Attraction and Revulsion

Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. (Romans 12:9 NAS95)

As I look at the original words for this verse in the Greek I see that it is extremely simple and efficient. There are simply two words for each phrase in this verse making up six words altogether. But those words are full of meaning that takes a great deal more English words to convey than even the number used by most translators. But the simplicity of the original also conveys a strong message as well.

The first phrase says that we should love (agape kind of love) sincerely, without faking or pretending in any way. First of all agape kind of love is impossible to have apart from first receiving it from the only Source of this kind of totally selfless love. So it will not be possible to just work very hard at convincing others that we come across as nice, pleasant and friendly and satisfy this instruction. Even training ourselves to perform all sorts of loving activities may only accomplish fooling ourselves into believing that we have this love and have satisfied this requirement. No, real agape love can only be demonstrated from a heart that is experiencing first-hand the results of being loved with this kind of love.

I am reminded repeatedly in my considerations of these things that I am only a mirror and as such have no ability to produce any light of love on my own. If I attempt to paint a picture of light on the face of my mirror, so to speak, I might come across as very convincing to some who can't perceive the difference, especially if they have not yet seen the real thing. But just because I may have great artistic skills to paint the most beautiful pictures in the world on the face of my life mirror it will never come close to the real-time reflections that could radiate in brilliant beams of glistening glory if I would just have my mirror cleaned and turn it toward the Source of all love allowing His glory bounce off my heart to others. It makes no sense to paint a picture when a reflection of the real thing holds so much more beauty and attraction.

The next two phrases appear to be designed to be opposite sides of the same coin. The first one says that we are to abhor, to have revulsion away from, to push away like the pressure created when like poles of two magnets come near each other. This is in contrast to the action word in the second phrase which means to cleave, glue to, be extremely attached to as with a strong adhesive. And the objects of these two contrasting actions are also opposite of each other. The word for evil that we are to be repelled from includes nearly everything imaginable that is hurtful, bad and diseased. In essence we are to share God's intense feelings of revulsion toward all the sin that has separated Him from the hearts of billions of beings He created to enjoy intimate love with each other and His own heart. We are to come into sympathy with God's view of sin and become emptied of all sympathy for sin in any form.

Equally, in contrast we are to join God in His intense passion for all that is good and live-giving and beneficial. In fact the Greek word for good here is very similar to the word Agape which is the kind of love that emanates from God and holds the whole universe together. While we are to have revulsion for sin, at the same time we must also be filled with the compassion and unselfish love for those caught in the web of sin just as God does. Really, what I find in these verses of instruction are simply descriptions of what God is like and how He relates toward us. We are simply being taught here to reflect those attributes of God toward others in all of our life.

(next in series)

Proportions of Faith

I see some patterns in this chapter (Romans 12) emerging that I want to flush out more into the open. There are phrases that, taken together all refer to what we need to receive to empower us. Then there are other things that we are to do with that empowerment and proportionally to it. Again, all of this activity must not be divorced from the original cause and reason for all of it – a keen and increasing awareness of the depth of the riches of God described in 11:33-36. Otherwise everything we read in chapter 12 becomes just another list to perform, another obligation to fulfill that will only result in frustrations.

In the first few verses Paul is modeling what he wants us to follow. He first of all urges us, because of his own awareness of the mercies of God as his motivation, to present our bodies as a living and holy sacrifice just as presumably he has done. Then he describes what that means and what it looks like throughout the rest of the chapter, in fact the rest of the book. But repeatedly throughout he reminds us that our sacrifice and service should always be proportional to the grace that we have first received and the level of real faith that our growing awareness of God's goodness has grown within our hearts. It is vital that we keep the cause ahead of the effects or we will slip right back into a legalistic mode of thinking and living instead of the spontaneous righteousness that flows naturally from the heart of a redeemed lover.

Filling our minds and hearts with fresh revelations of God's mercies and grace from His extravagant riches is the reason and motivation for us to present ourselves as a willing sacrifice in glad service through the gifts received from our God. This is in the context of being continually transformed by the renewing of our minds and discerning what the good and perfect will of God is and not from an attitude of conformity. Everything that follows must be viewed from and rooted in this solid ground of our growing and vibrant connection personally with God.

The next thing we must be careful to pay attention to in this context is to not allow ourselves to become once again unbalanced in our thinking. We must not allow our left brain intellectual analysis or formula mentality or problem solving penchant to eclipse our heart's need to keep a vital and constant focus on the source of our new life. To do so would be to fall back into the conformity model instead of the transformational lifestyle. Maybe this is why Paul repeatedly reminds us to exercise our gifts according to the proportion of our faith. If we attempt to exercise our gifts beyond the maturity of our faith – which is a description of how much our heart really trusts God in our life – we will be moving into the arena warned against in verse 3, of thinking too highly of ourself or just thinking too much period, out of proportion to where our heart is currently functioning.

I think I am beginning to get a little idea of what this might mean in my own experience. There are times when I suddenly become aware that my mind is running too far ahead of my heart and I have a choice to make at that point. I might be talking with someone or writing out thoughts that I feel compelled to share. But I get a sudden sense of uneasiness that alerts me that something is not quite right and that I need to stop my head and listen to my heart immediately.

It is easy to keep on going at that point because I am often confident that I can handle the situation and I can trust my ability and gifts to enable me to finish what I am in the middle of. But my heart warns me that I may be moving beyond my proportion of faith, my heart-connection with the Holy Spirit in that moment, and that it would be the wise thing to do to suspend immediately whatever it is I am doing and allow my heart to listen in quietness until I feel reconnected and reassured of my peace and my heart-link with God. I also know that when I instead choose to just finish what I am doing and then come back to pay full attention to my heart that the results are always a sense of disappointment and loss. I wonder if that is what Elijah felt like after his experience on Mount Carmel?

