God is not a man …
“… I will not execute the fierceness of My anger, I will not again destroy Ephraim, for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in your midst; and I will not come with horror “(Hosea 11: 9)
“… and also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor relent. For He is not a man, that He should relent.”(1 Samuel 15:29).
“These things you have done, and I kept silent; you thought that I was altogether like you. But I will rebuke you and set them in order before your eyes. ”(Psalm 50:21)
Pay attention to this topic: “For I am God ..”, “He is not man”, “you thought that I was altogether like you ..”. God is not man.
How did the early Christians move so powerfully without the Scriptures? Not every synagogue had the Holy Scriptures — it was expensive. The Scriptures were copied with great care and one was not even to point his finger in the book, but only with a pointer.
How could they carry the teaching of Christ? How could they resolve issues of discipline, conscience, punishment, how could they accept ideological and spiritual challenges? There were traditions – the Apostles conveyed certain truths, traditions in their epistles. But the Word is the Word. What Jesus said is not tradition, but the Word of God. What is written in the Torah is the Word of the Lord. “The law and the prophets,” – this is what Jesus said about the Scriptures.
How come the Church had such a strong ministry to God – in Thessaloniki, Ephesus, Rome, Corinth? – They walked with Jesus personally, they walked with God. Strong practice of walking with God. And shepherds having a strong knowledge of God.
Humanity has achieved scientific and technological progress, Roman and Greek science and education put reason at the forefront and put the law on paper. Today we are focused on the idea and “run around” with the Scriptures, not with life, but with the letter. The Scripture is used as a mantra, like Buddhists – you have to “overpray” and “overread” the Scriptures.
Something has been simplified. Something we lost on the way … It was different with first Christians, but they were stronger than we are. Why? – Because they walked with the One who is God. This is not an easy question. One of the keys – they knew the Holy Spirit. They walked with the Teacher Spirit. There was a very strong connection and a strong manifestation of spiritual gifts.
A gathering of disciples was always accompanied by the action and manifestation of the Holy Spirit.
The ministry wasn’t grounded on teaching and speaking, not on the mouth with tongue and words, but on the experience of the Most High.
We have greatly humanized God. This is the influence of Greece – where gods were assigned the human qualities, and people – the Divine. Christians accepted it. We are now such “supermen” – we can do everything ourselves, and we present God as man with manifestations of the soul.
We can offend the Holy Spirit by committing sin, by harming the Body of Christ. But to offend or disappoint is all of the soul.
The first Church that received the Holy Spirit walked in the power of the Spirit. But then gradually everyone transferred to reasoning. And God was “driven” into the mind, and all became reasonable, not godly.
We study in Christian colleges and schools for decades, defending some themes that are far from reality, and we think that in this way we make revival closer. And meanwhile life goes by.
The humanization of God reaches the point of insanity. “Let’s see who the Lord will take revenge on…”. I have not seen another organization where they judge so cruelly as in the church.
God has no need of anything, even of your prayer. We pray and worship not because He needs it. This humanization of God is one of the overall diseases of the “sensual” churches. These include charismatic churches. The Church under Luther left sensuality, but after a while she got back into it.
“And the Lord is in His holy temple: let the whole earth be silent before Him!” (Habakkuk 2:20)
Learn to be silent
Before you speak, you need to learn to be silent. This is how God speaks, that you stretch your faces to Him and learn to listen in silence. Silence is not about hearing no sound. This is the silence of the heart.
Why do we need silence – after all, we often choose noise and flock. Have you ever seen a school of fish that rushes chaotically into the mouth of a whale?
There is only one way out – to go into loneliness in order to learn to live in silence, to learn to overcome fear and come to your true self.
Peter thought that he was talking about himself: “I will never deny, I will give my life for You …” He didn’t realize he was talking not about himself, but about the image that he had made up for himself. He played the role of a good shepherd. But he proved nothing to anyone. God had mercy on him – He broke Him against Himself, and Peter woke up as Peter.
Many die without becoming themselves. Fellowship with some people is very difficult, because even after talking for hours you never come to real fellowship.
Silence is essential for finding oneself. You can stop your chaos and cares and hear yourself. Many ministers leave priestly worship and become secretaries and administrators. But we are not on this path.
Silence for Finding God
When God speaks, one has to be silent. Come to your home and clear “your air”, change habits, make silence. This is a new nature of life. Don’t fall asleep tired of talking, but fall asleep healthy and refreshed – in silence with Him.
How can you become so rude and insensitive to love that you stop loving the One Who is Love?! Think about it! Perhaps we are completely dead and we need a resurrection. The Holy Spirit is the most tender Spirit!
Europeanization of Christ
Europe gave us an image of European Christianity. Christianity began in the East, in Judea, but it came through the Apostles to Rome, and there “Europeanization of Christ” happened – He was portrayed as a European with blue eyes and light curls, although He never was that. Combined with the time of geographical discoveries, the Christian European doctrine built up such a Christ all over the planet.
Christianity as a religion became the largest religion on the planet. But is this Christ? Is the salvation that people find in such churches true – do they have living fellowship and salvation by grace? Europe today is also imposing its values.
