Spiritual Misconceptions.

God please help us as we seek a deeper, richer spiritual walk with You. We want ONLY Your truth! Guide us in Your way, and keep us from the evil of deception.

Psa 139:23  Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: 

Psa_139:24  And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

(Excerpt to consider, to study, to pray over)

'Among the various misconceptions relating to spiritual life can be found the following.

1. Speaking.

The text used is Matthew 10.20: it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.”

(Mat 10:20  For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you. )

Christians often assume that God will speak for them. Some imagine that while delivering a message in a meeting they must not employ their mind and will but simply offer their mouths passively to God,

letting Him speak through them. Needless to say, however, the words of Jesus recorded in this particular passage are to be applied only to the time of persecution and trial. It does not suggest that the Holy Spirit will speak instead of the believer. The experience of the Apostles Peter and John in the council fulfills this prediction.

2. Guidance.

Text: “And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it’ “ (Is. 30.21).

Isa 30:21  And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left. 

Saints do not perceive that this verse refers specifically to the experience of God’s earthly people, the Jews, during the millennial kingdom when there shall be no satanic counterfeit. Unaware of this fact they view supernatural guidance in a voice to be the highest form of guidance. They esteem themselves more spiritual than the rest and hence receive supernatural guidance of this type. They neither listen to their conscience nor follow their intuition; they merely wait in a passive manner for the supernatural voice. These believers hold that they do not need to think, ponder, choose or decide. They simply need to obey. They permit the voice to be substituted for their intuition and conscience. And the consequence is that “(a) he does not use his conscience; (b) God does not speak to him for automatic obedience; (c) evil spirits take the opportunity and supernatural voices are substituted for the action of the conscience.” (Penn-Lewis, WOTS,121) The outcome is that the enemy gains more ground in the

believer. And “from this time (forward) the man is not influenced by what he feels or sees, or by what others say, and he closes himself to all questions, and will not reason. This substitution of supernatural

guidance for the action of the conscience explains the deterioration of the moral standard in persons with supernatural experiences, because they have really substituted the direction of evil spirits for

their conscience. They are quite unconscious that their moral standard is lowered, but their conscience has become seared by deliberately ceasing to heed its voice; and by listening to the voices of the teaching spirits, in matters which should be decided by the conscience in respect to their being right or wrong, good or evil.” (Penn-Lewis, WOTS,121-22 )'  The Spiritual Man- by Watchman Nee