This passage (starting with 11:33) is a progressive unpacking of what a life will look like that is being transformed described in greater and greater detail. It reveals that we need to view this new life in the context of our need to utilize the gifts and skills received from God and within the context of nurturing others who are likewise being transformed around us. But like a measuring stick showing up over and over we are instructed to use these gifts according to the proportion of our faith and really no more beyond that.

That brings something interesting to my attention. What is wrong with exercising a gift beyond the faith I may currently have? Is that a problem that we might be able to observe that could be causing many of the problems today in the body of Christ? What would it look like to use a gift beyond our measure of faith? And might it even be difficult to discern this problem?

What might happen if a prophet should use the gift of prophecy beyond or outside his proportion of faith? That might be easy to identity (or maybe not) but what about a person who's gift is to serve others? How easy is it to get into Christian service without being motivated and inspired from a heart full of faith in response to the awesome goodness of God? It seems to me like we might have examples of this all over the place.

What about teaching and exhorting and giving? What about leadership and even the gift of being merciful? Is it a problem to exercise mercy without having a clear experience of receiving mercy ourselves? I think it might be very easy for anyone of us to want to perform any of these activities that might be our gifts outside the parameters of faith that naturally springs up from deep in a heart full of appreciation for what God is doing in our own lives. It is so easy to begin subtly relying on the good feedback we can get from exercising gifts as the measurement of our value and worth. I think we do it far more than most of us ever suspect. It takes a great deal of brutal self-honesty and conviction by the Holy Spirit to reveal to us how much we depend on what others think of us for our self-worth and value instead of solely on how much God values and cherishes us at the heart level.

I know that this is true in my own life. I am constantly becoming more and more aware of how much I crave being well thought of by others as a fix for my feelings of inadequacy and low self-esteem. It seems so much easier to get a good shot of pleasure and satisfaction from compliments on my performance or my helping someone than to focus my heart and mind on finding out what God thinks about me. These confirmations and assurances and praises from others are so much more tangible and immediate than spending the time unmasking the pain and fears in my soul before God and spending time in His Word and His presence. But like every other addiction this has the tell-tale signs of being an empty quick fix that tends to help me avoid facing the real issues much deeper in my life. These fixes are like tasty junk food full of very pleasing but empty calories that leave me more malnourished than I was before.

So I guess maybe trying to use our gifts outside the proportion of our faith is not such a good idea after all. It actually may act just like all other addictions and prevent us from building a more secure foundation for our life with God.

I believe there is also a great danger that is seen all too often, of pushing others to use their gifts beyond their proportion of faith. This can easily happen when praise is focused more on the person and their abilities than on the heart. But what is the difference between needed encouragement for the timid who need to express their faith more openly so it can grow even more, and undue praise for those who may be relying on our compliments as their false source of value? I believe that there is a valid and important place for real compliments and appreciation. I believe that we too often rob others of the assurances that they need that could encourage them to move much farther in their growth and increase their effectiveness in their gifts if they were just more appreciated. Where there is a counterfeit there is also always a genuine.

I believe that our lack of encouragement for others is a big reason we see so little growth of faith within the hearts of believers. That is one of the main reasons that God intends for us to bond much closer into the body of Christ; it is so that our gifts will be used to inspire others and remind them of their value to God and the value of their gifts from Him. Used correctly our gifts are to multiply, not only in our own life but by planting seeds in other lives that can spring up to produce more fruit. But whenever we loose sight of the fundamental reason and context from which we should always derive our worth, it is extremely easy to shift our source of perceived value over to a basis of performance or appearance instead of our growing awareness of God's love for us.

From my own experience I know the value of genuine affirmation that reminds me of my value to God. I also know how empty and uneasy I feel when I receive compliments and praise that focuses on me as if I was the originator of the gift instead of the receiver. I also know how awkward a person can feel when being confused between the two. There are those who feel compelled to remove all attention away from the ones exercising their gifts in fear that praise and appreciation will be detrimental to them and maybe even upsetting to God. I have sometimes been on the receiving end of this kind of this kind of fearful attitude and I can assure you that it does not encourage me to keep using my gifts. It may make the one commenting about me feel more righteous because they did not flatter me but it certainly did not encourage me.

I remember many years ago struggling with this very issue and even asking a person I had never met what she thought about it. I had just visited a different church and had been richly blessed by her piano playing. I wanted to let her know how much it inspired and blessed me for I also had many times been on the other side of that equation without receiving any affirmations. I knew how much I needed this kind of encouragement myself and I felt it was only fair that a person should receive legitimate affirmation for blessing others with their gift. So I explained my dilemma to this lady and asked her what she thought was the right thing to do.

She gave me a most helpful answer that I have never forgotten because of its deep wisdom and insight. She said that if someone's praise and appreciation was focused only on her abilities and skill that she felt it was inappropriate as far as trying to live in the context of praise to God goes. Also, just saying, “Praise the Lord for your talents” or some other such deflective comment leaves one feeling that the person is trying to avoid recognizing you and is more concerned with not saying the wrong thing. What she told me that means the most to her, and what has been confirmed in my own heart ever since she told me this, is for a person to express to her honest appreciation for the skills and effort put forth by the musician (or whatever gift is being used) and then relaying to them the effect that it had on their heart and how much it inspired them to feel closer to God.

When I heard this I immediately knew that this would be the most fulfilling affirmation that someone could give me. It would acknowledge legitimate appreciation for the exercise of my gift while at the same time give me deep satisfaction that my efforts had done just what I really wanted them to do – to attract a heart to move closer to God's heart. I guess what this really means is that if a compliment or affirmation is expressed much more in heart terms than based on externals then its value and effectiveness to encourage the one exercising their gifts will be uplifting and motivate them to use their gift even more eloquently. One does not need to be fearful of inducing pride by showing genuine appreciation if they are honest about what effect the blessing had on their own heart. Otherwise the fear mingled into the appreciation really nullifies the intended effect of the gratitude and the person pretending to appreciate is more focused on themselves and their fears than on encouraging another.

