I see where many people are getting hurt by the wrong use of the gospel. Straight, cisgender, gay and transgender alike. Sadly that's what happens when people behind pulpits and in positions of authority use the natural mind to select doctrines, sermons and teachings.

To start when Paul wrote to the churches saying a fellow laborer was coming the flock wasn't asked to vote whether or not he was acceptable. They were told who was coming after the true elders prayed and laid hands on the ones chosen of God. That is why the baptism of the Holy Ghost is so vital. The Lord said the Spirit of truth, or Holy Ghost would seek the things of God and not that of man.

In 1 Corinthians 12:3 this is verified.

[3] Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.

I won't go into the gifts of the Spirit now. That's another post if the Lord will.

Too many today are calling the Lord accursed and not calling him Lord. Their natural mind and the spirit of man cannot do these things according to scripture.

The word says he that trusts his heart is a fool. It also says the fool says in his heart their is no God. That anti-christ me, me,me spirit only wants that which pleases man.

The word says to be carnally minded is death.

It also says that the spirit of man lusteth to envy.

It's no wonder Christianity has become so foolish.

In Joshua 7 Achan took the accursed thing. Silver, gold and a Babylonian garment.

How many today are telling people the Lord wants them to have riches, and all sorts of worldly possessions rather than what 1 Corinthians 1:30 says about wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption in Christ. It's just not good enough to draw flocks in this evil era.

It is also written in Proverbs and Psalms that the curse causless shall not come.

It says those who overlook the poor and give unto the rich bring a curse on their own selves. It is written that those who justify evil and condemn the righteous do likewise.

All these things are as calling the Lord accursed.

Neither can these people say Jesus is Lord by the scriptures.

They can mutter the words but their kingdom is divided and their heart far from the Lord.

Hence, no miracles.

Now for the spiritually discerned word.

1 Corinthians 2:4-14

[4] And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:

[5] That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

[6] Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:

[7] But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:

[8] Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

[9] But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

[10] But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

[11] For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.

[12] Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

[13] Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

[14] But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

The scriptures above are pretty straight forward and easy to understand.

The need of spiritual discernment is why the gospel appears to be foolishness to the unbeliever having not the baptism of the Holy Ghost on one side and preached and taught amiss on the other. Why true Christians seem foolish to some and the gospel being preached and taught amiss offends and destroys the faith of others.

If the Lord will I would like to go into the laws and prophets to show how the word of God should be taught and preached. What scripture calls the rightly divided word of truth. That which manifests both light and darkness and glorifies Christ Jesus as the main point.

For this post I will stop with two examples of the word being spiritually discerned and the natural mind not being able to understand it.

Luke 8:11

[11] Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.

Until the Lord revealed this unto the disciples they did not know what the seed was.

The word means what the Lord says and not what the concordance says.

It is spiritually discerned.

John 2:21

[21] But he spake of the temple of his body.

The scribes and pharisees knew Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek better than any Gentile today and they didn't know the Lord was speaking about his body.

Once again the word means what the Lord says and not what man thinks.

Once again we have an example bearing witness to what Paul said about the word being spiritually discerned and the natural mind seeing only the things of man.

That is why they could not see the Lord of glory as he stood before them.

They judged by what they saw with the natural eye.

My next post should start a series of what who the Lord is, what was foretold of him and what he did and didn't do for us.

I hope those who hang in there are blessed.