HE FULFILS HIS PROMISES
When I was a child I used to hear about the Spirit of God, every Sunday in church. But I just could not recognise Him. Why? Because nobody, but nobody, introduced Him to me! Therefore: if I am able to recognise and understand His voice, it will be so much easier to pay attention, heeding to salvation and redemption. Then I may trust Him for guidance and teaching, so that God’s Word will be opened up for me, so that I will be able to understand it. What follows next, will be obedience to the Word, which will release God’s power in me, to achieve victory over sin and the originator of sin, the Evil One. Through my sanctification I will serve as an example and a witness to others, so fulfilling my life-task on earth, glorifying God and His grace. But how can I believe it if I do not see, nor hear it from other people? God will always confirm the preaching of the true Gospel with the true working of His power. This He promised in His Word – and God always fulfils His promises!
A BLUEPRINT OF FUNCTIONALITY
But – such things do not happen by themselves, nor disorderly. Therefore the Lord gave us blueprints of how His Church should function, in more than one place in Scriptures. I quote from Ephesians 4:10-13:
He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things. 11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; 12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: 13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
UNITY OR DISUNITY?
In verse 13 we have a description of the Church in her full glory, as she is meant to be, in likeness to her Master. I believe that you will agree that we are very far from that ideal. While verse 13 shows us the oneness (unity) in faith and knowledge of the Son of God, we must admit, to our shame, that we are suffering of disunity, in various faiths, plus an immense lack of knowledge. What little knowledge we do have, actually serves to divide and confuse us, as it comes mainly from other people and not from God and is filled with the ideas and egos of other people. Our knowledge is interwoven with the sins of pride, self-wiliness and egotism, and therefore leads to the splitting up and tearing the churches to pieces.
TREADING ON EGGS
Some time ago I was invited to give a talk on the dangers of satanism in a small town in the Northern Cape. Only half of the members of the congregation attended, while the rest were gathered at another venue. The reason? Political dissension. Now: politics is nothing else than people’s view of life. I started my talk by saying that Satan is present in their midst, and they don’t even see him. He has clearly cut the congregation in two, with the two parties fighting each other, and not fighting Satan together. And how did it happen so easily? Because they do not pay heed to what the Spirit tells them!
I must mention, at this stage, that in most churches the offices of apostle and prophet are no longer acknowledged. Not for nothing have these two offices been instituted – without their functioning the church will become warped. These two offices are the watchdogs to see that the spiritual foundation on which the church is built is laid properly and that the building of the congregation takes place according to God’s blueprint. Otherwise the building gets distorted and loses the purpose for which it was erected in the first place. When the building starts tumbling down, members start blaming one another, discard is rife, with human flesh once again victorious. Then we start plastering it with tradition and add whitewash, so that, at least on the outside, the building looks fool-proof. But inside one has to tread on eggs, to prevent all the cracks form appearing again. And so we have the start of form-religion – to the ridicule of the non-believer!
THE LACK OF UNITY
Numerous meetings have been held with the purpose of uniting the various churches. However, this is not going to materialise as long as we enter into compromises for peace and unity. Only when speaking the same language will we become one. God divided mankind by means of the various languages we speak. Yet Jesus prayed for unity, and Paul strived after unity. We see this unity in the making through faith in and knowledge of the Son of God. Therefore, as long as we do not preach the same Gospel, we confuse the heathen, so that he does not know what to believe any more. Even Christians get confused and leave the church.
LOOK FOR JOY AND LOVE
Just as children look for joy and love between their parents at home, so they look for joy and love in the church. Marriage is after all the symbol of the relationship between Jesus and His Bride, the Church. Where the parents quarrel all day long, the children will leave home easily. They are scared, fearing the quarrels and an eventual divorce. This applies to the Church as well. The youth are not concerned with the differences in theological views of the churches, neither the outward form of the sermon. They wish to experience the warmth, love and joy that Jesus radiates. This is found in the few congregations mentioned earlier. They are those congregations where commitment to the message of the Spirit of God is discernible. The Holy Spirit will always refer to Jesus as the source of God’s love, grace and forgiveness. Jesus often referred to the unity between Himself and the Father as we read in John 14:11:
Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake.
They are inseparable; They work in unity. No self-willness, jealousy or egotism exists between Them. They are One in thought, wish and work. Therefore in God there is only love, peace and harmony. The three Persons of God are inseparable – They are one God.
DR KRIGE AND HOUSE REGENERATION
This adapted content was extracted from A Biblical Approach to Psychotherapy authored by Dr Ado Krige, the Founding Director of House Regeneration, a South African drug rehabilitation centre offering a comprehensive discipleship training program. By applying principles of Biblical Therapy, using the Scriptures to teach, rebuke, correct, and train in righteousness, House Regeneration counsellors show anyone who has suffered from addiction how to fully understand why they do what they do and how to bring their belief systems in line with the Word of God.
