From Psalm 119 - He

"Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes, and I shall observe it to the end. . . . . . Give me understanding, that I may observe Your law, and keep it with all my heart. . . . . . Make me walk in the path of Your commandments, for I delight in it. . . . . . Incline my heart to Your testimonies, and not to dishonest gain. . . . . . Turn away my eyes from looking at vanity, and revive me to Your ways. . . . . . Establish Your word to Your servant, as that which produces reverence for You. . . . . . Turn away my reproach which I dread, for Your ordinances are good. . . . . . Behold, I long for Your precepts, revive me through Your righteousness."

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God spoke to mankind in various ways prior to the time of Moses. His Word was being made known, not in writing, but through His speaking to man either in dreams, or visions, or in an audible voice. God provided man with a variety of physical signs that gave witness about Himself, and what His plan for redemption was, and how mankind should live their lives. Examples of these are God's establishment of a blood sacrafice, the order of nature, and the arraignment and movement of the stars. To go along with this there was an oral tradition that taught the meanings and types. The Holy Spirit could not dwell in the heart of man, but He could speak to the soul through these things to give wisdom and insight to be able to understand the physical signs. The spoken tradition began with Adam, who talked with God and who lived over 900 years, and carried on through the righteous line of Seth, with others such as Enoch adding to the treasury of wisdom. It continued to Noah. Although Noah did not know Adam, his father very well could have, as Noah's father Lamech was 66 years old when Adam died. Noah and his family went through the flood, and the new world began with them, and the teachings and traditions continued. However, most of mankind again turned away from God, and with that the meanings and interpretations of the signs and the oral traditions became corrupted. The message of salvation as laid out in the stars took on occultic meanings, sacrifices were made to demon gods, and nature instead of the Creator was worshipped.

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There remained some in every generation who sought after the Creator, and who passed on what survived of the truths in the oral traditions. There were some in every generation who heard directly from God. And so, God spoke to Abram, and made a covenant with him. His descendants, 70 in number, went to Egypt and grew to become a people of over 2 million. Moses led them out of Egypt, where they spent 40 years in the wilderness. It was in the wilderness that God wrote the 10 commandments on stone, and where He spoke to Moses for many days on the top of a mountain, giving him directions for the tabernacle, and instructions for offerings and sacrifices. It was in the wilderness that Moses wrote the first 5 books of scripture, containing in them the law and traditions that they were to follow. The writings of Moses were directed and inspired by the Holy Spirit. Just as every sign and type and oral tradition spoke in some way of the Son, so does every chapter of Moses written word. The Word of God was now in writing. Over the years it became lost and forgotten, and when it was found and read, the people wept. They cried in joy for it being found, and in anguish for what they had missed.

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Why does it seem to be a foreign concept that the path to the best possible life is to study the Word in order to find out what the will of God is? Think about it. God loves us and wants the best for us. He knows that we live in a fallen world and that we are easily deceived, not only by the evil one, but by our own desires. He as given us a written word so that we may find the true way designed by Him for our lives. There is reason and purpose for the religious practices contained in scripture, but it was not written to be used by the soul as a means for religious practice. Instead, it has as a companion the Holy Spirit, who will reveal the depths of scripture and it's meaning for every part of our lives. When we do so, our study of the Word leads us to a closer relationship with the Author. When I became a Christian and was filled with the Holy Spirit, I had a great hunger to read scripture. That hunger was not because I wanted to gain head knowledge, but because I needed more of God in my life. The more we come to know God, the bigger He becomes. I wish everyone could experience the excitement I've had when the Spirit reveals a part of God's plan and design, or the peace He has given me when He has lead me to a passage, and in it is confirmed His love for me. There have been times when I read a passage and said, 'all right God, you do know best'. In the Word we will discover the true nature of the Awesome God, and begin to appreciate His power and might, His holiness and majesty, His love and patience. We will also discover that rebellion results in corruption and sickness, lying and murder, lust and hate, fear and bondage. When the desire of our heart is to trust God, and when we decide to be obedient to His will as revealed by the Spirit in our reading of the Word, the result is peace and joy and thousands of other blessings as well.

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We live in a world that says that God wants to take something away from us. Scripture is seen as a book of outdated rules that keep us from enjoying all of what the world has to offer. The Old Testament is thought to be about an angry and mean God, who is really not much more than the creation of a tribal community, trying to explain God through the lens of the harsh life in which they lived. The New Testament is seen as reflecting the teachings of a very wise historical character, or his followers. These are thought to be good as general principles, but no one should get caught up in specifics. The modern world has a philosophy that replaces the truth of scripture, and it has a spirit that interprets that philosophy as well. We and our kids are bombarded with this message every day; There is no absolute truth, and the way to find peace is to be tolerant of all beliefs without imposing your values on anyone else. Of course, after the fall the world system has been ruled by the rebellious one, who has always opposed the Word. If he cannot keep us from hearing the Word, he will seek to replace the Holy Spirit as interpretator, which always leads to bondage.

