Greetings;
Sorry to have missed the Monday blog last week. I was in the woods hunting. I was hoping to put some provisions in my freezer but had to settle for just some God-time in the forest. It was a bit cold, but the freedom of being in the woods blessed my soul. My grocery store is a delightful place. I still have a hope of getting some venison with my bow. Maybe today.
I have been writing concerning some of the tough questionswe have to answer in, and as, the church. In the world we live in, people are being bolder and more open about homosexuality and other things the law proclaimed to be forbidden issues. For some of them, when they were born, they were born with a propensity to be more attracted to the same sex. This can include men with a physical DNA that is more feminine or a woman who has a physical DNA with more masculine tendencies. It could have been a natural inheritance, something spiritual, or even an inheritance of the soul. We do not inherit sin, but we do inherit iniquity. Iniquity is not sin, it is a weakness that can lead to sin. When we are born with weaknesses, those are the areas we need God’s strength. There are many iniquities. Homosexuality is not an iniquity that is worse than other iniquities. It is simply an iniquity among many. Anyone who has that iniquity is not less of a person or someone who needs to be ashamed. In the same way, I know people who were born with inherited pride issues. Or perhaps an inherited desire for sex that is beyond normal. Some are born with vulnerabilities towards pedophilia. These things are among human lives. As we start to address these things, we can easily take hold of our prejudices and make judgments of others. We want to claim that someone else has a problem that is worse than ours, or we pretend it is not a problem at all. I was born with problems. I have needed God and I still need God to overcome issues in my life.
I believe that some people were born with a propensity towards homosexually. Some people are born with a propensity towards pedophilia, a propensity towards oppression, or a propensity towards breaking covenants. There are some people who have experienced different circumstance and experiences that have affected them to become vulnerable to various temptations. Some men have had absent, apathetic, or abusive fathers. They have grown up in an environment with a strong mother with a greater value for what was feminine than what was masculine. It worked to form their character in a way that rejected women or becoming a man. Their experiences as a child worked towards facilitating their desires in a certain way. Perhaps a daughter whose father wanted a son. They felt they needed to be pleasing and earn the love of their father, so they sought to be a boy. It could be an experience where a child was abused by an adult physically. They felt shame. They felt guilt. What made them feel ashamed was not just that this thing happened to them, but it caused certain desires and pleasures to be aroused in them physically. They had no one to help them, no one to process it with them. They may have accepted a lie about themselves. Maybe a lie that told them they were not wanted in their natural gender. Or a lie that told them the same gender is what they are attracted to. I know women who have experienced abuses from men, including their own husbands. In reaction to their wound, they opened their hearts towards wanting to be loved in some illegitimate way. They were looking for a safe environment to be loved. They found themselves attracted to a woman instead of a man. It seemed to be a safe place. I am not sharing these things to condemn or shame anyone. I am just saying that it is a very complicated situation as to how someone becomes vulnerable to homosexuality, lesbianism, or other iniquities that become strongholds that lead to sin.
I know groups of homosexual Christians. They’ve asked Jesus into their hearts and they have experienced the love of Jesus. I know homosexuals that speak in tongues. Some may look at this and think these people can’t be experiencing the Holy Spirit. They conclude that it has to be a demon tongue. I know many Christians that speak in tongues that have had other kinds of problems including demonic problems. They really do speak in tongues. It really is the Holy Spirit’s presence in their lives. When someone loves Jesus and they speak in tongues, prophecy, or some other charismatic expression; does that mean that God approves of everything that they are doing? No, it means that God loves them. In Numbers chapter 11 Moses appointed 70 men to represent God to the people with him. The Spirit that was on Moses came upon those seventy men and they began to prophecy. Two of the men were not in the tabernacle. They were out in the camp. They were not in the right place. We could say that they were not in the right place with God. Joshua was ready to stop them. Moses said he would that God would make all of His servants prophets. These two individuals had names that simply meant that God really loves youand He is affectionate to you.I believe there are homosexual groups who know God and love God. They experience tongues and the power of the Holy Spirit, but is their choice of living the way that God wants them to choose to live? I realize that I am talking to people, so it is not my intention to condemn or shame any human being, but it is my intention to tell every human being that there are things in each of our lives that require miracles. We each have things in our lives that require a miracle to change. They require a miracle to have a new desire. This is just for our sake, but for the sake of our children and our children’s children. There are things we have to overcome. How we were born naturally is not necessarily the way we were meant to be born. Abram was born a Chaldean, but he was supposed to be a Hebrew. This required a miracle, not just a change of geographical location or thinking. Jacob was supposed to be born first, but he came out second. His twin brother Esau came out first. Esau did not have the mindset of a firstborn, Jacob did. Jacob had to go through journey, a process in his life, to be transformed into Israel. I believe we were all born into a natural reality that is not the fullness of who we are really meant to be. We have to overcome things to find our true identity in Christ.
As the church we have to realize that people are going to come to us that are going to experience Jesus, but they are not going to act according to all that we find in God’s word. It is not our job to take the word of God and kill them. They were dead before they came to Christ but now, they are coming towards Jesus or to Jesus and He is going to make them come alive. They may even have a homosexual lifestyle which is the fruit of a homosexual tendency. The real problem is not their homosexual lifestyle. The real issue is they need a miracle in their lives. They need a healing in their lives and in their hearts. I believe that as they come into the church, Jesus comes into their lives Holy Spirit comes into their lives. They can speak in tongues, but they are not walking in the fullness of what they should be. They don’t need me as a pastor or a leader to kill them on the journey. They need me to embrace them on their journey. I believe that the mercy of Jesus that comes by the blood of Calvary is enough to get them to heaven, but they are going to have to find God’s grace to reign in life. Reining in life would be to become increasingly all that God says we should be. They are going to have to find God’s grace to overcome whatever He says to overcome.
Blessings,
Ted J. Hanson
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