UNTEACHABLE

When we first come to the LORD our heart is soft and open, truth has no problem finding its way to our heart and Christian living, but as we go on in the LORD there seems to be a spirit that begins to grow in us and if not careful it can move us out of God. Now it is strange that this spirit gets its origin from the hearing of the word of God. Truth not applied correctly leads to misunderstanding which leads to misapplication which can lead someone out of God quickly unless they become teachable. I have seen this in many Christians over my many years and personally I have seen it in my life at times. This is a very dangerous area in the LORD to get over in. And yes it is more dangerous than presumption; presuming you know the truth, but in reality you are wrong. There is a big difference here: when one is unteachable they know the truth (they get it), but they do not apply the truth correctly in their understanding and the misapplication causes them to be in error and as time goes on to err – to wilfully to lead someone astray (have it be family, friends, or church) in their daily walk with the LORD and man. Paul gave Timothy some great advice we all must take heed to, “Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.” (1 Timothy 4:16) But sadly early on in church history Nicolaus of Antioch (Acts 6:5) who gave his name to a group in the early church who sought to work out a compromise with paganism to enable Christians to take part without embarrassment in some of the social and religious activities of the close-knit society in which they found themselves. It is possible that the term Nicolaitan is a Graecized form of Hebrew for Balaam, and therefore allegorical, the policy of the sect being likened to that of the Old Testament corrupter of Israel (Numbers 22). In that case the Nicolaitans are to be identified with groups attacked by Peter (2 Pet. 2:15), Jude (11), and John (Rev. 2:6, 15 and possibly 2:20-23) for their advocacy within the church of pagan sexual laxity. Early Christian references in Irenaeus, Clement, and Tertullian suggest that the group hardened into a Gnostics, a term derived from the Greek word “knowledge." Until modern times it was applied exclusively to a body of heretical teachings denounced by the church Fathers in the early Christian centuries. In other words these folks started their own religion and their own teachings the words delivered by Paul and the disciples were not good enough for them. And why? They were unteachable. The words, means, and methods of God changes NOT, but what changes is the thinking of man. The Nicolaitans were seemingly a class of professing Christians who sought to introduce into the church a false freedom or licentiousness abusing Paul’s doctrine of grace. God’s view (we should always be concerned what God’s view is) of the Nicolaitans was, “But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. 15So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.” (Revelation 2:14-15) In 2 Peter we really get a good look at God’s dislike for the Nicolaitans, “which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; 16But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man’s voice forbad the madness of the prophet. 17These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever. 18For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.” (2 Peter 2:15-18) God hates the doctrine and He hates unteachable (read the Bible) people they are ungrateful, selfish, and self-righteous caring only for themselves. Yes, God desires none to be lost (2 Peter 3:9), but at the same time the Bible says Hell expands (Isaiah 5:14) its border daily. As I mentioned at the beginning of this article the unteachable Christians gets their origin from the word of God and believe it or not there is a heart condition progression that one follows from a soft heart, to a know-it-all heart, to an unteachable heart, ending with a hard heart and out of God if not careful. Surprisingly enough it is the word of God that is the beginning point of the drifting away from the truth and the misapplication that ends in a hard hearted Christian. There is a process you can track, sadly I have seen it sadly I see it today. When we all come to the LORD He gives us a new heart for Him and His ways it is a soft, pliable, and workable heart that God can get some truth into. The soft heart is the “good ground” for the planting of the word of God and the more our hearts stay soft, humble, and contrite before God and man the more of God’s truth and revelation He can get into us. The softer our heart is toward God and man the less likely we will become unteachable, but strange as it may seem the longer we go with God and the more we start understanding spiritual things the more we think we know something. I have found the longer I go with God the less I know. The things I thought I knew (things I would fight to the death for) now I am not sure about. Did you know truth is progressive? It is not I never learned them, but now God has opened up a new wrinkle to the existing truth to me. The truth has not changed I have changed and now I can handle a deeper understanding to the truth that was once delivered to me. Unlike the Nicolaitans and unteachable Christians I have not started another sect, started a new church (classic sign of someone in rebellion from a church split), or perverted the truth to family and friends, but allowed my spirit to flow with what God is saying to me. As we move along in our walk with the LORD we start gathering many things to us and one of those things is knowledge, now knowledge unto its self is good: to have an understanding of history, timelines, Bible stories, facts, etc. is important to the teaching of the word of God, but they never replace the time spent in knowing God. Here our character comes into play. Many people just have (as a character flaw) a know-it-all attitude. Remember when Jesus saves us from our sins He does not save our character oh no our character flaws must be dealt with by God if we are going to be the minister of the Gospel God intends us to be. I have a good friend who is a great Bible teacher, but has character flaws (as we all do) and when I was asked by him about one by him I told him the truth and now he does not talk with me. Take heed to measure your words when telling the truth to Christians. If we are a know-it-all before we are saved then we will be a know-it-all after we are saved. Here begins the process that if not dealt with by God can lead us out of God. We start gaining