Behold my children: Be much aware that you are living in the last days. And remember the man warnings that deception will be rampant during that time.
If I do not cut the days short, even some of my very elect will be deceived.
The main problem is that you always are looking for comfort. However it is in the days of your great discomfort that I can work my best changes in you.
My desire is to change you into the likeness of Jesus Christ more and more, every day. And therefore I am bringing suffering and discomfort on you.
Be not discouraged, but endure until the end.
Thus says the Lord.
Sunday, September 04, 2005
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
God's Secret Agent
God's Secret Agent
This is how I perceive the Holy Spirit, the third person of our triune God.
I came to feel that way when the Holy Spirit talked to me in 1970, after I started to addressing and worshipping Him. It was a rebuke, telling me not to continue to do that.
God was displeased with it, although my motivation and heart was Godly.
When researching the subject, I found that not a single person in the New Testament ever directed himself to the Holy Spirit. Neither in worship or prayer.
Studying the Lords introduction of the Holy Spirit , recorded in John 16:7 till 16, I concluded the Holy Spirit is the Lord's working agent in the entire world and that He wanted to stay in the background Himself. Only revealing all things about Jesus, who had been given all authority by His Father. Jesus called Him the Spirit of Truth, the Comforter and Counselor.
Now every time when I hear my fellow Christians addressing and inviting the Holy Spirit to come, it is as if I hear Him shouting " Do not you know that I am with you or in you all the time and that I am permeating the whole earth ? In the unbelieving world , I am convicting of sin and revealing righteousness and judgement to others "
God is very displeased with this apparently unawareness of His omni presence.by His children. The Holy Spirit as a part of God and sovereign, being everywhere. It does not behoove us to invite Him or tell Him that He is welcome. He even goes to places where He is not welcome. !
Jesus declared that specially in believers He is present all the time either with them or inside of them. [John 14:17] There are several scriptures telling us of His presence . Saying that He never leaves us or forsakes us and that He wants us to have communion with him all the time, 24 hours a day. [ 1 Thes. 5:17 ] .The bodies do His followers are His temple [1 Cor.6:19 ]
If you are one of the many Christians who are worshiping and inviting the Holy Spirit, Please consider this writing as a message from the Lord and cease addressing the Holy Spirit.
His and your servant , Johannes Weiss
This is how I perceive the Holy Spirit, the third person of our triune God.
I came to feel that way when the Holy Spirit talked to me in 1970, after I started to addressing and worshipping Him. It was a rebuke, telling me not to continue to do that.
God was displeased with it, although my motivation and heart was Godly.
When researching the subject, I found that not a single person in the New Testament ever directed himself to the Holy Spirit. Neither in worship or prayer.
Studying the Lords introduction of the Holy Spirit , recorded in John 16:7 till 16, I concluded the Holy Spirit is the Lord's working agent in the entire world and that He wanted to stay in the background Himself. Only revealing all things about Jesus, who had been given all authority by His Father. Jesus called Him the Spirit of Truth, the Comforter and Counselor.
Now every time when I hear my fellow Christians addressing and inviting the Holy Spirit to come, it is as if I hear Him shouting " Do not you know that I am with you or in you all the time and that I am permeating the whole earth ? In the unbelieving world , I am convicting of sin and revealing righteousness and judgement to others "
God is very displeased with this apparently unawareness of His omni presence.by His children. The Holy Spirit as a part of God and sovereign, being everywhere. It does not behoove us to invite Him or tell Him that He is welcome. He even goes to places where He is not welcome. !
Jesus declared that specially in believers He is present all the time either with them or inside of them. [John 14:17] There are several scriptures telling us of His presence . Saying that He never leaves us or forsakes us and that He wants us to have communion with him all the time, 24 hours a day. [ 1 Thes. 5:17 ] .The bodies do His followers are His temple [1 Cor.6:19 ]
If you are one of the many Christians who are worshiping and inviting the Holy Spirit, Please consider this writing as a message from the Lord and cease addressing the Holy Spirit.
His and your servant , Johannes Weiss
Sunday, July 17, 2005
Trust and Obey
Trust and obey
Searching for a bible verse, which mentions both words, I found it only in one verse.Isa. 50:10..Although there are numerous verses talking about trusting or obeying seperate. But some are implying both concepts.[1Tim, 4:10]. Isai.50:10 is a very informative verse with a hidden promise.."who is that among you that feared the Lord, that obeyed the voice of His Servant, that walketh in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God."This form of the LOrd's question is actually implying that if you do trust and obey Him , you will never walk in darknes and remain with Him, having light allt he time..
Many other verses confirm this promise. Exodus 19:5
is telling us that if we obey the Lord , we will be His peculiar people ! The word peculiar seems to have a negative meaning nowadays.. Webster says it means "strange queer or od. However in the biblical KJ language , it means to be different and set aside from worldly people and called " saints " See also 1 Pet.2:9, we sing this verse all the time ! I would encourage you to look up all the verses which te are telling us the benefits of trusting and obeying ,
During my ministry in the Philippines, the Lord instructed me to put great emphasisontheIlacanoword :"panactulnoc" [obedience]. And I quoted John 14:15 almost everytime I preached.
"if you love me you obey my comandments" And Jessus promised us in John 15:10 that when we obey His comandment, we will abide in His love. This is one of the best comforting promises to me .
In some of my former articles I did already explain that the concept of trusti s rooted in Faith.If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior, you also trust in Him.
Even in our common daily language we say sometimes
"i have faith in so and so" ,meaning that we trust him or her.Trust is the greatest proof of honor you can give to your Lord. This is why Jesus said that unless we become like litle children, we can not enter the Kingdom of God. This is a strong warning that we must have trust in Him.
Do we realy obey and trust the Lord while we are saying that we love Him? The love chapter of 1 Cor.13 {NIV] tells us in verse 7 that love always trusts !
I do not think that an exolanation of the concept of obedience is needful.Most all people know what it means. Jamres 1:22 states that we should be doeres of the Word and not hearers only.. And so deceiving ourselves.This entails the concept of biblical obedience.. However , today there seems to be many who are " decieving themselves "
I pray and hope that this article will help you not to be one of them ! And that you want to trust and obey our precious Lord
His and your servant, Johannes Weiss.
Searching for a bible verse, which mentions both words, I found it only in one verse.Isa. 50:10..Although there are numerous verses talking about trusting or obeying seperate. But some are implying both concepts.[1Tim, 4:10]. Isai.50:10 is a very informative verse with a hidden promise.."who is that among you that feared the Lord, that obeyed the voice of His Servant, that walketh in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God."This form of the LOrd's question is actually implying that if you do trust and obey Him , you will never walk in darknes and remain with Him, having light allt he time..
Many other verses confirm this promise. Exodus 19:5
is telling us that if we obey the Lord , we will be His peculiar people ! The word peculiar seems to have a negative meaning nowadays.. Webster says it means "strange queer or od. However in the biblical KJ language , it means to be different and set aside from worldly people and called " saints " See also 1 Pet.2:9, we sing this verse all the time ! I would encourage you to look up all the verses which te are telling us the benefits of trusting and obeying ,
During my ministry in the Philippines, the Lord instructed me to put great emphasisontheIlacanoword :"panactulnoc" [obedience]. And I quoted John 14:15 almost everytime I preached.
"if you love me you obey my comandments" And Jessus promised us in John 15:10 that when we obey His comandment, we will abide in His love. This is one of the best comforting promises to me .
In some of my former articles I did already explain that the concept of trusti s rooted in Faith.If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior, you also trust in Him.
Even in our common daily language we say sometimes
"i have faith in so and so" ,meaning that we trust him or her.Trust is the greatest proof of honor you can give to your Lord. This is why Jesus said that unless we become like litle children, we can not enter the Kingdom of God. This is a strong warning that we must have trust in Him.
Do we realy obey and trust the Lord while we are saying that we love Him? The love chapter of 1 Cor.13 {NIV] tells us in verse 7 that love always trusts !
I do not think that an exolanation of the concept of obedience is needful.Most all people know what it means. Jamres 1:22 states that we should be doeres of the Word and not hearers only.. And so deceiving ourselves.This entails the concept of biblical obedience.. However , today there seems to be many who are " decieving themselves "
I pray and hope that this article will help you not to be one of them ! And that you want to trust and obey our precious Lord
His and your servant, Johannes Weiss.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Seven Principles of New Testament Giving
Johannes Weiss:
Seven Principles of New Testament Giving
Love is the essence of our Christian Faith. Love is a manifestation. It must be demonstrated in order to exist. “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.” (John 3:16) Therefore, giving is the primary expression and manifestation of love. God’s word says, “He who loves has fulfilled the commandments (law). All the Lord’s commands are summed up in, “Love your neighbor as your self.” (Rom. 13:8-10) In this light we have to see the whole subject of giving.
Jesus requires under the New Covenant that if we love God and are born again, that we give our all as a reasonable service. (Rom. 12:1-3) Here, we arrive at principle number one.
