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The concept of race was developed in the Western world during the 17th Century as an attempt to justify the terrible crimes that were being committed against Africans. The nominally Christian West needed a way to ease their conscience for forcibly taking human captives from Africa, putting them trough the torturous Middle Passage of the Atlantic, and holding them and their descendants in life-long bondage and forced labor.
The African characteristics of a dark complexion and kinky hair were said to make them a different and inferior race than the Europeans. East Asians were also defined as another race because of their eye slant and skin tone.
The truth is, however, the only race is the human race. Skin color means no more than eye color. Do my blue eyes make me a different race than you brown eyed folks?
We are still stuck on the myth of race in our time. Every time we fill our a form we are asked to continue this myth by writing down our race. Personally I check the “other” category or write in “human” for my race.
Our news reporters constantly refer to people by the shade of their skin. But this is a very slanted approach. I have never heard a reporter say: ”A blue eyed man robbed a convenience store last night.” Why not?
Our society still uses the myth of race to define, separate, and marginalize people. Like the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable, the concept of race allows us to look down on people and say (or think); “Thank God I’m not like them.”
In reality, however, we all bleed red. Isn’t it time we erase the myth of race and embrace our shared humanity? There is only one race -- the human race.
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18:20 For where two or three are gathered together in My Name, there am I in the midst of them.
There is something special about a gathering of Christian believers. Jesus said that He would be present in our midst when we gather in His name. That is a beautiful thought. However, I think we believers have left that thought behind in our rush to hold meetings and do ministry. Somehow we need to take the time to get beyond the thought of the Presence of Christ in our midst to the living reality of His Presence in our midst. That requires three things:
1) Recognize His Presence! Have you ever been in a house and thought you were alone, but someone else was in the house with you? Maybe you started singing loudly, because you falsely believed you were alone. Then as you walked around a corner, you suddenly saw the other person. How embarrassing! (Unless you are a great singer.)
When we are conscious of someone's presence, we we behave differently than if we believe we are alone. We Christians need to become vitally conscious of God's Presence. We don't need the definition of omnipresent. We don't need the theory or doctrine of His Presence. We need the intimate awareness of His Holy Presence, like Isaiah discovered in the sixth chapter of his book. Until we personally recognize and experience Jesus in our midst, our church meetings will be dull -- dry bones scorching in the sun.
2) Appreciate His Presence! When you get goose bumps and feel a sense of awe in worship, that is not just a psychological or religious experience. You are experiencing the living God. Don't write Him off. Don't reject the supernatural actions of a supernatural God. Don't explain your Holy experiences away. Don't walk away from an encounter with the living God and say, "That was nice." Appreciate God's company and revelation in your life. Remember it. Treasure it. Cultivate it. Passionately seek more encounters with Him. Don't be satisfied with God's past Presence. Cry out for His continual, manifest, Holy-goose-bump-producing Presence.
3) Surrender to His Presence! Don't quench the Spirit. Don't resist. Don't run away. Don't keep a tight control on yourself and/or on the meeting you are in. Surrender. Let the Living Presence of Christ move you to tears. Tear up the program. Throw out the sermon. Follow Mary's advice to the servants at the wedding in Cana: "Whatever He says to you, do it."
If Christ is real and Christ is Present, He, Himself, can direct our meetings. He, Himself, can instruct and direct our lives. Why won't we allow Him to be the practical, day-to-day Head of His church, rather than a mere figurehead?
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Difference #1: PURPOSE
OT prophets: establish the Old Testament Scriptures
NT prophets: invigorate the church
The Old Without a doubt, the most crucial difference separating Old and New Testament prophets pertains to their purpose. The purpose of Old prophetic ministry was to receive and speak divine revelation that would be structs (1Co 14:31), guides (Ac 13:1-3, 1Ti 1:18), corrects (1Co 14:24), foretells (Ac 11:27-30), and even praises (Ac 19:6; see 1Sam 10:5,6, 1Chr 25:1) in astonishingly relevant and timely ways. Its role is simply to perceive and communicate God's situational will, and in so doing, recipients are illumined and invigorated God-ward.
