The New Life, Inc.

Spiritual Pride 

One of the things that can bring our spiritual journey to a standstill is pride. Pride is quite prevalent in the church. Without even being aware of it we might think; “I am glad I am not like that person” when we are very much like that person. 

Pride is one of the enemy’s favorite weapons. He uses these especially when we first come to know the Lord in a personal way and when we receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This is the time when we become aware of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the authority that comes with it. Pride moves in and says; “I am someone special”.

I remember years ago when I elevated certain people to a higher level than I was.  I did not realize at the time, by doing that I could not relate to them in the same way I could to people on my level. What a relief it was when I saw we were all at the same level. At this point I had to be careful I did not elevate myself above others. It is just as hard to relate to others whether we are looking up or looking down.

We must continually see that apart from Jesus Christ and God’s grace we have nothing to offer anyone. I often think of the statement that is used in the Catholic Church in the communion service; “Lord I am not worthy to receive you just say the word and I will be healed”.

I have said the words many times; “I am not worthy”, but the words never came alive to me till this year; not in a negative way, but seeing the truth of the statement. I did not see that I was worth enough for someone to die for me. My Father in heaven loved me and thought I was worth enough to send His Son to die for me.

Why is it important to see this truth?

When we see this truth, pride is dealt a serious blow. We stop trying to exalt ourself trying to be greater than someone else and we stop punishing ourselves for our failures. As a result, God is able to work through us more then ever. We then enter into a new place of rest and peace that we cannot enter into when we are filled with pride.

Luke 18:10-14  Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, and the other a tax-gatherer.

The Pharisee stood and was praying thus to himself, “God I thank thee that I am not like other people; swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax-gatherer. 

I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get”.

But the tax-gatherer, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his chest, saying, “God, be merciful to me, the sinner”.

“I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, but he who humbles himself shall be exalted”.

Ephesians 6:12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

The warfare that we are in can only be defeated by the church. God has given the church authority over these terrible forces, our armies cannot defeat them.

We as individuals, as well as the corporate must lift up our voices and speak with authority and bind and silence these spiritual powers that want to destroy our nation and our church. We need to do this every day, several times a day, alone or with others.

The church cannot be silent anymore; the enemy must be bound and silenced; only the church has the authority to do this.

We are in a very crucial time right now, it is very important that we vote; more important is that we use the authority God has given us. That authority is not just for our nation; He gave us this authority in the world. The church should be having a big effect in the nation and in the world. It is not because it is silent; the only way this can happen is by using the authority God has given us.

Did you mean it? 

In Spiritual Growth #60, I asked the question; “Who will go? The next question is do I want to go?

At many of the prayer meetings and retreats we have asked people to step forward or put up their hand if they wanted the Lord to use them. I am sure that they did want to be available to the Lord. It is easy to step forward or lift up a hand or even to ask for prayer for this purpose.

I remember many years ago I had told the Lord I would do whatever He asked of me. Some time later He asked me; “Did you mean it?” I had to really think about that before I answered. My answer was; Yes Lord I meant it! He then said to me then do what I have asked.

I must confess there have been times I have failed; many times I did not fail. I believe many of you have said something similar to the Lord at some time and my question is; “did you mean it?’

One Thing I discovered; it is not always easy to do what God wants you to do even when “we mean it”. We are afraid, we feel inadequate, I will make mistakes, what will people think, I don’t have the authority and the enemy does not want you doing things for God.

One thing you want to remember; whatever God asks you to do, He gives us everything we need to do it. We do need to pray like Paul; “Lord give me boldness to speak as I should”. You might ask Him some question; “When am I to do this; how am I to do this?” There might be a certain time to accomplish what He asks, a certain way of saying or doing things. Remember what Jesus said; “I only say and do what my Father tells me”.

The reason I am writing this is because the Lord has spoken to you and it is time to begin listening and doing because you meant it when you said; “Lord use me, I am available”.    

Who Will Go?

Isaiah 6:8:  Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ” Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? “Then I said, “here am I send me!” 

The church needs to be challenged constantly. It is so easy to become a hearer instead of a doer. If this is the kind of hearing that we have, all we have is selective hearing; we hear only what we want to hear.

Mark 16:15 And He said to them” Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to all creation.

I believe the Lord is still speaking to the church today; “Whom shall I send, who will go for us? Do we hear? Do we want to hear?

