Chris writes: Once the Spirit Foundation of True personhood has been laid
questions of how faith works become even more relevant. The problem with esoteric and worse bookshelves is not that these powers are not true, it's the foundation we are living from, and the fact that everything must come out of Union to Christ. But you will notice in the gospels Jesus never waited for the disciples to "get" their union before shoving them in the deep end and sending the disciples out and about with the Power message :"The Kingdom of heaven is at hand!" Getting a feel for the Kingdom as Jacob found in his life as a shepherd is often the best accelerator into TOTAL TRUTH.
Gary Sigler writes
WHAT ABOUT THE SECRET?
Part One
The book and video of “The Secret” has caused quite a stir in the religious community. The secret is all about changing our mind from the religious training we have had.I have been in many gatherings and have heard a lot of negative talk about The Secret. Many think it is another New Age deception or another doctrine of demons or an Angel of light.
I am so thankful that I know the scriptures. I know the Word when I hear it no matter where it comes from. I’m also thankful that since I’ve been 11 years old, I’ve studied scripture. The Lord taught me many years ago. He said, “Listen for my voice, and listen for my voice in everyone you meet; listen for my voice in the circumstances that are raised up in your life. Most of all, when you read or listen to something, always look for truth. If you do that, you’ll find truth everywhere.” So I have not been fearful since I was a young man about reading anything, hearing anything, reading anything that might come from Buddhism or Hinduism or anything else. I have found truth everywhere! One of the biggest problems as you are raised with the Christian mindset is the belief that only Christians have the truth. That is a big problem! Most Christians think that only they have the truth. They don’t think they all have the truth; most just think their particular denomination has the truth. So, they are taught fear in regard to New Age or any other religion..
Most Christians don’t dare read anything from Buddhism or Hinduism or any other religion. But not only that, they for the most part don’t even go to different denominations. You don’t fellowship with other Christians because they don’t believe like you do.
When I first sat down and watched this movie, “The Secret”, I was overwhelmed because what I realized as I watched it, and I listened to what they were saying, I realized that I had been living this way for years. I realized that all they were saying is that how you think and what you speak creates for you the life that you are living today. They don’t say it in religious terms. In fact, they talk about the universe and they talk about the source. But you know, when I hear people talk that way, I just change the terminology. When they say, “Source has everything you need”, I change that terminology and say, “Spirit has everything I need.”
So, I began to really look into the scriptures because I knew what I was hearing was spiritual. However I was in a meeting last year, there were 4 preachers there. They began to talk about The Secret, how it was deceiving people; They said it was teaching people how to live from their soul-life. Then I went into a Christian bookstore later on, and I found a book there that was written about how The Secret is a deception. Now this is why Christians never advance because they oppose everything that is not wrapped in the correct terminology. We sang a song last night, “I’m raising up in my house again. I’m bringing salvation without sin. I’m tearing down that carnal man, in every temple where he stands; I’m rising up in a brand new word in a voice you’ve never heard.”
In 1982, when I began to speak publicly, from the very first time I spoke I was called “A New Age teacher.” At that time, I had no clue what New Age was. This went on and is still going on today. Today some of the Kingdom ministers say “Gary, you are mixing New Age theology with Kingdom principles.” A few years ago, I was one of the most sought after speakers in the Kingdom groups. Not so today, because I embrace truth whether it comes out of Kingdom ministers or whether it comes out of New Age teachers, because I realize truth is truth no matter who it comes from.
I’ve been helped in every group and every denomination I’ve been in and I realize that I needed that experience. Some people today still need those experiences.
You cannot really experience Kingdom living when you are fearful. You just can’t do it! If you are fearful you won’t read something that you think might be deception. I am not saying there is no deception in some writings, however I learned years ago before I read something I would always ask the spirit to reveal the truth in what I read. Jesus said that you could not ask God for a fish and get a stone. You will ALWAYS get what you ask for.
Romans 12:2
Be not conformed to this world: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
One of the first things we need to renew our minds in is to believe what God says regardless of what religious teachers or anyone else says. I was in a meeting recently where one of the brothers said “Everyone believes in Jesus, they just don’t believe what he says.”
The only problem that we have – and I’m including myself, is that we are unbelievers. We believe a lot of things, but most of the things, that even Jesus taught, we don’t really believe. And when we hear somebody else teaching the things that He taught, without the terminology, we say it is deception because they are not saying it in our language. They are not speaking about God or Jesus, and they are speaking about the source. Well I would ask you, what is the source? The Source, God, has everything that we could ever need, the most glorious, wonderful, magnificent essence of all that He is, is available to us.
