The Curse of the Earth Touch: Part 1

This is based on a message given by a great man of God. He was talking about the Curse of the Earth Touch. Watchman Nee used to refer to this often. Listen to him. 'You cannot stand and fight for God if there is one scrap of worldly scheming or planning or ambition left in you. It is only when the world has lost its power to touch you that you can do this.' He was talking about Abraham refusing the gifts of the king of Sodom (the world). There must be no 'earth touch' in the life of a Christian.

In other words, we cannot walk according to the ways of the world, or according to the flesh. 'Flesh' stands for one's own wisdom, one's own strength, one's own will: anything that emerges from one's self. As heavenly people, born from heaven, we must 'seek the things above'. Ours is a spiritual walk, a walk that is 'led by the Spirit'. We depend entirely upon our Lord who is in heaven; and the Spirit Himself, who is Lord (2 Cor 3:17), and who has come down from heaven.

Here is the message, which I have put down under 12 simple points.

1
Spiritual Christians should understand what is meant by the 'curse of the earth touch'. And this is something learnt by painful experience. It is only a burnt child who dreads the fire. The fact is: the earth lies under a curse; and the whole creation is groaning and waiting for its release from bondage, as we see from Gen 3:17-19 and Rom 8:20-23. Read those two passages very carefully. The earth lies under a curse, and woe to any Christian who walks according to the ways of the earth, the fashion of this world. Though our spirits are saved, our bodies made out the dust of this earth remain weak and infirm, and await future glory. In this connection, let us understand: Redemption is not complete at the time of our initial salvation. Our spirits are saved (justification), our souls are being saved (e.g. 'the renewing of our minds' and hearts; sanctification), and our bodies await future redemption (glorification). The earth lies under a curse, and the Adamic nature (what we call human nature), i.e. human reason, human intelligence, human imagination - bears the marks of corruption.

2
'Vanity of vanities! It is all vanity,' cried Solomon, the wise king of old. He used a phrase: 'under the sun' - which means the 'earthly sphere', 'without God'. Whatever man does on his own ends in frustration; men are thoroughly baffled and confused with the rapidly deteriorating situation in the world today. 'Things fall apart.' Like Sisyphus in the Greek story, it is a hopeless struggle against despair and death. And 'men's hearts are fainting for fear', since events everywhere indicate collapse and growing chaos. The foundations have been shaken. When you abandon faith in God and reject moral values, you end up in an opportunistic society, a dog-eat-dog world. Christianity as a religion is dead. You just have to take a look at the empty churches in the big cities of the Western world.

3
What about the situation among those who are born-again? Even among evangelicals, there is fear and suspicion and hate (planted by the arch-enemy of our souls, the Devil, who determined to divide God's children). Look anywhere; there are few born-again people who can really get together, focusing solely on Christ. Even evangelicals have acquired pet doctrines, and favorite beliefs. As a result, false preaching prevails, and there is a world-wide famine of hearing the word of God. It is a sad fact that those who claim to be saved are abysmally ignorant of the Holy Scriptures, many being too lazy to read the Bible through - even once a year! Why does a revival last not more than one, or two generations at the most? It is because of this dreaded 'earth touch'. Men put their hands upon heavenly things and blight them with earthly methods and earthly thinking. 'These enemies of the cross, set their minds on earthly things,' Phil 3:18,19.

4
When revival happens, it happens in spite of man. It happens 'from above' and men, broken by the Cross, disciplined by the Spirit, witness the wonder-working hand of God in their midst for a some years - may be, a generation. But then, along come those who have studied in Bible schools and seminaries, who bring in 'dead works' in forms, methods and philosophies (based on creeds from particular schools of theology), abandoning the basic rule of travailing prayer, the cardinal principle of a holy walk, and the absolutely vital 'inward work of the cross'. They are not willing to pay the price of 'self-emptying' and brokenness, but hold on to traditions and ideologies, duly preserving their ambitions, mentalities, biases, and keeping their natural prejudices and judgments intact. They seek blessings in short-cut ways, using eloquence, intellect, excitement, advertising, and all the pragmatic techniques of popular crusades.

5
They boast about 'Church planting' - not knowing that God plants churches only through prayer. Do they not know that first God has to 'plant' a true believer in a particular place. It is not the establishing of an organisation, but the raising up of a spiritual seed in regions unreached by the gospel. They claim to train people to give 'successful sermons in six weeks'! As if sermons can be taught through oratory, rhetoric and eloquence. Paul said, 'I came to you not with excellency of speech or of (human wisdom); my speech and my preaching was not with the enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.' 1 Cor 2:1-5. He was speaking of divine unction. You cannot play around with the Holy Spirit, you cannot bamboozle religious folk with charismatic convulsions.

(This is the end of Part 1. You have to go to another hub to read Part 2. And that is available at http://hubpages.com/hub/The-Curse-of-the-Earth-Touch-Part-2)

© Roland N Oliver/Pratonix