Beware of Yielding to the Law

June 27, 2004

Personal Narrations

Joel Akin

Calgary, Alberta

The Dream: I entered the Bible College with instructions from God to set a bomb. When I arrived at the school library I was shocked to find the library crawling with cops. Every person studying or reading came under scrutiny. I realized I could never complete my mission under these conditions and ran out of the school. I was followed by a private detective who placed me under bondage. I was in so much pain I cried out to Christ and he set me free.

Galatians 5: 3-4 3 For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. 4 Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.

The interpretation of the dream: God had ordered me to set a bomb.(Only in the dream and not in real life!) These days terrorists realize that bombs may only impact a handful of people at a time but their purpose is to create fear or to awake people to their cause. Yet as God began to reveal deeper truths I realized that the church has come under the law. Now most people are so asleep they do not realize the absolute horror and devastation that comes from returning to the law. It was Paul who wrote that if we abide by part of the law, in any way or form, that we are indebted to the entire law. So part of that bomb is to awaken the church, albeit the readers of this note, that the law has returned to the church. And until we understand the grace of Christ and the purpose of Christ's coming we will remain under the laws authority.

God gave me two more dreams on the dangers of the law making a total of three dreams over three nights. In each dream He revealed the devastating effects the law has on the church and the bondage and fear which result.

So what is the law? To understand this we have to go back to the Old Testament where Moses was in the desert with the Israelite people. It is there on the Mount that God met with Moses and gave him the ten commandments. And God also revealed to Moses various judgments, laws, teachings and guidance as to how to live. Many of the teachings had to do with festivals, animal sacrifices and things one could and could not do. At this stage the only way you could have your sins forgiven were to have them covered by the blood of an animal. And to create laws with punishments included so that each person would not just live in fear and trembling but they would also be their neighbors conscience as well. Anyone caught picking up sticks on the Sabbath would be stoned and thus was the power and authority of the law.

What is grace? Though we could get quite deep into this subject I like to think of grace as the absolute freedom we have through Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. The Bible tells us the law came by Moses and grace by Jesus Christ. One came of men and thus was incapable of dealing with the spiritual issues which can only be touched by God.

So why is the law in the church so bad? To understand this we need to ask ourselves by what authority we live. If we chose to abide by laws, rules and regulations in the church then we have created for ourselves a hierarchy based on the law of of men. Such laws can best be described as 'thou shall not" and the church is filled with rules such as this both seen and unseen. For the majority of us rules are both comforting and generally easy to follow.

There is also another principle at work here known as submitting. If you submit to a person, idea or concept you come under their authority. Now there is something called natural submission. Paul referred to this in Hebrews 13:7 when he said to submit ourselves to those who rule over us. In other words the powers of our government, our policemen and such. In like mind the wife is to submit herself to the authority of her husband just as Christ rules over the church. This is a critical distinction we must be aware of.

Yet there is also something I believe should be called Spiritual Submission. It is where you yield your mind and thoughts to the powers that be. In this we should always submit to God and the spiritual leaders in our life. Yet unfortunately this is where so much of the problems develop when the Spiritual leaders have returned to aspects of the law. For the desire and demand for 'order' in the church has lead to a lack of spiritual freedom. The pastors have gone from being spiritual guides to being the law givers stating what God can and cannot say. God wants to rebuke the people? Not in this church. God wants to give a message through a prophet? Not in this church. God wants us to cancel the service in order to pray? Not in this church. If the spirit of the Lord brings liberty then the imprisoning of the Holy Spirit brings forth death.

And that is really the issue of this article. For where the law abounded death also abounded. Where there are rules and regulations of men which supersede the freedom of Christ only death can abide. For no man, woman or child can live half under the law or partially under the law. Yet our spiritual lives are so filled by the law that we have become spiritually bound. And the spiritual leaders must ask themselves, "Am I responsible for helping to imprison others?"

So how can one tell? The answer is easy enough. Its where you believe you are responsible for 'fixing' the people or the church. I have struggled with this distinction between pointing out sins or pointing them to the Cross of Christ. So I can only point out how God dealt with me when it came to sins. All my life I have come under the condemnation of sin because of nearly every sermon I had ever heard. And even when I had been forgiven another sermon would point out a new sin I had not known of. This continued for years and years with each new sermon, each new sin condemning me so that I despaired of life. I realized in horror one day that it was not God constantly condemning me of all these sins but man. It was not the Holy Spirit convicting my heart but the laws of men that were punishing me.

 Does anyone remember that when it was time for the Gentiles(anyone not Jewish) to join the church there were only a handful of 'sins' they should not commit. Acts 15. They were

1. Fornication

2. Worshipping idols

4. Not eating strangled things or eating/drinking blood

 Now what about all the other things that the church has added to it since then? I'm sure many reading this will ask " Well, what about this or that?" I myself could come up with another 30-40 things that we have added to the burden. But I believe what the writer was trying to get across is not to burden them with laws but to show them the grace they could have through Christ.

And if there is one area we have grown confused in it is the area of grace. You see it is the purpose of the Christian that everyone of us makes a spiritual breakthrough where we are no longer bound by Satan, by tradition, by fears or doubts, by laws or hindrances of any kind. So what about Sin? That's just it. To those who truly walk with Christ and understand who He is the desires of this world no longer control you. It is only those Christians who are still bound by this world who need laws and regulations to govern them. 

In all honesty I know why the church is filled with rules and regulations. It is not that we have abused the grace of Christ so much as we do not even know what it means. We have bragged how much better we are then the Pharisees and Sadducees not realizing we have returned to their ways. If we hope to arrive at a place of healing we can only do that by Submitting to God, by resisting the devil, by turning our back on traditions and laws and asking God to lead us into all truth. Some may stay in the church and some may leave. Some may turn away from Sundays and start up evening services. But it is not in the creating of new ideas that God is looking for but the willingness to change the inner man. For it is the inner man which must move forward before we can hope to find grace and freedom from the laws which keep us in bondage.