What we all need most is genuine and effective reminders of how much God values and loves and cherishes us. And I believe we need to do everything possible to directly connect to Him to receive those assurances. But I also believe He intends to send those messages to us through others who perceive our gifts and are blessed by them. The greatest compliment any of us can receive for the use of our gifts is repeated affirmations of how valuable we are to God, not because of our gift but because of how He feels about us. In fact, maybe that is the real purpose of every one of these gifts – to remind each other of how God feels about us and how much passion He has in His desire to transform and restore us into close fellowship with Him and the whole family of heaven.

Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly...according to the proportion of his faith. (Romans 12:6)

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Surprises Inside the Gifts

Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness. (Romans 12:6-8)

I took some time today to carefully look over the original Greek words for each of these gifts. What I found was very fascinating as each one is a reflection of some aspect of God's character or attitudes. I also feel it is very helpful and useful to throw out every previous notion or definition of every one of these words before replacing them with fresh, updated and more accurate definitions. There is so much baggage and tradition attached to many of these words that it is very difficult to do this, if not impossible at times. But as much as possible I try to do that. Here is what I found from the Greek.

Prophet – one who goes in front of God to people and speaks His thoughts.

Minister (KJV) – a servant who runs errands, an attendant, a waiter. (Luke 17:7-10)

Teacher – one who instructs and helps others learn.

Exhorter – one who calls people to come near, invites, beseeches, comforts, elicits desire, entreats, prays for. Extremely similar to the Greek word used for Comforter, Helper or Holy Spirit mentioned in John 16.

Giver – to join God in an adventure of distributing blessings, to yield and offer resources to others.

Leader – one who stands before others as one responsible for their care, an example to them of abiding in covenant, staunch and firm in demonstrating a covenant relationship.

Mercy – one who has great compassion on others, pity and mercy.

Here are some enhancers listed in these verses that I also found additional insights on from the Greek:

Liberality – with copious generosity and without any vested interest for one's self. Simple and bountiful.

Diligence – literally means speed, eagerness, earnestness and with care.

Cheerfulness – alacrity, prompt, willing, merry, with grace.

Wow! This is so radically different than the impressions that I usually get from reading this passage. It is becoming clear to me how God wants to reveal Himself in different ways through different people with different facets of His character. Each of these gifts have very positive, uplifting connotations to them and together become a very compelling magnet to draw others toward a deeper intimacy with their Creator.

I see nothing of the hierarchical differentiations that is often associated with the artificial offices and roles typically seen in most churches. We hear these gift words often used to label some people who are appointed positions in organizations, but when I simply look at this passage without reference to all those distractions I find a beautiful description of what the real body of Christ will look like when each person is allowed to naturally utilize their God-given gifts, their unique reflections of some facet of God, in blessing for those around them.

I don't see any implication of dominance over others within these gifts. And that, I think, is crucially important, for the Kingdom of Heaven is based firmly on the spirit of serving and unselfishness and love alone. All of life is to be lived to bless others as we have received blessing and gifts. The whole cycle of life itself thrives on the principle of receiving to give. If a lake refuses to give through an outlet it soon becomes poisoned with saltwater or silt and eventually dries up. These gifts are the outlets that are necessary to keep our souls alive and thriving so that we can be energized in the cycle of life designed by God.

I would like to mention a few more things about some of these gifts that I have learned in the past. A prophet is really one who is a connecting link between God and other people. I think this is not because God does not want to converse with people directly but because they stay so far away from Him and are so out of sync with Him that they are unable to receive many important things from Him directly. It becomes necessary for God to use an intermediary who will translate the awesome thoughts of God into the language of the simplistic and artificial world of the bottom-dwellers.

Sometimes a prophet is shown future events, but that is not necessary to be used as a prophet. We have linked this word so strongly with future-telling that we are loath to acknowledge anyone's gift as a prophet unless they can foretell the future. This sets us up as ripe for counterfeits which are more than ready to fill the spot. The true nature of a prophet is to share God's thoughts with others as well as represent a group of people before God. A prophet must always maintain the viewpoint of how heaven sees people and situations so that their communications reflect true reality.

I find the definition for minister very fascinating considering that all too many “ministers” using that label are too often the opposite in their spirit from what is revealed here. But this description is of a person who has the spirit of a good waiter. I think most of us can remember when our dining experience was extremely enhanced by enjoying the blessing of a thoughtful, cheerful, entertaining waiter or waitress that just made the experience almost more than perfect.

An effective waiter is humble and alert, always ready to anticipate and resolve any situation and need that may arise. Their primary purpose is to do everything possible to enrich and enhance the dining experience of their patrons without interfering or being noticed very much. Their job is to create the most pleasant atmosphere possible so that other people can connect with each other over a meal most effectively.

It reminds me of the spirit of John the Baptist who did everything possible to elevate Jesus and allow Him to connect with people's hearts while not promoting his own importance or ministry. He said he was a friend of the Bridegroom and as such was careful not to attempt to divert the affections of the bride. Jesus said that John was the greatest of anyone who had been born while at the same time he was the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. Since the Kingdom of Heaven is the reverse of the way we imagine kingdoms that means that in our terminology John is the greatest.

The meaning for exhortation is one of the most startling to me. The typical ideas that arise in my mind whenever I hear this word is along the lines of someone striving to deeply impress others with their beliefs and doctrines almost to the point of using force. It also brings up images of those who feel compelled to make others feel guilty for not measuring up and lecturing them on being better Christians – admonishment. That may be slightly extreme but is the tendencies of how this word seems to be often applied.

I was amazed to find in my study that this word really means to relate to others in a spirit of comforting, invitation, attraction, etc. Conviction is the work of the Holy Spirit but it is not our work – ever. But we can be used by the Spirit to assist Him in conveying the love and compassion and attractions of Jesus to other hearts and thus draw them and call them into a heart connection with God for themselves. When we view this word in its original meaning it takes on a whole new and attractive flavor.

