The “I believe/we believe” Man

Whilst out walking the other day I was doing some intercessory prayer for the church and not long into it, I received a mental picture of people gathered together in their respective groups or denominations all over the nation.  I saw faces both young and old all sitting passively, giving their best attention to the man or woman up the front delivering his or her 40-minute, 4-point, PowerPoint sermon.  Very few open Bibles were in the hands of people … there seemingly being no need for them because the Scriptures being used to support the sermon were all on the PowerPoint presentation.  And in each sermon presentation the words, “I believe” and “we believe” were constantly being stressed.

I became rather disturbed during the walk because I saw lots of people in lots of gatherings all nodding their heads responding with an “Amen” or “MMMMM” to the preacher’s “I believe/we believe” statements, particularly those that frequently finished with a questioning “….amen?” or “…..hello?”  I was disturbed for other reasons, one of them being that most people were not bothering to check their Bible to confirm that the Scriptures being quoted were done so in context.  Another more impacting disturbance for me was the way and the manner in which many of those preachers were addressing their people.

It appeared that if the preacher said it and added his Scripture plus his questioning “amen?” or “hello?” somewhere in it, then it was a given … no questions asked, none need be asked.  But even worse, if something did need to be questioned publicly, the systems in each of those groups were set up in such a way that nobody could question them – nobody dare question them.  More often than is ever healthy in those groups, the implications behind “I believe” and “we believe” were, “You better believe it too!”  Then I got a mental glimpse of those preachers.

Some were strutting the stage to and fro, some were standing high in pulpits of traditional churches looking down on their people, others stood behind wooden podiums and lecterns, others did the same only they were using the more corporate, contemporary, acrylic lectern.  As for their voices, most were normal but many were shouters while others were more quiet and softly spoken.  In any case however, each voice had become a powerful influence over each group.  Just like their leaders, “I believe” and “we believe” rolled off their tongues effortlessly as they shared their beliefs with both the uninitiated and the unbeliever.

Then my mental picture expanded.  These groups and denominations in each community across the nation gathering together in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ on Sunday (or mid-week), gave absolutely no acknowledgment to any other group or denomination in their community doing exactly the same thing.  It was as though each was totally irrelevant to the other.  Why?  It is because of “I believe/we believe.”  In other words, if you don’t believe what I believe and we believe, well then maybe you really don’t believe.”  Would anyone say that to you face to face?  No. Never.  Why not?  Well, “that’s not what ‘good Christians’ do.  Good Christians don’t judge; don’t you know that?”

Yet the reality is “good Christians” do judge and the fruits of those individual group belief systems are proof of this.  Somebody says, “That’s the way it’s always been down through church history.”  True.  But here’s what else I saw in my mental picture.  As a result of their much praying and developing a relationship with God, I saw the odd man and woman in many of those gatherings beginning to exercise the Holy Spirit-given gift of discernment and they were becoming disturbed with what He was showing them.  The Spirit was showing them that the “I believe/we believe” man up in that pulpit was more a product of his Seminary/ Bible College theology teacher than he ever was a product of God the Holy Spirit.

Not only that but they were discerning that the people under the, “I believe/we believe” man (including themselves), were more a product of him than they ever were of the Holy Spirit too!  But because they had decided to get serious with God and read and study the Scriptures for themselves, they now were seeing that everybody in that place had developed a theology and tried to live it out based on a word of God coming to them second-hand, rather than basing it on the word of God coming to them first-hand.  What a shock for them.  But also, what a joy because they saw opportunity for personal change.

What a liberating experience for them too!  They never knew that God could ever be like He is … no hint of “you better believe it too” and no hint of a manipulating, “amen?” or a soft, “hello?” to answer to if you were unsure and needed further insight before committing.  For the first time in their lives they knew by experience that the truth really does set one free John 8:32-36 and, that there truly is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus living by the Lord’s power Romans 8:1.  As is the case though when God begins to reveal Himself in truth, much disturbed them in their gatherings now.

One of the big disturbances was the total lack of provision for being able to challenge the “I believe/we believe” man publicly in his pulpit when they were not convinced that what he was teaching was as accurate as he thought it to be.  To do so would run the risk of being seen as disruptive, bad mannered, an individualist, a rebel, a scoffer, a doubter, or even a “tare in the wheat field.”  They were not ready to be branded with any of those labels.  Much more prayer would be required before they could endure that stuff.  But equally disturbing was the reaction from the “I believe/we believe” man when they challenged him privately during “fellowship.”

