The Dreaded "P of I"

I was given a book a couple of days ago called, "Meetings in His Kingdom" by Mike Peters. So far, it has been an amazing read. (This book is given out freely, so it is not available on Amazon.)

Here is one of the chapters that has really challenged me - many a time have I participated in and witnessed the "P of I":

"Please for the sake of the testimony of the Son and the peace of all His Family, please! No pooling of ignorance. That is, don't allow the scenario in which everyone just throws their wisdom, thoughts, experiences, observations, and Bible verses onto the heap.

It may sound something like this: "I think that faith is..." Or, "Well, I went to church one time where we..."; or "I remember when..."; or "The International interdenominational Commentary says that this verse means..."; "In the original Aramaic the meaning is..."

That kind of thinking could easily be, and usually is, spouting off without communion with God. Or living in the past and "leaning upon our own understanding" because of pride or shallowness. When a certain topic of our interest may arise, we may throw in our so-called wisdom and observations, thinking that we can top the last bit of information that was given. That's not what the kingdom of God is all about. Don't yield to the temptation to deal with externals in order to keep the conversation going, or to impress others. If our interaction in a meeting doesn't seem to be snapping right along, the carnal man inside each of us is desperate to spice things up and make the meeting dynamic. When we yield to this temptation, we grieve the Spirit by usurping Jesus' Headship. And if everyone's life is brimming with Jesus, that carnal response will never happen - it won't be necessary.

Obviously, meetings in which Jesus is reigning will not be boring or like a traffic jam of unnecessary "spiritual" words.

Our goal is not to get more people to "participate". Our heart is to get more of Jesus into our lives, and the lives of our brothers and sisters.

Then the "participating" will come from the overflow of God's Heart...through us. We'll function out of the current Life of God and fellowship in the Holy Spirit! That's what it's all about."