Leader is another term that has a stark difference in the way it is demonstrated typically and the way this passage portrays it. In God's plan leaders are not to have any spirit of domination or coercion of any kind. A true leader is one who stands up for the covenant that we share with God and by example shows how to live in true covenant relationship with God and with God's family. Again, a leader is one who leads and models and demonstrates, not one who drives and forces and manipulates.

This is interesting given the nature of how the brain works. The left brain learns by receiving cognitive information and processing it logically. But the right brain learns by watching an example or demonstration and then imitates that. I believe the right brain is the primary entry point and communication access used by heaven to communicate with mankind. It is the part directly linked with the heart which is God's primary concern in salvation and it seems to be closer to the spirit part of us.

The other big surprise was when I discovered the real meaning of diligence. It too was very different than the meaning typically associated with it in my mind. Being linked with the gift of leadership I see that a leader needs to be unhesitating in modeling an example to imitate. That seems to indicate the need for a spirit of confidence and assurance and sometimes even boldness in being quick to demonstrate the advantages of living in covenant with God.

I find the last combination very heart-warming as well as instructive. It is important to always keep compassion hooked up with the pleasantness of cheerfulness. To have compassion and mercy linked with the word merry can give it a whole new dimension. I believe the opposite direction may also be important. If we are engaging in times of humor and fun we need to be very careful to be alert that our humor does not fail to always have compassion as the guardian to keep us from hurting anyone. Some people believe that humor itself is a bad thing. But I think this is because too often humor is used in the wrong way and at the expense of others. But just like everything else, there is always a healthy genuine whenever there are obvious counterfeits.

I have found that the most effective presenters dealing with some of the most dense truths to comprehend have made it much, much easier to learn and grasp and remember when the presenter had a kind and cheerful sense of humor balanced with compassion. It reminds me of the food we eat. We do not care for a meal consisting of all heavy, very dense foods with almost no liquids. Our stomachs would rebel at such a spread. Likewise I have noticed that when a person mixes together lightness and humor and stories along with deep, intense and important concepts in a proper way that the truths thus learned tend to linger much longer in my memory and are far quicker to return to my consciousness just when I need them in a real-life situation.

Now if you read the verses again with the light of their real definitions they take on new life and energy.

(next in series)

What Does the Body Look Like?

We, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. (Romans 12:5)

I want to be sure to explore this verse with careful attention to the surrounding context, especially what has come previously. And what I see there is a lot of time spent talking about the differences between Jews and Gentiles and then the fact that from God's point of view they are all really in the same boat. (11:32)

Immediately following that Paul explodes in a gusher of praise and admiration for some of the incredible attributes of God that demand our attention and that reveal His extreme greatness above all of our petty arguments and theological discriminations. As he moves into this section about the body of Christ it must be considered always in view of the Head of that body which is described in 11:33-36, this section where Paul describes the greatness and superiority of God.

Chapter 12 (remember – no chapter breaks whatsoever in the original) begins to move beyond Paul's lengthy exposé on the problems between Jews and Gentiles and launches into finishing his letter by describing what the true body looks like and how it gets that way. I think is it very helpful to not read this section without being sure to start this chapter back at 11:33 so as to keep the head and the body together in our consideration. It is extremely crucial to the health and well-being of a human body to have its head properly connected to the body – that is quite obvious. But it has far often been too easy for religious people to forget that the same applies to the mystical body of Christ. If every part and cell of the body is not linked closely with the energy and instructions from the brain to coordinate the whole, then you are left at best with a vegetable simply being kept alive on life support systems but not useful for any other activities.

Likewise, if any part of the body is not closely intertwined and intimately connected in its proper place with the rest of the body but is severed from it somehow, then it will soon become lifeless and useless as well. The body itself may continue on and will heal the damage from the loss of that part, but the part itself, if not restored in a timely manner through careful surgical methods back to its proper place will soon die and no longer be a viable part of the body. It might become preserved in some way so that it looks like a body part, but its only usefulness after that point is for study and observation to learn important truths about staying connected to the only real source of life.

Paul is making a very solid case here for our need to view ourselves always in the context of our relationship to God as a part of the body, not as independent bodies without reference to anyone else. I am not referring here necessarily to being part of a human church or group that desires to wield control and manipulation over others in the name of the body of Christ. I discussed that last time and there are far too many examples of the abuse of this kind of thinking around to consider. Personally I believe the real body of Christ described here is not very evident at this point in time, at least in large and obvious ways, despite the claims of many. I believe that there are many people who are not now viewed as legitimate members of Christ's body are in fact being cultivated and nourished secretly in their hearts that will suddenly be moved into key positions when the body is quickly and more obviously assembled by the Master Designer and Coordinator, the Holy Spirit. These “dark horses” are presently in living in various places and circumstances that would shock and surprise many but are secret agents for God under His protection and guidance. But many – probably most – of those presently claiming to constitute Christ's body will be very surprised and insulted when they are found to not be connected to the right Head or be fit to integrate into the real body.

In fact, I believe that most of those unfit for the real body of Christ will not know for a long time that they are not part of the true body. Since their concept of the body is much more external in nature and they have carefully crafted and assembled themselves into what they view as the right body, they will feel scandalized at the emergence of the true body being assembled by the Holy Spirit himself and will accuse those who are part of it of being fanatical, of being too expressive and emotional and even of being too rigid and devoted in their absolute obedience and allegiance to their passionate Lover. What I am saying is that there is going to be more than just one body when the time of revelations comes on the earth. But only one body is going to be the true one led by the Holy Spirit who will act as the central nervous system bringing every particle of that body into harmony and synchronization with the Head and with each other.

