The Genesis 3 Spell

There's a huuuuuuuuge shift to go from the OuterCourts of God's house and the Holy Place into where God has really purposed us to dwell...Psalm 91 in the Shadow of the Most High. In the first two places your essential identity remains the same as it always was. You are a separate you. God is at one edge of the Universe and you are "down here" trying to reach Him. This is the effect of the Fall. For brief interludes Christians in the first two areas experience the nearness of God. But they absolutely refuse that God is Lord of their mind and heart...not completely. One would mean madness, they reason, and the other would , well just lose total control into freaky unstable emotion.

In a sense this last week has seen somewhat of a world impacting Conference of Evangelicals called " Strange Fire" meaning the offering of strange fire by the priests in the old testament, instead of the regulated offerings as laid down in the Old Covenant priesthood laws. They present Charismatics as manifesters of Kundilini...the same spirits that manifest in Eastern religion.

In one sentence they deny the Word of God they hypocritically say they uphold...and remember Jesus words about a divided kingdom shall not stand...
Jesus said...I f anyone asks for the Holy Spirit shall  the Father who knows how to give them good gifts give them a stone or a serpent? Answer. Not on your nelly. Where people have open hearts towards God, they can trust Him.

So what are evangelicals doing? Lying. Speaking from the mouth of the serpent.
Saying that God is not to be trusted with either our minds or our emotions.

Now charismatics have gone further, but their position is still well described in Corinthians and Hebrews.
You see, the first actually covered area of the Tabernacle or temple is called the Holy Place. Now in this place all the Divine shewbread has to be neatly cut up into 12 portions, one for each tribe.

Paul says about this type of thing. I cannot address you as mature because one of you says I am of Apollos, or Cephas (Peter the Rock) or Paul....and the point is...ALL SERVANTS of the Lord are yours!!! In Hebrews 6 it is similar...by now you should be on meat but I have to still feed you the milk of the Word.

One of the truths here can now be described thus, since science has now caught up a bit. They are still stuck in the leftbrain. Held within the four walls of limited linear reasoning which absolutely requires that every single one of a gazillion facts be known before conclusions can even start to be drawn. The Fall left us in this nervous position. It is a product of the fear of death. To break it we have to learn to walk in the Spirit which the Holy Spirit begins to teach us when we sign on the dotted line past the brazen altar and the Laver in the outer courts and grant God permission that He can be Lord of us and train us in New Covenant Priesthood. And this requires supernatural anointing oil...or the baptism in the Holy Spirit. It's no use leaving this at a purely doctrinal level either, as some do. You actually need to learn the "conversation or manner of conducting yourself, in its older word usage" such that you actually do pray for the sick and they get healed, that you actually do speak deliverance over people and they really are delivered, that you actually do preach with fire and people are convicted and become Christians, that you actually do know how to get revelation on Divine things and the Word of God or Bible.

But how much you cross that line of Spirit, such that your soul is actually completely controlled by the Spirit, and becomes the vehicle for the Holy Spirit, is what gives you away instantly in a gathering of Jesus-filled people.
In the old testament they used to check if people were genuine by the way they pronounced Shibboleth. In the Spirit we can tell immediately where you are at by your whole identity...about who you think you are. It affects your speech, the way you stand, the way you behave and the amount you are still dragging figleaf behaviour around. Truly as it says in Psalm 1....the sinner shall not stand in the congregation of the righteous.
But it's not that ludicrous imitation saint behaviour of denominational priests and vicars....all born again people see straight through that the day they become Christians. No...it's the amount you still "see" yourself as separate.

A Calvinist gives themselves away straight away. They are more uptight about God, because they overstress that GOD MUST DO THE CHOOSING. They are rubbish at evangelism generally...because the one they are speaking too is never one of the supposed called. (Actually in the Spirit it is all valid...but not in the flesh at all ...that's for another time)
So does an Armenian give themselves away. They are all about action. get the people to do something. Sign a salvation form and hand it in.  The actual Spirit process  that brings a person right through in God is way beyond most of them. As long as they've got signatures.

But the point is, by identifying themselves, they immediately give the game away that they are of Apollos, or Paul, or Peter...never all....and always taking tiny nibbles at single portions of shewbread. The FULL REVELATION OF CHRIST cannot be held in the leftbrain. It's not made for it. It can be the servant to Spirit revelation in the heart. it can meekly interpret inner realities that Almighty God brings His saints to discover. As Paul said...I pray the inner hearts of you shall be enlightened that you shall KNOW the breadth and height and depth etc.....
So we too, when we see people still messing around with little pieces of shewbread like Turkish delight cubes out of a box, we don't scold them...or if we do it is to appeal to them to go further in...but it's not about condemnation...we just perceive they have to do a bit more "SEEING"...and we are well aware that we don't see all that much either...but we see enough not to just rely on a Paul OR a Cephas OR an Apollos and we really really know we need all of them. Not just those who happen to be an ear or a hand just like us. (I Corinthians 12).

