Written: Jan 12, 2024
Last Edited:
Today I want to talk a little bit about our relationships that cover all possible participants. It is gratifying, baffling, confusing, hurting, and amazing depending on what conversation we have with each other, and with whom. At the human level, deep down, we want so much to connect with others, and yet, we hold a little reservation based on fear. We want to be loved and want to love, but too many things get in between to foil our desires. At the spiritual level, the human side wants to be wholesome, generous, gentle, kind, compassionate, loving, etc., and the spirit side wants to connect with God and everything relating to God. The problem is that we are so terribly lacking in our human side while our spirit side is neglected beyond recognition.
This article is motivated by my feelings for a much younger Mexican woman whom I met while at work. We’ve been sneaking a look at each other for a while before we finally started to talk. It was I who approached her after much prayer for my courage and strength and numerous pep talks that I had given myself in preparation. You know, I don’t know where people came up with this, but it is said that it should be the man who does the approaching because women have a harder time dealing with rejection, because they are more sensitive. I am not sure I agree with that, as a sensitive man that I am.
Even though it ended before our relationship even began, I still think about her daily. When a man and a woman are attracted to each other, why can’t they come right out and tell each other, “I like you!?” I did say that we’ve been sneaking a look at each other for a while right? I can’t say on her behalf, as to what was going on in her mind, but as for me, I worried about my age as compared to her. Why would a beautiful young lady who is surrounded by 3-4 Mexican men, around her age, at all times, care about some much older guy who can’t even speak Spanish, as far as she knows?
Negativity That Binds Us
“At my age, do I need to chase around a young girl surrounded by guys?” “What would they think when they look at some older man looking to snatch one of their Mexican girls?” “I don’t want to be labeled as if I was a dirty old man for trying to have a relationship with a much younger woman.” “Hey, I am not that old!” “But I am not that young either!” “What if we do date? What would others think about a much older-looking man dating a very young girl brimming with youth?” “Hey, I don’t look that much older!” “There are other couples with a big age gap too!” “If we get married, I will die before her when she is still far from her dying age.” “I will leave her by herself in this world at an older age.” “Wouldn’t her life be better if she married someone her age so that they can live together longer?” I can go on and on.
A lot of negativity right? The truth of the matter is that a similar age between a woman and a man does not guarantee that they will have a fulfilling life, even if they live together for many decades. I am a good listener, I am sensitive, I can cook, I am healthy, I look pretty handsome, I carry myself well, I have life experience worth sharing, and I can guide her through her life decisions, but most importantly, I can teach her about God!
The point I want to make through these negatives and positives is that, sometimes, we lose out on a great adventure because we let our negative thoughts prevent us from making strides toward our heart’s desire, whether that be we 1) wanting good friends for life, 2) making new friends, 3) finding the love of our lives, 4) wanting to start a new life, 5) etc. For whatever reason, we lose heart before we take the first step.
If these lines of thought are not new to you, after having read them through my mind’s eyes, what was your reaction-thought(s)? Do you ever react to your negative thoughts or negative reservations that prevent you from an adventure, or simply, living the way you envisioned for yourself?
Social Etiquette?
What of our need to be “proper” which is keeping us from making genuine friends or making a difference in our local world (you and the people that you meet and interact with)? We also worry about how we speak or don’t speak. In other words, some of us are more considerate of others than is healthy for us, while some others are not considerate enough that they become nuisances. We live in a society that is too vigilant in keeping personal things private and be offended when people ask us too personal questions.
“Oh, you shouldn’t have said that!” “You don’t think about how others will think of you when you say that!” “They will misunderstand you by the way you speak!” “You shouldn’t have asked that!” “You could have chosen nicer words!” “She’s too young to be telling your honesty!” “You don’t talk about death to a cancer patient!” “Didn’t you take a hint that he didn’t want to talk about it!?” “No, you can’t discuss that kind of stuff with the Jones!” “Why did you tell her that?!”
Sometimes, we just worry too much, and not just for our sake, on behalf of others. We have this, preconceived notion that our friends won’t be able to handle the truth, whatever it may be. Therefore, we try to shield them from that truth or an event. But sometimes, our friends need to hear them from us, because, at this point, it’s no longer about “not wanting to offense.” It may be that we are the only ones who will tell our friends what they need to hear. What would you feel if you found out that something bad happened to your friends because you failed to tell them the truth?
