Because my husband, Mark, and I serve the Lord in a ministry of Inner Healing and Deliverance, we are afforded the opportunity to engage with people who have varying degrees of belief systems. And as you can imagine, what we think of God and His Nature and Character will affect how we operate in our faith. It will also [ultimately] play an important part in the success or failure of our communities, culture, and the health of our nation. I hear God speaking to the Body of Christ so clearly through Romans 12:3 ... For by the grace [of God] given to me, I say to everyone of you not to think more highly of himself [and of his importance and ability] than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has apportioned to each a degree [measure] of faith [and a purpose designed for service].
I can speak of some roadblocks to the Body of Christ forming a united whole -- not only from what I have witnessed in the Beloveds who come to us for ministry, but in my own path towards the measure of faith that I currently possess. Down through the centuries, Scripture has undergone a re-evaluation by men to fit their natural understanding of the times. The words of Jesus, the prophets, and the writers of the Bible have often been assigned different meanings than what I believe were originally intended. And, yes, I DO believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God, meant to be revealed by the Holy Spirit. But how have men, in their own natural power, interpreted it? You see, the Holy Spirit reveals God's meaning and intentions through supernatural power, while, too many times, men interpret it through their own carnal, natural abilities.
I believe God made us this three-part being for a specific purpose: Our faith life [and the consolidation of our Christian community] comes together through our theology, [what we believe in/with our mind], and our spirit [the supernatural connection with God]. Sadly, I see too many variations of what people believe about God, and too little belief in [or experience with] our supernatural God. I honestly think that what is missing in the Body of Christ is a restoration of what happened to the believers in Acts. When the Holy Spirit fell on them in the Upper Room, they could not deny that they needed to change their thinking about who God was. Neither could they deny that this new experience came with a new power and authority that changed everything about how they related to God and each other.
Today, the Body of Christ desperately needs to understand that both correct theology and experiencing our supernatural God are both essential and needed to unify us [with Him] and to build a Body that can engage in the spiritual realms, fortifying the Body, and defeating the powers of the Enemy. Until we can do that, the Enemy's strategy of dividing us over questions of spiritual matters and theological differences, will sustain a powerless Church.
When members of the Body of Christ come to us to be healed of the wounds caused by traumatic events in their lives [and instigated by Satan's temptation to sin], our goal is to help the person have a spiritual encounter with Jesus [in the spirit] that argues against the lies the Enemy has convinced them are true, due to the sin in their lives. [NOTE: The trauma can come in from their own decision to sin, or the free will of another to sin against them]. But before we can partner with Jesus to help them have that supernatural experience, we have found that their theology can present a stumbling block to having that spiritual experience with the Lord. What they think about God or Jesus can prevent them from even wanting to experience Him. For instance, if they think God controls everything in our lives [and therefore could have, or should have, stopped the beating/rape/molestation etc.,] then they can be mad at God, or mistrust Him, or misunderstand what His Sovereignty actually is.
So, we have to get them to renew their mind and overcome the rigidness of religious thinking, and putting God in a box that fits their self-determined theology. Because of the traditions that often formulate our theology [instead of seeking the revelations of the Holy Spirit], we can often set limitations on God. Can we discern that these limitations may actually be our attempts to make God fit into a human model, rather than earnestly attempting to reach a mature faith in which we become more like Him? Because He is supernatural! He is beyond our human comprehension and His ways are not our ways. And He is the potter and we are the clay; not the other way around. So why is it so difficult to imagine God capable of doing supernatural things? It is all over the Bible if you want to explore what the Bible has to say about the subject! But, sadly, Christians have seen Bible exploration promoted in unBiblical ways, and therefore end up relying on what someone else has discerned -- even if it is theologically incorrect.
The same can be said about considering and exploring your understanding of the Supernatural. It has usually been presented poorly and incorrectly. So Christians are naturally cynical and suspicious of anyone who presents it as a part of the Christian experience. And of course denominational teachings and understandings [from centuries of "indoctrination"] can contribute to resistance against recognizing that miracles, signs and wonders, spiritual warfare, seeing and hearing in the spirit, and spiritual discernment were all modeled by Jesus, as a man! The Church just needs to see that this is what it looks like when we [as humans] work in and with the Holy Spirit! It is Him who gives us the power of Heaven to defeat the kingdom of darkness in this world! We must overcome our tendency to use logic and the power of human reason and rational thinking to defeat a spiritual enemy. Victory requires spiritual tools and weapons. And remember, our God is a supernatural God, who is a spirit! He is not flesh and bones, muscles and sinew; He is not made of material and matter. And it is His Holy Spirit, living in us, that enables us to carry out spiritual endeavors on behalf of our Holy God -- just as Jesus did!
Here is where the Body of Christ needs to come together in unity, fully understanding that we need to renew our minds to combine both Theology and Spirituality in order to become all we were made to be. We are a human being with a spirit! We can use our minds [set on Christ] along with our supernatural experiences [in the spirit] to see that God's will is done on the earth. We need both! It's not hard to see that the Enemy has been hard at work, not only misrepresenting true Theology and our true Spiritual Identity, but confusing us so that our churches/denominations tend to incorporate one of these, to the exclusion of the other. I pray that the Body of Christ will accept spiritual experiences as ordained by God; being always under the authority of Scripture. We must vet everything we do in service to the Lord by Scripture. But, at the same time, we must let the Holy Spirit lead us to a maturity and growth of faith as He reveals new understanding of the Bible that has been hidden by man-made religion. Proverbs 25:2 is a teaching worth remembering: It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, and the glory of kings to search it out. It is our destiny to be kings and priests!
Ephesians 4:12-13 ... and [He did this] to fully equip and perfect the saints [God's people] for works of service, to build up the body of Christ; until we all reach oneness in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, [growing spiritually] to become a mature believer, reaching to the measure of the fullness of Christ [manifesting His spiritual completeness and exercising our spiritual gifts in unity].
