THE BALANCE TRAINIt is a very delicate activity
It has been said that a meeting where the gifts of the Holy Spirit are allowed to be freely exercised is a balancing act.
Think of it as if a circle of people are carefully passing around a tray with glasses of water upon it. They are trying very carefully not to spill the water as they pass the tray from one to another.
One speaks out in tongues, another gives an interpretation, while another sings out in an inspirational spiritual song. Another gives a word of knowledge while another gives a prophecy in song.
This is what it is like. Each and every member of the meeting being sensitive to the Holy Spirit's direction and orchestration. The meeting moves forward and accomplishes God's goals when it is conducted decently and in order. Things run along smoothly with no crash and burns. I have been in large meetings where everyone was singing in the Spirit (singing in tongues) altogether at the same time. when suddenly, without anyone other than the Holy Spirit giving direction, everyone stops singing except for one person. Then just as suddenly someone else joins them in a sort of a duet. And then the whole room full of people gently joins in a chorus. And then an absolutely amazing thing would take place. I would hear gentle rain pouring upon the roof when it is a very dry evening with no rain outside, and yet rain could be heard coming down on the roof. Angelic voices could be faintly heard singing a counter part harmony along with the whole congregation. And finally every voice would go silent as if a conductor had given a hand signal to taper off to silence.
It was at this point that there would be manifested the most powerful spiritual atmosphere where you felt as if you should be taking off your shoes because it was Holy ground that you were standing upon.
There is a church experience beyond the stimulation of the intellect with study. There is a church dimension that few ever get the opportunity to experience. True heart felt worship with Christians who are not afraid of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and know what balance is.
I have had the wonderful pleasure of being in meetings like this.
And
I have been in carnal meetings masquerading as spiritual meetings, when in reality flesh was at work pretending that the Holy Spirit was moving in their midst. Nothing quenches the Holy Spirit faster then flesh acting as if He were
behind their antics.
Reverence dictates that we be sensitive and truly worshipful to insure balance for forward momentum or we will get no where...few make it through the straight and narrow.
Written and composed entirely by
pastor David Sloane
12,03,08
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I wanted to add some thoughts that I had while working today, 12,04,08. Over so many years I have noticed that teachers of the Word always like to down play and marginalize those of us who love the moving of the Holy Spirit.
Just today my son mentioned hearing John Courson saying on the radio something about not validating those of us who desire the Spirit's moving. He said that if we just stay in the Word that would be enough Spirit moving for us.
I beg to differ. Why?
I had this conversation about this topic out in the parking lot of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa in 1973 with the then assistant pastor Lavern Romaine. Romaine told me that there has to be 'balance.' His very words to me on this topic were, "David, too much of the Word and we will dry up, too much of the Spirit and we will blow up, correct balance of both and we grow up."
I never forgot that conversation with him. I have noted over the years that churches that marginalize any operation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit while lifting the Word of God high over everything else, (almost to the point of 'Bibliolatry,') can become some what dry in a sense for me personally.
Ok, so you never heard the term Bibliolatry. Years ago all of us who would go out to the desert to seek the Lord came up with this term on our own. Today it is in common usage. Bibliolatry is the worship of the Bible or any other text.
I have been in churches that minimize the teaching of the Word of God and maximize the exercise of the gifts. Man what a mess! People looking like Funky chickens doing that bouncing up and down thing and others shaking their hands and others shouting. I have spiritual discernment and in some of those places the Holy Spirit wasn't moving at all, but they did their thing any way while insisting that the Holy Spirit was doing those strange things and goings on.
When a church teaches the Word of God in it's entirety and allows the exercise of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, there can be such a sweet manifested presence of God. The sheep need inspiration.
1 Corinthians 14:4He that
speaketh in an unknown tongue
edifieth himself; but he that
prophesieth edifieth the church.
The sheep need to be edified. Above we see two ways this can be accomplished. One is by speaking in tongues. The other is by being exposed to prophecy. There are many other ways.
When was the last time that you spoke in tongues? When was the last time that you heard someone prophecy?
Apostle Paul understood this all too well:
1 Timothy 4:14Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.
Prophecy is declaring the mind and heart of God. It is making known God's will. The laying on of hands is the impartation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Some would teach today that such things have ceased since we now have the written Word of God. They are in serious error and are teaching others to be impotent and powerless as witnesses for Jesus Christ by their false concepts.
2 Peter 1:19We have also a more sure word of prophecy;
whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that
shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:
They quote the above verse as if it declares the cessation of all the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus Christ would have stayed upon the earth and lived out the full extent of His natural life if this were true. But He had to leave this earth so that the Holy Spirit could come. Apparently for some reason, unknown to us at this time, only one person of the trinity can be in resident here on earth at one time.
Although we see all of them present at the immersion of Jesus by John the immerser.
Luke 3:22And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.
We see the Holy Spirit descending and the Father declaring and Jesus the Son in the above verse. The Holy Trinity. With in the one Godhead there are three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is not a force or an energy or an essence, He is a person.
We want this person of the Holy Spirit in our midst. Why?
Because it is He who manifest the presence of Almighty God to us. And anyone who has ever truly been in a service where the Holy Spirit comes and manifest Almighty God, never ever forgets that experience, never!
Once you taste of the 'real' of God you can never be satisfied with less then that. You search and search, looking for that church that 'gets it.' But you never can seem to find it. You leave disappointed until eventual you give up.
Satan steps in and tries his best to convince you that it was all a dream. He gets you to chalk it up to your youthful exuberance or just an emotional period of your life.
No! It was a genuine manifestation of Almighty God that you were ever so blessed to have experienced.
Years and years of Bible study can never do for you what just one simple touch of the Holy Spirit can do for you. It can change your life for the rest of your days.
The mind listening to teaching is important, but the human spirit being touched by the Holy Spirit is just as important.
John 4:24God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
Worship Him in your spirit!
The mind.
Feed your mind on the Word of God.
Ephesians 5:26That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
Titus 3:5Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
Washing of regeneration?
In biology, an organism is said to regenerate a lost or damaged part if the part regrows so that the original function is restored. Restoration.
Renewing of the Holy Spirit. We need this experience that comes of the Holy Spirit. Therefore I desire the moving of the Holy Spirit!
David
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. They that love Israel shall prosper. All Israel shall be saved, but not all who are of Israel are Israel. We who are saved are born again Christians and all Christians shall be saved, but not all who are of Christianity are Christians.
