BLOG

The solution to Saul's bad precedent, part 4

usedWhen leaders speak, we must distinguish between the voice of a man and the voice of God speaking through him. Though God often speaks to our hearts directly, He often speaks to us through others. It is our responsibility to learn to discern the revelation of God no matter its source.

Some who desire to hear God’s voice have rejected all revelation except that which God has spoken to them directly. This is a mistake, because God has the power to speak through anyone, even unbelievers. In fact, He proved that He can speak through a donkey (Numbers 22:28). Moreover, God even spoke to the classic Old Testament false prophet, Balaam, who misused his prophetic gift by using it to gain power and wealth. Nonetheless, some of Balaam’s prophecies form part of Scripture. (See Numbers 23 and 24.)

In my experience, I have discovered too that much prophecy and revelation is inadvertent. The one speaking God’s words may not even be aware that God is speaking to someone through him. I observed this often, and the one speaking the revelation of God thought that the words were his own, when, in fact, God had inserted Himself into the conversation seamlessly.

I have attended churches that know little or nothing about being filled with the Spirit. At first, I went with no expectation of hearing the revelation of God through the preacher. In fact, I used to say that I sleep better at home. However, I quickly discovered to my surprise that by listening closely, I would receive a word from God through the preacher without him being aware of it.

Developing Spiritual Gifts

The better we know the Scriptures, and as we gain experience and grow in grace, we develop the spirit of discernment. Discernment is the ability to distinguish between the voices of God and men. It is related to a word of knowledge, which is a supernatural revelation of things that one would not normally know. It is also related to a word of wisdom, which shows us the godly way to use or apply that knowledge.

Paul gives us a list of such spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10 before explaining that God distributes these gifts throughout the body of Christ, so that each may edify the others.

1 Corinthians 12:11, 12 says,

¹¹ But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills. ¹² For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ.

The main purpose for meeting in the early church was to give the believers an opportunity to share the revelation that they had received the previous week and to compare and combine it with the revelation of the rest of the body. Each believer was a different member of the body, and no one could claim to have a complete revelation by himself/herself. 1 Corinthians 12:15-18 continues,

¹⁵ If the foot says, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. ¹⁶ And if the ear says, “Because I am not an eye, I am not part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. ¹⁷ If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? ¹⁸ But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired.

This is the solution to the problem of “the church in the wilderness” (Acts 7:38 KJV) as well as the problem of King Saul, where the people wanted to concentrate authority in one man. The seeds of this problem later sprouted in the church. The gifts of the Spirit were rejected by more and more believers, and their faith in Christ shifted in priority to faith in men.

After a few centuries, church leaders removed from the people the right to hear God for themselves. Eventually, the church leaders felt entitled to rule the people and to expect them to believe the creeds that the church councils established by a majority vote. Votes were bought, and threats were made against opposing bishops. The carnality of the process itself excluded genuine revelation, but the worst part of it was that the voice/commands of men were assumed to be the voice of God by reason of their authoritative positions.

Today we see the same problem throughout most of the churches. It is a problem peculiar to the feast of Pentecost, as seen in the example of Mount Sinai under Moses and in the story of King Saul. By understanding the Scriptures, we are able to learn the lessons from the past, so that we might, perhaps, avoid the same mistakes.

Unfortunately, some Scriptures are not taught in the church. For example, few Bible teachers know that Pentecost commemorates the day that God spoke the Ten Commandments from Sinai. Even fewer know that Saul was crowned on Pentecost as a pattern of the church. It is difficult to learn those lessons as long as we think that Pentecost began in Acts 2, rather than in Exodus 20 and 1 Samuel 12.

As a Bible teacher, my primary calling is to teach the Scriptures so that the body of Christ can be better equipped and edified. At the same time, I too need all other parts of the body in order to discern a fuller understanding of God and His word.

Most importantly, it is my prayer that the things I teach are by revelation and not mere Bible study. It is my prayer that anything that God speaks through me will be spiritually discerned so that it can become assimilated by others, thereby causing the “new man” to grow to maturity.