All other bodies claiming to be the body of Christ will be depending to some extent on external measures to keep their bodies together and functioning. They will be doing everything possible to achieve the results described in the Bible that should be seen, but because they are trusting in alternative methods and principles and faulty bonds to bind the body together they will not realize until it is too late that the body they so fiercely defend and protect and promote is in fact, a counterfeit. They will be completely blind to this in their vehement defense of their theology and their determination to be saved by conformance to knowing the right things and performing the proper activities at the right times. They may indeed achieve unity with like-minded people and produce the results they were looking for; they may even feel a great sense of supernatural power endorsing their cause. But none of these outward accomplishments and inner confidence are the hallmarks of the true body of Christ.

From the words of one of the most respected leaders of my church I find these frightening words about this very situation. They are taken from a revelation received from God about this very condition that is fast taking place today. After describing essentially what I have just shared above I found these quoted words to be vital in unveiling the true depth of this deception over those who have long been worshiping Jesus and obeying His teachings:

I turned to look at the company who were still bowed before the throne; they did not know that Jesus had left it. Satan appeared to be by the throne, trying to carry on the work of God. I saw them look up to the throne, and pray, "Father, give us Thy Spirit." Satan would then breathe upon them an unholy influence; in it there was light and much power, but no sweet love, joy, and peace. Satan's object was to keep them deceived and to draw back and deceive God's children. {EW 56.1}

Love, joy and peace are the missing ingredients noted here. But equally interesting is the presence of increased light and much power. This is a perfect illustration of the danger of what can happen to us when we focus more on external religion instead of being diligent to have a real heart transformation that replaces our roots of bitterness and bigotry and spiritual stubbornness with sweet love, humility and peace. Love, joy and peace are all descriptions of heart conditions far more than intellectual accomplishments. These people did not realize that Satan had taken over in place of Jesus. They honestly believed they were still following the guidance of Jesus and were trusting that their views of truth were still valid and reliable.

But it is very easy to feel that a thrill of power inside of our hearts could be just what we were looking for as our heads receive fresh insights that make a great deal of sense to us and are greatly enlightening. Power is a wonderful substitute that seems to satisfy the longings of our hearts. It makes us feel important and influential and valuable. It gives us a sense of assurance and confirmation that we are right and it gives us boldness to assert our rightness on others.

Many believe that if they just keep focused on having light and searching for light by persistent pursuit of greater intellectual truth that they will be safe from deception. They discount or ignore the heart work that the true Spirit wants to do in them because it is too frightening and painful to have their emotions and memories and feelings exposed that is inevitable when this work by the Spirit is allowed to progress. They insist that there is no need to revisit the past because it is now behind them and is covered under the blood. In fact, it is not really behind them at all despite all their insistence and instead of being under the blood it is being held under the rug – held down firmly by suppression and determined denial.

Just because we have said some words of regret and asked forgiveness for things we have done or felt in the past does not mean that they are resolved and no longer affect our current behavior and attitudes. Far too many believers misunderstand and seriously underestimate the underlying power that their past still has to influence and trigger their emotions when they may least suspect it. They are baffled as to why they continue to struggle with urges and compulsions or reactions that are out of line with their profession and they work even harder to suppress and deny and pretend and believe harder so as to overcome these things in their life.

But being an overcomer does not mean successfully suppressing all the negative urges from within and keeping a secure lid on all our triggers so that we accomplish a measure of external perfection. Believing that claiming God's forgiveness and hiding under the blood of Jesus is all that is needed to be an overcomer is to fall short of the grace of God and allow the roots of bitterness to remain in our hearts. We may faithfully cut off every shoot that shows up in the soil of our hearts but until the roots are exposed and dealt with we will never know the joy of true freedom. This kind of thinking leads to a life of externally-focused religion (which is what nearly all religion today is) but lacks the true heart-transformation needed to knit us together in the bonds of sweet love, joy and peace.

The true body of Christ is bonded and knit together, not with the faulty, unstable glue of fear and conformity but with the heavenly super-adhesive of love, joy and peace. And we will only experience these things as we focus on the love, joy and peace in the character of God Himself. If we view God in any way as One we must be afraid of we are trying to bond ourselves with fear. But God has not given anyone the spirit of fear.

Fear comes from the enemy of God, Satan. The word Satan means accuser and that is very much what he delights to do. But he is also keen on camouflaging his techniques so that his religious bodies appear to be the one designed by God. He is eager to supply whatever element we are expecting to receive from our internal pictures of God and if we desire power he is more than ready to supply our needs. If we want more light to supplement our dependence on knowing “the truth” he will supply our desire. But when these things are received without the requisite atmosphere of the spirit of sweet love, humility, joy (intensely happy to be with each other) and inner peace as well as peace with each other, then we are deceived but have no idea that we are deceived.

The diabolical thing about deception is that a deceived person seldom has any clue that they themselves are deceived. It is always someone else that is deceived because they do not agree with our perspective. Therefore it is always impossible to escape deception by discovering it in ourselves. That revelation must come through light that enters into the heart much more than the head. The light that unmasks deception is the light of the sweet Spirit of Jesus, not primarily the light of intellectual truth. I am more and more convinced that God is far more focused on trying to communicate to our spirit than with our intellect. He does not ignore our intellect, but that is not the primary access point for the transformation needed to prepare us to function properly in this body of Christ.

Only those who are motivated by and give priority to sweet love, joy and peace coming from Jesus more than wanting increased light and power will be able to synchronize with the body of Christ and utilize their gifts to strengthen and nourish that body. We then will not desire to control others or force them to agree with us. We will allow God to synchronize and instruct and lead each person in the freedom and at the speed that He knows is best for them. We will also realize that we have our own blind spots and discrepancies in our own perceptions of truth and will remain open and willing to continually reexamine what we have assumed in the past. We will allow Jesus to be the leader for all of us instead of trying to convict and intimidate others into conforming to our narrow views of truth.