Relationship Based on Mutual Love and Trust
In Praying for Our Enemies, I mentioned the term Godians. As this article was not solely focusing on the concept of the Godians, I only gave a brief description. And, in that description, I mentioned that the Godians are the Christians that have abandoned human traditions and cultures. What is, then, implied is that the Godians are the Christians who have embraced the tradition and culture of the Kingdom of God. So, then, what is the tradition and culture of the Kingdom of God? How will human relationships be in that Kingdom?
Every pastor, when asked, “What is the tradition and culture of the Kingdom of God,” if they are honest, they should tell you they are not sure. They would, most likely, offer guesses and assumptions based on what is written in the Bible, but they would not have a solid answer to the question unless they are committed to leading their congregation toward a Godianship. Only the leaders who thought about or are thinking about such an endeavor would have the answer. The reason is simple, There is a lot of pressure in deciding for the congregation, “What the tradition and culture of the Kingdom of God,” is, as no one on earth has ever been to Heaven and back to relay to all the people about the tradition and the culture of the Kingdom of God. But that is the burden of leadership! Just because we have never been there and back, are we to ignore that Kingdom? No! It is the duty of the leader to, at least, attempt to envision what that would be like and encourage the congregation to adapt to his/her vision of the Kingdom of God.
Honestly, I do not know how human relationships will be in that Kingdom, just like how no one knows, for sure, what the traditions and the culture would be like in Heaven. Again, I do have some guesses and assumptions based on what is written in the Bible, but ultimately, I am not the ruler of that Kingdom, right? Who really knows what our lives will be like when we get to Heaven?
However, as the leader of TEoP Ministry, I do know what I would encourage in the God Country. (God Country is a symbolic statement, entrusted to TEoP Ministry by God, that speaks of the idea of a group of people obeying/delivering God’s plan and living God-filled lives because God’s Country is wherever his people are doing and living the Kingdom work!) Below is the banner for the ministry.
In God Country, relationships based on mutual love and trust will be encouraged, where people can speak their minds with each other without the receiver feeling offended. Of course, this is easier said than done. People have to be coached on how to say things constructively, without using offensive words/tone, and they have to be taught not to take offense and practice patience. This is provided that everyone in the congregation has the same level of awareness, which they will not. People have different experiences, circumstances, personalities, and so many other factors that determine their awareness for them to share similar awareness levels. As such, there will not be an easy formula that will work for everybody, when it comes to coaching. It would be very difficult to achieve.
However, that does not mean God won’t move his people in this manner!
Relationship of Trust Between God and Us
When I first considered starting a church from the ground up, I had many doubts. The task seemed too big for me, even though I knew that God had been preparing me for this for all of my life, even when I wasn’t even a Christian. “Why did you choose someone like me?” This became one of my constant questions to God and it still is. “I get too angry God!” “My faith is not strong enough God!” “Why would you choose someone with this kind of sin?” “How am I supposed to set an example for the people?” “I don’t have that graceful and devout demeanor that a lot of pastors have.” “My sayings are too wordy and too complicated for people to sit through a sermon and not be confused!” “I don’t have the gift to simplify concepts like other folks.” On and on and on, I would bombard God with my doubts and whines.
Well, one day, God answered me. He said, “You just say what you feel in your heart that you must say, and I will take care of the rest.” Long story short is that God chose me for the talents and skills that I have, along with certain propensities that make me durable, enduring, and inquisitive. But most importantly, God chose me for my heart and what resides in that heart. In fact, if I were to summarize this whole conversation between me and God regarding my complaints and my feeling sorry for myself on numerous occasions, it boils down to God choosing me for having a heart with an intense desire for authenticity in relationships, and what lies underneath the umbrella of authenticity is a capacity for genuine care. This is the reason why I encourage mutual love and trust in relationships in God Country that I will lead.
I shared my relationship with God a little bit above because I wanted to define and justify my calling from God. In the same manner, anybody who professes to have been called by God, too, must have some kind of trust established between them and God. Otherwise, they probably have not been called by God, but instead, were swayed by their emotions and entered into the ministry. I commend the desire, but more times than not, such people end up working for the board of the church and/or some key members of the church, instead of God. Because they end up working for men, they do not establish themselves as the main leader of the church. In other words, it is not the shepherd leading the sheep, it is the sheep leading the shepherd. That is not what God desires of his chosen.