1. Give your all to the Lord.
Defining the word “giving” in its totality, including all kinds of giving, you must be willing to offer 100%! As a Christian, your whole life belongs to Christ, including all your possessions, your wife and family, etc… “I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that you preent your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”(Romans 12:1)
2. Give as your heart directs you.
Talking about the financial aspect of giving, God’s word says, “Let every man give according as he purposeth iin his heart.”(2corinthians 9:6-12) This bives us the foundation for understanding the Lord’s will for our financial giving. This entails acting not upon the set rule of Old Testament tithing, but rather, obedience to the urging of the Spirit within the heart of each believer. This will likely result in greater generosity in giving than mere tithing. As it says in verses 6 and 7, “Now this I say, ‘He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly. And he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.”
Now, some Biblical interpreters claim that this passage in 2 Corinthians is only speaking of special monetary gifts which were separate from the regular tithe. However, it is clear that such interpreters are wrong and that this passage actually rejects completely the Old Testament legalistic view of tithing.
3. Give Willingly
In this same passage, we arecommanded to give “not grudgingly or of necessity or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”(2 Cor.9:7) Now, this could go with giving 10% if this is what your heart directs you to do. Make sure, however, that it is not misdguided teaching which compels you.
“Giving until it hurts” has become a popular refrain with many Bible teachers. Now, if this means that you, with a cheerful and glad heart, are denying yourself something in order to be able to give, this the Lord would love, because it would be following Christ’s example. “though He was rich, yet for your sake he became poor that you, through his poverty might become rich.”(2 Cor.8:9) What great need ther is today for Christians to live less sumptuous and more austere lives in order to bring the Gospel of Jesus!
4. Give Generously
Another aspect of Christian giving is generosity. There are tow main scriptures in which the Lord encourages us to be generous in our giving:
“Now this I say, ‘He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly. And he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.”(2 Corinthians 9:6)
“Give and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again”(Luke 6:38)
These exhortations are by no means an encouragement to give in order to get. This “give to get” teaching is very popular today, but it is also very un-biblical as it caters to our greed. They have a nice slogan for it and it sounds very spiritual. “Seed-faith giving”, it is usually called, but it is still very ungodly. The only right motive for giving is Love –Self-Denying Love!!!
5. Give Regularly and Proportionately
“Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, so do you also. On the first day of every week, let every one of you lay by him in store, as God has prospered him.” (1 Corinthians 16:1-2)
Now, giving a set percentage is not what the Lord is thinking of here. Why not? He is looking at how much self-sacrifice is involved. How much did it cut into your basic needs? If the IRS realized that in order to have fairness of burden, they need to have different brackets (percentages) for rich and poor, how much more is our heavenly father looking for fairness of burden?
6. Give without “tooting your horn” about it.
“He that giveth, let him do it with simplicity.”(Romans 12:8) Some other translators use, “without ostentation” (display). How different from the teaching in most modern churches. The use of pledges, envelopes, and bookkeeping systems seems to run counter to what the Lord Jesus taught us in Matthwe 6:3, “Let never your left hand know what your right hand is doing.” “But we need tax receipts,” you say. Do you, really?
7. Give out of what you have and not out of what you do not have.
The Scriptures teach that “…the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have.”(2 Corinthians 8:12) Therefore, avoid any kind of pledge drive or those incentives to give money called “faith promises.” You can not and should not try to make deals with the Lord, setting conditions that when he is going to give you extra, then you will give it back to Him. It is subtle, but shouldn’t we rather focus upon faithfulness to Him with what finances we already have, rather than ask him to somehow bless us with an unexpected extra sum of money (which costs us nothing in terms of labor or finances) which we will then turn over to him?
Seven Principles of New Testament Giving
Love is the essence of our Christian Faith. Love is a manifestation. It must be demonstrated in order to exist. “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.” (John 3:16) Therefore, giving is the primary expression and manifestation of love. God’s word says, “He who loves has fulfilled the commandments (law). All the Lord’s commands are summed up in, “Love your neighbor as your self.” (Rom. 13:8-10) In this light we have to see the whole subject of giving.
Jesus requires under the New Covenant that if we love God and are born again, that we give our all as a reasonable service. (Rom. 12:1-3) Here, we arrive at principle number one.
1. Give your all to the Lord.
Defining the word “giving” in its totality, including all kinds of giving, you must be willing to offer 100%! As a Christian, your whole life belongs to Christ, including all your possessions, your wife and family, etc… “I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that you preent your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”(Romans 12:1)
2. Give as your heart directs you.
Talking about the financial aspect of giving, God’s word says, “Let every man give according as he purposeth iin his heart.”(2corinthians 9:6-12) This bives us the foundation for understanding the Lord’s will for our financial giving. This entails acting not upon the set rule of Old Testament tithing, but rather, obedience to the urging of the Spirit within the heart of each believer. This will likely result in greater generosity in giving than mere tithing. As it says in verses 6 and 7, “Now this I say, ‘He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly. And he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.”
Now, some Biblical interpreters claim that this passage in 2 Corinthians is only speaking of special monetary gifts which were separate from the regular tithe. However, it is clear that such interpreters are wrong and that this passage actually rejects completely the Old Testament legalistic view of tithing.
3. Give Willingly
In this same passage, we arecommanded to give “not grudgingly or of necessity or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”(2 Cor.9:7) Now, this could go with giving 10% if this is what your heart directs you to do. Make sure, however, that it is not misdguided teaching which compels you.
“Giving until it hurts” has become a popular refrain with many Bible teachers. Now, if this means that you, with a cheerful and glad heart, are denying yourself something in order to be able to give, this the Lord would love, because it would be following Christ’s example. “though He was rich, yet for your sake he became poor that you, through his poverty might become rich.”(2 Cor.8:9) What great need ther is today for Christians to live less sumptuous and more austere lives in order to bring the Gospel of Jesus!
4. Give Generously
Another aspect of Christian giving is generosity. There are tow main scriptures in which the Lord encourages us to be generous in our giving:
“Now this I say, ‘He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly. And he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.”(2 Corinthians 9:6)
“Give and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again”(Luke 6:38)
These exhortations are by no means an encouragement to give in order to get. This “give to get” teaching is very popular today, but it is also very un-biblical as it caters to our greed. They have a nice slogan for it and it sounds very spiritual. “Seed-faith giving”, it is usually called, but it is still very ungodly. The only right motive for giving is Love –Self-Denying Love!!!
5. Give Regularly and Proportionately
“Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, so do you also. On the first day of every week, let every one of you lay by him in store, as God has prospered him.” (1 Corinthians 16:1-2)
Now, giving a set percentage is not what the Lord is thinking of here. Why not? He is looking at how much self-sacrifice is involved. How much did it cut into your basic needs? If the IRS realized that in order to have fairness of burden, they need to have different brackets (percentages) for rich and poor, how much more is our heavenly father looking for fairness of burden?
6. Give without “tooting your horn” about it.
“He that giveth, let him do it with simplicity.”(Romans 12:8) Some other translators use, “without ostentation” (display). How different from the teaching in most modern churches. The use of pledges, envelopes, and bookkeeping systems seems to run counter to what the Lord Jesus taught us in Matthwe 6:3, “Let never your left hand know what your right hand is doing.” “But we need tax receipts,” you say. Do you, really?
7. Give out of what you have and not out of what you do not have.
The Scriptures teach that “…the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have.”(2 Corinthians 8:12) Therefore, avoid any kind of pledge drive or those incentives to give money called “faith promises.” You can not and should not try to make deals with the Lord, setting conditions that when he is going to give you extra, then you will give it back to Him. It is subtle, but shouldn’t we rather focus upon faithfulness to Him with what finances we already have, rather than ask him to somehow bless us with an unexpected extra sum of money (which costs us nothing in terms of labor or finances) which we will then turn over to him?
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
The Precious Gift of Tongues
In 1 Cor. Chapter 12, our Lord lists nine gifts of the Spirit. In v.1 He starts out saying that "He does not want us to be ignorant about the Spiritual Gifts". Yet among the Bible-believing Christians there is a great amount of ignorance and misunderstanding about the gifts. Especially concerning the gift of Tongues.
Although this teaching will focus on the Tongues, for completeness sake and the context I am listing the 9 gifts here:
1. Word of Wisdom
2. Word of Knowledge
3. Faith.
4. Working of Miracles.
5. Gifts of Healing
6. Prophecy.
7. Discerning of Spirits
8. Civerse or different kinds of Tongues
9. Interpreting of Tongues
It is a sad farct that this precious gift of Tongues is so controversial and seems to create a lot of strife. So, therefore let us take a close look at what God's Word reveals about this. If we truly love God , his desire should be our command.
His desire is that not be ignorant aobut this!!! In obedience, meditate over this teaching and then bring it into practise.
