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God’s Breath - Part 2 of 3 (Amplified and KJV) When we speak, we breathe out that which is housed within us. Since “God is light” {I John 1:5}, within Whom is no darkness, that which He breathes out is designed ultimately to produce light. If we are filled with God’s Holy breath, we breathe out that which is of the Holy Spirit. If we lack the fullness of God’s breath, we breathe out a mixture of truth and error, truth from the realm of the Spirit and error from the realm of the carnal (self-ruled nature) and even, at times, from the demonic realms, as was the case in Peter’s self-focused attempt to deter Jesus from the crucifixion. “Then Peter took Him aside to speak to Him privately and began to reprove and charge Him sharply, saying, God forbid, Lord! This must never happen to You!” {Mat 16:22}. Even though Peter was destined to become a leader of the early Church, the Lord recognized the voice of the enemy speaking through him, hence Jesus’ response: “But Jesus turned away from Peter and said to him, Get behind Me, Satan! You are in My way [an offense and a hindrance and a snare to Me]; for you are minding what partakes not of the nature and quality of God, but of men” {Mat 16:23}. Like Peter, we must learn to recognize and repent for thoughts which originate either from our own reasoning or from the demonic. Instead, we must receive and breathe out through our confession only that which originates from the heart and breath of God, lest we quench the Holy Spirit. While Peter’s judgment was momentarily opposed to the will of the Father, as shown by his words, the apostle Paul warns against those whose fruit (words, lives and actions) repeatedly betray an inward heart of rottenness and who remain unreceptive to correction and change. Since such false disciples of the faith will increase during the last days, we must discern their often hidden reality by the effect their presence has upon the Spirit (breath) of Christ within us. Is He free to breathe as He wills, whether in the still small voice of a whisper or in a thunderous warning. Is the trumpet blast (resulting from deliberate and intensely directed breath-flow) of the godly ignored or ridiculed? Or is it received, even at the price of humbling? “But understand this, that in the last days will come…perilous times of great stress … [hard to deal with and hard to bear]” {2 Tim 3:1}. Here Paul is not referring to times of physical hardship, but rather the difficulty of discerning and dealing with those who seek to breathe out the written word of God with polluted breath, thus issuing forth death instead of life: “For people will be lovers of self and [utterly] self-centered…[they will be] slanderers (false accusers, troublemakers)…uncontrolled and fierce…[They will be] treacherous [betrayers], rash, [and] inflated with self-conceit…For [although] they hold a form of piety (true religion), [their conduct belies the genuineness of their profession]. Avoid [all] such people [turn away from them]” {2 Tim 3:1-5}. When Adam confessed shame of his nakedness, God asked a decisive question which reverberates through every generation to every word we hear and utter: “Who told you that…?” {Gen 3:11}. In other words, from whose breath did you receive the message? Was it from the breath of life or the breath of death? “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they who indulge in it shall eat the fruit of it [for death or life]” {Pro 18:21} We must continually ask, Does the message I hear and the message I share reflect the Spirit of Christ or the spirit of that which is opposed to Christ, i.e. an anti-Christ spirit? Is the speaker receptive to or hostile to Truth (Christ)? Is the speaker respectful of and submissive to God-appointed leadership? If the person’s fruit proves antagonistic and insubmissive, “…they will not get very far, for their rash folly will become obvious to everybody” {2 Tim 3:9}. Until the exposing of their duplicity, however, those who are young in the faith must be warned against these ungodly associations, lest they (the immature) be drawn in by their deceitful breathings. May we receive that which is from the breath of God and shun that which would seek to choke the living word of God. -Ruth French February Newsletter 2006 | Self-Examination | Understanding Habits part 2 of 2 Pastor's Journal February 2005 | Here, World, Take My Children part 1 of 3 | God's Breath part 2 of 3 |
Biblical Counseling for Leaders
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