the church as a whole. We have so many that jump out there as teachers because they think they have gained all of this knowledge and that is just what they are supposed to do. Now the problem is one that may seem relatively simplistic as a problem, but it is a two fold issue to correct it. Education and wisdom being the main things that are in need of correction.
Let’s talk about the mindset associated with the problem. Now I will start with a little about myself I have been in ministry for over 30yrs and have seen and experienced much in that time. Part of what I have seen is people ministering have hurt people with thor actions and how they have ministered ad taught things. Now I will say this we as teachers and minster have a responsibility that is not really talked about, which is this; we are responsibl for not only the words we speak but also in the way we speak those words. As a teacher Im responsible for my students and im also responsible to some extent to how my students understand what i teach. We see this in our public school as well, this is partially why we give standardized test each year. At some point there are reviews of those test scores with the idea of seeing how well the teachers are doing their jobs. The problem is that the test given when it comes to teaching the bible are nor some written test, but are infact how the student interact with others that they share and teach the information too. Many that have begun to teach in the last several yrs, minister and teach out of a spirit that is hurt or injured by their past within the church. So when some one teaches out of that place the hurt and ijury are transferred to the students in which there are main responses to the hurt. one , they will reject outright what is being taught, no matter how much truth is there. I will also begine to alienate the teacher from the student, causing the student to walk away and thus removing the studen t from the place where they can be taught. In the public school setting we see this as students quitting school and not completing their education.
Here is the main problem. The love of Messiah is very rarely found in the Messy/HR movements anymore. We have apparently forgotten from where we came and we don't afford the same grace that we were given to the people that we say we are trying to reach. What we end up doing is alienating ourselves with those people and we in many cases turn them off from hearing what God/Yah is trying to do in their lives. Just for the record we will be judged for how we have handled/treated these people that are His children too. I have been in this way for 20+yrs now and I have seen and experienced much in that time. Some things have been amazing and others not so much. I have gotten the chance to meet and get to know some really awesome people along the way. Many that I genuinely love and respect. That said, some of the things that I have experienced are extremely troubling, and I bring them up because I know that I'm not alone in these experiences. Being blocked, ostracized, or called names because I differ on understanding about the pronunciation of YHWH/YHVH, the calendar, how to celebrate the feast days, or even when the sabbath is supposed to be. I'm sorry but I don't find any command in the scriptures that says to ostracize anyone because they disagree with you. Now there is a process laid out in Matthew 18 for dealing with things that are sin. I will not go down that rabbit trail here. The main reason that I have seen in all of these experiences is that the love and compassion of our Messiah was forgotten and pride and puffed up knowledge and hurt were allowed to be the ruling factor in each interaction. Now just for the record I'm sure I have been guilty of these things in the past, and may also do so in the future, as I am just a man and as such I make mistakes too. You are the representative of YHWH and very well maybe the only Y'shua some may ever see or hear and you have the audacity to act like that towards His children. It is time we allow Him control over our lives like never before, "for I am crucified with Messiah, it is no longer I that lives but Him that lives through me" Gal 2:20.
We must, must give ourselves over to Him, like we said we did when we "got saved" unless you were lying, in order for other to truly see Him and experience His power and glory in their lives and situations.
He must be allowed so much control of our lives that He is in control of our mouths, our actions, and heaven forbid He have control of our finances. We need to allow Him to infect us like a virus that takes over the body and its functions. We must cease to look and act like ourselves, so that when others look they only see Y'shua.
Messiah Virus allow it to consume you and become contagious like never before!!!!
BTW your religious mask wont work for this virus it will go right through it. That said we have to dig down and return to our first love as we were warned to do in Rev. 2.
Revelation 2:1-7 WEB
“To the angel of the assembly in Ephesus write: “He who holds the seven stars in his right hand, he who walks among the seven golden lamp stands says these things: “I know your works, and your toil and perseverance, and that you can’t tolerate evil men, and have tested those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and found them false. You have perseverance and have endured for my name’s sake, and have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the first works; or else I am coming to you swiftly, and will move your lamp stand out of its place, unless you repent. But this you have, that you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of my God.