THE DIFFERENT VIEW POINTS
To start out, we should mention that a sincere and ragher large group of Christians are "against" speaking in tongues. Some want to forbid its practise in the church altogether. Their reasons, which I have heard, are as follows:
"It is too emotional and pentecostal"
"It causes strife in the Body"
"The Apostle Paul rebukes the Corinthian church for it"
"It was only for then, in the beginning of the Church"
"It creates two classes of Christians, one claiming to be more spiritual than the other."
In the face of the clear teaching in god's Word, you wonder why this is. I believe I know the answer: Satan understands the tremendous benefits for the believer who exercises this gift.
Therefore he does his utmost to bring it into disrepute! And when believers refect the Lord's gift, it is like a slap in the Lord's face! He also counterfeits this gift often times with great success. Imagine your father or best freind offering you a gift and you rejecting it!
There are several scriptures these believers need to absorb:
1 Cor. 14: 1 "Pursue love and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy"
v. 4 "he who speaks in tongues edifies himself..."
v.5 "I wish you all spoke with tongues..."
v.14 "For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays..."
v.18 "I thank my God that I sprak with tongues more than all of you"
v.37-38 "If anyone thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual let him acknowledge that the thing I write are the commands of God."
if these Christians love the Lord, I really do not need to add any further rebuke.
But then, there are many Christians who say that they are not against this gift of tongues, but they believe it is not for them and therefore the Lord does not give it to them. However, many times you can detect an antipathy toward this gift in their spirit. The defense they have and quickly brien out is 1 Cor.12:30, Paul's question, "...do all speak in tongues?" Obviously this has to be answered with "No." Not all Christians do. However, to then draw the conclusion from this that the Lord is telling us that this gift is not for everyone is very wrong.
If this were true, then the Lord is contradicting Himself in 1 Cor. 14:5 "I wish you all speak in tongues." He was simply just pointing out that not all do. And I believe he was talking about the special kind of tongues which is equal to prophecy and has to be followed by interpretation. This is clear from the context with the rest of the question, "do all interpret?"
However, the non-tongue-speaker will usually quickly refer to 1 Cor. 12:25 as context that it brings a schism in the Body! All the while, they do not realize that, as an excuse for their unwillingness, they accuse the Lord of having an ingerior gift, or having refused to give them the gift of tongues.
For those who earnestly desire spiritual gifts, including tongues, this teaching is for the purpose to help them to receivethis precious gift. The situation is not helped much by those who do exercize it themselves, but tell those who don't that it is alright not to have it. Many tongues-speakers seem to have the need to be tolerant with this and therefore teach that it is alright with the Lord not to desire the gift of tongues! Most of the time, this is caused by a misunderstanding of 1 Cor. 12:30, "do all speak with tongues?"
Another reason is that many do not discern that there are "diverse or different types of tongues", and that Paul referred in his question, "Do all...", to the specific kind of tongues which has to be followed by interpretation, in the corporate meeting. The result is that today we have many so called "spiritual" worship leaders who are not able to use the gift of tongues. This is the case, while the Scriptures tell us to sing and pray in tongues (1 cor. 14:15). Therefore we can say, the blind are trying to lead the blind! 1 Cor. 14:5 DOES say this: "I wish you all spoke with tongues, but even more that you prophesied, for he who prophesies is greater than he who speaks with tongues, unless he indeed interprets, that the church may receive edification".
In this sentence, in addition to the expressed wish of the Lord, that we speak with tongues, IN NO WAY takes away from that the Lord WISHES tongues! It only makes clear that tongues are on par with prophecy when followed by interpretation!
__________________________________
THE DIVERSE OR DIFFERENT TYPES OF TONGUES
it is essential that we do understand that the gift of tongues is "diverse", or "of different kinds". It is the only gift listed like that. Notice though that when Paul speaks about the gifts the word diversicy is used several times in 1 Cor. 12.
In a way, you could say that the gift of tongues consists out of several gifts connected to "strange tongues" (not your own language). If you do not discern this, you will have a problem understanding "do all speak in tongues", and "he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God", or "I thank God I speak with tongues more than you all, yet in the church I would rather speak five words with my underatanding".
These Scriptures have to be seen in the light that there are at least 3 different types of tongue gifts. Studying God's Word, we can readily observe 3 different kinds:
1) In Acts 2, on the day of Pentecost, the gift of tongues is used to clear the barrier of foreign languages, to let the foreigners understand the words spoken by the first apostles. It oculd be still in operation today. I have heard some testimonies to that end, but also heard stories about missionaries who refused to learn foreign languages and fell flat on their faces. They were too zealous for this particular kind of tongues and presumptuous and therefore failed.
2) the gift of tongues being exercised as a prophetic message to the believers, which must be followed by the gift of interpretation. (1 Cor. 14:13, 14:5)
Then it is on par and equal to the gift of prophecy (v.5)
3) when Paul states in verse 18 his thanks to God for his gift of tongues, he is referring to the kind he is using in his praise and worship. We must conclude that because he adds, "I would rather speak with understanding in church..."
then there are several exortations to pray, sing and worship in tongues, which is called "speaking to God, not to men".
So here we have already 3 different kinds of tongues. Extinctly different from each other that you could say they are 3 different gifts. We must consider that in order to clearly understand what he is trying to tell us.
When Paul states the question, "do all speak in tongues?" He is definitely talking about the tongues being used as prophecy. Not all are used by the Lord in that way. The statement "I wish you all spoke in tongues" pertains clearly to the tongues used for prayer, worship and praise. Keep in mind that the Lord never contradicts Himself!
_________________________________
THE USE OF TONGUES IN PRAYER, PRAISE, AND WORSHIP
The tongues which are for everyt believer is the one used for prayer. Praise and worship, becasue that is what the Lord desires from every believer. We must worship Him in Spirit and Truth. God found it necessary to record Paul's statement in 1 Cor. 14:37, "The things I write are the Commands of God". He apparently foresaw that some people would not be able ot accept what Paul is saying. In 1 Cor. 14:15, Paul's admonition to us is "I will pray with the Spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the Spirit and also with the understanding." this conclusion he gives after he explains the difference between the Prophetic tongues and the private worship tongues. This admonition to use tongues for worship and prayer is also given in several other scriptures.
Col. 3:16 to worship with "psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs"
Eph. 5:19 to be filled with the Spirit, also then using tongues in spiritual songs.
Jude 21 is speaking about building ourselves up in our most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.
Although these 3 Scriptures do not specifically mention tongues, it is implied.
_____________________________
FOR ALL BELIEVERS
Does the Lord want the gift of tongues for all believers? The answer is a qualified YES! Qualified because there is definite proof in God's Word for it.
Let us consider the following:
A. Acts 2:1, when the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. These all consisted of about 120 followers of Jesus as mentioned in Acts 1:15. Now think about this! Anytime when you have 120 believers together there are all kinds of people among them. They range from babes in Christ to well-matured followers. Assuredly there wer some still struggling with old sins and bad habits. This is likely since Jesus ministered only of 3 years and many could have been very recent converts. Yet, amazingbly, the Lord chooses to baptize them All with the Holy Spirit and give them all the gift of Tongues! He did not determine that some of the 120 were not worthy to receive the GIFT.
This idea should be of tremendous encouragement to those who are seeking for this gift. It was to me a vital discovery that it is not a matter of worthiness.
When I was seeking, some 30 year ago, I was still smoking. I thought that it kept me from receiving, gut the Lord sent me a man who told me that His father was actually smoking when he got baptized with the Holy Spirit. It opened my eyes to the Lord's attitude. Shorltly after I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the gift of tongues, the Lord helped me to quit smoking. If you wait until you are worthy enough, you might never receive! You may be one of thowe who does desire, but is not receiving because deep in your heart you feel unworthy?
"Come unto me and drink!" cried Jesus in John 7:37
B. The fact that He gave all 120 believers the gift of tongues is right in line with His Word. 1 Cor. 14:5 states "I wish yo all spoke with tongues", etc...
Although prophecy is greater unless you follow with interpretation, it does not diminsth the fact that IT IS THE LORD'S WISH FOR ALL!!!
___________________________________________
RECEIVING THE GIFT
The only qualification there is for receiving the Batism with the Holy Spirit and the gift of tongues is to be a Bible-believing, born-again Christian, who is THIRSTY.
How do you receive it? By Faith, just like yo received your salvation with eternal life. James 1:7 states theat yo cannot receive anything from the Lord without faith. You have veceived a measure of faith, so put it ot work! John 7:37 tells us that Jesus stood up and cried out, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believes, as the Scriptures has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water"
We can grasp the importance of this statement by the fact that the Lord wanted to make sure that we undeerstand what he was talking about. In the following verse (39), He gives a full explanation of what He meant to say: "but this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believeing in Him ould receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, becasue Jesus was not yet glorified."
After Jesus went to Heaven and was glorified, it happened on the day of Pentecost. Remarkable, he is comparing the Baptism of the Holy Spirit with drinking Living water, and the tongues following with rivers of this water flowing out of us! And the thirsty believer is invited to come and drink.
