Crossroads At the Day of Bapticost
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heart. That’s why you are Bible-Focused.
Carl: Okay, but help me with this academic stuff and Your Spirit. Are You suggesting that I will know more about Your Spirit by going to seminary?
Jesus: No.
Carl: So academics don’t lead us into a relationship with the Spirit?
Jesus: Not by themselves.
Carl: Does the Spirit lead us to academics?
Jesus: Not by Himself.
Carl: How do academics relate then?
Jesus: I AM myself. Academics are a responsibility that I placed on your shoulders.
Carl: So, the Spirit is the Spirit, but I need to be academic?
Jesus: Exactly.
Carl: So, how does that relate to miracles?
Jesus: Are you familiar with the term “research?”
Carl: Are You kidding? I’m in seminary!
Jesus: How many miracles have you researched?
Carl: I’ve done lots of Bible study on miracles.
Jesus: That’s researching Bible. You sure are Bible-Focused, aren’t you?
Carl: That’s what Pentecostals seem to think.
Jesus: So they do. I did call you to be Bible-Focused, after all.
Carl: What’s Your point about research and miracles then?
Jesus: You research the Bible about miracles, but have you ever actually been academic in researching miracles themselves?
Carl: I haven’t seen all that many miracles today. They don’t really happen much.
Jesus: That isn’t very academic of you.
Carl: What?
Jesus: You mean that miracles don’t happen very much in your experience.
Carl: Yes, if You want to be technical.
Jesus: Not “technical,” “academic.”
Carl: What?
Jesus: You asked if Spirit-Focused congregations were academic.
Carl: Yes, then You started talking about miracles.
Jesus: And you don’t see the need to be academic in your opinion about miracles?
Carl: I know the Bible verses, though.
Jesus: Do you know the actual miracles?
Carl: I haven’t seen them myself.
Jesus: So, what do you think about that?
Carl: I supposed they…
Jesus: Exactly!
Carl: Huh?
Jesus: You can only “suppose” because you haven’t actually had specific field experience with the actual miracles. Your “miracle” knowledge is limited to Bible.
Carl: Bible isn’t limiting!
Jesus: So, it isn’t stopping you from going into the field and gaining experience.
Carl: But I think that many miracles are just a bunch of people faking it for money.
Jesus: Then go into the field and see them faking it before you talk about it… and see it a bunch of times, not just once, then say, “everyone is faking it.” If you are going to talk with authority on the matter, you need field experience, not just theory, even if it’s Bible theory.
Carl: But I haven’t been in the field of “miracles.”
Jesus: Then you don’t have an opinion about miracles—you have an “I suppose…”
Carl: What else can I do? I just don’t see them happen in my life! And it’s really a personal subject. I want them to happen to me, but You are rubbing it in my face! [obviously going into a defensive mode that is so emphatic and unexpected that it is comical]
Jesus: If you want miracles, go to the people who have them.
Carl: You mean I should go to the Spirit-Focused congregations if I want “field experience” with the actual miracles themselves?
Jesus: Why not?
Carl: But they don’t do a good job with the Bible!
Jesus: That’s okay, you don’t go to an apple tree for oranges do you?
Carl: Well, no, I guess not…
Jesus: So, go to seminary for Bible academics and go to Spirit-Focused congregations for “miracle field-experience academics.”
Carl: So, what do I do when they start saying nonsense about the Bible that they don’t diligently study as much as I do?
Jesus: Do the same thing I do when you start saying nonsense about the miracles that you haven’t personally seen—love them!
Carl: So, go to the Spirit-Focused people and see their “maybe” miracles, even though they don’t know the academic rigor of the Bible quite like I do?
Jesus: Husky’s pull sleds. Retrievers play fetch. Beagles chase rabbits. Spirit-Focused congregations heal people. Bible-Focused congregations study the Bible super well.
Carl: But I’ve also wanted to heal people.
Jesus: And Spirit-Focused people like to study the Bible.
Carl: But it really bothers me that they don’t explain their miracles well. They make a lot of people feel guilty for “not having enough faith” and there’s so much that makes me sad…
Jesus: So… are you going to complain or help them be academic?
Carl: Huh?
Jesus: Are you whining?
Carl: Well, no.
