Daily Devotions

Posts tagged “traditions

Prayer Will Bear Fruit

KATHY GABLER—PRAYING is OBEYING, and prayer will clearly bear fruit in this year as His Kingdom comes and His will is done in earth.  On January 4th, six days after Marty made the declarations (mentioned in my last post), I was reading Psalm 81.  Verse 13,  How I wish my people would listen to me; how I wish they would obey me, seemed to echo in my mind as I leaned my head back on my chair.  As I slipped into sleep, I began dreaming, but then I heard someone speaking.  I opened my eyes, wondering if I was awake or asleep as I tried to listen to what was being said.  It is sometimes a challenge to transfer words and concepts to paper, but this is the gist of what I heard:  “I am bringing changes to the Church’s mode of operation.”  My first thought was that I must pray that those who faithfully sit on the church bench be able to handle God-changes rather than hold to traditions or walk away in judgment.  I took hope in what I heard next:  “The prospering that comes from these changes will cause the differences to be embraced and welcomed by many.  Even the economics of the Church will prosper like harvests hidden in history.”  I had no knowledge of  “harvests hidden in history.”  I was a bit stunned at hearing such details. I thought, ‘Lord, hearing these things seems strangely beyond my usual reach and responsibility.  This is the kind of stuff that Marty hears, so why am I hearing these things?’  Immediately, I heard, “So you can invest prayer toward these changes in My Church.”  I have to admit that I felt too inexperienced for such an assignment, and that momentary feeling of being unequipped made me doubt my hearing.  But I could not shrug this off to dreaming.  I wonder how many of us have disqualified ourselves and forsaken an assignment through a reaction like mine.  The soul (the mind and logic and will) is often quick to take the wheel and drive us into a ditch of doubt instead of down the path of obedience.  It’s not that our soul cannot be part of obedience, in fact, it must.  However, the soul simply cannot be the driver-dictator-controller.  Being led of the Spirit is the means and method of walking out an obedience and getting to God-outcomes (in prayer or any other obedience).


Pried Loose From Useless Traditions

KATHY GABLER—As the CHURCH, may we be AWARE of what is righteous and what is  not.  We dare not hold to an old mindset of hide until we rapturously escape!  No, this earth is the Lord’s and He is our Lord, so we’re on His side!  That means we take a righteous stand and participate with our Lord to make a difference.  A friend told me of his dream that carried this prophetic message: as the people of God stand up and turn from what is not God, we will see God move swiftly to bring about what is God!  So be it.  If the Lord has to pry us loose from traditions that are security blankets or mindsets we cling to like a pacifier, He loves us enough to do it.  In this decade of Awakening, may we work with God and not idolize past obediences or past sounds or past experiences, nor cling to formulas and drag around a “snake on a stick” (2Kings17).


OUR SECURITY

KATHY — Our security is not in having many absolutes to protect us, but in knowing Him who is absolute wisdom. Principles hold true, but they get put in priority order by the wisdom of God in every situation. Traditions can have us believing in our beliefs more than we believe in Him, and at that point His Word and counsel have no power or effect in us or for us. Our beliefs are not holy, He is. Therefore, let us give respect and follow through to the gates our holy and wise God builds specifically to get us to the fullest future He desires.


Hand Washing and Preferences

HandsWash.jpegKathy — Matt. 15:2 (GW)  “Why do your disciples break the traditions of our ancestors? They do not wash their hands before they eat.” In reply, could we ask: why is a priority shift considered intolerable?  Why do you make “change” rebellion?  Precept upon precept is not preference upon preference nor tradition upon tradition.  Sound doctrine does not equal changeless traditions.

 


Shedding the Scales

May our Lord’s mercy, Word and Spirit remove scales from our eyes. “Scales were representative of Saul’s ignorance… and unbelief.” (Gill)  How do “scales” form? They come from past paradigms, from traditions of our environment, opinions, and personal preferences. Persons of significance whom we have given place in our lives, in our development may, in their views, expressions, and theology be instrumental in helping to form the ignorance and unbelief that prevents our seeing readily and clearly the truths of the Kingdom of God. It takes the Holy Spirit to enable us to realize that those blocking, hindering scales are actually there and are actually preventing our seeing even Scriptural truths. (Acts 9:18, NKJV) ”Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once; and he arose and was baptized.” And, may I add, Paul then became a powerful instrument in advancing the Kingdom of God—as vehemently as he had opposed it.
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God Enhance our Abilities

WorkingtogetherMay God enhance our abilities, talents and skills for His Kingdom, for income, for ministry—to be more effective.  Ex 36:2  “Moses summoned Bezalel and Oholiab along with all whom GOD had gifted with the ability to work skillfully with their hands. The MEN WERE EAGER to get started and ENGAGE IN THE WORK.”  The success of these men was not the simple fact that God had given them skills but that they were available and willing to apply them.


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Elements That Prevent

disconnected

 

Paul called those enslaving, preventative mindsets “beggarly elements” (Gal.4:9). It was not even the fact that those institutions and traditions, in and of themselves, were so evil. It was that they had such little value that they were not worth clinging to. The “clinging to” meant a rejection of those possibilities from the heavenly viewpoint. Clinging to one precludes clinging to the other. Connecting to one causes disconnection from the other.

(This is the twelfth excerpt from Marty’s article “Operator, Operator, I’ve Been Disconnected!” which was published in Volume 11 Issue 5 of their ministry magazine SEEC Magazine. Excerpts will be posted Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.)


Gates And Traditions

 

Gates And Traditions (by Kathy Gabler)
Probably the hardest place to build a gate is in our traditional, established views of scripture, and unfortunately we could die on our own sword trying to defend our traditional beliefs simply because the letter of the law kills.  It is rather ironic that the letter of the law is so strong yet vulnerable to something as simple as a  typo or language or culture or new revelation.   However, the spirit of the law, or the truth that is right and unchangeable in it, is not threatened by new gates to fuller understanding.  For instance, the scripture says, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.” The spirit of that law boils down to not deliberately deceiving and manipulating information against someone for your own purposes.  However, our traditions have added to the letter of that law that we must tell everything we know at all times.  Not lying does not equal spilling all truth to all people.  Even “honesty is the best policy” is best approached with caution because sometimes SILENCE is the best policy.  (There are men who have learned that it is better to be silent than express their honest opinion of what that dress looks like on their wife.) 


New Gates


New Gates
(by Kathy Gabler)
Our traditions can be excess baggage that we have to unpack for the journey through a new gate.  We need to unpack passionless pieces and old seasons and expired obediences, those acts that were once a mandate but lost their effectualness as times and circumstances changed.  Israel had many parameters for sacrifice.  They were all teaching-tools and types to anticipate and understand the coming Messiah.  All their animal sacrifices were blood that was shed for an exemplary nation until the Christ would come to shed His blood for all mankind.  An expired obedience would be to continue the ceremony after the type had been fulfilled.  That translates in our day as expired legalisms that want to impose on us the traditions of men instead of the freedom of Christ, like trying to breed a red heifer or build another temple or enforce religious calendar activities again.  When God provides a gate, expired goals won’t fit through it.
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