New Testament prophecy does not receive or write more Scripture, nor does it replace the existing and complete Scriptures. Paul is stiff on this point (1Co 14:37,38), and John's final words certainly reach farther than just his own book of Revelation (Rev 22:18,19).
Difference #2: QUALITY
OT prophets: ministered infallibly, with 100% perfection
NT prophets: minister fallibly, with potential error
The Old Because of their unparalleled responsibility to establish a perfect Old Testament Scripture, God Himself ensured that the quality of Old prophetic ministry was 100% perfect, or infallible. The prophets themselves, as people, were not perfect, but their ministry certainly was. Consider it...how else could we have a perfect Old Testament in our Bibles today?
Deuteronomy 18:20 presents the standard of Old prophetic ministry as perfection. Prophets would be executed not only for prophesying in the name of a false god, or prophesying incorrectly, but also for prophesying anything God Himself did not initiate, even if it was technically correct (Deu 13:1,2). God would never demand such a ridiculous standard without also providing a miraculous undergirding for His true prophets to fulfill it.
1 Samuel 3:19,20 (and 9:6) illustrates this. God Himself ensured that not one of Samuel's prophetic words fell short, and because of his prophetic perfection, all Israel recognized he passed the Deuteronomy 18:20-test. Isaiah 44:26 says the same, that God Himself fulfilled and performed all the prophetic words of His true Old Testament prophets. Jeremiah 1:12 reiterates, saying God personally watched over Jeremiah's prophetic word to fulfill it. Because of their unparalleled purpose (establish Scripture), Old prophets likewise possessed unparalleled ministerial quality (infallibility). God Himself guaranteed this by miraculously undergirding their every word.
The New : New Testament prophets, on the other hand, are not ministerially infallible. Their prophesying might possess partial or total inaccuracies. New Testament Scripture shows us this. The believers at Tyre prophesied to Paul not to go to Jerusalem (Ac 21:4). This was a partially inaccurate word, because Paul himself felt compelled and bound by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem (20:22NIV), which he in fact did (21:17). Yet Acts 21:4 says they spoke by the Spirit. How can both be true? The explanation: the Tyrian believers received a genuine revelation from the Spirit concerning Paul's suffering and imprisonment in Jerusalem, yet they misinterpreted and misapplied the revelation to say Paul should not go to Jerusalem at all. Genuine revelation...faulty interpretation...faulty application. I'm sure we can all relate.
Agabus also prophesied partially inaccurately in Acts 21:10,11. Paul was indeed arrested, this part was accurate, but he was not arrested by the Jews and handed over to the Romans by them. Verses 32 and 33 (and 23:27) tell us Paul's life had to be forcibly saved by the Roman soldiers, who rescued him from the abusive Jewish mob who would have torn him to shreds and killed him.
Paul joins Luke in his cognizance of prophecy's potential fallibility in the church age. In 1Corinthians 14:29, he tells believers to judge, evaluate carefully, and thoroughly sift (Gk diakrino) prophetic words that are spoken. In 1Thessalonians 5:19-22 he says the same, telling the church to separate the good from the bad in prophecy, while remaining open and positive towards prophetic ministry in general. New prophecy, and all spiritual gifts, can be like a poor reflection in a mirror (1Co 13:2), especially when used by the spiritually non-mature or inexperienced. The good news is, prophetic Christians can develop and advance in their prophetic faculty, learning to minimize perceptive dilution to consistently prophesy reliably and accurately.
Difference #3: AUTHORITY
OT prophets: possessed absolute authority
NT prophets: possess relative authority
The Old Because of their unparalleled responsibility to author the Old Testament Scriptures, God endowed these messengers with absolute authority to ensure nothing or no one would get in the way. Their task was simply too important to God's overall redemptive program.
