Heresy Hunters and the
ministry of heresy hunting
Many believers and even ministers are afraid
to go to the Word and obtain revelation from the Holy Spirit. They depend
on someone else's revelation or insight. Many churchgoers have formed most
of their doctrine from the Pastor's doctrine.
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Evaluate your own
doctrine.
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Is it based on what you
were taught by a minister?
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Or is it based on you
being in the written word, and in relationship with Jesus and the Holy
Spirit's anointing inside of you, being taught of God?
Rev 1:6
And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his
Father; to him be glory and dominion
Does this mean I do not need my Pastor? God
Forbid, Pastors are called to feed God’s sheep. They are a gift to you
whereby God’s anointing will speak to you.
I Jn 2:27
But the anointing which you have received from Him abides
in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same
anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a
lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him. (NKJ)
Jesus is the Word of God and you must have a
relationship with the Word. No one can have that relationship for you. The
Pharisee knew the written word not the Living Word or they would have
recognized Jesus when He appeared to them. You also will miss Jesus'
appearing in your walk if you don't know Him Who is the Word.
John 5:38-39
"But you do not have His word abiding in you,
because whom He sent, Him you do not believe. "You search the
Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these
are they which testify of Me. (NKJ)
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Only those that seek Him
diligently in His Word shall be rewarded.
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And what is that reward?
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Jesus Christ is that
reward.
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You are rewarded with the
nature of Jesus inside of you.
When you became born again, you sought Jesus,
and received the Word concerning salvation, and you were rewarded with the
gift of salvation, by grace, nothing you did to merit it. At that point
the image of God was born; but just as a seed has an image of a full grown
plant on the inside of it, so do you have the image of a “full grown
servant in Christ” on the inside of you.
The purpose of scripture is to point you to
Jesus! They testify of Him. For example the book of Revelation is not a
book of end day events, it is a book that points to Jesus and the
culmination of the plans of God that can be found in His Son and His Son's
body; because we are Christ's we belong to Him. If you read Revelation to
obtain knowledge about end day events without knowing the Son, then it is
time to come to repentance, because we have made the same error as the
Scribe and Pharisee. May God show us the difference!
It is all about relationship – an intimate
relationship with Jesus Christ. If you got saved and have been living as a
Christian and have yet to come to this place, then it is time to abase
yourself before Him and choose to desire Him above all things. If you are
proud of your "new doctrine" but it is really a doctrine that
draws you away, instead of towards Jesus, then toss it! If anything
offends you, cut it off, pluck it out. If it is anything that separates
you from His love, even a seemingly spiritual thing or a noble thing, then
I exhort you to get rid of it before the sun goes down. Maybe the issue
God is dealing with you has to do with the “television set”, music or
what you read. Whatever issue the Holy Spirit deals with you concerning
– cast it away.
If the law, which was the ministry of death,
shone with glory on the face of Moses, to the end that he wore a veil,
then how much more the glory found in the ministry of the Spirit. Jesus
says let him who has eyes to see and ears to hear, hear what the Spirit of
God is saying to YOU! Hear God for yourself. God will use His servants to
edify you, but He wants a personal relationship with you in the revelation
of Who Jesus is, seeing Him in the spirit, as He is, not what someone
related to you that He looked like.
Many times we can get distracted into
teachings about “the Hebrew code” or other teachings that do not
pertain to preaching Jesus and Him crucified. Satan would love for you to
consume your time on such things to prevent you from hearing the meat of
God’s Word. In your distraction you will remain in God’s Outer Court
and you will FAIL TO REACH DOWN TO PULL UP OTHERS OUT OF THE PIT. These
types of distractions are distractions away from the feet of Jesus. We
tend to think that the “thorns that distract” relate to just the
natural things of secular life, however you can be distracted by the
seemingly spiritual things in life as well. These distractions will choke
the word in your heart. There is one counterfeit for ministry that
distracts as well as destroys, it is called heresy hunting, and has become
popular in the church. The principles and tactics that they use have
always been in use but now their focus has taken on a majority of their
ministry instead of just an element.
How
Paul Dealt with Heresy
Prov 15:1-4
A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word
stirs up anger. The tongue of the wise makes knowledge acceptable,
but the mouth of fools spouts folly. The eyes of the LORD are in every
place, watching the evil and the good. A soothing tongue is a tree of
life, but perversion in it crushes the spirit. (NAS)
Heresy must be dealt with in the
church, but our way of dealing with it may not be God's way of dealing
with it. God shows us His way through Paul, who was a spiritual father to
the gentile church and could therefore speak to them as none other could
concerning heresy and false doctrine. Many in the body who take up the
role of exposing “ministers involved with heresy” will use Paul as
their example – but they do not measure up to Paul’s example at all.
When you labor and sacrifice in love like Paul did, then God can use you
to admonish and rebuke as well as encourage. Paul had RELATIONSHIP with
those he warned. God will even use you to expose sin in the camp, and
false teachers by name, because of relationship, but remember Paul was not
just a brother to these Christians, but also a father speaking in love
prompted by the Holy Spirit. Another observance in Paul’s ministry
reveals that these same Christians that he “warned of wolves” actually
had the wolves in the fold.
