discernment – Page 26

What lurks within…

Posted on June 29, 2017 by elizabethprata

We read in Job that-

His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. 5And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did continually. (Job 1:4-5).

What a sweet picture of Job, in these pre-Patriarchal times, performing his function as priest over his family. His ten children certainly had a father upright in integrity and faith in the one true God. Job was concerned not just with their behavior in terms of moral vs. sin, but their thought life. Have they cursed God in their hearts? Are they holding on to some sin for which they have not repented? Have they cursed God inwardly? Job continuously sacrificed to God as a cover for them.

As we know from so many biblical examples, people can appear as moral but inside, in their mind or heart, they can be holding on to many sins. The Rich Young Ruler claimed to have obeyed the commandments, yet he was revealed to be holding on to greed and materialism. The Pharisees tried to appear holy on the outside, but inside they were raging hypocrites, uncaring for widows and sinners and their fellow man in general!

The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life are hidden inside a person’s mind and heart. The bottom line is, people are good actors. There are some we will never know if they are truly saved or not, until the Day. (Matthew 7:21-23).

We can surmise that perhaps Job’s ten children were indeed faithful to Yahweh. They loved each other, didn’t seem to have in-fighting, liked to spend time with each other. They lived near by enough to partake of family doings on a regular basis. No prodigals, in other words.

We know Job was a righteous man. Ezekiel 14:14 declares Job one of three most righteous men (along with Daniel and Noah).

It’s Mrs Job that was a problem.

Job spent time covering his children’s sins with daily sacrifices…but what of Mrs Job? When the pressure became unbearable and the grief too deep, she showed her true colors. Rather than a gentle help-meet who encourages and supports her husband, she suggested to Job that he curse God and then die (by his own hand).

An excellent wife, who can find? (Proverbs 31:10). As Matthew Henry says of an excellent wife,

She can be trusted, and he will leave such a wife to manage for him. He is happy in her. And she makes it her constant business to do him good. … Above all, she fears the Lord.

Inward sin will not reveal itself until or unless there is pressure. Whether it is the pressure of too much unrepentant sin, or the pressure of circumstances, the sin will eventually be revealed. Mrs Job, and indeed Mrs Lot too, showed that despite living with biblically-declared righteous men, they had sin inside lurking within them. Their disdain for the Holy One, Yahweh was fatally revealed for Mrs Lot when she turned to look back at her life in Sodom, and in Mrs Job when her excellent husband needed her most.

What lurks within is ugly. We should take care of sin daily, by picking up our cross, slaying our sin, and repenting. (Matthew 6:12, 2 Corinthians 7:10).

Don’t be a Mrs Job or a Mrs Lot. Deal with what lurks within. Your husband and children need you.
mrs job
Illustration by William Blake

discernment, Uncategorized

What does a true revival look like? Part 1

Posted on June 26, 2017 by elizabethprata

We all want revival. We all want the Spirit of God to enter each one of us and make us obviously set apart into a royal priesthood, doing good and devoting ourselves to prayer, hearing of the word, and breaking bread in loving fellowship. We long for our church and life to mirror the earliest days of the first century church of Acts.

However when churches schedule a special Revival speaker, or goes to a Revival conference, and we emerge smiling for a few days but then the waves of euphoria fade, we call that revival. It’s what we’ve become used to as our experience of “revival.”

Yesterday our pastor read from a biography of Jonathan Edwards, the 18th century theologian and pastor who is ‘credited’ with sparking the Great Awakening in America with his sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”

The extended quote Pastor Mark read was about what life was like in their village while the Awakening (revival) was going on.

Here is Jonathan Edwards from his book, A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God on what happens in a heart that is falsely revived, IF they are even lucky enough to hear a preacher who preaches sin in the first place, an increasingly rare event nowadays:

Very often, under first awakenings, when they are brought to reflect on the sin of their past lives, and have something of a terrifying sense of God’s anger, they set themselves to walk more strictly, and confess their sins, and perform many religious duties, with a secret hope of appeasing God’s anger, and making up for the sins they have committed. And oftentimes, at first setting out, their affections are so moved, that they are full of tears, in their confessions and prayers; which they are ready to make very much of, as though they were some atonement, and had power to move correspondent affections in God too.

Hence they are for a while big with expectation of what God will do for them; and conceive they grow better apace, and shall soon be thoroughly converted. But these affections are but short-lived; they quickly find that they fail, and then they think themselves to be grown worse again. They do not find such a prospect of being soon converted, as they thought: instead of being nearer, they seem to be further off; their hearts they think are grown harder, and by this means their fears of perishing greatly increase. But though they are disappointed, they renew their attempts again and again; and still as their attempts are multiplied, so are their disappointments.

When the Spirit of God moves, it is obvious what is happening. The community changes immediately. Read what Edwards wrote about life in a truly revived community:

These awakenings when they have first seized on persons, have had two effects; one was, that they have brought them immediately to quit their sinful practices; and the looser sort have been brought to forsake and dread their former vices and extravagances. When once the Spirit of God began to be so wonderfully poured out in a general way through the town, people had soon done with their old quarrels, backbitings, and intermeddling with other men’s matters. The tavern was soon left empty, and persons kept very much at home; none went abroad unless on necessary business, or on some religious account, and every day seemed in many respects like a Sabbath-day.

The other effect was, that it put them on earnest application to the means of salvation, reading, prayer, meditation, the ordinances of God’s house, and private conference; their cry was, What shall we do to be saved? The place of resort was now altered, it was no longer the tavern, but the minister’s house that was thronged far more than ever the tavern had been wont to be.

That is just beautiful. But why wouldn’t it be? The Holy Spirit of God is beautiful. They are simply reflecting Him in a way we are not used to seeing en masse.