This absolute authority connoted their prophetic word was the final authority from God in all of Israel-it was to be obeyed without hesitation or question. There were no ifs, ands, buts, whys, howevers, or therefores. There was no personal testing, evaluation, or "praying for confirmation" when a prophet of Yahweh prophesied. If he/she was attested as a true prophet of the LORD, his every prophesied word was divine law (Deu 18:18,19, Isa 8:20, Jer 6:19). When necessary, these prophets demonstrated superhuman miraculous powers to enforce their authority and protect their mission (Num 16:1-35, 1Sam 12:18, 1Ki 13:1-6, 20:35,36, 2Ki 1:10,12, 5:20-27, Eze 11:13). Check out these specific passages concerning this.
The prophet Moses said if anyone did not fully obey the Old prophet's word, God Himself would hold that person fully accountable (Deu 18:15-19, esp v19). The prophet Samuel said that to disobey the prophet's word was equal to the sin of witchcraft and idolatry (1Sam 15:22,23), both of which were punishable by death (Lev 20:6,27, Deu 13:6-11). An unnamed prophet caused King Jeroboam's hand to instantly wither because he tried to arrest him after he prophesied (1Ki 13:1-6); the same prophet instantly restored the king's hand back to life just moments later. The prophet Elijah's absolute authority is seen by his commanding the people to seize and slaughter eight hundred and fifty false prophets (1Ki 18:40); we also see it by his calling fire from heaven to destroy two companies of soldiers who tried to arrest him while he was praying (2Ki 1:10,12). His prophetic word could literally prohibit or permit rainfall for years on end (1Ki 17:1).
A man was killed by a lion because he disobeyed a simple prophetic request from a prophet (1Ki 20:35,36). Gehazi and all his descendants were sentenced to leprosy forever because he lied to the prophet Elisha (2Ki 5:20-27). An unnamed prophet told King Amaziah that God would destroy him because he ignored his prophetic advice (2Chr 25:15,16). The prophet Isaiah told Israel that merciless divine breaking (judgment) would come to them because they rejected his prophetic word (Isa 30:12-14). The prophet Jeremiah declared that he personally possessed God's wrath to pour out all over Israel (Jer 6:10-12,17-19). The prophet Ezekiel actually killed a person simply by prophesying (Eze 11:13). Now that's absolute authority!
Once again, this absolute authority accompanied the Old prophets to safeguard the establishment of the Old Testament Scriptures. Without such authority, Israel would not recognize and canonize their writings as truly Holy Scripture. With this authority, however, it was undeniable that the Most High God had indeed called them to author His Word.
The New : New Testament prophets, on the other hand, have a lesser and different type of authority: relative authority. New prophecy is not the indisputable final authority, as Old prophecy was. The completed Scripture is now the supreme law of God's people (1Co 14:37,38, 2Pet 3:15,16, Rev 22:18,19). All New prophecy is to be screened and tested by the hearers: tested for divine authenticity (1Co 14:29, 2Th 2:1-3, 1Jn 4:1-6), tested for agreement with Scripture (1Co 14:37,38), and tested for the accurate/good, and if necessary, sifted for the inaccurate/bad (1Th 5:19-22). New prophecy, then, is accountable to Scriptural, personal, and governmental evaluation. Such comprehensive judging of New prophecy signifies its demotion in the area of authority. We no longer see that "do-or-die-without-question" badge the Old prophets wore. Though New prophecy has divinely-instituted boundaries, it nonetheless possesses a relative authority. This means New Testament prophetic authority is relative to the authenticity and accuracy of the prophesied word, and, possesses authority over its situational target only. In other words, prophecies, or portions of prophecies, that are found to be genuine, possess authority only over the intended recipient (particular person, group, church, nation, organization, etc...). Paul had no obligation to obey the prophetic directive at Tyre since it was tested and found to be partially inaccurate (Ac 21:4,17, 20:22). On the other hand, the Antiochan church was under all divine obligation to obey the word spoken there, because, after fasting and prayer, the directive was proven to be authentic and accurate (Ac 13:1-3). Herein is where Old and New prophecy greatly differ. True Old prophets and their prophecies did not need to be re-tested every time they uttered-authenticity was assumed. If the prophecy