Dorian J. Owens
Wednesday, September 8th, 2010
A few days ago, I ended up reading about a Florida pastor who is currently staging an event on September 11th called "International Burn a Qua ran Day," where he and his 50 followers are going to burn the Qua ran for a day, in an effort to send a message to the people who are in Islam that what they are doing is evil, along with sending a message to the church that they are to stand up for what is right, which is the Word of God, and not back down from all this evil taking place....
In other words, this pastor thinks that by sending a message of fear and condemnation through the burning of the Qua ran, that will cause the 1.2 billion+ Muslims in this world to repent of their sins, and come to Jesus. Secondly, he thinks that this action is an effort on the part of the church to actually "do something" about the evil in the world.... Do we not realize that a condemning word does not save people, but only hardens their mindsets towards others?.... Do we not realize that we who are His are not here to try and change other people's mindsets, but instead, we're here to simply be WITNESSES of Him, and from that, HE is the One that changes mindsets?....
Let me take the opportunity to share something with you. When I looked back on my life, I noticed that the words I was hearing were primarily condemning words. Those words produced a level of fear inside of me, and as a result, at a young age, I got "saved" because of it (which was, to a good extent, come to Jesus so that you won't end up in hell, etc.....). In fact, later on in my life, for a season I even participated in the wave of condemnation towards other religions (i.e. telling people they were evil, and that they would go to hell if they didn't change, etc.)....
But, at the end of the day, do you know what I found? Looking back (now with a different mindset!), I lived my life in fear, although the exterior appearance of me looked as if everything was alright. The prospect of not doing something, or avoiding something, or trying to do something right (like trying to fulfill His WORD, or trying to eat right, avoiding all evil, etc.) was what controlled my life. More than anything, I was blind to this simple revelation, so no one at the time could have told me that without me not coming back towards them in some condemning fashion, or countering their thought with something that I THOUGHT I believed....
Also, when I looked back at that time in my life, I found that I ended up in the same situation I was in before I got started! For instance, I would hear words such as, "You've got to take responsibility for yourself, and get closer to God," and that would inspire me for a day or two (or three!), but after the inspiration "wore down," I ended up going back to irresponsibility, and doing the things that I naturally would do. I kept doing crazy things in an effort to "get closer to God," (such as leaving from home for a period of time, without my family knowing where I was, etc.) but the reality of it was that I didn't even know where God was in the first place (although I THOUGHT I knew where He was....).... The miracle of this experience was that at the end of each "inspiration," I kept noticing that "something was missing." I wasn't hearing something, but I couldn't "put my finger on it" as to what it was, but little did I know that the Lord set all this up before I even knew Him!....
Then, another miracle happened: The Lord answered the question of what was missing! The thing that was missing wasn't someTHING, it was the REVELATION of who the Lord IS!....Quite simply, He first placed me in a position to simply HEAR the WORD. From HEARING, I had questions, all of which HE answered (and are continuing to be answered!) about what's His nature, how He operates, etc.. As this continued, HE (not I) began to (little by little) CAUSE me to discern the things of Him versus the Spirit of error, see why things are happening as they are now throughout the world (because the world's been judged already), what we have been left here in the earth to BE (which is be witnesses of Him; revealing Him in all things that we do), to see how HE does this INSIDE OF US and through us instead of just "with" us, and SO much more....
The point of this article is to reveal to us that we, the Body of Christ, were placed here in this world to simply be WITNESSES of who He is, not to fight other religions, or condemn and "send" other people to hell because of what they believe (besides, if the Lord doesn't grab their mindset, we can't do anything about it, so why stress over it? And, Christ has the keys to both death AND hell, so why are we stressing over something that the Lord has under HIS control?....)....
Specifically, the WORD that I'm talking about is not a word of fear, intimidation, and condemnation, instead, it is a WORD of Revelation about the CURRENT reign and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ (i.e. who He is NOW....). Notice in this, that I'm not talking about who He was in the earth, as those are aspects of Him before His death, burial, and even resurrection. Instead, this WORD is about the ascended Man that the Father Himself is glorifying and exalting in this season! This talks about the Man, Christ Jesus, the One who is currently running EVERYTHING in the universe, the One who knows all and sees all, from the end to the beginning! Also, this talks about how we who are His can actually receive the benefits of who He is, how we can live unto Him, over-against all that is going on, in peace that surpasses all understanding, etc. That, and SO much more, is the Revelation of Jesus Christ, and through that WORD (by the working of HIS Spirit, not ours) are we transformed, and because of that transformation IN US, others in the world see that, and are also transformed as well....