So we see our Messiah telling us that He sees the things we are doing and He likes that we are staying studious in His Word, that we are identifying false prophets and teachers. Yet He has something against us that if we don't correct He will come in and remove the Light from us. That is a return to our first love. Him and the compassion and Love that He shared with us. He gave instructions for us to follow. The 10 commandments are divided into two sections the first tells us how we're to treat and interact with our Creator. The second section tells us how to treat and interact with our fellow man. Then Messiah speaks to us again in John about how we are to act towards one another.
John 13:34-35 WEB
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
So where is the love that we are supposed to be demonstrating towards one another at? Why are we so full of animosity towards other believers? Why are we pushing people away with our idea of evangelism? Why are we not seeing lives changed the way the original apostles did? BECAUSE WE HAVE LEFT OUR FIRST LOVE AND WE NEED TO GET BACK TO HIM. Instead we have embraced the love of knowledge over the love of the Messiah. When we fully embrace Messiah it will change us and cause the way we do things to change. It will cause our evangelistic processes to change. It will cause us to become viral in our outreach and it will change lives. But that can't happen until we understand His love.
1 Corinthians 13:1-10 WEB
If I speak with the languages of men and of angels, but don’t have love, I have become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but don’t have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but don’t have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient and is kind. Love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud, doesn’t behave itself inappropriately, doesn’t seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil; doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will be done away with. Where there are various languages, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will be done away with. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when that which is complete has come, then that which is partial will be done away with.
Love doesn't block people because they disagree. Love doesn't call people names. Love doesn't accuse people of things. Love doesn't judge people either. Love doesn't act the way many in the MESSY/HR movements, or the church have been acting towards others. Now just for the record I'm not passing judgement. I am merely trying to point out a problem that exists and hope that those that need to hear this make the correction in their lives. None of us want to see anyone hear “depart from me” and that is what motivates us in our teachings and outreach. So why would we want to become as sounding brass, or clanging cymbals to thos that need to hear? All of this can be corrected by simply returning to our first love, Messiah and loving others as He loved us. Are you showing HIS love? Are you showing love one to another as Messiah commanded his followers to do? I had a interaction this weekend with someone that jumped on a person's post and began to berate ( read teach, from their point of view) the post writer on a point that was no way associated with the point of the post. So what follows is our brief interaction.
My first response to them:
"the problem is that the way you are approaching this is causing you to alienate yourself so that no one will want to hear anything whether it be right, wrong or indifferent. If you feel you are presenting truth then do it in love, because that is the litmus test as to if you are His disciple or not"
Their reply:
"2 Corinthians 3:12 ►
Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are👉very bold."
My last reply:
"Being very bold does 👉NOT👈 relieve you from doing it in love and tactfully. The scripture says that we will be known as His by our love one for another. Being bold does NOT mean beating folks over the head, or hijacking a post with a different discussion from the OP. That by the very act makes you look like a Torah Terrorist, Bible Thumper or whatever nomenclature you wish to use. I urge you to take a step back and allow the Ruach to lead you in how you are to share the truth in love. Unfortunately the biggest problem with sharing the truth of scripture is that many without realizing begin to beat others over the head with the truth they have found. Taking no measure if the person is even in a place to hear then. We are not all in the same place and for the most part never will be.
I learned long ago that there are three things you can do to a person.
1 You can help them.
2 You can hurt them. (this can be done all the while you think you are helping them)
3 You can leave them alone.
Wisdom and the Ruach will dictate which action you should use for each person."
Now the very same weekend two FB friends posted very similar messages on the same subject. Coincidence???? I dont think so I strongly believe this is what the Ruach/Spirit is saying in this hour. Hey the harvest is ready but instead of going out and reaping the harvest you are walking through the fields swinging your stick beating the harvest off of the stalk. This is causing damage to the Kingdom and its harvest.
