DESTROYING THE TRADITONS OF MEN PART II

DESTROYING THE TRADITIONS OF MEN PART II

A: TRADITION MEETS TRUTH

2 Timothy 1:1

1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus . . .

Paul’s apostleship is according to the power of the life that is in Jesus. The apostleship is not in his flesh. This is something that tradition (man’s way) must accept. God has put us on a collision course with tradition and that collision is going to be tradition coming face to face with the Word of God. Tradition is the only weapon Satan uses that is capable of making the Word of God ineffectual.

St. Mark 7:1-3

1 Then came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem.

2 And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault.

3 For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders.

Tradition is a way of doing things that a person or a group of people refuses to change.

These were ordinances which were inside the Law, therefore, installed by God. Jesus was born under the Law and called out twelve men who were also born under the Law, but they were not keeping the ordinances. The scribes and the Pharisees began to see the people hail Jesus as a great Rabbi, but they noticed that He did not enforce the Law in the lives of His disciples and this offended them. Jesus Christ was the fulfilling of the Law. This is why He can easily say, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” What was God doing? He was changing what He had installed.

In dealing with or discerning tradition, we need to understand how something becomes a tradition in the negative sense. When God installed His ways inside the Old Covenant with the children of Israel, the reason he changed it was because they broke their covenant with Him. It would have remained the same if they had been found without fault. In the breaking of the Old Covenant, God installed a New Covenant, which also became a new way.

How much of the Old Covenant is still alive or did God destroy all of it?

The scripture says it was disannulled, which means that everything was done away with. Christ was the fulfillment of the Law, therefore, everything from Genesis to Malachi was fulfilled in Christ. Since the way has changed, if it is not accepted there is no covering for our sins. With God’s new covenant came a new way. God can install a way of doing things and if that way is broken he can install a new way. If we however, hold fast to the old way tradition, surfaces. When God has changed a way but we hold fast to it, it does not have the same effect it used to have because of the change God made. The old way is no longer recognized by God as righteous or holy once he has installed the new way. If we continue to stay in the old way, it is no longer God’s way but man’s way. Henceforth, the definition of tradition is man’s way of doing things.

Isaiah 29:13

13 Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:

Tradition is also a way of doing things that does not reflect a righteous disposition of the heart. It is a routine or ritual, and is performed because we were trained to do so; it is comfortable and we become complacent or it somehow benefits us to do it. We must serve God from our heart. Tradition moves the heart far from God. When God changes the way and we do not make the transition, then our heart did not move with God.

Why won’t we make the change? Why do we remain in the old way?

The traditions of the church today were not established by God. Man has established his own traditions and they have been established by men’s doctrines. The doctrines of men are based upon the precepts of men, or the ways men see God. Man can read his Bible but if his heart is not pure he will perceive God in a manner that protects what he wants to hold onto. Anytime we take our focus off of what the Word says about God and we allow man to teach us God through his eyes, we lose focus of the real and true mind of God. This is why tradition has been able to hypnotize the household of faith. It is almost as if the people of God are under a spell and they believe everything that the leaders tell them. As long as we have schisms in the Body we will never be unified in the faith. Because this is discussed as tradition as a whole, do not be deceived in thinking the root is not individual. We cannot have an organizational doctrine unless we first fill the people with the same doctrine.

NO GENDER IN THE SPIRIT

God says the gift is within the Holy Ghost, there is no male and female, and in the last days He is going to use His whole Body. Yes, the scripture does say “be in submission to your husband,” but pertains to a domestic situation.

1 Timothy 2:12

12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.

This is one of the scriptures tradition uses to shackle women and keep them out of positions of authority in the Church. They take this scripture out of context and say if a woman is ever teaching she can only teach the women. Some traditional churches even have a ritual wherein all the men sit in the back of the church if a woman is teaching, and allow the women to sit up front so as not to let the woman think she is teaching any man. This is how they interpret this scripture. The scripture says Eve was first deceived and was caught in the transgression. Because of this, traditional mindsets translates this to mean that the punishment of Eve was never paid and she would always be suffering for her sins. The man is delivered but the woman is never delivered. THIS NEGATES SALVATION FOR THE WOMAN!

Her penalty now is she can never be in any position of authority. God says this too is a domestic situation because the witnessing scripture does not say that a woman should be in submission to man, it says that a woman shall be in submission to her own husband. When speaking about a woman usurping authority, it means she is not to officiously meddle in the affairs of her husband. In other words, she is not to argue with him. If her husband wants something done in the house she is to do it the way he would like it done. The Word says to this wife to win her husband with her chaste conversation. Change him gently if need be and keep her lifestyle pure. Keep a quiet and meek spirit and wife, you, will win your husband. But some traditionalists feel the scripture is still speaking about the church. Let’s continue reading, in

(1 Timothy 2:15) where it states;

1 Timothy 2:15

15 Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.

