Jn 4:24 “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
It is such a simple thing, or is it???
God is spirit, and so when Jesus explained to Pilot that He was a king, but His kingdom was not of this world, Pilot just missed the importance of what he was being told.
The story about Elisha and his servant is a perfect example of what happens - even in the church today, which are the servants of Jesus Christ but just don't see or understand what is going on around them!
1 Kings 6:15-17 - Now when the attendant of the man of God had risen early and gone out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was circling the city. And his servant said to him, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?”
So he answered, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
Then Elisha prayed and said, “O LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” And the LORD opened the servant’s eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. -
When I go to church and talk to Christians, very few know about the Kingdom of God! It's almost impossible to even talk to them about it!
We have a King - who we call Jesus Christ! He is the King of kings and Lord of lords and He is the Word of God who was in the beginning with God, is One with God, and who is God. And His sheep hear His voice. Reading the Bible is not hearing His voice. Those who wrote the Bible heard His voice and wrote, but their writing is not Him talking to you, it was Him talking to them. And they were telling you that you need to talk to Him, the King of kings. Since God is spirit, you have to use your spiritual ears!
And since you have five physical senses, should you not also have five spiritual senses? Did not God make the heavens and then the earth? So the earth (the physical) is in a pattern, while not exact, which is like the heavens. So we should be also seeing with our spiritual eyes, right???
Our objective is not to be like that servant, who though he was indeed a servant of the prophet (and honestly there is really only One prophet who is the Word of God- the rest of the prophets just get information from Him) - yet while that servant was a servant of the prophet, he had no idea that there were more with them than against them!!
So often I talk to a Christian that asks if I have ever heard the audible voice of God. The answer is of course "No" because God is spirit! Except when the Word of God (Jesus Chrsit) took on flesh He was not heard in an audible voice. Oh, maybe someone thought what they heard was audible, but it was spiritual words spoken via the Holy Spirit to their spirit, and because they had not been practicing seeking and listening to the voice of the Word of God, they were just confused.
Jn 6:63 “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.
So even when Jesus was in the flesh and was speaking via sound waves by the fleshy body He had taken on, it was still only His spiritual words spoken to the people via His Holy Spirit which actually would give them life!! Therefore, Pilot and those religious people like the Pharisees and Sadducees still did not get life even though they might have heard the Word of God in the flesh actually speak to them. They had still failed to realize that God is spirit!!
The word of God is that all should come to know the Son (Jesus Chrsit). And it is by faith in Him (not just faith but faith in Him - that He exists as the King of the Kingdom of God which is not of this world because God is spirit) that is going to give you life. That belief comes from hearing a word (a spiritual word from the Holy Spirit spoken to your spirit and received by you because you believe in Him, the Word of God) that gives you life!
So when I run across a Christian who clearly does not know that there is more with us than against us - meaning they don't hear with their spiritual ears and see with their spiritual eyes, that concerns me. I feel for them. Are they going to heaven? Do they know the Lord? Are we the church, who does actually know Jesus Christ as our Lord who talks via the small voice of His to us daily, failing Him??
I talked to one pastor who told me that he had only heard from the Lord small voice only 3 times in his entire life! Even if that pastor is saved, how is he getting his daily instructions from the Lord if he is not hearing Him? According to Hebrews 5 - a person that is not practicing using their spiritual senses is not qualified to teach - so what were the elders of that church doing? Were they hearing from the Lord?
I meet another pastor who hadn't heard that small voice of the Lord for over ten years. On Sunday mornings, before the regular service, he ran a Bible class. I attended it one week shortly before a Christmas many years ago. During that class he declared that the angles didn't sing to the Lord. I couldn't believe it, so I asked him, "Have you never heard that angels of the Lord sing to the Lord?" I was simply astonished, because the angels I have meet, and heard from, love to sing praises to the Lord! I can't imagine any Christian really knowing the Lord, the King, and of course His kingdom who has not heard the angels sing to the Lord. Clearly, they are just not using their spiritual senses, are they???
Sadly, that question of mine to the pastor cause quite a stir in the Bible study. A couple there knew of what I asked, but most did not, and so the question start to divide the class. I didn't mean it do, but maybe that class needed to be divided between true believers and not true believers? Bet it got calmed down, because we believers even understand that we can't get going too much in a Bible class. Still, didn't that show a serious problem. Some servants are just not hearing and seeing with their spiritual senses like they should! That needs to be pointed out. We need prayer for eyes to be opened, don't we?
It was also sadly funny, when the main service started and opened in praise at that Christmas time, with a series of songs like "Hark the herald angels sing." There must have been three Christmas songs in a row that had something about angels singing, and that pastor was right there in the front of the church, where the entire bible class was now singing about angels singing.
People - we have a King in Jesus Christ, and He has a Kingdom which is not of this world. God is spirit, and so His angels are spiritual beings, much like evil spirit but they serve the Lord. They sing to Him, and they praise Him, and we need to be part of that. How are you going to be part of that if you don't clearly understand that God is spirit - so that you start using your spiritual eyes and ears??
It is written over and over "Today if you hear His voice" and so "Today" is the day you should be hearing from the Lord, and even seeing angels if you care to actually believe!!
Jesus told His disciples about seeing angels ascending and descending on Him, so you are seeing that, right?
