I recently found a great blog at http://www.howtobecomeamissionary.com. You should really check out this guy’s message (which is really Jesus’ message). Allow me to briefly quote:

We’ve changed the commission from “Go and tell”, to “Come and listen”. If you drive around town you see billboards and other ads inviting people to come into church and listen to a message instead of people on the street corners proclaiming the gospel. It’s like the people of the church have said, “Instead of us going to them, why don’t we tell them to come to us.” So they put up these billboards and signs and then drive to church on Sunday anxiously waiting and wondering if it worked!

Check it out!

Barna Research Group did a study recently in order to determine how many people who claim to be Christians hold a Biblical worldview. They defined a Biblical worldview as:

1. Believing that absolute moral truths exist
2. Believing that such truth is defined by the Bible
3. Having a firm belief in six specific religious areas (defined below)
• Jesus Christ lived a sinless life
• God is the all-powerful and all-knowing Creator of the universe
• God still rules the universe today
• Salvation is a gift from God and cannot be earned
• Satan is real
• A Christian has a responsibility to share their faith in Christ with other people
• The Bible is accurate in all of its teachings

So how many people who claim to be Christians hold this worldview?

The statistics are horrifying! And we wonder why the church today is not doing anything for the kingdom of God! When a church or ministry tells people that it will cost $100 to go on a ski trip or to go paintballing, everyone signs up and pays immediately. But when asked if they’d like to do a service project or go on a mission trip or evangelize, church people say, “I need to pray about it!” What are you going to pray, “Lord, is it your will that I do your will?!?”

I’m not trying to step on toes or be divisive, but I think it’s sad that churches can go to Great America, the movie theaters, museums, video game nights, and conferences where we can get more of God – but we aren’t able to collect even two bags of groceries for a shelter. We talk a lot about evangelism and reaching out, but is it all just talk? If everyone in church today invited one friend, the attendance would double in a week. Granted, we can’t keep people coming, but “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” (Romans 10:14).

I think it’s important to allow Scripture to teach, not my own words. Here is Matthew 25:31-46:

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’ Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

Conversely, let’s look at Matthew 7:15-23:

“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them. Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’”

Reread that last paragraph. That’s harsh! But let’s compare this passage to Matthew 25, which we read just before this text. In Matthew 7, these people, who thought they were Christians, did three specific things which they thought were the will of God:

1. Prophesied in Jesus’ name
2. Cast out demons in Jesus’ name
3. Performed many miracles

Jesus clearly says that only he who does the will of the Father in heaven will enter the kingdom of God. Was Jesus saying that these things are not His will? No. What He was saying is that it is not the full picture: these people never had much of a relationship with God. They continually sought signs, wonders and supernatural phenomena, rather than simply pursuing to know and be known by our heavenly Father! Herein lies a potential danger that many Pentecostal believers and churches have fallen into – spiritual wackiness. This occurs when people become self-centered and continually only seek their next “word” or experience, or supernatural sign of some other sort, rather than seeking Christ alone and remembering what He did for us on Calvary.

Scripture warns repeatedly against the type of miracle-mindedness which places undue emphasis on the performance of supernatural deeds rather than on the proclamation of the Gospel: “Jesus therefore said to him, ‘Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe’” (John 4:48). Jesus warns the church against being deceived by signs and wonders which will appear in the last days to lead Christians astray: “For false Christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect” (Matthew 24:24). Scripture warns the world against demanding miracles from the church to prove its faith: “‘An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of Jonah.’ So he left them and departed” (Matthew 16:4). Luke reports: “The seventy returned with joy saying, ‘Lord, even the demons are subject to us in you
r name!’ And he said to them, ‘I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you; but rejoice that your names are written in heaven’” (Luke 10:17-20).

In Matthew 25, God reveals His heart and some of His will to us. He lists six specific things that the goats, or non-believers who are being cast into hell, did not do:

1. Feed the hungry
2. Quench the thirst of the needy
3. Invite strangers into their homes
4. Clothe the needy
5. Care for the sick
6. Visit those in prison

Jesus finishes this passage by saying, “whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” Wow! I don’t know about you, but I feel convicted. Consider also what James writes in James 1:27 – “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” Clearly, when Christ returns for His Church, it isn’t going to matter if you prophesied, cast out demons, or performed miracles! What’s going to matter is your heart, your relationship with Him, and bearing fruit (feeding the hungry, maturing in Christ, etc.).

What Does It Mean To Bear Fruit?

Let’s allow Scripture to teach us more about bearing fruit. Galatians 5:16-26 says,

“So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.”

