Diane,
How do you know when the LORD speaks? Somewhere in between the innumerable truths and rules about how God does this and that in general or has done it in times long gone, there needs to come a still, small voice which we must hear [i]now[/i]. If we don't hear and know that voice of the Spirit, a reasonable question to ask ourselves will be: [i]Are we of His sheep?[/i] Because when the Lord speaks a rebuke, and you don't receive it as a word from Him, but as a word from men, then you in fact resist the chastening of the Lord, and "if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons" (Hebrews 12:8). True, the Lord has spoken at times through the most "unsanctified" sources. He spoke to Balaam through a dumb donkey, but what is said of the prophet? "They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, [u]who loved the wages of unrighteousness[/u]; but he was [i]rebuked for his iniquity[/i]: a dumb donkey speaking with a man's voice [i]restrained the madness of the prophet[/i]" (2 Peter 2:15-16, emphasis mine). If we be in Balaam's position to be spoken to in a such a grotesque way because of our iniquity, then we are most to pity. For the people of God should not depend on donkey's and extreme situation mercies to hear the voice of the Lord, if they can turn now, as it is written: "[i]Today[/i], if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion" (Hebrews 3:15).
But this is a secondary issue, about the various ways God can call to His people--be it a burning bush, an angel, or even a donkey. In this discussion, however, I was not talking about the person listening, but about the person [i]speaking[/i] the word of the Lord, just as he has received it:
But just as it was in the day of Isaiah so it is today. For of him the Apostle Paul said:
"[b]The Holy Spirit spoke rightly through Isaiah[/b] the prophet to our fathers, saying, 'Go to this people and say: "Hearing you will hear, and shall not understand; And seeing you will see, and not perceive; [u]For the hearts of this people have grown dull[/u]. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them."'
It is not the prophet you are rejecting, but the Holy Spirit who speaks through him. For heeding the voice of the Spirit to the church is not evidenced by our ability to quote multiple verses about how God speaks to people, but in the actual recognition of His voice at a given time, when a message is delivered. So we are not found in the shoes of the Pharisees who claimed they could see, while they were blind—and then [i]crucified[/i] the Lord of Glory.
When we (personally) receive a word and a mandate from the Lord, that word is something too holy to be mishandled, let alone counterfeited or counted as common. Let not the vessel that the Lord has chosen adulterate the word with his own feelings, his intentions, ambitions, or prior church knowledge. The elect of God cannot use His word lightly, as seems best to them, "for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned" (Matthew 12:37). So when someone steps up to deliver a message from the Lord (which has been “refined seven times” and come out of various fiery trials) to share the wisdom and understanding God has given him or her, and thus encourage, rebuke, etc., the brethren, he dare not offer the fruits of his self-effort and well-meaning intention. Or else he can add a disclaimer that the message is neither from the Lord, nor according to God's will, but is the product of the prophet’s fleshly, unenlightened mind's imagining (that is, his opinion), and is thus unqualified to impart divine life to the souls of other believers. It is nothing more than a well-meant attempt to console or encourage, etc., fellow believers within the confines of the messenger's own, human understanding of the divine attributes and his own experience. But the [i]danger[/i] of offering others such a word, which is not prodded and given by the Spirit, is that the hearers [i]will trust in the wisdom of men[/i] and [u]not[/u] in the power of God--which will lead them into spiritual stagnation. Such a message cannot "empower us to live righteously in HIS strength," as you said, Diane. For although it gives a certain appearance of godliness, it lacks the power thereof, and thereby reinforces the authority and reign of the self.
It is true that "the GOOD NEWS of the Gospel is that Christ can set us free." However, if that same Gospel cannot free us from dead orthodoxy, from glib theologizing and conjecturing on "Christian topics", from speaking without spiritual understanding as its foundation, or in other words, from a kingdom in word to a [i]kingdom in power[/i]--this is really not a gospel. For if the good news of Jesus Christ has been debilitated to such an extent so that its impact does not surpass a sentimental view and a memorization of the faith’s fundamentals, which cannot produce the promised reality, we as a church are most to pity (Paul wrote about this at large in his epistles to the Corinthians). If we set our hope on the flesh; if we are content to mellow our conscience with a few hopeful words about how great our Savior is, on Mother's Day, which by human religious standards is a landmark of great devotion and high achievement, albeit inhibited by our natural, mental understanding of Christ.
My mom and dad were watching a political TV program a couple of months ago, where the host had invited one of Bulgaria's most respected actors, a once-prolific comedian now in his 70's, to share a fresh look on the dire political and social situation in the country. This at a time when the Minister of Internal Affairs (the police) was publically accused of having established connections with the Mafia, etc., while the communist Prime Minister had stepped up and talked at large about how there was no evidence for corruption in the Government and how he wasn't going to tolerate any political pressure upon the ruling coalition--the general, vain, expected-by-all declaration given by a modern-day politician. I don't watch much or any television, but I happened to be in the room at the time in order to hear what the actor said about the Prime Minister's speech. "[i]This[/i] is a slogan," he said. "[i]We[/i] know it is a slogan. [i]He[/i] knows it is a slogan. It doesn't mean anything. You can't talk to people like that... [i]with slogans[/i]..." He was so broken and hopeless saying those words. Here was a man who was desperate over the ubiquitous hypocrisy and lack of reality in people who spoke the "right things," but whose darkened hearts and minds, and evil conscience, rendered everything they spoke powerless and meaningless, void of life. Here was a [i]worldly[/i] man, who could at least sense, if not identify the issue, better than many church people. As Art Katz, a former Marxist, said in one sermon, "Slogans can't save the world. Even '[i]Christian[/i]' slogans." A creed, a doctrine, a right doctrine cannot save us. A memory of a conversion, even revisited, cannot save us. Man-centered reflections on the nature of God and of man cannot produce in us the divine nature. We need the fire of the Lord burning in our hearts, conforming us to the image of Christ. Otherwise, on the Day of the Lord we risk being found [i]spiritual infants[/i], in spite of our scriptural proficiency and much studying of, and writings on, Biblical words and doctrines. There is a great passage in Hebrews (emphases mine):
Heb 5:9 And having been perfected, He (Christ) became [i]the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him[/i],
Heb 5:10 called by God as High Priest "according to the order of Melchizedek,"
Heb 5:11 of whom we have much to say, and [u]hard to explain[/u], [i]since you have become dull of hearing[/i].
Heb 5:12 For though [i]by this time you ought to be teachers[/i], [b]you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God[/b]; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.
Heb 5:13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a [i]babe[/i].
Heb 5:14 [u]But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who [i]by reason of use[/i] have their [i]senses exercised[/i] to discern both good and evil[/u].
Until we grow as a church into the fullness of Christ, we cannot fulfill the purposes set before us by God. We won’t even suffer persecution, nor have tribulation in the world, for we have been long accustomed to its ways and wisdom and accepted them as our own, mixed together with the word of the truth, so that we have been disarmed spiritually and are of [i]no threat[/i] to the powers of the air. In fact, we will continue to wonder why our testimony is so weak and irrelevant in the world--neither urgently accepted, nor fiercely opposed--and why people don’t see in Christians something they don’t already have elsewhere.
Heb 12:25 See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven,
Heb 12:26 whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, "Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven."
Heb 12:27 Now this, "Yet once more," [i]indicates the removal of [b]those things[/b] that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that [u]the things which cannot be shaken may remain[/u][/i].
Man-made and man-honoring holidays and customs are among those things.
