Thursdays With Oswald—Spiritual Perception

July 26, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

This is a weekly series with things I’m reading and pondering from Oswald Chambers. You can read the original seed thought here, or type “Thursdays With Oswald” in the search box to read more entries.

Spiritual Perception 

     The characteristic of a man without the Spirit of God is that he has no power of perception, he cannot perceive God at work in the ordinary occurrences. The marvelous, uncrushable characteristic of a saint is that he does discern God. You may put a saint in tribulation, amid an onslaught of principalities and powers, in peril, pestilence or under the sword, you may put a saint anywhere you like, and he is “more than a conqueror” [Romans 8:31-39] every time. Why? Because his heart being filled with the love of God, he has the power to perceive and understand that behind all these things is God making them “work together for good.” 

From Biblical Psychology

God says, “For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts higher than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9). So I cannot understand what God is doing if I only use my own powers of perception.

To truly discern what God is doing, I must rely on the Holy Spirit within me.

That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him.” But it was to us that God revealed these things by His Spirit. For His Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets. (1 Corinthians 2:9-10)

Oh, how I need the Holy Spirit’s help!

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Thursdays With Oswald—Seeing And Hearing “Holy”

June 14, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

This is a weekly series with things I’m reading and pondering from Oswald Chambers. You can read the original seed thought here, or type “Thursdays With Oswald” in the search box to read more entries.

Seeing And Hearing “Holy” 

     The Bible places in the heart everything that the modern psychologist places in the head. … 

     God does alter the desire to look at the things we used to look at; and we find our eyes are guarded because He has altered the disposition of our soul life. …I will always hear what I listen for, and the ruling disposition of the soul determines what I listen for, just as the ruling disposition either keeps the eyes from beholding vanity or makes them behold nothing else. 

From Biblical Psychology

Solomon wrote, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life” (Proverbs 4:23). This is where Chambers gets the thought about our hearts doing what psychologists want our heads to do.

The more I fill my heart with God’s Word (Psalm 119:11), the more the Holy Spirit can remind me of that Word (John 14:26). The more I am tuned in to that sanctifying instruction of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:26), the more holy I will live (Romans 8:4; Galatians 5:16; 1 Thessalonians 4:7).

This “tuning in” in the spiritual realm (the heart) absolutely affects the physical realm (the head). I have written before about the reticular activating system (RAS) in our brains (you can read about this here and here). The combination of the Word and the Spirit reprograms our RAS so that our eyes and ears are looking and listening for what pleases and glorifies God.

Do you want to live a holy life? Start by guarding your heart. You do this by filling your heart with the Word of God.

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Strengths Formula

June 11, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

God wants you to be yourself, but not as you can make you. But to be the “you” He created you to be. Part of what He implanted in you was certain gifts, talents, and abilities. To the extent that you allow the Holy Spirit to (1) reveal these gifts to you, and (2) turn these gifts into strengths, you will find more joy in being “you” as your “you” builds up the Body of Christ.

Just before listing some of the innumerable spiritual gifts God reveals in humanity, the apostle Paul says this:

For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. (Romans 12:3)

Does that sound contradictory at all: Do not think…but rather think?

The root word is the same in each usage (phroneo in the Greek), but the prefix is what sets them apart from each other.

  • The first has the prefix hyper-. That means it’s overly analyzed, overly concerned = self-focused. 
  • The second time the prefix is soph- (meaning “wise”). This is sound thinking, big-picture thinking = others-focused.

The Holy Spirit gives you sophroneo thinking to reveal your God-implanted gifts and talents to benefit others—to benefit the whole Body of Christ. He helps us turn our talents into strengths by using a formula like this:

Passions + Talents + Your Obedience = Strength for the Body

Pay attention to your passionate responses to situations, as they will reveal to you some of your gifts.

Listen to areas where others say you are talented. This will help you know how God has wired you.

Then you must be obedient to the prompting of the Holy Spirit in how to use your talents. If you let them sit on the shelf, they will never become strengths. Strengths develop when you passionately and obediently use your God-given talents for God’s glory.

The Holy Spirit wants to help you in all of these areas. Will you let Him?

If you’ve missed any of the messages in the Immersed series, you can find them all here.

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Why Would You Go Through It?

