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Spirit-Led Identity Change
In this chapter and the next I will pull together the various thoughts I have introduced in the previous chapters. My hope is that this will help us to see an overall picture that will encourage and guide us as we make our way through Spirit-led identity changes.
To start, the Holy Spirit leads us in objective and subjective ways. ‘Objective’ is a fancy word that simply means He leads us in ways that everyone can see and judge. God’s objective voice is found in the Bible, and learning its message gives us the standard by which we measure everything else. We can all read what it says, compare notes, and conclude, “This is the truth.”
Admittedly, Christians don’t agree on every detail of the Bible, but in spite of our differences, we have a solid basis for truth. Even when we disagree on smaller issues, the process of digging into the word to see what it says is incredibly profitable. God uses it to equips us for every good work.
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
In order to give an obvious example of why it is necessary for the Bible to instruct and correct us, consider how we would react if someone said, “I think the Holy Spirit is leading me to murder my neighbor.” They might list all of the reasons they feel justified in doing so, and they might have valid grievances against their neighbor. The objective word of God, however, makes it clear that murder is unacceptable. The Holy Spirit will never lead us to do it (Matthew 5:21-22, Romans 1:29, 13:8-10, James 2:8-13). We can all look at the text of the Bible, let it reprove, correct, and instruct us in righteousness, and we become equipped to see that murder is far from the will of God.
God also leads us in subjective ways. This is a type of leading that is more personal. It is the Holy Spirit guiding you or me in a direction that is tailor made for each of us. It will never contradict the objective word of God; it simply helps us to apply the objective word to our individual lives.[16] For example, I believe the subjective leading of the Holy Spirit has led me to write books. He has given me the gifts and desire for this, He seems to be with me as I step out in faith and do it, and the circumstances of my life have allowed for it. I see all of this as the subjective voice of God guiding me into how to apply His objective command in Romans 12:6-8 to serve people with the gifts He has given me. There may be no way on this side of eternity to be one hundred percent sure that I am correct about this specific direction, but I have to take my best shot at using the gifts He has given me.
Others are called to different tasks, and they must subjectively discern what those tasks are. Their friends can help them figure this out, but there will be situations where no friend can say for sure what a given person should do. It is a subjective decision in which the individual is responsible to seek God and discern His unique direction for them. Unless the person comes to a conclusion that contradicts the Bible or is obviously unwise, it may be tough for others to know whether God is leading or not.
In what ways might the Holy Spirit speak to us subjectively? There are many. Sometimes His message comes in the form of a gift we are called to share with others (Romans 12:6-8). At other times the message comes through circumstances and opportunities that come into our lives (Luke 1:1-4, Romans 8:28-29). Often, God will speak to us by giving us understanding as we meditate on His word (2 Timothy 2:7). We may discern His voice of wisdom as we piece together the lessons of our life (Proverbs 1:20-21, 2:6). At other times, we may have a sense He is speaking directly to our hearts with an obviously prophetic message (Acts 10:19-20). Dreams and visions might also play a part (Acts 2:17).
Subjective messages help us implement His objective truth. Our relationship with Jesus becomes more of a practical reality as we sense and follow Him.
I have noticed a perplexing problem concerning the subjective voice of God. I have seen people who seem to have sincere hearts and who have prophetic gifts (i.e. they regularly have the sense that the Holy Spirit is speaking to them), yet they don’t seem to be able to hear the Holy Spirit in how to overcome sinful weaknesses in their lives. (My friend, Nancy, who I mentioned in the introduction of this book, was such a person.)
I have sometimes been surprised as I have tried to help such a person. While I have been speaking to them, the person has spoken words that I believe were helpful prophetic messages for me …yet they then seemed unable to find answers for their own lives! I have been grateful for the help they gave me, but I wondered why they couldn’t seem to find similar help for themselves.
I have spent a good deal of time considering this question, and this book spells out many of my conclusions. In short, I believe that obviously prophetic experiences, by themselves, do not enable God’s children to walk in the Spirit and overcome sin. Though they give a person a strong feeling that they are being led by the Spirit, obviously prophetic experiences are only a part of what being Spirit-led means. Without adding the less spiritual-feeling parts, like the way God calls for us to obey the voice of the Holy Spirit recorded in the text of the Bible, our hearts will fail to develop the sort of relationship with Jesus that transforms our lives.
Perhaps the most public and extreme examples of this problem are prophetic ministers who have had ongoing struggles with major sins. For example, in the 1970’s and 1980’s there was a man named Lonnie Frisbee who was key to starting two large Christian movements: the Jesus Revolution movement and the Vineyard movement. (Lonnie was one of the main characters in the recent movie: Jesus Revolution.[17]) He was used powerfully in evangelism and prophetic ministry. Many thousands of people turned to Jesus and were set on fire for God as a result of the movements he helped birth.
