False Faith
It's easy to make your own "faith" a false God. If you believe that everything you think you hear from the Lord is right and unable to be wrong, soon you will find yourself a slave to what you hear. We want to go in the opposite spirit...we want to be kids and let God be dad.
It is important to hear God...the most important thing...because without hearing Him you really don't have much of a relationship with Him. But then, we need to grow in our understanding of His heart. He isn't a task master, He's a Father. He wants us to grow in our knowledge of Him. This inherently means that we are immature in our knowing and in our hearing:
John 16:12“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.
13“However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.
14“He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.
15“All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.
Oh, to step into this reality is glorious. To receive wisdom and revelation and understanding... Once you begin to hear God, suddenly you are abiding and bearing fruit. But, this also requires a growth in humility. The devil comes as an angel of light.
We have to test what we hear. We have to test our own heart in the hearing and look for the fruit of what it is producing.
1 John 4:1Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
Is "hearing God" giving us more love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, kindness, self control...is it making us more faithful....or is it turning our hearts inward to self...isolating, puffing up, giving us a sense that we have secret esoteric knowledge? This is bad fruit. Hearing the father should overflow into the understanding that anyone can that wants to...that the father loves all the kids and longs for them to hear Him, too!
If satan can't stop us from hearing God, then plan B is to get us to start believing EVERYTHING we hear IS God. This is a pit the enemy digs to catch us and lead us off track. We must keep our hearts soft and our minds reaching for humility. We are still children, we still see dimly.
1 Corinthians 13:8Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.
9For we know in part and we prophesy in part.
10But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.
11When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
12For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
13And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
It is safety to KNOW that you could be wrong about what you think you hear God saying. Knowing you could be wrong isnt faithless...it is actually the basic requirement for faith! Faith is confidence of things unseen that we hope for!
Hebrews 11:1Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
2For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.
Faith is something we act on that we aren't sure of...it's unseen, but yet believed. Humility requires that we are honest about that. This is what truly keeps the heart growing in relationship with God MEEK...or operating with power under restraint. Arrogance puffs up and ramps up and believes God requires absolute knowing to approve the handling of His voice. No good Father wants a child to bear this kind of burden. No. God wants us to try to believe Him...to grow in our understanding that He isn't trying to trick us, but that we are still children in need of His constant corrective voice to adjust what we hear. He delights in the conversation...not in giving orders. We must ABIDE...that means constantly listen for correction. A lot of time we hear God AND our own flesh. The closer information is to our emotions, the more likely we are to get in formation from God mixed up with our own desire for it to mean a certain thing. Even David, a very prophetic man, still needed the prophets Nathan and Gad to help him hear God about issues really close to his heart. Humility requires we are honest with ourselves, eachother, and God about our immaturity...always waiting to be corrected:
John 15:4“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
5“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
Habakkuk was an old testament prophet:
Habakkuk 2:1I will stand my watch
And set myself on the rampart,
And watch to see what He will say to me,
And what I will answer when I am corrected.
2Then the LORD answered me and said:
“Write the vision
And make it plain on tablets,
That he may run who reads it.
3For the vision is yet for an appointed time;
But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.
Though it tarries, wait for it;
Because it will surely come,
It will not tarry.
4“Behold the proud,
His soul is not upright in him;
But the just shall live by his faith.
His hearing wasn't perfect, neither was his understanding...it was his desire to be corrected that made him meek and able to carry such an intense message.
Same with Jeremiah. Jeremiah heard God, chose to believe it was God speaking knowing he could be wrong, acted on the information in faith and THEN knew it was God. This is the mark of a truly great prophet: humility
Jeremiah 32:6And Jeremiah said, “The word of the LORD came to me, saying,
7‘Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle will come to you, saying, “Buy my field which is in Anathoth, for the right of redemption is yours to buy it.” ’
8“Then Hanamel my uncle’s son came to me in the court of the prison according to the word of the LORD, and said to me, ‘Please buy my field that is in Anathoth, which is in the country of Benjamin; for the right of inheritance is yours, and the redemption yours; buy it for yourself.’ Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD.
John Wimber famously said "faith is spelled R.I.S.K".
Faith is a risk because faith operating in concert with humility means I try my best to hear and believe God, knowing He is good and not trying to trick me, but also fully aware that I haven't arrived at the fullness of who I am becoming just yet. Arrogance is allowing what I hear to be my slave master...having to be either right or unbelieving. One takes me to God, the other more and more into my own delusion.
Faith leads to love... believing the voice of a loving Father by a trusting son. Faith, hope and love will never go away. Not everything we hear is God...but God wants us to find His voice in the abiding ... Waiting to be corrected, or proven right by Him. Love is obeying Him the best we can, even when we softly know we might be wrong. I'd rather be faithful than right!