Pastor Michael Smith stated
"I’ve never seen anybody get baptized, because I won a biblical argument with them.
I’ve never seen someone filled with the Holy Spirit, because I won a biblical argument with them.
I have never seen a person life transformed, because I won a argument with them.
Just because we think we can win an argument, doesn’t mean we can win a soul.
Just because we think we can win an argument in life, does that mean we can change a heart.
Repentance which in the original Greek means to change the way one thinks, may not be a simple act or done in a single moment.
Repentance or changing the way one thinks may be done and accomplished over a period of time.
Many times I think it is done as people see the fruits of the spirit lived out in believers lives and over time people have a change of mindset about God and his goodness.
Sometimes the best way to preach the gospel is to live the gospel.
Sometimes the best way to change lives, is to allow them to see changed lives."
“Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness is intended to lead you to repentance” ~ Roman 2:4
M Abraham Johnson stated
"You can memorize every end time prophecy and still hear; Depart from Me, I never knew you.
You can learn every pictograph paleo Hebrew letter so as to find every secret code and still hear; Depart from Me, I never knew you.
You could learn the best Hebnglish and make sure you never udder a word that sounds pagan and still hear; Depart from Me, I never knew you.
You could keep the Sabbath and Feasts perfectly as the Messiah did and still hear; Depart from Me, I never knew you.
You could know the Torah so completely that you can refute any contrary argument and still hear; Depart from Me, I never knew you.
You could build a time machine that would take you back to the burning bush so you can hear exactly how His Name is pronounced and still hear; Depart from Me, I never knew you.
You could memorize every secret Bible code, discover definitive proof of the shape of the earth, find every lost fragment of scripture in antiquity, get the calendar perfect, cast out every demon, heal every sick person, and anything else you think might make you more righteous and still hear; Depart from Me, I never knew you.”
What are we to do? First we need to get back to our first love. We have lost the very compassion that stretched out his hand and pulled us from the mire. Why would we not want to extend that same compassion to those still stuck in the mire. We need to understand that Y'shua/Jesus said that we would known as His disciple's by the love that we show one for another. Yet the world looks at us and sees the infighting, the name calling, the arrogance in which we speak to one another, the absolute lack of respect towards one another and that is absolutely contrary to the love as defined in scripture.
1 Corinthians 13:1-8 WEB
"If I speak with the languages of men and of angels, but don’t have love, I have become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but don’t have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but don’t have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient and is kind. Love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud, doesn’t behave itself inappropriately, doesn’t seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil; doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will be done away with. Where there are various languages, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will be done away with."
Verse 7&8 seems to me to be saying that at some point in time, yet to come to pass, that prophecies, languages and even knowledge will all pass away but LOVE will not because it never fails and will endure all things.
When will we understand that we need His love to be paramount in our lives. We need to display that same love that He shows us, to others no matter how they treat us. No where in scripture does it say that we can be rude or mean to anyone ever. Even the people in scripture that did things wrong and were facing judgement were not treated rudely or mean. There was still a level of respect showed to them.
What we have done today is create animosity between believers through man made doctrines and based on what knowledge you have vs what they have obtained. We are building churches instead of building one Kingdom.
We must return to our first love before it is too late. Are you His? If you are, then you will let His love show forth through you to others. I dont know about you but I’m tired of people arguing and belittling others for believing differently. Did you pop out of your mother's womb believing exactly what you believe today? No? Then maybe you should extend some grace for the learning curve and get off your self-righteous high horse.
The spirit of the Most High does not motivate or convict someone by beating them down verbally. So who do you think you are to do so? ........No, I'll wait for your answer....... What no excuse? Then stop bringing shame to the Most High with your mouth and actions.
Repent and return to your first love
Comments