What is it that the Lord wants from the church and us as individuals?  

He wants us to bring the good news, the gospel out into the world. Some might say; I pray for the world every day! I read the bible every day! I go to everything that is going on at the church! Is that bringing the gospel, the good news out into the world?

You might say; “Being a good church member is my testimony! Is it? Is that good news to the world? Is that touching the world out there in some special way? When the Lord says; “Whom shall I send, who will go for us? Is that where He wants us to go?

I encourage you be a good member of the body of Christ, the church. Do not make it your hiding place, or your excuse that we are not called out into the world. If you do, your spiritual growth will stop there.

Where Are We? 

I am sure we would all like to think we are spiritually mature. I expect the foolish Galatians liked to think that as well as the Hebrew church and other church groups back in that time.

How do we know that we are spiritually mature people?

Is it because we pray every day, read our bible on a regular basis, go to a particular church on a regular basis, give some of our money to the church and to people in need? I expect the Galatians the Corinthians and the Hebrews did all these things. Paul still referred to them as spiritual babies, as natural men. All these things should be apparent in a Christian living as a spiritual person. Paul must have seen that something was missing in there spiritual walk. We can do all these things and not be spiritual. What was missing?

Part of this question was answered in Hebrew 5:11. Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become hard of hearing.

This was a problem in the Old Testament and the new; “Seeing they see not and hearing they hear not”

Hebrews 5:12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.

Milk is when someone else must keep feeding you. Solid food is being led by the Holy Spirit and doing what God wants you to do!

Hebrews 5:13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is a baby.

Note it says “only of milk” we still need teachers. We also need to hear the word of righteousness which is the living word that is in our heart and mind and obey what God is saying to us.

Hebrews 5:14 But solid foot is for the mature who because of practice have there senses trained to discern good and evil.

Paul speaks of this in 1 Corinthians 2;13; which things we speak not in word taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. This is the word of righteousness. This is the solid food if we learn to hear it and do it, we know that we are spiritually mature.

Hearing We Hear Not! 

One of our abilities that is very important in our spiritual growth is hearing. I expect if you have not become a good listener you have had very little spiritual growth.  This is very apparent in our natural life as well as our spiritual life. So much off our growth comes from hearing new thoughts and ideas.

In this day and age our natural hearing is bombarded with sounds of one kind or another. If we do not put up some defense to block some of this input we go nuts. The problem with this is we block out some of the things that we really need to hear.

It is easier to hear the lie than it is to hear truth. In politics, this is quite obvious. In our spiritual journey this is also true. The enemy can lie to us and we accept it. God speaks the truth to us and we reject it.

One of the voices that speak to us if we have ears to hear is the faith God has given to us. It does not shout at us, it only whispers. I have come to believe it is the clearest and most sure way of hearing God’s voice on a daily basis. This faith that comes from God cannot be deceived! For those that are not dull of hearing and are listening, it is there for you every day in all kinds of situations.

Faith speaks to you and says; “Don’t say that.” Because we are not paying attention we say it anyway. Other times it says; “Don’t be involved in that conversation” and we do. Don’t read that book, we do! Go and visit your friend in the hospital, we are too busy and he dies that night. I could go on and on. I am sure you know what I am saying. The faith of God is active in you if you will listen and act. You see just hearing is not enough. There is some action that is involved.

The sad part is if we ignore this still quiet voice long enough we will not hear it any longer because we have blocked it out and become deaf.

Defeat Fear and Worry! 

Something wonderful should be happening as we continue on in our spiritual journey! We should be experiencing more peace and joy and less worry and fear. I think that at least half of the people that ask for prayer are worried or fearful. Both of these things are tools of the enemy, they rob us of peace and joy. We can confess these things and receive prayer and for a time have peace, usually in a short time the worry and fear return.

There is an answer to this problem of going in and out of fear and worry. The answer to this problem, or better still the victory over fear and worry is our faith. When we are worried and fearful our faith is not active. Faith is a substance that needs to be applied to each situation. When we apply faith in a situation where worry and fear have appeared, worry and fear disappear. Faith and fear and worry cannot be in the same place at the same time.

We learned that to free a person from fear and worry, all we had to do was stir up the faith in that person. When their faith became active they were instantly free.

Each one of us must learn to stir up and keep active our own faith, that is our victory. Fears and worry are always waiting for the opportunity to attack our mind and emotions as different events crop up in our daily life. If fear and worry are able to grab you it is a sure sign your faith is not active in that area.    