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This is the battle that is happening full bore in the Western world today. We need to understand that none of us is immune from the cultural forces working against us, trying to keep us from entering the kingdom of God, or failing that, trying to rob us of the fullness of life that God has for us. The Word of God is living, and because it is living it can give us life. That life will transform our lives, able to mold us into the man or woman that God designed us to be. Let us, as the psalmist did, ask God to teach us and to give us understanding, and to establish His word in our hearts, for we will delight in it.

The Gift of Prophecy

"Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts but especially that you may prophesy. (1 Corinthians 14:1)



Several months after I married Jackie we were over at her parent's house for a Sunday dinner with a bunch of her brothers, sisters and spouses. After dinner everyone was sitting around the table talking, and a cousin stopped over to visit, having just come from working on a Right to Life mailing. The discussion turned to abortion, and led from there to religion. I was an atheist, as was Jackie's oldest brother Jon, and although I had vowed to myself never to argue either religion or politics with Jackie's family, it was soon a full blown shouting match with Jon and myself against the rest. Being quite upset when we got home to our apartment, I told Jackie that, obviously if there was a God then I would want to know, but I can't intellectually understand what God could be. I asked her to lay hands on me and pray that God would reveal Himself. She did that but there was no bolt of revelation from the sky.



However, over the next six weeks many things began to happen. I started reading Christian books, which answered some of my questions, but which brought up even more. And I went to a few Charismatic prayer meetings with Jackie, and these were quite amazing because every week the same thing would happen. During the week I would be wondering about a couple of things, and at the prayer meeting someone would get up to talk to the group, either with a prophecy, or a sharing, or a teaching, and each one seemed to provide answers to my questions. During those prayer meetings God moved in the hearts of other believers, giving them a message that ministered to my needs, ultimately leading me to surrender my life to Jesus as Lord and Savior.



In the scripture on top from 1 Corinthians, Paul is making the following argument, which leads up to the verse. - At one time the Corinthians were pagans, and as pagans they were led to worship and follow after idols. The idols were inanimate objects, with no life in them. Now they are believers in a living God, and more than that, they have dwelling in them the Spirit of the Living God. This Holy Spirit brings revelation that Jesus is Lord. And this Spirit works in each of them, giving gifts, ministries and effects. The Spirit distributes these to individuals, but they are given to benefit the common good, so that the body of believers would be a healthy body. Although there are a variety of gifts and ministries and effects, and although some of these rank about the others, each one is considered by the Spirit to be important to the health of the body. Even though the Spirit has not distributed the same gifts and ministries and effects to everyone, all are encouraged to desire the greater gifts. The greater gifts and higher ranking ministries are not given to elevate the individual. They are provided by the Spirit because God loves the individuals who make up the body, and He wants the body to be healthy. Those who operate in the greater gifts have a greater responsibility, and they need to show the same love for the body as does God. And while the gifts and ministries of the Spirit are perfect, they operate through imperfect people. Thus, although there may be times when the gifts will fail, an attitude of love will never fail. Love then, is even more powerful than the greatest gifts. It is the reason the gifts were given, it enables the gifts to operate more purely, and it reflects the personality of the One who will one day make the body perfect.



This argument holds true just as much today as it did then. The Holy Spirit has the same gifts, ministries and effects available to any in the body who will ask for them, still given for the health of the body of believers. We are advised to "desire" the gifts, which indicates first, that some are available to all, and second, that seeking may be part of the process to receiving. And we should especially seek after the gift of prophecy, because when used in love and descernment it can be an important way for God to move in the lives of others.



Prophecy usually operates, not as a revelation about future events, although that may happen because God has a plan for every life, but as a message of encouragement that speaks to the needs or desires of a person. Sometimes the Spirit will give guidance, sometimes correction. Sometimes He will just let a person know that He is with them in their pain or struggles, and that He loves them. But the prophetic word will be empty if it is not met with a response. This can be a quite "thank you" to God for an encouragement, or a conscious effort to remember the prophetic word given, praying about it later. Why would the Spirit give direction, or an encouragement to do something, if we were just to say "neat", and forget about it. The prophetic word will usually be a confirmation to what the Spirit has already been speaking to a person.



The Holy Spirit can speak prophetically in a variety of ways. Someone may be praying for a person, and while reading the Bible they see a passage that just seems to leap out at them. The response then is to pray with the wisdom that the Spirit has given in that scripture, or to share that passage with the person being prayed for. Someone may feel a leading from the Spirit to speak out a message in tongues, and someone else, not understanding the tongue, but receiving a word from the Spirit that they know matches what was just spoken in tongues, will give the interpretation. The word may come as the person opens their mouth to speak, or they may have received a sense or an outline of the message. The combination of the two is considered a prophetic message, and tongues here is a different gift than what is available to all as a private prayer language.

A prophetic word will often come without being preceded by tongues, and again, the speaker may just have a word or a phrase to begin with, or they may have a more full sense of the message. In either instance, if it is appropriate for where they are, they need to trust God and speak out what they have, sensing what the Spirt is saying as they speak. If the Spirit stops, the person should stop, not adding personal desires or theology to what the Spirit is saying. I have seen times where one message is given by several people, one pausing and the next picking up in mid sentence. Jackie will often see a picture in her mind of the sense of what the Spirit has, and it becomes more clear to her as she speaks out. At times a person may have a vision, or perhaps a dream that comes from the Spirit. One time before going to bed I was praying for a relative who was very sick, and woke up just after a vivid dream in which I was praying for that person, the Spirit giving me directions as to how to pray. Knowing that the dream was from God, I felt the correct response was to travel to see that person and to pray as I saw in the dream, and I believe that it played an important part in her recovery.

