The Yuk Factor
I could write a book on this. I have preached on this subject several times over the past twenty years. I have an entire chapter devoted to this subject in one of my books.
I received an interesting email out of the blue a couple days ago from the Rev. Kenneth Borthwick, a minister of the Church of Scotland. I felt compelled to pass it on to you. Kenny is the same Church of Scotland minister to whom I refer in my current book WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE GOSPEL? He said that when he watches Christian television in the UK he listens as if through the ears of an unbeliever. He said to his wife Morag: “If I did not know differently, I would believe that Christianity is all about money”.
The Yuk Factor is my phrase to describe how a lot of sophisticated Christians
react when they see certain manifestations of the Holy Spirit. They often say “Yuk”. I sometimes reckon that the Persons of the Godhead have a meeting in the heavenlies from time to time and ask, “What can We do next to offend sophisticated people and make them say ‘Yuk’?” God loves to offend the mind to reveal the heart! What many of us would say is “ridiculous” and which “cannot possibly be of God” is often what God Himself does intentionally to offend the minds of sophisticated people. God offended Naaman the leper by telling him to dip seven times in the river Jordan (2 Kings 5:10-11). He offended the world by choosing to put His Son on the cross (1 Cor.1:18,23). It was the reaction of people to the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:13). The list is endless. God continues to choose the foolish things of the world to confound the wise (1 Cor.1:27).
I also have taught over the years that spirituality may be defined as “closing the time gap between sin and repentance”. In other words, How long does it take for you to admit you were wrong? Does it take seconds or years to admit you were indignant about what you saw – but eventually climbed down? The less time it takes, I suggest, the more spiritual we are. This can apply to admitting you were wrong to hold a grudge against someone who hurt you or to be angry toward a move of the Spirit – which you were so sure, at first, could not possibly be of God.
Here is part of what Kenny Borthwick sent to me:
Dear R T: Just listened to you speaking on TBN UK on the Yuck Factor. I have a very developed gift of discernment. Everything to which I have said “Yuck” at significant moments in my life turned out to have been God after all!
I said” Yuck” to hearing the message about salvation as a thirteen year old. Because the camp I heard the gospel at announced that we would all be going for a walk in the hills on the Sabbath. As a Scottish Presbyterian I thought I had come among some sort of cult. Walking in the hills on the Sabbath indeed!
I said “Yuck” to the gifts of the Spirit until Morag was baptized in the Spirit and received a gift of prophecy in the Cessationist congregation we were part of at the time as 20 year olds and I had to think again! The time gap was longer than I would have liked but I closed it, or God closed it, when one night in my own house speaking with a friend on the telephone the Spirit of God overwhelmed me and I found myself saying, “Oh it is real. It is all real. It is real after all!” Morag was sitting outside the door of the room and felt the power that I was experiencing in wave after wave coming through the walls.
I said “Yuck” to the Toronto Blessing, when I first heard of it when I was a minister in the north of Scotland. Our window cleaner told us about what was happening. I smiled, but was furiously angry at the very idea that people thought this was God. However, I noticed my spirit was leaping for joy at the very mention of what was offending my mind so much. The time gap was closed, quite quickly, as I was learning to listen to my spirit when it was speaking contrary to my mind. I was kissed by the Father’s love in an overwhelming life-changing and ministry-altering way. Without that CLAN Gathering would never have been. All the leadership were touched in that same move of God.
So basically I said “Yuck” to the truth of The Son, then “Yuck” to The Spirit then “Yuck” to The Father!
Love to Louise and to yourself as another New Year approaches. . . always, Kenny.
I have taken many hits over the years for decisions I have made – from inviting Arthur Blessitt to Westminster Chapel to preaching at the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship where the “Toronto Blessing” originated. I can tell you, I’ve never been sorry. Yes, it hurts a bit when people question your sanity! But the increased anointing is so worth it that I want to say, “Bring on more!” The anointing comes in proportion to our willingness to go outside our “comfort zone”.
2018 will be an interesting year. I wonder what God will do this year to offend you and me?