The Gospel is the Foundation
The Gospel is our foundation
The Title of this article is the point of this whole article. I see the Church has moved away, in large part, from the Gospel being the foundation upon which everything is laid. I see that the Gospel is no longer the “lens”’, if you will, for all our scriptural interpretation or practical application. Truthfully, I am alarmed!
What sparked me writing this today is a social media post about “Seers” and their anointing and function. The entire article was predicated on the twisted interpretation of one scripture and one man’s experiences. What got me totally alarmed was the great response to the post where many were touting their great anointing and mantle to be a Seer, and others who expressed desire to have this “gifting”. The author of the posted article said that the “Seer” can see, hear, taste, smell and feel in the Spirit and that Prophets can only see.
This is erroneous on so many levels. First, the word seer and prophet are both used to describe a prophet in the old testament. (1 Samuel 9:9) Second, and most important, there is no “Mantle, or anointing” that you have not received if you are in Christ. If you are in Christ, you are anointed. You can see, hear, taste, and smell and feel in the Sprit because YOU are in the SPIRIT, if indeed the Spirit of Christ dwells in you! This is where (in Him) you live, move and have your being!
Let’s look at the Gospel. The Gospel says you have become one with Christ. (John 14:20, 1 Corinthians 6:17, and countless other places if you google union in scripture.) Jesus is the Anointed One! You have become UNITED with the Anointed One! The Father, when He gave you his son, also freely with Him gave you all things! You are anointed because He is anointed! You are a Seer because He sees! You can hear and see because that is how he designed man to function and now that you are in union with Him nothing can block that flow of intimacy.
Nowhere in the New Testament Scriptures is Hearing God (whether through seeing, hearing, smelling or tasting) described as a gift or only for a few believers. Matthew 13 is about hearing God. ALL who wanted to hear and know what He was saying did. He explained himself to those that sought to understand. Hebrews 5:14 says that we have our Spiritual senses trained or made more skillful by reason of use! This means we don’t seek an anointing or gift we don’t have. We believe the Gospel and let Holy Spirit train us as we use the spiritual senses, he gave us all when we became “dead to sin, and alive to God”.
We must be careful, my friends, not to fall into the same trap as the believers in Paul’s day. They were adding circumcision to the Gospel. Paul’s response was basically this: “If you try to add anything to the Gospel, you are really taking away from it. What Jesus did is so complete that if we add “gifts and mantles” to some believers and not others, we are really taking away from the Gospel! We are saying that there is something else out there to strive for or add to what you have received in Christ. We are also saying to believers that some have something that you have not obtained. This is especially hurtful, because it is about communication with God! The idea that the means by which intimate relationship is built is being given in greater measure or in more avenues to some than other “regular believers” is anti-gospel. My brothers and sisters, THIS is taking away from the Gospel as surely as those who sought to add circumcision.
Let’s beware what we are allowing into our belief system. Let everything be viewed through this Glorious Gospel, by which we have become the Sons and Daughters of God!
