Moving In Miracles

The Syncretism of Christian Church Tradition

Different people groups from different ages and cultures all have a different understanding of what they consider to be good news that fits into their tradition. When different cultures mix, belief systems evolve and the mixing together of different beliefs and traditions is called syncretism. The modern gospel of corporate Christianity, the good news of heaven rather than hell when people die is a product of syncretism. There is no doubt that God uses this modern cultural gospel of escaping hell and going to heaven when you die but this is not the original good news of God. It is the product of the mixing of different cultural beliefs.

Hell Is A State Of Heart

The ancient Greeks believed in a place called Hades, the underworld or the realm of the conscious dead. They believed that when people died, their soul descended into Hades to be ruled over by the gods of the underworld. And so, when they heard about Jesus and his teaching about the worm that does not die and the fire that is not quenched, they assumed that hell was Hades gone bad, full of worms and fire. They came up with the notion that everyone descends into this Hades or hell when they die except those with a faith in the religion of Christian tradition. It says in Isaiah 66:22-24 “As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me,” declares the Lord, “so will your name and descendants endure. From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me,” says the Lord. “And they will go out and look on the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me; the worms that eat them will not die, the fire that burns them will not be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind.” The fire of hatred is the seed that grows within people’s hearts to bring forth the evil fruit of murder just as the worm of lust is the seed that grows within people’s hearts to bring forth the evil fruit of adultery. Hell is not a place; it is a state of heart. One day everyone will rise from the dead and the heart that people die with is the heart that they rise with. What is within people’s hearts when they die will remain within their hearts forever. The good news is heaven in your heart today, not heaven when you’re dead. Since Jesus rose from the dead, those with redeemed hearts do go to heaven when they die. But the worm that does not die and the fires that are not quenched are the evils that dwell within the rebellious and unrepentant hearts of the living dead forever not a physical place called hell.

God’s Fatherhood Rejected

In the same way, the ancient Greeks had no interest in experiencing the fatherhood of God. They had no interest in the culture of the ancient Hebrews, of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the twelve tribes, the prophets, psalms and the promises of God. What interested them was an understanding of the so-called Christian God by looking through the distorted lenses of their own religious culture and tradition rather than experiencing God personally, and hence was born this religious pursuit called theology. According to the Oxford Companion of the Christian Church, although not found in scripture, the Holy Trinity is the central dogma of Christian Theology in that the One God exists in Three Persons and one substance. This doctrine is held to be a mystery. Although it was not revealed in the Bible, this mystery can be neither known by unaided human reason apart from revelation nor demonstrated by reason after it has been revealed, but it is not above reason as it is not incompatible with the principles of rational thought. This is a prime example of religious syncretism. The ancient Hebrews, the people like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob wanted to experience God practically. The ancient Greeks wanted to understand God theologically, they had no interest in Jesus as a man with a perfect Father-Son relationship with God. This was the relationship that Adam and Eve originally had with God before they sinned in the Garden of Eden. It is this relationship that Jesus wants to share with you and me. That is because God as a Father became his own Son in the person of Jesus of Nazareth to establish sonship for the Sons of God. The Greeks replaced Jesus’ identity as the Son of God with God the Son and called Him the second person of the Godhead, co-equal and co-eternal with the other members of the Trinity that fitted in within their essentially pagan religious cultural beliefs. That is why Christmas Day is celebrated at the time of the winter solstice, the rebirth of the Roman God, Sol Invictus (the Unconquered Sun), the Sun God, or was it God the Sun? The winter solstice (or standing son) was one of the most important pagan festivals within the calendar of the Roman Empire. It was simply rebranded “Christian“.

The End of Every Revival

Paul said in Galatians 3:1-4  “You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? Have you experienced so much in vain—if it really was in vain?” At the end of every revival is the restoration of the religion of tradition. The Galatians were experiencing the revival or resurrection life of Pentecost. They were experiencing Sonship, a father-son relationship with God. But as always happens with every revival, the great men of religious tradition came and put the revival to death. The religious hypocrites persuaded the Galatians to exchange the truth of God’s fatherhood for a lie, to worship the creature instead of the creator.

Replacement Theology

The devil is the father of lies, he is like a waiter in a restaurant. He waits on tables of religious orthodoxy, taking away relationship and replacing it with the theology of religious tradition. He takes away the children’s bread of signs, wonders and miracles and replaces this bread with the junk food of tradition and the false promise of good news in death. In every aspect of life, the devil offers religious lies in exchange for God’s truth. Jesus taught that if a man looks at a woman lustfully, he has committed adultery in his heart. The devil teaches that no man could ever not be lustful if the woman is pretty enough, so Jesus died on the cross so that religious hypocrites could continue to have eyes bulging with lust but be considered righteous by faith alone and go to heaven when they die. But Paul said in Ephesians 5:3-7 “But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. Therefore, do not be partners with them.” Seems clear enough to all except those who have been theologically trained.