To use Paul’s example of naming names, you
must be dealing with a fold that you have relationship with, that you have
labored in love with, and you have raised these children up as their
father in the Lord and you must see the wolf IN THE FOLD (or local church)
ready to devour. That is if you are going to use Paul as a scriptural
basis for the practice. If indeed this is not the case then using Paul as
your example to give the name of a minister that is a wolf - is not
scriptural. The enemy can get you totally carried away with defending your
flock from external wolves because there are so many of them. Teaching
truth and teaching both milk and meat to the fold causes them to see
external wolves for themselves. If you take the position as the
“identifier of external wolves” then the enemy can easily get you to
speak on your own authority instead of on His authority, and the enemy can
get you to quote scripture the entire time you do it. This is the wrong
spirit and this practice is also not scriptural if you look at the
complete example given by true apostles like Paul.
Understanding other principles of ministry
found elsewhere in this book is important. From beginning to end this book
on Temple Building teaches you how to build in ministry and with words.
Temple Builders teaches to speak only on God’s authority, to speak only
as you hear, and to speak, that which is PROCEEDING out of the mouth of
God for this moment.
This is a long chapter and for good reason. If
you have taken on the role of exposing sin and heresy then
this chapter is an admonishment to keep you in the fear of God. If you are
the target of the heresy hunter then you must obtain
understanding of the strategies that Satan is using. If you have a loved
one that is consumed with heresy hunting then we present to you truth that
you can use to persuade them back to God’s true ministry. God has had me
research for years the “books and articles of heresy hunters” also
know as discernment ministers. Every time I read one of those books or
articles, the Holy Spirit in me has been grieved. They use scripture, they
use good arguments, and they warn us of danger – what can be bad about
that? God’s ways are not our ways, and those that will be led by the
Spirit make His way plain. The entire scripture is our pattern for living,
not parts of it. Many ministers justify their evil deeds using scripture
verses - while ignoring other scripture verses that condemn their
wickedness.
Prov 18:19-21
A brother offended {is harder to be won} than a strong
city, and contentions are like the bars of a castle. With the fruit of
a man's mouth his stomach will be satisfied; He will be satisfied {with}
the product of his lips. Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
and those who love it will eat its fruit. (NAS)
The Spirit of Christ will expose false
doctrine and the false ways of man; this is not what we are talking about
here. We are talking about the WRONG SPIRIT. We are talking about the
counterfeit for “contending for the faith”. We are talking about
falsely accusing the brethren. We are talking about those that go after
brothers and sisters in the Lord who are born again and they tell their
audience that they are not born again. We are talking about those that go
into the past of others that God has called forgiven and speak this past
to others as though it is not forgiven.
I could easily be accused of the same error
that I accuse heresy hunters of doing when I write this chapter. However
you will not find names listed here and that is one big difference. To
publicly name a minister of God is to TARGET them instead of targeting a
doctrine, as well as causing other damage that we shall discuss in this
chapter. This “targeting” is the fruit of something underlying that
does not have its source in God’s way.
If
indeed one has an unction to address false doctrines, then God can give
grace to speak these truths that both expose and bring life from scripture
in such a way that the “brother in Christ” will not be damaged and yet
the lie of the enemy will be dealt with in a way that pleases God. As we
continue addressing heresy hunters we have to be gentle but firm, merciful
and yet confront; indeed we must demonstrate the true contending with the
faith in this chapter. We simply realize that these men and women of the
faith are temporarily confused because the truth of contending for the
faith was not presented to them. THEY ARE NOT THE ENEMY, they are only
temporarily being used by the enemy. In fact their motive is just like
Paul’s before he saw the light. Paul attacked and oppressed because he
thought his truth was the truth of God. After seeing what Jesus really
looks like he repented and received true sight and true contending for the
faith. The light of truth however is strong and very corrective concerning
this issue.
Categorically
False Ministry
Prov 6:16,19
16 There
are six things which the LORD hates, yes, seven which are an
abomination to Him: A false witness {who} utters lies, and
one who spreads strife among brothers. (NAS)
This “move”, this counterfeit for
contending for the faith is one that is CATEGORICALLY LEAVEN, one of
another spirit, and one that is not scriptural. If indeed a minister is
caught up in this move then he has received a cancer that destroys to the
bone. I am not saying the individual is categorically leaven, just their
ministry. However I have witnessed some of these ministers so consumed
with this ministry that they have called God’s Light - darkness. We
must not see them as enemies but as brothers that must be rescued and
presented this Gospel of truth. By the Spirit I will show you why
repentance must come by those consumed with this activity and then we must
all hit the altars if even a fragment of this leaven is found in our own
hearts. This is a serious matter, it is life and death, and it is a leaven
that if left un-purged would destroy countless ministries and ministers.
The very thing that these ministers see in others will be the very thing
that happens “through them” if this issue is not dealt with. The role
of exposing false doctrine is not the main issue; the spirit behind those
that call themselves “discernment ministers” or “heresy exposers”
is what God wants to deal with. There is only one way to expose false
doctrine and that is to shine Light upon it. Light is a Person, not an
argument, not a cause, and we are not the CONTROLLERS of that Light. We
speak the Light as HE PERMITS! Our role is submission to the Light of God
- Jesus. Our role is to speak what the Spirit of Truth is saying and only
WHEN the Holy Spirit is saying it. We must speak the Light with the
character of Love and God’s nature of Life as we shine His Light of
Truth.