As we focus on the beauty and attractiveness and the real nature of God's glory and character, we will be transformed at the heart level and our hearts will burn more and more intensely with the same passion that throbs in the heart of the Father. And as we live this way we will find that our hearts will be attracted and knitted with everyone who shares our passion to know God more intimately and will share our own experience and insights without any sense of coercion or fear to poison our witness. We will find pleasure and joy in indulging in the servant-spirit of Jesus as we come into closer harmony with the spirit that permeates all the rest of heaven. This is entering into the joy of the Lord.

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Where is the Body?

For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. (Romans 12:4, 5)

It occurs to me that many of the problems that I observe within a church setting are caused because we are not believing something this verse is teaching. At the same time we try to use it to justify artificial distinctions that inflate our opinions of ourselves due to some office or position we may hold. Either way, we are failing to view ourselves and those around us through the eyes of heaven and instead are stuck in the same attitudes of discrimination as that used by the world, only using our own unique measurements of internal traditions.

One of the things that my heart looks for whenever I enter a church or come into a group of people who profess to be Christians is the attitudes and subtle messages given off by individuals about what they believe about the social structure they are in. This is often very different from the words they may be saying or the messages posted in bulletins or on the walls. What I really need to know is whether they are genuinely glad to welcome me and are willing to respect me as an equal fellow believer in the same God or are they more interested in seeing in me another potential subject to build their growing empire. These are not things generally talked about in the open and are even strongly denied sometimes, but I think many people know what I am referring to.

I am sad to say that most churches I enter do not have an atmosphere of real openness, compassion and personal interest in me as a person apart from my potential to swell their own membership roles, and some of them don't even have that much interest. I have attended some churches for many months and even years without ever being invited to join their membership (which given the atmosphere I am sort of glad they didn't). Some try to show me friendship and stay in touch, but underneath the external friendliness I get a strong sense that they are more interested in locking in my allegiance to their local group than they are in joining hearts in searching for God. This has long been a source of deep disappointment for me.

On the other hand I have recently been meeting a number of people in various circumstances that provide indications that they are themselves hungry for a deeper experience in knowing God and my heart gets very interested in knowing if they might join me and synchronize our mutual desires to know God better in some way. So far nothing very substantial has developed from these contacts but they give me hope that God is preparing many people to soon come together with honest and open hearts who are sincere in following His leading.

Because of these observations I am very reluctant to believe the labels that many of these various people or groups wear that sometimes conflict with what I am feeling in my relationships with them. I have an ever intensifying hunger to bond more closely to others who are honest and sincerely searching for truth and to know God much more intimately. I believe that these are the people that constitute the real body of Christ that is not evident as an organization. Of course there is no shortage of organizations and churches laying exclusive claim to being the only legitimate body recognized by God as His true people, but claims are easy to make and proof-text, but heart language is a far more accurate indicator of what is really going on in the spiritual realm.

What does all this have to do with many members in one body not having the same function? Maybe I am simply using this verse as a launching pad for one of my complaints. Or maybe it stimulated a deep hunger in my soul that is still looking for God's guidance and a personal need to remove much of the prejudice and narrowness of my lifelong thinking. I know most all of the arguments used to prevent people from associating with other people considered outside the approved body, but many of those arguments are now falling apart in the presence of the God who uses very different ways of viewing things.

When I read this text I wonder if the prejudices we employ to reject close connections with those outside our approved group are not exposed as an inner belief that everyone approved by God must look, act and believe in strict conformity to our carefully honed list of requirements. Some organizations have hammered out their systematic theology over many decades and are loath to allow any tampering with or careful and open reexamination of what the forefathers and highly educated experts have put together as pronouncements of final truth. This is not an attempt to discredit those who have invested many years trying to understand the Bible and share their findings with others. But the spirit of narrowness and bigotry that is becoming so prominent in the attitudes of many that I meet in most churches is a source of deep concern for me.

I have sensed that there is almost no difference between the attitude and spirit of the Pharisee's in Jesus' day and many who profess to have the truth today. They are so absolutely certain that they have a corner on the truth that they seem to believe they can look down on anyone who does not subscribe or adhere to their rigid ideas. They seem to become more and more hardened in their hearts and more and more determined to squeeze everyone into their carefully shaped mold or be discarded as outside of God's salvation. I am appalled at how many times I hear religious people condemn “outsiders” and sometimes even consider them destined for damnation if they are not willing to come under the control of their preferred church or swear allegiance to their own unique set of beliefs. This is not the Spirit of Jesus working here but another spirit that is anti-Christ. I struggle against this spirit inside of myself because I am so familiar with it, but I do not want to allow it dominance any longer.

I believe that the real body of Christ is vastly different in its composition today than anyone might possibly imagine. This is primarily because man looks on the outward appearance but God looks on the heart. Therefore man tends to segregate according to intellectual assent and profession and outward conformity whereas God is measuring the spirits of men and weighing the motives of the heart that oftentimes is impossible to discern when not in close communion with His Spirit. The more sure we become of our airtight arguments and logic the more prejudiced we become towards many whom God may view as more legitimate children than most of those professing to follow Him in “truth”.

The differences of function in the true body of Christ I suspect may be far vastly different and greater than the simplistic, artificial notions we have typically used to talk about this subject. We usually limit our discussion to the few descriptions listed in the next few verses and then believe that anything not listed here is suspect at best and likely is not a very valid or useful gift for the body. In addition, we tend to view these gifts through the distorted lenses of the world's value system and so turn them into arguments about hierarchy and power and control within the church. We give lip service to the servant/leadership model taught by Jesus but we do not embrace it with our hearts and thus deny the real power – ... holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. (2 Timothy 3:5)

I am afraid that many of the people trying to honestly serve God in many churches are severely restricted in their ability to utilize their true gifts because churches generally have such narrow views of what acceptable and legitimate gifts really are. Therefore most people are forced into predefined molds created by some committee long ago who gave them a label and job description that must be filled each year by new committees to keep up appearances. This may keep the status quo firmly in place and give the appearance of unity, but the body of Christ is stifled and suffocated as wonderful gifts go unused, unrecognized and millions lose out on the blessings they could be enjoying.