Heart To Heart With God

The Apostle Paul said in Galatians 3:5-9 “So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard? So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Understand, then, that those who have faith are sons of Abraham. Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.” Everything can be seen in two different ways, from the head or from the heart, from the realms of religious tradition or an established heart to heart relationship with God. The faith of religion is of the head, the faith of relationship is of the heart. The faith of religion is the creed and theology of religious tradition. It is a reasoned out intellectual pursuit and the best that it can offer is the salvation of good news in death. The faith of relationship is a heart full of the life’s breath or Holy spirit of God’s fatherhood where rivers of living water flow and praises rise up continually.

The Jewel In Satan’s Theological Crown

The scripture “Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness” is a jewel in Satan’s theological crown. Why? Because Satan teaches that the Cross of Christ changed God, that those who believe in the creeds and doctrine of religion are considered theoretically righteous by God through faith alone. In this, they are saved from hell once they are dead. The blessing of Abraham was a Father’s blessing, the same blessing that was poured out on the Day of Pentecost. God called Abraham out of his natural father’s house into a Father-Son relationship with God. This is what Jesus meant when he said to Nicodemus in John 3:3 that “unless people were born of God, they would not see the Kingdom of God”. Being born of God changes or saves people’s hearts. It changes their nature to become like God in true righteousness and holiness. It is the blessing of true righteousness from the inside out, not a change in God’s attitude towards selfishness and sin for those who are deceived by the tradition of their religion into thinking that by faith alone, anything goes.

God’s Garbage Collector

Jesus said in John 7:37-39 “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.” The Spirit was given on the Day of Pentecost. And so, Sunday by Sunday, God comes to his people, but religion prevents him from being received. Oh yes, people are taught to pray the sinner’s prayer but they are not allowed to drink from the fountain of life. Individuals within Churches thirst after God but the leaders of religious hypocrisy ensure that nothing ever happens, and nothing ever changes. That is why revivals never come through the established institution of creed, denomination, or religion of theological orthodoxy. They come through humble hearted nobodies who long for a father-son relationship with God. This opens the wells of revival, rivers of living water flow from within their hearts. However, revivals never last, the leaders of religious hypocrisy rise up and stop up the wells. Religious leadership attracts hypocrites like garbage attracts flies. The devil is God’s garbage collector; someone has to take out the trash. The devil deceives the rebellious, those who love the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life, into following him to his ultimate doom and also theirs. Those who share in Satan’s pleasures will also share in his punishment whatever religion teaches them to believe. Still, the Spirit has been given, and anyone can open the wells of revival if they unstop the wells of their own hearts blocked by creed and religious tradition and then come to Jesus and drink.

A Theologically Distorted Jesus

Corrective spectacles are prescribed to people with eye problems to help them to see clearly. The culture of religious tradition prescribes the spectacles of orthodox theological tradition to its adherents who are required to wear them in order for them to see or think in a prescribed and particularly religious way. Generation upon generation of culturally Greek religious theologians have added more and more lenses to the traditional spectacles resulting in a view of what is considered by the Church to be true and yet becomes more and more distorted and further from the truth. The Bible says that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever but the Jesus of Church religion is a different Jesus, a theologically distorted Jesus whose amazing grace has been shackled by the chains of Church history. That is why within the realms of the established religious order there are no miracles, signs or wonders. In fact, the only wondering people do is, “why does Jesus not do now what He did then?“.

The Blessing Rejected

A few years ago there was what is described as the Toronto Blessing or the move of the Holy Spirit. This was God sovereignly kick starting a father-son relationship with Himself. This is the blessing of Abraham and the anointing of kings originally poured out on the Day of Pentecost. People travelled from all over the world to experience this Pentecostal blessing, and this blessing moved into many churches. The religious leaders tolerated and, in some cases, enjoyed this move of God for a season, but as always happens, the religious hypocrites and Pharisees in positions of man-appointed leadership rose up and put it to death. In just one example of many, there was a large bible-week held towards the end of the so-called move of the Spirit. Thousands of people attended, and many churches were represented. Many were blessed, saved, healed and delivered. Towards the end of one of the weeks, it was time for the much-loved leader of that particular group of churches to speak. As he got up to speak, the Holy Spirit came down. God timed it perfectly. With much laughing and hilarity, those who were thirsty for God started to drink from the fountain of life. This great man stood on the platform with a rather surprised smirk on his face. He had something important that he wanted to say, but God had something important that He wanted to do and annoyingly, God had interrupted his message. Rather than co-operating with God, this great man stood, raise up his hands, and waving towards the door, asked those who had come to Jesus to drink to leave and encounter God outside. Those who were thirsty for what this great man was going to say but not thirsty for God stayed behind and gave the preacher a round of applause. This prophetic act was the beginning of the end of the move of God in those churches. One by one, the leaders of religious hypocrisy rose-up and stopped up the wells of the resurrection life. They said in effect, “No-one can live like that” and these religious hypocrites breathed a sigh of relief; the Pentecostal blessing of resurrection life was stamped out of their meetings and the same old life after death religion returned to those churches. However, individuals still enjoyed this blessing, and anyone can unstop the wells blocked by these religious hypocrites who claim to know God but by their actions deny him. Jesus said, if anyone is thirsty, let them come to me and drink.  We can do it now.

