Have respect and do not play with what is holy

1st of February

I am writing this as a warning and as a call for increased purity and holiness in 2012. I can become very sorry when I watch some Christian programs on TV from different parts of the world. I have also attended some meetings and sensed the grief of the Lord over what takes place in the meetings. Many times people come and ask me for my opinion since they themselves are confused and sad. The judgment starts with the house of the Lord and I am therefore writing to you who have a desire to experience more of God.

Why do you go to a Christian meeting?

Some might answer that they go because they feel they have to. Others attend because their parents do. Maybe you are so biblical that you know that the Bible says that you should not stay home when the congregation gathers. Both praise and worship and the singing of psalms draw many to the churches. Maybe you seriously want to listen to the message of the pastor. Some people go to church to meet friends and some are hoping to find a partner. I personally attend a meeting in order to be with God and worship Him together with my sisters and brothers. That is different than worshipping God at home alone. I believe in the power of individual prayers, but we are much stronger when we pray together in one accord. When I praise God or pray, He is in the center of my attention. I will often close my eyes when I think of Jesus, God or the Holy Spirit. When I hear people talking around me or lasting cries from children, I get disturbed and my attention is drawn away from the Divinity to some talking people or some crying children.  I just recently heard about a church where it was quite usual talking with each other during prayers and praise and worship. It could be over half of the congregation. On the platform they sang and prayed. This is a total lack of respect for the Holy Spirit, the people on the platform and those who pray in the congregation. If you want to talk to another person, go to a café. I have also heard people talk to each other in other churches when there is a testimony or a sermon. I really want to turn around and say that I did not come to hear them, but those on the platform. They draw the attention towards themselves and everything seems to circle around I, me and mine. This grieves the Holy Spirit. They might not think about the consequences, but they hinder the Holy Spirit to come and they spoil the outcome of the meeting for the listeners as well as the speaker. He might become distracted. I can almost hear some of you coming with questions now and I will try to answer them. The Holy Spirit comes where people are hungry for an encounter with Jesus, God or the Holy Spirit. You are not hungry when you talk to somebody. Maybe the Holy Spirit wants to say something to the other person or to you. He might want to bring you both closer to Him through the Word or through praise and worship. This is stopped by your talking. Maybe someone prays for a person sick with cancer or for a change in your country. You show no interest for the sick person as well as the conditions in your country when you talk during the prayers. You might tell your friends the next day that you have been to a prayer meeting and you give a very spiritual impression. I am tempted to say like Jesus did to the Pharisees: “You hypocrites!” “Now you are very strict,” some of you might say. Yes, when it comes to lack of respect for God and people, I am not ashamed of my strictness.

I do not think that children should destroy nor hinder the Holy Spirit to come and move freely either. They should in an early age learn to respect that which is holy. In some churches they have special rooms where they transmit the service on big screens. This is especially for parents with small children. Many places they have Sunday schools, special meetings for children or even somebody to take care of the small children. If the children must stay with their parents in the adult meeting, the parents should bring a bag of toys with them, toys they can play with quietly. No one can expect a four years old child to sit quietly for two hours without doing anything. I told my children at an early age that the Holy Spirit wanted to come to help people and God wanted to speak through the preacher and Jesus wanted us to sing to Him. One of my daughters always went to sleep when the Holy Spirit started to move and the other sat quietly playing. They early learned to have respect for God and people and they have continued to have that. I thank God that He taught me to respect. I could therefore give this lesson to my children as a divine heritage.

What do I mean by playing with holy things?

We live in a time when the Lord wants to manifest Himself in different ways. He comes first and foremost through the Word, but also through the gifts of the Spirit. He is manifesting through signs and wonders, but also in many other ways. We have had a laughing revival, people fall in the Spirit and others are seeing golden dust. Some talk about going through a fire tunnel and others about soaking in the Spirit. I could continue to mention a lot of different manifestations. So many people are lacking the gift of discernment and all kinds of spirits are manifesting. It is quite usual that evil spirits as well as people’s flesh are manifesting when the Holy Spirit comes. The purpose is that we should kill the deeds of the flesh and get rid of the demons. Many leaders do not know the difference between the spirits and think that all manifestations are from God. Some preachers get more known for the manifestations at their meetings than their preaching and maybe they have a need to get known. I have actually heard preachers saying to the audience that they go against the Holy Spirit if they do not roar in laughter. I believe in holy laughter and I am actually known for my loud laughter, but a holy laughter is holy and should not come by manipulation nor should it be played with. It must come from within and be real.

I attended a meeting last fall where we should walk through a tunnel formed by the speaker and the leaders of the congregation. They should bless everybody walking through. This is a practical way of praying for people and nothing strange about it. Many are unfortunately making this to a spiritual happening. I could cry when I saw what happened. People walked through and many wanted to be carried by the ushers. As soon as they came through, they started to giggle and they grabbed the hand of another and ran through again. They talked to each other and others crawled as snakes on the floor. It was a terrible show. If people had been drunk in the Spirit and laid on the floor, I would have understood that, but not this running, screaming and crawling. I asked God what this was and He said: “Playing with the holy things.” No one got any help to get free and no one was stopped. It was not wrong to form a tunnel, but people made it to a game. I am sure that some serious people got blessed by God. He sees to the heart.

I look upon intercession as something holy. One calls upon a Holy God and wants Him to save, heal, bless or change a person. He can meet people in different ways, but I have seen preachers who push people down and others fall because they think that falling is spiritual.

This is not God, but playing with a tool that God can use, but falling is not necessary in order to be saved, healed or sanctified. You might think that I never fell in the Spirit, but I have many times and I have prayed for others and they too have fallen sometimes. I have actually felt how the Holy Spirit has come as a wind and blown them down then.

Do you know what happened with people who touched what was holy in the Bible, both in the old and the new covenant? They died. Do you remember what happened when Uzzah touched the ark of the Lord? You can read about that in 2.Sam.6. In 2. Chronicles 26 we can read about Uzziah who went into the sanctuary of the Lord to burn incense on the altar. He was not sanctified nor called to do so, and the result was that he was struck with leprosy for the rest of his life. We can read about Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5. They lied to the Holy Spirit and they both died. I believe that the Holy Spirit refrains from coming because of our lies, falseness, lack of respect and our playing with the holy gifts. If He came, the consequences could be fatale for some. We should thank God for Hid grace instead of complaining. We want more manifestations, but if we want to see more of God, we have to be cleansed and sanctified and we have to show respect for the holy things.

LET US HONOR GOD AND EVERYTHING THAT BELONGS TO HIM!

Mother Else