Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter Debelak
And, importantly, asking these questions, and finding some tentative answers in the Word does not necessarily create a slippery slope (e.g. “if you believe that, what’s next – there’s no telling what you’ll end up believing” – as your post implies). Our inquiry is governed by the Word. I believe something because I believe the Word teaches it. Yes, I still have many many years of being Lee-colored glasses to wrestle with, but God has been faithful to show me that I can be freed from those glasses and return to His word. So, the notion that my beliefs will be unrestrained if I “open a door,” is not fair – they will be restrained because the Word circumscribes my inquiries – even when I stray now and again.
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I meant “no telling what you will end up believing” about who God is and what has been added to Him, not about every other truth in the Bible.
One problem with Lee’s teaching about the LGS is that it has the potential to leave people with a wrong understanding about how to walk with God. It leads down a path where people lose sight of the fact that they are free moral agents in their walk with God.
Lee’s teaching that Christ’s “uplifted humanity” has been added to the Spirit sets the stage for the devil to deceive us about something very crucial to our experience and that is: how to live the Christian life... Lee says it is by two methods of eating and drinking the LGS and receiving His essence with all these ingredients. Then, automatically uplifted humanity is ours! Wow. Sounds good. But, Lee’s teaching leaves out very crucial things: our freedom to choose and our need to interact with Him personally with meaningful communication.
Will Christ live in us? Yes, but not like some kind of a robot on automatic pilot. Our proper human living does not come as a result of some simple switch on and off methodology. Proper (godly) human living develops as we walk with Him in an interactive way, through untold numbers of conversations with Him, learning at first like a child drinking the milk of the Word and gradually growing to maturity where we learn from the meat of the Word as ones whose senses have been exercised to discern between good and evil. Our mind is key. Our will is key. Satan doesn’t want these parts of our being involved with God.
The Spirit teaches us and directs us, but we have to choose to believe and follow. When we do the Spirit supplies us with the ability to walk accordingly. Healthy teaching will not leave out our conscious part in this.
Lee’s saturation theology omits healthy teaching about our part. It presents us with the Spirit that has all the “proper humanity” we need which can do it all for us if we just take in the Spirit's "essence" and are "organically constituted" with all the ingredients in this compound Spirit. The very closeness of this truth to the biblical truth that Christ is our life is what is so deadly. Christ is our life as we walk and talk with Him and He with us through His Word, not as we get soaked with His essence apart from real interactions with Him about real things.
In the way I just described, Lee’s teaching has the potential to remove the idea of personal accountability. In other words, if we don’t make it to live such a life, then it will be because the Spirit didn’t do his job of living His proper humanity in us.
I regularly hear a brother still under the after effects of Lee’s teaching (after 15+ years, and not my husband in case any wonder J), say exactly this. He says at the judgment seat if he isn’t different it will be Christ’s fault. He doesn’t see himself as a free moral agent and doesn’t believe that his choice (will) plays a part in his progress towards the judgment seat. He believes He needs “life” to do it for him. He calls (moans) on the Lord, so that should be giving Him what He needs. If it doesn’t happen, well it’s not his fault.
All of this seems far away from the discussion about the LGS, but it isn’t. It’s where the rubber meets the road. I don't feel like I have good utterance for what I am trying to share, but you know me by now, I will keep on trying. I am not crystal clear about all of this (obviously) but I am much more in the light than I used to be.
I have not thought one bit about needing to receive the processed Triune God in the past 15 years. Instead, I have had many conversations with Him about matters in hand. He's been talking and I've been learning to listen. I love Him, not ideas about Him. I've seen Him at work in lives around me in amazing ways and have been reduced to tears of thankfulness many times.
I am not here on this forum to win arguments (yeah, right, you say ...
). I really don't care about that. I am here to punch the devil in the nose by the word (what I have learned that I can speak) of my testimony.
I mean no offense to your dear Peter, or anyone, not even Paul M.
Thankful Jane