Let the Others Judge

The way to the Father (perfection) through Christ (the way) is very simple, but men have sought out many schemes. God’s Spirit gives us power and instruction on the way by not speaking of Itself, but speaking what It hears. Its voice can be heard day or night, sometimes chastening, sometimes guiding and exhorting. And yet it is very common for people to believe that they have reached total perfection by receiving the Holy Spirit. Instead of paying attention so they can hear what the Spirit is speaking, they rejoice over having received the Spirit. This is a great deception. This is why many people who received the Holy Spirit a few years ago are now on the verge of withering away from lack of nourishment. They miss out on the spiritual food the Holy Spirit provides, because they just continually rejoice over having received the Spirit and don’t receive what the Spirit has to give them.

Consequently, they eventually become exceedingly dry, and the gifts of tongues and interpretation, which should have been used for edification, are used as weapons to overpower one another.

The baptism of the Spirit has been called by many different names over the course of time. Before the recent “movement,” the baptism of the Spirit was called “liberation.” A lot of people were liberated, and they rejoiced over having been set free from the law. But most of them went astray in their liberty and, without even noticing, slipped into “false liberty,” because they hated the cross. They loved good feelings and gladly shared in all the good things in Christ, but they hated Christ’s sufferings and having fellowship with Him in those sufferings.

Christ still has His winnowing fan in His hand today, and He is cleansing His threshing floor. Every revival has its time of testing. Now is the time of testing for this recent “movement,” and we can be certain that there will be a great falling away. In many places, people are already raging against the message of the cross. They speak in tongues, interpret, and speak prophetic words against those who dare to bring the cross over their sweet feelings and sense of self-satisfaction. But just as Christ overcame all principalities and powers on the cross and triumphed over them in it, we will also, by that same cross, overcome and defeat every enemy of the cross of Christ—even if they employ all their gifts to battle against the eternal word of the cross.

Right from the beginning, this movement has lacked leaders who, in the love of Christ, were able to care for the sheep. The leaders of the movement have traveled around to various conferences, writing and speaking about the meetings and all the things they have seen and heard. They have especially admired people who are celebrities in this world and who have graced the conferences with their presence. There have been conversations and discussions about what should be done in order to get the world to believe that speaking in tongues is from God, etc. And while the leaders have been attending conferences, the wolves have wreaked havoc in the sheepfold. They have been very concerned about what the world has to say, but there has been a complete lack of leadership within the flock.

This has not been without consequence. Carnal forces far and wide have exploited their gifts as much as possible in order to exalt themselves and for personal gain. All kinds of shepherds have appeared, all using their shears for their own gain. That is why the sheep have been utterly shorn of any true spiritual understanding and discernment.

Yet, thanks be to God, all folly comes to an end, also in this case. Then people will be left with the experiences they have gained. As it has always done, the cross will once again take out the precious from the vile. But it will not go well for those who put all their stock in their gifts.

God has not given us spiritual gifts in order to cajole and beat down our fellow man, to use them to gain favor and rule with a royal scepter. We have received them in order to serve and edify one another; and when they are used in this way, the gifts will be a blessing and will be used properly.

Let the world believe what it wants. It is utter folly to spend time and energy trying to get the world to believe that speaking in tongues is from God. That only shows the great extent of their great ignorance concerning what the word of God says about speaking in tongues. In 1 Cor. 14:2, it is written that he who speaks in tongues does not speak to man but to God, so no one understands him because he speaks mysteries in the Spirit.

If speaking in tongues is not directed to men but to God, how vain it is to expend a lot of effort trying to get the world to believe in something that is meant for God alone and has nothing to do with people. It says further that they speak mysteries in the Spirit. What does the world have to do with mysteries in the Spirit? Such people can barely understand tangible things. No, stop wasting energy on such efforts that only serve to gratify the flesh. We are not debtors to the flesh. Our time is much more precious than that. No one can understand these things. That’s just the way it is. Speaking in tongues can only be interpreted in faith, by the Spirit, so that believers can be edified.

The leaders (shepherds) are always the ones who have had to take the blame when the sheep go astray. But since the shepherds have looked out for themselves and only tended the sheep for the sake of their wool, their days as shepherds have come to an abrupt end.

What is needed more than anything else is the word of the cross—the power of God. Again and again it has become evident that nothing binds us together as strongly as the nails of the cross. Satan flees before the cross. Enmity disappears on the cross, and the power of God is revealed through the cross. God has blessed the word of the cross, and many have had their eyes opened recently to the fact that nothing else is of any avail. They have come to see the emptiness of all this liberty that is being preached—without the cross. People are promised freedom by those who are themselves slaves of corruption. But the cross drives these preachers of liberty away. It exposes them for what they are, just as it does with everything else that comes from the prince of darkness.

Through the cross, brotherly love flourishes, when we become partakers of the same sufferings—the sufferings of Christ. Through that same spirit, we have the same mind, to the extent that we have progressed. The things people have attempted to glue together using external bonds are made one on Calvary by the cross. Glorious cross! On the cross, offendedness and everything that brings division is destroyed. Cowards, murderers, and all liars in word or in deed must flee before it. Those who cling to lying spirits and false doctrines must flee before the cross, as well as those who only seek to gratify themselves and their own feelings but who loathe suffering of any kind.

The law is our schoolmaster that leads us to Christ, but once we have come to Him, the cross lays hold of us. It replaces the law and fulfills what the law was not able to do, so that we no longer serve sin. We can be set free from the law, but never from the cross, as long as we are in this body. Those who rejoice over being freed from the law ought to think this over. We are not without law toward God; the cross testifies to this. But we are under the law toward Christ by this same cross.

Conceited people, who hate the cross of Christ, believe that they have more power than those who endure the cross with patience. This is nothing more than false imaginations, the fruit of blind ignorance. Power does not consist, as they think, of speaking in tongues, but rather in overcoming yourself and all sin by the cross of Christ. Out of fear of the gifts, carnal people are permitted to disrupt and dominate the meetings. These people use tongues and emotions to interrupt others who are praying or speaking, and then they themselves take the stage. It’s high time for such people to come under scrutiny. Nothing can test them more effectively than the cross, because everyone and everything that is not of God—and therefore does not love the truth—flees before it.

Now we are entering a new time, a time where people need power so that they can resist and overcome the spirit of antichrist, which is daily pressing closer and closer upon us, trying to draw everyone along with it. We know that ungodly people cannot withstand this spirit. But through the cross we will remain standing in the power of God, after having overcome everything. Therefore, may we learn to watch and pray and be sound in the faith and teaching of Christ, so that we joyfully await the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.