Many of us are in days when God is BLASTING our BOXES. By that I mean that he is dealing with the years of built up religious theologies, that we have held onto tightly at times during our life time. It is due time to TEST, TRY and PROVE to see if we are in the true faith.
We have BOXES about the love of God, the fear of God, law and grace, tithing, the future in the areas of what is called eschatology (prophetic events), and with regard to what happens to us after death, and many more.
Back in 1955, while in Bible College, we had a one week revival. Each day the Spirit of the Lord sovereignly moved in a different way. The next week I expected the revival to continue. It didn’t and I was shocked! When I asked the Lord about it, he gave me a lesson. He said that each day he had moved in a different way and that I was to never “put him in a box that he would move when and how he wanted.” That was my answer, and as I look back at those wonderful days, I suspect it all happened for me. It is a lesson that I have had to remind myself of many times.
One BOX to BLAST is expecting God to move the way we expect him to do in times of refreshing. We like to have patterns, so if God moves because of a certain amount of prayer and fasting, then that is the pattern. But, what about the times our Lord chooses to move when we have put no spiritual effort into it? He has, and will, and its all by GRACE and not our religious efforts!
My dear friend Christ Nijp had a revelation one day. He wrote: “Some time ago the Lord dealt with me regarding the fact that many of us are guilty of the "SINS OF THE FATHERS," that is, preaching those things which we have heard without checking them out for ourselves.”
Do we really know how much of what we believe has been codified by 2000 years of stained-glass church history? I recall a friend saying that the Assemblies of God had a lot of Roman Catholicism in its doctrine. Decades later I came to understand what he meant. The daughters and granddaughters of Rome carried on much of what they had learned as being so. There are so many BOXES to BLAST in this area and God is doing it!
Before touching on other boxes, I want to mention the BOX of EXCLUSIVENESS. This applies to the attitude that, we and we alone are the people of God. We have the revelation and you don’t. If you want it, come see us. This box is based on spiritual pride and creates sectarianism. It builds new denominations, or as the old time Pentecostals used to day before become one (several), “A denomination is an abomination.” You can have “no-name” and still be one.
Sometimes the BLASTING of a BOX is done over the years. I recall a pastor in Chicago teaching from the Book of Revelation in a way that made some sense to me, BUT it was so different to the “any minute rapture, etc.” teaching I had been brought up with. I know not why it was so many years before I absolutely learned that the ‘any minute rapture’ fear-mongering was a man-made doctrine with roots that go back to Rome. I didn’t believe it, and yet I was stuck in neutral. This teaching, that has made so many rich with their books, has made some folks happy and for the rest created fear of a cruel and meanspirited God who was supposed to love all, but apparently didn’t. The fear of being “left behind” and of committing the “unpardonable sin” has devastated many lives.
The BOX of ETERNAL TORMENT is continuously being BLASTED with heavenly dynamite. It is amazing how so many want to defend this cruel hated filled teaching. The LOVE of God will overcome!
The biggest BOX is the one that has been with us since the early days of the church. It is Judaism. Paul spent much time blasting at this BOX that insists that the work of Jesus Christ must be supplemented by LAW of Moses. That Law is over and gone, it is now the Law of the Spirit of Life - not death. It used to bother me when I heard the phrase “Judeao-Christianity.” To me, Christ has no part with Judaism. Then recently it came to me that it was a true description of the vast majority of what is called Christianity. This is the mixture which Jesus warned against, mixing the old with the new. There are so many BOXES of every type in this unholy MIXTURE.
The apostle Paul admonished the Galatians and us to: “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.” (Galatians 5:1 NKJV) May I suggest reading my article, “The Law - Grace and Us”.
Lord we ask you to, BLAST all of our BOXES to smithereens till nothing is left but the purity of yourself. Loosen the bands that have bound us to forms of law, including the Mosaic Law, and every form of legalism that prohibit us from flowing in the “law of the Spirit of the LIFE in Christ Jesus,” the law of the New Covenant, and the law of love. Set your people free into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. Amen!