SEPARATION OF SPIRIT

Date: Sat Sep 26 23:26:08 2009

We are coming up to 2010, which will be the 25th Anniversary of Kingdom Gospel Ministries. We began the ministry seeking to bring people together from different groups that did not often flow together. It wasn't that we weren't doing that before 1985 - we had, including deliverance from racism, and sharing God's vision for unity in the Body of Christ with whomever would listen. We just wanted a forum to communicate through the written word, and later through radio and small groups what Christ was really after.

One principle I use is that when we get people closer to Christ, they should get closer to each other. When God begins to change someone's heart, it extends to partiality as well as adultery. After all, James says in his book that if we are guilty of partiality, but not adultery, we are guilty of all.

Yet some people seem oblivious to God's holiness requirement (by the way, I would like to send you a tape of mine called HOLY, HOLY HOLY. If you want one, hit the Kingdom Gospel link in the panel to the right or send me a comment). God's holiness requirements are absolute. He does not grade on the curve. His standard is to be as holy as God himself.

Whoa! If you think about that being plain impossible, think again! Read the lives of Joseph, Daniel, and Stephen. The things they did wrong, the Holy Spirit did not consider worthy of inclusion in the Bible. Were they perfect? No. But they had come to a high place of submission to God and conformance of their character to be similar to that of Christ himself.

At a poetry reading event yesterday, I read a piece I wrote on 9/11 and Martin Luther King Day. Both these days have great significance, and we need to remember - on 9/11 that there are purely evil people bent on destroying people worldwide (not only the World Trade Center, but the USS Cole, the Embassies in Africa, bombings in Indonesia, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Spain, and the UK) and we must not let down our guard or think that by wishing or simply negotiating that we will be safe. It is a world problem. Only God can protect us, but we must be wise and prudent.

Likewise, racism and partiality are world-wide issues. People all over the world look askance or even KILL people of a different tribe or ethnicity. Many have succumbed to blaming our nation first, and of course repentance for the US role in slavery is well in order. However, slavery in the West Indies was about 4 times that in the US. and slavery in Brazil was about 5 to 6 times that in the US. Yet American gets the lion's share of the blame even though the Europeans ran it and the vast majority of slaves brought to the New World did not come to America. Unfortunately, slavery is STILL legal in many countries and practiced also where it is illegal, including enslavement of women from Eastern Europe and other place for sex in large American cities, padlocked in apartments. Children are sold into labor and prostitution in Asia in 2009. Slavery is still practiced in Africa in 2009. This is not simply an American problem, it is a WORLD problem. It is a SIN problem.

In Sri Lanka, there are the Sinhalese and the Tamils. All Buddhists in Sri Lanka are Sinhalese and all Hindus are Tamils. But members of BOTH ethnic groups are Christians. There are about 20 million people in Sri Lanka. Only 200,000, or about 1%, are Protestant Christian, yet 30-40% of the minority Tamil group is now Christian. It CAN be done even in hotbed areas of violence and terror such as exists in this long running civil war.

Yet we are in America, and we must deal with the separation that is deep in our own nation. Despite the fact that more people of difference races and ethnicities live next to each other, work alongside each other, socialize with each other, vote the same way, and even marry each other (as we have - praise God for our 35th anniversary this October), there is still a major problem of separation of spirit.

On any given Sunday at 11am, churches are largely segregated. I went by a Southern Baptist Church this morning to pick up an African American gentleman to take him to a second service somewhere else with me. I looked in the sanctuary - out of hundreds there, I did not see any Black people. There probably were a few here and there, but I didn't spot them. Maybe he would have been the only one. The church is in an area where there are lots of people of Indian, Korean, and African descent, so why weren't they there in relative proportion? It was a fairly new building, lots of programs and facilities for kids, and plenty of parking. It turned out my friend was ill and not there, so instead I went to a church fifteen minutes from our home where there were only two white people out of several hundred in attendance.

Two congregations, both thriving, both large and vital, but both in practical terms segregated ñ most likely not intentionally, as I know both pastors who are godly and not small men and I'm sure both would be thrilled to have a lot more diversity in their services. So why isn't there?

Is it culture? Could be, but quiet folks and boisterous folks come in all shades. Some white people prefer "black" music and style and some black people prefer "white" music and style. Perhaps that explains the fact there is some integration. However, many people whose personal taste would place them in a church dominated by another shade of color,

they stay with "their own". Integration is more than about shades of color. It deals with economics, age, and much more.

Is it doctrine? Doctrine varies all over. One church is Pentecostal and the other is not, but there are churches with that difference among all groups. There are essentially all-white and all-black churches with almost identical Statements of Faith.

Is it politics? Maybe. Though when most African-Americans were Republicans (the Party of Lincoln) in the 1950s and earlier, and most evangelical whites were also in the GOP, integration was far less than today. When speaking on issues, there is often agreement on the basic moral issues, though voting patterns don't track with that. Positions on economic and foreign policy issues tend to differ by every poll taken, but most sound churches do not dwell on politics, but on Christ, so where else do we look?

