Boarding Schools for Troubled Boys
Boarding Schools for Troubled Boys
Boarding Schools for Troubled Boys
January 8th 2010 -- Craig RogersBoarding Schools for Troubled Boys are options for parents seeking immediate help with their troubled teen. It is a very difficult decision, and any parent faced with the choice of sending their child to a private boarding school will go through a myriad of emotions, torment, and indecisiveness. There is no secret to this process, nor is there a “system of success. Every family is different, every child is different, and every circumstance is different. What was successful for one child is not always successful for the next. Christian parents are fortunate to have prayer and wisdom from the Holy Spirit. Christian parents are able to seek the wisdom of God and receive the peace that goes beyond all understanding. Even though the decision is a tough one, Christian parents can live in faith and trust that God’s will is a perfect will and that by faith they will not fret. Please enjoy the following article by Derek Prince.
God’s Spirit That is Holy
NOTE: The following includes part of a much larger article by Derek Prince on "Protection from Deception" is posted here. I agree with his position and find in my own life, as well as in the lives of other Christians, that to walk in holiness and the continual pursuit of holiness is part of our "protection from deception. If we will not heed Him on this matter, we will find ourselves "deceived"; for we are to be "doers of the Word and not hearers only....deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observingi his natural face in a mirror. For he observes himself, goes away and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it and is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does." James 1:22-25
This message is not for a select few...but for all of us who have been "born again" of His Spirit. There are no exceptions, for we are to represent Him in all that we say or do...at all times. We are to consider this...even when we are alone...in the privacy of our own hearts, thoughts, and attitudes.
Derek Prince died quietly in his sleep almost two years ago after a long, godly life and fruitful global ministry. We are left with his legacy of teachings that are timeless due to the fact that they are "spirit truth". Consider his words carefully, examine your own heart truly, and yield always to God's Spirit that is Holy.
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An important fact about the Holy Spirit is what is indicated in His name: He is Holy. This is His primary title: the Holy Spirit. In Hebrew it is the Spirit of Holiness. He has many other titles: for instance, the Spirit of Grace, the Spirit of Truth, the Spirit of Power, and so on, But they are all subsidiary. His name and His primary title is the Holy Spirit. Anything that is unholy does not proceed from the Holy Spirit.
The Scripture also speaks of the beauty of holiness. There is a beauty in holiness when it proceeds from the Holy Spirit. It is not necessarily external. It may be internal beauty. For instance, in I Peter 3:4, Peter speaks about the hidden person of the heart, and he speaks about the adornment of a meek and quiet spirit, which in the sight of God is of great price. This is not external beauty. It is internal beauty, which comes from the Holy Spirit. I want to say, however, with the utmost emphasis: Anything unholy or ugly does not proceed from the Holy Spirit.
I will give you a list of 12 adjectives, all of which I believe cannot be applied to the Holy Spirit or to anything that is the product of the Holy Spirit. As I go through the list, I suggest you check mentally and see if you agree with me. Here, then, are words that would never apply to the Holy Spirit:
self-exalting
self-assertive
degrading
flippant
rude
sham
vulgar
indecent
insensitive
stupid
silly
degraded
I have in my heart, if God wills and I live, to write a book at some time of which I have already chosen the title. The title is this: Holiness Is Not Optional. Only God knows whether I will ever succeed in writing the book, but I want to say, in any case, that the title states the exact truth. In the Christian life, holiness is not optional. Many Christians seem to think about holiness as if it is like something added to a car, such as fancy leather upholstery instead of the normal kind of plastic. But that is not true. Holiness is an essential part of salvation. In Hebrews 12:14 the writer says, Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no man will see the Lord. What salvation do we have that does not bring us to see the Lord? But without holiness, no one will see the Lord.
We have in our contemporary Western Christianity a very incomplete picture of salvation. "If I get saved and born again, and then I want to go on and be holy. I can do it - but it is an option." I want to tell you that ("growing in grace" in) salvation depends on being holy (your pursuit of holiness and progressively displaying holy behavior). And holiness comes only from the Holy Spirit. (parentheses mine: SBrunson)
In Matthew 12:33, Jesus instructs us: "Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit." Wherever there is bad fruit, it comes from a bad tree. It is not enough to get rid of the bad fruit. We must also cut down the bad tree that produced it. If we fail to do this, the bad tree will go on producing more bad fruit. Undoubtedly the tree that produces animal behavior of this kind is some form of occult or pagan practice.
To cut down the tree requires that the leaders responsible identify the problem, confess it as sin and repent of it. Nowhere in the Bible is there any ground to suppose that God will forgive sins that we are not willing to confess. Somebody has said, "The confession must be as wide as the transgression." If leaders have tolerated these things in the presence of their people, then in the presence of their people they need to confess it as a sin and cancel it. Otherwise, if the bad tree is not cut down, it will go on producing bad fruit.
In closing, I want to give a little "parable" of my own construction, which is about my relationship with my wife. In this parable my wife represents the Holy Spirit and I represent God. Now please understand, this is a very simple little parable and I am fully aware that the Holy Spirit is not the wife of God. But with those cautions, let me relate the parable.
A friend comes to me and says, "I saw you and your wife together on the platform the other evening and she looked so beautiful, so fresh, so full of the Holy Spirit." So I say, "Thank you. That's really how she is." Then, a little later, the same man comes to me and says, "You know, yesterday I saw your wife in a bar with a man drinking." And I say, "That was not my wife! My wife is a pure and godly woman. She does not go to bars and she does not drink with strangers. My wife was right here with me all day yesterday. Don't speak that way about my wife!"
But a little later, he comes to me and says, "You know, I saw your wife yesterday sunbathing topless on the beach." Then I get really angry. I say to him, "My wife was nowhere near the beach yesterday, and she would never expose herself like that! If you want to remain my friend, you've got to come to the place where you don't identify that loose, immoral woman as my wife, because that's an insult to her and to me, If you want to remain my friend, you've got to change the way you speak about my wife."
The application, of course, is this: if you want to remain a friend of God, you cannot afford to identify His Holy Spirit as something that is loose or immoral or ugly or unholy, because that angers God intensely.
Now we come to one final Scripture, which is in Matthew 12:31-32. Jesus says, "Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come."
That is a very solemn and frightening warning. We are warned by Jesus Himself to be very, very careful how we speak about the Holy Spirit, how we represent the Holy Spirit.
Jesus uses the word blasphemy, and I decided to look it up in my big Greek lexicon. The primary meaning of to blaspheme is given in the lexicon as this: to speak lightly or amiss of sacred things. So when you speak lightly or amiss concerning the Holy Spirit, or misrepresent the character of the Holy Spirit, by definition you are close to blaspheming.
If you have ever done that, or been prone to do it, or been associated with those who do it, I want to offer you some sincere advice: You need to repent. You need to settle that matter once and for all with God and never again be guilty of misrepresenting God's Holy Spirit. For the Holy Spirit is holy and He is God.
For more information about boarding schools for troubled boys please visit www.abundantlifeacademy.com
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