I have discovered that we can never really know what a person is like until he doesn’t get his own way.  That’s what the odd man and woman discovered too.  For years their “I believe/we believe” man came across as a good guy – a smiler, a back-slapper … a “good-to-see-you” man.  But when they told him that the Holy Spirit was showing them some discrepancies in relation to his preaching and teaching, the real “I believe/we believe” man showed up.  Not at all like the one they thought they’d known all these years!  In their studies on the Biblical Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit drew their attention to the reactions of those old Pharisees towards the Lord, as a result of His challenges.  Now they were beginning to understand how He felt!

Another big disturbance encountered by the odd man and woman were the reactions from their fellow believers.  They would talk of their new-found relationship/ fellowship with the Lord to others, attempting to share with them what the Spirit was revealing, but they didn’t really want to know and quickly let them know it.  “What’s happening to you?  Why are you being so judgmental and critical?  Who do you think you are?  Why can’t you just let sleeping dogs lie?”  At first the odd man and woman were shocked, hurt and disappointed with those remarks, but when they went back to the Lord in prayer, He gave them further revelation about human nature.

The odd man and woman were led by the Holy Spirit to see from both Bible Testaments that religious people have always had a preference for religious stuff that keeps them in control of their lives, rather than allow the Lord to strip them down to nothing and begin again doing things His way.  They saw that it started with Adam, Eve and Cain in Genesis and that it continues all the way through till the end of the age as we see it declared in the Revelation of Jesus Christ.  They learned that God’s biggest embarrassment is not the heathen, whores, junkies or thieves, it is the religious practitioner and his/her preference for clinging to institutional church systems.

The odd man and woman were, for a long while, disturbed about what was being said about them behind their back too … especially by those whom they thought were their dearest friends.  After all, they shared lots of fellowship together, eating in one another’s homes, going away on weekend seminars and church camps together, looking after one another’s kids etc; now all that was changing rapidly. They began to experience some persecution and ostracism from them.  It was a devastating experience at first – much worse than any of the same they’d received from unbelieving family and friends.  One can expect such from them, “but not your own brothers and sisters in Christ, surely?”  ‘Fraid so.

Why so?  When God begins to teach us about the reality of His gift of freedom, being stripped of all that brings hindrance to it becomes part of the deal.  God knows how people-reliant we are, so in the processes of stripping us from all self-reliance, He also begins to strip us from all people-reliance and leadership-reliance.  Psalm 118:8-9 begins to become a living reality.  We discover that God really means it when He says we’re not to put our confidence in the opinions and thoughts of people and “princes.”

In the context of what’s being said in this post, that means if I’m going to “Amen” or “MMMM” the “I believe/we believe” man’s questioning “amen?” or “hello?”, then I’d better make sure I know why I’m doing so.  The people in my mental picture didn’t.  They were far from sure.  They did it because everyone else was doing it.  In fact they did it for a number of reasons including,to appear spiritual and to look good.  That’s the culture of the place …. “that’s the way things are done around here.”  The odd man and woman were by now clearly discerning the huge difference between true biblical Christianity and that which was being imparted to them from the “I believe/we believe” man.

Again, this brought disturbances to them … great disturbances.  Why?  Because they now had a serious choice to make. They could stay with the group and kid themselves that others would eventually turn to the Lord and His Scriptures as they were doing – or – they could notify the church and leaders that there was to be a parting of the ways.  For a long time they were condemned each time they heard, “not forsaking the gathering of ourselves together……” Hebrews 10:25, and it spiritually paralyzed them from making any move.  But when the Holy Spirit led them to study the entirety of that verse plus the six verses above it, along with passages from a few from other New Testament books, they got released.

Today the odd man and woman are waiting on God to reveal to them the next step.  Their relationship with the Lord has gotten stronger in spite of what traditional, religious opinion dictates to the contrary.  The Holy Spirit is revealing the Lord Jesus and His word in measures they never thought possible and they know that this is for greater purposes yet to be revealed to them.  Yes, they continue to say, “I believe” and “we believe” when sharing their faith but they now know why they say it. And as they do so, the Spirit of liberty rules in the midst.  “Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong.” 1 Corinthians 16:13. “But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.” James 1:25.