1 Corinthians 13:12For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
13And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
It is important to hear God...the most important thing...because without hearing Him you really don't have much of a relationship with Him. But then, we need to grow in our understanding of His heart. He isn't a task master, He's a Father. He wants us to grow in our knowledge of Him. This inherently means that we are immature in our knowing and in our hearing:
John 16:12“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.
13“However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.
14“He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.
15“All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.
Oh, to step into this reality is glorious. To receive wisdom and revelation and understanding... Once you begin to hear God, suddenly you are abiding and bearing fruit. But, this also requires a growth in humility. The devil comes as an angel of light.
We have to test what we hear. We have to test our own heart in the hearing and look for the fruit of what it is producing.
1 John 4:1Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
Is "hearing God" giving us more love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, kindness, self control...is it making us more faithful....or is it turning our hearts inward to self...isolating, puffing up, giving us a sense that we have secret esoteric knowledge? This is bad fruit. Hearing the father should overflow into the understanding that anyone can that wants to...that the father loves all the kids and longs for them to hear Him, too!
If satan can't stop us from hearing God, then plan B is to get us to start believing EVERYTHING we hear IS God. This is a pit the enemy digs to catch us and lead us off track. We must keep our hearts soft and our minds reaching for humility. We are still children, we still see dimly.
1 Corinthians 13:8Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.
9For we know in part and we prophesy in part.
10But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.
11When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
12For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
13And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
It is safety to KNOW that you could be wrong about what you think you hear God saying. Knowing you could be wrong isnt faithless...it is actually the basic requirement for faith! Faith is confidence of things unseen that we hope for!
Hebrews 11:1Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
2For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.
Faith is something we act on that we aren't sure of...it's unseen, but yet believed. Humility requires that we are honest about that. This is what truly keeps the heart growing in relationship with God MEEK...or operating with power under restraint. Arrogance puffs up and ramps up and believes God requires absolute knowing to approve the handling of His voice. No good Father wants a child to bear this kind of burden. No. God wants us to try to believe Him...to grow in our understanding that He isn't trying to trick us, but that we are still children in need of His constant corrective voice to adjust what we hear. He delights in the conversation...not in giving orders. We must ABIDE...that means constantly listen for correction. A lot of time we hear God AND our own flesh. The closer information is to our emotions, the more likely we are to get in formation from God mixed up with our own desire for it to mean a certain thing. Even David, a very prophetic man, still needed the prophets Nathan and Gad to help him hear God about issues really close to his heart. Humility requires we are honest with ourselves, eachother, and God about our immaturity...always waiting to be corrected:
John 15:4“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
5“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
Habakkuk was an old testament prophet:
Habakkuk 2:1I will stand my watch
And set myself on the rampart,
And watch to see what He will say to me,
And what I will answer when I am corrected.
2Then the LORD answered me and said:
“Write the vision
And make it plain on tablets,
That he may run who reads it.
3For the vision is yet for an appointed time;
But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.
Though it tarries, wait for it;
Because it will surely come,
It will not tarry.
4“Behold the proud,
His soul is not upright in him;
But the just shall live by his faith.
His hearing wasn't perfect, neither was his understanding...it was his desire to be corrected that made him meek and able to carry such an intense message.
Same with Jeremiah. Jeremiah heard God, chose to believe it was God speaking knowing he could be wrong, acted on the information in faith and THEN knew it was God. This is the mark of a truly great prophet: humility
Jeremiah 32:6And Jeremiah said, “The word of the LORD came to me, saying,
7‘Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle will come to you, saying, “Buy my field which is in Anathoth, for the right of redemption is yours to buy it.” ’
8“Then Hanamel my uncle’s son came to me in the court of the prison according to the word of the LORD, and said to me, ‘Please buy my field that is in Anathoth, which is in the country of Benjamin; for the right of inheritance is yours, and the redemption yours; buy it for yourself.’ Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD.
John Wimber famously said "faith is spelled R.I.S.K".
Faith is a risk because faith operating in concert with humility means I try my best to hear and believe God, knowing He is good and not trying to trick me, but also fully aware that I haven't arrived at the fullness of who I am becoming just yet. Arrogance is allowing what I hear to be my slave master...having to be either right or unbelieving. One takes me to God, the other more and more into my own delusion.
Faith leads to love... believing the voice of a loving Father by a trusting son. Faith, hope and love will never go away. Not everything we hear is God...but God wants us to find His voice in the abiding ... Waiting to be corrected, or proven right by Him. Love is obeying Him the best we can, even when we softly know we might be wrong. I'd rather be faithful than right!
1 Corinthians 13:12For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
13And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
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