Those in the body that play this role of
heresy hunting have not labored in love and the result leads to death.
Much of the New Testament letters to the churches deal with false doctrine
and heresy, therefore leaving the example of how we must deal with and how
we should not deal with heresy. The scripture says, "be angry and do
not sin" because anger and likewise “opposing heresy” is
borderline into stepping over into the flesh, into faultfinding, into
debate, into being a busybody, and into contention. Without Christian
maturity we will normally be in the flesh and not in the Spirit when we
get angry, expose sin, and reveal heretics. This chapter is about SIFTING
OUR MOTIVES AND INTENTS OF OUR HEARTS. Please do not “read into” what
I am saying, hear with a true heart what the Spirit is saying.
Prov 12:13-19
13 An
evil man is trapped by his sinful talk, but a righteous man escapes
trouble. From the fruit of his lips a man is filled with good things as
surely as the work of his hands rewards him.
The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to
advice. A fool shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent man
overlooks an insult. A truthful witness gives honest testimony, but a
false witness tells lies. Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the
tongue of the wise brings healing. Truthful lips endure forever, but a
lying tongue lasts only a moment. (NIV)
I have something of the Lord to say concerning
God's displeasure of all those who step into the business of exposing. I
do not speak to you as someone who has been attacked or hurt by them, for
I have not been attacked or hurt by them, but I am sure one day, just as
Paul was, the self appointed “exposer” will target me, just like they
will get to you. Paul was frequently the target of criticism by other
ministers, and the church received these sayings against Paul - because of
their immaturity. In one case, Paul had to show them plainly, the evidence
that “these other apostles” indeed were “false apostles” while he
was the “true apostle”. No one should ever have to prove their
apostleship like this but if we allow those with a critical gospel to
continue then they will subvert the “hearers” - that have yet to
mature. However, at other times Paul would take the false accusation and
simply dispel it with truth – defending the gospel that he preaches
instead of his apostleship. Finally, there were times when leaders of the
church, ones that were reputable and esteemed as true apostles also
accused Paul. They had heard from other Christians that Paul was guilty of
preaching against Moses and the law. Paul simply bore these sufferings
without self-preservation, without defense. The very thing that he had
done to Stephen is the very thing he experienced – but this time by true
apostles! (“Acts 21:21”) Misunderstandings and false accusations are
the sufferings of Christ that we must endure and these accusations may
come through the ministries of true apostles as well as immature
ministers. All heresy hunters are immature in ministry and yet some may be
truly called ministers. In today’s church we see that most heresy
hunters are simply the wrong spirit therefore we must examine why.
First we must remember, everybody is open game
with one who makes their entire ministry a "heresy hunter"
because most of them do not fear God in teaching the scriptures and they
think nothing of accusing entire ministries, movements and ministers by
name. They focus on the origin of doctrines and moves of God; they focus
on the error of the origin and then if you can be tied to this origin in
any way then you are the current “target of the day”. They have
rightfully observed Paul exposing false doctrines and even listing the
names of some false teachers and therefore they have deceived
themselves into thinking that they have reached Paul’s maturity and they
can do the same type of exposing. Again the activity itself is not what is
evil; their activity is evil primarily because their own life is
not mature and their ministry is out of the wrong spirit. In the gospel of
Jesus, in teaching God’s Word, right and wrong are never the issue. The
issue always surrounds whether you are teaching what the Holy Spirit is
saying or are you picking and choosing what you want to preach and teach.
This type of ministry is evil because the method that is used lacks the
character of Jesus, and because they have sought to expose others on their
own authority and initiative instead of only on God’s authority and
initiative.
Proof of this is usually seen in that - if you
do not say things the way they think it should be said or if you do
not do things the way they think they ought to be done - then you
are TARGETED. They misunderstand other Christians because they are not
attached to the body in love; as Jude says, “they are wandering
stars”. They conduct this activity with scripture and they say they are
commissioned of God as a watchman on the wall. When compared to the
ministry of Jesus and the apostles we observe that the strategy of the
words of heresy hunters does not match up to God’s character or plan.
Some examples are seen in the use of certain tactics such as “guilt by
association”, or “linking the opponent to a previous doctrine or move
of the spirit in church history”, and they practice “omission of known
truth to win their case”. Normally a heresy hunter will assume the role
of an attorney instead of the judge when presiding over a court case. Of
course the job of the attorney is to observe facts and arguments and
present them in a one-sided case. It can also be observed in the heresy
hunter (discernment ministry) camp where they simply circulate rumor and
false accusations that have no basis in truth. Lest you think they are of
great evil remember that Christian Jewish leaders misunderstood Paul. The
difference however occurs when we become HABITUAL, and when they are
confronted – they do not repent!
I am sometimes blinded to make pre-judgments
and speak them out against someone. When revealed, it shows our frailty to
this sin we are discussing. It is only because God had mercy on me… is
why the sin did not become habitual in me. If I had chosen to continue and
justify the sin then I would have caused a void of the love for Jesus and
the love of the brethren in my walk. Let us look into the mirror and
examine our hearts. Jesus said take heed what we are hearing. What have we
heard and what are we saying?
Prov 26:20-25
Without wood a fire goes out; without gossip a quarrel
dies down. As charcoal to embers and as wood to fire, so is a quarrelsome
man for kindling strife. The words of a gossip are like choice
morsels; they go down to a man's inmost parts. Like a coating of glaze
over earthenware are fervent lips with an evil heart. A malicious man
disguises himself with his lips, but in his heart he harbors deceit.
