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NASB | Matthew 16:6 And Jesus said to them, "Watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees." |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Matthew 16:6 Jesus said to them, "Watch out and be on your guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees." |
Subject: Knocked out by holy spirit |
Bible Note: Pastor Floyd, Greetings in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and His peace and blessing upon you, my brother! You are absolutely right that we all have a personal responsibility to go directly to the Word of God and take it at face value as the Spirit gives us understanding. It is also right that you defend and have a ready defense to give reasons for what you believe. I feel you've done a fine job of that. I give caution as a concerned brother and friend of yours thru our common bond of the Lord Jesus, to beware the snare that so often comes up in heated debates. :) I felt the Lord once impressed me in the following manner: "Let not the words of men striving amonst themselves disillusion you of My body and My Lordship of My church. Go directly to my Word. Seek me in humility, and ask for the truth to be revealed. Be quick to repent, and open to changes in understanding as they are brought forth DIRECTLY from My Word. Ask Me for the true bread, and I shall not give you a serpent." Oftentimes when we start to get riled, it is because we are walking dangerously close to the edge of making a debatable matter more important than the sheep of the Lord. I am not saying this is true of this case.. only you can know as you kneel before the Creator of the Universe and commune with Him. I know myself I've found myself too many times weeping over my sin after I realized it had passed the point of where I was trying to help someone, and I was just trying to prove myself right. I would challenge anyone that would say that you do not have the right to believe as you believe, as long as you are humbly going to the Word of God with a sincere desire to learn the truth of Him and His Word. I for one believe you are doing just that. So be of good cheer and be blessed my friend in Christ! If it means anything at all, I will offer this. I believe God certainly does want all the things you have itterated in this post. He loves you as a perfect parent, and thus wants all of these things for you.. and certainly he wants them for you more than you do for yourself! He has certainly made provision for healing and all-sufficiency. However, he also warns we will walk thru things that are less than ideal, even as he had to. It's in the Word. I believe the people you have listed have each brought important truths to the body of Christ. I also believe that just as any truth that has been restored to the church, that it is subject to the distortions of fallible man, though the basic truth be 100 percent true and genuine. I will give a couple examples ( and probably get myself into the thick of hot water and debate.. ack, I hate opening myself up for potshots.. heh): 1. Slain in Spirit (I don't really like this term, I personally prefer falling under the power of God. Nonetheless, there are several instances where a revelation of the person of God caused people to fall down as though dead or comatose. The question really isn't if God ever does this, but how much of what we see is God doing it. I don't think anyone would argue that God NEVER does this, or that when it happens it is always 100 percent God. So.. that means some of it is genuine and some of it is not. Counterfeit spirituality.. I think we would all agree.. is very serious and we should be ready to put to the test of scripture any activity we see as potentially counterfeit. right? [End of part one.. part two following. Sorry for such a long post!] |