Another important question! 

There are times we should be offended and make people aware we are offended and we do not!  And there are other times when we should not take offence and we do.

When people say and do things that are truly offensive to us and we say and do nothing about it somehow it makes us smaller in our eyes and in the eyes of others; we lose something of ourselves.

Other times we are offended so easily when no offence was intended and we strike out and speak out, we again suffer loss. It might be the loss of a friend or loss of some truth God is trying to show us.

I have a question and I pray that you will not be offended by it.

John 10:27 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.”

John 10:4 “When he puts forth all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.”

Do you know His voice?

God has not lost His voice! He is still speaking in this day and age. I am not asking if you read the bible or what your pastor has to say to you on Sunday. My question is a very important one. Your Father in heaven is speaking to you; do you hear or know His voice?

Several years ago I asked this question to a friend and he replied; “I have written several books about it haven’t I?  He didn’t really answer my question and he was offended and I lost his friendship.

We can write books about how God speaks. We can be a Christian for many years, we can pray every day, go to church every Sunday, be a pastor or minister and still not know or hear Gods voice. We can know the bible very well and not know His voice.

Do you know your earthly fathers voice? I expect most of you do. Do you know your mothers voice, or your brothers or sisters voice? I am sure most of you do.

Why do we know their voices?

Because we have spent a lot of time together, we are familiar with them. We get to know our Father’s voice by spending time with Him in a personal way. In time, we don’t have to worry about recognizing His voice. The moment He speaks to us we know his voice and follow Him.

Faith or Unbelief? 

The scriptures referred to the fact; the harvest is ripe and the workers are few. I believe there are many that would like to be laborers in the field but they feel inadequate. If this is the case, what is lacking in those that would like to do more?

I know the only reason Pauline and I were able to step out into the harvest and be fools for God was; He gave us the faith; He gave us the boldness; set us free from the fears of what other people would think; or what the church would say and what the rest of our family would think and say.

We have tried our utmost to encourage people to be fools for God. With some we have succeeded.  We accomplished this by example. We laid hands on the sick for healing and encouraged folks to join us and many did. We took authority over demons and cast them out and encouraged others to join us and they did.

Jesus said; “Follow Me!” That could mean many things; such as; do as I do; be led by the spirit; walk in my footsteps; do and say only what the Father shows you; do all the things I have done; lay down your lives for one another; or follow my example.

One thing you must have to follow Jesus is faith. Do you have faith? What do you have faith for?

From what I have seen through the years of ministry, we have faith for some things and not for others.  For example we might have faith for someone else to be healed and not have faith that I can be healed. I might have faith that the church has authority over the evil spirits and not have faith that I have authority over evil spirits. Maybe you believe there is healing power in the church but you don’t have it.  What I find then is I have faith and unbelief.

Jesus knew He had the authority. Jesus knew he had healing for the people. Jesus knew he could set the captive free.

To follow Jesus into the harvest we must have faith that we as an individual can do all the same things. Cast off all the unbelief; stir up your faith and believe; I have the authority over demons; I have healing in my hands; I can set the captive’s free; I can bring people into the kingdom of God; I have everything I need to be a worker in the harvest. I can do all the things Jesus did. Do not allow unbelief to stop you from being fruitful.

Our speech is very important in our spiritual life.  The reason for this is we minister grace or condemnation through the things we speak.

If you are a listener, you are going to learn to hear the Holy Spirit’s voice more often just before you speak than any other time in your life.

Why would this be? We are His spokesman! If we listen, He will direct our words and conversation. Have you ever felt uncomfortable in a conversation? I expect you have. As a Christian, our speech should be edifying and uplifting. Our words should be filled with grace and love. The reason we are uncomfortable is because we should not be in that conversation.

The Lord knows what we are going to say before we open our mouth. That is when He says; “Don’t say that!” Then if we will listen, He will impress us with what we should say. I really come to appreciate the fact that God wants to be involved in my conversations with the people around me. When I allow that to happen, life flows right out through my month to bless the people around me.

A strange thing happens in our speech: We are very bold to minister death and condemnation in our speech and very timid to minister grace and healing. I remember Paul praying, asking for boldness to speak as he should.

If we think we have reached some great height in our spiritual walk, and have not learned to have some control on our tongue and speech we are wrong and are not seeing things very clearly.