A Letter to the American Church
Why is our faith dead? We rely on our own interpretation of the scriptures rather than trusting the One, True, Living God – the Holy Spirit. Jesus didn’t say he was sending us the scriptures. He didn’t say it was good that he should go away, so that we should have the scriptures. He said it was better that He go away, so that the Helper, the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, the Great Counselor should come and dwell with us.
7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.
John 16:7
A warning to all: Even the scriptures can become an idol in our hearts. One of the reasons that the Pharisees didn’t recognize Jesus as the Savior was that they were so focused on their own interpretations and expectations based on the scriptures they had access to. They thought they were doing the work of God to spit on and manipulate the oppressed and to kill our Savior, and I have seen this too much in the American church. We worship our own understanding of the scriptures instead of the one true God, and we are spitting on the oppressed who Jesus loves. As if we can protect ourselves from God by holding Him to our understanding of the scriptures. There is no safety to be had apart from dwelling in Jesus, the true Vine, through the Holy Spirit.
39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
John 5:39-40
It grieves my heart to see our people be known by their desire to be right and to condemn and not to be known by the love of Christ. The love of Christ doesn’t make sense to the fleshly human heart. Jesus doesn’t need you to defend Him. Jesus healed the guard that was coming to take His life, because the reality of that situation was that at any moment if Jesus were to change His mind LEGIONS of angels were waiting for his command to kill us all. Yet, He loved us enough to suffer even death on a cross. Jesus was and is our ultimate example of how to love the lost who we once were. He said, “Forgive them. They know not what they do.”
He empowers you to love. Do not be surprised when the principalities and powers of this world revile Him. And don’t be surprised when people under the influence of these powers revile you for loving them in His power. The people who are blinded by the powers of this world need the light and love of Christ. A lot of people are in pain. Did we not once curse His name before He drew us near to Him? Love your enemies and do good to those who hurt you. Do not be known as a people that though they have the POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT to love and to heal are too concerned with being right and arguing amongst themselves that they quench the Spirit of God.
We are caught up in an interdimensional battle for souls. Do we not truly believe? Our only hope for discernment is intimacy with God by Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit indwelling us. One day, God will say to some of us, “Depart from me. I never knew you.”, because we never knew Him intimately. We worshipped our intellect or our feelings, and we traded them for the One, True God who sees us. El Roi
12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
Ephesians 6:12
Hope in God. Dwell in Him, and He will teach you to walk in His ways. The scriptures are true, and an amazing resource and tool for learning to walk in the ways of God. They are a good gift from God, but they are not God. And to get this out of order is dangerous and leads to a dead faith. He is making all things new.