Though his speech is charming, do not believe him, for seven abominations
fill his heart. (NIV)
Again, let us make it very clear that any
ministry, whose ENTIRE focus is on exposing the heresy of others, is in
itself heresy; this is habitual sin against their brother. They sometimes
talk about others, as being “extra-biblical” but their entire ministry
is extra-biblical because there are NO New Testament ministries in the
Bible whose primary purpose was to expose others. Only on occasion did
Paul, who had obtained great maturity, expose others by name, but his
spirit was out of the nature of Jesus in doing it. Paul had also learned
to receive the suffering of being falsely accused on multiple occasions
and yet respond in Christ. The pattern of Paul in dealing with error,
heresy, and false teaching was to bring to light the lie and apply truth
that sets you free. Paul’s word provided an answer like Elihu’s word
instead of Job’s three friends. Paul’s own life was free of heresy
as he did it. Those who wish to do what Paul did had better be walking
in the Wisdom, the Love nature of Jesus and the Power that Paul did or
they will eventually be calling that which is Light - darkness. Many
ministries that call themselves “discernment ministries” or “heresy
hunters” are liken to Job’s three friends. “They condemn but have no
answer from heaven”. They tout scripture and maybe wise saying like
Job’s friends but they never produced eternal fruit in the lives they
seek to warn. But God has called us to be as Elihu, pointing out the error
at the proper moment, in the way of God and providing the answer of life
from heaven. The three friends had to offer sacrifices in repentance and
that is what is required of every minister that seeks to help others and
does not possess God’s answer and yet condemns them.
Our
Own Iniquity
Lest we also condemn these heresy hunters we
should look into the mirror of the Word to see if we have the same spirit
in our hearts. It is very easy sometimes to see the error in ones like
this because their sin is so blatant, their sin is habitual, and their sin
is categorical, but many times we have the same sin and error but in a
smaller measure. God wants us to deal with what is in our hearts. In
reality most heresy hunter would never read a chapter like this except for
the purpose of finding fault. The reason is because it has never been
about truth; it has always been about “being right”. Truth exposes ALL
OF US, however, “being right” brings selfish pride. Truth causes
submission; it produces humility of mind and the showing of mercy. Being
right produces a soulish pride that never yields to the other side. So the
objective here is to not to just warn you of a categorical “type” of
soulish ministry but to look within our hearts to see the EXACT SAME
INIQUITY.
I have in the past and have observed many
others that have contended with these “discernment ministries” and we
have harbored the very SAME SIN. The very sin we can preach against and
hate is sometimes the very iniquity we are blinded to - that dwells inside
us. Therefore let us look inward, in that hidden closet of our heart. I
knew a pastor once that got violently mad at the heresy hunters because of
their error. You would assume that he was so adamant against that sin that
there would be no occasion for that sin to exist in him. He so despised
the piety and self-righteousness of the heresy hunter because they
targeted him. It would surprise most that a man like this easily turned
around and did the same thing. It would also surprise us that the same
iniquity in the heresy hunter will manifest out of us when we contend with
the heresy hunter. We must watch our own words instead of always
monitoring the words of others.
This pastor’s leadership also opposed the
heresy hunters, they did not believe in ANY discerning and judging of
others. They felt like if you were to say that one was in error or you
discerned them as a heretic or a wolf – you were a prideful judge. This
is a pendulum swing to the other direction. Again the irony of this
leadership was their blindness to that same iniquity in their own lives.
They judged others who judged. They had to determine and make judgments
upon others concerning doctrines just as the heresy hunters had done to
them. And as deception would have it, they did so with unrighteous
judgment. They became the very thing that they hated and yet were
blind to see it.
We are all called to judge but not to condemn.
We are called to judge others as well as a matters in the church but never
in condemnation. This judging is called discernment, we are called to do
it in maturity, and it must be righteousness spoken in Jesus’ Nature.
Therefore God will eventually call all of us to discern situations, this
is part of growing up, but it has to be done in the right spirit, in the
right context, and in the time & manner that God requires. It will
never preoccupy our entire ministry and anytime we do it there will be the
temptation of self-righteousness along with it. If you are in relationship
where our brother is receiving false doctrine we must discern and we must
admonish in God’s Spirit and rightly dividing truth. If our own life is
full of heresies, unrighteousness, and lacks fruit – we will be nothing
more than “Job’s three friends”.
Jesus confronted the Scribes and Pharisees and
also drove out the moneychangers, but He also was able to be overflowing
in the Love of the Father in doing so. He was able to move and speak only
on the prompting of the Father. Jesus also healed the sick, set free the
captives, raised the dead, prophesied, and preached good news to the poor.
We cannot choose to “oppose heresy” and be unwilling to do ALL that
Jesus is doing. It is much easier to walk in love as I lay hands on the
sick, then it is to expose error and confront the Pharisee. It is easier
to minister Jesus as the healer of the brokenhearted then to drive out the
moneychangers and sin not.
We are not to become contentious or become
involved in debate, this is the wrong fruit and the wrong spirit.
Scripture calls this a work of the flesh and it does not matter who is
right and whose facts are accurate, it is a work of the flesh and God
despises it.