There are other ways in which prophecy may come from the Spirit, and it is important to understand that our souls can often get in the way, either in the proclaiming, or in the receiving of a prophetic word. We need to grow in maturity, having the desire to seek the gifts, the courage to begin to operate in them, the willingness to be mentored in them by more experienced Christians. And we need to grow in spiritual descernment, being able to distinguish between what comes from the Spirit from that which comes from man or from the evil one. And if all things are done in love, we should do well.

Sleeping With The Fishes

Some of the scribes and Pharisees came to Jesus and asked Him to do a miracle, which would be a sign that He was a prophet. Jesus replies; An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign shall be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh shall stand up with this generation at the judgment, and shall condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here". (Matthew 12: 39-41)



I came to know God through faith. Although raised in a Catholic home, with parents who were serious about their faith, I became agnostic in high school, and was an atheist in college. Shortly after I married Jackie, God moved in my life, leading me one afternoon to surrender my life to the Lordship of Jesus. I stepped out in faith, one moment unable to grasp God, and the next with an assurance that He is, and that He had come into my very being. My life chaged, not through adopting a new theology, but because I had allowed the Spirit of the living God to move in and through my life.



In the past I had lain awake at night, trying to get hold of what God could be. But now I often laugh because, even though I know Him, and talk to Him, even though I need Him and long for more of His presence, even though I can talk and write about my understanding of how spiritual things work, yet still He is so intelligent and powerful and glorious that my mind even now can only hold onto a tiny part of who He is. The universe goes on for millions of light years, filled with multi-trillions of stars and other matter, held in balance by a thread . . . and He, the designer and creator, is there. The micro universe has comparatively similar distances between electrons and protons, with vast energy and amazing balance, and that is just one part of billions of more parts that make up one tiny building block for any material thing . . . and He, the designer and creator, is there. There is a spiritual creation, just a real and vast and intricate as the material world . . . and He, the designer and creator, is there. He, having designed us, and knowing the limits of our minds, has revealed Himself to us in time and space, creating us after His own image, and sending to us His Son, who came into the world as one of us.



Most of the scribes and Pharisees, when they encountered Jesus, could see Him with their physical eyes, but did not recognize Him as Lord of the Universe with their spiritual eyes. Doubting Jesus, they asked Him to show them a miracle, and the sense is that they were saying; 'Perhaps then we will agree that you are a prophet'. The interesting thing here is that prior to this Jesus had been performing quite a few miracles in His ministry. And many of the simple people came to believe in Him because the miracles helped open their hearts to accept Him. But the scribes and Pharisees were the educated people of the day. My guess is that their hearts were closed, not just because Jesus did not match their profile of Messiah, but also because they had discounted to some degree the accounts of miracles in their own scriptures. And so Jesus tells them that the wicked Assyrians who lived in Niniveh repented, their hearts being open to God without the benefit of signs, when Jonah preached to them. The witness of those men and women would testify at the judgment against the people in Jesus day. They wanted Jesus to do a miracle to prove that He was a prophet, but He was much more than a prophet. They would get their sign when Jesus, as Jonah did, would come back from the dead after three days. Even then, for most, that sign would not be enough to open their hearts.

It's funny, but as much as things change, many things remain the same. Today, even in the church, many have a hard time believing that Jonah could have spent three days and nights in the belly of a sea creature, and many even doubt that Jesus actually rose from the dead. They write these off as stories used to teach spiritual principles, although while doing so they miss the true principles. God can bend and shape material and time to His purpose. For anyone who is truly in awe of Him, miracles should not be a problem. My father-in-law was fond of saying that if Jonah spent those three days inside that fish sitting in a lawn chair, drinking lemonade, and enjoying air-conditioning, it would be fine with him. Jesus not only believed that the story of Jonah was true, but that it was pointing to His death and resurrection. The modern world cannot understand this, as they cannot understand a loving God who will one day judge those who keep their hearts closed to His Spirit. It understands neither love nor justice. It will not accept either the miracles of the past, or the move of the Spirit in the present. Yet it will flock to false signs and false wonders, and believe in false messiahs.

In the 24th chapter of Matthew, Jesus gives His great prophetic description of the events that will happen just before His second coming. "For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, they were marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be".

Like the story of Jonah, Jesus is confirming for us the truth about Noah and the flood. And in so doing He uses Noah as a warning to those whose hearts are closed to the Spirit. The Son of God did indeed come the first time, and will surely come again. Noah preached repentance to the antediluvian world before the flood, but unlike the citizens of Ninevah, they did not repent. And so it will be for many just before Jesus comes again. The Holy Spirit is still working today through scripture as well as through signs and wonders. Don't let the scribes and the Pharisees of the day rob you of that precous gift.