TOO CASUAL IN THE HOUSE OF GOD
by Pam Clark
It's one thing to be comfortable in the House of God and quite another to
be casual, or too familiar. There is the popular saying that "familiarity
breeds contempt" and how often true that is.
As one with a ministry in the House of God, in His service, I often find,
as pastors do, that those who get too familiar and too close end up taking
words of ministry as personal rather than Spiritual, and then often get
offended, which can lead to other negative works of the flesh!
I'm not trying to be weird by saying this, but I have few real friends who
understand the difference in the human life lived and being in the
anointing. The good friends I do have are those who know how to back off
of the casual when the anointing kicks in. They are the ones in whom we
understand in each other that the gift of the Spirit is His and that there
is a Third Party in our relationship, a Holy One.
There is a level of respect where we know there is a price paid for
walking in the calling we have received. This is not unlike the Christian
and the person of the world. There should be something about Christians
that sets them apart and makes them distinguishable from the world.
People grow in their Spiritual lives, just as they do in their human
lives. Just as we see children do, often people mistake the concern of
caring in the anointing as a pesonal-personal interest.
In other words, rather than seeing the ministry of helping to mature the
person, they believe that they can challenge you as they would their own
soul, and most of us are pretty hard on ourselves. But what may be
ignorance one day can turn into pride and vainglory the next if we do not
come into understanding the correction of ministry.
The discipline of children is a real hot debate today. It is so ludicrous
to see college educated adults trying to reason with toddlers and children
with the same reasoning they have, as if they can understand it.
Cognitive reasoning development comes in stages.
The children don't understand, and then parents go into stress or anxiety
with guilt! Ministers can do the same thing! They can go to seminary and
think the man on the street has the same interest and call as they do and
fail to get the true Gospel message and life across! (The message is the
life!)
Personally, I am not that impressed with five conjunctions of the six past
participles of the Hebrew and Greek! I don't even care how you pronounce
the word most of the time! A little study on that is interesting, but
some live in that and lose me!
When we get too specialized, we need to realize we've narrowed our
audience. When we live in a specialty, we need to realize that others
will relate to us as a "specialty" and won't always accept us in the full
range of our human emotions and experience and misjudge us. Thus, a
hypocrisy can build up and find a stronghold there.
Like-kinds will hang out together, but if the enemy to the Body is allowed
to make us different parts unconnected, He succeeds in dividing and
conquering. Thus, there can be wars and divisions and strife and then we
lose the blessing of unity.
Hey! I need a little grammar education! That's why they made me take
English classes as well as history and math in school. It made me well
rounded and wiser. We should not be so closed minded in the House of God!
But we still need to be careful with familiarity. I know my church days
at a particular church are through when (1) I don't enjoy going there
anymore (2) I've lost respect for the holy there (3) It's social more than
Spiritual (4) I am not being challenged or useful; (5) OR God has need of
me somewhere for mature ministry purposes, but that is not such a common
frequent thing for most until they mature with accountability for what
they do. Some are called to travel and minister, but some aren't.
The Ten Commandments are not out of date yet. We haven't quite mastered
them fully. When we do, we will go up to the next level. God blessed us
with the Spiritual gifts but not at the exclusion of the fulfillment of
the Law. Because I listened to a theological person, I learned that if
what was in the Old Testament was carried through Jesus and the Cross, we
keep it!
And Jesus kept and preached the Ten Commandments and tithing, but there
was more grace given so the Spirit of the Law could be understood. In
Galatains 3:24 (New Testament) it says that the Law is our Schoolmaster
until faith (walking in the fullness of the Spirit) comes! We can't
effectively walk in the power without the needed holiness.
Holy means set apart. Salvation means holy wholeness in our full beings -
spirit, soul and body. The anointing will continue to increase in us as
the righteous Seed of the new creation matures in us.
I could get side-tracked on that topic, but I want to focus and exhort on
holiness in the House of God. When we are baby Christians, we go to the
House of God to learn and be fed the Scriptures and the ministry of the
Spirit. As we grow, we want bread instead of just milk, and as we mature,
we want meat. But meat is for the strong, and the strong are for ministry.
I don't go to the House of God anymore just to get a drink of milk. I do
get that, and some healing bread, and I do present myself before the the
Lord in reverence and worship, as I should, honoring the Sabbath and the
Lord, which calls for our gathering in a holy convocation, but as a
minister, I go as a workman, to work! If I don't have an active role for
that particular service, I am there interceding. Some are called to do
that full time as mature ministers, not to control a service but to enable
and release the Spirit of God to minister. If I have gone through a
battle, I will go to receive.
But because I minister, I know that sometimes people take ministry as a
human personal interest rather than the act of ministry. Then comes the
tricky part of keeping the personal life where I am struggling and the
ministry anointing separate in the Spirit of Love. That is not to take a
holier than thou stance, which God hates, but to know how to separate the
personal from the Holy (capital letter there intended).
Particularly when correction comes, people often cannot see the need and
reasoning that is going on. I can't tell you how many times I have been
rejected because someone didn't like a word. This last week, three people
left the List because they didn't like the correction.
Some are nice, some are not. I've learned not to let it bother me. It
used to. But now it's funny almost to see some think they control you
with the power of rejection. Since I know that is not the spirit of God,
I know what spirit is operating in them! Ouch! But to clue you in,
sometimes I can see a wrong spirit in myself, so I am not trying to exalt
myself as perfect here.
But the important thing is to know that we do not control the anointing.
When we come to the House of God, it's not to do "our own thing." Oh,
our human condition is laughable sometimes, and it's good to enjoy
fellowship. But we NEED a Savior and Deliverer and Comforter and Healer
and He works through people, and we must not forget that when we are in
the House of God, it is His ministry that should be taking place, not our
own. It's His order in His House! We need distinctions, in our hearts,
first!
God loves us, but we must respect Him and be grateful for His ways. We
must pray to be all He wants us to be. We need to pray that we are in the
ministry He wants us to be involved in, for none of us are just to be pew
warmers and critics! Rather we should be participants in His glory.
Just as the eagerness is there in a youth to get out on his own, it's also
the place where serious mistakes can be made with long term consequences.
It sounds great to be own our own, in charge of ourselves, until we meet
the responsibility -- then mom and dad don't seem so bad! And then we see
what's really inside and most find, we need a Savior!
Maturity is a good place and a hard place. Respect the House of God and
its order, even if you think or know you can do it better. In being a
servant, as it says in Proverbs, your gift will make room for you if you
know how to deliver it in order.
Jesus often had to depart from the crowds and even His disciples to get
alone with the Father to recieve His ministry. It's hard for ministers to
hear God when others are talking non-stop, giving you their opinions.
Learn to appreciate silence and break off the fear of paranoia. Know that
God wants you to mature and bring forth your gift. You will be judged for
it!
The prophet's reward is vision for your life. Their ministry is to help
you see more than you saw before. Honor your five-fold ministers and
receive the blessing of God! Participate in proper order and receive the
calling He issued for your life.
Don't be casual doing your own thing! It's not going to work!
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