The key to revival is awareness of one’s sin and God’s wrath against it. People who have become aware of their sin will naturally do the things Edwards described. Far from being a dolorous position, people who know their sin are joyful, because now they know and understand grace. See more Edwards’ Faithful Narrative-

The unparalleled joy that many of them speak of, is what they find when they are lowest in the dust, emptied most of themselves, and as it were annihilating themselves before God; when they are nothing, and God is all; seeing their own unworthiness, depending not at all on themselves, but alone on Christ, and ascribing all glory to God. Then their souls are most in the enjoyment of satisfying rest; excepting that, at such times, they apprehend themselves to be not sufficiently self-abased; for then above all times do they long to be lower.

Some speak much of the exquisite sweetness, and rest of soul, that is to be found in the exercise of resignation to God, and humble submission to His will. Many express earnest longings of soul to praise God; but at the same time complain that they cannot praise Him as they would, and they want to have others help them in praising Him. They want to have every one praise God, and are ready to call upon every thing to praise Him. They express a longing desire to live to God’s glory, and to do something to His honor; but at the same time complain of their insufficiency and barrenness; that they are poor and impotent creatures, can do nothing of themselves, and are utterly insufficient to glorify their Creator and Redeemer.

A revived community will reflect God’s heart, which is contained in His Son, who is the Word. (John 1:1-5). People’s passion will be to seek God more, through His word. (Hebrews 1:1-2). Edwards sees a love for His word come alive in the people who have been truly revived:

While God was so remarkably present amongst us by His Spirit, there was no book so delightful as the Bible; especially the Book of Psalms, the Prophecy of Isaiah, and the New Testament. Some, by reason of their love to God’s word, at times have been wonderfully delighted and affected at the sight of a Bible; and then, also, there was no time so prized as the Lord’s day, and no place in this world so desired as God’s house. Our converts then remarkably appeared united in dear affection to one another, and many have expressed much of that spirit of love which they felt toward all mankind; and particularly to those who had been least friendly to them. Never, I believe, was so much done in confessing injuries, and making up differences, as the last year. Persons, after their own conversion, have commonly expressed an exceeding great desire for the conversion of others. Some have thought that they should be willing to die for the conversion of any soul, though of one of the meanest of their fellow-creatures, or of their worst enemies; and many have, indeed, been in great distress with desires and longings for it. This work of God had also a good effect to unite the people’s affections much to their minister.

The dominant thread in Edwards’ recounting of the aftermath of the Revival, is self-hate. It’s true. People all around had come to recognize their own depravity, and thus in contrast, God’s beauty. This was what the Awakening helped them see, understand, utter, live. The revival was thrust forward on waves of self-hate.

Martin Luther wrote, as summarized by John MacArthur,

Martin Luther, as you know, launched the Protestant Reformation. He was a Roman Catholic priest who came to understand the truth of salvation by grace through faith alone in Christ alone, apart from works, and ceremonies, and all the rest; and so he determined that he would confront the Roman Catholic system, the great monolithic system of error and deception, and he selected 95 different statements, 95 different protests – that’s why we’re called “Protestants” – 95 different assertions that ran contrary to Catholicism. He wrote them down and he nailed them on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg.

The fourth of his protests, the fourth of his 95 assertions was that a penitent heart, a heart that comes to God and receives salvation is characterized by – here’s his term, “self hate.” Self hate. Quoting from Luther’s fourth statement. “And so penance remains while self hate remains.” He said that self hate was the true interior penitence. “This,” said Luther, “is essential to the gospel.”

This is why revivals of today fail. The audience does not hear a message of self-hate, they hear messages of self-love. Self-love will never, ever revive a heart or convict one of sin.

Special speakers are hired to come to our churches for a week, or people clamber aboard buses to be shuttled to arenas where special speakers await…who give the message that we are worth something to God, we are good, we are just waiting to be whatever we can be. Our dreams can ambitions can be fulfilled. We can have all our rights, privileges, respect, honor, and affirmation, plus Jesus. In today’s revivals, Jesus is the add-on, nestled alongside to a person who is usually pretty good but just needs an extra boost. In Edwards’ Awakening, first the person understands his abasement, comes to see his depravity through Jesus’ eyes, and loathes it. Then and only then, can he see Jesus as He is, glorified, holy, and beautiful.

Tomorrow, we’ll look at a revival in the Bible that is tremendous in its power and effect.
jesus poster

discernment, Uncategorized

Why is Wonder Woman a better role model than Beth Moore?

Posted on June 23, 2017 by elizabethprata

Even though one is a supposed Christian and the other is a fictional comic strip character?

In seeking to answer that question, first, please forgive me for making a cultural comparison. I know the swells of film-going euphoria are riding high right now at the genial and solid presentation of female derring-do in the form of re-booted Wonder Woman, and apparently I can’t resist.

Anyway the short answer is that Wonder Woman is capable, teachable, and single-mindedly focused on serving humanity and doing right. Beth Moore isn’t.

yuppie

The long answer is, I grew up on the original 1975 Lynda Carter Wonder Woman. In an era of M*A*S*H, The Jeffersons, and All in the Family, it was refreshing to this teenager and her friends to be able to identify with a capable woman, unattached and unembedded in a family, out there and doing stuff. Mary Tyler Moore was the same. /cue throwing hat/. It was the era of feminism and bra burnings, after all.

That was the message we received back then. You girls can do stuff, you can be strong and feminine (blue skirt suits with bow at the neck notwithstanding), you can be accomplished, strong, and capable.

I’m not agreeing with feminism, I’m just relating the times and the cultural message I was bombarded with during my formative years.

Now it’s 40 years later, I’m a late-middle aged woman, and I’m saved by the grace of God through faith. I follow Jesus and His statutes now, not the world’s philosophies. I look forward to His kingdom. The world isn’t something I identify with any more.