As the substitute shepherds or stewards of the Master Shepherd, it is our duty to know what God wants of us and make that into a reality in our churches. It becomes a promise between us and God. This promise can only lead us into taking leadership of our respective churches because our promise with God should weigh us down if we do not seek leadership for ourselves! The only thing that matters is whether the vision that we receive is really of God, and that is only confirmed during our time with God. At this point, it does not matter if the vision that God entrusted us with does not seem orthodox or if we just are not confident about it. It’s not about whether our ministry mirrors or resembles that of other ministries. If that vision is of God, we should be assured that we ARE guiding our sheep to the Kingdom of God in the manner that God desired of us. It is not the time for us to second-guess everything and worry whether we are leading our congregation in the wrong direction.
If you feel that you have been called by God to be a pastor, you have to, then, accept that 1) you have been called by God to be the leader, 2) along with pastorship, God sends the sheep that he entrusted to you as well! God doesn’t just call you to be a shepherd and not assign to you the sheep that he wants you to shepherd! If God called you to be a pastor, he called you to be a pastor of a specific people. You should gain confidence from that!
TEoP Ministry – The Neighboring Churches
There are many churches in Chicago. Not all of them are as eye-catching as many catholic churches nor as big, but they are out there, especially in the area where I am planning on building the Ministry. When I first decided on the location, I didn’t know there were so many churches in the area. When I found out, quite frankly, it bothered me because I imagined the location of my church in an area where the need for a church was great. After all, what better justifies the need for the ministry than an area with no churches? Therefore, I just didn’t see a need for another church in this area. However, God gave me the answer one Sunday morning.
I visited one of those churches nearby. Actually, I visited a church that seemed to me to be doing very well financially. The church had a very well-organized website, and it even had a financial page where it showed its annual budget. Looking at all the zeros, I asked God, “Dad, why did you bring me here to start a church when there is a church, practically next door, that you have financially blessed?” He responded by saying, “You will find out when you visit it.”
So, for me to take a good look around the church, I went there an hour early. I was glad the church was open, and it appeared that they were rehearsing for the actual service while other staff members were praying for the service near the front entrance of the sanctuary. And because I was there early, I even had the chance to talk to the main pastor of the church. Up to that point, I was still baffled by God’s, “You will find out when you visit it.” Nothing told me anything was wrong with the place.
When people started to trickle around, I began to see the problem. Most of the church folks were white and the Hispanics and Asians made up the rest while there were hardly any black folks, when according to the demography of the community, there should have been roughly equal amount of black and white folks with Hispanics and Asians making up the minority. In addition, when the main pastor was a black man, it really didn’t make sense that there were so few black folks in the church.
The next thing that caught my attention was that there were just too many people that were distracted with themselves, and with their phones. They gave me the impression that they came to church because it was just an outing for them on Sunday. In other words, they didn’t come to the church to see God, but they came to the church because that’s what they do on Sunday.
Lastly, the most important thing that answered God’s reply to me was during the praise and worship portion of the service. The Holy Spirit was there with SUCH DENSITY, but hardly anybody responded to him! Through the influence of the Holy Spirit, I was in tears. Holy Spirit shared with me the sadness that he feels by inducing me to cry! My heart was squeezing and thumping for I wanted to run to the stage to yell at the congregation about their lack of response to the Holy Spirit!
I didn’t run down there. I sat through the sermon as I watched people fidgeting, and I left after I failed to grab the main pastor’s attention. I had emailed him instead to share with him what the Holy Spirit shared with me, but he made it clear in his response, that he didn’t want to talk to me again. It was pretty sad and disappointing experience.
However, through that disappointing experience, I reaffirmed the need for TEoP Ministry in this neighborhood! I declared on the About page that TEoP Ministry will be a beacon of Chicago. I even said that Christians will have a renewed view of God through TEoP Ministry. I truly believe that! Therefore, when thinking in this manner, I came to terms that it is not so much about the nearest church, but it is about what TEoP Ministry represents to the community and the rest of Christianity.