But the saddest thing about being bound in the leftbrain isn't like say...just not knowing that 2 plus 2 equals 4. I mean that isn't going to trouble anybody too much. No the sad thing is, if we are not in the LIGHT, we are in the DARK.
Therefore the very speculations of the mind are not only bogus, they are more dangerous than bogus....they are filled with darkness....high speculations that need to be brought down....or conversely vicious lies that cripple us, that need rooting out so we can be lifted up. (let the valley be raised up and the mountains laid low).

The leftbrain is BEWITCHED. If it is allowed to infect the Word of God it corrupts it it paralyses it. It takes what is living from the very heart of God and makes the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil out of it. Then it gets passed on in that form. And people who hear it, again in their leftbrains, assume that they have heard the counsel of God....but all they've heard is Armenian or Calvinist doctrine which has as much life in it as Madame Tussauds Celebrities.

So instead of asking Jesus...Jesus what do you say about  Creation and Evolution, there is not any question. Because the Luciferian indoctrination over 200 years is almost complete, there is absolutely no question of even asking Jesus about it, because He just isn't that real, and He'll only probably say what's in the Bible anyway...and well all the Luciferians have shown us we can't trust God to be God can we?

The issue isn't really even what is true. It's that we simply haven't ever got down to the decision of who is Lord of our leftbrain...even if we speak in tongues.
The NHS is Lord of our bodies.
The ACLU is Lord of our behaviours and rights and civil liberties
The catholic Church is Lord of our religion on this planet
The 3% Christian Royal Society can be totally trusted to be Lord of our science, if even historically shown to have invented tons of the certainly initial exhibits in the socalled Museum of natural History....Piltdown man etc...
The Politicians can be trusted to be Lord of our country's administration though to even get in those positions pretty well all of them are heavily compromised in secret societies.
Education can be trusted to be Lord of our children because they will grow up to be socially able individuals capable of living perfectly in the independent self delusion collectively and so not ever show themselves up as individuals.

Huge Huge ramifications.
You begin to see how dangerous the charismatic half in half out position is....but the evangelicals are calling the pot kettle black, since the truth is they haven't even begun their walk of transparency in churches yet. Apart from the odd prayer, no evangelical congregation member is allowed to do anything other than read out the odd bit of Bible or present the odd song...the single pastor pyramid leader does everything.

While we are stuck in separation in our little old "nouses", the devil is having a field day casting spells over Christians and getting them to behave like Cybermen exactly as he wishes to bring in his kingdom. Metanoia or repentance means to move out from the confines of the nous.... meta out from...or meta to go back on yourself, or meta to join together with....quite a jumble of opposing meanings... (has about 5 meanings as a preposition)...but broadly in the Spirit it means crossing the line of spirit from a position of Genesis 3 false independent thinking.... in fact you are never independent...you are empowered instead by Satan's wrath spirit...hence child of wrath...container for the wrath spirit....but Paul in Timothy tells us in  God's House are many vessels and we get to choose whether to be of ignoble or noble use. Who do you want to contain in your spirit? God or the devil? In the words of Bob Dylan's song....everybody's gotta choose somebody...who are you gonna serve?

Barna Proves Nobody Has a Clue about Spiritual maturity. (This blog's main thesis!!)

Many Churchgoers and Faith Leaders Struggle to Define Spiritual Maturity
Barna Group Post  May 11, 2009

America may possess the world’s largest infrastructure for nurturing human spirituality, complete with hundreds of thousands of houses of worship, thousands of parachurch organizations and schools, and seemingly unlimited products, resources and experts.
Yet, a new study from the Barna Group identifies an underlying reason why there is little progress in helping people develop spiritually: many churchgoers and clergy struggle to articulate a basic understanding of spiritual maturity. People aspire to be spiritually mature, but they do not know what it means. Pastors want to guide others on the path to spiritual wholeness, but they are often not clearly defining the goals or the outcomes of that process.

The research was conducted by Barna Group in partnership with Living on the Edge (www.livingontheedge.org) and included a nationwide, random sample of adults and a similar national survey among Protestant pastors, exploring definitions of, perceptions about, and perceived barriers to spiritual maturity.