knowledge of the Bible and at the same time the LORD begins to share some truths with us well our flesh says, look at me look what I know. Look at me look and what I know is another way of saying look what I know that you do not know. A know-it-all heart condition is self-centered and selfish seeking more knowledge to puff itself up, they know everything and no one can tell them better, they are usually arrogant and self-serving. When we started our adult Sunday school class in Germany we looked for a teacher who was the opposite of a know-it-all and found Augustine. God really does not care what you know, but He wants to know how much your care. After some time Augustine went back to Nigeria and another Nigerian Ostia became our adult Sunday school teacher, well from the start things went well, but over time and being put in a position of authority his real character was exposed, well he was a know-it-all no one could suggest anything (not even me) to him without him getting offended and going high and to the right. After much division in the church I had to remove him from this position and he did the typical thing by causing more strife and tried splitting the church, finally I asked him to the just leave the church and the last we heard he was living with some Italian lady so he could get papers to stay visa free in Germany. Know-it-all Christians are unstable. James tells us, “For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. 8A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. 9 Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted:” (James 1:7-9) A know-it-all Christian is NOT a “brother of low degree” they are “unstable in all (now the Bible means all here) their ways.” Their unstableness is what presses them into being unteachable the next stop on their way out of God. An unteachable Christian (any person for that matter) is a know-it-all on steroids. They just seemly refuse to receive sound doctrine, sound advice, sound counsel, anything that is contrary to what they believe. They too are selfish and self-centered on steroids. No matter what they will not consider another point of view. Now in the natural some would say we must not compromise the truth of the word of God, well this is true, but with the unteachable Christian they leave the things of God (assembling with like believers, etc.) for their own beliefs. They stop going to church and start listening to Christian tapes or worse watching Christian TV. Many sink themselves in to religious studies learning languages, more facts and more information to cover their lack of spiritual contact with God and other Christians. When we started our Men’s Fellowship at the church we selected a Nigerian named Tony to lead the fellowship, well at first everything was great he did a great job but I noticed he hung around Ostia a lot and soon became a know-it-all. Bad company does corrupt good morals as the Bible says. Well as time went on his attitude toward me changed, he stopped coming to church and started watching Christian TV. He started beating his wife and stopped working. His heart towards me, our church leadership, and God became hard hearted. God sent me three times to his home to talk with him about coming back into fellowship with his family (who we had to rescue), his Christian brothers and sisters, and God, but he refused. The last we heard of Tony was he took his own life and the German authorities cremated his body. My friend it a dangerous thing to walk this know-it-all and unteachable path, it is not God’s intention for us. God desires we walk with Him with a soft heart, humble, and contrite (will we always no we will not), but we must take heed to ourselves not to get over into an unteachable spirit that leads to a hard heart and out of God faster than sin. I am speaking from experience. Written by David Stahl

EXPECT FAILURE

One of the greatest revelations we can ever hope to have about ourselves is not our strengths, but our weaknesses. Charles Haun always said, “show me a man that knows his weaknesses and I will show you a man who is going somewhere in God. It is our weaknesses that define our real character, not our strengths. It is our weaknesses that detail our potential and ability in God not our strengths. We should know that every Christian who is called by the LORD to know Him in His victory, nonetheless, a Christian who is full of confusion any doubt and one who has failed (sometimes many times) in this deeper desire to know the LORD. In fact we may get the impression that the LORD no longer helps us in prayer as He once did. We may even feel we are losing a great deal of time and making no progress. Confusion and perplexity are bound to follow. Nonetheless do not stop and do not let anyone even someone who is older in the faith keep you from pursuing a deeper relationship with your LORD. I have known people (so called) “older in the LORD” than I who give advice that sounds right, feels right, looks right, but in the end the advice given was wrong. Remember in God if it walks, sounds, looks, and tastes like a duck be careful it may be a chicken. What appears in the natural is not what things are in the spiritual, so too with our walk with the LORD. What seems right (sound advice and makes good sense) in the LORD often times are the direct opposite too what God wants for our lives. Remember, the LORD is calling us to a walk of faith in His divine presence; with a simple vision of our LORD and with His intense love toward Him, like a little child would have toward its mother we must cast ourselves into the gentle, yet stern hands of our LORD. Such a relationship, especially in times of perceived failure, is easy. It is also the most secure relationship we can enter into with Him. The level of relationship we are seeking is a relationship free from a wandering imagination and from reasoning. Both of these are too distracting and can get us involved in speculation and introspection, especially during period of failure and I promise you my friend walk with the LORD long enough and you will have them, God will see to it. Often in the beginning of our Christian quest God will introduce us to the school of loving knowledge about Him and the school of the internal law knowing ourselves. But then He will bring us into darkness and dryness thinking we have failed or missed it. We can understand darkness, but why dryness? Dryness seems foreign and strange to us. Ah dryness for the exact reason He introduced us to His love, to draw us to bring us near to Him. Yes dryness