Therefore, the question is, "Are you thirsty?" Then go to Jesus and receive. It is as simple as that.
____________________________________________
1 Cor. 14:4 says, "He that speaketh in an unknown tongue, edifies himself, but he that prophecies edifies the church. What does edifying yourself mean? It means buliding yourself up in faith and holiness. Do we need that? You better believe it! Edifying yourself, or building yourself up is a necessary requirement for every believer. Jude 20 exhorts us to do it and at the same time linke it with "praying in the Holy Ghost", that is, with tongues.
When Paul compares edifying the church with edifying yourself, he certainly is not putting the last down! every one of us needs edification!
_________________________________
In opposition to some pentecostal denominations who hold to the doctrine that speaking in tongues is THE EVIDENCE of the baptism with the Holy Spirit, I am convinced that you can receive the baptism and not speak in tongues. Apparently, some believers have, but it is not the Lord's DESIRE! It is because of some blockage in the Spirit of the receiver that the tongues do not occur. The Lord in His great mercy, still baptizes them!
Now to call tongues "The (authoritative) Evidence" of the baptism is going way beyond scripture.
Acts 10:46 seems to be their only justification for this stand. It says that when them of the circumcision (Jewish) believed that the Holy ghost had been poured out on the gentiles in the gathering at cornelius' house becasue they heard them speak with tongues. Now this is the ONLY DIRECT INDICATION THAT THEY TOOK THAT AS EVIDENCE!!!
THE EVIDENCE??
The word evidence itself is not a Biblical word. It comes from the English law system. The big drawback of using such a word is that there are two kinds of evidence! True and False evidence. Therefore, using such a word in a statement of doctrine does not render any help in evaluation! Inaddition, this doc trine at the same time renounces all the believers who believe themselves that they did receive the baptism without the tongues and therefore do not exercise the tongues.
Certainly it is wrong to call it the evidence. This is what really causes schism in the body. Satan is capable of counterfeiting all the gifts of the Spirit and seems to concentrate specially on tongues. I believe it is so because he realizes the great importance of this gift. The result is, there are many false tongues-speakers.
The disreptation these false tongues-speakers being casuse great harm to the Body of Christ.
======================
IT IS NOT TOO LATE!
for those who believe and know that they are baptized with the Holy Spirit but cannot sprak with tongues, the best advise is to overcome whatever the hindrance was and is. Go to Jesus with a repenting heart and receive by BEGINNING. By Faith, the Spiirt then will give you utterance. Scripture reveals that you have to begin. Acts 2:4. As long as you do not open your mouth using your tongue by faith, the Spirit does not give you the utterance! The Just shall live by faith, so why do you not begin?
===================
Much ignorance on the baptism with the Holy Spirit has been caused by the church's neglect to teach. Many believers are asking, "but did I not have the Spirit when I got saved?" Of course you had the Spirit! The Word says that you can not even come to Jesus unless the Father draw you. And from the momrent you are born again, the Spirit will abide with you. BUT IT TAKES AN ADDITIONAL STEP OF FAITH and obedience to RECEIVE THE BAPTISM! AND THEN THE SPIRIT WILL BE IN YOU!! (Jn. 14:17)
It is clear that there are at least two "volumes" of the Holy Spirit. Enough and Not Enough!
In the Parable of the 10 virgins, 5 of them had enough oil (Holy Spirit) to the end, but the other 5 didn't have enough. Would you like to be like one of his 120 followers? Obey his command, come to the pentecostal upper room and receive the Loving Waters, and have it flow out of you?
I pray your answer be "YES LORD".
====================
Although this teaching will focus on the Tongues, for completeness sake and the context I am listing the 9 gifts here:
1. Word of Wisdom
2. Word of Knowledge
3. Faith.
4. Working of Miracles.
5. Gifts of Healing
6. Prophecy.
7. Discerning of Spirits
8. Civerse or different kinds of Tongues
9. Interpreting of Tongues
It is a sad farct that this precious gift of Tongues is so controversial and seems to create a lot of strife. So, therefore let us take a close look at what God's Word reveals about this. If we truly love God , his desire should be our command.
His desire is that not be ignorant aobut this!!! In obedience, meditate over this teaching and then bring it into practise.
THE DIFFERENT VIEW POINTS
To start out, we should mention that a sincere and ragher large group of Christians are "against" speaking in tongues. Some want to forbid its practise in the church altogether. Their reasons, which I have heard, are as follows:
"It is too emotional and pentecostal"
"It causes strife in the Body"
"The Apostle Paul rebukes the Corinthian church for it"
"It was only for then, in the beginning of the Church"
"It creates two classes of Christians, one claiming to be more spiritual than the other."
In the face of the clear teaching in god's Word, you wonder why this is. I believe I know the answer: Satan understands the tremendous benefits for the believer who exercises this gift.
Therefore he does his utmost to bring it into disrepute! And when believers refect the Lord's gift, it is like a slap in the Lord's face! He also counterfeits this gift often times with great success. Imagine your father or best freind offering you a gift and you rejecting it!
There are several scriptures these believers need to absorb:
1 Cor. 14: 1 "Pursue love and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy"
v. 4 "he who speaks in tongues edifies himself..."
v.5 "I wish you all spoke with tongues..."
v.14 "For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays..."
v.18 "I thank my God that I sprak with tongues more than all of you"
v.37-38 "If anyone thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual let him acknowledge that the thing I write are the commands of God."
if these Christians love the Lord, I really do not need to add any further rebuke.
But then, there are many Christians who say that they are not against this gift of tongues, but they believe it is not for them and therefore the Lord does not give it to them. However, many times you can detect an antipathy toward this gift in their spirit. The defense they have and quickly brien out is 1 Cor.12:30, Paul's question, "...do all speak in tongues?" Obviously this has to be answered with "No." Not all Christians do. However, to then draw the conclusion from this that the Lord is telling us that this gift is not for everyone is very wrong.
If this were true, then the Lord is contradicting Himself in 1 Cor. 14:5 "I wish you all speak in tongues." He was simply just pointing out that not all do. And I believe he was talking about the special kind of tongues which is equal to prophecy and has to be followed by interpretation. This is clear from the context with the rest of the question, "do all interpret?"
However, the non-tongue-speaker will usually quickly refer to 1 Cor. 12:25 as context that it brings a schism in the Body! All the while, they do not realize that, as an excuse for their unwillingness, they accuse the Lord of having an ingerior gift, or having refused to give them the gift of tongues.
For those who earnestly desire spiritual gifts, including tongues, this teaching is for the purpose to help them to receivethis precious gift. The situation is not helped much by those who do exercize it themselves, but tell those who don't that it is alright not to have it. Many tongues-speakers seem to have the need to be tolerant with this and therefore teach that it is alright with the Lord not to desire the gift of tongues! Most of the time, this is caused by a misunderstanding of 1 Cor. 12:30, "do all speak with tongues?"
Another reason is that many do not discern that there are "diverse or different types of tongues", and that Paul referred in his question, "Do all...", to the specific kind of tongues which has to be followed by interpretation, in the corporate meeting. The result is that today we have many so called "spiritual" worship leaders who are not able to use the gift of tongues. This is the case, while the Scriptures tell us to sing and pray in tongues (1 cor. 14:15). Therefore we can say, the blind are trying to lead the blind! 1 Cor. 14:5 DOES say this: "I wish you all spoke with tongues, but even more that you prophesied, for he who prophesies is greater than he who speaks with tongues, unless he indeed interprets, that the church may receive edification".
In this sentence, in addition to the expressed wish of the Lord, that we speak with tongues, IN NO WAY takes away from that the Lord WISHES tongues! It only makes clear that tongues are on par with prophecy when followed by interpretation!
__________________________________
THE DIVERSE OR DIFFERENT TYPES OF TONGUES
it is essential that we do understand that the gift of tongues is "diverse", or "of different kinds". It is the only gift listed like that. Notice though that when Paul speaks about the gifts the word diversicy is used several times in 1 Cor. 12.
In a way, you could say that the gift of tongues consists out of several gifts connected to "strange tongues" (not your own language). If you do not discern this, you will have a problem understanding "do all speak in tongues", and "he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God", or "I thank God I speak with tongues more than you all, yet in the church I would rather speak five words with my underatanding".
These Scriptures have to be seen in the light that there are at least 3 different types of tongue gifts. Studying God's Word, we can readily observe 3 different kinds:
1) In Acts 2, on the day of Pentecost, the gift of tongues is used to clear the barrier of foreign languages, to let the foreigners understand the words spoken by the first apostles. It oculd be still in operation today. I have heard some testimonies to that end, but also heard stories about missionaries who refused to learn foreign languages and fell flat on their faces. They were too zealous for this particular kind of tongues and presumptuous and therefore failed.
