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【Course】Unraveling Myths - Lesson 07: The Myth of Being Moved

2019-02-18 8,304 001B Course - Unlocking Myths Course

Some time ago, a sister from Shanghai found herself in a difficult situation. She had spent 3 million yuan on a piece of land in a barren area. The land was not worth that much, and she said she bought it because of the Holy Spirit's prompting. I wondered, what exactly was she prompted to do?

In fact, many people get into difficult situations because of these so-called promptings. There are not many such examples in the Bible. For example, someone might say, I have a prompting that you should marry me. What does that prove? It proves nothing.

Later, I came to realize that some people use this to deceive others. If someone tells you, I am a Christian, lend me 100,000 yuan, then may God have mercy!

Some people are genuinely intimidated by these things. Today, we will dispel these myths about promptings. I carefully searched the Bible and found only one relevant verse: Do not quench the Spirit, but test everything. This means you must examine things with your understanding.

Later, I discovered that people often encounter situations like this. For example, in business, someone might ask, Lord, can I do this business? After praying for a long time, they feel very peaceful, so they proceed, only to lose a lot of money. Weren't they feeling peaceful at the time? How could it turn out like this?

The Bible does not encourage such practices. The Bible speaks more about faith. Today, many Christians act like fortune tellers. For example, when some people are confused, instead of proceeding with faith, they close their eyes, open the Bible randomly, point to a verse, and believe that it is God's word for them. This is quite laughable.

To give an extreme example, though I don't know if it's true, someone opened the Bible and pointed to Judas's suicide. Should they then hang themselves? That would be problematic, wouldn't it?

You must act with faith. For example, if you receive three job offers, which one should you choose? There's no need to flip a coin or make a fuss. Blessings follow those who are blessed. If you are blessed, choose based on faith; that's better than anything else.

Because no matter which one you choose, you cannot thwart God's plan from being accomplished. Therefore, do not have such concerns and worries: What if I choose the wrong one? Your mistake cannot hinder God's plan; God remains God! It is not because you make a mistake that God's plan collapses. It is not because of what you do that God's plan suffers loss. We often overestimate our own importance.

Acting on Faith

Another thing to discuss is that it is very dangerous to act based on promptings and feelings. Whether you feel at peace or not at peace, it doesn't matter much. Whether you feel good or not, you still have to move forward in faith. Moving forward in faith is clearly stated in the Bible.

Let's take another example regarding feelings. A friend of mine, a fairly good Christian, has a characteristic: when the Holy Spirit moves him, all the hair on his body stands up. Have I seen his hair stand up? Yes, I have. When his hair stands up, his prayers for others are indeed effective. This is true!

But the problem is that his hair doesn't stand up often; it stands up occasionally and then goes back down. Later, I said, Why don't you share the gospel with your family? Look, your wife doesn't believe in the Lord; how can you live like this? He said, I can't. I can't preach until my hair stands up. It would be much better to preach to her when it stands up!

Is this biblical? Actually, I haven't found anything about hair standing up in the Bible. The Bible says that we should constantly preach the gospel in season and out of season, especially to our families.

Therefore, my style of doing things is to do them based on faith. Even if I don't do something right, I still do it based on faith. You must know that feelings are inaccurate; never rely on feelings. If you rely on feelings, and your hair never stands up, what do you do? That is not very biblical.

Brothers and sisters, we must begin to dispel this myth of promptings. I have this prompting, I have that prompting, many Christians do this. But, I think we must continually be filled with the knowledge of God in our understanding. Being filled with the knowledge of God in our understanding means not relying on promptings for everything. If you are prompted to do this and someone else is prompted to do that, what do you do? Moreover, no one knows where these promptings come from.

Dispelling Myths about Speaking in Tongues

Speaking in tongues is similar. You know, I am someone who finds it difficult to speak in tongues. You must understand that it is not easy for intellectuals to believe. I went to a church where they spoke in tongues, and I sat there reading the Bible for two or three years!

I found it quite miraculous that I stayed in such a church for several years. Apart from speaking in tongues, which I didn't particularly like, because I never felt anything when they led in speaking in tongues. Some people say, When the Holy Spirit comes upon me, I have a feeling inside, and then I can start speaking in tongues. But I never had that feeling! Isn't that terrible?

So I read the Bible, read and read and read. After several years, I had read it many times. After reading it so many times, I discovered how the Bible talks about speaking in tongues. I became very familiar with those verses about speaking in tongues, and I began to desire to receive speaking in tongues. But the problem was, I never had any feeling!

Actually, to be honest, I'll tell you how I first spoke in tongues. At that time, I thought, If I wait for a feeling, I'll have to wait forever! So, I didn't care and just started speaking!

At that time, I knew I was just making things up. One thing that always confused me was whether my speaking in tongues was just learning a few phrases from others or just making things up myself.

Until today, I have found that many people who speak in tongues don't always have a feeling every time they speak. That's how speaking in tongues is! If someone were to examine the Bible based on my interpretation, there would be absolutely no problem.

Because I am very familiar with what the Bible says about speaking in tongues. What does the Bible say? Don't do what the Bible forbids you to do. If the Bible requires you to do something, you must do it. If the Bible doesn't make it clear, you can do it or not. If you are going to do it, do it well; if you are not going to do it, then don't do it. If the Bible doesn't say anything about it, then do it in faith. This is my basic principle of faith.