I believe it is a separation of spirit. A civil war without weapons. Differences in world view and opinion on how to view things lead to demonization of each other. A lack of understanding of the unity of the Body of Christ leads people to dispense with the more challenging aspects of God's agenda. A high-stress lifestyle leads some to simply want the familiar, the non-controversial, and the cocoon that comes from not stepping into new waters. Denominations are springing up each year, many over minute doctrinal differences, so this is much bigger an issue that race or shades of color.

I have been pressing for a new offensive in international prayer - see my God's Worldwide Web post. I share frequent prayer with ministers in various countries and God answers those prayers in a special way. I am now going to press for a new offensive in interethnic covenant prayer. Find someone different from you. Pray on a regular basis with them and become vulnerable to them. Be humble and listen. Be honest and not phony. Stick to areas of agreement where possible, but allow God to bridge any differences that emerge. Allow God to knit your spirits together. You see, we all need to change. There is but ONE Holy Spirit. There is but ONE set of truth.

That is why I am not part of any denomination. If a person is approached about coming to Christ, and believing the truth of the gospel, he or she has every right to ask WHICH GOSPEL? WHICH TRUTH? Denominations diametrically oppose each other on issues. I consider myself simply a New Testament Christian, and I simply want to follow the truth, no matter which denomination is emphasizing it. I want justification by faith from the historic Lutherans, holiness from the historic Methodists, believers' baptism and religious freedom from the Baptists, an emphasis each week on ALL parts of the scripture from the Episcopalians, self sacrifice from the Catholics, plurality of leadership from the Presbyterians and the Brethren, and Holy Ghost power from the Pentecostals.

The church must be one. The SAME spirit of separation that divides people from each other divides churches from each other. In both situations, the truth must be the basis for the unity. The walls wherever they occur must come down. Bad doctrines must go. False beliefs and stereotype must go. Even personal preferences must go - IN HONOR, PREFERRING ONE ANOTHER.

If there are setbacks, don't give up. Sometimes solid relationships are severely strained when a "deal-breaker" difference raises its head. Ephesians 4:3 tells us to spare no effort to KEEP peace. So whether it is tongues, "word-faith", prosperity gospel, the President and other political leaders, or a host of other things, our commitment has to be strong enough to overcome every attempt by Satan to return separation of Spirit. We do not have to AGREE on everything. Chances are, we will not. Bu we can LISTEN, we can LEARN, and we can be sure not SLANDER each other, SCORN each other, or DEMEAN each other. Too much of that has gone on for years and is going on even as I am writing this. It is WORK to be reconciled.

Do not worry about compromising - we are not talking about the deity of Jesus Christ, the infallible Word of God, the Virgin Birth, the sanctity of life and of marriage or anything like that. My prayer is that we maintain unity there but also come to perfect unity in ALL areas - after all, totally opposite positions cannot BOTH be right. We need to come to a knowledge of the truth. That comes through respectful debate, openheartedness, and hearing the spirit of the other person. It comes through examining all the evidence and making an informed decision. Rhetoric, emotion, and cultural investments have to be set aside if we are to come into ALL the truths of the gospel and of life. I believe that is the heritage of the Sons of God. God wants a church without interior walls. Now exterior walls are a different matter.

Ironically, the only wall that IS God ordained is between the Spirit of God and the Spirit of this World. Yet that is the ONE WALL that unfortunately IS coming down. Christians are finding more and more in common with the world. They watch the same bankrupt TV program and movies, their speech is often about as crude, they move in and out of marriage just as easily, they fornicate while dating (though by one source, they date longer before doing so).

Let's erect THAT wall of separation so the church can be holy, but tear down the walls between individuals and assemblies that have tragically damaged the reputation of the Church of Jesus Christ. Let us SHARE with each other, EAT with each other, PRAY with each other, BARE OUR SOULS to each other, and LISTEN for the moving of the Spirit together. Sharing prophecies, exhortations, encouragements, hospitality will facilitate unity. If all are eyes, where would the hearing be? We NEED each other so the church will be strengthened. NOT ALL GIFTS ARE IN ALL CHURCHES or in ANY ONE PERSON! All those things come by the Spirit which he distributes severally AS HE WILLS. When the ONE Spirit of God is honored, the separations will disappear. God broke down the walls between the Jews and Greeks in the first century, The glory of the latter house was prophesied by Haggai to exceed that of the former.

Consider the high priestly prayer of Jesus as recorded in John 17:

20"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24"Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. 25"Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them."

Jesus wants it. He gave us the GLORY to make it possible. It is not optional - it is KEY to the world believing our message. The level of unity is not an occasional hug or an annual Unity Day. It is each and every thing that is needed in order to achieve the level of unity that exists right now between Jesus and his Father.

Are you with me in this? Post your comments and suggestions below so all can benefit! Praise the Lord!