Setting The Body Of Christ Right
There have been many Divine Realignments throughout history, some great, some small. In fact, the Holy Spirit is constantly trying to bring us into alignment with His will through His still small voice in our lives.
One of the greatest realignments in history was Noah’s flood. God, even in all His wisdom and might, could not realign the antediluvian world to His will. Thus, God destroyed that corrupt and evil generation, choosing Noah and his family to repopulate a new world.
Great Divine Realignments
It is so difficult to imagine that God would wipe out the whole earth. When you think about the pain and suffering that caused the human race, it staggers our human minds. A flood from YHWH destroyed whole families and civilizations ceased to exist. Yet we know God is a just Lord and we trust that if He did it, there was a good reason for it.
The next great realignment was at the Tower of Babel. God went down, with His Seraphim, and saw that the way things were going, His will would not be done. Therefore, YHWH confused the languages so that the people, who were one, would disperse throughout all the earth.
Jesus Christ, the greatest Divine Realignment
Perhaps the greatest of all realignments was the first coming of Jesus Christ to his people. The Jews, through centuries of natural minded interpretation of scriptures, drifted far from the true intent of the word. When Christ came, though he was God manifest in the flesh, He didn’t act anything like they thought a proper Messiah should.
Moreover, the religious leaders who persecuted Jesus really thought they were right to do so. To them, here was a man who claimed to be God, contrary to the scriptures they venerated. Christ threatened their whole way of life, even claiming they should destroy the temple and he would raise it up in three days! People thought, “Preposterous, blasphemous – He should be stoned!”
Legalism blinds us to God’s Divine Realignment
Legalism often blinds us to God’s Divine Realignment. In the first century, they simply could not see, based on their doctrine, what YHWH was doing through His Son. Christ plainly demonstrated he was sent from His Father, yet even though God raised him from the dead, still their minds were shut to God’s truth.
Small Divine Realignments
In our lives, God is constantly performing realignments, great and small. Sometimes God asks us to make major changes to our lives and/or our beliefs when we stray from His path. Sometimes, depending upon how far we have strayed from His divine will, the changes God wants to make are uncomfortable.
God called me to go to Bible College while studying engineering. Though I knew this to be His will, I had to change much of my life to follow it. Additionally, my parents (who paid for college) couldn’t understand why I had to go to Bible College, much less leave school to do it.
Divine Realignments sometimes hurt
Though it “hurt” my parent’s feelings for me to switch gears like that, I had to bear their disappointment and disapproval to be true to God. Not only that but the girl I wanted to marry left me because I wanted to study God’s word. She was “hurt” that I exchanged our secure future for an unknown one at Bible College. Yet, though I loved her with all my heart, I still had to follow God’s voice.
Though Jesus, by virtue of following his Father’s voice, disappointed and angered the Pharisees, it was their fault and not His. Speaking the truth in love offended almost every “real” Jew and ultimately led to their yelling “crucify him!” Though Jewish leaders felt they were right, they ended up accomplishing the devil’s plan, not God’s.
Whatever is not of love is sin
Whatever is not of 1 Corinthians 13 is sin. If you feel you must do evil that good may come of it you are automatically on the wrong side of God. Not many Pharisees accepted The Way, but when they did (like Paul) great things happened. Legalism binds people very tightly. To come out of that bondage takes a supreme trust in God because practically nothing He asks you to do seems right.
In conclusion, the church is on the cusp of one of the biggest Divine Realignments in history. This Divine reordering is going to shake believers to their very foundations. Much of what people have counted as solid ground will dissolve right from underneath them. Doctrines, those cherished beliefs that they knew were rock solid, will be swept away because they are built upon sand.
Trust God’s Divine Realignments
Finally, trust God’s voice more than you trust your intellect. This is going to be very, very difficult for many to do because they have been taught all their lives to only trust what they can understand. I pray that God will have mercy and help us all to know His will and we will be willing to abide by it.
Dear Connections,
I have dealt with legalists all my Christian life and, in fact, I used to be one. Those caught in the grips of legalism don’t want to hurt others, but because they believe holding to the law supersedes human compassion, they often do.
While following the “principles” taught in scriptures, I often wondered why my actions met with such dismal success. After all, I was just obeying the bible when I shunned people, therefore why didn’t they get that it was for their own good?
I shudder at how pompous and arrogant I was during those heady days when I knew and practiced the word so well. I was a fool to think that I had it all down and was doctrinally correct. I, in fact, believe that it was a mercy that God lead me into spiritual connections, if for nothing else, to let me experience the terrible way I treated others.
I believe that when people treat us poorly, instead of returning evil for evil, we should rather return good for evil. This is VERY hard to do, but it does have some benefits. Speaking softly to those who want to destroy you, preserves the possibility of relationship in the future. When we answer anger with anger, we make it that much harder to come together when tempers cool. Remaining vulnerable to others also helps us to keep our heart open to God.
Some are willing to sacrifice everything to their doctrine. Such actions are not of God and are contrary to the very idea of a loving Father who cares for all His children. Paul, in the scriptures, laid out a mechanism to shun those who continued in sin. However, those who try to apply such stern measures to situations today, cherry pick what they follow.
In the scriptures, your first go to the person and tell them they are walking contrary to the scriptures. This is a leader of the church. Secondly, you take other people as witnesses to again confront the believer about their conduct. Thirdly, you stand the person up in front of the congregation and accuse them publicly of their misconduct and then put them out of the church.
While people somewhat follow the first and second steps, then never follow through with the third. In fact, those who resort to such extreme measures really don’t follow Paul’s whole teachings at all. Moreover, despite the amazing good that Paul did by ministering and writing the scriptures, Paul was a Legalist and that never completely left him. Besides, we are to become like Jesus and not like Paul.
Shunning is a terrible form of coercion which is harmful to those who it is directed towards, but even more harmful to those who do it. You have to have a pretty black heart to turn you back on those who you love, because you consider caught in sin. Even Jesus forgave the woman caught in the very act of adultery. Many martyrs died at the hands of such neo-pharisees.
I am against all those who shun other believers based on doctrine. I believe such people are misguided at best and theological tyrants at worst. By refusing to love and cherish each other in Christ, you are in fact falling into the camp of those who persecute and accuses the saints. That is a very sad place to be indeed.
Sincerely,
Michael