Revelation vs Education

There are some people who think I am against education. Having run a school for nearly ten years and being a huge fan of home schooling should prove otherwise. I personally take online courses, not for credits, but to keep my mind active and, I pray, expanding. I am also a avid reader, desiring to gain knowledge because I believe the Lord wants us to be knowledgeable. However, I believe we need to be wise, selective and need to keep education in its proper perspective. Revelation is far more important than education.

There are many people who read, study and educate themselves on the Word of God. They learn everything that present day scholars teach. They have a real thirst for learning from theologians but you don't have to be a believer to be called a theologian. A theologian is simply someone who studies religious things. Theology is simply the study and analysis of divine things and religious truth (dictionary.com). This makes you no more a Christian than studying fish makes you a trout. Yet, in the pursuit of knowledge, Christians hang on the words of people who have no relationship with Jesus, who have never received any kind of revelation concerning the things they study. They teach from the same perspective as a history teacher: one who has studied the facts, analysed them and feeds them to students. A history teacher has not experienced the history he teaches.

Tell me, how did Peter come to confess that Jesus was the Son of God? Some mistakenly think that it was simply by observation and coming to a conclusion after much analysis. We forget, Peter was a fisherman not a theologian. Isn't it interesting that Jesus surrounded himself with the common man and not the scholars of his day. Could it be that he needed to have men who were open to the divine inspiration of Yahweh instead of steeped in the opinions and thoughts of man? This was Jesus' response to Peter's declaration:

Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 16:17)

Simon did not gain this knowledge from books, scholars or anyone else's opinion. Simon Peter gained this knowledge directly from Father. We call it revelation. It continues to happen today.

There is a difference in attitude in approach to Bible study when we study to simply gain facts compared to seeking revelation. One is nothing more than gaining information that we could use in trivial games; how many books are in the Bible, who was Peter's father, was Jesus crucified on the Wednesday or Friday? This can fill our head with a lot of knowledge facts but leave our heart empty of any relationship, and it is always about relationship. However, when we study to see more of Jesus and to understand better the Father's heart; when we want to know how to live to bless Father and what his promises are to us, we are putting ourselves in a position to receive revelation. Revelation is simply something revealed that had been hidden from us. Much of the depth of the Word can only be understood by revelation.

When we open the Word of God it is a healthy approach to believe that Yahweh wants to teach us. It is healthy because it is the truth. Jesus told us:

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. (John 14:26)

Paul the apostle testified to this fact:

These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. (1 Corinthians 2:13)

So we have this problem in the Body of Christ: Most people do not read their Bibles and those who do read do it from the perspective of gaining knowledge not revelation. It means we have a lot of brothers and sisters running around who are immature in their understanding of the Trinity, the Church and the Kingdom. They base their actions and decisions on what they are told and taught, with very few receiving direct revelation from the Spirit. It means that as the winds change so does the mind. Those who base their understanding on the teaching of man will change as man's opinion changes but the Word is solid and unchanging. It is a dangerous situation in the Church as the curtain continues to be drawn.

If you are one who has no direct revelation of Jesus Christ you have the ability to change it. Change your expectations. Expect to receive instructions and understanding from the Spirit. Allow him to become your teacher and guide. Also approach the Word with the prayer of the psalmist:

Show me Your ways, O Lord;
Teach me Your paths.
Lead me in Your truth and teach me,
For You are the God of my salvation;
On You I wait all the day. (Psalm 25:4-5)

May we all seek fresh revelation in the Word every day and may we serve our Lord Jesus to the very end of the age.

An Uneducated Pastor

Can you imagine volunteering for your job instead of getting paid? Imagine walking into your boss and telling him you don't need the company computer, you are going to provide your own. Or a bus driver telling the city he's going to provide his own bus? Silly, right? Yet so many of us do that with God. He doesn't want anything from us except our friendship, love, emptiness and availability  For everything he calls us to he equips. Yet, most of us turn down his provision and try to resource the tasks ourselves.

How many things do you do in God's name that actually come from you? How many times have you spoken from your wisdom, served in your strength, reacted by your conviction, given from your riches? We can do a fair job in our own ability but God intends for us to go beyond fair to supernatural, beyond anything we could have ever imagined. When we do things in his anointing everything changes. He doesn't need anything we have to offer, he pours it out on us. Wow! do we ever have it backwards.

This is what the great apostle Paul requested the Ephesians to pray for him:

Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should. (Ephesians 6:19-20)

"Words may be given me", he writes. Paul did not speak from his own great knowledge and training. Paul did not speak from his own opinion or speculation. Paul did not study for four years to come up with the gospel of grace. Paul was in-filled by the Spirit. equipped, enabled and empowered to be the apostle to the Gentiles. He was given the revelation of the gospel of grace through the Spirit of God.