WATCH for contention and debate among your
brethren that is done “in the name of truth”. Watch for unrighteous
discernments. The way of Christ is this, in an argument, the first one to
lay down his life wins - in other words you must lose your life to win it,
you must yield. There is never a right side when you enter into an
argument or contention, for not one shall come away having received the
crucified Christ. The present day heresy hunting that Christians do is a
counterfeit. When you bite into the fruit - it contains death instead of
Life. They call it “contending for the faith” but in reality God’s
truth is preserved in scriptures and if one desires Jesus and His truth
instead of self-preservation, that same person will find Truth. If a
person is satisfied by answers from men and by traditional doctrines then
that is what he will receive. True contending for the faith has nothing to
do with exposing others. It is preaching the word that the Holy Spirit
tells you to preach, in season and out of season – in love. Arguments
that are preached that expose the deception of others may be sweet to the
mouth but when it reaches our inner man it will be bitter. That
bitterness will separate the love that we have for other parts of the
body. We will no longer want to lay down our life for that brother
that we think has received a false doctrine. It is simply a ministry that
causes division. It is certainly not the “Joshua and Caleb witness”
of the land. One minister says, bitterness is a poison that one takes in
hopes that someone else will die.
Some of us that preach the gospel have allowed
this “leaven of exposing” in our own messages. We call it “warning
our brother”. We must WATCH how we present the gospel. We can deceive
with a great power of deception if we do not take heed, because we can use
our true facts and subvert the hearers. We can use man's own common sense
reasoning power to persuade others and use the scriptures to win them
over. Our own words can expose sin and deception in the camp. "What a
noble cause" we may say, or "I am keeping them from
deception" is our response. “We are just keeping others informed
about the current events of what's happening in the body" we justify
ourselves by saying. But hear God's heart on what we are doing and learn
to discern as a spiritual man who has eyes to see and ears to hear.
Paul told the Galatian church about the heresy
of Peter, however, he communicated the truth in love and never destroyed
Peter or the ministry that God called Peter to perform.
Gal 2:8
(for He who effectually worked for Peter in {his}
apostleship to the circumcised effectually worked for me also to the
Gentiles),
Paul put his stamp of approval on Peter's
ministry before he brought up the example of the heresy of “law
observance” that Peter propagated. Paul even confronted Peter on the
hypocrisy of “SEPARATING FROM OTHER TRUE BELIEVERS”. Like us, Peter
operated in human frailty; he had a revelation of Jesus as the Christ and
denied Him moments later, because he did not have a revelation of a
suffering Messiah. Peter also took his sword and cut off the ear of
Malchus thinking he was going to assist Jesus. We also many times thinking
that we are assisting Jesus, will take His Word and cut off a few ears.
When we do this, we show no compassion or mercy on others who preach the
truth but who fail in an area of doctrine or character. We tend to magnify
the error and highlight it and sometimes we never qualify it with the
truth. This is the spirit of Satan as the accuser of the brethren. We are
dangerous to those that hear us when we act like this.
If we will give others the name of the
minister, the church, the ministry, the movement or the denomination and
label them as associated with false doctrine then the hearer may deny them
categorically and miss out on something God may be trying to teach them. They
will refuse to sit at God’s table. Our chapter called “Sit at
God’s Table” is real pertinent to this message. We will have trouble
with our table manners if we heed “expose’ ministry” and if we
preach it - we will cause others to have bad table manners. How can we eat
properly if we focus on the things we see that are in error concerning our
brother and that is all we see, but in reality there are many areas that
may be right, there are things that God wants us to receive that they have
to give – we cannot cause someone to categorically reject another’s
ministry until we know that God has categorically rejected their ministry.
Even then we can only speak as we have heard Him say; and scripturally the
ministry being exposed should be a wolf that has found his way into your
local fold.
An example of this would be a congregation
that has accepted the ministry of a false prophet. The elders of that
congregation or any other gifted minister related to that church could
expose the false prophet. This is scriptural but still must be done with
God’s approval and with His method for every instance. This is also
expose’ that is under-performed in churches that need it. As you see, most
counterfeits can be based on a truth that is taken too far. Truth
taken too far is truth where we take control instead of being in
subjection.
Titus 3:2
To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle,
shewing all meekness unto all men. (KJV)
We tend to focus on the small percentage of
someone else's false doctrine as if we have no false doctrine of our own.
Many times we can show one the leaven of someone else, all the while
presenting our own leaven of false doctrine. We must present the Truth
that sets others free. True statements about others can lead to bondage.
In fact many of us in the church are acting like daytime talk shows that
we see in the world. We commit spiritual adultery in our immaturity and
are still willing to cast the first stone. Not even the accusers of
the adulteress were so spiritually proud. WATCH the words that proceed out
of our mouth.