 

Five Challenges

The study showed five significant challenges when it comes to facilitating people’s spiritual growth.
1. Most Christians equate spiritual maturity with following the rules.
One of the widely embraced notions about spiritual health is that it means “trying hard to follow the rules described in the Bible” – 81% of self-identified Christians endorsed this statement, and a majority agreed strongly (53%). Even among those individuals defined by their belief that salvation is not earned through “good works,” four out of five born again Christians concurred that spiritual maturity is “trying hard to follow the rules.”
2. Most churchgoers are not clear what their church expects in terms of spiritual maturity. 
An open-ended survey question asked churchgoers to describe how their church defined a “healthy, spiritually mature follower of Jesus.” Half of churchgoers simply said they were not sure, unable to venture a guess regarding the church’s definition. Even among born again Christians – that is, a smaller subset of believers who have made a profession of faith in Christ and confessed their sinful nature – two out of five were not able to identify how their church defines spiritual maturity. Among those who gave a substantive response, the most common responses were having a relationship with Jesus (16%), practicing spiritual disciplines like prayer and Bible study (9%), living according to the Bible (8%), being obedient (8%), being involved in church (7%), and having concern for others (6%).
3. Most Christians offer one-dimensional views of personal spiritual maturity. 
A second open-ended question probed self-identified Christians’ personal definition of what it means to be a healthy, spiritually mature follower of Jesus, regardless of how they believe their church defines it. One-fifth of self-described Christians were unable to offer an opinion. Other identified elements included: relationship with Jesus (21%), following rules and being obedient (15%), living a moral lifestyle (14%), possessing concern about others (13%), being involved in spiritual disciplines (13%), applying the Bible (12%), being spiritual or having belief (8%), sharing their faith with others (6%), and being involved in church activities (5%). Born again Christians were similar in all respects to self-described Christians except they were more likely to mention having a relationship with Jesus (30%) as the sign of spiritual maturity. Further reflecting a lack of depth on the subject, the open-ended questions typically produced, on average, just one response from survey respondents, despite the fact that interviewers repeatedly probed for additional or clarifying comments.
4. Most pastors struggle with feeling the relevance as well as articulating a specific set of objectives for spirituality, often favoring activities over attitudes.
The research among pastors highlighted several inter-related challenges. First, while nearly nine out of 10 pastors said that a lack of spiritual maturity is the most significant or one of the largest problems facing the nation, a minority of pastors believe that spiritual immaturity is a problem in their church. A second challenge is that only a minority of churches has a written statement expressing the outcomes they are looking for in spiritually mature people. A third challenge is that pastors often favor activities over perspectives in their definitions of spiritual maturity. Their metrics for people’s spirituality include the practice of spiritual disciplines (19%), involvement in church activities (15%), witnessing to others (15%), having a relationship with Jesus (14%), having concern for others (14%), applying the Bible to life (12%), being willing to grow spiritually (12%), and having knowledge of Scripture (9%).
5. Pastors are surprisingly vague about the biblical references they use to chart spiritual maturity for people.
One of the reasons churches struggle with making disciples may relate to the lack of clarity that pastors have about the underlying biblical passages that address the process of spiritual maturity. This is most clearly reflected in the huge proportion of pastors who give generic responses when asked to identify the most important portions of the Bible that define spiritual maturity. In fact, one-third of pastors simply said “the whole Bible.” Other generic responses included “the gospels” (17%), the New Testament (15%), and Paul’s letters (10%). In all, the survey showed that three-quarters of pastors mentioned some type of generic answer to this query. In addition, one out of every five pastors gave a semi-generic response, such as “Romans” or the “life of Christ.”
As for verse-specific responses (mentioned by just one-fifth of pastors), the most common passages included: Galatians 5, John 3:16, Ephesians 4, Matthew 28, and Romans 12:1-2. Just 2% of pastors specifically identified the Galatians 5 passage relating to the “fruits of the Spirit,” which includes love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and self-control. Theme specific answers represented just 7% of responses, including the Sermon on the Mount, the Great Commission, the Great Commandment, and the Beatitudes.

 