and failure draws us near to Him as does encounters of love and touches of unseen realms in the spiritual. The LORD brings dryness because He knows so well that it is not by any means of our reasoning nor our efforts that will draw us near to Him. Nothing we can do will ever draw us near to the LORD. No nothing! Our efforts will not bring us to understand His high and exalted ways. How then will we learn His ways? By humble resignation to God’s will. This is where we all must begin. Noah is a perfect example of this. He was called a fool by the world (us too if we truly desire to follow the LORD) and later when the flood came they found themselves without a sail or an oar. In all of this Noah walked in darkness, he walked by faith alone. In darkness, in the wilderness, and alone is the place is where a Christian comes to know and depend to lean on the LORD. Where do we get such strength? In the wilderness! Where do we get such power? In the wilderness! The wilderness is the making place for power, strength, and patience. After some time in the wilderness Solomon said, “Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?” (Song of Solomon 8:5). Only in the wilderness (not in the palace halls or well watered plains) did Solomon learn (a process of dying to self, loneliness, separation, and ridicule) to lean on his beloved. Now please do not think Noah understood the mind of the LORD, oh no he did not. As much as possible Noah believed the words God spoke to him, but after that Noah operated in patience. We should pay little attention to dryness or failures, oh expect them they are coming to say otherwise would be down-right foolish. We must never give up our desire to know God even in the face of the dryness or failure that comes our way. We must walk with a firm faith then rest in patience, dying to our self and to all of our natural efforts to know God. Remember, the LORD cannot err (willfully lead someone astray) nor does He intend anything towards us, but that which is for our good. Wow what a revelation! When things go bad against us and we cannot see God’s intentions we often think we have failed, but not so. Expect failure, but in the failure we must always be patient looking for the way out. Paul in 1 Corinthians tells us, “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. 13There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” (1 Corinthians 10:12-13) When temptation, loss, failure, etc. overwhelms us our first reaction is to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, to suck it up, or even blame someone else; we see that in verse 12, “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” We are strong in our own strength and might, but when this happens take heed because we are on our way down where loss and failure abides. The place where God dwells is in a humble and lowly place. If we want to be strengthened and lifted up in failure and loss that is only given by God to the humbled. James tells us, “But he giveth more grace (Strong’s #5485, that which affords joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, charm, loveliness: grace of speech) Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. 7Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. 9Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. 10Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.” (James 4:6-10) Not grace for salvation, but “grace” which “affords joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, charm, loveliness.” The way up is first down! The way out is down! “Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.” Who wants to be afflicted, mourn, and weep? The one who wants to be lifted up by humbling themselves. Sadly when in failure and loss we concentrate on the loss and failure trying to overcome in our strength and ability instead of doing what Paul told us to do, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” With every temptation and failure God provides a way of escape. We must not focus on the temptation and failure, but look for the way of escape. It is there right before our eyes. The LORD does not want us to fail He wants us to learn this is why He gives us a way of escape each and every time, but we seem to get stuck in failure time and time again, why? We are not looking for the way of escape. Where does the escape come from? It is somewhere deep within us. Therefore we must come to Him silent, believing, suffering, and with patience. With confidence press on! Rest in Him and be guided by His hand. This is better than all the good intentions and goods in the world. If our pursuit of Christ is pure that is sufficient reward. A seed is laid in the ground. Then it seems the seed is lost, but afterward when spring comes that seed grows up and multiplies. In John we read, “And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified. 24Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except (no other way) a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. 25He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.” (John 12:24-25) Here Jesus is talking about being “glorified” now we would have thought it was time for Jesus to be exalted, given a name above all names, but that was not what Jesus was talking about. Jesus was talking about going to die, going to the cross. There is a spiritual principle in operation here, death before glorification. Like that corn of wheat or the seed laid in the ground Jesus had to die to be fruitful, well the same divine spiritual principle is for us today. We too must die, experience loss, temptation, and die to be fruitful in the LORD. Jesus is the master and is the servant (us) greater than the master? God does the same thing with us. The LORD deprives us of comfort and even of understanding. Furthermore we see no spiritual progress in our life. In a way there is none, but yet let enough time pass and there is enrichment that has been added to us far beyond our hope life will take root and spring up. We must never look down upon ourselves if we cannot achieve what we have set out to do in our pursuit. Persevere in patience. Trust in the LORD’s infinite grace as though we were blindfolded. Do so without a great deal of fanfare, thinking, or reasoning. Place our lives in His kind, paternal hands, resolving to do nothing except what is His divine will and good pleasure. My friend expect failure it is coming again God will see to it, but with the failure comes a promise of an ever abiding love from the LORD and a way to escape, are you looking? Written by David Stahl