Archive for the 'holiness' Category

Just When You Thought You Have Seen Everything

Published
by
Carl Thomas
on March 5, 2007
in Christianity, Holy Spirit, Prophesy and holiness
. 1 Comment

I preached this past Wednesday and the anointing was so think people started wailing half way through the service. I have no idea why that happens. I just know that it does.

I had an altar call and had the young people from my discipleship class work the altar with me. For some of them it was the first time they ever saw someone they were praying for get touched with physical manifestations. Nothing tickles me more than this.

Anyway . . . I was working the altar when I came upon a girl I knew had been coming but had not really gotten to know yet. We have lots of people form different cultures come to our meetings and apparently modesty has different meanings for different people. So I came to this (over)developed yet under dressed girl.

I laid my hands on her head and then noticed a cell phone wedged in between pieces of flesh in a manner that men (and most women) would not be able to accomplish.

There are many places in the Bible that talk about how God challenges the prideful.

Up until this point, I thought that I had seen everything. I have even gotten used to seeing people kneeling at the altar with g-strings sticking up out of their pants. I have seen preachers with their cellphone still on their belt while bringing the message (must have been a really important call they were waiting for). I have seen leather-pantsed worship leaders (I spent worship face down on the floor). I was even in a service where a man was sitting on the steps of the altar “prophesying” while cuddling the woman he was living with (sans marriage). But up until Wednesday I had never seen overexposed cleavage used as an electronic devise holster.

Just thought you might want to know that I have been humbled.

Popularity: 17% [?]

Distractions from the Gospel :: The Idolatry of the Tithe

Published
by
Carl Thomas
on December 12, 2006
in Carl's Writings, Christianity, Doctrine, Revival and holiness
. 13 Comments

I am not sure I have ever successfully blogged a series nor am I sure that enough people read my blog to warrant a series since most visitors come, look, and leave. Nevertheless, this has been something that I have given great thought to over the last couple months and since I am almost the only person who reads this blog, it might as well have writings that I enjoy reading! I plan to touch a plethera of third rails but since I do not rely on donations to keep this blog active I can do that.

Note: I am not Adrain Warnock. The majority of my postings are stream of thought type. I am not putting forth a systematic theology though I think I am right on these issues. Chew the meat, spit out the bones.

So I will post a series on modern distractions from the Gospel. These are the little foxes that eat at the vine. They seem well and good but neuter Christians from our mission.

I went to a meeting for an internationally known minister. It was held in an arena and it was all I thought it would be. The worship was incredible and the miracles were real. I had never seen that many people crying out for the real presence of God in one place before and it was awesome. Unfortunately, I had another first in that meeting.When the time for the “offering” came I got my first real offering shakedown. The man doing the stickup shakedown witchcraft manipulation offering message was a well know tv guy in his own right. He began to talk about the “special blessing” that comes when a person gives at the $1,000 level. I turned to my wife and told her that I must have missed that scripture. He began to then get supposed words of knowledge,

There is someone over on the right. And you say, “I only have enough for my mortgage.” God is telling you that if you give what you have, I will bless you. And someone over on the left is thinking that they only have $1,000 to your name. If you give like the widow . . .

I was really aghast. I thought that this only happened in church parodies. I had no idea that people would put up with this. When the usher handed an envelope to me I kindly refused. I did not want my money mingled with any of this.

I am a little older now. I have seen more of modern Christianity since that day and unfortunately this is not as uncommon as I thought.

For in the ensuing years I have seen a theology that puts men in control of God. No longer is He the author but we are. He is not the potter, we are. For, no matter God’s will, if we do not tithe then God is unable to bless our finances this new theology teaches. Likewise, if we sprinkle the offering plate with our magical fairy dust tithe check, all our wishes will come true regardless of God’s plan. Whether it be in ignorance or deceitful gain does not matter. This is false teaching.

But more than the sin of the minister who manipulates the congregant to give, is the sin of the congregant who allows their faith to shift from Jehovah Jireh, the God who Provides, to their own ability to tithe. It now seems that whatever we need is accessible in the offering plate. Whether it be greater finances or a mate, all that is needed is to be faithful in giving money to the church and God will do it.

Is there any more clear definition of an idol?

This is how the before mentioned preacher was not hissed off the stage. The idol of the tithe sanctifies greed. The idol of the tithe tells us that we never have to go without and never have to trust God. The idol of the tithe tells us that it is in our own power have our desires fulfilled.

