Spiritual Sensitivity - C. R. Oliver (best novels ever TXT) 📗

characterized Jesus' earthly ministry. Over time, His words and works leeched into the disciples and affected the early church. Born with the infusion of the Holy Spirit known as the "Comforter," the Disciples became the most sensitive people on earth. We, too, are in this learning process, as each generation of believers reads the Word and becomes aware of the guidance of the Spirit in all matters. We begin to care for others and anticipate their need. We seek out the lost, the fatherless and the widow and minister to them. We, too, share a common mission to evangelize and make disciples. We obtain the God Mind. The Master changes our outlook and our introspection. 

Observe how Jesus treated the woman taken in adultery, the woman at the well, the lunatic, the lepers, the blind men, the crippled and halt, the tax collectors, the tenderness in Magdalene's expression of love and His sensitivity and timing toward the grieving of Lazarus' family. See Him lift the child from the funeral bier and see Him rush from The Transfiguration Mountain down to assist in the deliverance of a youth by the sea. Look at Him on the hillside with 5,000 hungry pilgrims as He met their need (sensitive to their bodies and minds). 

The disciples of Jesus should be the most sensitive people on earth. 

We should be Vigilant virgins who discern the signs of the times and changes in the spiritual atmosphere. We are not those who will be asleep with no oil when the Bridegroom arrives. We are not slumbering with the "folding of the hands" which brings poverty. No, we who are His are awake to that which surrounds us. We do call those things that are not into existence before they are needed. 

We become like the artist who is sensitive to the qualities of light and darkness and to changes in coloration--while being aware of the variances made by adding one color or another. Artists observe the quantity and shading of each ingredient entering their work. With brush and knife, he or she shapes a void into a being. That too is our endeavor! 

Like the musician, who feels the notes and creates a mood through eye and ear that stirs the souls of men and sets the stage for emotion, so ought we to be. 

Like the technician who discerns the sounds of a perfect running engine and acknowledges the power of lever and gauge, he or she adjusts before the clatter and repairs before the event. 

Like the commander of an aircraft is sensitive to climate, temperature, wind, altitude, load and the general behavior of a good running craft, so, we who work on the ship of state should define our times rather than sail into oblivion. 

We, however, often take for granted the gradients that make up life. How we react to culture, economics, government and social behavior tests our values and determination. We, who practice the art of sense exercise, know it comprises our structure under the armor of light! 

Modified considerations, changed attitudes and direction, as well as a thousand other adjustments, go into the making of the Christian. Paul said it best, "I become all things to all people that I might win some." Such a statement could only be issued from a heart who modeled for us the "Spirit-led life." He stood before kings and declared, "I would to God that you would be one of us too." It was his words that powered mission enterprises for thousands of years. "I would gladly make myself anathema in order that my people Israel come to know Him," could only be expressed by the most sensitive of souls. (Marching into Hell for a heavenly cause was more than a clichéé in Cervantes' Don Quixote.) 

Our Lord is spiritually sensitive. He enters the scenes of life in perfect timing, and His investments are always right. We need to imitate Him. There are situations in our lives, families, churches, businesses that require spiritual sensitivity. We need to know when to enter and when to exit. 

Revelation's candlestick dilemma arose from the sensitivity of our Lord to the subtle changes in the behavior of His churches. Does anyone think that has changed? Cannot the same issues be mirrored in churches and fellowships across the world? Can we not see them? Painfully sensitive were His remarks to the seven churches. Addressing the majority of early Christendom through the pastors, Jesus showed the millenniums which were to follow that not one generation ... nay, not a dozen years had passed since He ascended and there they were---with Jezebels, lost love, waning light and seats of satan. Now those centuries have come and gone-- how much greater is to be our evaluation by the Judge of the ages? My God, how important that church leadership, along with the pew masters, be sensitive to the values of their constituents and turn the rudder back toward Christ. 

Spiritual atmospheres have changed and the masses stand both confused and amazed at the acceleration of decay and desensitizing that is taking place. Mass media has shown so many scenes of murder and intrigue that children have become oblivious to another's pain. They are desensitized. Adultery and fornication have become standard fare, along with the acceptance of gay frolicking. Hard work, saving, honesty, integrity and those foundations of the Protestant ethic now lie in shambles as ridicule of religion and morals become the norm. Sensitive souls understand their times. They appraise from a different rule. Sensitivity has been associated with weakness and reluctance of involvement, NOT SO. Being sensitive to business requires reaching in and changing things before the numbers start failing. Being spiritually sensitive requires action as well. Charging into the fray may well be demanded in order to turn the tide. There is a time to "step in."

1 Peter 4:7-11
But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers. And above all things have fervent love for one another, for "love will cover a multitude of sins." 9 Be hospitable to one another without grumbling. 10 As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. 11 If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Application:
I attended recently a missionary conference. The moderator invited a brother and his wife from Colombia to come to the front and said he felt they needed prayer and related his field of work as deep in the Amazon among indigenous people. Instantly, the Spirit said, "Get to know him." I obeyed and arranged for him to visit my home. How blessed we were to have them in our house-we felt privileged. Then the Lord said, "Ask if he has a pressing need." He did. A great love for each passed between us during their stay. How wonderful is our life as we are sensitive to the leadership of the Spirit. 

In that same meeting, on the same day, we all gathered in the church hall for lunch. The Spirit directed us to sit at an empty table about midway and wait for Him to send the ones we were to know. Two of the most beautiful couples came to sit beside us; they were total strangers. Softly we inquired of their activities (One was from Indian work in Mexico and the other from Tanzania). Both these couples enriched our lives by their testimonies, and we were able to pledge assistance to them. 

Until Next Month, 

Dr. Cosby R. Oliver, PhD. 

Additional Study:

1. Chapter 3 of Micah: description of those who lost their ability to discern. 

2. John, the revelator, was the most sensitive spirit among the Disciples. He reveals much about this within his script found in: 

1 John 2:18-27 

Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. 

19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us. 

20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. 21 I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth. 

22 Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. 23 Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also. 

24 Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. 

25 And this is the promise that He has promised us - eternal life. 

26 These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you. 27 But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.

3. Are we sensitive in the realms that really count? Consider these areas.

Reading the face of God.
          Yielding to or insulting the Holy Spirit
                    Welcoming the Brethren
                              Sin/righteousness consciousness

 

Imprint

Publication Date: 04-02-2014

All Rights Reserved

Dedication:
Thanks to C. R. Oliver and the newsletter division of Zadok Publishing for allowing us to use his newsletter for this study book.