Eating Clean Spiritual Food

Many believers are handicapped by refusing to study that part of Scripture known as the Law. Bible teachers are generally responsible for this ignorance, because by rejecting the inspired word of God, they reject any revelation coming from the law. Hence, there is a revelation gap in their teachings.

I learned quite early (1974) that God did not put away the law but that it was important because it defined sin (1 John 3:4; Romans 3:20). If we do not know what sin is, how can we repent? Martin Luther taught that the law must be preached until the people repent, and then they are given grace.

The underlying difficulty is that the law must be interpreted and applied through the New Covenant (as Jesus did in His Sermon on the Mount). Many who study the law do so with Old Covenant eyes, as, for example, the rabbis did. Jesus raised the bar in Matthew 5:20, saying,

²⁰ For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

The dietary laws in Leviticus 11 are a good example of this. The rabbis focused upon the dietary restrictions, not knowing that the New Covenant gives us a greater understanding about how we are to drink the milk of the word and eat the bread of life. Without New Covenant eyes, the food laws are mere health laws at best, and some view them as cultural and religious rituals.

The law gives us four main categories of meat that set forth true righteousness as God sees it. Leviticus 11:3 says,

³ Whatever divides a hoof, thus making split hoofs, and chews the cud, among the animals, that you may eat.

When we read or listen to men’s teachings (mine included), the spiritual food must stand on a double witness, i.e., “split hoofs.” This is based on the law of the double witness in Deuteronomy 19: 15, confirmed also in 2 Corinthians 13:1. All truth is established by a double witness and often clarified by a third witness.

Likewise, the animal must also chew the cud. This is the principle of meditating on the word (Psalm 119:15). When a cow eats grass, he will starve if he does not chew the cud, because the grass he has eaten must be processed further by his meditation in order to transfer it to another stomach. Spiritually speaking, we meditate on what we have heard, the “grass” we have eaten, in order to turn it from flesh to spirit. 1 Peter 1:24 says, “all flesh is as grass.” We must hear and read grass from the words of men, but we must also chew the cud to discern the voice of God that may have come from men.

This is what creates clean spiritual food. If the teacher insists that his students must accept his teaching without question, he denies them the right to seek a double witness from God, and he also denies them the right to meditate and discern the word of God. Such food, however factual, is thus rendered unclean.

Likewise, if the people demand a teacher to tell them the revelation from God in order to bypass the need for a double witness or to avoid meditating on the word, it is equally unclean.

Leviticus 11:12 says,

¹² Whatever in the water does not have fins and scales is abhorrent to you.

Fins are a fish’s guidance system. To eat clean spiritual “fish” requires divine guidance. Scales are designed to protect the fish, and this speaks of “the full armor of God” (Ephesians 6:13). One must be guided by the Holy Spirit and be fully protected from the fiery darts of the devil.

Leviticus 11:13-19 gives specific examples of birds that are unclean, without telling us the underlying reason. However, by studying these examples, we see that they have one thing in common—they eat other animals with blood. The law forbids eating blood (Leviticus 17:12). Those who violate this law are bloodthirsty.

God condemned Edomites because they were bloodthirsty (Ezekiel 35:6). Bible teachers have been known to “eat blood” in this way. Their food is unclean.

Finally, there are certain insects that are clean. Insects have very little meat on them, but their characteristics show whether they produce clean or unclean food. Leviticus 11:21 says,

²¹ Yet these you may eat among all the winged insects which walk on all fours; those who have above their feet jointed legs with which to jump on the earth.

Wings and the ability to “jump on the earth” shows the desire to ascend higher, whether by flying or by jumping. Even a small portion of spiritual food that brings us to a higher understanding is clean. But if the teacher’s “food” is designed to keep us crawling on all fours so that we remain spiritual babes, it is unclean.

There are teachings and church policies that prevent believers from growing beyond babyhood, designed to keep them dependent throughout their lives. Such “food” is unclean. It is not even the milk of the word. This is what happened many centuries ago when church leaders removed from the people the right to hear God for themselves—lest they be “deceived” or even question standard church traditions.

The solution is to teach the people the word of God so that they may grow and develop their own spiritual discernment, rather than outsource all discernment to a special class of priests.

By understanding how to eat clean spiritual food, we may overcome the problem that is inherent in the feast of Pentecost.