Be careful about judging entire moves of God,
denominations, ministries based on the most extreme element of something
you disagree with – you can cause fear of reproach. This is a reproach
that can cause others to be afraid to even use certain biblical
terminology because of the damage that was caused. I have read articles
and books from “discernment ministers” that list words that are used
by ministries that they have deemed heretic. They teach that if you see
these words used then you should QUESTION THOSE MINISTERS. The saddest
part of the list is that over half the words or terms are found in the
Bible or based on God’s ways. Many of these terms that are not
found in the Bible are certainly words that are in agreement
with the Bible. Because of the “list” we have witnessed their
targets having to change their terminology away from these biblical words
so they do not end up branded as being a heretic. Then the tenacious
heresy hunter recognizes the counter strategy of his opponent and starts a
new list with “affiliations”. The new list reveals all
ministries that are heretic, and if a minister has an affiliation with any
on the list then he must be heretic as well. This causes some to fear
being “branded” and have broken off God ordained relationships. Of
course the response was wrong, we must suffer the attacks of the heresy
hunter and respond like Jesus. You see how wicked these attacks become and
how they have nothing to do with the true body of Jesus and the love that
God expects. Why does God allow them? It is a test of responses! How will
you respond in the matter? One famous pastor prophesied death on his
heresy hunter opponent. This is a test that was failed. I personally have
been falsely accused and attacked by ones quite close to me. They were my
“God-ordained Judas” that God will send to each one of us in this
maturing process. Sometime I responded like Jesus and other times I was
full of self-preservation. We must repent from self-preservation! Jesus
knew who would betray Him. We are not so fortunate. God knows that if we
had this “knowledge of who would betray us” – we would protect
ourselves from our God-ordained Judas. Instead we are betrayed and we must
learn to not take it personally. In fact what happens is our God-ordained
Judas is in actuality betraying Jesus as he did before. This time Judas
betrays Jesus – His Body.
Another problem is seen when we may spot an
error and make it known to others and categorically state that the entire
ministry is deceptive, when in fact the deception that may exist is only a
fraction of what is preached in that ministry. We see this activity in the
world when we observe journalism. This same spirit can come into the
church and it can be quite dangerous. Paul dealt with Peter and it
produced fruit. Paul dealt with other heresies and heretics and we have
several books of the Bible because of it. Paul had to name names for us
and he said to avoid these men categorically - these were utter false
prophets. Paul also admonished those that have simply swerved from the
faith in an area, but there are few Christians on the Earth that have
Paul’s maturity to discern when things are not so “utterly
evident”. Does this mean we are not qualified whatsoever? No, it means
that we must be completely sure that we are speaking on God’s initiative
and have selected the words that God had selected for us. We have to keep
our heart and motives on the altar of God, we must also have the “Elihu
answer”, and we must fear God with every word lest we fall.
The natural mind will reason with us,
"well the intention is good, to stamp out the evil of heresy",
“this motive alone should be enough”. Heresy is sin,
heresy is "thought processes" that are separated from God; but
we must be careful when we take it upon ourselves to stamp out heresy
because we can easily do it in our own strength. I see the oppression of
God's people because of heresy and I myself have been tempted of Satan to
do something about it on my own, but let me give you a couple of truths
that will help. Moses also saw the oppression of the people of God when an
Egyptian beat Moses' brethren, and Moses slew that oppressor. But it was
not on God's authority, it was not God's way, it was not God's time;
though Moses' intention was true. Moses afterwards spent 40 years in the
desert and had totally resolved in himself, that in himself he could never
do anything about the oppression of his brethren. This is when God can
really use us, and when we see Moses used of God you will notice it was a
method where only God could get glory and not the servant of God. Moses
also suffered with those oppressed, 40 more years in the desert –
demonstrating the longsuffering type of love. Men can bring attention to
themselves when they speak; Jesus said this of the learned scribes who
knew scriptures in the head and not the spirit. When we do these things we
have unfortunately abandoned the ministry of reconciliation to which we
were really called and are now being used by the enemy to subvert anyone
who listens to us.
Ø
We are not to be God's
holy Exposers!
Ø
We are not to listen to
anyone who thinks they are!
Ø
Guard You Heart!
You must sow mercy to receive it. All of us
have missed the mark and fallen short in our growth to manifest Jesus in
pure and sound doctrine. The book of James says that he that controls his
tongue is a perfect man. The plan of God is to be perfect and control our
tongue, and may we show mercy to others as we walk towards that
perfection; because we need to obtain mercy for that which we speak -
because our speech will also miss the mark of representing Jesus Christ
until that day of maturity.
If you were to avoid false doctrine then you
would have to be removed from the earth. False doctrine is anything that
misrepresents Jesus, whether His character or His plan and at least a
small element can be found in most messages. If you were to isolate
yourself from the gifts of apostles, prophets, pastors, evangelists, and
teachers, then you would not be perfected, equipped, and edified. What we
must do is receive only what the anointing in us is teaching.
Ø
If we teach truth it will
expose ANY darkness.
Ø
If we teach truth then the
body of Christ will learn to discern for themselves.
We do not have to be the discerner or exposer
for others. For example if I tell you the name of ministries that I
discern as in error, you may avoid them, but the next new one will be in
line to take its place. I would also be destroying that ministry and its
ministers, even though they might be called of God and have been
temporarily mislead like Peter was. Again Paul did address some deceivers
by name, but it was deceivers that were wolves in sheep's clothing and his
audience was churches he had fathered in the faith. You better be hearing
from heaven when you step out and expose a name in public. It is
scriptural to do so but then so is thrusting out the moneychangers from
our temples, and many other activities are scriptural in public ministry
but you never have the RIGHT TO DO THEM. You have no rights in God’s
kingdom; you gave all your rights up when you made Jesus your Lord over
every action of your life. You decide as He bids you to decide. You reveal
to others as He gives you permission. You expose only when He exposes,
then it is not you exposing, it is Jesus bringing light to darkness. The
result will be pleasing to God and will cause unity. If you do the same
activity apart from relationship, on your authority – it will always
condemn and provide no answer from heaven.