2) the gift of tongues being exercised as a prophetic message to the believers, which must be followed by the gift of interpretation. (1 Cor. 14:13, 14:5)
Then it is on par and equal to the gift of prophecy (v.5)
3) when Paul states in verse 18 his thanks to God for his gift of tongues, he is referring to the kind he is using in his praise and worship. We must conclude that because he adds, "I would rather speak with understanding in church..."
then there are several exortations to pray, sing and worship in tongues, which is called "speaking to God, not to men".
So here we have already 3 different kinds of tongues. Extinctly different from each other that you could say they are 3 different gifts. We must consider that in order to clearly understand what he is trying to tell us.
When Paul states the question, "do all speak in tongues?" He is definitely talking about the tongues being used as prophecy. Not all are used by the Lord in that way. The statement "I wish you all spoke in tongues" pertains clearly to the tongues used for prayer, worship and praise. Keep in mind that the Lord never contradicts Himself!
_________________________________
THE USE OF TONGUES IN PRAYER, PRAISE, AND WORSHIP
The tongues which are for everyt believer is the one used for prayer. Praise and worship, becasue that is what the Lord desires from every believer. We must worship Him in Spirit and Truth. God found it necessary to record Paul's statement in 1 Cor. 14:37, "The things I write are the Commands of God". He apparently foresaw that some people would not be able ot accept what Paul is saying. In 1 Cor. 14:15, Paul's admonition to us is "I will pray with the Spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the Spirit and also with the understanding." this conclusion he gives after he explains the difference between the Prophetic tongues and the private worship tongues. This admonition to use tongues for worship and prayer is also given in several other scriptures.
Col. 3:16 to worship with "psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs"
Eph. 5:19 to be filled with the Spirit, also then using tongues in spiritual songs.
Jude 21 is speaking about building ourselves up in our most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.
Although these 3 Scriptures do not specifically mention tongues, it is implied.
_____________________________
FOR ALL BELIEVERS
Does the Lord want the gift of tongues for all believers? The answer is a qualified YES! Qualified because there is definite proof in God's Word for it.
Let us consider the following:
A. Acts 2:1, when the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. These all consisted of about 120 followers of Jesus as mentioned in Acts 1:15. Now think about this! Anytime when you have 120 believers together there are all kinds of people among them. They range from babes in Christ to well-matured followers. Assuredly there wer some still struggling with old sins and bad habits. This is likely since Jesus ministered only of 3 years and many could have been very recent converts. Yet, amazingbly, the Lord chooses to baptize them All with the Holy Spirit and give them all the gift of Tongues! He did not determine that some of the 120 were not worthy to receive the GIFT.
This idea should be of tremendous encouragement to those who are seeking for this gift. It was to me a vital discovery that it is not a matter of worthiness.
When I was seeking, some 30 year ago, I was still smoking. I thought that it kept me from receiving, gut the Lord sent me a man who told me that His father was actually smoking when he got baptized with the Holy Spirit. It opened my eyes to the Lord's attitude. Shorltly after I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the gift of tongues, the Lord helped me to quit smoking. If you wait until you are worthy enough, you might never receive! You may be one of thowe who does desire, but is not receiving because deep in your heart you feel unworthy?
"Come unto me and drink!" cried Jesus in John 7:37
B. The fact that He gave all 120 believers the gift of tongues is right in line with His Word. 1 Cor. 14:5 states "I wish yo all spoke with tongues", etc...
Although prophecy is greater unless you follow with interpretation, it does not diminsth the fact that IT IS THE LORD'S WISH FOR ALL!!!
___________________________________________
RECEIVING THE GIFT
The only qualification there is for receiving the Batism with the Holy Spirit and the gift of tongues is to be a Bible-believing, born-again Christian, who is THIRSTY.
How do you receive it? By Faith, just like yo received your salvation with eternal life. James 1:7 states theat yo cannot receive anything from the Lord without faith. You have veceived a measure of faith, so put it ot work! John 7:37 tells us that Jesus stood up and cried out, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believes, as the Scriptures has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water"
We can grasp the importance of this statement by the fact that the Lord wanted to make sure that we undeerstand what he was talking about. In the following verse (39), He gives a full explanation of what He meant to say: "but this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believeing in Him ould receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, becasue Jesus was not yet glorified."
After Jesus went to Heaven and was glorified, it happened on the day of Pentecost. Remarkable, he is comparing the Baptism of the Holy Spirit with drinking Living water, and the tongues following with rivers of this water flowing out of us! And the thirsty believer is invited to come and drink.
Therefore, the question is, "Are you thirsty?" Then go to Jesus and receive. It is as simple as that.
____________________________________________
1 Cor. 14:4 says, "He that speaketh in an unknown tongue, edifies himself, but he that prophecies edifies the church. What does edifying yourself mean? It means buliding yourself up in faith and holiness. Do we need that? You better believe it! Edifying yourself, or building yourself up is a necessary requirement for every believer. Jude 20 exhorts us to do it and at the same time linke it with "praying in the Holy Ghost", that is, with tongues.
When Paul compares edifying the church with edifying yourself, he certainly is not putting the last down! every one of us needs edification!
_________________________________
In opposition to some pentecostal denominations who hold to the doctrine that speaking in tongues is THE EVIDENCE of the baptism with the Holy Spirit, I am convinced that you can receive the baptism and not speak in tongues. Apparently, some believers have, but it is not the Lord's DESIRE! It is because of some blockage in the Spirit of the receiver that the tongues do not occur. The Lord in His great mercy, still baptizes them!
Now to call tongues "The (authoritative) Evidence" of the baptism is going way beyond scripture.
Acts 10:46 seems to be their only justification for this stand. It says that when them of the circumcision (Jewish) believed that the Holy ghost had been poured out on the gentiles in the gathering at cornelius' house becasue they heard them speak with tongues. Now this is the ONLY DIRECT INDICATION THAT THEY TOOK THAT AS EVIDENCE!!!
THE EVIDENCE??
The word evidence itself is not a Biblical word. It comes from the English law system. The big drawback of using such a word is that there are two kinds of evidence! True and False evidence. Therefore, using such a word in a statement of doctrine does not render any help in evaluation! Inaddition, this doc trine at the same time renounces all the believers who believe themselves that they did receive the baptism without the tongues and therefore do not exercise the tongues.
Certainly it is wrong to call it the evidence. This is what really causes schism in the body. Satan is capable of counterfeiting all the gifts of the Spirit and seems to concentrate specially on tongues. I believe it is so because he realizes the great importance of this gift. The result is, there are many false tongues-speakers.
The disreptation these false tongues-speakers being casuse great harm to the Body of Christ.
======================
IT IS NOT TOO LATE!
for those who believe and know that they are baptized with the Holy Spirit but cannot sprak with tongues, the best advise is to overcome whatever the hindrance was and is. Go to Jesus with a repenting heart and receive by BEGINNING. By Faith, the Spiirt then will give you utterance. Scripture reveals that you have to begin. Acts 2:4. As long as you do not open your mouth using your tongue by faith, the Spirit does not give you the utterance! The Just shall live by faith, so why do you not begin?
===================
Much ignorance on the baptism with the Holy Spirit has been caused by the church's neglect to teach. Many believers are asking, "but did I not have the Spirit when I got saved?" Of course you had the Spirit! The Word says that you can not even come to Jesus unless the Father draw you. And from the momrent you are born again, the Spirit will abide with you. BUT IT TAKES AN ADDITIONAL STEP OF FAITH and obedience to RECEIVE THE BAPTISM! AND THEN THE SPIRIT WILL BE IN YOU!! (Jn. 14:17)
It is clear that there are at least two "volumes" of the Holy Spirit. Enough and Not Enough!
In the Parable of the 10 virgins, 5 of them had enough oil (Holy Spirit) to the end, but the other 5 didn't have enough. Would you like to be like one of his 120 followers? Obey his command, come to the pentecostal upper room and receive the Loving Waters, and have it flow out of you?
I pray your answer be "YES LORD".
====================
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Faith
God's Word tells us that the "the just" shall live by faith. [Rom.1:17]and Hab.2:4. But we must know, who are the just. According to Rom.10:9/10 we are justified when we believe with our heart that Jesus is Lord and confess it with our mouth. Do you qualify under this condition? Then the next question is ; what is faith?
Also on this, The Lord gives us a clear definition."Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen".[Heb.11:1]. The NIV translate it like this : Faith is being sure of things hoped for and certain of what we do not see"
The next thing that we as believers need to know is, how do we obtain this faith? Well our Lord tells the brethren that He has given each one the measure of faith.[Rom.12:3] In addition Rom.10:17 says;
'faith cometh by hearing and hearing the Word of God". Therefore we should realize that we can not work up faith by ourselves.It has to come from God.
Faith is an absolute nessecity for a Christian. Heb.11;6 tells us
that without faith it is impossible to please God. Do you want to please God?. I sure hope so ! We have to use our measure of faith knowing that God has given it to us. If you feel weak in your faith, you can ask the Lord to increase it. The father of the demoniac son and the Apostles did ask for an increased Faith. And the Lord Honored it .
