Don't ever go on to the internet - particularly chat rooms -

You are sure to get abducted, murdered, raped, lose your money, lose your family, (insert any other warning you wish) if you, after all...

... at least this is what the media and well-meaning family and friends will tell you...
Did you ever ask this fount of knowledge if they actually go on-line themselves? And how they get this information when it turns out that they don't?

---

Am I serious? Actually, no, but please read on...

I had the following conversation with another on-line associate recently, and we had been discussing the Australian media coverage (where I live) of the final outcome of a lengthy trial of an elderly man and his son, from another state, over the abduction and murder of a young female teen here in my state.

The news media tells everyone that chatrooms and the internet are bad places. No one good goes to chat rooms (according to the media).

Christians tend to believe what they are told, and it often comes from the modern day church setting, with frequently the pastor being the only spokesperson of the church....

Anyways, I am getting off topic...

We have saved some media pages about the approach the media push, and the pages the public believe represent the whole picture at www.wildernesschristianity.net/info/Internet_Predators

Was he off-topic though? I wonder.

We need look first of all at why we were talking to each other in a public room on-line.

We are both "Senior Ops" - senior management in a bunch of linked chatrooms. No they are not all Christian rooms. Remember that Christians are exhorted to live "in the world" but to not be "of the world". One room several of us are in is because of being part of a team of volunteers on a chat network, who with the unofficial approval of some senior network management, allow us to help re-establish lapsed channels.

We can do this because we know what we are doing, and know how to go about it. We use the same non-technical language in this role, as the non-technical language we use in supervising Christian channels. Some may find that surprising, but it is true.

The context of our discussion was in the situation of another Christian brother, also a senior operator, who had been "given a word of knowledge" by someone in real life in his local community. The (Christian) lady had stated categorically that his involvement in teaching the gospel in an on-line chat room was an offence to God. She also stated he was being disobedient to God by actually being on-line, amongst other "nice" comments.

Now we need look at the specific circumstances of this brother and at his on-line work he feels was the Lord's will.

He had trained for several years for the ministry, something which was not easy to do, with a family to support. Then after he completed the course, he never took up a chaplaincy ministry that was his original intent.

Our brother started to feel, among other things, that perhaps God was now calling him to a different ministry that that for which he had trained - also out of obedience. He wondered if this was to be on-line, rather than in a pastorate in a High Street environment, in a building. While we had known him for some years, the thought had never occurred to us to invite him to join us as a group, either, until maybe a year before this prophetic utterance took place.

Interestingly, God had already set to work (behind the scenes) to create a set of circumstances in which we also were collectively (as a team) made aware that the ministry in which we were engaged had a need for HIM - at the time when he rejoined us in a more active role.

These circumstances were such that there could be no doubt whatsoever in our minds - and his - that God wanted him there. Not necessarily for ever and a day, but right then, and over a year or so his teaching flair became evident.

How did we and he discover this?

Simply by the old well-tried biblical method. What some people call the old "Rule of two or three"   ---   "...and there am I in the midst of you..."

The Holy Spirit had responded with God's agenda... He nudged each of us, effectively saying (like He did to the early church in Acts) "seperate out brother Barnabas to minister to me with you, my brethren".

So who was actually being disobedient.?

Our brother prayed for a week over this, and came to the conclusion that the call he had received from us was the same call he had received from the Almighty. He has now set up his teaching room in association with the rest of us, and prior to that, he was able to gain considerable practical "nuts and bolts" stuff in channel management along the way.

 

I believe strongly that we need be so careful when we are met face-to-face with with someone who says to us "I have had a word from the Lord about you". Several questions need to be asked at this point.... not in criticism of the word received, but rather to establish its bona-fides. Is this word really from God? The enemy is very competant at sidetacking us. More to the point, the enemy often doesn't need any help because our egos do a very good job job too :)

• First, does the person with the "word of knowledge" have headship under which they are placed? Or is this a word out of thin air?.Jesus and the apostles taught that each of us comes under the authority of others. Even Jesus Himself, was under His Father's "supervision", not that it would have been either possible or conceivable that He would ever be at odds with His Father. Remember his prayer about unity, in the Garden of Gethsemane, recorded in the whole of John 17.

• Do they have any relevance to the "prophet's" walk, and do they actually know anything about the other person? Blindly stated "words of knowledge" can sometimes be accurate, but often they are a word of knowledge out of the blue from within the person themselves, that like all things of received spiritually, need to be tested for accuracy - or as we say these days, "verified".

  If the message does NOT fit what God is already doing, is it of God?.

  We need remember that God never contradicts Himself. And there are make-believe or charlatan spirits very happy to steer your attention down the broad way that leads to destruction.

• to be added maybe

• to be added maybe

 

Continuing our earlier discussion

My friend continued...

I AM charismatic. I DO believe in prophecy comming from people. But I also KNOW that you do NOT give personal directional prophecies to people unless you are in a leadership role over them and even then never in private.

There are a lot of people in need, Christians and non christians. To just give up on the ministry is to leave those people....Ask yourself if that is what you think God is having you do.

That lady is out of line and her pastor should speak with her. If her pastor supports that kind of behaviour then i would question his ethics

I cannot fault my brother's responses. That is how I also think on this subject, and I'm sure many others do too. To allow too much "free reign" to a parishioner to go round with words of knowledge for people quite indiscriminately is not a "house of order". It is also allowing the parishioner to effectively control another person... and that isn't what the gospel is all about, is it?

Not in my book, anyway.And the way I read the epistles Paul wrote to the Corinthians about how the gifts of the Spirit SHOULD be used - no, I ought to say "how they should be administered" is a better phrase - indicates the behaviour at Corinth was also out of step with the oversight leading the saints assembled there too.

My response to him was "amen, my brother". I went on, referring back to our earlier remarks, "It occurs to me this is possibly why up until six months ago I could not find a church who was prepared to be supporting of our ministry", and drew his attention to a website where our chat rooms have finally received support: at www.branches.org.au who have included us in ministries of what church people are doing, in a section they have called "six-day ministries" - in other words the rest of the week as well as sundays :)

We can find a link at www.branches.org.au/sixday/index.htm

 

Moving on...

People ask us about the mission of these chat rooms.

This is difficult to explain to those who have either never been involved in on-line communicating with others, or who have a prejudice against such activities because they have been told they are "born of the devil" or "you can get yourself murdered or robbed or worse".

Yes, many of us have had both those views on chatrooms expressed to us at one time or another, believe it or not !

Remember that almost all of the people who warn us against participating in on-line activities have never done it themselves, so their warnings and recommendations are at best second-hand, and likely third- or fourth-hand.

Remember that nothing is guaranteed to be safe in this life. Common-sense is needed in EVERY activity in which we engage. Like driving cars. Like bungy-jumping. Like surfing and swimming..

Sad as the attacks on young people by predators are, this is going to continue happening as much in real life (an internet expression) as in an on-line community.

This environment is probably as safe as you can get. And with two fellowshipping channels, two information channels, and a biblically-based gospel message teaching channel, we are providing what we can to assist in Christians being "in the world" while remaining "not of the world"

Just remember, though, we (as a team) are experienced in supervising chatrooms and nipping bad things in the bud almost as soon as they start. But of course we rely on the commonsense of our guests, and without the mutual trust and respect created, we would have just another "anonymous corner of cyberspace", wouldn't we?

So, let us explain that this is NOT what chatting on-line is all about. It is perfectly safe - of you understand the risks and take appropriate proportions, and it provides an opportunity where we are able to present the gospel - or even just be friendly - to people who otherwise wouldn't find such a welcome.