According to the Bible, I’m the daughter of the King. I’m capable of doing anything within His will because I have the Holy Spirit in me. My affections are for Jesus as Groom and His ways in His strength and power, which is infinite. I’m loved, affirmed, chosen, nurtured, protected, and guided. I have an eternal home, an important job on earth, a fulfilling future, and the most solid promise in the universe: He will keep us with Him forever. That is who I am as a woman. It is very positive.

According to Beth Moore and her spiritual daughters who teach like her, their incessant message is that we women don’t need to be the emotional wrecks we are. We don’t have to be the hand-wringing ninnies we are that need a ladder to get out of our pit. We can avoid being sunk by our funk and we don’t have to keep dragging all that baggage. It sounds like a positive message, but in fact it’s very negative.

As an aside, you might notice that after relentlessly reminding us women that we’re emotional wrecks, Moore is here to provide the ladder, give us our affirmation, and help us live fully for our purpose. She has the key, and she provides the answers. In that way, she becomes our supposed savior. Have you noticed?

Anyway. I was reading a movie review Wonder Woman in The National Review,. The author of Run, Wonder Woman! The Feminists Are after You! was commenting on modern feminism. Far from the strident, aggressive, “I’m strong like a lion hear me roar” feminists I grew up hearing about 40 years ago, the philosophy has currently reduced itself to “today’s weird brand of obsessive, woe-is-me ‘feminism’ ” said the author.

This resonated.

Thanks to so many false but prominent female Bible teachers, don’t we now have a brand of obsessive, woe-is-me Christian women? False Christianity mirrors the culture, because both are from satan.

The movie review author said,

Please, for everyone’s sake, avoid buying into the idea that women are fragile creatures who need 1,000 different obsessive gender-based affirmations just to make it through life.

This resonates again.

Today’s feminist needs safe spaces to hide from the gender oppressive partiarchy. They need trigger warnings, AKA advance notice that something in a syllabus or lecture might trigger unhappy memories and hurt their feelings. They make strident demands so they can cower wimpily. They want no negative repercussions for their emotional hand-wringing. The 1960s-1970s feminist strode out to take over the world. Today’s feminist retreats from the world because some words in a lecture hurt their feelings.

As the movie review author said, today’s feminism is just “a giant, manufactured angst magnet!”

Isn’t Beth Moore a giant, manufactured angst magnet? Aren’t her studies aimed at making more giant, manufactured angst magnets? The comparison is immediately apparent. The National Review author continues:

About that, though: Even though I grew up before seeing the supposedly life-changing new Wonder Woman movie, I always believed I could pursue whatever career I wanted, as long as it wasn’t professional bowling. (Trust me. You do not want me on your bowling team.) I had both male and female role models as a child, and no one told me I had to see my exact facsimile in a job before I could pursue it. When I heard about the new Wonder Woman movie, I thought, “Hooray! It looks like a fun and well-executed summer blockbuster, rather than a giant, manufactured angst magnet!” This is because I’m a fairly normal and well-adjusted person who hasn’t yet let modern feminism melt my brain.

As a Christian women who hasn’t let feminism or its Christian-y counterpart, women’s Bible studies melt my brain, let’s take another look at Edith Bunker, Louise Jefferson, Margaret Houlihan…these 1970s TV show characters I was told not to model myself after. Is there anyone stronger than Ma Walton or Caroline Ingalls? Women who held their families together through extreme financial hardship, often during lengthy periods when the husband was off at a long-distance job?

Or Edith Bunker showing how to stay married to a difficult man? Or Margaret Houlihan, regular-army head nurse of the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital who was a leader of a large number of personnel, in war?

Or Louise Jefferson, a woman who raised her son and worked alongside her husband so hard that the two of them “made it”, as black people penetrating the racial layer of the upper crust of NY City’s East Side and settling into financial security and professional recognition?

None of those women needed a safe space. None of them were “in a pit” loaded down with “insecurity”. They were too busy getting on with things.

I know these women on TV and movies are just fictional representations. But they’re messages too, and our girls absorb them whether we want them to or not.

I’ll repeat to us Christian women what the author of the Wonder Woman review had said in her essay, just to a different audience. “Please, Sisters, for everyone’s sake, avoid buying into the idea that women are fragile creatures who need 1,000 different obsessive gender-based affirmations just to make it through life.”

Any woman who has been married for any length of time knows how hard it is. Any woman who has become a mother knows how hard it is. Anyone who has to keep a home and work outside the home knows how hard it is. Anyone who’s single and struggling to make ends meet alone knows how hard it is. We don’t need any version of Feminism to buck us up nor any wimpy women’s Bible study to buck us up either.

Jesus is our All in All. He gives us the wisdom, strength, provision, and the everlasting Word to rely upon. We don’t need the world’s messages to lead us like wounded deer from safe spaces to peer at the big bad world through our insecurities and baggage. I’m not in a pit, Jesus already went to the abyss. I’m not weighed down by baggage, He already carried our sins to the cross and threw them as far as the east is from the west.

I’m tired of the feminist message, be it the 1970s version or today’s. I’m also tired of these ‘Bible’ teachers perpetuating the lies that mirror the feminists’. Sisters, all we need to do is focus on Jesus of the Word, and the rest falls into place. Whether you’re taking a Bible study or whether you’re simply reading the Bible, the simple truth is that we are who we are: sinners, saved by grace and forever cherished with the power to slay sin, resist the devil, and serve the Most high with honor and dignity. That’s a Wonder Woman

The takeaways:

1. The false teachers will always mirror the world, because they are of the world. It takes discernment to parse where and how.

