During a lecture I posed the question of how do you teach a person to
believe. This question was crafted to address the eroding belief in God as
expressed in the world, nation and social media. It was concluded that to
teach on to believe the power of the senses must be
invoked. The five identifiable senses are, hear, smell, taste, see and
feel. Based upon my indoctrination the result of one of these senses can be enough to
invoke a believable response. Looking out of my
window right now I SEE the leaves on the trees moving back and
forth. I know the wind is blowing. This is called
common sense. I could go outside and FEEL the wind blowing on my skin
to reinforce my belief, but if I walk outside and see a huge exhaust fan blowing
air on the trees my belief in the wind blowing is tampered with. To affirm our belief in God we should be able
to look at his works, David was one too often speak of God’s works. Psalms 104:24 O LORD, how manifold are thy works! In wisdom
hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches. If God’s works is tampered
with through trivializing his works, the belief structure is damaged. This is a conclusion brought about by common sense.
In another Bible
study I asked to see the hands of those who believed in ghosts
or spirits. Only two out of twenty or more people raised their hand. When I rephrased the question and asked, how many of you believe in
God, everyone in the room raised their hand. At that point I exhibited a look of confusion that was picked up on by
one of my students who asked me the question,
“Do you Believe in ghosts.” I responded by saying, a ghost or a spirit is the
spiritual manifestation of a disembodied Soul. The look on
his face told me that this did not answer his question. Now the question became, “Can you believe in
God and not believe in ghost?”
The disciple of Jesus had a strong belief in ghosts or spirits as recorded in
Matthew 14:26 And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is
a spirit; and they cried out for fear.
There was a time
when every child was taught to believe in the spiritual
world. Stories of ghost were told and retold by our parent and
grandparent and we were conditioned to believe that anytime we were in a strange dark setting or
passing a graveyard we were likely to see a ghost. In those days it
was said that the spiritual world and the
natural world coexisted and its presence and your ability to interact with it, was
based upon your belief. In essence, to see a ghost or a spirit you must believe
in ghosts or spirits. The spiritual
world response to our belief and
God is a spirit as recorded in John 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in
truth. Therefore to interact with a spiritual God you must
believe in the supernatural world.
Yet we must be
careful of how we use the knowledge of the spiritual world. There is a
gulf that separates the two worlds and mortal man should not try to cross it, nor try to communicate with the spirits that dwell there. An
example is in 1 Samuel 28:7 Then said Saul unto his servants, Seek me a
woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and inquire of her.
And his servants said to him, Behold, there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at Endor. The story is told of
how Saul went to this woman and asked to speak with Samuel. This woman
"a mistress of a familiar spirit;"
that is, one who claimed to have such a spirit at her command--her familiar, as it were,
that the spirits would come at her call--and she would be able to obtain from the
spirits the knowledge of secret things. This seems to have been a false
pretense, kept up by jugglery and cheating; but even if
we were to suppose such conversation with familiar spirits to be a reality, its wicked, for it would be
nothing else than resorting to created spirits to access the knowledge which
God keeps in his own power. All
such conversation with the spirits of the dead, or spirits of any other order, God has strictly forbidden. It
withdraws men's love and confidence from himself and his word and Spirit, and
its reward will be such as Saul received on mount Gilboa. The story end as stated
in 1 Chronicles 10:13 So Saul died for his transgression which he
committed against the LORD, even against the word of the LORD, which he kept not,
and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to inquire of it;
In essence Saul had attempted to harness the knowledge of the spiritual world and use it to advance his natural
standing. We ought to be careful when we attempt to mix the natural
order and the spiritual order together to form a saleable gospel.
The Scriptures
are full of the "Supernatural." The only cure for the materialism of
todays society is to discover what the Scriptures reveal as
the "Spirit-World." There is but a step from the
"Natural" World to the "Spirit" World. The dividing veil is
our "fleshy" bodies. The "heavens" are peopled with Spirit
Beings. They are of two classes, good and evil. They are classified as
"Seraphim (Sara-i-film)," "Cherubim (Chair-rub-bin),"
"Angels" (Good and Bad), "Principalities,"
"Powers," "Age Rulers of Darkness," "Wicked Spirits,"
(Eph 6:12), "Thrones," "Dominions," (Col 1:16),
"Fallen Angels," (2Pe 2:4), "Spirits in Prison," (1Pe
3:18-20), "Demons," "Seducing Spirits." (1Ti 4:1.)
There is the Holy Spirit and there is the evil spirit. There is the
Spirit of God and the spirit of the devil. Man is composed of two natures. It is very important
that every Christian Believer understand what the Scriptures teach us of the
"Two Natures." Because of a lack of knowledge of the "Dual
Nature" of the "New Born" many new convert,
after rejoicing for a while in their new found hope and then suddenly awakening
to the fact that the old fleshly inclinations are not dead, and is led to believe
that they were never converted,
and disheartened and discouraged they begins to drift and finally backslides.
There is a
problem in the household of faith,
a blight is spreading and the wheat is looking more like the tare. New
methods promulgating (prom-UL-gate-in) the faith is being ushered in, yet the
belief structure of God is eroding. The United States, once defined as as
a Christian nation, is no longer
a defender of the Christian faith. Being political correct is more important than serving
the God of old. Things that were once hidden is now being brought to
light and examined and is accepted by the church. God has been has
been redefined and is still being redefined by newly commissioned ministers to
make him more applicable and saleable in today’s modern world.. We proudly admit that God is in charge of our day
to day existence, where in reality it is the devil that is driving the
bus. There is a constant attempt to change the knowledge of God rather than increasing the
knowledge of God. When questions are asked to increase our knowledge of
God we are quickly told that there are things we will never know about God, as
if this is a definitive answer.
The love of God is defined as an unconditional love for us regardless of the
way we are, yet Proverbs 6:16 says,
“These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven
are an abomination unto him:” God enumerates men, not from their outward circumstances, but from their
character. All whose hearts and lives are defiled with wicked
practices are abominable in his sight, no matter how high their reputation is among men. (to be
continued)
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