Later, I discovered something: I am very certain that my speaking in tongues is effective. Why? Because after I spoke in tongues that year, I found that God's power was different in my life. How was it different? For example, my brother's child was about to die. He was in a bad condition right after birth. That day, I was very excited and spoke in tongues vigorously. I have a characteristic: I believe that God will heal. I never say, God, please heal! God, please heal... I never do that.

I began to command the spirit of death to leave in Jesus' name. You can't keep saying, Spirit of death, leave, spirit of death, leave... If you pray like that for eight hours, how do you think you will feel? If you are not annoyed, I will be.

Later, what did I do? I spoke in tongues. You ask me if it came from the Holy Spirit? There is no way to verify it, and the Bible doesn't ask us to verify it. I didn't have any feeling inside; I just started speaking.

But I am truly a person of faith. As a result, I discovered that the prayer became more and more powerful. Do you know to what extent? Suddenly, I felt hot and sweaty all over. Can you have that kind of feeling? Of course, you can have that kind of feeling.

We don't believe because we have a feeling; we choose to believe first! After believing, you may have a feeling, or you may not have a feeling. It doesn't matter! Because feeling is not the truth of the Bible; that is what I want to say.

Towards the end of praying for my brother's child, my hands were red. A conviction suddenly arose in me that the child was healed. The next day, when I called my mother, she told me that the child was better. I asked when he got better; he got better at 4:30 p.m., exactly when I finished praying. This is truly miraculous!

Not by Feelings, But by Faith

Brothers and sisters, we must not operate based on feelings. It is not about I feel this way, so I do this, or I don't feel that way, so I don't do that. Rather, it is solely by faith that we act. I say this is absolutely in accordance with the Bible.

Jesus never said that you get the promise only when you have goosebumps. The Bible says, Believe that you have received it, and you will receive it. Whether it's speaking in tongues or anything else, it doesn't have much to do with feelings.

Everything is not done according to feelings, but according to faith. Therefore, Paul said in his letters, Everything that does not come from faith is sin! That is to say, we must know for sure today that there are no feelings in the Bible, only justification by faith! The Bible does not say justification by feelings, nor is there such a thing as performing miracles by feelings.

If brothers and sisters start pursuing feelings, it is very dangerous; that is not orthodox teaching from the Bible.

Some time ago, I was leading a small group in the local church. There was a sister in my group who was very poor. The church organized a trip to Taiwan to participate in an event to hear God's voice. As a result, she borrowed money to go to Taiwan, and she came back crying and said to me, I didn't feel anything, I didn't hear anything, I didn't see anything. She was so heartbroken.

Later, I said, what are they doing? I like to read the Bible. I may not read it completely, but the Bible really does not record a large group of people going to a certain place to hear God's voice, or to see visions in a certain place, or to pursue a certain feeling in a certain place... The Bible really does not have these things. Maybe I am ignorant, but if there are such records, you can tell me.

Later, I comforted this sister and asked her to walk the path of faith and not to pursue these things anymore. Of course, the direction led by the pastor of that church may be a bit biased, but I think it is better to follow the teachings of the Bible.

Brothers and sisters, we must begin to understand one thing: we must start reading the words of the Bible carefully. We must know how the Bible discusses things, and not blindly pursue a certain feeling, lest we be corrupted in the end. There are many Christians who are corrupted by feelings. For example, when looking for a spouse in the church, many feel very peaceful at the time, but in the end, they are miserable.

Walk the Path of Faith

Therefore, brothers and sisters, we must come out of the delusion of feelings and enter into the operation of faith, into the practice of faith. All things are done by faith. Our God accomplishes according to our faith, not according to our feelings. Therefore, everyone must have a clear understanding of this matter and no longer blindly act according to feelings.

In our church, we do not impart teachings that follow feelings, but teach everyone to walk the path of faith, with Mingding Destiny. In the Bible, when we look at the life of Jacob, did Jacob have feelings? He had no feelings! Did Isaac have feelings? He also had no feelings! Did Abraham have feelings? He also had no feelings! What about Joseph? Joseph was the same; where did feelings come from? Feelings are inaccurate.

Later, the Apostle Paul also did not feel good. He was beaten with stones and beaten with rods. Did it hurt? Was it uncomfortable? It must have hurt, it must have been uncomfortable. For example, persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” Paul's ministry was very hard, and Jesus Christ also suffered a lot.

I suffered a lot for God, and it didn't feel good at all. There were many days when I really shed tears. Even now, when I talk about it, my eyes will be wet. The past was too difficult, really very difficult. But thank God, I am not relying on feelings. Some people ask, Is that God calling you? If God is calling you, everything should be smooth! Do you think what he said is confusing?

Until today, which of our ministries is serving according to feelings? All are serving according to faith. Looking at that leg, swollen and hard like wood, the feeling inside is terrible. I looked at the big tumor on my mother's leg, like a ball. That feeling was terrible, but what was upheld in that dying breath was still faith, not feeling! Brothers and sisters, we must come out of this delusion of feelings.

May God bless everyone!

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Vania
Teacher, in the process of personal spiritual practice, there is indeed the guidance of the Holy Spirit, but this kind of Holy Spirit's inspiration comes completely after entering faith. Sometimes the Holy Spirit's inspiration will guide you to the next path, and sometimes the Holy Spirit's inspiration will block my wrong decisions. I don't think we can completely deny the Holy Spirit's inspiration, but the size of faith and spiritual life will make it clearer whether this inspiration comes from the flesh or the Holy Spirit. I don't know if the teacher agrees.