Untested teachings and opinions

The old lady stood in her doorway hunched over her walking stick as she spoke with me.  In her eighties, she told me that she used to go to church but had now ceased the practice due to ill health.  She had a number of illnesses, but asthma was the one most evident.  As I spoke with her it became clear to me that I was standing face to face with a religious lady in spiritual and mental slavery – the exact opposite of what the biblical Lord Jesus Christ and His message to the world and church was all about.  I saw no evidence of the gospel being good news for her whatsoever.

As I shared the message of Christ she told me that she “believed and had faith” in the Lord, but in reality, it was her denomination that she had placed her faith in.  She’d been told from childhood that she was a member of the one true church and that all others were not true churches at all. She gave the appearance of believing this as far as it was to concern me, but not so, as far as it was to concern herself.  She had anything but faith. She had bitterness, hatred and unforgiveness, but certainly not faith.  The Bible had never meant anything to her personally, believing she was not qualified to interpret it.   

She hated her husband (out the back painting) because he used to get drunk and beat up on her.  It was now a marriage of convenience for both. Over the next few months I revisited but the same emotions controlled her.  The last visit was a sad occasion.  Alzheimer’s was added to the list of her diseases, although in a mild form at that point.  She was sitting up in bed trying to be sick into a piece of toilet roll with a bucket nearby.  I asked her if she’d like me to pray for her, believing God would give her some immediate relief.  She just shook her head and said, “b….y prayers, they don’t work!”  Then she said she didn’t want to talk anymore.

Sixty-four year old Mr Duncan invited me inside, based on me telling him that I knew his uncle who lived in my street.  He immediately proceeded to tell me about his illnesses.  What a list!  He had angina and heart problems, hemorrhoids and bowel problems, plus arthritis in his neck, back and legs. Mr Duncan was filled with bitterness, hatred and unforgiveness. He saw himself as a victim in life. He hated his eighty-nine year old father (who was in another room), saying that he’d been dominated by him all his life. He was bitter towards his wife as well.  We sat and talked for an hour and a half.

It was very sad indeed to observe the physical state of this man who had clearly become a product of his negative thinking, emotions and speech.  The Bible tells us that we live with the consequences of everything we say and, that what we say can preserve life, or it can destroy life Proverbs 18:21.  Here I was sitting opposite a man who was killing himself – destroying his life with his own speech.  I was most grateful for knowing what the Bible says about God’s word however – that it is “living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword.”  When I was given the opportunity to speak I gave him that living and powerful word.

As he spoke death into his being, the Holy Spirit used me to speak life into him. He learned that if he was willing to allow God and His power to become a reality for himself, then he would find that there is an alternative way of thinking and speaking which could transform him, by bringing spiritual, mental and physical healing. Mr Duncan gave me no indication that he would choose this alternative, but he gave no indication that he wouldn’t either. This is always God’s work and He accomplishes what He wills, in His time. I was blessed by that thought as I left him. I didn’t see him again.    

I met an unstable fifty-three year old lady in an old people’s home.  She suffered from Parkinson’s Disease and had a prominent speech impediment.  When I mentioned the Lord Jesus she began to cry, telling me how much she loved Him.  She told me that she gave her heart to the Lord when she was thirteen.  She was married to a Christian man and they had two adult children.  She’d also had two miscarriages.  This dear lady was the product of a weak, Bible-compromising church.  In the days before the term “political correctness” was coined, that was the mentality of her church leadership and fellowship. 

For years she had sat under Godless, men-pleasing preachers, whose specialty it was to tickle the ears of their members, telling them what they wanted to hear, not what they needed to hear. This lady was now paying the price of that. On my second visit with her, the crying continued as once again she told me how much she loved God.  I began to doubt her and said so.  It was then that she told me she’d been unfaithful to her husband at some point in their marriage.  Although she knew in her head that both her husband and God had forgiven her, it had not penetrated to her innermost being, because of years of failure to seriously embrace the Scriptures. 

She became an easy target for Satan the devil as he spewed out his condemnation upon her day and night.  I gave her books to read on deliverance from guilt and depression, which helped her somewhat, but I was not able to assist much beyond that, because real ministry only comes from the living words of God, as revealed in the Bible. It seemed that she was reluctant to pray and fill her spirit with those words however. Whatever opportunities this lady had to experience the grace of God in her troubles, she was blocking them all off because of unbelief. 

Unbelief in the word of God is always a choice, but it comes at a cost. I could not count how many people I met whose lives were self-destructing because of imprisonment to the emotions of chronic bitterness, hatred and unforgiveness. Here they were running to and from doctors and hospitals seeking causes and solutions for their sicknesses, each one hanging off every word those people told them, but completely ignoring the one and only book that gives true causes, true diagnosis and true solutions – the Bible.  There are a number of reasons for this and one of them is that most people are followers more-so than thinkers.  

It has been said that some people think, other people think they think, but the vast majority of people would rather do anything but think!  I saw the truth of that statement on a regular basis – particularly the last part. I was amazed at the number of people I met who operated their lives based on the untested teachings and opinions of others.  Jesus tells us that if the blind follow the blind, then both will fall into the ditch.  It is true.  I discovered that first, in my own life.  He also told us to seek out God’s viewpoint on every issue that we are faced with in life and that if we did so, then God Himself would provide the exact solution.

Following the teachings of religious people or/and the advice of medical people is not the same as following the teachings and advice of God Almighty until we know for sure, that He has directed us to either one of them.  When it comes to being imprisoned by bitterness, hatred, unforgiveness and biblical unbelief, there is not a church denomination, medicine or pill in all the world that can cure us from these things.  All they do is put a band-aid over them, which is about as effective as putting a band-aid over a cancer.  Jesus tell us it is the truth that sets us free.  He also tells us that He is the truth.

That means Truth is a Person. Which also means that if we seek out God’s viewpoint on a matter, then He will tell us the truth about it and provide a solution to release us from it’s imprisonment. The problem with followers, however, is that they are most reluctant to face up to the truth about themselves that Jesus Christ confronts them with. That’s the way human nature has always been. In the Old Testament the people specifically demanded that the prophets speak to them lies and deceits Isaiah 30:10-11. And the New Testament tells us exactly the same thing in 2 Timothy 4:3-4.

It is natural for one to be a follower in life. But it is supernatural to be a follower of the biblical Lord Jesus Christ. We can only be such as we believe His revelation to us as truth and, that we would then humble ourselves before Him and invite Him to come into our lives and set us free. Holding on to bitterness, hatred, unforgiveness and biblical unbelief is a choice. Embracing and holding on to Christ and His word is a choice also. He will not force our hand. “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live.” Deuteronomy 30:19.