I am in no way saying trust in man, but we cannot say that God doesn't speak through man. We cannot think we need to ignore every man and try to listen to God alone on our own island. We don’t trust man, we trust the Voice of God, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit of God! I don’t look to man but when a man speaks the oracles of God by the Spirit of God, I listen! Even Paul, a man, said follow me because I follow Christ! Wow, most would call that blasphemy! But Paul was really following Christ! Don’t you want to know how to follow Christ, too? You have one teacher, the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit teaches through others, too! Yet it’s still ONE teacher who bears witness with Himself every time He talks through someone else.
If any man that was really following Christ today said what Paul said, they would be stoned by ninety percent of the church! We need to rightly divide the word of truth and discern the spirits! God gave gifts and callings unto men! Most say, “Well, I don’t listen to man, I only read and listen to scripture.” Yet they fail to realize that even scripture was written by man but God inspired them! So why can’t God inspire anybody today?
Don’t listen to cessationism! Aren’t they men, too? The ones saying don’t listen to men are men telling you not to listen to other men. They want you to listen to them who are also men! This is twisted! We are the body of Christ fitly joined together, supplying every need that there would be no schisms! For those who have an ear to hear what the spirit is saying, give ear!
There are too many maverick spirits in the church! We all take part in one ministry collectively, and that is the ministry of Christ! The ministry of the Body of Christ. Body ministry! The corporate manifestation of that will not come through one man but through many men! The body needs each other, and if we are denying each other, we are denying Christ! If you deny the body of Christ, you are denying Christ and even Christ the head, because the mind that is in the head controls the whole body and only moves by the body. The mind controls everything but the body moves!
God’s word is in you and in me as well! He said rivers of living water will flow out of you! His word is the rivers! We are living epistles of His word. We become the flesh of Christ that we eat. We are read by men! If we are eating His word, we should become His word, so why can’t we speak His word?
God’s word also says that we have apostles and prophets who set the foundation, teachers, pastors, and evangelists. So, do we not listen to the ones that are sent from heaven? Even your Bible says do not forsake the assembly of the saints, the assembly of man! Men, but men OF God. They are not just men! They are Holy Spirit-filled men! We cannot deny the body or else we are denying the head!
The word of God existed before the Bible was written. Are you really taking in the word of God when you read the Bible and interpret it with your carnal mind? When you try to read through the lens of the flesh?
There’s a fine line. We can’t listen to the flesh of a man but there’s also the spirit man which is endowed with the Holy Spirit. That’s why we all have the Holy Spirit so that the Spirit would test the spirits and verify with the Spirit. The Spirit in you and the Spirit in me. Jesus feeding himself in one another. When the flesh comes, here comes the prophet to cut anything out of the way that flesh tries to mix with the spirit! When the profane tries to mix with the holy. That’s why we each have gifts and some are to prevent the flesh of men from getting into the fellowship of the assembly of God’s men. We are God's men and women but we are also still men, and this is why we have gifts to discern what is of men and what is of God in men. This is God's design.
Every gift, every calling, plays a role. There are gifts that edify, gifts that discern and take out the devil and all carnality. There are gifts that govern, lead, and build, and so on. How can we be blessed with these things if we don’t want to be one with the body or receive from men? Get a grip because when you receive from the true body of Christ, you are receiving Christ Himself.
Many say, “Oh, don’t listen to man,” but then they want you to listen to them! It’s called hypocrisy and idolatry. Most say this stuff because they are trying to draw the crowd to them. This is exactly what Korah did to Moses, “Oh, Moses, we can all hear God for ourselves!” This Korah spirit is rampant in the church but the funny thing is that it is usually idolatry because they themselves want to be Moses and want all to hear and submit to them.
Sometimes someone has been wounded by men and has trouble receiving now because of fear of the faults and flaws of men. Or they don’t receive because they just want the attention off of other vessels and on them. Do not be deceived. There are voices that are not from God and voices that are from God. Yet this is why you have God now, that you would now know when He is speaking! He said to test the spirits to see if they are of God. Rightly divide the word of truth. Gift of discernment of spirits! To discern what? To discern what spirit a MAN is coming from! To discern if it’s the Spirit of God or the spirit of man.
My sheep know my voice and the voice of a stranger they will not follow! If someone speaking outside of the shepherd’s voice speaks, you will know because you know the shepherd. The spirit will bear witness if it’s God. When a strange voice speaks, it sounds strange. It makes your spirit sick!
God brings rest to our souls! He says peace I leave with you. When God speaks, peace comes. Confusion breaks, and if that’s what happens when God speaks, that’s what happens when His vessels speak! We are just vessels and the Spirit led them to us as God draws all men unto His son through His sons. We are the body, He is head. Jesus was fully God and fully a man on earth. Should you not listen to Jesus because He is a man, too? How deep do you want to go with this? Paul said know no man by the flesh. Jesus couldn’t even do miracles in certain cities because they looked at the man Jesus and not Jesus who was God.
Judas looked at Mary pouring oil all over Jesus’ feet and asked why would it not be given to the poor? Yet he was looking at Jesus as a man but not as God! Are you looking at your brother or sister and looking at them as the man or woman they are, or are you looking at the child of God they are and the voice of the Sheperd in them? I’m not going to look to hear man but I am going to look to hear God and God in men. You look at flesh if you live in the flesh. Yet if we live in the Spirit, we will hear the Spirit even if comes out of a donkey. Even if it comes out of a man.
By Joe Pinto
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