One of the criticisms of religious people is, they say the Secret is teaching prosperity. I would have to ask, what is wrong with prosperity? The reason most of us are not prosperous is we still have that poverty mentality. We still think that there is something godly about being in poverty.
Jesus never taught poverty. In fact He said “Ask and it is given.” Do we really believe that? He also said “Seek first the Kingdom of God and all things shall be added to you.” He said if we ask anything and do not doubt we can have anything we ask for.
We need to renew our minds about sickness and disease. Jesus never taught sickness and disease. He said in John 10:10. The thief comes to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. The life that Jesus gives is His very own life and nature. The abundant life is to live as Jesus lived while He was on earth.
Christians all over the world today teach that God will put cancer on you to teach you something. Yet Jesus said it is the thief who comes to kill and destroy.
Who is this thief that kills, steals and destroys? Well, at Pentecost, I learned it was the devil. You know, I didn’t know very much about the devil until I was in Pentecostal circles. They taught me the power of the devil. In fact, I learned at Pentecost that the devil was much more powerful than God, because he will steal your children. He will harass you every day of your life, and if you don’t walk a straight and narrow way, if you don’t bring your body into subjection, and if you just miss God a little bit, that devil is going to get you.
One day, I discovered who the enemy really was. It wasn’t anybody outside of me. It was my carnal mind that would not allow me to believe in the simplicity of the gospel message It was my religious mind that convinced me that to be sick was either God teaching me something or I had sinned some way that caused the sickness to come.
That whole teaching about the devil and the power and the ability that he has is all fables. If it was ever true, the New Testament nullifies his power anyway. The Apostle Paul said that we have been delivered from the power of darkness and we have been translated into the Kingdom.
How could the devil have any power over you if you believe that? That is why I say we are believing unbelievers. It is the thief that comes to kill, to steal, and to destroy.
When you hear some teaching like The Secret, and right away that religious mind, more than anything, comes in and tries to steal that which you are hearing and rob you from that truth, because it is not wrapped in Christian terminology.
The Secret is one of the most powerful things that I’ve ever read or seen in my life, because it helps me understand more clearly what Jesus taught. This is kingdom living, an abundant life full of joy and peace. It teaches that because we all come from one source we all have the same life.
Part Two
Carol and I have been living these principals for years but The Secret clarified some things for me, and helped me understand even more how to live in the Kingdom of God. One of the things I experienced from watching The Secret is that the Lord reminded me of one of the things that I’ve said for years that has kept me in bondage. He said, “You go back and listen to your tapes.” Several times, even up until 3 or 4 months ago, I’ve made this statement: “The Lord always meets our needs. Carol and I always have just enough.” I have said that for years. I’ve never been unsatisfied because we had everything we need. But I’ve always said, “The Lord supplies, but sometimes it is at the last minute.” You’ve hear me say, those of you that have listened to me, that sometimes our rent is due before ever even seeing any of it come in. And the Lord said, “You’ve been robbing yourself because that is a belief. It is a wrong belief. It is not a bad belief, but you are confessing something that has become your reality.” And so I told Carol “You will never hear me say again, ‘we have just enough’, because I believe that we have an abundance.” When we have the Source of all that is available to us we should be able to live in abundance. Think how much we could do for the poor and poverty stricken that we see almost every day if we begin to live in abundance.
We have been talking about taking the Kingdom and walking in the Kingdom for years, but we have not believed God that we could do it. We can’t do it as unbelievers. There is absolutely nothing that you desire that you cannot have. You can have the same abundant life of love and compassion that Jesus has for His creation. God desires that you become one who manifests his life and nature to the world
If you can believe it God will always answer the desire of your heart. Because whatever you focus your desire on and speak about and do not doubt, God, the source of all that is, will always bring it to pass.
One of the reasons I know that is because since I’ve been 11 years old; my heart has cried out, “God, I want to be like Jesus. I want to have that love that He had. I want to experience the compassion that you have for the world.” My desire for a very long time was to know the love of God. Well, I know it today. What ever you desire – Jesus said, “Whatever you desire when you pray, believe that you receive it and you shall have it.” We have such a hard time believing that. We ask for all kinds of things hoping that we get it. But see, this is one of things The Secret teaches you, that you cannot ask for something that you can’t receive. The only qualifier is that you believe it. And then I discovered – I really discovered what unbelief is. For years I’ve had the problem of unbelief. I didn’t want it, but I would desire something and I knew God could do it but then I would begin to think about how it does not work for most people and what my chances of it working for me are.
