Doves:

   Proverbs 15
   4 The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life,
   but a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit.

In Saul's first real "test" - "he failed" because of the spirit of fear or
obligation that he would lose some of his men if he just didn't "DO"
something.    Although the prophet Samuel had told Saul to "wait 7 days"
prior to sacrificing, he couldn't wait when he saw his men scattering:

   1 Samuel 13
   6 When the men of Israel saw that their situation was critical and
   that their army was hard pressed, they hid in caves and thickets,
   among the rocks, and in pits and cisterns. 7 Some Hebrews even
   crossed the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead.

   Saul remained at Gilgal, and all the troops with him were quaking
   with fear. 8 He waited seven days, the time set by Samuel; but
   Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and Saul's men began to scatter.
   9 So he said, "Bring me the burnt offering and the fellowship offerings.
   " And Saul offered up the burnt offering. 10 Just as he finished making
   the offering, Samuel arrived, and Saul went out to greet him.

   11 "What have you done?" asked Samuel.

   Saul replied, "When I saw that the men were scattering, and that
   you did not come at the set time, and that the Philistines were
   assembling at Micmash, 12 I thought, 'Now the Philistines will come
   down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the LORD's favor.'
   So I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering."

   13 "You acted foolishly," Samuel said. "You have not kept the
   command the LORD your God gave you; if you had, he would have
   established your kingdom over Israel for all time. 14 But now your
   kingdom will not endure; the LORD has sought out a man after his
   own heart and appointed him leader of his people, because you have
   not kept the LORD's command."

Many large denominations and churches LOOK as if they are right.  In
fact, many people think that they ARE right simply because of their
numbers...and then they ADD TO those numbers by joining a group
that "MUST BE RIGHT".

Staying out of the Word will cause us to drift away from God and
His Truth and His Spirit.  The Spirit WILL guide us into ALL TRUTH
and thereby set us FREE!!!  The opposite of that is BONDAGE!!!

   John 8
   31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my
   teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth,
   and the truth will set you free."

   John 16
   12 "I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But
   when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will
   not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell
   you what is yet to come. 14 He will bring glory to me by taking from what
   is mine and making it known to you.

The Lord has only "spoken" in a soft, quiet voice only 4 times that come
to mind right now.  It's funny how you can actually remember where you were
when something like that happens.  The 1st time this happened was JUST
after I had gotten saved.  I remember a a small voice say, "You are VERY
weak."  It was TOTALLY accurate, of course.  Mentally and spiritually I was
VERY weak in knowledge that He wanted to love me and DID love me.  I was
VERY weak in knowledge of scripture and I was VERY weak from being
raised in a family which put more emphasis on IMAGE than on righteousness,
peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.  Our family has had a DISASTROUS history
....REALLY HORRIBLE.  It seems, many times, we just LOOKED for controversy
and strife!!!!!  Although we have been blessed in MANY ways...it all seems to go
TOTALLY down the drain...too much pride to listen to God....I AM ALSO GUILTY!!!

The 2nd time the Lord used a still, small voice to speak to me was back around
'96, when the Lord was dealing with me to get cleaned up and start listening ONLY
to Him.  Being obstinate anyway, that sort of fit my personality.  He "spoke" out
of the blue one morning and said, "He is walking in fear."  He was speaking of one
of the major faith preachers on TV.  The only thing I could think of is, "Why is He
telling this to me, 'A NOBODY'???!!!"  I believe what God was saying to me is this.
Just because a preacher can put a big grin on his face, or holler and jump around,
or wear fancy clothes or even "BE" on TV...that doesn't automatically make him
"spiritual".  It could VERY WELL be a cover up...sort of like a cat in a liter box
without enough sand to "cover up" what he just did!!!

My wife and I DID NOT get along for the last few years of our marriage.  We got
a divorce last year.  The 3rd time I heard that "small voice" was during the initial
separation.  When you have been with someone that long, even though you "KNOW"
that you are VERY MUCH "spiritually" better off being apart, it still is hard...sort of
like the tearing of flesh apart but it is spiritual.  That "tearing" took place over a year
or so and one morning during some stage of depression, the Lord spoke and said,
"She never received your love."  That TOTALLY gave me EXACTLY what I needed.
The TRUTH of the matter let me know that it was NOT my fault...over the years
she just went through life NOT RECEIVING my love.

My ex-wife and I were married in 1970 and I got saved in '76.  My wife, also, was
"supposedly" saved, about that time.  Early on in my Christian life I had gotten
this "sense" that all my efforts at a normal, loving devotion to her were ALL IN
VAIN AND A WASTE...like pouring water into a leaky bucket!!!  But why couldn't
she love me back???!!!  At the bottom of this was a mother who had adopted her
and over and over let her know that she "owed" her everything.  This message
programmed over and over into my wife REALLY damaged her spiritually to the
point that she COULDN'T love.

I can remember that my wife felt "obligated" to sit and listen to her for a long
phone conversation on just about every Sunday afternoon from Mississippi
(when we lived in South Carolina) which just sort of "reprogrammed" her for
the coming week.  This "type" of thing had started years before but the example
shows a little more clearly what was taking place all the time.  A husband and wife
should be left alone to develop a bonding.

   Mark 10
   6 But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female.
   7 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife;
   8 And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh.

I believe that she (my mother in law) was controlled by a "spirit of fear" which just
said over and over, "You had better 'DO SOMETHING' EVEN IF IT'S WRONG
OR YOU WILL LOSE YOUR DAUGHTER'S LOVE!!!"  In this, she was a spiritual
hypochondriac who always played the martyr before her daughter and it had
TERRIBLE effects on both of our lives.  I lacked the spiritual depth to understand
what was happening but I SHOULD HAVE!!!  I had so VERY many problems of my
own with my own anger and frustration it's a real miracle that things have turned out
as well as they have!!!

In many ways my mother-in-law WAS a good witness.  She was a Baptist and
VERY MUCH wanted her grandchildren to be saved and spoke of it often.

Many, many Christians have made some small diversion to truth and have
wound up in a shallow, fleshly, non-loving, and false Christian lifestyle.  WHAT
A GREAT WAY FOR THE DEVIL TO "SAY" TO THE WORLD SOMETHING
"BAD" ABOUT CHRISTIANITY!!!

The 4th time that I heard that "small voice" was just after my youngest of 3 sons
got saved.  My wife and I had separated and he was in a VERY, VERY young
and impressionable state (although in college) as a newly born again Christian.
The Lord spoke to me and said, "If he (my son) gets around her (my wife...we were
separated at the time), he will fall away."  I could spiritually "see" that but REALLY
didn't know what to do about it.  It came to pass EXACTLY like the Lord had
forewarned me.  THANKFULLY he has now come back from where he used to be!!!
My wife, having been dominated by this "spirit of obligation", used that same type
of spirit to make it seem that if he (my 3rd son) wasn't following her ways, he
wasn't being a "good son".  In other words, she used some of the same mental
and spiritual tactics that her mother had used on her.

People today can get by with ALMOST ANYTHING in the name of Christianity.
We'll probably never know just exactly how much of Christianity is done out of
a spirit of obligation rather than following the lead of the Holy Spirit.  Nor can
we know JUST HOW MUCH DAMAGE WAS DONE BY "NOT" FOLLOWING
GOD'S LEADING!!!

GOD BLESS!!!

Calvin