Genesis 3:4—5
“… The LORD looked favourably upon Abel and his offering, but he did not look favourably upon Cain and his offering.”
Amongst the many sermon-records about God’s interacting with mankind, within one of them Smith Wigglesworth quoted 2 Pet. 1:16—17, and preached this way: “Sometimes people wonder how and why it is that the Holy Spirit is always expressing Himself in words. It cannot be otherwise. You couldn’t understand it otherwise. You cannot understand God by shakings, and yet shakings may be in perfect order sometimes. There isn’t any manifestation of the body – shakings, rollings, jumpings, and all kinds of things that are allowed – that is a manifestation of God. Only the utterances are manifestations of God. The others may be so mixed with the flesh and the Spirit that it would take a great deal of divine intuition and divine revelation to discriminate between the Spirit and flesh. But you can always tell when the Spirit moves and brings forth utterances. These utterances, not wavings of hands and shakings of body, magnify God.”
Utterances, along with elements like prophecies, visions and dreams, can through divine interpretations be understood by and build up people. Nonetheless, there are also odd yet not uncommon phenomena, even those of a person being convulsed or physically weakened and so on, seemingly in an involuntary manner, while and/or after receiving prayers or the laying on of hands. There are still many other cases. All these are either Spirit-sustained, or self-induced, or devil-triggered.
Whatever happens, God’s expressions must be differentiated from human responses, by divine guidance. Our attention must be fixed on Christ, on his clear instructions, on Christ-likeness and nothing else, no matter what exotic experience(s) one (or two or more) individual(s) may have had [John 3:30], because all – not just one or two – of us are called by God to grow deep, to mature, and, ultimately, to be Christ-like [1John 3:2-3]. Does God look favourably upon the manner we offer our lives (i.e. the way we live) for him?
I wrote this in response to my experiencing, for example, an unfathomable deep stir in my heart because of which I committed my life to the Lord, and my observing those physical manifestations happening in different churches, even on those whom I personally know.
I still remember vividly how I was ‘culturally shocked’ 5 years ago in one meeting by all those manifestations (laughing, shouting, physically reacting violently when some people were prayed for), which was later discerned by pastors as devil-triggered and heretical after examining the doctrines behind that meeting.
Many manifestations seem hard to be understood, and while I can’t control nor carelessly judge how others respond to God, I can always examine myself: If God leads, then God leads. If God doesn’t, then I shouldn’t feel left out. Because physical manifestations do not necessarily indicate that people experiencing them are any stronger or in a deeper relationship with God than other people who don’t experience them; in contrast, manifestations might expose human weaknesses (in a safe way, of course, if it is Spirit-sustained).
I started composing this devotional sharing a long time ago; it is only after being illuminated on this topic by a sermon and subsequently my re-pondering and finalising it since two weeks back that I now publish them here. I am still learning. In short, Christ-likeness must be my focus.