Jun 10
27
SECRET THREE
(Avoid spiritual conflicts – go to Him!)
Do you Have Spiritual Conflict?
The biggest obstacles to receiving healing power for others and spiritual healing for you are spiritual conflicts. How do we avoid spiritual conflicts? Just a few things that open the door to spiritual conflicts are, seeming irresolvable differences in a relationship; bitterness; unresolved anger or guilt; acting contrary to one’s own value system. Here is a list of four things that indicate a spiritual conflict is going on which will limit our ability to receive healing power for others and spiritual healing for ourselves.
1. Hanging onto religious dogma and refusing to look at truth. Jesus told the religious of his day, “You have rendered the Word of God as worthless by your many traditions and many such things do you do.”
2. Being under a blanket of spiritual authority that is both powerless and stifling. I discovered this “accidentally” one night while I was sharing with a group in an inner-city church. The membership was comprised of people that had been “converted” or “saved” at a nearby skid row mission. The pastoral husband and wife team was an older couple who were humble, spiritual warriors for whom I had the deepest respect.
They had just introduced me and out of my mouth came these words: “Knowing you two, I suppose I don’t have to ask for your permission to say or do whatever the Holy Spirit leads me to do or say?” They both nodded affirmatively and emphatically. Something clicked in me at that moment which I didn’t quite understand until later. Miracles and healings happened that night – the likes of which I had not seen before in any church, including the one I had formerly (ugh) “co-pastored.” From that point forward, for as long as I continued to accept invitations to share – I never again experienced a lukewarm, powerless time, why? Because a condition of accepting the invitation was that the leadership of that church gave me permission to say and do whatever God had anointed me to say or do (period). I had gotten rid of a HUGE spiritual conflict that I had not even been aware of previously.
3. This one is for those who believe that the Bible is the written word of God and therefore a kind of “rule book” for living. Worth noting even if the foregoing description doesn’t apply to you. Apparent Scriptural conflicts, that is, when one part of the Bible seems to be saying something in direct conflict with another part. The following is just one of many notable examples and being caught in it will quench the ability to receive healing power and spiritual healing. In the 23rd chapter of Matthew, in the original language, Jesus quite clearly expresses that there should be no spiritual leaders or teachers except one, “The Christ,” as he put it; he gave emphasis to this by saying that we should neither allow ourselves to be called by any title that implies spiritual authority or superiority, nor should we refer to others by any such title.
*(please see note following #4 below.
“You are to minister to one another in the same kind of equality as brothers and sisters are equal. And don’t refer to any human being as your spiritual father – you have only one Father and He is in the unseen realm of the spirit.”
This seems to run head-on into several passages found in the New Testament letters of Paul. In one of his letters to young Timothy, whom he was mentoring at the time, Paul refers to himself as Timothy’s spiritual father. He provides instructions as to how Timothy should go about leading and managing his “flock.” In Ephesians, Paul lays out the framework for what has been called the “five-fold ministry of church,” i.e., apostles (a title by which Paul makes reference to himself), prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers.”
Only someone intellectually or spiritually dishonest could claim that there is not an apparent conflict here. Note the word apparent in the foregoing sentence. I don’t feel called to deal with this in detail within this treatise – I simply offer my views on an individual basis to anyone who would like send me an e-mail – as Paul says, “I thank God that there is a way out through Jesus Christ,” (over just such conflicts).
4. Missing God, by refusing to go to Him. Again, remember whom Jesus referred to interchangeably as the “Holy Spirit” and the “Spirit of Truth” is always available to lead or guide us through every situation. The end of all conflict begins by taking the conflict to HIM. Some would say that Bible study is the answer. My experience with dealing with emotionally disabled people is that Bible study, if it doesn’t lead someone to the Spirit of Truth, and quite often it does not, can be deadly. A perfect time to bring up the woman in Houston, Texas that not all that long ago who studied the Bible incessantly and became convinced that she should kill her five children and did so in rather dramatic and gruesome fashion. Again, Bible study in this instance was deadly.
* Important note: Some feel that I am being critical of all those who feel called to be in a leadership role by whatever title. My response is quite simple. It doesn’t really matter whether I am being critical. What matters is the truth for you. If you are being called by SPIRIT and not driven by ambition and ego (or worse) to be a “pastor” (the word means “shepherd”) or a “teacher,” again, by whatever other title, that is between you and SPIRIT and I most emphatically refuse to criticize or judge another person’s calling (period), “let everyone be convinced in their own minds.”
In Freedom,
Brad Cullen
Don’t miss the podcast to go with this Secret, there is more help to discover your Spiritual Conflicts. Click here and scroll down to Podcast #6.Podcast 6 June 27 2010 Seven Secrets Pt 3