Yet Lonnie died from AIDS, which he likely contracted from falling into either drug use or homosexual sin.[18]
It would be easy to write Lonnie off as a hypocrite, or to use him as an example of why we should avoid attempting to move in prophetic gifts, but I believe this is overly-simplified. The Bible teaches us to desire to prophesy (1 Corinthians 14:1), and I have personally benefited as people have done so. I am therefore motivated to seek to understand the place of prophecy in the Christian life. How can we benefit from it without letting our flesh use it as an excuse to avoid the tough wisdom and discipline that following Jesus requires?
I have concluded that having a prophetic gift can actually distract an immature believer from the difficult task of developing a full life of being led by the Spirit. They sometimes attempt to rely on the gift as a “more spiritual” way of living rather than learning to use their mind, will, and emotions to embrace the truths of the Bible. As a result, they can let sin deceive their hearts – just as we can let sin deceive our hearts through other good gifts. For example, sin can use God’s commandments to deceive us.
But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. …For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.
(Romans 7:8, 11-14)
When sin uses something good to lead us into evil, it shows that sin is exceedingly sinful. Human beings tend to distort what God gives us, so we shouldn’t be surprised when this happens with prophecy. After all, if our sinful hearts can twist the good commandments of God – the objective word of God found in the Bible – into justification for pride, self-righteousness, or feeling that obedience is so difficult that we have no choice but to disobey, how much more can our sinful hearts twist prophecy?
Sin can make us feel so spiritual that we justify not embracing the pain of practical obedience. We want a more exciting answer, so we look for obviously prophetic experiences when we need to find Jesus in the middle of the daily grind of choosing to do the will of God. This misleads us into raising prophetic experiences to an unhealthy place.
In the presence of prophetic power, a person can come to think that every problem can be solved by receiving a specific “just for me” word from God. As a young man, it was what I thought. I hung on to that hope for years, and I only gave up on it because my failure to obey God confronted me with the fact that my sins were not going to be overcome in that way. The written word of God reproved, corrected, and instructed me to recognize that I needed to seek Him for better answers.
I found those answers as I embraced the difficulty of day by day facing my brokenness and finding God’s way to overcome it. This was far more down to earth and “unspiritual feeling” than obviously prophetic experiences, but I was still learning to be led by the Spirit. I was growing to recognize His voice, even though it felt messy enough for me to wonder whether I was hearing from Him or not.
Then the transformation took many more years than I imagined it would. I had times when I felt as if God was abandoning me to embarrassing weaknesses by holding back His power. I believed He could transform me in a second, yet He seemed to allow me to suffer through small steps of obedience that didn’t seem like they were getting the job done. I had to let go of my hopes of dramatic change followed by world-transforming ministry. I had little good choice but to embrace the pain of slowly discerning His will through patience in limited success, growth in understanding, and humility in perseverance.
I don’t mean by this that obviously prophetic experiences were not an important part of the process. They were extremely important! I can’t imagine where my life would be without them. It is just that they weren’t the whole picture.
My flesh wanted to interpret them to mean that I had at last found “God’s real solution.” In my mind, prophetic power would at last make my life so exciting that following Jesus would become easy. It would allow me to escape from the sometimes-disappointing work required to actually live like a follower of Christ.
Measuring my life by the written word of God confronted me with true spiritual reality. I came to believe that we all need to grow in a relationship with Jesus in which we make all sorts of sometimes moving and sometimes mundane choices. Spiritual fruit, like natural fruit, requires both the sun and the rain. Through the trials and triumphs of following Jesus in practical life, our mind, will, and emotions gradually produce the fruit of a Spirit-led identity change.
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1 Name : JimboClick to compress comments
Subject: Gifts Vs Relationship
Time : 2023-08-12 14:15:21
It seems that people don't have to have a strong relationship with God to exercise their gifts. At times I think people see fruit from their gifts as a spiritual measure, or consider themselves being a follower of Jesus using their gifts. It becomes a substitute to doing the work you have detailed to bring about the changes - working out our salvation. "they prophesized in my name but I did not know them." Matthew 7:22
They get derailed along the way from dealing with the changes necessary and instead of leaning into God, see using their gifts, and doing religious things as a definition of their christianity.
They end the struggle by giving up, and allow the "ying and yang" to coexist. Which is really not possible. People need a coach who are stuck like this!! Many have lost the motivation and feel like they've dug a trench so deep there is no way out. (their in the trench)
2 ↑↑↑ Name : Bill CaddenClick to compress comments
Subject: Re:Gifts Vs Relationship
Time : 2023-08-12 21:08:00
Good advice from a life coach!
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