As Christians, our spirits are alive, but sometimes our souls (mind, will, emotions) get in the way of hearing God's voice and mistaking what we think we hear.
I got up on my soapbox about being involved in a local congregation. Since yesterday when I posted, God showed me something else about non-church attendance that I wasn't expecting.
I was this way at one time, and I know a few people who feel this way now. A typical comment that you hear from those who do not attend church is, "It's so dead. I don't like it. It's too much like a business. The people are fake. All it is - is a social club, there's no deep spirituality. It makes me want to vomit because of the facade."
As I was getting ready for bed, God showed me that those of us who separate ourselves from the Body because of these attitudes, show ourselves to be children who don't like HIM very much.
I never would have thought of that, but I really think when we make statements against the corporate Body of Christ because we don't like the pastor, or we don't like the service, or we don't like the music, or we don't like the organizational way they operate - we're saying, "God, we don't like the way You've structured things on earth."
That's lawlessness, people. Jesus said this about lawless people, "Go away. I never knew you - you who practice lawlessness."
Once we recognize these attitudes in ourselves, we need to immediately, and I mean, immediately - change the way we think about all this. Repent just means change the way you think. It doesn't mean I'm sorry, although it could mean that, there could be and should be sorrow in changing our thinking - but it's so much more than remorse.
We have to change the way we think. We have to or we will never progress. We'll be stuck in our lawlessness until something else God orchestrates in our lives gets out attention. And believe me, that next thing will hurt a lot more than the first thing. Ask me about 2006...
I just recognized a lawless attitude in myself about "social clubs" (small groups) just a week ago. But I realize their importance in establishing relationships. And relationships take time. So I 'repented' from my lawless attitude, and I look forward to building relationships with people who are older than I - in my small group. I'm excited about mining the spiritual riches these people have. I'm excited about re-connecting with a spiritual father from Worship Center Bible School.
Prophetic people are the worst when it comes to spiritual authority and lawlessness, mainly because of spiritual immaturity. I was a prophetically-gifted person and I fell into all the traps. Thankfully, I had mentors and teachers along the way who showed me my error. And - God Himself directly intervened in my life when I would take lawless turns. He gave me grace and He corrected me very strongly on several occasions, through people, or through Himself directly.
I'm so thankful for those corrections - even though they hurt like crazy - because I would not be where I am now if not for them. I could have held to my stinkin' thinkin' - but I'm so glad I didn't. Because all stinkin' thinkin' does is delay you. If your stinkin' thinkin' is due to hurts and wounds from spiritual authority, get healing, get counseling if needed. Realize that God wants you to progress and move forward. It may hurt for awhile, weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning.
This too is part of my decisions and consequences series, because if not for certain decisions I made, I wouldn't be writing this. I wouldn't have had the wisdom, and I wouldn't have had the blessings of God on my life.
Thanks for reading. It's not easy reading, but I pray you will be blessed by it.
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