I made a statement last night that some might be offended by, I said, “God is not in control of this earth. He gave His authority to the man He created.” He gets blamed for all the chaos.
Recently I’ve been seeking God, about “How do I deal with the doubt, because as a human, although I know all things are possible with You, when I ask You for something, there is just something in me that starts thinking about all the ways it is impossible for it to come?” This is what came to me. “The way you deal with doubt is, don’t think about it. When you ask me for something, you believe that it is on the way. Every time a thought comes to you, that is not doubt. Your thoughts are not doubt. The doubt is when you receive the thought; you begin to think about it and contemplate it. That is doubt.” All of us have a heart that can believe God. When you believe for something do not let the negative thoughts get a hold on you. Our carnal mind is the enemy that is the thief that will come to you and rob and steal and kill and destroy. Jesus said, “I am come that you might have life, and have it more abundantly.”
I have had a lot of physical problems since a youth. That is not an abundant life as Jesus said we could have. However I can be in perfect peace and joyful no matter what the circumstances. Somewhere in my thinking, years ago I began to believe that I needed to suffer for godliness, that somehow my sickness and what ever happened to me was what drove me to God. I don’t believe that anymore, because if you have a hunger for God, it is because He put it there. Your sickness doesn’t drive you to God. It is the hunger that He puts in your heart. I understand now what the abundant life is. It is not a life of lack and sickness.
I made a statement last night that some might be offended by, I said, “God is not in control of this earth. He gave His authority to the man He created.” He gets blamed for all the chaos. People used to ask me, “If God is love like you say, how come all the starving babies all over the world? How come we see these videos of these starving children? How come young girls get raped? How come all of this pandemonium in the world?” I didn’t have an answer then but I have an answer today. We have chaos in the world because we as Kingdom people have not done anything about it. We’ve even believed that we can’t do anything about it. “What can I do? I’m just one person.” Have you ever felt that way? God’s people today, could wipe out poverty and could feed all the starving people in the world. Instead they build multimillion dollar buildings and sometimes only use them twice a week. You see, God isn’t responsible for all the sickness and all the wars and all that goes on in this world, it is His people who are responsible.
We all know, “We are His body.” We have heard it for years. “We are His temple.” Since that is true, then there is nothing that we cannot do. I used to say for years when I was so caught up as a Christian in all kinds of ungodly things and habits, “I can’t do it! If God doesn’t do it, it will never get done.” I thoroughly believed that. In those days I didn’t have any teaching like “The Secret” or know how to believe God.
God came to me and taught me how to believe in His love! He taught me that “It does not matter what your condition is. It doesn’t matter how caught up into sin and rebellion you are – nothing matters except your hunger and your thirst for Me. And if you will continue to seek me in your daily life, there will come a day when you will come out of all those things that you feel are hindering you.” I know some of you have heard this, but smoking was a big thing for me, because I was in Pentecostal Holiness churches, and some of them would send me to hell for smoking. For 13 years I begged God, literally begged Him, and would cry and ask Him to take that from me. Smoking wasn’t the only thing; I had many habits that I felt were ungodly. For Thirteen years I would try, but I couldn’t break free from those things. Some of you have been there where you want it, but you don’t want it. The Spirit of the Lord came to me and said, “You speak what I tell you.” He said, “I say that you are forgiven. I say that you are whole. I say that you are complete. But what are you saying? You are saying, ‘I am a smoker’; you are saying, ‘I’m hung up in lustful things’; you are saying all of this but that is not what I say about you.”
I can remember it like it was yesterday. When God began to talk to me like that, I went to my room at night, and I would spend maybe 2 hours in my room, and I would just begin to thank God for deliverance. I was so thankful to know that God was not looking at my inability to be able to stop smoking or anything else. He was looking at the Christ within me. And He was ministering to that until one day that seed in me began to grow. I’ll never forget the day. July 11, 1982 I awoke a new man after 13 years of struggle. I woke up and I just knew I’d never have to smoke again. I didn’t have the withdrawal that I used to have when I would try to quit. That is because I believed God and spoke what He said about me rather than believing in my negative experience.
This is why it is so hurtful to me when I hear something like, “The Secret” being called a spirit of error. So it’s coming out of the New Age movement! I have said for years that the New Age movement has more truth than most so called Christian Churches. They may not be living it or experiencing it, but I know a lot of preachers that preach what we do, and they aren’t living it either. We have some of the most notable reconciliation ministers alive today that the world has ever known. Some of them are not reconcilers. They are dividers and they tear down the brothers, and they gossip about them. Why? Because they believe differently.
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