Once again, can you see the disconnect? We may indeed have certain advantages over the unsaved but what would Kris have us leverage them for? For the advancement of the kingdom? For the spreading of the Gospel? No. These advantages should mean that we have overcome sin and the world. That when the rest of the world runs to medication and therapy we are sound in Christ. When the rest of the world demands vengeance and violence we prefer peace and giving. Why is it "suffice to say" that we should be all of these carnal markers of greatness that Kris has outlined? Shouldn't we be the most humble, loving, and holy? Remember the brilliance, resourcefulness and advanced ideas of God are mocked by a world that sees them as foolishness. The creativity, imagination and inventiveness of God? Dismissed outright by atheists and essentially dismissed by agnostics. The indwelling of the spirit should speak to our new life in Christ. It can be considered the source of our spiritual gifts. It is our gateway into understanding scripture. To Vallotton it is the inside track on becoming great in the world. How profoundly sad. What is equally sad is Vallotton's understanding of scripture. He quotes 1Corinthians 12:8 and fails to see the key verse just three verses away that clearly teaches not everyone gets all of the spiritual gifts. That the Holy Spirit gives these out as He wills. Kris obviously also believes this to be carnal wisdom. It is not. He continues with his list of advantages:
"3. You have the mind of Christ, which means you think like God. We are His divine think tank! (1 Corinthians 2:6-16) The Apostle Paul points out in these verses that what was a mystery to God's Old Testament people is actually revealed to us because we think like God! Read it for yourselves, "We have received the Spirit of God who knows the mind of God." Therefore since the same Spirit lives in us who lived/lives in Jesus we actually think like God. Do you want to know what God is thinking; what are you thinking? When you are right with God you think His thoughts! The Old Testament prophet went on to ask, "WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD"?" The great apostle Paul replied, we do! "We have the mind of Christ!" The mind of Christ is your X-factor, your secret weapon"But to activate your heavenly advantage you must lose the compliant, religious rule keeper, black and white mindset so you can journey out into the world of mystery, miracles, and divine mayhem. We have become predictable, boring, vanilla, uninspired people. Yet our Founder is a radical fore-thinking activist, who in three short years, altered the course of human history. Jesus transformed the way the world viewed God, money, nature, religion and kingdom life etc." -- Kris Vallotton
Wow, how breathtaking bad is this? First of all, believing you are God's think tank indicates that you are clueless because you cannot see how that means you are thinking FOR God instead of LIKE God. Now, let's deconstruct this heretical pile of nonsense. First of all, the mystery to the Old Testament folks was because they had no written word. They relied upon revelation through the prophets. For the New Testament believers, Kris already pointed out that we have the indwelt Holy Spirit but he missed the reasons why. The spirit leads us into all truth contained with His word -- which is the mind of Christ! Instead, Kris tries to turn it into the esoteric and Gnostic response that anything I think is what God thinks. What is worse, is he believes it is some kind of secret weapon only usable once we forget about religion, rules and get this -- compliance! Do you want to know a great synonym for compliance? Obedience! Instead of being confined to the word of God and the truths the spirit can lead us into, Vallotton openly teaches an asinine concept of "divine mayhem." Jesus transformed everything away from false teaching! Not so the likes of Kris Vallotton can teach so falsely again without objection. I object. If God is a God of order and one of the fruits of the spirit is self-control, in what kingdom do you think "divine mayhem" resides?
"4. You are a "new creation" born again into the kingdom of God. The word "new" here means "prototype" -- something never before created. (See 2 Corinthians 5:17.) We are the first creatures to live on earth and in heaven simultaneously. Our head isn't stuck in the clouds; it's positioned in heavenly places.
5. You are endowed with "the manifold wisdom of God" by which the Lord reveals the mysteries of the kingdom "through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places." The Greek word translated "manifold" here means multicolored or multidimensional. Jesus has granted us multidimensional wisdom"the ability to understand challenging situations from every conceivable perspective and from every imaginable realm. (See Ephesians 3:1-10)" -- Kris Vallotton
Wow, aren't we great? I mean, we are prototypes, never before created, living on earth and in heaven at the same time, endowed with the manifold wisdom of God. Don't break your arm patting yourself on the back just yet. If you actually READ Ephesians 3, you discover the context is talking about the Gospel of Jesus Christ! The usage of manifold is not to infer multidimensional wisdom for the believer. Everything the bible says Kris tries to warp into some kind of superpower God has given him. As for the usage, let's turn to Poole's Commentary:
"The manifold wisdom of God: exceedingly, or many ways, various. The Divine wisdom is in itself one simple thing, but appearing in so great variety of works, it is said to be various." -- Matthew Poole's Commentary
The manifold wisdom of God applies to multi-dimensional nature of God, not a secret power we can wield. This is the constant theme of Bethel Church. They take whatever is meant to be applied to God and they try to usurp it. They even operate a school where they teach the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which is pure blasphemy. It is the Luciferin sin of wanting to ascend to the throne of the Most High. They take the manifold wisdom, which applies to God and instead they teach it means you can solve all the worlds problems because you can see them from every conceivable perspective and every imaginable realm! Except you can't. You are not God. Sorry Kris.