Right now my wife and I are crying out to God that He bring a buyer for our house. It is all that is standing in the way of our going into full time ministry. A well meaning relative told us about some people that they knew who buried statues of Saint somebody in the yard and then the house sold within a week. One person was Jewish, another was an atheist and it worked. I told my relative that I would rather never sell my house then gain by the power of witchcraft. God is my supplier and in Him alone will I trust. How different is the popular tithing message these days? Is it much different than appeasing saints?

For the record I tithe. My wife and I always have. As far as I can predict, we always will. Why? God told us to. That ended the conversation for us. But we don’t do it to leverage favor with God.

The point of tithing is to be a blessing, not to get a blessing. This is the Gospel.

I wonder how much more the finances of the church would increase if we would simply put our trust in Him? Surely the giving would not be as predictable, but it would be cleaner and more toward His purposes.

Galatians 6:7-8 (Listen)

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

Popularity: 22% [?]

The Election

Published
by
Carl Thomas
on November 9, 2006
in Christianity, Holy Spirit, News, Revival and holiness
. 2 Comments

This is not a political post, it is a revival post.

I had a man tell me on Sunday that we Christians have to vote because if the Democrats win and they allow gay marriage, God will judge this country.  Couple of thoughts straight off the top of my head:

The Bible talks about God’s judgment, at times, begins with delusion.  Lets look at a few things:

Iraq

  1. Do you think that we are winning in Iraq?  Put aside your political views and honestly answer if you think that there will be a stable, non-Islamic government in Iraq in the next couple years.
  2. I think there could be a stable Islamic government there but if God ordained this, as I have heard conjectured, was it His intention to transform Iraq from secular Islam to radical Islam?
  3. Can you give me one biblical account of a war ordained by God that resulted in defeat not attributable to the sin of its leaders?  If we are going to look at this war from a biblical perspective, lets look at it with a biblical perspective.

Leaders of the Political Right

  1. The leading talk show guy on the right just got busted for illegally having sexual enhancing drugs on his flight into the country.  The problem with that?  He is not married and has a recent history of drug abuse.  Yet most of the Christian Right consider him an ideological leader and little was spoken of this sin.  How can Christians have the same viewpoint as this man?
  2. One of the new up and coming leaders of the right got divorced and remarried while his wife was battling cancer.  Christians did not bat an eye.  He is still a leader on the right.

Repentance

  1. The U.S. went to the U.N. and told the world that there definitely were weapons of mass destruction and that Iraq was trying to amass nukes.
  2. There were no weapons of mass destruction.  There was no Al Queda link.
  3. Should we repent?
  4. Can God bless this country if we refuse to repent?
  5. What would repentance look like?

Abortion

  1. Many Christians voted for President Bush on the belief that he would end abortion.  Do you believe he has tried to do that?
  2. Do you think God is expecting less from the lost who do not fight abortion than He does for the Christian leader who knows it is wrong and does nothing?  (i understand the SC nominations but that is far short of sponsoring legislation / making a national mandate)

Finances

  1. Do you think God is for or against astronomical (national) debt?

Self Righteousness

  1. Do you get angry when someone poses these questions?
  2. Is questioning the political right akin to supporting abortion and gay marriage to you?  Is that in the bible?  Might you have been sold a bill of goods?

It would seem to me that Christian leaders have gotten a little too comfy with politicians.  Christian friend, they are not on our side.  They are on the side of their political career.  Do not put your hope in democracy.  Do not put your hope in elections.  There is no political party that can hold back the hand of God in either blessings or judgement.

There is one hope for this country and that is Jesus Christ.  If more churches realized that the only way this country is going to be transformed for His glory is by open revival there would be more fasting and less glad handing.

Preacher, your church needs less voter guides and more prayer meetings.  We don’t need to learn more about the founding fathers, we need to learn more about tarrying at the altar.

Popularity: 21% [?]

Thoughts on the Haggard Episode

Published
by
Carl Thomas
on November 9, 2006
in Christianity and holiness
. 2 Comments

Unlike everyone else I did not try to avoid posting about Ted Haggard.  I have never heard one of his sermons and don’t know his doctrine.  It is just that there is little left to say.  But I do have a couple thoughts on the whole incident post-disclosure.