Which list more accurately describes you – the acts of the sinful nature or the fruit of the spirit? If you are honest with yourself, you will find that you probably struggle with at least one act of the flesh from that list or you formerly did. So why is it so hard to find freedom? BECAUSE OF SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS – NO ONE WANTS TO SHARE THEIR STRUGGLES WITH OTHERS (IF WE ARE EVEN HONEST WITH OURSELVES). The Church hides their sins and trades more noticeable sins for ones that are easier to hide. I think one of Satan’s best tactical deceptions has been to get God’s people to associate most sins with shame, guilt and embarrassment — and thus not share them. The worst part is that Satan has gotten church people to view people negatively who struggle with sin. Most people in church will readily confess that they are sinful, but few can point to specific sins they struggle with or have been delivered from. Without real sin, you have no real Savior! But if your sin is real, then your Savior must be also! The reason we struggle with “dead churches” is that we have lost our gratitude — because we do not truly see ourselves as being sinful.

The Bible says to “confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective” (James 5:16). Again the Word says that “If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives” (1 John 1:6-10).

Head Knowledge vs. Heart Knowledge

In our day and age, I often hear that the important thing is not the truth itself, but living it out. Well, I agree with that. The ultimate goal is not just to learn truth but to live it. Yet how can you have one without the other? It’s like saying we’re going to build a big building but we don’t care what kind of materials we’re going to use. Or we want to get to such and such a city but we’re not going to worry about what roads to take to get there. Yet how can you reach your goal if you use the wrong materials or take the wrong route?

We probably should stop and think here. Think about this for a moment. Church people nowadays seem to think that the way of deliverance is one of sheer will power. But I contend that the problem is that we don’t always know what it is God wants of us, we don’t always know what to repent of. We see a lot of energy and interest in having “revival” for instance. Yet how can you have revival if you don’t know what you’re doing wrong? Beyond the obvious sins, this takes discernment, wisdom, understanding, and the knowledge of God and of His will.

Well, just as we have this sort of an argument regarding knowing the truth versus doing it (when there really is no such dichotomy), so likewise, the same sort of argument is heard in the area of knowledge. It is often said, the important thing is not knowing things about God, but knowing Him directly. Well in essence I would agree. The ultimate goal is to have an experiential walk with the living God, yet how can you know God without knowing things about Him?

New Gnosticism

Perhaps my problem with this reflects the circles in which I have traveled recently, which have been Charismatic/ Pentecostal. Perhaps it would be different if I were of a different background. In presenting their convictions to the Church world, Charismatics and Pentecostals are always taking issue with those churches that are so suspicious of spiritual experiences, and which end up in a dead orthodoxy with none of the life of God moving within them.

But the problem is, Holy Spirit circles can be guilty of exactly the same sort of problem from the other extreme. That is, they can be so enamored of subjective experiences that they do not realize they are moving beyond the basic spirit of the Biblical revelation of God and His Kingdom.  As a result, they end up developing an attitude and a walk that can only be described as "super spiritual":

• They "never do anything but by the ‘leading of the Lord’". 
• They’re always seeking for the novel and the flattering. 
• They don’t care much about doctrine, sound or otherwise, because that’s all just boring "head knowledge" anyhow.  Yet therein they show contempt for God’s truth, and an unwillingness to really learn from and serve God in patience and humility.
• They’re always pushing the envelope, vying amongst one another to be on the supposed "cutting edge" of "what God is doing" lately, or to come up with some new revelati
  on to impress their peers. 
• They show little concern for what the Bible condemns as "private interpretations" (2 Pet 1:20), and their views of things are often not susceptible to an objective measure. 
• They’re always seeking for some newer and deeper revelation of God and His Kingdom. 
• They often come up with prophecies or predictions that turn out to be patently false, but it never seems to bother them or their supporters very much. 
• Very often you find that their ways are unstable and that the path behind them is strewn with the wreckage of erratic and impulsive decisions that were supposedly made by the leading of God but really make little sense to anyone else.  And when you question their judgment, what you get is a "spiritualized" explanation, that in some mysterious way "God was in it all", or whatever.

We can call this problem the New Gnosticism of our day. And though I realize that what I’m talking about is not necessarily the exact same "damnable heresies" (2 Pet 2:1) that so plagued the early Church, what I am talking about are several characteristics or principles of ancient Gnosticism that linger to this day and are a trap to spiritually-minded people.

In contrast to all this, God tells us in His Word that our job is to "earnestly contend for the faith which was, (literally), ‘once-and-for-all-delivered’ to the saints" (Jude 4).  He warns us to be ready to hold ground against the inevitable onslaught of false teachers to come (2 Pet 2:1).  In short, we are to understand the value and place of plain old knowing things about God. 