I have seen a surge in programs and formulas designed to identity and bring out into the open people's spiritual gifts. I believe this may be a real source for encouragement and breathes life into the stifling narrowness of many church organizations. But most of these programs still rely on definitions that use external measurements and predefined roles that the person might potentially fill within a rigid structure. I still do not see very much of the real creativity and spontaneity that I believe will be manifest when the true body of Christ emerges under the direct influence and coordinated guidance of the Holy Spirit and the glory of God will fill the whole earth.

I guess what I am saying is that I think it is time for believers who are hungry for fresh revelations of God to be willing to think outside the box and allow God to stimulate the natural and abundant gifts He has placed in the hearts of His children without trying to regulate and control them using human and external dictates and definitions. External religion strongly inhibits and sometimes prohibits the outworkings and expressions that will occur when the real Holy Spirit is allowed to take charge. I am not referring to false emotions unleashed and the sanctioning of chaos in the name of Spirit manifestations. I am talking about allowing our hearts to be filled with the passion of God's heart while living in the humility of Jesus so crucial to effective ministry.

Conformity according to verse 2 is the method recognized and utilized by the world. It is the attempt to force our symptoms to align with the results expected from conversion in hopes that the heart will then come into line and love will somehow take root. Transformation is something that must take place initially on the inside at the heart level and must be a work performed by the Holy Spirit as we allow our minds to be renewed by God and by exposure to His Word, which is another way of saying we must think outside the box. We have far too many boxes into which we demand God must restrict Himself if we are to acknowledge His workings. But God is far too big to fit inside any of our boxes and we must learn to discard our restrictive boxes and give God freedom to lead and move His body as He desires instead of imposing our human controls to perpetuate our selfish agendas.

What does this all mean for my life right now? Am I just venting about my own discontent and spouting off to the wind? Maybe so, only time will tell I suppose. But I do know that I have a desire inside that I believe was implanted and is encouraged by God to somehow find my place in His real body. So far I have not seen a place to connect with up to this point. I am not willing to just play the games of church and pretend spirituality; I want the real thing and nothing less. I am listening with my spirit to sense other kindred spirits who are willing to synchronize in their passion to know God and I desire to connect with them as we join our minds and hearts to know and experience God more deeply together. I have to trust God to lead me to these people and to establish communication and bonds with them. My connecting skills are very crippled and so I have to trust God to do most of that work and teach me His ways in His time and connect me with His true body the way He designs it to be.

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Formulas for Faith

For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.

Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith. (Romans 12:3, 6)

I recently wrote some thoughts about formulas in life on my other blog site. As I look at these verses I see phrases that look to me like they contain pretty obvious elements of formulas. These two verses not far from each other seem to repeat something very similar that creates opportunity to learn much from both their differences and their similarities.

The subject or values used in these formulas is grace and faith. Both of these, according to these verses, are received from God and not something we can come up with ourselves. The first verse talks about the grace given to Paul and the next refers to the grace given to each and all of us. The first verse talks about a measure of faith and the next uses the term proportion of faith. Those two words are similar but add additional meaning to our understanding of how to quantify faith, if that can really be done.

This whole section is addressing the need for each person in the growing body of Christ to have a proper understanding of how they fit into that body and how they are to relate to others. Paul is speaking from a vantage point of experience and wisdom and is modeling to his readers what it looks like to relate and function from within the body. He starts out by saying more or less that in using the grace and gifts that he has been given by God he is going to share with others by instruction and example how to best live and operate within the true body of Christ, the bonds of believers.

His very first instruction speaking from the grace received is to admonish us to first of all have a correct evaluation of our relative relationship to those around us and to have proper balance within our own thinking. I spent some time on this verse previously and I believe that implicit in this verse is the exposure of our need to have a healthy and proper balance between our mind and our spirit, our left and our right brain, to be properly experiencing what is called the joy/peace cycle that is most conducive to having a healthy and thriving life. That means that we should not only resist the temptation to think of ourselves using the world's false system of comparisons (hierarchy or variegated values) but we should learn to have a solid, bold, yet humble, proper sense of our enormous worth in the eyes of heaven.

Humility, I am coming to understand, is not feeling worthless or degraded, discounting ourself or being put down by others; that is not humility but humiliation which is something completely different – a counterfeit. Humility is really freedom from false notions about ourselves, freedom from feeling worthless and then trying to do, say or act in ways that might make us feel more superior and valuable. When we begin to see the real truth about God and how He sees us as infinitely valuable to Him and worthy of everything possible to save us and restore us to intimate fellowship with Himself, when we begin to grasp this with our hearts even more than with our heads, we will have the freedom to be humble and not worry about what anyone else thinks about us because none of our true value can ever be received from any other source.

This is really the grace that Paul is talking about in these two verses. The grace that we receive from God is the value and blessings that we receive for no reason that we can produce or earn. That is in sharp contrast to the assumptions of most religion but it is the real truth as taught in the Bible. When that grace is received at the heart level, that sense of value and worth and being cherished by the greatest Being in the universe, then we experience true freedom from all our attempts to get others to like us and fill our emptiness inside. The more we understand and accept the grace of God which includes the gifts of God as itemized in the following verses, the more free we become to not only live in confidence and peace and joy but we can also learn to view others as just as valuable and equal in the eyes of heaven.

But verse six also points out that though we all receive the same grace that doesn't mean we are all carbon copies of a single pattern. God has made everything beautiful and everyone special but also different. Our differences do not in the slightest affect our worth in God's eyes, though in the world's system it has everything to do with our value. In the body of Christ, the kingdom of heaven, everyone is always equally valuable but is widely variegated in the heart expressions of their reflections of God. God intended it to be this way in order for us to be dependent on all the rest of the body in order to function properly and truly find our highest fulfillment.

