Winter
2009
Non-Transferable Non-Refillable
Bottles
Recently the Lord
has opened the eyes of my understanding concerning bottles
and filtration systems. The Lord has a lot to say about bottles
and vessels for his glory.
Jeremiah 2:12-13 Be astonished, O ye heavens,
at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith
the LORD. For my people have committed two evils; they have
forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them
out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
Who in this hour has the fear of God? Who in this hour is horribly afraid of
the evils committed by God’s people? For the last three decades
Pastors and evangelists have worked with a fevered pitch to
remove any semblance of the fear of God from the life of a
believer. Shepherds and sheep alike in this hour have no fear
of sin, no fear of God’s judgment, and no fear of hell.
Because the fear of God has been removed,
there is no more restraint and the Shepherds and the sheep
do all that they imagine. Because the fear of God has been
removed God has departed and now the people are in great want
and spiritually desolate.
Psalm
34:9 O
fear the LORD, ye his saints: for
there is no want to them that fear him.
Psalm
31:19 Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them
that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that
trust in thee before the sons of men!
And instead of God being the fountain of living
waters for his Sheep men instead have made for themselves
false fountains – false fountains upon which the sheep are
to lavish praise and worship, false fountains that are empty
and can and will not produce water nor hold water.
Mark
2:22 And no man
putteth new wine into old bottles: else the new wine doth
burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles
will be marred: but new wine must be put into new bottles.
As it was men’s work to hew broken cisterns
so is it the work of men to put new wine in old wineskins.
The purpose is that they might gain new life and new converts
to the old wineskin so that it might be perpetuated as a venerated
long-held tradition.
When I was a child in early 1960’s soda
bottles, milk bottles were all refillable.
You paid a deposit of three to five cents when you
purchased the beverage and when you returned the empty bottle
you got back your deposit. Then the respective company would
collect their bottles take them down to the local plant, hose
out the old bottle and then refill it. Within a few days the
bottle would be back out on the store shelf again to serve
another customer.
These bottles had
been used over and over again, and many had been reused so
many times that the glass was no longer clear.
These old vessels were so pitted and scratched that
the glass had become somewhat opaque obscuring the product
the vessel had been created to display.
As a child when
I looked at those old scratched and pitted bottles side by
side with new clear ones, I would always select a new bottle,
somehow believing that the clearer new vessel contained a
purer and fresher beverage.
Of wineskins it
would seem that it might be hard to discern that the wineskin
is new or used one once it has been filled. And if anything
the peddler that is preying on the public with used wineskins
would be seeking to make quick deals and then get out of Dodge
as quick as possible before the skins start exploding and
move on to new sales territory. But the nature of the salesmen
of what Jesus was speaking of are dealing in the old dried
out and cracked doctrines and traditions of men. In order
to keep a flow of steady customers they need to gin things up a bit,
so they add greater and lesser degrees of the wine of the
Spirit. Thereby trying to control the level of the Holy Spirit within a church
or fellowship allowing just enough to keep their customers
coming, but not enough to blow their denominational still.
Romans 9:20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that
formed it, why hast thou made me thus?
It seems that in
this day and time that no one wants to be a unique vessel
unto the Lord anymore. Instead we spend our every
waking moment reading books, listening to tapes, and watching
videos. At the subconscious level of our spirit’s we know
we are: “Searching, but never coming to the knowledge of the
truth.” But at the level of our carnal mind we have conned
ourselves into believing that by infusing our soul with massive
doses of specific teachings we can create within us the gift
or ministry of our choice. Falsely believing that God is running
some kind of a ministry sub-shop where we can build our own
spiritual ministry with a little Hagan, a little of Seeley
Kinne, hold the Oral Roberts and
extra, extra William Branham. And we do all this despite our receiving
the Holy Spirit’s nudging to get us to abandon this destructive
path, and instead we keep on searching and seeking.
Believing that if we could only find the just the right
Spirit anointed combination of these old dead bottles, that
God would somehow be compelled to hand over to us the car
keys to the Kingdom so that we can go out on a twenty to thirty
year joy ride. While
I’m writing this I am seeing these poor starving children
from a third world country. Covered in filth, dressed in rags
these children were working toxic dumps to feed themselves
and their siblings.
Revelation 3:17 Because thou sayest, I am
rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing;
and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor,
and blind, and naked:
And what were these
poor children searching for?
Initially they were told that there were treasures
and items of great value hidden among the refuse. They were
told that one only had to dig long enough and hard enough,
and they will be amply rewarded. But all too soon these children
of death, were transformed from being
starry-eyed treasure hunters, to scavenging beasts desperately
searching for something, anything that they can continue one
more day in their squalor.
So we too dig deep
into the dump of old waste doctrines and traditions of men.
Spending our every waking moment reading books, listening to tapes,
and watching videos. And what are we in search of? Treasures of corruption, items that carnal
men deem as having great spiritual value, rumors of forgotten
and discarded spiritual gifts, tales of abandoned vessels
just lying out there free for the pickings, and of course
the mantles of dead Prophets, Apostles and other Holy men
and women.