2. Worldly philosophies change. The racism of today is not the racism of the 1960s which is not the racism of the 1920s. Feminism has already undergone three waves, and some would argue we are in or about to start the fourth. The false teachers’ messages morph also.

3. Feminism is counter to Biblical Womanhood.

4. Beth Moore is a false teacher.

Back when I was first began researching Moore and her teaching methods five years ago, it was extremely hard to find anything comparing Moore to scripture and less so to find a piece pronouncing Moore as anything but wonderful. In 2013 an excellent analysis of Moore appeared on a blog called The King’s Dale. It was the first discerning piece I’d read about Moore. I was so relieved. Here it is.

Beth Moore – False Teacher

discernment, Uncategorized

Discernment review: The mystical practice of Lectio Divina

Posted on June 19, 2017June 19, 2017 by elizabethprata

lectio

Several mystical practices have been making their way into the more conservative quarters of the faith. One has been contemplative prayer, or centering prayer. Another practice that crept in from the mystical religions was Lectio Divina.

First, what do we mean by ‘mysticism’? GotQuestions looks at the blending of the faith with mystical practices, called Christian Mysticism:

The term “Christian mystic” is an oxymoron. Mysticism is not the experience of a Christian. Whereas Christian doctrine maintains that God dwells in all Christians and that they can experience God directly through belief in Jesus, Christian mysticism aspires to apprehend spiritual truths inaccessible through intellectual means

Any practice that urges the adherent to avoid the intellect is not to be trusted. Christianity is a religion of the mind. I can’t stress this fact strongly enough. It is a thinking religion.

Paul said in Romans 12:2, Be transformed by the renewing of your mind, not by ‘the subjective impulses of the heart’.

Paul also said in 1 Corinthians 2:16, ‘we have the mind of Christ’, not that ‘some have the mind of Christ and if you adopt their mystical practices you, too, can know truth‘.

We read in 2 Corinthians 10:3-6,

For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.

See? We destroy mind-strongholds, we take thoughts captive, destroy base opinions, and seek knowledge. This is all about the mind.

So the first thing mystical, anti-Christian practices will do is the opposite of what the Bible tells us. The teachers of such practices will tell you to clear you mind, empty your mind, or not to rely on the mind.

A second thought to introduce this review. I am doing a follow-up on the not-new-news of Lectio Divina because of the way satan works. He will creep in, and introduce extra-biblical practices antithetical to our growth. These will be discovered sooner or later, and there will be an outcry. Then the outcry will die down. What the outcry does is two-fold, only one of which is actually helpful to us.

First, an outcry against anti-biblical practices raises the alarm and lets the faithful know an intrusion is underway. Such an outcry occurred at the 2012 Passion Conference when several leading members of the faith taught 60,000 youths a version of Lectio Divina and called on them to stand still, be quiet, and listen actively for a response. That rightly caused an outcry. More on that in a moment.

But secondly and sadly, not everyone is as vigilant a Christian soldier as they should be. The outcry serves to allow the terms of the false practices become familiar to us. We actually get used to the terms, like ‘contemplative prayer,’ or ‘Lectio divina’ or ‘impression on my heart’ and once used to the terms, without vigilance and knowledge, we accept them. We become inured to them, which means, “to accustom to accept something undesirable.” We’ve heard the terms, but without constant reminder and instruction against them, a new person to the fray might think they are acceptable practices, simply on the basis of their familiarity with the terms but not the content.

Lectio Divina is a Catholic practice. It is supposedly something innocuous-sounding, it’s just ‘praying with scripture.’ Lectio Divina actually teaches you to listen with your heart, not your mind. It teaches you to experience the text, not to understand the text.

In researching this essay I’d gone back to ground zero of Lectio Divina in its original intrusion into the evangelical faith. In 2012, three of then-Christendom’s most popular leaders taught and practiced Lectio Divina at the Passion conference with 60,000 youths in attendance. John Piper, Beth Moore, Francis Chan, and one or two others on stage led the youths in attendance through a lectio practice.

Subsequently, there was an outcry. What were these respected teachers doing at an evangelical conference showing youths how to do a Catholic mystical practice? Todd Friel of Wretched Radio did a spot answering these and other questions the incident raised, and thoroughly explained the pitfalls of Lectio Divina.

Essentially, the difference between proper study and the Lectio mystical way of study is that the evangelical student studies the text using proper cognitive methods, the Lectio student attempts to experience the text. Here’s John MacArthur on Lectio Divina and other mystical practices, When Study Isn’t Study

For many leaders in the spiritual formation movement, Bible study doesn’t really involve study at all. Instead, it’s an attempt to experience the text.

Many spiritual formation gurus advocate various meditative Bible-reading methods, most of them adapted from a Catholic Church practice called lectio divina. Regardless of the name they apply to it, the pattern is usually the same—slow, methodical, repetitive reading, with an eye toward words and phrases that pop out to the individual reader. It’s through those individual words and phrases, we’re told, that the Lord speaks directly to us.

Bible study, then, is not a question of digging deep into God’s Word but letting your imagination and intuition guide your own personal understanding of the text.