June 4, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

The process we call sanctification is usually not a lot of fun. At least not in the moment the Holy Spirit is doing His work on us.

I like to remember the definition of sanctification by saying it this way: saint-ification. Literally, the Holy Spirit is making us into saints.

So why would you or I want to go through that saint-ification process?

Is it so others will admire us? Is it so we will become the example for everyone else to follow? No!

We go through it because it glorifies God when we become saints.

And notice this: the word is saintS (plural, not singular). If you search through the New Testament you will find that this word is always in the plural. There are no singular saints. The Holy Spirit saint-ifies us to bring unity to the Body of Christ.

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 15:5-6)

Think of your physical body. You go through the process of dieting or exercising for the benefit of the entire body. Your tastebuds may really want to savor some junk food, but for the good of the whole body, you go through the discipline of eating the healthy food. Your legs may not want to go for that jog, but for the good of the whole body, you push through your exercise routine.

It’s the same way spiritually: The Holy Spirit helps you become saint-ified for the good of the whole Body of Christ. The Holy Spirit wants you to mature as a saint so that you can help other saintS, and together the unified Body of Christ can glorify God.

So allow the Holy Spirit to take you through the saint-ification process, because other saintS need your help. And God will be glorified as you do!

If you’ve missed any of the messages in the Immersed series, you can find them all here.

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Sinful Nature Versus Spiritual Nature

June 3, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

As a part of our Immersed series, I handed out a sheet contrasting the sinful nature and the Spirit-led nature, as seen in Romans 8. Several folks have asked if they could have an electronic version of this, and I’m more than happy to make this available.

Click this link to download the PDF version of this graphic → Sinful versus Spiritual ←

If you’ve missed any of the messages in the Immersed series, you can find them all here.

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Thursdays With Oswald—Knowledge And Innocence

May 31, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

This is a weekly series with things I’m reading and pondering from Oswald Chambers. You can read the original seed thought here, or type “Thursdays With Oswald” in the search box to read more entries.

Knowledge And Innocence 

     Knowledge of evil broadens a man’s mind, makes him tolerant, but paralyzes his action. Knowledge of good broadens a man’s mind, makes him intolerant of all sin, and shows itself in intense action. 

From Biblical Psychology

The Apostle Paul said it this way, “I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil” (Romans 16:19).

I love how Secret Service agents are trained to spot counterfeit money. They don’t study the fake, but they study the real. They learn everything there is to know about genuine, authentic currency so that they are able to spot counterfeit currency easily.

I need to put this into practice in my own life. I don’t need to study evil; I just need to be thoroughly immersed in the truth of Scripture. That will broaden my mind, help me to spot all counterfeit ideas, and prepare me to take intense action.

Be knowledgeable about what is good. Be innocent about what is evil.

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Getting Out Of The Hole

May 28, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

Yesterday in part two of our Immersed series, we looked at how helpless we are in trying to break free from sin’s pull on our lives. That is, we are helpless to help ourselves.

But with the Holy Spirit’s help, we go from helpless to hopeful!

In Romans 8, there are all of these contrasting statements about the sinful life versus the Spirit-led life. Our hope to move into the Spirit-led life turns on this phrase in verse 15: but by the Spirit. It is only by God’s Spirit that we can break free. To help illustrate this point, I read a rather long passage from C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity. Several people have asked to see this, so here it is—

“Now what was the sort of ‘hole’ man had got himself into? He had tried to set up on his own, to behave as if he belonged to himself. In other words, fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who need improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms. Laying down your arms, surrendering, saying you are sorry, realizing that you have been on the wrong track and getting ready to start life over again from the ground floor—that is the only way out of a ‘hole.’ This process of surrender—this movement full speed astern—is what Christians call repentance. Now repentance is no fun at all. It is something much harder than merely eating humble pie. It mean unlearning all the self-conceit and self-will that we have been training ourselves into for thousands of years. It means killing a part of yourself, undergoing a kind of death. In fact, it needs a good man to repent. And here comes the catch. Only a bad needs to repent: only a good man can repent perfectly. The worse you are the more you need it and the less you can do it. The only person who could do it perfectly would be a perfect person—and he would not need it.