Our roving eye of
lust is out on the pull seeking what other’s have. Our eye
of lust wants anything that could grant us recognition of
men. It is the horseleech of Proverbs that cries
day and night for more and never is satisfied. The thing about lust is it is an inflamed
emotion, it is not a five or ten-year discipline, it doesn’t
want to pay the price to get something, it wants immediate
gratification. Why should we spend precious time praying,
fasting, and studying God’s word alone? Why should we pour
ourselves out, giving all that we have and all that we are
to the Lord? When we can just go over to the dump and get
it for free?
To him that hath
an ear to hear let him hear; I’m going to give some very liberating
information. The
bottle that God creates within every believer is wholly unique
and forged at the foot of the throne of God. This bottle is
non-transferable and non-refillable. So you can save yourself from wasting
years of your life trying to get someone else’s bottle. You
can spare yourself the disappointment and discouragement while
at the same time avoiding giving the devil place in your life
when you discover this spiritual Ponzi scheme doesn’t work.
John 10: 1-2 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.
If we try to receive some gift, or a ministry
or someone else’s mantle by going some other way but through
the door (Jesus) we become a thief and a robber.
If you are even
contemplating using shortcuts in regards to receiving your
calling, gifts of the Spirit, and/or ministry, you are contemplating
the most dangerous thing a believer can do. You are indicating
to the serpent that you are willing to do anything to get
the gift and/or ministry of your choice. In Genesis the serpent came to Eve offering
her a short cut to the promises of
God, and we know all too well what happened there.
Jesus is the door.
Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. Jesus is
the way the truth and the life. All true Ministry or gifts
lead you to the feet of Jesus. If they lead you to the feet
of a Minister or a Ministry it is false. How else can you
explain the following verse?
Matthew 7:21-23 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall
enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will
of my Father which is in heaven.
Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we
not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I
profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that
work iniquity.
I have heard this repeatedly preached that
these people had false gifts. Counterfeit ministry and that
these people were agents of the devil.
Jesus was not confused when he spoke, this passage
does not require interpretation. If Jesus could give his unregenerate
disciples gifts of healing, power to cast out devils and perform
miracles, if in the Bible we have examples of those who began
their walk close to God and later departed, it is easy to
understand that a gift or ministry has to come through the
door or through the vine to the braches. If Jesus said I can
of my own self do nothing. If Jesus said if I bare witness
of myself it is no good. If Jesus said He could only do that
which he saw the Father do. . . how can
we expect to do it any other way?
The Bible repeatedly warns us that: “No
thief shall enter in the kingdom.”
So why are we really
doing this book and tape thing? These in all reality are acts of rebellion
and disobedience on our part.
For when we know that we should be studying to show
ourselves approved, and meditating on His word, for when we
know that we should be spending time in prayer and waiting
on the Lord, for when we know that we should be humbling ourselves
before God and serving one another as we would Christ. We
instead push those aside, as well as the promptings of the
Spirit in order and have a flesh feast while dumpster dining.
Thirty years ago
I knew dozens if not hundreds of believers that took on this
lifestyle. They gorged themselves on tapes, books and videos.
They were on top of all the latest truths. The sad truth is
that not one of them ever came into something solid in God.
Many of these believers have long since passed away, while
those who still remain are sickly, weak, and a lot more confused
and frustrated than if they had never embarked on the route
of ever learning but never coming to the knowledge of the
truth.
Acts 19:13 Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon
them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of
the LORD Jesus, saying, We adjure
you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth.
In our day we have
a lot of vagabond Christians who take upon themselves gifts,
ministries, and mantles that are not their own so say things
like: In Jesus name whom John Lake teacheth.
Or In Jesus name whom Charles Finny teacheth.
Or In Jesus name whom Smith Wigglesworth
teacheth, or in Jesus name whom Kenneth Hagan teacheth -- be thou whole, be thou cast out, be thou whatever,
and nothing happens. I am not knocking the faith message, I am knocking receiving 2nd hand, third
hand and fourth hand
truth. Reading a book doesn’t make it so in your life. “The word has to be made flesh” you have
to experience it, you have to lay
at the feet of Jesus to be taught of him. You’re pastor can
not do this for you.
Now if that sickness,
that demon, or that whatever it is that you want dominion
over would speak to you I’ll go out on a limb predict it would
say; “Jesus I know, and John Lake I know, but who are you?”
Why do movements
fail? Because
people are pattern conscious.
I Corinthians 12:15-17 If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore
not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore
not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?
Let’s
put this in modern terms we all need a devotional relationship
with God. We all need to know the Lord’s Visitation
in our lives. But God made only one unique vessel named Walter
Beuttler. If everyone goes and patterns themselves after Walter
Beuttler, as good as that would be, the body of Christ would
be diminished by this action. Because the body would be deprived
of many otherwise unique vessels with unique operations and
gifts of the Spirit that along with the real Walter Beuttler
would greatly edify the body. But instead we end up with 10,000
Beuttler clones most of which are really bad knock offs.
God has called each of us to be unique vessels
before Him to glorify Him uniquely, and personally – and that
each of us become the glitter jewel before Him that we are
called to be – as thus our life becomes a sweet savor unto
Him. We need to press into the Lord and seek Him with all
our heart that we might truly become all that we can be in
Jesus Christ rather then settling to be just a can of beans.