TEoP Ministry – The Reason for The Beacon
If we read the Bible all the way through or study the Bible long enough, we see changes in the way God chooses to relate to us. Just as any relationship changes as we grow old, our relationship with God also grows/changes from the Old Testament to the New Testament. If we say that the way God saw his people in the Old Testament was like that of childhood years, then in the New Testament we are in our mid to young adulthood years. During childhood, God was more strict with his children just as we are more strict with our children. Then as adults, Jesus came down and taught us how to love, because we should be old enough to understand it. Then, what of the later years?
We are currently in the later years except that the rest of the Christian community does not realize that. The time that Jesus mentioned in John 4:23-24, (“But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”) is here.
The difference between the Jewish community and the Christian community is that they claim that Jesus (Messiah) hasn’t come yet, whereas the Christian community says that he did. Whereas the Jewish community can say that we are foolish, the Christian community says that the Jewish community has missed the boat. Well, the same can be said of today’s Christians in that the Godians would say that Christians have missed the boat, except the boat is still available!
An interesting thing about the Jewish community missing out on Jesus was that the Pharisees, the biblical scholars of that era, could not step outside of their box of “being learned.” They thought they knew everything, but Jesus proved that they lacked faith and that though they may have known the scriptures front and back, they didn’t really understand what they memorized. They were too dependent on the written words that they lacked in the faith department. Therefore, they missed the boat.
Well, today’s Christian community is not too different from the Jewish community of back then. We don’t have the Pharisees, but we do have the professors of biblical institutes making the same mistakes as the Pharisees. I spent two years at Moody Bible Institute to earn a Master of Divinity degree, though I came out a bit shy of a degree. What I found while I was at Moody was that the professors knew a great deal about the Holy Spirit, but they only had the book knowledge of the Holy Spirit. Just like how the Pharisees failed to recognize the Messiah when he was right in front of them, the professors are failing to recognize the Holy Spirit when he is with us now.
There is a way to gauge at what level people understand things by, simply, listening to them. It has nothing to do with how eloquent they are or how articulate they are. How they formulate their sentences to how well they connect concepts of relevance tells much about a person’s mastery of the subject matter, as well as their intelligence level. You could also tell when their exercise in logic ends and their blind faith begins. With the professors at Moody, their application of logic ends when they start quoting or referring to other scholars whom they look up to (dead or alive). In times of uncertainty, instead of being honest about their ignorance, they defer to some other experts in the field who are a bit more well-known than them.
Lastly, concerning the Holy Spirit, none of the professors who spoke of the Holy Spirit gave any personal account of how they were in the presence of the Holy Spirit, except one. I mean, how can one teach about the Holy Spirit that they have never experienced before? For example, if we want to learn how to hunt, do we go to a hunter to learn, or do we go to some desk person whose only experience in hunting is through a book? I even had a debate with one of the professors through the school dashboard and their school email account on this subject matter. Of course, the school didn’t like that I was so vocal in my disagreement with the professors.
If the authorities on God and the Bible in the biblical institutes do not know about the Holy Spirit, how effective are the pastors who learned from such authorities about God? Isn’t the effectiveness pretty poor? It’s almost like the blind leading the blind, isn’t it? This succession of ignorance to the next generation and the generation after that, has been going on for many centuries. Don’t you think it is about time that this “fool’s succession” end? This is the reason for TEoP Ministry becoming the beacon of the Holy Spirit.
TEoP Ministry – The Beacon of The Holy Spirit (part 1)
In a nutshell, after his resurrection, Jesus told us that since he was leaving us to go back to Heaven, he would not be with us in person. To make up for his absence, the Holy Spirit would be with us in his place. Whereas Jesus could not, physically, be with every human being at all times, the Holy Spirit can be with every one of us, spiritually. At least that was the intent.
Of course, the obvious difference between Jesus and the Holy Spirit is that having a body to talk to (Jesus) versus no bodily form (Holy Spirit). If Jesus was with me right now, I would speak with him as if I am talking to another human being, but how would I speak with the Holy Spirit? The obvious answer is through my spirit – through spirit and truth. But, the problem is that many of us are not very good at communicating with our spirits. What does it even mean to communicate with our spirits?
I know this is kind of weird, and I will address this problem of spirits, but, consider a scenario first.