Wednesday, September 8th, 2010
A few days ago, I ended up reading about a Florida pastor who is currently staging an event on September 11th called "International Burn a Qua ran Day," where he and his 50 followers are going to burn the Qua ran for a day, in an effort to send a message to the people who are in Islam that what they are doing is evil, along with sending a message to the church that they are to stand up for what is right, which is the Word of God, and not back down from all this evil taking place....
In other words, this pastor thinks that by sending a message of fear and condemnation through the burning of the Qua ran, that will cause the 1.2 billion+ Muslims in this world to repent of their sins, and come to Jesus. Secondly, he thinks that this action is an effort on the part of the church to actually "do something" about the evil in the world.... Do we not realize that a condemning word does not save people, but only hardens their mindsets towards others?.... Do we not realize that we who are His are not here to try and change other people's mindsets, but instead, we're here to simply be WITNESSES of Him, and from that, HE is the One that changes mindsets?....
Let me take the opportunity to share something with you. When I looked back on my life, I noticed that the words I was hearing were primarily condemning words. Those words produced a level of fear inside of me, and as a result, at a young age, I got "saved" because of it (which was, to a good extent, come to Jesus so that you won't end up in hell, etc.....). In fact, later on in my life, for a season I even participated in the wave of condemnation towards other religions (i.e. telling people they were evil, and that they would go to hell if they didn't change, etc.)....
But, at the end of the day, do you know what I found? Looking back (now with a different mindset!), I lived my life in fear, although the exterior appearance of me looked as if everything was alright. The prospect of not doing something, or avoiding something, or trying to do something right (like trying to fulfill His WORD, or trying to eat right, avoiding all evil, etc.) was what controlled my life. More than anything, I was blind to this simple revelation, so no one at the time could have told me that without me not coming back towards them in some condemning fashion, or countering their thought with something that I THOUGHT I believed....
Also, when I looked back at that time in my life, I found that I ended up in the same situation I was in before I got started! For instance, I would hear words such as, "You've got to take responsibility for yourself, and get closer to God," and that would inspire me for a day or two (or three!), but after the inspiration "wore down," I ended up going back to irresponsibility, and doing the things that I naturally would do. I kept doing crazy things in an effort to "get closer to God," (such as leaving from home for a period of time, without my family knowing where I was, etc.) but the reality of it was that I didn't even know where God was in the first place (although I THOUGHT I knew where He was....).... The miracle of this experience was that at the end of each "inspiration," I kept noticing that "something was missing." I wasn't hearing something, but I couldn't "put my finger on it" as to what it was, but little did I know that the Lord set all this up before I even knew Him!....
Then, another miracle happened: The Lord answered the question of what was missing! The thing that was missing wasn't someTHING, it was the REVELATION of who the Lord IS!....Quite simply, He first placed me in a position to simply HEAR the WORD. From HEARING, I had questions, all of which HE answered (and are continuing to be answered!) about what's His nature, how He operates, etc.. As this continued, HE (not I) began to (little by little) CAUSE me to discern the things of Him versus the Spirit of error, see why things are happening as they are now throughout the world (because the world's been judged already), what we have been left here in the earth to BE (which is be witnesses of Him; revealing Him in all things that we do), to see how HE does this INSIDE OF US and through us instead of just "with" us, and SO much more....
The point of this article is to reveal to us that we, the Body of Christ, were placed here in this world to simply be WITNESSES of who He is, not to fight other religions, or condemn and "send" other people to hell because of what they believe (besides, if the Lord doesn't grab their mindset, we can't do anything about it, so why stress over it? And, Christ has the keys to both death AND hell, so why are we stressing over something that the Lord has under HIS control?....)....
Specifically, the WORD that I'm talking about is not a word of fear, intimidation, and condemnation, instead, it is a WORD of Revelation about the CURRENT reign and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ (i.e. who He is NOW....). Notice in this, that I'm not talking about who He was in the earth, as those are aspects of Him before His death, burial, and even resurrection. Instead, this WORD is about the ascended Man that the Father Himself is glorifying and exalting in this season! This talks about the Man, Christ Jesus, the One who is currently running EVERYTHING in the universe, the One who knows all and sees all, from the end to the beginning! Also, this talks about how we who are His can actually receive the benefits of who He is, how we can live unto Him, over-against all that is going on, in peace that surpasses all understanding, etc. That, and SO much more, is the Revelation of Jesus Christ, and through that WORD (by the working of HIS Spirit, not ours) are we transformed, and because of that transformation IN US, others in the world see that, and are also transformed as well....
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