  • I have found it particularly odd that the response has been so gracious toward him.  It is true that he did repent publicly after a short time of denial but there is a long list of religious figures that were lambasted for far less deviant behavior.  I am glad that grace has been shown but could it be that equally disgusting things have at least gone through the minds of most Christians?  While I hope and pray that I will never be tempted to call a drug dealing male prostitute, I have a laundry list of vile filth that goes through my head from time to time and am eternally thankful that God does not gossip about me.  And I definitely don’t want to tempt God to write my sins in the sand.
  • Until today, there were three people on Haggard’s overseeing counseling team, Pastor Jack Hayford of The Church on the Way in Van Nuys, Calif.,  Tommy Barnett of First Assembly of God in Phoenix, and James Dobson from Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs Co.  Mr. Dobson, stepped down today.

    When is the last time you think Pastors Hayford and Barnett counseled someone on a regular basis with an issue as life gripping as this?  And on that note, now that there is nobody who lives anywhere near him on his “counseling team” is he going to be shepherded through this crisis via phone?  And how do you get counseled by a team?  And if you are a giga-church pastor, can you only get counseled by another mega-ministry leader?

    I don’t get it.

Popularity: 11% [?]

Am I Religious?

Published
by
Carl Thomas
on September 8, 2006
in Christianity, Doctrine, Emergent, Holy Spirit, The Goofy Church and holiness
. 15 Comments

Hear me out for a minute. I don’t fit in. The problem is, I don’t think I want to.

I did not grow up in church. I grew up heathen. I was lost in my sin and thought that God was ok with it. I knew that Jesus was the son of God who died for my sins on that cross. I knew that he rose from the dead. I knew that He was and is God. That seems to be enough these days, but it did not seem to be enough for God.

One day I encountered the living God. He absolutely invaded my life and knocked everything else off of the pedestal of my life. At that moment He became the pearl of great price Matthew 13:45-46 for which I traded everything else in my life for. That was it.

So I find myself today in a Christianity that seems to have had some other entryway than I went through and I wonder to myself if I missed something.

When I am around other Christians I would like to talk about Jesus. If I ever find myself in another men’s meeting that looked no different than any other business networking event I will simply go home and play with my children. At least I would have done something with eternal value.

I believe that we should sin less tomorrow than we did today; and that should not happen by chance. That should be a primary focus. Love God hate the devil. One or the other is not enough.

I was recently accused of being weak and offendable because I said that a new believer should not be allowed to invite his lost friends to get onstage with him to lead Sunday morning worship. I could not believe that this was debatable.  Is this the best the church has to offer? And if so, do I have to accept that?

Am I religious because when I go to a meeting of the called out ones I want people who have answered the call to be separate to lead the meeting? If someone is not close enough to Christ to realize that his lifestyle if filthy I don’t think they should be in a place of ministry. Does that make me a Pharisee? I don’t buy into the notion that all sins are the same. The thought that it doesn’t make a difference if we simply thought about a sin or are currently in it without repentance is total nonsense to me. I think Jesus was making the point that we should strive to be more holy because none are perfect. Not that holiness is futile. Does that make me a works-centered humanist?

I ask these questions but I do not know that I care about the answers. I am on fire for Jesus. I know that my sin is a reproach to Him. I am going to continue to tell other believers that their sin is the same. I want to be around others who will tell the same to me.

I have no desire to be in a church that sets the bar so low that any unconverted person feels at home. Church meetings are supposed to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry. Not a place where convicted consciences are soothed with soft words of a false hope. From my perspective that’s what lots of people are advocating. And I simply do not want to go along with it.

Maranatha!

Popularity: 21% [?]

School of the Prophets

Published
by
Carl Thomas
on July 31, 2006
in Christianity, Doctrine, Holy Spirit, Prophesy, The Goofy Church and holiness
. 10 Comments

I have never prayed for a gift of prophecy. Not once. I have never been to a prophetic conference. I don’t read prophetic websites. Most national prophecies that I hear of just sound like fanciful thinking. (Is it ok that I wrote that? Does anybody think that is judgement?)