Five Opportunities

The research also identifies a number of opportunities that can be leveraged to address the problems related to spirituality maturity.
1. Christians and pastors have clarity about the major boundaries that must be addressed to tackle the problem.
What are the perceived reasons that people do not grow spiritually? Self-identified Christians were asked about the obstacles they experience while pastors were queried to see how well they understand the barriers facing their congregants. Church leaders believe the three primary obstacles to people’s engagement are lack of personal motivation (32%), other competing obligations and distractions (26%), and lack of involvement in activities that nurture growth (19%). In this respect, they do not seem too far off in their perceptions. Born again Christians identify distractions (24%), lack of motivation (20%), and lack of involvement (13%) as challenges they face, even if two of the three are mentioned less frequently by adults than pastors. Born again Christians, however, are more likely than pastors to identify sinful behaviors and habits as tripping them up (14% of believers versus 8% of pastors).
2. While most Americans are relatively content with their spirituality “as is,” millions aspire to grow spiritually.
Most adults think of themselves as both spiritually healthy as well as spiritually satisfied, which is both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge is that most people’s satisfaction can lead to complacency. One opportunity is to connect with the 18 to 20 million Americans who describe themselves as spiritually unhealthy or as dissatisfied with their personal spiritual maturity. Still, a majority of adults say they are “completely” (14%) or “mostly” healthy when it comes to spirituality (40%); nearly two-thirds of Americans describe themselves as “completely” (22%) or “mostly” satisfied with their spirituality (43%). The opportunity among these individuals is to help them move beyond complacency and embrace a deeper understanding of spiritual growth.
3. Compared to older believers, Christians under the age of 40 are less satisfied with spirituality and less “rule oriented.”
Young Christians show signs of spiritual openness that older adults do not. People under the age of 40 are different than those Christians over 40 by being less satisfied spiritually and also rating their spiritual health less favorably. In addition, the generational difference over rule-following was striking: most Elders (ages 63+) and Boomers (44 to 62) strongly endorsed the spiritual metric of rule-following (66% and 56%, respectively); however, fewer than half of Busters (25 to 43) and Mosaics (18 to 24) embraced this view (45% and 33%). Among the young, this signals a dangerous propensity to rethink the Bible’s standards, but it also shows unique responsiveness to grace and forgiveness.
4. Pastors realize they need more help when it comes to assessing spiritual health.
Just 9% of clergy said they were completely satisfied with their ability to measure and assess the spiritual health of their congregation. Still, few pastors (8%) were expressly dissatisfied, leaving a majority of leaders moderately satisfied. Perhaps churchgoers would become less complacent about self-evaluation as pastors embrace more effective forms of evaluation for their congregations.
5. Pastors tend to be harder on themselves than are congregants.
About 1 out of 10 pastors said the church itself was a barrier to people’s growth, while none of the churchgoers offered a similar critique. Similarly, when asked to rate the church’s ability to help people grow spiritually, pastors were significantly less likely (6%) than churchgoers (33%) to give the organization high marks, reflecting the fact that pastors are often their own toughest critics. The opportunity is to forge a greater sense of partnership and mutual esteem between leaders and laity to address the challenges, to work against self-deception in the process, and to craft deeper, more appropriate routes to spiritual maturity.

 

Implications

David Kinnaman, President of the California-based research firm, directed the research project. He pointed out several implications of the study:
“America has a spiritual depth problem partly because the faith community does not have a robust definition of its spiritual goals. The study shows the need for new types of spiritual metrics. One new metric might be a renewed effort on the part of leaders to articulate the outcomes of spiritual growth. Another might be the relational engagement and accountability that people maintain. Of course, spirituality is neither a science nor a business, so there is a natural resistance to ascribing scientific or operational standards to what most people believe is an organic process. Yet, the process of spiritual growth is neither simplistic nor without guidelines, so hard work and solid thinking in this arena is needed.”
“As people begin to realize that the concepts and practices of spiritual maturity have been underdeveloped, the Christian community is likely to enter a time of renewed emphasis on discipleship, soul care, the tensions of truth and grace, the so-called ‘fruits’ of the spiritual life, and the practices of spiritual disciplines. A related challenge is that as spiritual formation becomes ‘trendy’ it will inevitably become ‘watered down’ with products that over-promise or are simply counter-productive. Leaders have to take on this issue more effectively, and part of that task is weeding out the good from bad.”

 

Research

This report is based upon nationwide telephone surveys conducted by The Barna Group with random samples of adults, age 18 and older, and Protestant clergy. The survey among adults was conducted in August 2008 among 1005 adults randomly selected from across the continental United States. The maximum margin of sampling error associated with the aggregate sample is ±3.2 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. The survey among pastors included 611 clergy, with a maximum margin of sampling error of ±4.0 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. Statistical weighting was used to calibrate the sample to known population percentages in relation to demographic variables.
“Born again Christians” are defined as people who said they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today and who also indicated they believe that when they die they will go to Heaven because they had confessed their sins and had accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. Respondents are not asked to describe themselves as “born again.”
The Barna Group, Ltd. (which includes its research division, The Barna Research Group) is a private, non-partisan, for-profit organization that conducts primary research on a wide range of issues and products, produces resources pertaining to cultural change, leadership and spiritual development, and facilitates the healthy spiritual growth of leaders, children, families and Christian ministries. Located in Ventura, California, Barna has been conducting and analyzing primary research to understand cultural trends related to values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors since 1984. If you would like to receive free e-mail notification of the release of each new, bi-monthly update on the latest research findings from The Barna Group, you may subscribe to this free service at the Barna website (www.barna.org). Additional research-based resources, both free and at discounted prices, are also available through that website.
© The Barna Group, Ltd, 2009.