Lie #86 We Should Invite God's Presence Into Our Church

[mamainmancj]

Catholics do a lot of things that aren't biblical though.use may not welcome the holy spirit but use hail mother mary which is dangerous. The major one is following the pope like He's some kind of God. The truth is Jesus is high priest over all. Repent turn from sin and trust alone in Jesus Christ.

[azwoogie]

You are absolutely correct Steve. God is never invited into the Catholic Mass because it is taken on faith that he is already there, that we are in fact Him, his body. The flame of the candle by the tabernacle is a visible reminder of the presence of the spirit of God dwelling among us as we gather there, if one were to need a reminder. We, in fact, are coming into His presence when we gather in His name.

[naboth675]

Wow. Thanks for the quick response. I wasn't sure you'd even seen the message. Thanks for taking the time to respond. Incidently what is your take on 'where 2 or 3 are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them'?

[SteveMcVey]

I think the intent of that promise is to assure us that anytime we gather together as believers, He is there with us.

The challenge with these 101 Lies is that many of them depend on how the grid through which we interpret them. My point in each of them is to make people think about the faulty beliefs we have, many of which we've come to believe because things have been said in a way that has misled us.

Thanks for commenting on this blog.

[naboth675]

Steve is confusing the actual presence and the manifest presence of God. The actual presence of God is everywhere. When we pray 'come Holy Spirit' we are asking God to do something in our midst. Nobody prays that thinking they are utterly seperated from God until He 'shows up'. Also Steve mentioned 'where 2 or 3 are gathered together in my name'. The key here is 'in my name' which means according to His will. If this was the presense of Jesus in us then we can have that if 1 is gathered alone.

[SteveMcVey]

No, I'm not confused about the difference between the two. The fact is that to pray "come, Holy Spirit" is a trendy thing to say in some groups as was "Lord, be with us" in years gone by. Words directly or indirectly shape our thinking about our beliefs, so I'm making the point that this kind of prayer conveys a faulty idea.

[JonathanSprik]

But Jesus spoke in Acts 1:8 "you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes ON you”. How can there be a Spirit that is IN them already but they have to sit and wait for another Spirit to come ON them? You fail to realize that the intention of many churches when inviting the Spirit isn't to invite the Spirit within them to make Himself known, that's impossible (just like you are stating), but they are inviting that manifest presence that Jesus talks about and what we see fall at pentacost.

[JonathanSprik]

@SteveMcVey I agree with naboth675 on this one Steve. I love what you're saying and I agree with you about the Presence of the Holy Spirit being IN us when we gather. We don't need to strive or anything because in John 20:22 Jesus '"breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit"'. The word Jesus uses there is a present tense word meaning you ARE RECEIVING the Holy Spirit. From the moment Jesus breathed on them they had the Holy Spirit inside them.

I only have one question about this...

[showalt18147]

Amen, Hallelujah!