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WHEN THEY WANT YOU TO PERFORM

Have you ever felt that people expected you to produce signs and wonders on demand?

Last year I had to confront a member of our church. This man had come to Christ out of a homosexual lifestyle. Although he had contracted AIDS, we had accepted him fully into the life of the church.

But then he resumed his deathstyle of cruising and trysts. When I confronted him, he cried profusely and said he would repent. I told him repentance included informing those he had exposed to the AIDS virus. At that, his sorrow turned to anger. He venomously accused me: "You're no man of God! If you were Spirit-filled, you would have discerned this sin before it got out of hand. I've been doing this for months now. Why didn't you get a word of knowledge when you prayed for me?"

I reminded him that several months previously I had inquired point blank how he was handling temptation.

"That was just a hunch," he replied. "That was just pastoral concern, not a spiritual gift."

True, my gumshoeing didn't sound supernatural. ...

April
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