Also, we should exersize our measure of faith so that it can grow and get stronger. It will atrophy if we do not exersize it.When the apostles did ask Jesus how to do the works of God, Jesus answer was; ' This is the work of God , that you believe in Him who He has send".[John6:28]. It is our fundamental duty to exersize our faith
daily.We can not receive anything from the Lord without faith.[James1:6/7]
Jesus told us to have faith in God. All major bible translations say faith IN God because the Greek grammar requires the Greek Word pivstin to be translated as IN when it points to a subject. Other wise it can be translated as OF. This according to Greek language scholars.
However, some welknown radio and TV evangelists seem to have different bibles and teach that we should have the faith OF God. Then they base a whole false doctrine on this mysterious force called faith , which even God had to have in order to create every thing. They ignore the fact that God is all powerfull and sovereign and is the GIVER of faith.He does not need faith Himself !But they insist that when we do have this mysterious faith OF God, we can do much what God is doing ! The result of this teaching is that our God is brought down to the human level and mens capacity is glorified. It hurts the idea that God is all powerfull and completely sovereign. He is the GIVER OF FAITH and does not need it Himself !
God list faith in Gal.5:22 as part of the 7 fruits of the Spirit, but also as one of the 9 gifts of the Spirit in 1Cor.12:9.
I gather from this that as a fruit it starts small and must grow in maturity over time. There is no thing like instant fruit ! As a gift of faith, He is indicating that He make spurts of extra faith available when needed sometimes when He wants to use believers for a miracle.
To end this meditation on faith, remember and make sure to be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the Law, but that which is through the Faith of Christ, the righteous which is of God by faith.[Phil.3:9]
Therefore being justified by Faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. That you may have this peace in abundance is my prayer. Johannes Weiss
Also on this, The Lord gives us a clear definition."Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen".[Heb.11:1]. The NIV translate it like this : Faith is being sure of things hoped for and certain of what we do not see"
The next thing that we as believers need to know is, how do we obtain this faith? Well our Lord tells the brethren that He has given each one the measure of faith.[Rom.12:3] In addition Rom.10:17 says;
'faith cometh by hearing and hearing the Word of God". Therefore we should realize that we can not work up faith by ourselves.It has to come from God.
Faith is an absolute nessecity for a Christian. Heb.11;6 tells us
that without faith it is impossible to please God. Do you want to please God?. I sure hope so ! We have to use our measure of faith knowing that God has given it to us. If you feel weak in your faith, you can ask the Lord to increase it. The father of the demoniac son and the Apostles did ask for an increased Faith. And the Lord Honored it .
Also, we should exersize our measure of faith so that it can grow and get stronger. It will atrophy if we do not exersize it.When the apostles did ask Jesus how to do the works of God, Jesus answer was; ' This is the work of God , that you believe in Him who He has send".[John6:28]. It is our fundamental duty to exersize our faith
daily.We can not receive anything from the Lord without faith.[James1:6/7]
Jesus told us to have faith in God. All major bible translations say faith IN God because the Greek grammar requires the Greek Word pivstin to be translated as IN when it points to a subject. Other wise it can be translated as OF. This according to Greek language scholars.
However, some welknown radio and TV evangelists seem to have different bibles and teach that we should have the faith OF God. Then they base a whole false doctrine on this mysterious force called faith , which even God had to have in order to create every thing. They ignore the fact that God is all powerfull and sovereign and is the GIVER of faith.He does not need faith Himself !But they insist that when we do have this mysterious faith OF God, we can do much what God is doing ! The result of this teaching is that our God is brought down to the human level and mens capacity is glorified. It hurts the idea that God is all powerfull and completely sovereign. He is the GIVER OF FAITH and does not need it Himself !
God list faith in Gal.5:22 as part of the 7 fruits of the Spirit, but also as one of the 9 gifts of the Spirit in 1Cor.12:9.
I gather from this that as a fruit it starts small and must grow in maturity over time. There is no thing like instant fruit ! As a gift of faith, He is indicating that He make spurts of extra faith available when needed sometimes when He wants to use believers for a miracle.
To end this meditation on faith, remember and make sure to be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the Law, but that which is through the Faith of Christ, the righteous which is of God by faith.[Phil.3:9]
Therefore being justified by Faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. That you may have this peace in abundance is my prayer. Johannes Weiss
The Lord's Day of Rest
Usually when I feel the need to write about a Christian subject, it is because of something which happened and did stir me. So here is the story behind this article;
There was a wonderful Godly congregation of believers in a small town.They were interdominational and blessed with nice roomy facilites. They had a great zeal for worldwide evangelisme .Their young Godly pastor led them in very nice Praise and worship services.He loved His Lord very much and was totally inclined to obey His WorD
Ofcourse , when a church is doing so good , it becomes a primary target for Satan.
I can imagine that Satan had a conference in His realm and did ask , " how can we best break this congregation up " ? The demons decided to do it in this case through the confrontational doctrine of Sabbath keeping ! They managed to convince the pastor, through books and other people, that we have to honor and use Saturday as the Lord's Day, rather than Sundays. He proposed to change the Worship services to Saturday... It is not hard to imagine what happened next. !
A division among the people develloped quickly. The leadership of it was a relative elder. They had several meetings, but the issue could not be resolved . So our Pastor resigned and now the former pastor and the opposition elder are accusing each other of causing all the damage to the church.
Although I do not know what exactly happened in their meetings,
but the young Pastor started this controversy and was used by Satan to break up this church. !
It is my prayer that this article will prevent many more schismes Satan is planning.
First of all we should know that the beginning of the naming of days can not be percisely determined. Some believe it occured around the tower of Babel time, because that they were aware of seven of our nine heavenly bodies, the Sun ,moon, and the 5 other planets. Later on, a little before Christ The Roman empire started using Latin names for the 7 days.They got intermingled with Saxon and Nordic Heathen concepts.
This is hat develloped;Sunday-Sun,Monday-Moon,Tuesday-Tewe's day a Norse female deity.Wednessday-Wooden's Day , Teutonoc theology. It was before called Mercury"s Day fomw hich comes Mecredi. Thursday-Thors Day the God of lightning .Friday= Frigg.s Day, a rotund Germanic female deity. It used to be Venus day [Vendredi]. Saturday-Saturn.
The Jewish people go as far back to the days off MOses and the giving of the Law. Before this the entire world had gone thouhg great periods of spiritual darkness. [Noa's flood and the tower of Babel]. Most likely no days were known.
In addition to this, I do not believe, on the basis of the Genesis creation account, that the Lord is talking about our 24 hour day periods. ! Because during the first 3 days, there was not even a Sun and Moon, which sets our 24 hour day.!
Even if they picked the correct so called 7th day,there is the fact that God,s Word tells us that He turned back the Sun at least 2 times! ONe time 10 degrees on the Sundial and during another occation , He lenghted the day with at least half ! [2Kings20-:11 and Joshua 10:13-15].
I point this all out to make sure that you understand that it is impossible to know for sure which day was the original day the Lord our God rested. ! So how foolish it is to fight and debate about "what is the 7 th day ?
One thing we should know . It is very importand to God that we keep one day as rest and Holy. And here we give the devil a foothold. Since Constantine, around 300 ad, the world system gave its approval to Sunday keeping as the day of rest. But most people had no concept about our Lord,s desire to keep it Holy. It detoriated almost at once in a day of leasure and pleasure. And even today, many church going Christians spent most of the Sundays on their own pleasure. In Isaiah 58:13, God list several things not to do on the Sabbath." Not doing our own pleasures and going our own ways. Not even speaking our own words ! How much watered down is our Sunday rest today ! This is still a great failure of the Church to day !
Apperently , Our Lord saw this controversy coming and put in His New Testament some warnings, not to judge one another concerning, food, drink and keeping of holy days and Sabbaths.Romans 14:5-10 tells us clearly that people can esteem different days of the week and in Col.2:16 It says "Let no man judge you in meat or drinkor in respect of any Holy day orof the new moon festival, or of the Sabbath days ! Legalisme was allready a problem in the New Testament Church. Some wanted to keep the circumcision and the Sabbath keeping .
Does all this mean that the Lord did not leave us any indication as to what day the early church used ? Ofcourse not. To let us know, which day became the Lords,s day of rest, when they were meeting and breaking bread together, He mentioned the first day of the week.[Acts 20:7] Also, the collection of the Saints listed in 1Cor.16:2, was ordered on the first day of the Week ! The Lord does not tell us some things for nothing !
When Paul uses the Synagoge on the Sabbath,it is every time, in order to find converts. In my opnion, based on all of this, the early church felt a great need to set them self apart from Judaisme and choose the the first day as celebration of the Lord,s resurruction. And because it is God,s Word, it shows His approval of it .In 1Tim.4: God tells us that all things which He created, are good by our prayers and Praise . Praise His Holy name for our Sunday !
Do you love our Lord? Than please Him with a day of rest and devotion and do not use it to split any part of the Body of Christ .