If this chapter of scripture is not talking about a domestic situation, why is this woman bearing children? If she has children, keeps the commandments of God and allows the righteous seed to be developed in her, she will be saved from that docile life of non-involvement. Let us say we explain this scripture to two preachers who are in tradition and one of them decides to break tradition and go against what he has grown up believing. This is how judgment comes. The preacher who decided to break tradition takes his leaders and begins to do what the Word says to do. He begins to see that there is neither male nor female and he allows truth to come forth in his church. Now he has male and female leaders operating and performing the work of God. The other traditional preacher decides he is not going to change. He has all his leaders (men) with him and after the woman finishes devotion and testifying she sits down and allows the men to carry on. She, however, cannot sit too long because the men eventually need her to go in the kitchen and fry some chicken and fish to raise enough money for the pastor’s anniversary. The female gift in this ministry is suppressed because of ignorance and the scriptures have not been interpreted properly.

God will expose this preacher to the truth and even have someone teach him the truth, but he still decides he is not going to change. God will start using the body in the pastor’s church who made the break from tradition. He will start using men and women in the five-fold ministry because they found out it is not flesh that performs the work, but it is the hidden man of the heart who works the ministry. That ministry begins to grow and multiply. God will show “Pastor Tradition” this growing ministry because, after all, it was “Pastor Tradition” who said God will not use a woman as a pastor, although he now sees female pastors raised and begetting more sons for the Father’s Kingdom. God will allow “Pastor Tradition” to see, entertain and experience His truth, love and grace that is abounding in this work. While “Pastor Tradition” is there, his testimony will be, “I feel the love of God” and he sees the works of God. Then as he travels back home, his leaders remind and strengthen him in the old ways of tradition. He saw the evidence of the Holy Ghost but what happened? The talk of the elders he entertained made what he saw and experienced non-effectual. His heart is hardened again and he resumes his stance. Tradition also breeds fear and he becomes fearful that if he changes he will lose what he has in tradition. What he has not discerned is those few saints left in his church are all that he still has. The elders strengthened his ego, and ego tells him this is all the work of the devil. But the persuasion of the traditionalists will harden the heart. Rather than lose what little he has he will stand firm against what he has seen to be the work of the Holy Ghost. Now he can be judged. Because he speaks evil of the dignitaries of God he is in trouble with God. He needs an intercessor. If those saints of God are truly righteous, they will pray him out. They will intercede for him until they see God change him. The Word cannot bring him out because it is ineffectual because of his traditions (St. Mark 7:13).

God may have to take his tradition, the very thing he trusts in, and turn it against him. “Pastor Tradition” worships leadership and organization, so God will work these things against him. Why? Because God wants to retrieve him out of the clutches of captivity and tradition. God will take the hand of tradition and knock him down for a season. When God does this he wants “Pastor Tradition” to look up and see what is working against him. If he does not move into God’s heart, God will lift him up for a season and if he still does not move God still has a way. It may not even be at the hands of leadership and his organization. God has to take him off the mountain of ministry because his lust for ministry has blinded him. God loves His man, and He wants to deliver him. God will try to pull his man out with goodness first. The scripture says it is the goodness of God that leads man to repentance. But if he rejects the goodness of God then God has another supernatural hand waiting to knock him down again. He can beg, plead, roll, cry, repent, pray and fast. God won’t move. Why? He is waiting on “Pastor Tradition” to SUBMIT. “Pastor Tradition” may only be sorry because of the consequences and the condition where he now finds himself. We cannot be afraid to do things God’s way. When do we submit? When we purpose in our heart to do things God’s way. Not only must he repent, but he must submit as well. “Pastor Tradition” has something working against him because he called the work of God the work of Satan. But, when he submits and God gets him up, he will be more valuable than he was before the fall.

The apostolic mantle puts you in the spirit world and allows you to see what God is doing in the Spirit. God said to tell the people that it is time to go to Mount Carmel, because tradition has taken its stance and have declared that they will not move. God says he is calling out Elijahs, and he has set up situations to prove us on a smaller scale so we will have confidence on a larger scale. When the prophets of Baal decided they were not going to change, they took their stance. They blamed all the trouble in Israel on one man. After God had strengthened his man, His man went to tradition and told them if they thought he was the trouble in Israel they were to meet him at Mount Carmel. It is time for us to prove what real God is. The first visit to Mount Carmel must be purposed to save the resisters. The second visit is to remove the opposition. God will allow those held captive by negative traditional mindsets to attack the truth to their fullest ability possible. Then he will let truth answer. How does truth answer? Truth goes up to God. We must go up before the Master and ask God to change those hearts who have stated they are not going to move. Where is the victory? When those who are off-course submit to the way of God. The easy thing to do would be to destroy them, but the merciful thing to do is to invoke God’s mercy. We must start systematic intercession for tradition. If we do not, then there is no love in us. We cannot watch for iniquity. If we sit around and do nothing, it is the same as us waiting for God to bring them down. We must go to God and intercede that He would reveal the truth to them. We do not go to destroy them because they are still our sisters and brothers. If we call for God to cast them down, then we are in the same spirit they are. Anytime we wait for the demise of another then love of the Father is not in us. We are supposed to be praying for restoration, forgiveness and mercy. God loves us and desires that we submit to His will. We are supposed to be exalting THE TRUTH and not what we want. Lift up the Word of God. Stop preaching an organization and start preaching the Word. We can make an idol out of our organization and our leader. We cannot do this. We want people to worship God and Him only.