In Genesis we are told that God created man in His image, male and female He created them. As the human race has expanded and also seriously deteriorated since that time it is very necessary that for a more complete reflection of His image more and more people are needed to fill in the many details and nuances that need to be revealed about God. For anyone to somehow think they have a better handle on what God is like than most other people is to live in a most sad state of self-deception and illusion. Fresh truths about God can easily be discovered by observing differences in cultures, personalities, genders and the unlimited other various differences of categories of people in this world. Instead of focusing on differences as being opportunities for finding faults in others we should view them as positive opportunities to catch fresh glimpses of facets of God.

Of course Satan has exploited this aspect of God's creation to terribly distort the image of God in humanity which is one of his primary objectives. He wants to obliterate the face of God from the earth in every way he can, so many of the differences we see are far from accurate revelations about God. Many of them have taken on the evil image of Satan instead. But we must learn to look past the externals which is primarily Satan's arena of life, look past the artificial and the damaged and we must utilize the eyes of our spirit conditioned with the corrective lenses of heaven to see others as God sees them and appreciate their value and contributions as heaven values them instead of our “normal” way of seeing things. Like Paul we must approach the body of Christ in humanity through the grace given to us and not through our prejudices and bigoted opinions about our superiority.

God has alloted to each a proportion of faith. This word proportion is really like the word percentage. Very clearly a portion is not the whole, it is only a part of a whole. This clearly indicates that God has in a sense divvied up His reflection in humanity into many small pieces that need to be assembled tightly together to better see His true nature and beauty. He has done this, according to this passage, by investing many different gifts that, while different complement each other. These gifts never make one person more important or valuable than another but all are important and valuable because they partially reflect the real and only Source of value anywhere.

These gifts are also designed to be needed by the rest in the body so that we will become completely interdependent as God desires us to be. The most basic description of real love, which is the essence of God Himself, is other-centeredness, a focus on living for the good and benefit and increasing happiness of others. This is not only the principle that should make the world go around but is the basic principle that makes the whole universe go around. It is the core formula by which everything has been created and until we are restored into living and thinking and functioning in perfect harmony with this most basic of all formulas we will be at odds with the rest of the universe and reality itself.

But even more than that, we must learn to live this love from a spontaneity that can only spring from a transformed spirit that is vitally connected (like with an umbilical cord) with the heart of God. Anything less than this is a counterfeit and a cheap imitation that will not be able to stand the fiery exposure to the presence of the center of love. If we are to be truly prepared to face the presence of God successfully – and everyone will be exposed to His presence whether they believe in Him or not – we must be first transformed by the renewing of our mind and have our spirit come alive and be the leading part of our being as it was designed to be by God. Our spirit is our primary communication tool with which God can lead us and influence us. When we cling to an intellectual-heavy, unbalanced religion based primarily on doctrines, lists, proof-texts and fool-proof arguments instead of allowing God's Spirit to transform our hearts into reflections of His heart, we are inevitably setting ourselves up to be disqualified to live in the presence of God and be able to walk in the fire of God. (read Isaiah 33:13-17)

Faith is the natural and spontaneous result of heart-trust that is ignited whenever we encounter another being who demonstrates they are worthy of our trust. It is not something we can work up ourselves or force ourselves to do. It is something innate that just happens at the heart level and it increases as our relationship deepens and our experience proves more and more how trustworthy this person really is. God has implanted in every heart a seed of faith so that no one has any reason to not trust at least to a small degree. Jesus talks about faith the size of a very tiny mustard seed that has the potential to grow dramatically when given opportunities and nourishment.

While we cannot produce faith ourselves, we certainly have the ability to cultivate the conditions to encourage its growth. Faith is a very robust seed and if we give it a chance and feed and water it properly we can experience amazing transformations in our lives as that seed of faith, our proportion of faith, is awakened by exposure to the trustworthiness of the One who put it in there to start with. I have come to realize that instead of focusing on vain attempts to whip up more faith (sort of like trying to pull on a plant to get it to grow faster), I simply need to expose my faith to the real source of life that makes it thrive and flourish – the trustworthiness and the real truths about what God is like. The more beauty and attractiveness that I perceive in my changing perceptions of God the more faith is naturally awakened in my heart.

The whole purpose of all these listed gifts in this passage is to promote this very process. These gifts are not given to make us more or less important than others, or to assault people with facts and doctrines and ideas to coerce them to join our church or to comply with our rules and traditions. These gifts are given to us to empower us to share fresh revelations of God with others and each other in ways that complement each other's gifts and enhance the attractiveness of God to those who are starving from their lack of feeling valuable. Gifts are given to nurture and care and attract, not to force or intimidate or create fear. Our gifts need to be exercised from the context of hearts warmed and filled with the sweetness and purity of God's true Spirit that reveals the passion of His love for every creature.

We are each given a percentage or proportion of faith to begin with but we should not be content to let it remain locked in that small seed forever. For faith to have its intended effects and transform our lives it must spring to life, put down deep roots and spread its branches out into the open for all to enjoy. When it matures it will also spawn more seeds of faith that will infiltrate the hearts of others and spring up to produce even more fruit and the cycle of life is expanded.

The following verses in this passage are all relative to this phrase in verse six that I will take a closer look at later. Each gift is to be used and exercised according to the proportion of our faith.

God, please increase my faith by showing me Your faithfulness, Your beauty, Your heart today. Show me the gifts You have given me and how I can better use them to induce faith growth in others. Bless me abundantly today and make me a clear channel of blessing much more than what I am accustomed to. Fill me with Your Spirit and give me the corrective lenses of heaven for the eyes of my heart today. Show me Your glory and reveal Your glory through me.

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