Consider John. John is a very nice guy who is chatty and easy to get along with. He recently moved into the neighborhood, and I just met him for the first time. With him being an all-around good guy, it doesn’t take long before we become good friends.
Now, what if we rewind the time back to our meeting for the first time, and this time, we only communicated with our eyes? Our relationship would be much different, right? But in what way? It’s not like either of us changed just because our mode of communication changed.
There would be confusion, uncertainty, miscommunication, and mistrust. Again, we have to remember that we met for the first time in this timeline. As far as I know, John could be a scheming and an untrustworthy guy, even though, in the other timeline, we connected instantly. Of course, in John’s perspective, I am untrustworthy as well! That is the society we live in today, where we’re conditioned into mistrusting those that we don’t understand.
Again, neither of us changed, but because our mode of communication changed, a distrust entered our relationship. We fear what we don’t understand.
For some of us, we fear the Holy Spirit because we don’t understand this “communication with spirit” notion. For some of us, we fear the Holy Spirit because we can’t see him. For some of us, we’re scared because we don’t know how to have that “communication of the spirits.” Lastly, for some of us, we fear this whole ‘communication of the spirits’ nonsense for the fear that this is one of those New Age programs that’s leading people to hell. Again, we fear what we don’t understand.
Now, reconsider the second scenario. How do I make the conversation better? I’m sure there’s other possibilities, but for a starter, I can use Morse code to speak with John. For example, a short blink would be a dot, and a long blink would be a dash. Before the Morse code, John and I would only be looking at each other, which is not going anywhere, except to sow mistrust. However, when we use Morse code, all of a sudden, conversation is possible, and we actually can get to trust one another again because we’re eliminating the “fear of the unknown.”
But, here is the most important point. If we didn’t make attempts to come up with different ways to communicate, John and I would still be strangers to each other, and chances are, we wouldn’t even be looking at each other. Then, what would be the odds of us ever getting to know each other? The odds are not looking good!
TEoP Ministry – The Beacon of The Holy Spirit (part 2)
The same thing applies to our relationship with the Holy Spirit! If we neglect to find a way to communicate with the Holy Spirit through our spirits, we will never benefit from the relationship because we’ve sent the message to God that we don’t want that kind of relationship! Please understand. It’s not that we denied God, but at the same time, we’re letting God know that we didn’t care enough.
Folks, this is not so different from human relationships where either husband or wife neglecting their spouse to the point of the other feeling unloved. “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us.” James 4:5 God jealously yearns over our spirits, so says the book of James. He yearns to have a relationship with us!
But you say, “Why can’t God just let himself be known to us?” If you’re feeling/thinking along this line, why do you feel/think that he has not? According to Louis Pasteur (scientist who is responsible for pasteurized milk), “In the science of observation, chance happens to those with the prepared minds.” What he meant by this statement is that the answers are ALL around us, and all it takes to see them is for us to open our mind’s eyes!
Holy Spirit is the same way. He is ALL around us, waiting to be found, and all it takes for us to feel him is for us to open the eyes of the heart! The book of James goes on to say in 4:8, “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” All this is saying is for us to open our hearts and patiently wait for him because he surely will answer our heart’s desire and make himself abundantly clear to our spirits!
The above two scripts (James 4:5&8) are the heart of TEoP Ministry! These will be repeated over and over and will be rephrased and reexamined and reexplained. And, finally, reurged time and time again!
What I visualize is a church filled to the brim with people with heart for God, and those people will be baptized in the Holy Spirit and will receive power and authority to share God with people all around the city of Chicago and the suburbs. What results would be that the city of Chicago would be known as the city of the Holy Spirit! People, all over the world, will be looking at the city of the Holy Spirit as a beacon of God!
I do realize that I said many things, not exactly coherent to some readers, to which I apologize, but sometimes my conscience does not let me simplify and/or leave out certain things or do not elaborate on things.
Also, it is not my intention to write my articles like I would write a paper for graduate school, as I don’t exactly agree with format of a formal paper, as well as having thesis statements and such. This type of writing only became a crutch for people and lessened the potential of the human mind through repeating structures in writing, thus forcing people to read such writing as well. There’s no room for growth in imagination in these structured writings.
Thank you for reading this far!
Russel
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