[Updated 2/25/13]
I would like to add to what I said in:
I also wrote:
Divorce and ‘Marriage,’ Part 3: The Anointing — “Tell them about Pastor E.”
Jesus was very straightforward in His stand on marriage and divorce in Matthew 5, as I show in the above article. But what about the gray areas, the rare situations that don’t totally fit within what Jesus said?
HUGE QUALIFIER: whom we date and marry is one of the most emotional issues we may ever have, if not the most. It’s so easy to hear the voice of the enemy leading us to do sinful things if we’ve given demons a place and we aren’t totally, 100% submitted to God’s will. Jesus gave us the standard in Mt. 5. If we hear an exception that He didn’t give we better be absolutely sure it was the Holy Spirit and not an impostor. The most extreme carefulness needs to be applied. Most ‘Christians’ are currently not at that level of submission to the Holy Spirit. There should only be One Voice, and we all need to be 100% willing to do whatever God is leading us to do regarding whom to marry. As I said in the previous article, if James says we must be submitted to God’s will as to where to live, surely whom we intimately spend the rest of our lives with is more important…. Many have lost their anointing and are in a state of losing their salvation because they weren’t careful enough. We must be Spirit-led, not feelings-led.
Jesus told the disciples there were many more things He would tell them, but they couldn’t bear to hear them all at that time, so He would send the comforter, the Holy Spirit Whom will lead us into all truth. The Bible isn’t supposed to have specific answers for everything. We’re supposed to be led by the Holy Spirit. “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are children of God” (Romans 8:14). “This is the normal Christian life,” I believe I just heard. This certainly is true. See: A Call to Intimacy: The Holy Spirit in John’s Gospel & Epistles, by Jeff Fenske. The fact that this isn’t true in most Christians’ lives today just shows how far off course we are from the true gospel — and why ‘churches’ and countries are in such a mess.
Jesus explained to the disciples in John 14:
14:16 I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, that he may be with you forever,– 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world can’t receive; for it doesn’t see him, neither knows him. You know him, for he lives with you, and will be in you.
18 I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you.
16:12 “I have yet many things to tell you, but you can’t bear them now. 13 However when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak from himself; but whatever he hears, he will speak.
John continues in 1 John:
20 You have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.
27 As for you, the anointing which you received from him remains in you, and you don’t need for anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is no lie, and even as it taught you, you will remain in him.
If we’re abiding in Him, the Holy Spirit, He will then teach us concerning all things, especially regarding major issues like whom we should marry.
When we leave the Holy Spirit and do our own thing, that’s when we get into trouble. We should always make sure we have entered into our rest, the place where we are right with God and people — enjoying the peace of God that is beyond all understanding.
When pastors and the people think we can be Christians without remaining in Him no wonder the church is in such disarray. We were never meant to be led by the Bible alone.
The role of the Holy Spirit is downplayed, largely because of the old covenant tithing teaching (which pastors push so they get money even if the Holy Spirit isn’t leading people to give to them). Following the Bible alone, sola scriptura has been the emphasis. And trying to follow the written word without abiding in the Spirit of truth “is a recipe for chaos.” And that’s what we have.
The result is what Luther came to believe — that we can’t really do what Jesus said we must do. The Sermon on the Mount is just an ideal. We’re sinners saved by grace. So ‘don’t worry about what we do,’ ‘all we have to do is believe’ completely fails God’s parameters.
When willfully sinning, knowingly unclean believers stand before Jesus, He’ll say “depart from me, workers of iniquity.” Like Isaiah, seeing the Holy God while in his sin: “Woe is me!” And then it will be too late.
Jeff
Related:
Divorce and ‘Marriage,’ Part 3: The Anointing — “Tell them about Pastor E.”
(video) David Pawson Interview on “Divorce & Remarriage” — Unbiblically married? What to do…
Regarding the specifics of who goes to heaven, who are the children of God, who will have faith to enter, I wrote this article which no one can refute: Who-Goes-To-Heaven Scriptures — Narrow is the Way | Who are the Children of God?
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