There was a time that I knew a man who had run a school of the prophets. They taught people to start prophetic words with certain words and end with other certain words. I went to a meeting where a class that had graduated would minister as part of a final internship. I got a funny feeling about the whole thing. I saw a twenty something year old boy begin a prophetic word to an elder in the church with,

“The Lord says, ‘Son …

I kind of got the willies. Later, I heard a lady give a prophetic word about some gobily gook, begin to walk away, then turn around and say,

“Oh yeah. Thus says the Lord”

Selah

It was about that time that I wrote off the entire prophetic training thing for good. Now I continued to allow the Holy Ghost to train me. Especially because the only thing that the leadership of my church wanted me to do was shut up. They had a new accusation against me every week and the answer was always the same. Shut down the prophetic gift. Undaunted, I went on with the Lord, stood as a witness against that ministry, and in the Lord’s timing moved on. Halleuijah!

Now I find myself in an awkward position. I have a small group of young boys and they are all beginning to operate in the gifts. I find myself discipling them on the difference between what is God, what is the flesh, and what is delusion. One night I was talking with a father of one of the boy’s and he said,

You are doing a mighty work in these boys. I had really been praying that he could be instructed in a school of the prophets.

Inwardly I said, “huh? Is that what I am doing?” I shrugged it off and went on. After church yesterday I had several people who waited around to talk with me seperately. They all had questions about the ministry of the prophetic in some way. Some want clarification on a word, and others want to know how to minister what they are getting. (the answer is almost always, “In love”) I shared some of the small amount of wisdom that I have. Each seemed to be blessed and strengthened in their situations while gaining insight as to what is motivating them to act the way they have.

I still do not endorse the idea of teaching someone to prophesy. Loren Sanford has a book titled Purifying the Prophetic: Breaking Free from the Spirit of Self-Fulfillment. I have read an excerpt and it is excellent. You can follow his postings in the forums at Openheaven.com where he is calling national prophets on the carpet for wrong words. This is vital.

The most important lesson is that the gifts are for the benefit of all. If you think your gift places you in some elite category, you are wrong. Be it prophecy or teaching. And if you are not open to having peer level accountability, please do not step out in ministry.

Popularity: 21% [?]

My Cleansing

Published
by
Carl Thomas
on June 13, 2006
in Christianity, Doctrine, Healing, Holy Spirit, Prophesy, Revival, Tongues and holiness
. 6 Comments

God has been doing a work in me lately and I guess it is time to start to announce it. Steve Sjogren touches on the subject and comes to the conclusion that some people need to stop going to church. No he does not favor home church, he says they should stay away from Church all together.

Growing Edge Buzz: Some people shouldn’t go to church, pt. 1: Crabby is not a fruit of the Spirit: “After following Jesus for over 30 years now, I have come to the conclusion that there are some people who do great damage to the cause of Christ because they continue to come to church week after week. I have no idea what they are hearing in their various churches, but their behavior, based on what is on display in the restaurants they frequent immediately after their church experience, is exactly the opposite of the attitude of Jesus as described in the Gospels.

The Church has become so academic and doctrine centered that we have made the real test, the fruit of the Spirit, a sort of secondary factor in our Christianity. As I posted yesterday, there is a move among some of us to test what we have been preaching and what we look for as confirmations of a move of the Spirit.

I am Pentecostal. I believe in all the manifestations in the Bible (1 Cor 12:7-10) and many others that are not. Yet I am beginning to long for what the original Pentecostals were searching for when they received the baptism, holiness (1 Peter 1:16). They sought to be sanctified. Today that is preached as a sort of byproduct, not a goal.

If we receive the baptism in the Holy Ghost, pray in tongues, declare visions, see the sick healed, yet do not see a work of the Spirit in our own live as manifested in holiness have we really been baptized in the Holy Spirit (Acts 3:19-20)? Or has He just come upon us to do His will (Isaiah 61:1-3)?

God has really been challenging my doctrine and I have avoided writing about it because I am not quite prepared to defend it but God is stirring up a word in me and I cannot deny it. I have spent years praying for greater anointing, deeper visions, a more clear calling, deeper intimacy and I have received all of that. Yet at the same time I have avoided latent sin in my life and fear has kept me from descending into the basement of my soul and dealing with some long held fears. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a mistress and I am not laying in bed for days with depression but sin is sin none the less.

If the Spirit of God is sent to convict the world of righteousness sin and judgement than I do not know how one can claom to be full of the spirit and still live in sin. I am convinced that I am not going to find out! I have been on my face seeking His righteousness and He has been faithful.

In the last several months I have been unable to do things that would not have bothered me before. To that I give God the glory. But I still have to recconcile what I preach with what God is showing me. He is still desiring a Holy people (1 Thess 5:23).

hattip the merge

Popularity: 31% [?]