Jesus: So…
Carl: I get it. If I think that the Spirit-Focused people aren’t so good at using the Bible to explain their miracles—when and why miracles do and do not happen—I should go let them do the miracles and I’ll help them with the Bible part.
Jesus: One Body, many parts.
Carl: But I don’t think they will listen.
Jesus: They’ll listen when you are academic.
Carl: Academic about Bible?
Jesus: No, they’ll listen when you are academic about miracles.
Carl: What’s that supposed to mean?
Jesus: The Spirit-Focused congregations are my friends. I gave them miracles because I love them.
Carl: Don’t You love me?
Jesus: Yes, that’s why I gave you an extra deep passion for Bible.
Carl: So? Your point?
Jesus: Do you know why Spirit-Focused congregations don’t want to hear your academics about the Bible?
Carl: Why?
Jesus: Because you aren’t academic about their miracles that they see on a regular basis.
Carl: Okay?...
Jesus: They know their miracles. They see them. They pray for them. Sometimes miracles don’t happen even though they ask me for them. They want to know why miracles sometimes happen and sometimes don’t happen. They try to explain it, sometimes their explanations help… but it’s a dramatic anxiety for them. They have a lot of joy and there is a lot of heartache.
Carl: Yeah, I know, that’s why I don’t like to go there.
Jesus: But they are there, in that game. So, when you express opinions about the game they are playing when you are sitting on the sidelines, it feels to them like you are throwing tomatoes.
Carl: So, they don’t want to hear about my super-Bible diligence because I don’t understand them first.
Jesus: Yes. I came into the earth. I didn’t stay at a distance.
Carl: You want me close to the others in Your family.
Jesus: Yes I do.
Carl: So, if I go and listen and watch and understand their miracles and lack of miracles and watch them live how they live… and I’m “academically responsible” by only talking about things I’m involved with, not just stuff I read about… even though I read about it in the Bible… then they will trust me?
Jesus: When you don’t say that the stuff they see every day doesn’t happen…
Carl: …when I stop accusing them of hallucinating…
Jesus: …they will think…
Carl: …that I’m in touch with reality because I’m in touch with their reality.
Jesus: Even King Nebuchadnezzar said that I AM the one who can solve any mystery because I AM the one who solved his mystery. Understand the people you talk about.
Carl: But I probably won’t agree with them. Won’t that cause a problem?
Jesus: Not if you are academically responsible about it.
Carl: So, I don’t need to agree with them. I jus
t need to be a part of their walk with You?
Jesus: Then they might listen to you.
Carl: What am I supposed to say?
Jesus: Now you are catching on.
Carl: Huh?
Jesus: You finally stopped having an opinion about stuff you haven’t seen in the field.
Carl: I’m not going to get my beliefs about truth from mere experience. I need the Bible to help explain my experience!
Jesus: But you need an experience for the Bible to help you explain. You don’t even have the experience yet.
Carl: I understand! I have it!
Jesus: And I have you.
Carl: They have the Spirit experience and it fascinates them.
Jesus: Like Heaven it does.
Carl: That’s why they don’t spend so much time being “super-academic” about the Bible.
Jesus: Do you know why there is this difference between the two groups?
Carl: We love You more than they do?
Jesus: Haha, very funny.
Carl: You caught that?
Jesus: It’s hard to get anything past me.
Carl: Why are the two groups different?
Jesus: I have given you and your friends in the Bible-Focused congregations a very strong ability to think. All my people think. All my people believe in the Spirit and seek Him. All my people know and study the Bible—but not all in the same way.
Carl: Okay. I pretty much know that. And?
Jesus: You each tend to focus on the things that fascinate you. You find fulfillment in your talents. Visiting the other groups isn’t a mere matter of loving the Holy Spirit or loving the Bible, it’s about loving each other.
Carl: Yes, we covered this in “Child Development.” A parent expresses love to the child by showing an interest in what the child does… in saying, “Oh, I like that picture,” or by having a pretend tea party. By doing stuff with children we are really saying we love them.
Jesus: Yes. So, you don’t have to be just as passionate about the stuff others are passionate about. Just be passionately involved with them. I AM.
Carl: Are You sure they will listen?
Jesus: I AM.
Carl: I know, but I’m not. Help me. Why in the world would they listen to me? Tell me more.
Jesus: There are