What should we do? – Jesus, when He came into the world, showed a different level of war. He said, “My Kingdom is not of this world.” He won such a war, where He brought absolute victory in all three spheres of human life – spirit, soul and body! It is the matter of time.
It’s so difficult for us to live in the Spirit. We need “fleshly Christianity,” the humanization of God. It’s easier for us. He is like your dad: He is upset when they make Him upset, He is happy if you have made Him happy….
Someone said, “Your best words are those that have not been spoken.” We are often so quick to speak it all! Every man should have loneliness. God never took it away from man.
He gives the “right” loneliness. You must pray to Him alone. Don’t “clog” it all with light and sounds. Don’t “hide” in your beloved one.
We rub against one another, engaged in carnal conversations to “do away with the silence”. Thus we lose something more serious and deep. We lose the Holy Spirit. We stop hearing and listening to Him.
Have you caught yourself thinking that if you are praying in the Spirit, you are wasting your time? There are so many things to do! You don’t have time to pray in the morning, but you have to work in the day. And so you don’t pray for years, because for you it is a waste of time. Leaving all earthly things and starting fellowship with Him is a waste of time for us. Think about this “decline of faith”, this “death of Christianity”!
Divine design for man
God created man with attraction. It was divine design. It was not sin. The Lord gave a command to man – to be fruitful and multiply. God deposited love in the heart and attraction of a man to a woman, so that the Kingdom of God would multiply through the promise of God.
It is important to understand the essence of things. When you understand, you begin to admire.
Someone made a research and found that only one porn site has an audience of two and a half million people per hour, and the developers of the site have uploaded four and a half billion hours of video to their platform. This means that pornography has been provided for half a million years in just one web site! We’ve lived only six thousand years since Adam!
Look at what Satan is doing! Are you talking about “garbage dumps” in the ocean?! Look what a “garbage dump” is in the heads of mankind!
We have to understand according to what image everything was created. Woman is the image of heaven on earth. It is woman who has to be on earth, because Christ came down and was born in her womb in order to leave her and enter in heaven to the Father. This is very sacred. Man is the image of the fatherhood of God in heaven. He gives the seed.
But Satan distorted the image of the love of Christ and the Church, bringing filth and impurity.
Spiritual seed of Christ
The water and the Blood that flowed out of Christ on the cross symbolize spiritual seed that brings life. It came out of Christ to give life to everything. It is Blood, Spirit and Water. This is Life. The spiritual seed that gave life to the Church.
When we understand what is happening, it will be easier for us to fight against sin. We must bring ourselves to hate sin. We have to understand this, experience an inner disgust for sin.
Youth is always a breakthrough, exaggeration and aspiration. But we must restrain lust. Attraction is not sin. It is a secret attraction to the birth of life. The Lord gave this secret to Adam and Eve – the birth of a child.
Christ didn’t act as man. He was in the flesh of a man, but He wasn’t a man. He was the Messiah sent from the Father. By design, He became greater than Adam – because He is the Lord.
The path of connection, unity with Christ
A cleansing path for an infant is normal. He overcomes sin.
Some have an evil mouth, lust, slander, impurity, envy, each has his own. Each one goes through his own struggles. And this is kissing the feet of Jesus. It is walking in the dimension of forgiveness – in redemptive forgiveness, gradually overcoming sin, changing circumstances, and being shaped as a Christian into a victorious man who is transiting to the next level. This is the path of sanctification. The man moves in the light, he lives in the light.
You love holiness, you move in it.
The humanization of God also happened due to the fact that the Church decided to join with the government. And why then should the government persecute religion if the latter can serve it?
Therefore, we must understand that as soon as the Church becomes the Bride, persecution is inevitable. Because it will be breaking free from the clutches of death into the freedom of Christ.
Walking in the light is kissing the hands of the “mistress”. And the third level of walking with Christ is the path of union. This is the ultimate intimacy. You are immersed in Him. You kiss His mouth. This is the union of the Bridegroom and the Bride. This is the third path to which the Lord is calling His children today.
This is why many don’t walk in joy. Because the spiritual struggle continues. But this is not the joy of the Holy Spirit. The joy of a Christian comes from the Holy Spirit and a righteous heart. When in a dance the Holy Spirit joins with the spirit of man. Christ delights in the soul, in the purity of the soul. Sanctification comes not from the Blood only, but from the Holy Spirit. He sanctifies man!
Christ said: “When I abide in you, and you in Me, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.” We scream at our prayer meetings, even get stronger in this, which Christ doesn’t want. For years we do not receive anything, because they are not connected.
The first Christians lived in this Divine grace, in the freedom of Christ. The priests knew God. Therefore, the people walked the true path, to the light. Religious activities – food, travel, friendship – don’t require the Holy Spirit. Therefore, there is a lot of sectarianism at this time.
I want to challenge people who are not content with this. Therefore, our topic today is “God is not man!” Don’t humanize God. The Seed that came from Calvary didn’t come into the world to fight with sins. Christ didn’t die for this. He died for the bliss, so that we may walk with Him and in Him!