Dear sisters, avoid Lectio Divina and other mystical practices. As was said earlier today on Twitter,

Scripture never commands us to tune into any inner voice. We’re commanded to study and meditate on Scripture.

~~~~~~~~FURTHER READING~~~~~~~~

A teacher or leader may be teaching you Lectio Divina without calling it that. Here’s GotQuestions explaining it, so you’ll know if it appears in your lessons, Sunday School, book you’re reading, conference, etc.

Heroes of the faith that sadly allowed themselves to be led by subjective promptings AKA ‘woeful delusions’ and fancies:
When Fancy Is Mistaken for Faith

So how are we to determine God’s will, since indeed the Spirit does lead us?
Subjectivity and the Will of God

discernment

Just a little something to think about … Angels among us

Posted on June 8, 2017June 8, 2017 by elizabethprata

This essay first appeared in September 2010 on The End Time

Angels. They exist. They were created by God and they serve God. There are multitudes and multitudes of them. (Hebrews 12:22).

The bible shows us that angels appear on earth as men, sometimes looking like ordinary men (Joshua 5:13-14; Mark 16:5), and at other times looking like something other-worldly, so much so that the people gazing upon them were gripped with fear, as was Zacharias in Luke 1:12. He was speechless before the angel who visited him. So were the keepers of Jesus’ tomb, ‘who became as dead men when they saw the angel of the Lord’ (Matthew 28:4).

When they appear to people on the earth sometimes they take on human form like in Genesis 18:1-19. Jesus and two angels appeared as men and actually ate a meal with Abraham. Later two of the angels went on to Sodom and slept overnight at Lot’s house. So we know they can incarnate, appear as men, and spend a period of time on earth.

We know that some angels fell, meaning, they sided with Satan in the angelic rebellion and were cast from their places in heaven. Satan’s fall is described in Isaiah:

“How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!” (Isaiah 14:12)

A third of the angels fell with satan:

“Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth.” (Revelation 12:3-4).

Though satan lost his high position, he is god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4), therefore, being cast out doesn’t interfere with from his intent to deceive us. He still pretends to be on God’s side, as seen here. “And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.” (2 Corinthians 11:14). Note the word ‘masquerades’ and ‘light’. Masquerade means “An involved scheme; a charade; as in wearing a mask or disguise’. Of course he would pretend he is one of the good guys to an unsuspecting unbeliever, or even to a Christian. His underlings pretend to be on the good side, too. His servants are the fellow angels that followed satan in the war against God and also pretend to be one of the good angels. But they only want to deceive.

You know these guys. They’re putti, or cherubs as the Renaissance artists love to portray angels.

The two innocent-looking cherubs seem harmless. They’re from an excerpt of the larger piece called Sistine Madonna by Raphael. Angels are not cherubic babies. But satan and his demonic horde would like you to think so.

“It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness.” (2 Corinthians 11:15).

Hebrews 13:2 says we sometimes entertain angels unawares.

So the point is, if you were beset by an angel of light, how would you know he is one of the good guys, or one of the bad guys? There is a 1 in 3 chance he is one of the bad ones. How would you know? Would you be so gripped with fear that you just accept what the angel says? Would you be so filled with pride that one of these beings was sent to you that you would accept what he said without question? Would you be so entranced by their light that you unquestioningly accept they are from God?

The only way to know is to know the Word of God. John and Peter both warned of false teachers, and Jesus said they may come to us in sheep’s clothing (Matthew 7:15; 1 John. 4:1; 2 Peter 2:1). John said our duty is to “test the spirits,” and Paul said: “Test everything. Hold on to the good.” (1 Thessalonians 5:21).

Not all angels come in peace. Some are your enemy. Be watchful and test all things!

Photo/postprocessing art EPrata

discernment, Uncategorized

How to interpret circumstances, lessons from Jonah and David

Posted on June 5, 2017June 5, 2017 by elizabethprata

“It was a God-thing!” “The sign couldn’t have been more clear!” “It surely wasn’t a coincidence, it must have been from God!”

Have you ever heard anyone say any of these things? Or said them yourself?

Even after salvation we are sinful creatures. It would be so much easier to interpret circumstances rather than interpret the Word. We see what is happening in our lives and immediately interpret that these circumstances are in fact signs from God, omens, and ‘Godly coincidences’ that are directly and presently speaking to us. We go ahead and make decisions based on them.

But should we? Let’s look at two examples of interpreting circumstances, from the Word of God. Thanks goes to my wonderful and brilliant pastor for preaching this yesterday. Here, I summarize part:

We all know the story of Jonah. He was a Prophet of God, who prophesied to Israel. (2 Kings 14:21-25). He prophesied good things to Israel. It was during the reign of Jeroboam II King of Israel, when God was bestowing unmerited grace upon the people even though the King did evil in God’s eyes. The nation’s boundaries were being set and prosperity was growing. Therefore, likely Jonah was popular as a Prophet.

Then one day the word of the LORD came to Jonah. Jonah was told to travel to the city of Nineveh in order to prophesy to them. Nineveh was evil, they were an enemy, and Jonah was aghast. He refused. Effectively resigning his mantle, Jonah ran to Joppa instead, a seaside city where Jonah intended to grab a ship to Tarshish. This was the opposite direction of where God had told Jonah to go.

Source

When Jonah got to Joppa (now Jaffa), he saw that there was a ship at harbor. Jonah paid the fare and flung himself into the bowels of the vessel, tired beyond bearing, and went to sleep. Though this next scene is a little beyond the time frame of my focus today, I can’t resist the glorious language from Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick:

All dressed and dusty as he is, Jonah throws himself into his berth, and finds the little state-room ceiling almost resting on his forehead. The air is close, and Jonah gasps. then, in that contracted hole, sunk, too, beneath the ship’s water-line, Jonah feels the heralding presentiment of that stifling hour, when the whale shall hold him in the smallest of his bowel’s wards.

Did Jonah feel vindicated when he saw a ship at sail, ready to voyage with the next tide? Did Jonah say, “See? It is providential! This must be what God wanted, since a ship appears before me at the ready!”