Your servant in Christ, Johannes Weiss
There was a wonderful Godly congregation of believers in a small town.They were interdominational and blessed with nice roomy facilites. They had a great zeal for worldwide evangelisme .Their young Godly pastor led them in very nice Praise and worship services.He loved His Lord very much and was totally inclined to obey His WorD
Ofcourse , when a church is doing so good , it becomes a primary target for Satan.
I can imagine that Satan had a conference in His realm and did ask , " how can we best break this congregation up " ? The demons decided to do it in this case through the confrontational doctrine of Sabbath keeping ! They managed to convince the pastor, through books and other people, that we have to honor and use Saturday as the Lord's Day, rather than Sundays. He proposed to change the Worship services to Saturday... It is not hard to imagine what happened next. !
A division among the people develloped quickly. The leadership of it was a relative elder. They had several meetings, but the issue could not be resolved . So our Pastor resigned and now the former pastor and the opposition elder are accusing each other of causing all the damage to the church.
Although I do not know what exactly happened in their meetings,
but the young Pastor started this controversy and was used by Satan to break up this church. !
It is my prayer that this article will prevent many more schismes Satan is planning.
First of all we should know that the beginning of the naming of days can not be percisely determined. Some believe it occured around the tower of Babel time, because that they were aware of seven of our nine heavenly bodies, the Sun ,moon, and the 5 other planets. Later on, a little before Christ The Roman empire started using Latin names for the 7 days.They got intermingled with Saxon and Nordic Heathen concepts.
This is hat develloped;Sunday-Sun,Monday-Moon,Tuesday-Tewe's day a Norse female deity.Wednessday-Wooden's Day , Teutonoc theology. It was before called Mercury"s Day fomw hich comes Mecredi. Thursday-Thors Day the God of lightning .Friday= Frigg.s Day, a rotund Germanic female deity. It used to be Venus day [Vendredi]. Saturday-Saturn.
The Jewish people go as far back to the days off MOses and the giving of the Law. Before this the entire world had gone thouhg great periods of spiritual darkness. [Noa's flood and the tower of Babel]. Most likely no days were known.
In addition to this, I do not believe, on the basis of the Genesis creation account, that the Lord is talking about our 24 hour day periods. ! Because during the first 3 days, there was not even a Sun and Moon, which sets our 24 hour day.!
Even if they picked the correct so called 7th day,there is the fact that God,s Word tells us that He turned back the Sun at least 2 times! ONe time 10 degrees on the Sundial and during another occation , He lenghted the day with at least half ! [2Kings20-:11 and Joshua 10:13-15].
I point this all out to make sure that you understand that it is impossible to know for sure which day was the original day the Lord our God rested. ! So how foolish it is to fight and debate about "what is the 7 th day ?
One thing we should know . It is very importand to God that we keep one day as rest and Holy. And here we give the devil a foothold. Since Constantine, around 300 ad, the world system gave its approval to Sunday keeping as the day of rest. But most people had no concept about our Lord,s desire to keep it Holy. It detoriated almost at once in a day of leasure and pleasure. And even today, many church going Christians spent most of the Sundays on their own pleasure. In Isaiah 58:13, God list several things not to do on the Sabbath." Not doing our own pleasures and going our own ways. Not even speaking our own words ! How much watered down is our Sunday rest today ! This is still a great failure of the Church to day !
Apperently , Our Lord saw this controversy coming and put in His New Testament some warnings, not to judge one another concerning, food, drink and keeping of holy days and Sabbaths.Romans 14:5-10 tells us clearly that people can esteem different days of the week and in Col.2:16 It says "Let no man judge you in meat or drinkor in respect of any Holy day orof the new moon festival, or of the Sabbath days ! Legalisme was allready a problem in the New Testament Church. Some wanted to keep the circumcision and the Sabbath keeping .
Does all this mean that the Lord did not leave us any indication as to what day the early church used ? Ofcourse not. To let us know, which day became the Lords,s day of rest, when they were meeting and breaking bread together, He mentioned the first day of the week.[Acts 20:7] Also, the collection of the Saints listed in 1Cor.16:2, was ordered on the first day of the Week ! The Lord does not tell us some things for nothing !
When Paul uses the Synagoge on the Sabbath,it is every time, in order to find converts. In my opnion, based on all of this, the early church felt a great need to set them self apart from Judaisme and choose the the first day as celebration of the Lord,s resurruction. And because it is God,s Word, it shows His approval of it .In 1Tim.4: God tells us that all things which He created, are good by our prayers and Praise . Praise His Holy name for our Sunday !
Do you love our Lord? Than please Him with a day of rest and devotion and do not use it to split any part of the Body of Christ .
Your servant in Christ, Johannes Weiss
The precious promises of our Lord.
The devotional booklet "our daily bread", has as title for the devotion of May 25,'frustrating promises". It starts with the question,
"do any bible promises frustrate you?"
I must admit that in the past I was many times frustrated and probably, there are many Christians today who are frustrated,asking themselves, "why don't I have what want? I believe that our main problem is the fact that we do not ask according to God's will and are ignoring the conditions for the fulfillment of the promises.
In the first place, most promises are for " the righteous man"
Therefore we must know what it means to be a righteous man.
According to the New Covenant, a Righteous person is some one, who is washed clean from his sin by the blood of Jesus, confessing by faith that Jesus died and has risen as our Lord and Savior. James 2:20 tells us also that our faith has to be a living faith , manifested by good works.
Psalm 37 has indeed many precious promises, however it gives us also 17 conditions and instructions how to be doing "good works" .
I will list them here verse by verse:
verse 1 "Fret not thy self"[also in verses 7 and 8]
verse 3 "Trust in the Lord and do good"[also verse 5]
verse 4 "delight thyself in the Lord "
verse 5 "commit thine way into the Lord"
verse 7 "rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him"
verse 8 "cease from anger and forsake wrath"
verse 9 "The meek shall inherit the earth "
verse 21"the righteous show mercy and give"
verse 23 "A good man"
verse 26 "He is ever merciful and lendeth"
verse 27 "Depart from evil"
verse 30 "Their mouth speaks wisdom,his tongue talketh of judgment"
verse 31 "The law of his God is in his heart"
verse 34 "Wait on the Lord and keep His Way"
I count 17 conditions for the promises of psalm 37. They form the Lord's definition of a righteous person and " good works "
In verse 39 He again tells us that it is for " the righteous'
When we do not see the promises of the Lord happening in our lives, we should examine and asking ourselves, "where do I fall short and how can it be corrected? If you know the answer, ask the LORD for Help in this matter.That is certainly a prayer according to His will and He will answer that. [1John 5:14]
Your and Christ+'s servant, Johannes Weiss
verse 27 "depart from evil
"do any bible promises frustrate you?"
I must admit that in the past I was many times frustrated and probably, there are many Christians today who are frustrated,asking themselves, "why don't I have what want? I believe that our main problem is the fact that we do not ask according to God's will and are ignoring the conditions for the fulfillment of the promises.
In the first place, most promises are for " the righteous man"
Therefore we must know what it means to be a righteous man.
According to the New Covenant, a Righteous person is some one, who is washed clean from his sin by the blood of Jesus, confessing by faith that Jesus died and has risen as our Lord and Savior. James 2:20 tells us also that our faith has to be a living faith , manifested by good works.
Psalm 37 has indeed many precious promises, however it gives us also 17 conditions and instructions how to be doing "good works" .
I will list them here verse by verse:
verse 1 "Fret not thy self"[also in verses 7 and 8]
verse 3 "Trust in the Lord and do good"[also verse 5]
verse 4 "delight thyself in the Lord "
verse 5 "commit thine way into the Lord"
verse 7 "rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him"
verse 8 "cease from anger and forsake wrath"
verse 9 "The meek shall inherit the earth "
verse 21"the righteous show mercy and give"
verse 23 "A good man"
verse 26 "He is ever merciful and lendeth"
verse 27 "Depart from evil"
verse 30 "Their mouth speaks wisdom,his tongue talketh of judgment"
verse 31 "The law of his God is in his heart"
verse 34 "Wait on the Lord and keep His Way"
I count 17 conditions for the promises of psalm 37. They form the Lord's definition of a righteous person and " good works "
In verse 39 He again tells us that it is for " the righteous'
When we do not see the promises of the Lord happening in our lives, we should examine and asking ourselves, "where do I fall short and how can it be corrected? If you know the answer, ask the LORD for Help in this matter.That is certainly a prayer according to His will and He will answer that. [1John 5:14]
Your and Christ+'s servant, Johannes Weiss
verse 27 "depart from evil
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Safely Home
Mr. Weiss is safely home. He has been very busy in ministry stateside in California, where he has been living for some months now, between his travels.
Thanks to all who have read this and who care for Mr. Weiss.
Thanks to all who have read this and who care for Mr. Weiss.
Saturday, January 22, 2005
Trip to Philippines
This is Lew. I'm writing to ask all to pray for the Philippine trip this coming February. It's exciting for Johannes to have the opportunity to visit some of the many churches that were planted during his 12 years there in the 80's/90's.