came from a recognized true prophet, the word was to be immediately and indisputably accepted by all Israel, or God would hold the rebel severely accountable. New prophecy, though, requires testing to happen every single time a message is prophesied, no matter who the communicator is (1Co 14:29, 1Th 5:19-22, 1Jn 4:1-6). Once confirmation has been attained, then that individual or group is accountable to that word, and that word possesses authority over them and only them. In summary. Old prophecy possessed a theocratic, absolute authority over all God's people, was not subject to continuous testing, and was above/over God's people. New prophecy possesses a relative, situational authority, is subject to continuous testing, and is therefore on equal ground with God's people. Difference #4: REVELATORY TRANSMISSION
OT prophets: external revelation NT prophets: internal revelation The Old : God communicated with the Old Testament prophets through external revelations, from the outside, through their five physical senses (mainly seeing and hearing). Such revelation was direct and clear, easy to reproduce without errors. This was absolutely necessary since they were responsible for composing a perfect Old Testament Bible. For example, God spoke to those prophets in a direct audible voice, dictating exactly what to say and write. Sometimes He showed up in human or angelic form and spoke as two friends would. Sometimes He sent angels to appear on His behalf and dictate the message. Sometimes He spoke through dramatic physical visions, telling them simply to write exactly what they saw. Though He did reveal Himself and inspire Scripture in a few other, more subtle ways (guided observation, subconscious inspiration, etc.), external revelation was nonetheless the main form of Old prophetic revelation. The Old Testament is covered with such easy-to-not-mess-up revelatory encounters. The prophets did not always understand all of what they were encountering (Dan 8:27, Lk 10:24, 1Pet 1:10-12), but what they did encounter was clear and easy enough to communicate without errors. This explains, in part, how the Old prophets were enabled to minister with 100% infallibility. The New : God communicates with New Testament prophets, in general, through internal revelations. The messages typically come in less direct, more subtle ways from deep within their inner man. Certainly God might speak externally if He desires, as in a physical vision (Ac 2:17,18, 9:10-16) or angelic appearance (Heb 13:2), yet I refer to the typical and most predictable form of divine communication in the New era as indicated in the New Testament. New prophets perceive the Lord no differently than the average Christian-internally. Ephesians 1:17,18 is a key passage in this regard. Paul's prayer was that we would experience the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, the eyes of our hearts being enlightened (Colossians 1:9 reiterates this). In other words, internal revelation. He wrote to all the Christians at Ephesus, which included the prophets (4:11). This suggests a certain norm and predictable form of divine communication. New prophets perceive the Lord no differently than the average Christian. We are all high priests in the New era, we are all indwelt by the same Holy Spirit, and we all perceive that Spirit mainly internally. The only difference between personal revelation and prophetic revelation is the revelation's content and intent-the average Christian receives divine messages mainly about and for themselves (personal revelation), while prophetic Christians receive a mixture of both, messages about/for themselves and messages about/for others (prophetic revelation). Whether it be personal or prophetic, it is nonetheless the Spirit within granting revelation from within. Notice these New Testament revelational styles and their internal nature: illuminated Scripture.....2Ti 3:16, Heb 4:12; Lk 24:45 impression (distinct mood or thought).....Ac 15:28, Ro 8:16, 1Co 2:16 compulsion (strong desire or "burden")...Php 2:13, 1Co 15:10 words/phrases.....Ac 13:1-3 In the Old era, the Lord came to the prophet from outside (external revelation); in the New era, the Lord seeks to come through the prophet from the inside (internal revelation). Once again, this is because the Spirit now indwells the Christian, and therefore, He communicates with them from His residence-within. (Courtesy: http://www.juniordesouza.com) |
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139:13 For You have possessed my reins: You have covered me in my mother's womb.
PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) wants to see animals treated ethically. And that is a worthy cause. NFL player, Michael Vick, could have sure used some PETA literature in Atlanta.
However, there is a higher life form than animals being systematically slaughtered and abused in our society. And they need an organization to boldly speak out for them.
That is why I am proposing another PETA. Only this one is spelled PETUH. (PETUH sounds like the country version of PETA, yall. Maybe it should be headquarted in Nashville.)
What does PETUH stand for? It stands for: People for the Ethical Treatment of Unborn Humans.
Dan Matthews with PETA was in Nashville signing his book at Davis-Kidd Booksellers. Maybe somebody told him about the need for PETUH and soon it will be off and running. After all, if PETA wants animals treated ethically, surely they also desire the same ethical treatment for unborn human beings.
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It has become my spiritual experience... one of the ways our relationship with/to Father God, His Son and the Holy Spirit awakened within... is manifested to us, is when we are given an inner revelation and this revelation is confirmed for us through the spiritual circumstances which come into being. Circumstances we come to recognize as Divine synchronicity and eternal spiritual truths...
When this happens to us.... such imparts to some... perhaps all, an inner knowing no one can take from us... an inner knowing which awakens in us spiritual desires/senses ... a hunger for absolute truth, for...................... and sets us on a straight and narrow path.... a path of empowerment; imparting unconditional love, inner peace and joy, wisdom, insight, spiritual understanding and mysteries revealed, right ways of thinking, seeing, relating, being, truth............................................ in our reality as a new creation ... One who has an awareness they are in their now, an eternal Spiritual Being who is being conformed to the image of their creator through the course of events which are coming into being before them.
When this happens to us ... we discover that which once was... falls away... comes to its end and is resurrected anew according to an eternal plan which unfolds before us, from eternal now to eternal now.... our having been brought to the place of realizing we are eternal spiritual beings, who have been translated out of a realm of spiritual death, ruled by Darkness and illusion into the Spiritual Kingdom of Gods Light and Life... with an increasing awareness; empowering our consciousness to dwell with/in/through God... long after we have left behind the flesh nature.
Suddenly we find ourselves in circumstances where we clearly see with an inner knowing... 'this is truly supernatural intervention' ... 'this is not just a coincidence'. This is a sign and a wonder, of a reality I am being called to live in, experience life's challenges/truth through ... the reality of The Kingdom of God.... via a sovereign God, the Creator of all this was, is and is to be.... Who is all and in all ... discerned spiritually in/through/by the life, teachings, death, resurrection, ascension, outpouring and return of the glorified Spirit of Christ Jesus ... Who reveals to us our Spiritual Father and who we are in relation to the Spirit of God and all of creation.
When we choose to believe having been given the gift of faith/hope and revelation knowledge... our own unique spiritual life's journey of consciousness begins for us.
Each of us has a private experience not of this world ... as we come together... we discover others who dwell in this Spiritual Kingdom with us. It is a realm/age we have in common... and is much like the world of the flesh.... only it is Spiritually Discerned....
Spiritual rules and expanding guidelines grounded through the spirit of love and truth prevail. Love teaches us right ways of being, perceiving and relating. Love imparts wisdom and revelation knowledge and spiritual understanding with empowerment. Love anoints us to experience the truth of the fulfillment of our unique eternal purpose. Love freely gives us choices by way of contrast and bringing to remembrance that which is alive within. Love leads us into all truth.... teaching and refining ... causing us to evolve spiritually through this process we know to be life....
Thank You Spirit of the Living God... for life and it more abundantly.... once again, I receive that which is... and is yet to be in/through Your fullness with a grateful heart. Bless You....
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