This is Satan's strategy revealed. Satan as
the accuser of the brethren will come to you to condemn you. He will show
you the parts of your life that do not look like Jesus, but he does so to
condemn and judge your spiritual man. He has passed the sentence of death
on you and if you accept his sayings, you will shut off your heart from
manifesting Jesus to the world. Your soul will become hard as unplowed
rocky soil, you will keep that sprout of life from breaking through the
shell of the seed; you will have placed a bushel over the light of His
Presence in you.
The Holy Spirit will come to you as well, also
to judge and to condemn; but He CONDEMNS THE NATURAL MAN. He reveals the
parts of you that do not look like Jesus, for the purpose of letting it
become consumed with fire on the altar. The Holy Spirit gives grace and
ability to put to death our ways that are evil and allow that within us to
break forth and sprout life, to shine, to manifest the Love that is found
in Christ.
2 Cor 4:7,10,11
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the
excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. Always bearing
about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of
Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
This is the Holy Spirit judging your natural man! It
can only be done by the Spirit, for the cross of Christ is never
self-inflicted in it’s dying.
11 For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that
the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
Satan
passes sentence on the spiritual man and the Holy Spirit passes sentence
on the natural man. Now when we are condemning others whether in our daily
relationships or in condemning those that are a part of the body, we are
as Satan, shutting them off from manifesting Jesus to the world. Now when
we admonish, we are as the Holy Spirit, allowing them to break forth, to
spring life, to manifest Jesus to the world. Both use TRUE FACTS, but only
One produces life. Again God can use you to expose others by name but FEAR
GOD and let it spring from compassion – do not deceive yourself in this
matter.
Ø
Why all the emphasis on
this topic?
As we progress towards truth, towards
maturity, towards spiritual discernment – there will lay ahead a trap.
As we see error and immaturity in OTHERS, there will be an opportunity to
respond to the error and immaturity in a way that does not please God. We
will be tempted to point out this error and immaturity - to other mature
believers, or whoever will listen to us, thus becoming a BUSYBODY. We must
mind our own affairs before God. We must be a people that show compassion
towards those who have not yet received these truths that God has been
revealing to us. If we have received anything that is of the Lord, it is
only because GOD SHOWED US MERCY IN - SHOWING IT TO US. Compassion is
AGAPE that shows mercy and we are not showing mercy if we have received a
great revelation of God’s plan and criticize others who have yet to
understand God’s plan. In your Sunday service, you may observe something
that you discern as of the “soulish man” instead of the “Spiritual
man”, what is your response? Did you respond with compassion; forbearing
your Christian Brother, Sister or Pastor? Or did you forget the mercy that
God showed you when you were ignorant in your sins? Finally, a busybody
also criticizes others about how they raise their kids, what type of
personality an individual has, and what religious convictions another
person may hold – PUT AWAY THE INIQUITY OF BEING A BUSYBODY. Put away
the critical spirit. Prefer your brother as MORE IMPORTANT than yourself.
As you become a father in the Lord to others,
you will be dealing with “exposing sin” and “false doctrine”,
whether you wish to or not. Therefore you must be mature and sober in your
own walk – being free from heresy in you life… or you will be limited
in helping others get free of heresy in their life. Allow no
self-righteousness and spiritual pride in your heart or the consequences
will be severe in exposing unrighteousness and pride in their heart. My
natural children like to play house, one plays the father and my little
girl plays the mother. If we step into the activity of pointing out the
heresy and deception of others and we have not obtained deliverance from
heresy and deception then all we are doing is “playing house”. When
you become a true spiritual father then you will know how to deal with
these issues without slaying the Egyptian as Moses did and the result will
not be “who made you our Lord”. God will do the slaying and your true
children will leave Egypt, though, many that are not true children may
fall away. The objective is to enter the promised land of rest and bring
others with you.
You
Will Be a Victim
As you progress in your journey of
righteousness you will be misunderstood. Brothers and sisters in the Lord
will falsely accuse you. They will judge you as teaching heresy or of
being of a wrong spirit. Leaders may even judge you saying, “Who do you
think you are”. Your motives will be questioned; your immaturities will
be talked about. THIS IS CALLED THE BREAD OF MISUNDERSTANDING. You will
become bitter or you can choose to eat of the bread and become better. It
is a test of responses sent from God. Crucifixion hurts and it comes from
those close to you. This is where growing up will hurt. Those you had
confidence with - are the ones selected to betray you. God has selected
your Judas for you and has hidden him in your company. Again, Jesus knew
his Judas but God does not do the same with us. Why? Because if we knew
our Judas then we would protect ourselves from the cross that we are
called to endure. Therefore God hides him till the time of your
crucifixion.
Why does God allow leaders and believers to
judge unrighteously? To test your response to the crucifixion, and to
see how you eat of the bread of misunderstanding. It hurts, it causes
our feelings to get hurt, but it causes you to trust in His grace to bear
it. In learning the purpose of affliction we must include this as a
certain type of affliction designed to test our response to others that
are in the body but are being temporaily used by the enemy to attack us.