Interpreting circumstances is a dangerous thing.

Let’s look at David. He was fleeing from King Saul, who was seeking David’s life. David and his men huddled in a cave in the wilderness of Engedi, hiding from the fire-breathing king. Saul suddenly appeared in that exact cave. There are hundreds of caves at Engedi. Hundreds. Yet Saul entered the exact cave in which David hid.

Pixabay, free to use. Hundreds of caves dot the En-gedi desert.

David’s men interpreted circumstances, saying, ‘Look, here is the king! It must be the hand of God delivering the king to your sword!’

After stealthily snipping a bit of Saul’s robe David felt convicted. He said to his men,

“Behold, this day your eyes have seen that the LORD had given you today into my hand in the cave, and some said to kill you, but my eye had pity on you; and I said, ‘I will not stretch out my hand against my lord, for he is the LORD’S anointed.’” (1 Samuel 24:10-11).

The word of the LORD had not come to David. David knew that the LORD’s anointed were protected by God, raised up by Him to perform His will and plan. David knew that the LORD Himself had placed Saul into kingship and it was the LORD’s business to remove Him if He so wanted. It was not up to David. (1 Samuel 26:10)

“If we detach ourselves from the Word, we will never interpret circumstances correctly.” ~Mark McAndrew, Jonah 1:1-3, June 4, 2017

What Pastor Mark meant here is not that we interpret signs and omens, but that when things happen and we want to know what to do or how to think about it, we refer back to the Word. David knew God’s word and David knew His character. David acted according to this knowledge, not according to subjective impressions of the circumstances.

Romans 8:14 says “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” So we know that the Spirit leads because He promised to lead us. But the Spirit doesn’t speak to us except through His word. And when you start thinking that God is giving you special revelation outside of His word, you have diminished the singular authority of scripture.

Source Special Revelation and the Work of the Holy Spirit, 1-min video

We don’t know whether our interpretation of the circumstance is “a heavy conscience, a strong personal desire, or emotion-driven enthusiasm” as Jeremiah Johnson wrote at the link above. If David had decided to kill King Saul because Saul had showed up in the cave at that moment and had slain Saul, it would have been grievous sin for David. If Jonah had deduced that because the ship was ready to sail in the direction he wanted to go, it must be providential, it would have been a sin for Jonah. There are always ships ready to sail to Tarshish! Jonah would be simply rationalizing his own personal desire and back-hoeing the Spirit into his sin, which is blasphemy. Johnson wrote,

We ought to look for the Holy Spirit’s leadership, but we must be cautious about assigning to Him responsibility for our words and actions. Our feelings are not necessarily a trustworthy source of information, nor are they an accurate indication that God has a special message to deliver to us or through us.

God’s people need to be circumspect when it comes to His leadership, particularly through subjective impressions and inclinations. Moreover, we need to be wary of those who hijack the prophetic seat and presume to speak for God. Source

Some throw out a fleece for guidance, some look for open doors or windows. Satan can create circumstances too. Remember Job. Satan brought about the many different circumstances that plagued Job. Stay away from interpreting signs and circumstances and just interpret life through God’s word.

————————–

The angel was delayed three weeks…

Posted on June 2, 2017June 2, 2017 by elizabethprata

In Daniel chapter 10, we learn that Daniel has been praying for 21 days. He had inquired of the LORD, and Daniel was awaiting the reply. On day 24, the reply came, personally in the form of an angel. Daniel lifted his eyes and this is what he saw:

I lifted up my eyes and looked, and behold, a man clothed in linen, with a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist. His body was like beryl, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and the sound of his words like the sound of a multitude. (Daniel 10:5-6).

What a mighty being! Angels are strong and powerful servants of God!

Beryl is a gemstone like amethyst. It can be yellow or green or aquamarine in color. It sparkles, as any gem does. We all know what lightning looks like, as we know fire’s qualities, and burnished bronze and the sound of a multitude. The Hebrew word for multitude is roar or tumult. So, when the angel spoke, it was loud.

Such a being is powerful and frightening. No doubt that is why the angels all greet those whom they visit with the phrase “Fear not!”

So why is it that puny humans think they can march around the block and utter a few phrases and believe that the unholy angels will be scared enough to scuttle away? Is it the Christian’s duty to engage with spirits they have somehow deduced lurk about a certain location? Is it biblical to think that we can directly confront such powerful beings and use our own words to turn them away from their evil deeds? Is it realistic to think that a believer can utter a prayer that will “bind” such a powerful creature?

The holy angel visiting Daniel was delayed three weeks by an unholy angel, and only escaped when Michael arrived to help him. And we think that though such a powerful angel was delayed so many weeks, we can utter a prayer, similar to snapping our fingers or twitching our nose, and the unholy angel will fly away from us? Think about it.

We are not ignorant of satan’s schemes. (2 Corinthians 2:11). We should not be ignorant of his power, either. He is not God’s equal. But he and his cohorts are much more powerful than the little winged cherubs we like to think are the angels. Satan hates us because he hates God. He is at war with God, that old adversary, the usurper. (Isaiah 14:13-14). We must let God wage the war. We wage the war in His strength by standing and resisting, not by chasing and exorcising.

Our job is to grow in grace and strength, not chase around demons.

photo EPrata

discernment, Uncategorized

An exhortation about false teaching from Jeremiah

Posted on May 30, 2017May 30, 2017 by elizabethprata

It says in 2 Timothy 3:13, evil men and seducers will wax worse and worse. The study note for that verse explains that “all the dangerous movements of the false teachers (cf. vv. 1-9) will become increasingly more successful until Christ comes. Cf. 2 Thessalonians 2:11).”

This is a sobering thought.

Very sobering.

False teachers are a scourge and a plague. They are worse than locusts who sweep across the field and leave only broken and inedible crumbs in their wake. False teachers destroy souls. False prophets bring Jesus into disrepute and they steal His glory. Lest we believe that those who follow these false teachers and prophets are helpless victims, they are not. Followers of these locusts love to have it so. They actually heap up the false teachers to themselves. (2 Timothy 4:3).