“Remember, this repentance, this willing submission to humiliation and a kind of death, is not something God demands of you before He will take you back and which He could let you off is He chose: it is simply a description of what going back to Him is like. If you ask God to take you back without it, you are really asking Him to let you go back without going back. It cannot happen. Very well, then, we must go through with it. But the same badness which makes us need it, makes us unable to do it. Can we do it if God helps us? Yes, but what do we mean when we talk of God helping us? We mean God putting into us a bit of Himself.”

When we invite Christ into our lives, He places “a bit of Himself” in us: the Holy Spirit. That enables us to be perfectly forgiven.

But then when we allow the Holy Spirit to immerse us in Himself, it’s not just “a bit of Himself” we get, but all of Him. This opens the door to deeper intimacy, greater closeness, and a more God-glorifying life!

I want to live immersed!

If you’ve missed any of the messages in the Immersed series, you can find them all here.

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Do You LOVE Your Church?

May 25, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

Okay, pastors, here are some tough questions:

  • Do you love your congregation?
  • Do you think they’re some of the greatest people on earth?
  • If you didn’t pastor your church, would you attend your church?
  • Do you enjoy recreating with your church family?

This is an important principle: You cannot treat someone differently than you think about them.

Listen to what Paul said about the church in Rome:

I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another. (Romans 15:14)

Do you hear what high regard Paul had for them? He told them that they were good people, growing in their relationship with Christ, and were competent to be teachers themselves!

Not only did Paul write this to them, but he bragged about them to others too:

Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I am full of joy over you. (Romans 16:19)

Pastor, Jesus called us to feed and care for His sheep. We can do this so much more effectively if we think so highly of those precious people.

I pray that you can answer a resounding, whole-hearted “YES!” to those four opening questions. I think that’s what Jesus would want.

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If I Only Would Have Thought That Through…

May 22, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

These words are usually said after we have messed up something. We look back and say, “What was I thinking?!”

The truth is: you were thinking, it was just wrong thinking.

The Apostle Paul writes this:

Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature. (Romans 13:14)

The King James Version, instead of do not think, says, “make no provision for the flesh.” In other words, the idea here is forethought.

We have a filter at the base of our brains called the reticular activating system (or R.A.S.). This is what lets in the important things, and keeps out the unimportant things. But here is the vital issue—

YOU CAN PROGRAM YOUR R.A.S.!

You tell your RAS what’s important and what’s unimportant. Paul says that if we use our forethought to consciously decide to clothe ourselves with Christ, we are programming our RAS to spot the things that glorify Him and ignore the things that gratify our fleshly desires.

A phrase that I use often (hat tip to Dr. Richard Dobbins) is: I need to think about what I’m thinking about.

By doing this, I’m able to see how I’ve programmed my RAS. It’s either programmed to look for God-honoring things or flesh-gratifying things.

Try it for yourself. Make the conscious decision to read the Bible every day. Then in your prayer time, ask the Holy Spirit to help you think about God-honoring things. If you will do this, you will notice that you are noticing more things that please God, and that you are ignoring more things that please your sinful nature.

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The Hard Word

May 18, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

As a pastor, you are going to have to deliver the hard word from time to time. You will have to address touchy subjects, both corporately and privately. It is very instructive to see how the apostle Paul approached the hard word.

In Romans 9, Paul is getting ready to address one of the most sensitive subjects of his day. The Jews felt they were “in” with God just because they were Jews, and the Gentiles were “out” with God just because they weren’t Jews. Paul is going to have to deliver the word that both Jews and Gentiles can be accepted by God because of what Jesus did on the Cross.

So notice how he begins:

I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit—I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.

1. I speak the truth in Christ. It wasn’t his opinion, but the word from God. I must settle this matter before delivering the hard word. Far too often we can put our preferences on par with God’s Word. I cannot do this!

2. My conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit. Before I speak a hard word that people may not like to hear, I need to make sure my conscience is right before the Holy Spirit. He alone confirms His Word. The reaction of the audience, however, may or may not confirm what God says.

3. I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. It should be a major red flag if I looked forward to delivering a painful/challenging/correcting word. I need to put myself in their place, not try to put someone else in their place!

My job as a pastor is not to condemn, nor even to convict; the Holy Spirit will do that. My job is to (a) hear God’s truth, (b) get my conscience right with the Spirit, and (c) empathize with people as I lovingly speak the truth to them.

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