You do not know what manner of spirit you are of

James and John had wanted to call down fire from heaven on a Samaritan village because they had not received Jesus. And Jesus' response in the title continues “For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them” (Luke 9:52-56). The spirit of course, was one of condemnation and judgement, and this spirit is unfortunately, alive and well and living in the church. I recently saw a youtube video of a man shouting loudly in Time Square starting with the message that God is very angry with them. Such a message at this time, whether it says so explicitly or not, is proclaiming that the carnivorous is God's judgement. Don't get me wrong, God's judgement is coming, but in this age of grace He is holding back judgement because “He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

No doubt this man meant well, but we need to understand that in this day of Grace, death and destruction are the tools of the enemy (John 10:10a). It's easy to misunderstand, because this is not the way it was under the Law. The children of Israel had chosen rules over relationship (Deuteronomy 18:16), in other words they had chosen to live under the Law. Under the Law it is strictly justice, and there were blessings and cursing, blessings for obedience, and curses for disobedience (Deuteronomy 11:26 - 28). But Jesus came to redeem those under the curse of the Law. It is interesting to me that one of the other verses that stood out to me in this morning's readings was “he who is hanged is accursed of God” (Deuteronomy 21:23). This immediately took me to “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree” (Galatians 3:13).

And while we are in Galatians 3, let us also read “Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor” (verse 24). In this chapter Paul chastises the Galatians for returning to operating out of the Law, and when we proclaim disasters as God's judgement, we too are returning to the Law. But we are not under Law, we are under the Grace that was purchased at such great expense by the Sacrificial death of Christ on the cross. Let us not make the blood of Jesus to no effect (verse 17). Let's be very clear, those preachers and prophets who are seeking to interpret disasters as God's Judgement are of the spirit of the Law, they are misrepresenting God in this age of Grace, and they likely do not realize what spirit they are of.

Father, it has grieved my heart in the past that, presumably well meaning, people have so misrepresented You in that they have proclaimed such things as Aids, as Your punishment on gays. You love gays Lord, and You love those who protoplasmic such things. And if it grieve me, I cannot imagine how much it grieves You. This does not mean we do not seek to speak the truth in love, but that is difficult both to do and to hear. So please give us Your wisdom, love, Grace and peace for these things Father, in Jesus Name Amen