False teachers have been around since even before the world was formed and satan was spreading his evil merchandise in heaven to his companion hosts. (Ezekiel 28:16). Jeremiah wrote in around 600BC about the evil, unholy trio of false priests, false prophets, and followers of both:

An appalling and horrible thing
has happened in the land:
the prophets prophesy falsely,
and the priests rule at their direction;
my people love to have it so,
but what will you do when the end comes?
(Jeremiah 5:30-31)

The word in Hebrew for appalling is “a horror.” False teaching, false teachers, false prophets, and false converts who love them are a horror, from a word meaning ruin, desolation.

False teachers is a serious issue, people. We tend to want to lessen their impact by rationalizing. We want to decrease their evilness by calling them merely innocuous bones to spit out whilst we ingest otherwise good food. But is this how God sees them? No. He calls them and their followers a horror, a ruin, and a desolation.

False teachers and false prophets have been in existence since almost the beginning. False converts have also been with us, also. (Cain, anyone?). The 2 Timothy 3:13 verse reminds us that things will only get worse. The diffusion of evil will eventually blanket the world, and during its inexorable diffusion, its intensity will deepen.

The breach between light and darkness, so far from being healed, shall be widened [Henry Alford]

What this means for us is that we are at risk. We are more at risk than our parents or our grandparents, because as the verse says, things will get worse and worse. If we are at risk, then our children are more at risk. How are we at risk? Those who become false teachers want to deliberately ensnare you and me. They want to sell their merchandise because they are greedy. (2 Peter 2:3, 1 Timothy 6:5). If we for some reason are unstable or naive, we will be seduced. (2 Peter 2:14, Romans 16:18). The New Testament is rife with constant warnings. We can’t be content, ignorant, or relaxed about this.

Because we are all sinners, we can fall prey to these false teachers at any time. The antidote is not to be naive, but be wise. For we are not unaware of satan and his schemes (2 Corinthians 2:11). We must not be unstable, but cling to the solid Rock. Do this by constant repentance, persisting in the good works we’re commanded to do, and by prayer and study of His word. Envelop yourself with the blanket of His word.

I speak of this issue frequently. That’s for several reasons-

1. No matter where you read in the Bible, there is always either an issue of or a warning about false teaching. If it is a big deal to God, it is a big deal to me.

2. I am a woman, and women are even more at risk for falling into false teaching and following false converts. (1 Peter 3:7, 2 Timothy 3:6, 2 Corinthians 11:3).

3. Because as satan floods the church with false converts who in turn pile up false teachers, it will be harder and harder to detect the genuine. We are an army of forgiven soldiers whose job it is to love Jesus with all our hearts, minds, souls, and strength, with no room for false teaching and no quarter for false prophets. Don’t give sway to it.

4. Because the purer we are individually and as a body, the more we can glorify Jesus. Our chief end in life is to do this. Don’t waver in being steadfast against false teaching and false teachers. They are not misguided, innocuous, harmless, or temporarily errant. They are evil. They are a horror. They are a ruin. This means being being willing to call Beth Moore an evil, abhorrent horror. To say that Sarah Young, Paula White, and others are full of deceit. Can you? Will you?

False teaching is a never-ending battle. We return to Jeremiah, writing in around 600BC, 2,500 years ago-

For wicked men are found among my people;
they lurk like fowlers lying in wait.
They set a trap;
they catch men.
Like a cage full of birds,
their houses are full of deceit;
therefore they have become great and rich;
(Jeremiah 5:26-27).

God asked in Jeremiah 5:31, ‘What will you do when the end comes?’ It is always the main question. Our lives are a vapor, this era is but a moment. To the Lord, it has been but two days since Jeremiah wrote, not over two thousand years. (2 Peter 3:8). The end will come, for us all. I pray I am still standing form on His truth. I pray you are too.

———————————————–

Does God speak to us? Should I expect Him to?

Posted on May 27, 2017May 28, 2017 by elizabethprata

How can I hear God? What do you do to listen to God? Will God be giving me explicit instructions for my life, like He seems to be doing for so many other women?

Beth Moore book: Jesus, the One and Only, p. 48.

Personalized whispers are not scripture, nor are they equal to scripture. “Personalized whispers” is not a teaching method Jesus uses. Yet women are being taught consistently and for decades that it is.

The concerning part is that this generation of younger women has been raised on a steady diet of women in celebrity positions who, for decades, have ‘taught’ the above, that they regularly hear the voice of God. Therefore, women coming up now believe it is the norm to have a personal God in your pocket whispering instructions to you for every little thing, from career moves to audible instruction in theology. But this is most assuredly not the case.

What these celebrity women leaders have done is create a discontent among female congregants who do not have a personal God and wonder what they are doing wrong because they don’t. Because of the poor teaching and constant eisegesis in their celebrity lessons that they, unfortunately, have relied upon, many younger women now realize they lack the skills to understand Gods will in a biblical way.

The will of God is to repent & believe, be baptized and participate in communion, and obey Him all your life.

We know how and where to obey in specific life choices because we read the Bible.

For example, as far as day-to-day choices go, like where to live, what college to go to, whom to marry or whether to marry, the more we obey, the more we’re conformed to Him, which means the more we can confidently decide for ourselves, knowing God prevents bad choices and ordains all things, AND makes all things work to the good of those who love Him. This is where trust comes in. We pray, (not to ‘hear back’ but to repent and submit and praise His sovereignty over all things), we understand the generalities of God’s will for our lives (Matthew 22:36-40). Then we pull up our big girl panties and we just decide.

Should we expect to hear from God? NO. Here are two scriptural explanations why. I repeat, we should NOT expect to hear God audibly, or in a still small, voice, or even in signs or omens, tell us specifically what to do or where to do at any given moment.

