No private interpretation VII. Moves of God.

I said last day that putting Ephesians 4: 12-14 into practice is so big a task that no one group or denomination could possible answer all the questions that need to be answered. To say it another way, we need to trust a wider community that our own traditions can provide. We must not be naive, we have an enemy who robs, steals and destroys. Isolation and disunity is one of his primary tools and goals. Over the years, he has had a lot of success, but God is forever countering Satan's strategy and is restoring in an on going basis, what was stolen from us both in our own lives and in the Church. I am talking of course about revival/renewal and/or 'moves of God'. In addition to being a thief, Satan is also a liar, and is not happy when God is on the move. He whispers many lies into believers hearts. We therefore need to be as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves.

In this month's series of blogs I am not seeking to answer every question that can be asked, rather I am seeking to suggest appropriate tools and some guidelines for boundaries of who and what we should take into account as we "continue in His Word, seeking the Truth" (John 8:31f). We do of course need to listen much more widely than from within these boundaries. Part of the problem is that though we rightly believe that we have the answers (in the Bible), when we don't listen, we do not know the questions the current generation are asking!

There are many pitfalls. The Scripture tells me that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday for ever (Hebrews 13:8), and yet our God is forever doing a new thing (Isaiah 43:19). One of the parables that Jesus taught was of the new wine and old wineskins (Mark 2:22). They did not have glass bottles in those days, so wineskins were cured leather containers into which the new wine was sealed. The leather would stretch as the wine fermented, and all would be well. However these were not recyclable wineskins. There is only so much stretching that a particular skin (container) could make. After a single use, the skins hardened and would crack if new wine was put into them. We need to understand that the wineskins are the structures that we as humans place around the new wine of the Holy Spirit. Rick Joiner puts it this way, movements of God too easily become monuments.

I do not want to pick on any particular move of God, but I am thinking of one where when God showed up, there was a lot of things good things happened. The bars emptied, alcoholics were set free. The people in the group stopped drinking. Well they were enjoying a very different kind of Spirit, and they simply did not want the old wine. The problem was that generations later what happened was that not drinking became a rule. Now the Bible certainly warns of the dangers of excess (Ephesians 5:18; Proverbs 20:1), but it is clear that the use of wine in New Testament was widespread (John 2:2). Some, to enforce the rule, have tried to say that the word 'oinos' (Greek for wine) is grape juice. This makes no sense, for this would render (Ephesians 5:18) as “Do not get drunk with grape juice ...”. Now an alcoholic or someone for whom drinking is a problem, needs to make a rule for him or herself, but to make this a rule for the whole church is with the Pharisees to move towards legalism, and is why Jesus spoke the above parable. Making rules like this not only leads us into legalism, but it quenches the Spirit.

I said earlier that History has been described as a series of cycles consisting of progress, decline (destruction) and recovery. This is illustrated graphically in the Old Testament. This is why God needs continually to do a new thing. And His new things are almost always controversial. Take prophetic symbolism for example. How would you feel if someone who loudly claimed to be a Prophet of God showed up walking the streets downtown stark naked? Even if you didn't, if this happened in my fellowship, I would have a lot of trouble believing that was of the Lord, a lot of trouble. I mean that could not possibly be God could it? I mean He would never tell a Prophet to do that would He? Are you sure? Read Isaiah 20:2.

I would really be uncomfortable with that would you? I also don't think (but what do I know) that God would do that in this culture of pseudo hyper sexuality, since it would be misunderstood in the worst possible way. What I do want to say though, is that the questions we should ask are not along the lines of “am I comfortable with this?” We should be asking "Lord is this really of you?" When we don't like something, or are afraid of it, we must not (as many do) go to the Scriptures to prove that it cannot possibly be of God. We should go to the Scriptures humbly asking “Lord if this is of You, please show me”.

There have been some very strange things that have come out of the recent move of God in Toronto, really strange. Actually strange things have come out of almost every "revival", but they tend to get hushed up in the history, since they are always controversial. Concerning Toronto, google “gold teeth Toronto”. There are widespread reports of people miraculously receiving replacement fillings of gold in their teeth. I have seen it from someone I know. I asked her “How does it make you feel?” 'Loved' was her reply. Can I conceive of God wanting to make His people feel loved? Yes. Is this weird? Yes! Is God allowed to move outside my box? Is it Biblical? Well is it a 'sign and a wonder'(Jeremiah 32:21)? It was a sign to my friend of God's love for her. Is it a wonder? It made me wonder. Is there a definitive list of signs and wonders? Is it of God? Should we rush to decide, or should we check it out carefully, knowing that there is a long history of God's people rejecting God's new things?

I picked on that very strange manifestation, because such things are what you tend to hear first, and need to be dealt with. There is a huge tendency to consider only the controversial or the spectacular. But should not these things be taken in context? There is after all a Biblical way to check things out. It is "by their fruit you will know them” (Matthew 7:20). It takes time to check out fruit. Fruit is not as immediate as are strange and puzzling happenings. Perhaps the most outstanding (though by no means the only) example of good fruit is the example of two of my heroes Roland and Heidi Baker. They met God in a new way through the Toronto movement. Check out the fruit of the ministry they attribute to this encounter (http://www.irismin.org/) - over 10,000 new Churches of brand new Christians (as opposed to recycled believers), since their encounter, and this is just the very tip of the iceberg.

New moves of God are always controversial, and there is always a danger of the old moves of God persecuting the new ones (the old moves become the old wineskins). Part of this is that when God shows up, it is almost always messy (and so open to criticism). Written histories of the moves of God often try to suppress or minimize the messiness, but when God shows up and people get delivered from all kinds of addictions (1 Corinthians 6:11) – they do not become mature over night. On top of this when God shows up, the fellow with the pitch fork shows up too, and he has his people in the very midst of every revival (Matthew 13:24-30), seeking to give is a bad name.

I was weened as a new Christian by a “Word emphasizing fellowship", and the "Spirit emphasizing fellowships" were essentially dismissed as being of the Devil (see "no private interpretation IV"). The “Holy Spirit” move of God, that characterized much of the last century, had and has many problems and difficulties. These difficulties “proved” that this could not be God. But I came to see that this was wrong in spite of my church, rather than because of it. I had encountered some very interesting people, and some very interesting experiences. But I could also see the abuses and excesses. At the very time I was wrestling with what it all meant, the Lord put this book in my hands “Bursting the wineskins” by Michael Cassidy. Michael had been on the very same journey, and encountered the very same difficulties I was at that very moment experiencing. There was one part of the book that grabbed me. Michael tells of saying in frustration to his charismatic friend “Two thirds of this is fake”. 'Yes', his friend replied, ' but that means that one third is genuine, and one third genuine is a lot of genuine!' So I had to decision to make. Was I was going to allow what the Devil was doing along side what God was doing, to rob me of this part of my inheritance? I prayed “God if You have something for me, that will help me in my walk and bring glory to You and Your kingdom, then I want it”. I need to warn you though, following the Lord in this way could very well cost you everything you hold dear (Luke 14:26). On the other hand in His time we will see that it is worth it all.