Book 1 of Musings Lay Hold on the Lord

We are not to seek spiritual principles. We are to lay hold on the Lord our God.

We American Christians tend to be self-seeking. We are pursuing liberty and happiness instead of righteousness and obedience to God. Liberty and happiness are valuable possessions. Righteousness and obedience to God are even more valuable.

As we reflect on the history of the world we can see that righteousness and obedience to God sometimes led to loss of liberty and grief in the present world. There is no problem here, because righteousness and obedience to God lead to an eternity of liberty and happiness in the world to come, whereas if we sacrifice righteousness and obedience to God in order to preserve our liberty and happiness we may spend eternity in bondage and grief.

Because we Americans treasure our independence of action, our "right to be me," the opportunity to do whatever we want with our life, we enter our Christian discipleship with severe handicaps. There is a cross that stands between "our right to be me" and the way of Christ.

One symptom of our desire to be in control of our life is the seeking of spiritual principles. How many books and tapes are there on the market that instruct us in spiritual principles: how to be healed; how to lose weight; how to have a happy marriage; how to be successful in business; how to, how to, how to?

I do not say that the insight offered by the mass of material cannot be helpful. I believe in many instances they indeed are helpful and profitable.

But if we are not careful, we get into the habit of following spiritual principles instead of seeking the Lord Jesus.

It is said an unforgiving spirit can cause arthritis. This very well may be true. But would we concentrate on forgiving or would we go directly to the Lord Jesus and find out what He is saying to us?

"Give the evangelist a thousand dollars and you will get back ten thousand dollars!" Have you ever heard this sort of thing? What we have here is a formula for wealth instead of a living God.

Is God actually a thinking Person or is he a formula for successful, pleasurable living?

Maybe for some reason God wants us to continue in our arthritis for a season while He is teaching us. (Horrors!) Maybe He is working out something in our life while we have financial problems. If so, we can give the evangelist every nickel we have and we still won't become rich.

I notice that the closer people are to God, the less successful these formulas are. God amply rewards those far off whom He is drawing to Himself, when they take the least step toward God. But an "elder brother" who has served God with all his or her heart does not get the royal treatment.

We are being made in the image of Christ. Therefore there are any number of forces operating in our life that are pressing us into God, while the weaker prodigal is dealt with delicately.

Let's think for a moment about Adam and Eve. Did they die because they were disobedient to God, or did they die because they ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Perhaps from both causes.

But what do we gain from this lesson? Do we learn the spiritual principle that if we find out what is sinful we will die spiritually? Or do we learn that disobeying God has disastrous consequences?

Do we have here a principle we can master and use to avoid death? Or is the lesson that we must listen to God and do what He says? Is the important issue that of avoiding death, or is it fellowship with God?

The problem with the "faith" movement is that it invites people to have faith in faith. This is a soulish enterprise and not unknown in metaphysical circles.

Did Joshua command the sun, or did he first look to the Lord?

Did Moses challenge the Red Sea or did he first look to the Lord?

Did Daniel shut the mouths of the lions by proclaiming the word of faith, or did God intervene because Daniel had been faithful to pray three times a day when it was against the law of the Medes and the Persians?

Did Jesus Christ command the loaves and fish to multiply or did He listen to the Father and do only what the Father told Him to do?

I think if we are going to receive God's power in the day in which we are living we must cease looking for spiritual principles, whether they are prayer, fasting, giving, or whatever. I think we need to go to Jesus, finding out what He is telling us to do, and do it.

I don't know about you, but I am not seeking power with God. I am seeking God. I want God. If He chooses to use me in His Kingdom, fine. If not, fine. His Kingdom is His business. I am His servant, His slave if you will, to do whatever He desires.

I have nothing to do with formulas for success because I know God goes in one direction and then another. He is not going to be bound with formulas that force Him to act in a certain way.

You can play volleyball with God if you want to, but I want to get on the same side of the net with God.

