Faith… Where the Charismatic movement went wrong… I want to ask each of you to ask yourself, “what is the purpose of faith?” Is the purpose of faith to provide us with an avenue to perform great works? Is the purpose of faith to empower us to do the works of God? The charismatic movement has focused on scriptures like … “for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, ‘Remove hence to yonder place’; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.” Matt. 17:20 This is the word of God, and I am not here to diminish it, but this is just one side of the “faith” coin. So how many mountains have you moved lately? Is it because you don’t have enough faith? No, it is not because you don’t have enough faith. The scripture says “God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.” Romans 12:3… Understanding that the “grain of mustard seed” that Jesus spoke of was the smallest unit of measurement that existed in Jesus’ time, then Jesus was saying if you have the smallest measureable amount of faith, then you have enough to move mountains. It is fundamentally important that we understand this. So what’s the deal? Would we all be in agreement that Jesus possessed great faith? I think we could all agree on that. Then we should consider another side of the “faith” coin. Jesus therefore answered them, Most certainly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father doing. For whatever things He does, these the Son also does likewise. John 5:19 Did Jesus lack faith? Or was He revealing another aspect to the works of God that has to be factored into our understanding of faith? The charismatic movement has taught us to “name it and claim it”… or as critics have dubbed it “blab it and grab it”. So, what’s wrong with this concept? Faith is an asset God uses to subject us to God’s will, not to subject God to our will… Let me repeat… Faith was given to us to subject us to God’s will, not to subject God to us… faith was given to empower God, not to empower or exalt our self-will. If we draw close to God. If we walk in the Spirit. Then our goal is to “have the mind of Christ”. To do this, we have to die to self, and live to Christ. Does this sound like “name it and claim it?” Not to me. I think we have had it 180 degrees backwards. God has given us each “a measure of faith” in order to bring our will into subjection to Him, not to empower us to “name it and claim it”. If we, through faith, experience the grace, forgiveness and life transformation of being born again, then God intends to use our faith to accomplish His will, not ours. So how is it supposed to work? Jesus is our model. He walked in the Spirit. He communed with the God the Father. He watched in the Spirit where the Father was leading Him and what the Fathers will was and he said “The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do”. So, when Jesus was led by the Sprit to do some work of God, and He did it in faith, the result was that the Father always made it happen. You see, the charismatic movement has tried to make faith something we use to accomplish our wills. Jesus used faith to accomplish God the Father’s will. God’s intention was for faith to accomplish His works, not ours. God’s intention is for faith to operate only when our will is subjected to Him. The charismatic movement has laid waste to many a believer’s faith because this doctrine simply failed to work as advertized. Christians who embraced these beliefs and tried to operate in the beliefs found the doctrine simply did not work… the result was to conclude that they were either spiritually deficient, or that God’s word was not true, or that they didn’t have enough faith. Thus we had scores of Christians constantly seeking “more faith”. But what did Jesus say when the Apostles came to him and said “Increase our faith” in Luke 17? He said “If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamore tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you”. So what was He saying? When the Apostles were focusing on obtaining more faith, Jesus was saying don’t focus on more faith, you already have enough. But immediately following that scripture he said “But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat? 8 And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink?” So we understand that Jesus was providing CONTEXT after his statement about having small faith that uproots the Sycamore tree and casts it into the ocean. Context that told them to focus on serving their master first, and then God would take care of them. Focusing on more faith creates a “faith in faith” mindset. This is a vicious circle. So we have had scores of Christians running around trying to develop “more faith”, in an effort to reach the promised land of “name it and claim it”, and never quite getting there. Jesus said “Have faith in God…” Focusing on God’s will creates a “faith in God” mindset. Faith in God, coupled with being in-tune with God’s will by having died to self will, produces mighty works of God. Faith in faith, while we try to empower our self-will, produces powerlessness and death. So, I have come to a different conclusion. I have concluded that the “name and claim it” doctrines were an exaltation of human will, instead of an exaltation of God’s will. As such, they were doomed to failure. They have caused immeasurable harm to the Kingdom of God. They have demonstrated Christians as self-willed, egotistical, condescending, spiritual narcissist. Rather than attract people to Christ, they have brought shame to the Gospel. When Paul was tormented by his thorn in the flesh and inquired to the Lord three times to remove it, His answer was “my grace is sufficient for thee”. Did Paul not know how to “name it and claim it”? Or was it that after the third time, God revealed His will to Paul? And after God revealed His will, do you think Paul kept asking for God to remove the thorn? Or do you think Paul accepted that God had decided that Paul should carry this burden in the light that God’s “grace if sufficient”? Now it gets deeper than this, because Jesus also said “Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” So which is it? Asking for whatever we desire, and receiving it? Or doing only what we see the Father doing? Well, it’s supposed to be both as one and the same. If we walk in the Spirit (as we are commanded to do), we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh and we will have the mind of Christ. If we have the mind of Christ, we will see the will of the Father. If we see the will of the Father in the Holy Spirit, then our desire will be… in God’s will, and our Godly desires (desires raised in the walk in the Holy Spirit) become the will of God. So we have to take all the revelation of God and put together all the individual scriptures about a subject and understand that any one scripture does not reveal the entire picture. When we look at all the scriptures concerning faith, and understand how they reconcile with each other, then the complete image of the truth emerges. So, I’m sorry, but God didn’t make the promises of faith so that He would empower our self- wills. He put these dynamics in place to empower His will. Our charge, as Christians, is to be crucified with Christ, and to nevertheless live, but the life we are to live is not to be unto the flesh… not unto our self-will… but is to be by the faith of the Son of God, who loved us, and gave himself for us… The final result is that as our faith-walk grows, we will be ever more dying to our own will, and will be praying “Thy will be done”… at which point… His “Kingdom will come, on earth, as it is in Heaven.” So what is the biggest enemy to our faith? Our self-will. A self-willed person is too impatient to wait in faith. A self-willed person wants what they want, and they want it now. Where God’s will is to do something when His timing is right, our self-willed impatience rejects the concept of waiting on God. We want it and we want it now. Death to self is what builds faith. A dead man needs no patience. Waiting is not difficult for a dead man. As we strive to die to self, faith naturally builds in us. As we die to self, we live in the Spirit. As we live in the Spirit, we see the mind of God. As we see the mind of God, we are transformed in more faith. As we are transformed with more faith, coupled with the understanding of the mind of God, we find ourselves led to do the works of God. No short-cuts, no self-will, no “name it and claim it”. Just death to self and life unto God. As we reach this goal, the natural by-product is that people will be drawn to God… If people aren’t being drawn to God, then we are not fulfilling the calling of Christ, and God is not interested in empowering us to do anything else.
Posted on: Tue, 05 Aug 2014 19:58:35 +0000
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