It is such a simple thing, or is it???
God is spirit, and so when Jesus explained to Pilot that He was a king, but His kingdom was not of this world, Pilot just missed the importance of what he was being told.
The story about Elisha and his servant is a perfect example of what happens - even in the church today, which are the servants of Jesus Christ but just don't see or understand what is going on around them!
1 Kings 6:15-17 - Now when the attendant of the man of God had risen early and gone out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was circling the city. And his servant said to him, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?”
So he answered, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
Then Elisha prayed and said, “O LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” And the LORD opened the servant’s eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. -
When I go to church and talk to Christians, very few know about the Kingdom of God! It's almost impossible to even talk to them about it!
We have a King - who we call Jesus Christ! He is the King of kings and Lord of lords and He is the Word of God who was in the beginning with God, is One with God, and who is God. And His sheep hear His voice. Reading the Bible is not hearing His voice. Those who wrote the Bible heard His voice and wrote, but their writing is not Him talking to you, it was Him talking to them. And they were telling you that you need to talk to Him, the King of kings. Since God is spirit, you have to use your spiritual ears!
And since you have five physical senses, should you not also have five spiritual senses? Did not God make the heavens and then the earth? So the earth (the physical) is in a pattern, while not exact, which is like the heavens. So we should be also seeing with our spiritual eyes, right???
Our objective is not to be like that servant, who though he was indeed a servant of the prophet (and honestly there is really only One prophet who is the Word of God- the rest of the prophets just get information from Him) - yet while that servant was a servant of the prophet, he had no idea that there were more with them than against them!!
So often I talk to a Christian that asks if I have ever heard the audible voice of God. The answer is of course "No" because God is spirit! Except when the Word of God (Jesus Chrsit) took on flesh He was not heard in an audible voice. Oh, maybe someone thought what they heard was audible, but it was spiritual words spoken via the Holy Spirit to their spirit, and because they had not been practicing seeking and listening to the voice of the Word of God, they were just confused.
Jn 6:63 “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.
So even when Jesus was in the flesh and was speaking via sound waves by the fleshy body He had taken on, it was still only His spiritual words spoken to the people via His Holy Spirit which actually would give them life!! Therefore, Pilot and those religious people like the Pharisees and Sadducees still did not get life even though they might have heard the Word of God in the flesh actually speak to them. They had still failed to realize that God is spirit!!
The word of God is that all should come to know the Son (Jesus Chrsit). And it is by faith in Him (not just faith but faith in Him - that He exists as the King of the Kingdom of God which is not of this world because God is spirit) that is going to give you life. That belief comes from hearing a word (a spiritual word from the Holy Spirit spoken to your spirit and received by you because you believe in Him, the Word of God) that gives you life!
So when I run across a Christian who clearly does not know that there is more with us than against us - meaning they don't hear with their spiritual ears and see with their spiritual eyes, that concerns me. I feel for them. Are they going to heaven? Do they know the Lord? Are we the church, who does actually know Jesus Christ as our Lord who talks via the small voice of His to us daily, failing Him??
I talked to one pastor who told me that he had only heard from the Lord small voice only 3 times in his entire life! Even if that pastor is saved, how is he getting his daily instructions from the Lord if he is not hearing Him? According to Hebrews 5 - a person that is not practicing using their spiritual senses is not qualified to teach - so what were the elders of that church doing? Were they hearing from the Lord?
I meet another pastor who hadn't heard that small voice of the Lord for over ten years. On Sunday mornings, before the regular service, he ran a Bible class. I attended it one week shortly before a Christmas many years ago. During that class he declared that the angles didn't sing to the Lord. I couldn't believe it, so I asked him, "Have you never heard that angels of the Lord sing to the Lord?" I was simply astonished, because the angels I have meet, and heard from, love to sing praises to the Lord! I can't imagine any Christian really knowing the Lord, the King, and of course His kingdom who has not heard the angels sing to the Lord. Clearly, they are just not using their spiritual senses, are they???
Sadly, that question of mine to the pastor cause quite a stir in the Bible study. A couple there knew of what I asked, but most did not, and so the question start to divide the class. I didn't mean it do, but maybe that class needed to be divided between true believers and not true believers? Bet it got calmed down, because we believers even understand that we can't get going too much in a Bible class. Still, didn't that show a serious problem. Some servants are just not hearing and seeing with their spiritual senses like they should! That needs to be pointed out. We need prayer for eyes to be opened, don't we?
It was also sadly funny, when the main service started and opened in praise at that Christmas time, with a series of songs like "Hark the herald angels sing." There must have been three Christmas songs in a row that had something about angels singing, and that pastor was right there in the front of the church, where the entire bible class was now singing about angels singing.
People - we have a King in Jesus Christ, and He has a Kingdom which is not of this world. God is spirit, and so His angels are spiritual beings, much like evil spirit but they serve the Lord. They sing to Him, and they praise Him, and we need to be part of that. How are you going to be part of that if you don't clearly understand that God is spirit - so that you start using your spiritual eyes and ears??
It is written over and over "Today if you hear His voice" and so "Today" is the day you should be hearing from the Lord, and even seeing angels if you care to actually believe!!
Jesus told His disciples about seeing angels ascending and descending on Him, so you are seeing that, right?