This of course includes things like the place of sound doctrine and the importance of staying within the bounds of the revealed Word, things that Holy Spirit churches generally do not dispute in theory.  The problem is, it’s something bigger than that.  It goes to the issue of our general philosophy of Christianity, and our sense of not just what the Bible is saying, but what a proper interpretation of it means.  It has to do with our general sense of what God is like, what He wants from human beings, and what it means to be spiritual.

God, I Can’t Feel You Right Now

Herein lies another large problem in the Pentecostal church in America today. I continually see people being told that if they aren’t experiencing God, it is because of unconfessed sin in their lives. I have watched many people cry in frustration because they have confessed every sin they could think of and still couldn’t “feel” God or receive the Baptism in the Holy Spirit.

For those of you with no background Pentecostal knowledge, Pentecostals hold that once one receives Christ as Savior they must then receive a separate experience known as the baptism in the Holy Spirit which is evidenced by speaking in tongues. I won’t even address that issue at this time, except to say that tongues in the book of Acts were meant to visually show that someone had received the Spirit, often when dealing with new people groups coming to saving faith, such as Gentiles and Samaritans. Today, this is hardly necessary in America. Overseas I could still see good use for this spiritual evidence; however it certainly does not always accompany the reception of the Spirit in the Scriptures or in modern experience.

However, even if you do believe that it is a separate experience, understand that the Baptism and God’s presence cannot be attained by our own efforts, it is the “gift of God – not by works, so that no man can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9)! Do you realize that if you tell people that they are not ready to receive based on their own merit or standing before God, you are actually causing people to strive for something that is freely given and freely received? I am not saying it is wrong to challenge believers and make them uncomfortable; the Bible has plenty of room for that. But it is wrong to lead people to base their faith on their emotions and thus become self-seeking. This is only the beginning of problems I am beginning to see.

When someone who is troubled because of his sins is told that he can find certainty and rest for his troubled conscience in some inner experience such as the Baptism in the Spirit, he is directed away from Christ to his own inner spiritual estate. Such teaching directs the troubled sinner to his own experience as the basis for his certainty and the joy of his salvation and places him once again under the bondage of the Law. This leads either to a self-righteous confidence in one’s own inner experience or to spiritual despair for the person who has had no such experience. Confidence in human experience is carnal security, not the inner testimony of the Holy Spirit, who always directs us to Jesus Christ and God’s promise in the preaching and teaching of the Gospel.

The Gospel is the gracious promise of the remission of sins for the sake of Jesus Christ. The forgiveness of sins is apprehended by faith in the promise, and only by faith. The teaching that an inner experience such as the baptism in the Spirit is a part of the Gospel promise and that without the promise of such an experience we do not have the “full Gospel” adds human works to the Gospel and stands under the apostolic curse: “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we preached to you, let him be accursed” (Gal. 1:8).

When we make an experience the object of our faith and seek it as the answer to our problems, or when we remain legalistic about how one receives the Baptism, we make our own personal experience an idol and place it before our faith in Christ and the clear teachings of His Word. Guilt is not a basis for receiving a gift.

According to the Book of Acts, Christians in the apostolic church always received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit solely as a gift, never as a blessing achieved on the basis of human effort. While Pentecostals sometimes emphasize that the Spirit must be earnestly sought after and prayed for, the major passages in Acts constantly refer to Him as the result of a promise from the Father (Acts 1:4-5; 2:33; 2:38-39; 8:20; 10:45), bestowed on the believer when he or she comes to faith.

When one looks specifically at the promise Jesus gave His disciples prior to Pentecost, it is evident that there were no conditions stated and no requirements made of them before they would receive the baptism of the Spirit. No mention is made of the need to pray for the gift of the Holy Spirit, nor that they should empty themselves of sin, surrender their wills to God, and make special preparations in other ways. Luke simply relates that Jesus charged His disciples "not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, He said, ‘you heard from Me, for John baptized with water, but before many days you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit’" (Acts 1:4-5).

There is no indication here that only those who met certain conditions would receive the Baptism. Instead Jesus addressed Himself to all His disciples and made the general promise, "you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit." When Luke records the fulfillment of the promise on Pentecost, he states very specifically that "they were all filled with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:4). It is significant that throughout the Book of Acts when the Spirit descended on a group of believers, it is always stated or strongly implied that all rong> were filled with the Spirit. There is no indication that one or more persons were ever denied the full gift of the Spirit due to insufficient preparation. Nor is there any suggestion of a partial filling by the Spirit as if to imply that He first enters the believer’s heart and life to bring conversion and sanctification and then only later comes in His fullness and power when the justified person is ready, having sought baptism of the Spirit by earnest prayer.