Friday, January 14, 2005
Suffering
The Word of God tells us a lot about this subject. Specially in the
first letter of Peter chapter 2 till 5 we can find the clear teaching that we
as christians are "called to suffer" [1 Peter2:21 ]. It speaks of two kinds
of suffering. First: the suffering for Christ sake, meaning persecution and
reproach, because of our Faith in Christ. Second: the suffering because of our
sins and the need for correction. Sickness is a major part of this second kind
of suffering, although sin is not always the cause of our sickness.
The book of Job makes that very clear. Job was not stricken because
he had sinned, but because God wanted to proof his loyalty and righteousness
and altowed Satan to put sickness on Job. The bible calls suffering for well
doing "better"than suffering for evil doing. [1 Peter3:17]. This implies that
all suffering is good for us.
We are admonished in 1 Peter4:15 not to suffer for being an evil
doer and called happy when we are reproached for the name of Christ. [ 1
Peter4:14 ] We are also told that afflictions are common to all brethern worldwide
and that after you have suffered II a while", God will establish us firm and
strong". (1 Peter 5:9 and10]
That sickness is a major part of our afflictions and suffering is an
undenialble fact. Paul mentions this kind of suffering in Col.1:24, where he
is speaking of 11 the afflictions of Christ in my flesh". Most likely, he was
speaking of the thorn in his flesh which was given to him.[2Cor,12:7]. We
should realize the our Father God chastises His sons every time there is a need
for it. [Hebr. 12:7]. His purpose is to purify us and make us more Christlike.
And many times He seems to use sicknesses and finances as His major tools to
accomplish this. In Hebrews 12:11 He makes the statement that "it seems
grieveous" but then assures us that afterwards it will yield "the peacable fruit of
rightenouss". Therefore in a sense, this kind of suffering can also be
considered for" Christ sake and His Glory"
Jesus learned obedience by suffereing according to Hebrews 5:18. How
much more are we in need to learn this obedience . Although many of our
sicknesses are self induced by mistreating our bodies, however for christians it is
still our Lord at work to purify us. When Satan is used, he has to be allowed
by our Father God to afflict us . We are encouraged to endure, even to be
happy and rejoycing when we are suffering, much against our human nature. However
it seems that the Lord allows us "to sorrow" about sickness.[Phil.2:27]. But
we should remain steadfast by believing in our Fathers everlasting Mercy.
We know that all things work for the good of those who love God and
are called according to His purpose. [Romans 8:28]. Know also that if we
suffer we shall also reign with him.[2Tim.2:12]
Yours truly in Christ, Johannes G Weiss
Hearing God's Word
The biblical word hearing does not mean hearing with your
phycical ears only. Allthough , it is an important part of hearing Gods Word. The
concept, which is involved includes much more than just physical hearing. That is
already evident from the meaning of the original Hebrew Word in the Bible.
Most of the time the Hebrew word SHAMA is used. According to Hebrew scholars,
that word SHAMA implies much more than just physical hearing.
First of all it implies hearing with intelligent understanding
and an obedient heart. This with a willingnes to tell, publish, call together
when we discern what God is saying .
Reading this explanation made me realize how much we fall short on this, most
of the time when we hear/read Gods Word . Do we lack a spiritual ear most of
the time ?
How does God voice comes to us ?
Primarly through the Bible. Either by hearing some one reading it to us, or
reading it ourselves. The Bible itself speaks more often about hearing,
because in ancient time not many people could read. but today we have the
privilege that most of us can read.
In the old days, the priest had to read the word to the congregation in order
for them the hear Gods Word .
Since we have this privelege to be literate, we should use it
to the utmost.
Because it is my opinion that it enhances the chance that we really " SHAMA
" the Word.
And it eliminates the chance that there is some human distortion through
the person who reads it to you .
Besides the Bible, there are two more ways the Lords voice can be
heard by His people directly and personally. Through His still, small Voice
and through visions and dreams. His still , small voice can be heard some
times when our spiritual ear is inclined and the vision and dreams are promised
to us. Specially in these last days in which we live. [Joel 2-28].
To hear His still, small voice, it is needed that we are filled
with the Holy Spirit and are inclining our "pricked up" ears. Vision and
dreams usually occur when we are asleep and our intelligence does not interfere
with the Lords doings.
From the bible we can tell that God some times even speaks to heathens, but
most of the time you have to be a believer in order to perceive His Voice.
He choose Moses, from all the Israelites, to speak to directly,
the people were sore afraid to hear God speak directly. Do you want to hear the
Lord directly and personally? Or are you afraid also ?. He wants to
communicate with you but His main way is through the Bible. If you think that you heard
a personal word from Him , make sure it is in line with His word. If it is
not in line with His written Word, it is not from Him but from the flesh or the
Evil One.
His Word tell us that Jesus is the Living Word and that He
alone will bring true live. Let us therefore dilegently SHAMA His Word and Live !
Amen !
Johannes G. Weiss
New Testament Giving
the Law of sin and death, called the Mosaic Law. However, many are quick to
bring out that tithing was instituted way before the Law was given and that it was
already practiced by Abraham. However In the light of what the New Testament
teaches on giving, is this a valuable argument to keep teaching to tithe ? I
do not think so !
The second argument, tithing teachers bring up is that Jesus and
the disciples were most likely tithing and that Jesus was teaching to do so.
The first part is probably correct, but to imply that Jesus is teaching us to
tithe is spurious. When Jesus was rebuking the Pharisee in Matthew 23-23 and
Luke 11-42, He added that they "ought " to do that because the Mosaic Law was
still in force. They were still under the old Law. He had not shed his blood yet
to seal the New Covenant. In Luke 18-12 He rebukes the selfrighteousness of
the praying Pharisee for claiming to tithe. Therefore the gospels can not be
used for defending tithing teaching.
Ever since the Reformation, evangelicals have been teaching to
tithe, but it is very obvious that the blessing of the Lord does not rest upon
this teaching. Throughout history and now after almost 500 years of this
teaching, the average giving of the believer is less then 2 %. The Lord is closing
the ears of his children and the teachers words are as "falling to the ground"
It is high time that we wake up to this fact !
The Lord is giving us very clear instructions in the New
Testament. First: He expect us to give our all. Willingly, cheerfully and as a
reasonable service. Realizing that everything we have belongs to him. Romans11-36
states: "For of Him and through Him and to Him are ALL THINGS". And Romans 12:
1-3 is beseeching us to give our entire selves as a living sacrifice. He also
expect to get interest from the talents he has given us as stewards.
Second: 2 Cor. 9:7 gives us the basic principle as how to give.
"So let EACH ONE GIVE AS HE PURPOSES IN HIS HEART, not grudgingly or of
necessity. for God loves a cheerful giver " Verse 6 explains that we need to give
bountifully in order to have the beautiful promise of verse 8 "And God is able to
make ALL grace abound towards you, that you ALWAYS having ALL sufficiency in
ALL THINGS, may have an abundance for every good work " The whole of 2 Cor.
chapter 9 are the instructions on giving. While chapter 8 tells us that He
expects us to give out of what we have and not from what we do not have. ( not even
presumptuous "faith promises")
Third: Then in first Cor.16:1-3 we are instructed to give regularly and
proportionately. "The first day of the week" and ''as he may prosper" Now
proportionality does not mean a set percentage for every one. It means in proportion to
the burden it puts on you. This principle is even practiced by the not so
kindhearted IRS. They have a lower rate for poor people than the richer ones. A
set rate for everyone would be actually out of proportion. Fourth: Malachi 3-10
mentions "God's storehouse". The original Hebrew word used is " owtsar ",
which is translated as depository or treasury. Of course He is speaking
allecorical. Malachi is the only place where this Hebrew word is used. The question
arises, what is the storehouse of God ? The best biblical answer is; the place
from which our Father pours out his blessings upon his children. Where does He
live ? In His temple! Who are his temple? The bodies of his children, the
believers, who make up the Church the Body of Christ. To claim that our group or
organization is the only or best store house really shows a great lack of
understanding what the real church actually is. It is the worldwide
of Christ and His Body. The local church or organization should be apart of
this, but sadly enough that is not always the case. Fifth: Since everything we
are and have came from God and belongs to Him and is going to Him, we have to
make sure that we Love him with all our hearts, soul and mind. And as such
live our lives for Him and in obedience to him. (Rom.11:-6) Hereby returning His
talent with interest. That way we can and must look upon the needed
expenditures for our selves and our family, which He entrusted to us, as expenditures
for the
Most scriptures quoted here are related to practical money giving, but are
also including the principle of 100% giving. Having pointed out all this, I must
say that it is possible that the Lord directs your heart to give 10 % in the
church offering. Make sure you obey. But most likely he will ask you for much
more since He always seems to use finances as a test of our faith and
obedience .
In His service, Johannes G. Weiss
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)