What Spirit Are You Of? By James L Lantz
When Jesus named the twelve who were to be His closest disciples he called James and John the sons of thunder. Jesus apparently liked their fearless faith and boldness they exemplified because they along with Peter were in His inner circle! Having zeal for the things of God is good! Jesus had such great zeal for His Father’s house that He overturned the money tables of those greedy idolaters who were treating God’s temple like it was a market and ran them out with a whip! John 2:17 And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. Jesus has not lost any of His zeal as He declares that He will spew those who are lukewarm out of His mouth! To be zealous is good when we submit it under the Lordship of Jesus Christ! If our zeal for God and His things extends into getting revenge on those who oppose us it must be rebuked as when the sons of thunder desired to call fire down from heaven. Luke 9:55 & 56 But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. . . . We are never to take revenge on others who mistreat us!
Vengeance Belongs To God Alone!
Rom. 12:19 Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. David understood that vengeance belonged to God and refused to take Saul’s life. 1 Samuel 24:10 Behold, this day thine eyes have seen how that the LORD had delivered thee to day into mine hand in the cave: and some bade me kill thee: but mine eye spared thee; and I said, I will not put forth mine hand against my lord; for he is the LORD’s anointed. We that say we abide in the word ought to walk even as Jesus walked! The first and greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and the second is to love your neighbor as yourself. Rom. 13:10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Destroying the property of others is evil! It was sickening to hear newscasters last summer refer to the burning of our cities and destroying of police cars and public property as peaceful protests. Stealing, killing, and destroying defines the very nature of the devil! Pro. 4:14 Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. Those of us who know good from evil must not be afraid to speak the truth! Isa. 5:20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! The scriptures say that we are not to join with those whose feet run to shed the blood of the innocent. We must not be silent as evil workers teach our children something other than that God has made us male and female. We must not allow our children to be taught that people are racist based on the color of their skin but rather by what’s in their heart. If we are silent because we reject the knowledge of God, God will reject us from being His ministers and He also will forget our children. The United States of America is being attacked from without and within and those who know how to use the sword of the Spirit need to declare the truth of God’s word! Our fore fathers made a covenant with Almighty God to make this a place where people can freely honor and worship God. It is our duty to humble ourselves to pray and seek God’s face, turning from our wicked ways of complacency and silence, to trumpeting God’s mercy and justice! 2 Tim. 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. The fearful are the first on God’s list who will have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone. (Rev. 21:8) Ps. 89:14 Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face.
Fear is from God’s enemy and works opposite of the spirit of faith. Fear not, are often the first words spoken by an angel when bringing someone a message from God. This is not just a standard angel greeting but rather instruction to not embrace fear. Jesus would often instruct, do not fear, and in His appearing to the disciples behind closed doors, His first words were, Peace be unto you! God responds to peoples faith! In the fifth chapter of Mark’s gospel we see how Jesus followed the faith of three individuals. Jesus crossed the sea responding to the cry of the man’s heart who was possessed by an unclean spirit. No devil can stop you from getting free if you will run to God in faith! Mark 5:6 But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him, After that, Jesus followed Jairus’s faith to go and heal his daughter. Before he arrived at Jairus’s house a woman stopped him with her faith.
The Anointing Flows To Faith!
This woman had an issue of blood for twelve years when she believed that the power of God was carried by this man named Jesus so she came and touched Him in faith and was healed. Mark 5:28 For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. Mark 5:29 And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. Jesus knew that she needed to testify to seal her miraculous healing, so He sought for her to testify publicly what God had accomplished in her body. She told of how for twelve years she suffered many things from many doctors and spent all of her money but only got worse until God healed her just now. This whole time Jairus was right beside Jesus waiting for this lady to hurry up and finish talking so Jesus could come to heal his daughter. As Jesus was commending this woman for her faith in the power of God, one came from Jairus’s house, saying, its too late because your daughter is dead. As soon as Jesus heard this report, he said to the ruler of the synagogue, Be not afraid, only believe. Apparently Jairus continued to believe because he yielded his authority to Jesus to run the unbelieving ones out of his house and his daughter was raised from the dead. This account would not be in the Bible if Jairus had refused to follow the Master’s instructions to only believe and not doubt. Believing or doubting is a choice! Jesus would not have exhorted Jairus to fear not, unless there was opportunity to become fearful and doubt.
The work of God is to believe! We come to God through faith and we continue to walk with God through faith. John 1:12&13 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. God is pleased when people access His grace through believing Him. Rom. 5:2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Believing God is believing what He said. It is not difficult to believe what God said but often it is tempting to believe something else. Those of us who belong to Christ have believed what He said. It takes faith to find God’s plan for our life and it takes faith to walk it out to completion. There is a spirit of faith and God says that we have it! 2 Cor. 4:13 We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak; We that are in faith are joyfully talking of all that has been given to us in Christ Jesus! This is the victory, even our faith! This victory is in our heart and its in our mouth!