When faced with a difficulty we can attempt to solve the problem with faith, or we can call on the Lord Jesus for help. Which is it going to be?

In the last days there will be a spiritual power we refer to as the False Prophet. The False Prophet is the one who upholds Antichrist, the world spirit.

I will tell you who I think the False Prophet is. I believe he is formed from Christians who are seeking to use the power of God without taking up their cross of denial and following the Lord Jesus.

Man is in control. Man uses faith and brings down fire from Heaven. Man encourages the people of the world to be successful in the Antichrist world spirit of finance, becoming wealthy through faith.

I actually have heard it said Christians are to have control of the world's money in the last days. This is the False Prophet upholding the Antichrist world spirit of money and education.

The truth is, Christians are as sheep led to the slaughter. We are not the head of the world system, Satan is. Our role is to be a witness of the Person, will, way, and eternal purpose of God in Jesus Christ. We are not of this world. We are in the world as a testimony against the world. The world will hate us just as it hated Christ.

The Charismatic move is dangerously close to the False Prophet. If we are to save ourselves from terrible deception we had better cease our attempts to use Christ to build our own kingdom, and come before Christ in humility and repentance to find out what He is saying in our day.

God gave us the Pentecostal experience during the previous century. I have been in Pentecost for over fifty years. I know non-Pentecostal groups have known God and have accomplished great good in the Kingdom of God.

I have seen also that Pentecostal people have an insight into the Spirit of God that other Christian groups do not have. They will be able in the last days to hear what God is saying and to move with the Spirit of God.

But they have been led astray by a desire for the sensational; worse than that, by the desire to use the Holy Spirit of God to promote the ambitions of spiritual leaders. This ambition leads directly to the False Prophet, to the willingness to seek the power of Christ rather than the Person of Christ.

It is time now for us of the Pentecostal persuasion to turn back to the one who gave the Holy Spirit at the beginning of the twentieth century. We need to abandon the marketing of the Gospel as though it is some kind of product that we can export using the principles of merchandising.

We absolutely must repent of our personal ambition and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. We are not in competition with other denominations to see how many "conversions" we can obtain. God did not call us to develop pages of statistics we can use to vaunt ourselves. Our job is to bear a true witness of God's Person and to sow the seed of the Kingdom of God as He directs.

I don't think it is too late for us in the Charismatic move to change. The United States is heading toward terrible judgments. Our citizens are going to need Christians in their midst who are walking hand in hand with Jesus, who know Him, are hearing Him, and are obeying Him.

Also, if we are to be effective, we must undergo moral transformation so people are not seeing religious zealots who are attempting to convert them to their own party line; rather they are encountering friends who know Someone who can help them even when anthrax, smallpox, botulism, and who knows what else are filling the air; when exotic poisons are in the water supply; when radioactive fallout is causing cancer.

Gone will be the flashy television evangelist with his endless pull for money. Gone will be the seminars that show us how to be a successful Christian without really trying. Gone will be the soft, humanistic gospel that brings a mixed multitude into the churches.

What will remain will be those Christians who are living in and by a miracle; who are walking on the water; who are eating and drinking deadly things with no ill effect; who are raising the dead; who are escaping from the enemy by a miracle. These will be the Christians who will bring aid and comfort to the American people when chaos visits our fair land.

If you desire to be a help to your neighbors in the days ahead, then draw near to Jesus. Tell Him you are thankful for the spiritual knowledge you have, but what you primarily desire is a close walk with Him. Get to know Him. He always sits as King of the flood no matter how the waters rage.

It is Jesus who will save us in the last days. Not our knowledge of spiritual principles, or our ability to have faith or to speak the creative word, but the Lord Jesus.

We Charismatics have gotten off the track in some instances. We need to cease our metaphysical antics and get back to the One who holds the whole world in His hands. He will be our Fortress through the days of physical and moral horrors that are approaching America.

Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. (Isaiah 55:6-7)

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