Personal Matters

Several stories came across my path in the last week which caused me great grief. The first was a question from an intelligent young local professional about how to recognise a true prophet. In the interim between pastors his church had been exposed to the preaching of a self-styled “prophet” who regularly claimed to be speaking under the influence of the Holy Spirit. This man concluded his preaching series by telling the assembled congregation of mostly elderly believers that the Holy Spirit was not in their church, it was dead and they all needed to repent. A little later a friend sent me an article concerning a sermon by a Melbourne Pentecostal megachurch pastor which affirmed the gay and lesbian lifestyle as long as it was loving[1]. The moving message was met with a standing ovation from his congregation. In neither situation was there the authoritative exercise of the discernment of spirits that Christ has given the church for her maturing (1 Cor 12:10)[2]. The reason why the false witnesses in these above examples were not publicly exposed takes us deep into the heart of the current malaise of the Church.

The Teaching Anointing

Scripture teaches that the Holy Spirit is constantly active in instructing the people of God about truth and error. “I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.”(1 John 2:26-27 ESV). The anointing referred to is the inner testimony of the Spirit, and the Spirit teaches us about the truth which is Jesus himself. ““But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.” (John 15:26 ESV cf. John 14:6; Eph 4:21). Every single believer in Jesus has been given the Spirit to recognise whether an utterance is truly from/about their Lord. As the angel said to John, ““the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy.”” (Rev 19:10). Any supposed word from God that points us away from Jesus i.e. the compassionate Jesus who died for his sheep but also warned the wicked of the coming judgement, is not from God (John 10:11; Mark 7:20ff.). No doubt the Spirit is not heard when he is deeply grieved, but what can be grieving him in so much of the Church today that we seem so deaf to his witness? The answer must be a failure to believe in the power of the cross!

Good and Bad Conscience

When Paul says, “I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 9:1 ESV) he is not merely telling us how he “feels”, he is making a gospel statement. In scripture it is the blood of Christ in the power of the Spirit that cleanses our consciences from guilt so that we no longer fear the wrath of God or of man (Heb 9:14; 22; 10:19-22). A “bloodied conscience” means safety and protection in the divine presence (cf. Ex 12:1-13). Such a clear conscience is a free gift of grace (cf. Rom 5:1). This brings us to the heart of the issue of the death of discernment.

I challenged my young local friend by saying that he already knew that the preacher to his home congregation was acting as a false prophet.  He could not deny this. When I went on to say that the inconsistencies of his own Christian walk had left him with a sense of guilt and robbed him of his authority to speak up, he confirmed that this was the main issue. Basically, he would have felt like a hypocrite if he called this “bold Spirit filled prophet” to order. What about the congregation in Melbourne? I would wager that they have been exposed to years of preaching that has effectively denied the power of the blood of Christ to lead us into repentance[3]. With consciences habitually deadened they regularly grieve the Spirit and deny his witness (cf. 1 Tim 4:2; Tit 1:15).

Hope For the Church[4]

The sole hope for the renewal of both the conservative and acculturated wings of the Church is to turn from law based Christianity to Christ. Both legalism and the rejection of the law of Christ lead to the death of spiritual discernment. The author of Hebrews is characteristically direct, “About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.” (Hebrews 5:11-14 ESV). To whom is the writer speaking –you, me, all of us? It is impossible for any of us to discern spirits in our own strength, here is the key we need, “his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.” (1 John 2:27 ESV). As we turn away from all external law based authorities and grow in our union with Jesus our ability to distinguish what is/is not of God will intensify in the Spirit.

Conclusion

We live in an era of great deception and it causes me much anguish that it has entered into the Church. It is imperative that we turn to Christ. Not Christ the giver of a new law or Christ conformed to the standards of our day, but the Jesus who hung and bled on the cross to cleanse away the sins of the world in the power of the Spirit. As we behold him we experience the power of his blood to free our consciences from every hindrance of guilt and so we begin to sense what the Spirit is saying to the churches (Rev 2:7etc.). Without such moral and spiritual reformation, and the crystal clear spiritual clarity it brings, all prayers for the outpouring of the Spirit are a recipe for mass confusion (cf. 1 Cor 14:33). With it however we can all speak the word of God with boldness, this is testimony that the Lord is seeking (Acts 4:31).