Much of the New Testament was not meant for all people, but only for “He who has an ear” to hear “what the Spirit says to the churches.”
In other words, even that which is written was not to be heard or understood by everyone who reads it. But rather, that we have entered that time foretold of when God would pour out his spirit upon all flesh…and only those who hear what the Spirit says to the churches (His body) would get the message. So, that “He who has an ear” qualifier is not a “listen up” message to sharpen up our Hebrew and Greek language skills and our hermeneutical approach to the scriptures, it is a blatant statement indicating that the written words are not the message, but are spoke as Christ explained, saying, “My words are spirit.”
This whole deviation from the written word began with Christ and pertains to everything going forward. Oh, there are many practical matters covered in the non-spiritual text messages, just as in all the scriptures – but the real message going forward was only spiritual. Which is not just me saying so, but Christ who announced it.
So…has this been received and encouraged in the church? In a word – No, not even.
Instead, what we see is people pouring over the word giving highfalutin definitions, accounts of history and personal experience which are mostly moral in nature rather than spiritual. And then there are the institutional churches that have made every passage a religious practice and a ritual, a mockery of worldly significance pointing to more worldly things, rather than being the foreshadowing example that they were originally intended to be pointing to heavenly things. And my favorite: Thinking that every good word from God should be "applied" to your worldly life, as if that were the only purpose of God. All of which gives greater glory to the practice of what is written, than to the actual meaning behind it. This is all just people who cannot hear what the Spirit says…playing church, and worse…acting spiritual. To say nothing of the barking and falling down gobbly gook – it’s all quite innocent looking, even well intended, the stuff of “good Christians.”
And the lectures…OMG! The book-learned lawyers and Pharisees of our time are the worst – and they have no excuse. They have everything known to man at their fingertips and flaunt it…all propagated on dead works and literary nonsense.
But the point of this thread is not just to rant. It is to point out that there are those who have been entrusted and assigned to what it is that God is doing in our midst during the church age…and brilliantly, by design, there are also those who are not paddling forward, but are actually paddling backwards, while some are just splashing about. It’s brilliant! Things are moving forward, but many are held in a type of blindness to slow our progress until we reach the end of all generations. This is the result of God confounding all language at the tower of Babel. But those whom God has intended that do not know what they are talking about, who are deaf to what the Spirit is saying to those in the church who do hear, they are not the enemy – some are. But most are just the blind and deaf that have existed throughout every age, and yet are in their own way, servants nonetheless – just not to be believed. So, they can be Christian, followers of Christ, doing many good works…but “hearing what the Spirit says to the churches” is simply not their spiritual gift.
So, we don’t have to squabble with these good folk – but we should know that not everyone has equal access to spiritual truth – just “those who have an ear.” And we should know from the scriptures, yeah, from Christ, that this is His intended arrangement, and that we should not expect to vote and have an equal say as contemporary Christians just because we have a mind and a bible. Nor is it any different for the leaders in the church – that was never specified. The only qualification given, was “He who has and ear” and hears “what the Spirit says to the churches.” And thus, if you are one who has not been overcome by the Spirit - you don't have to go on knowingly or unknowingly paddling against the church (against the goads)...you would do better to just be still.
These are the real walking orders for the church age – which have been there in the scriptures all along: "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."