Ladies, expect to find God’s will by reading the Bible, whereupon the Spirit can conform you to His image and likeness and renew your mind. Don’t expect to hear a personalized whisper, an impression on your heart, or an audible voice directly telling you. Ultimately the reality of our sanctification is more delicate, mysterious, and beautiful than any whispers could ever be.

RESOURCES

“God told me…?” a 90-second video.

The Blazing Center has an essay titled “Listening to God without Getting All Weird About It“. HT Michelle Lesley

Two other resources for you on God’s will

Here is GotQuestions with a short answer to ‘What is God’s will?’
Know God’s will

And John MacArthur with a longer answer-
Taking the Mystery out of God’s Will

Sola Sisters, from 2012-
False Teachings About Hearing Audible Words From God Taking Even Deeper Root in Today’s Church

Grace To You blog from 2016
That’s Not Jesus Calling

discernment, Uncategorized

If Jeremiah, John the Baptist, and Paul were Arminian…

Posted on May 23, 2017May 23, 2017 by elizabethprata

Today’s essay explores the notion that if Jeremiah, John the Baptist, and Paul had been Arminians, how would their testimonies sound? Using today’s vernacular, let’s see how it reads when these eminent Christians say they “chose God” of their own free will.

——————————————–

Photo from Pixabay.com

The Sovereign call of Jeremiah to speak YHWH’s words becomes:
Jeremiah asking Jesus into His heart and making a career decision,

“When I was a youth, one night I couldn’t sleep. I walked around for a while outside, unfamiliar with this restless feeling. I felt young and inept at whatever I tried my hand. I remember clearly, it was the third of Tishrei, a cool September morning. I was at Sabbath at the synagogue. I was overcome with Avital’s lyre playing of the ninth repetition of “Just As I Am.” It all came together in my heart. I made a decision to walk the aisle toward the rabbi, and I knelt down and sincerely asked Messiah into my heart. Rabbi told me I was saved. Afer that, I decided I wanted to be a Prophet of God because I knew that God had a great plan for my life. When I came forward the priest had told me that. I became a prophet even though I was young and didn’t know how to speak. It was a God thing for sure. I’m so happy that day I walked the aisle and decided for the Savior.”

The powerful testimony of Christian Terrorist Paul on the road to Damascus becomes:
Paul meekly being led in praying the Sinner’s Prayer and choosing to change his whole life around-

Paul explained, “I was exceeding my peers in Law, at that time I was breathing out threats and fire against the Christians. I was at the peak of my career. I had the esteem of my colleagues, and I was young enough to have the world in front of me. Yet something lacked. Then one day while I was walking along the road to Damascus on an official Pharisaical mission to jail and execute followers of The Way, I felt a restlessness. Is this all there is, I wondered? Just being the best at everything and killing blasphemers, nice as that was? I spoke about it with the men who were walking with me, but most of them didn’t understand, except for one fellow traveler. He explained that I needed to decide to follow Jesus and that I should use my free will to choose Him. Of course! That was the answer. He led me in the sinner’s prayer. I’ve been saved ever since. You should decide for Jesus too, everyone should. I don’t know why they don’t. That I did is what makes me a great example of Christian self-decisional regeneration. Not to boast, though. Grace and peace to you.”

John the Baptist’s call as the last Old Testament Prophet, foreordained and empowered since the womb, becomes a lifestyle choice-
John the Baptist shares his testimony about accepting Jesus

“I didn’t get along with my parents, they were very aged and they just didn’t understand me or my generation. I felt so lonely, like I didn’t fit in with any of my friends. I went to live in the desert to try and find myself, and figure it all out. One day as I was roasting some locusts over the fire and sewing a new camel hair outfit, I realized suddenly that what I needed was Messiah. What I lacked was that I hadn’t accepted Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior! I decided to give my heart to Jesus. I also decided to stay in the desert. It’s a relationship, not a religion, so who needs church? I have peace about that.”

Don’t those Arminian testimonies sound ridiculous? We do not decide for Jesus. He decided long before the world was ever made or we were ever born. Now here is how it really happened, with the addition of the verses about God’s call to Jesus to become His Son.

The Call of Jeremiah-

Now the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
(Jeremiah 1:4-5)

Paul-

But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles,
(Galatians 1:15-16)

John the Baptist-

for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He shall never take wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb. (Luke 1:15).

Jesus-

I will tell of the decree: The LORD said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you”. (Psalm 2:7)

And now says the LORD, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, To bring Jacob back to Him, so that Israel might be gathered to Him (For I am honored in the sight of the LORD, And My God is My strength), (Isaiah 49:5).

I am not familiar with this author but I thought his explanation of the biblical truth of God’s sovereign choice of His elect was the clearest and most succinct I’ve read in a while.

Why is one’s understanding of election important?

Why is it important to understand that election is unconditional and individual? If we believe, as Arminians propose, that election is the result of God looking ahead via His omniscient foreknowledge to see who will choose Him and persevere in Him, we make God’s choice of particular people contingent upon their choice/faith in Him. This makes election a reward or an obligation that is given in response to foreseen faith. This is not the gospel of grace. Election in this view is not God independently choosing us; rather, we are choosing Him and He is merely ratifying the choice by calling “elect” those who have chosen Him. Again, this makes man, not God, sovereign in election, and dishonors God by diminishing His sovereignty.

Such a view also leaves a pocket for pride in the human heart. Since the choice to believe is supposedly made by the sinner independently, the one who chooses to believe and respond positively to the gospel offer has proven himself more “worthy” of salvation, with all its attendant blessings, than the one who rejects the gospel. Of course, such an exalted view of man is unjustified by Scripture.

We do not choose Jesus. If we did, we could – and would – boast. No, He chooses us. All the glory rightly belongs to Him.