We've gone crazy with education. Knowledge is great. All minds should be expanded to the best of our capacity but God is not dependent on our education. We do not have to go off and be trained according to the methods of man before we can preach, teach and evangelize. A pastor does not need letters after his name and neither do apostles, prophets, evangelists and teachers. There is nothing wrong with Bible colleges but God doesn't require them. We need to have Paul's understanding of God's equipping.

Style and methods do not mean anything compared to the anointing of God. We need more servants who are dependent on God for all things than we need educated men and women filling the positions in the Church. We need men and women who say to God "here am I send me" and desire their lips to be touched by the burning coal. We need men and women who understand that their power to serve comes from the Holy Spirit not seminary courses. We need men and women of God who are more interested in the anointing than in man's recognition of their studies.

I would rather sit under the training of an uneducated former alcoholic, saved by grace, empowered by the Holy Spirit than the best trained and educated seminary graduate. The anointing of God is all that we need to serve him to the full potential to which he has called us. Do not let anyone tell you any different. God's training school is all you need. Put your confidence in Jesus and you will be amazed how he uses you for his glory.

Sacrificing To Molech

Good morning my friends,

I think most of you would agree with me that the world is a crazy mixed up place. Most restraints that were placed on people by our society have been thrown off as our society loses sight of the holy things. There used to be a very clear distinction between right and wrong. Perhaps these distinctions were poorly applied and people suffered as a result but just because some people went overboard with it does not make it right today.

This morning’s reading contained a chapter on wrong sexual behaviour. It would have been difficult for my younger students and I will temper my comments on it because of them. One would think that common sense would dictate that this behaviour is wrong but there is no such thing as common sense. We do have a moral compass that God has built in us but often we do not know how to apply that compass to our behaviour. Our sin nature has knocked it out of whack. The law was given and then explained in detail so that the people could understand that compass.

Unfortunately everything that was listed this morning takes place every day in this world. Thirty-five hundred years ago we were told not to behave in this manner and yet today we find this behaviour to be far too common. Unfortunately as our society becomes more “tolerant” of these “life-style choices” we are going to find more of our children becoming curious and experimenting with them. Our public school system is very good at spreading the gospel of some of these groups, all in the name of tolerance and equality. Next the common thief will be pushing for his rights because his is a “life-style” choice. As far as I am concerned (and this is a personal opinion) sending our children to public education is the same as sacrificing them to Molech. There are some great Christian teachers in the system but there are too few to protect our children from the ideas and opinions that bombard our children every day. These teachers are more like evangelists, out to save as many of the perishing as possible.

A big problem in all of this is the attitude of many Christians. First there are the pastors who do not recognize the mounting dangers of the public education system and fail to uphold the Word that tells us to train up our children in the ways of the Lord. Second, there are the pastors and fellow Christians who have pet-sins that they pick on. We have countless sermons being preached out there against the evils of homosexuality but what about the sin in the church that is taking place right in from of the pastor? Is there any difference between the sin of homosexuality and the sin of sleeping with your neighbours wife?

It is one thing to be narrowed on the Word of God and it is another to put blinders on so we can’t see what is happening around us. Pastors, teachers, evangelists, Christian workers must all be willing to open their eyes fully that we may see all the things that are happening around us. We need to recognize what is happening in our public schools. Only a miracle will be able to turn that beast around and from what I read in the Word the end times are only suppose to get worse. We need to start facing the times we are in. We need to train up our children. Get them into an educational system we believe in and trust. Make decisions about what they are watching on TV. Monitor their internet use and guide them in good choices. Help them select friends who will not destroy them. Take an active part in their spiritual growth. We will take them to sports events and desire to see their physical, social and mental skills increase. Yet, when it comes to their spiritual growth we do not give it much thought.

Understand that parents sacrificed their children to Molech in the hopes of securing a better future for themselves. I hope we are not doing the same thing by choosing our desires over our children’s needs. I hope we do not send them to daycare and school with the attitude that they are being babysat while we continue with our life? I hope we do not choose public education over Christian because we want to save our money for something we want to buy for ourselves. I hope all of us who are Christian parents will remember that we will have to give an account for our decisions with our children.

I also hope that we will stop pointing fingers at the world. They are acting as their sin nature dictates. They are acting normal for their nature. However, we have been saved from this so there should be a difference in the Church. As we reach out to the world let us not lose sight of the correction that must continue within the Body of Christ. There is a difference between the Holy and the Common.