I had a couple that had misunderstood one of
my teachings and went to leadership to have me corrected. They served the
leadership a morsel of deception. Righteous discernment would have caused
the leadership to reject this morsel. Instead, the leadership ate of the
wrong tree and did not discern. They brought me into a tribunal meeting
and tried me with no evidence. Because these leaders were of the
“shepherdship doctrine” they felt justified to control the situation
without prayer. I was scheduled to preach on the coming Sunday Morning and
that was now defeated. God only gave me one word for the leadership before
they brought me into the tribunal. The word was “tell them you taught on
My authority and that I put My stamp of approval on everything you
taught”. I said what the Lord had spoken and the response of the
leadership was to call the teaching a work of the flesh. My view of
Christianity was called subjective (of course relationship is always
subjective).
I had to eat of the bread of misunderstanding.
It resulted in God calling me to leave the church though the leadership did
apologize for judging me incorrectly when other witnesses defended what I
had taught. This church was to be dealt with by God, in God’s time. It
is a serious thing with God to call the work of God a work of the flesh.
God set them up to have done just that. I lost friends and of course it
hurt, crucifixion always does. Though the revelation that comes from these
assaults are priceless. First, I had a revelation, as never before that
all those that attacked were not my enemies. Satan is our enemy not
people. Satan will temporarily use immature believers but that does not
mean that they are your enemy. Now, those that habitually
attack you with hate are simply not born-again according to 1 John, but
most of the time, others in our life are simply temporarily
used to attack us - it will test our response.
In my particular incident, I was only briefly
hurt because I had gone through this type of affliction earlier in my
life. The previous time that this sort of thing happened, it was a miracle
that I even endured. This time because of the grace bestowed upon me to
understand His ways and also knowing the strategies of the enemy, I was
only briefly affected. When you know that you are suffering for
righteousness sake the response should be the one of 1 Peter 3:14 “to
count it joy”. Concerning this incident that happened to me, it was
uncovered quickly that the leadership had made a mistake. Though only the
couple was questioned before the tribunal meeting, the rest of the
attendees that heard the teaching defended me and testified that all was
well with what I had taught. Though not necessary to my affliction God
will sometimes come to your aid concerning your reputation.
Sometimes incidents like this happen to work
on your character and sometimes it happens to deal with the attackers. The
attackers in my situation had received the leaven of shepherdship and
through “covenant relationship” between leadership and the couple that
had turned me in; it was a leaven that would spread. I was one that spoke
as one with authority having a gift of hearing clearly the voice of the
Lord and receiving revelatory truth. The leaven of shepherdship doctrine
has a stronghold that seeks to prevent such authority. Shepherdship wants
to be the authority in control. The utmost thing opposed by shepherdship
is preaching on the intimacy of having Jesus as your Husband. This drives
the devils of shepherdship nuts. I preach this message of intimacy
constantly and was about to preach it to the entire church. This is how
the strongholds can manifest at times.
Shepherdship doctrine requires sheep to submit
to leaders. The submission is perverted into controlling the sheep. This
is a stronghold that will attack whenever it encounters true spirituality
and discernment. It is a stronghold whereby the one who wants others to
submit to them believe they have the discernment of God and NOT the sheep
under them. It perverts God’s design for the church government office of
elders. The end result was shepherdship doctrines have destroyed thousands
of Christians and still exists today under different names. Here is a
truth for you. Whenever one says to another “submit to my authority”
then they are no longer under God’s authority. God’s authority causes
the first to be last, the elder to be the washer of feet. The elder under
God’s authority would instead try to find opportunity to lay down his
life for that same individual. The same goes for those that say “touch
not God’s anointed” saying that they are God’s
anointed. Soon as you say it like that, you then cease to be God’s
anointed. God empowers elders who act like Him, not like prideful
politicians. God’s anointed are empowered to reach out not to protect
themselves.
Whenever events happen like happened to me,
you can face the dilemma of “who is right?” Jesus is right! Jesus gave
us a gift and His Name is the Spirit of Truth. This gift comforts us with
His knowledge. We must have the faith of God in this relationship to
believe that He will show us our true heart in any of these issues. To see
areas of immaturities in us as well as seeing areas of immaturity in those
that attack us. We cannot be prideful to where we always disregard the
attack as always being the enemy; on the other side, we cannot always be
tossed to and fro when others attack us. We must hear God first, and then
we must stand firm on what we heard. Remember that the standing is as
important as the hearing. Knowledge of a truth does not equal
possession of that same truth. The “standing” and “practicing” of
that truth is what causes possession.
Many of us want to be liked, that is something
we must die to. Preaching Truth will cause you to die to wanting to be
liked. I write and preach based on what I perceive the Holy Spirit to be
saying. This perceiving can be called subjective, but it is the way of
every true minister. I simply call it the way I see it in a manner that is
in agreement with God’s character and God’s scripture, and all of this
measured against my level of maturity. If I say it immaturely, it is
because I am immature in that area. Sometimes the word God gives
you, only incurs the wrath of others. I see these messages as being a way
of dealing with the pride of the speaker. It is a test of whether he will
be obedient to speak a controversy and it is a test of how he will respond
when the word is rejected. Always remember the way of mature growth is
accomplished through a series of circumstances that test your responses.
So ask yourself, “HOW DID I RESPOND?” Both heresies and the heresy
hunters exist to test our responses.
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