The Devil Has Stolen Our Miracles

So, what about miracles. Paul says in Galatians 3:5 “Does God give you his Holy Spirit and work miracles among you…”. Where are the miracles? Why is what we read about Jesus in the Bible so far from the experience of the average person who attends Church on a Sunday? Why do we sing “My God is so big, so strong and so mighty there’s nothing that God cannot do” when actually God does next to nothing? It’s ridiculous. People are crying their eyes out every day and dying in their hearts and it seems like God doesn’t lift a finger to help them. Religion teaches people to pray and believe, but nothing happens. That is because the so-called believing faith of religion is of the mind and not of the heart. The faith of religion is a “believing stick” that attempts to merit a miracle by prodding God out of his presumed persistent vegetative state. God is not a faith puppet, hanging by the strings of tradition that attempts to pull his heartstrings. Religion pipes up but God will not dance, religion murmurs a mournful song, but God will not weep. God will not allow his unmerited sovereign grace to be shackled by the religious faith of natural man. And so, using religion the devil has put the grace and mercy of God in chains. By changing the definition of who God is and what it means to be saved, the devil has stolen our miracles.

The Divorce Of Word And Spirit

So again, Paul says in Galatians 3:5 “Does God give you his Holy Spirit and work miracles among you …..”. Where are the miracles? Religion claims to have the spirit but has no miracles because religion divorces the word of God from the life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit of religion is the third person of the Trinity, co-equal and co-eternal with the other two persons of the Godhead, God the Father and God the Son, who have existed across all space and time in one community of three. The Holy Spirit of relationship is the eternal life’s breath of God’s fatherhood. On the day that Jesus rose from the dead he appeared to his disciples and said “As the Father sent me, so I am sending you and he breathed upon them….” (See John 20:21) How did the Father send Jesus? He breathed him out. Jesus is the incarnation of the life’s breath or personality of God, fully man and fully God. Jesus said, “As the Father sent me, so I am sending you and he breathed upon them and said receive the Holy Spirit”. The Holy Spirit is the eternal life’s breath or personality of God. God wants to breathe His personality into your personality, to integrate his Holy Spirit or personality into your heart and that will bring us our miracle. God always confirms his word with signs following because God himself dwells within the words that he speaks. If nothing happens when the so-called word is preached, it is the word of man and not the word of God.

Moving in Miracles

In Matthew 15:21-28 there is an incident where Jesus delivered a Canaanite woman’s daughter from a demon. Jesus was in the region of Tyre and Sidon, and the Canaanite woman came begging Jesus to save her daughter. Initially Jesus did not reply, but at his disciples request he responded by saying that he had only been sent to the lost sheep of Israel and that it was not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs. The children’s bread was described in Acts 10:38 where it says that “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him”. This is the children’s bread. And so, the Canaanite woman replied, “Yes Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table”. Jesus responded, “Woman, you have great faith, let it be done as you wish” and her daughter was saved. This Canaanite woman knew in her heart that she would get what she asked for because God had spoken His word into her heart by his Holy Spirit. Jesus said whatever you ask for in prayer, if you believe within your heart that you have received it, it will be yours. God as a Father speaks words of blessing into the hearts of His sons which establishes within them mountain moving faith. This is because God, by His Holy Spirit, dwells within the words that He speaks. If you are in a father-son relationship with God, then healing and deliverance and any other form of blessing is your daily bread. The daily bread of religion is Bible study, the daily bread of relationship is being saved and delivered from the oppressive power of the devil every day in every way. So, just as God sovereignly moved in this Canaanite woman’s heart, so we need God to open the eyes of our hearts to see that the children’s bread belongs to us. If this Canaanite woman can respond with the words that Jesus described as “great faith” then surely if God is truly our Father, then that same God-given heartfelt faith can bring us our miracle too. The bread of Jesus body was broken on the cross to bring us forgiveness, but more than that, the bread of Jesus broken body was healed when he rose from the dead to bring us healing and deliverance. What God did for Jesus when he rose him from the dead, he did for you. All you need is the eyes of your heart to be opened so that you can see that it is yours already. Don’t let the devil steal your miracle, as Jesus said, anyone who is thirsty let them come to me and drink.  Yield your personality for God to fill.

(If you would like to understand more about the true Jesus rather than the Jesus of culturally Greek Church tradition, click here)