FLORIDA WILDFIRES AND LAKELAND WILDFIRE

In July of 2007 I posted an article about the Florida Fires that were happening then. In the article, I told about an open vision God gave me regarding the State of Florida three years before in 2004. Click here to read that post.

The vision was concerning seven "revival fires" that were kindled by the Spirit since the 1950s. God had specific purposes for each of those "hot spots" of the Spirit, but in every case God's purposes were prematurely foiled and spoiled by supernatural schemes of Satan, for reasons I cite in the article. But, what Satan was permitted to do was only temporary; God's purposes and plans are not subject ultimately to Satan's devices. After showing me the things He did in the vision, He then led me to prophesy by the Spirit to the Fires of the Spirit, "Restore! Restore! Restore!"

"I then saw in the Spirit these fires begin to flare up even greater, and to move westward toward the middle of the State. Soon, it appeared that much of the State was being consumed by fire. And, from my aerial view in the Spirit, I saw the smoke of these fires rise high into the air and nearly cover the state, and strong wind currents then began to blow them toward the adjoining southern states of the US. As I watched this scene, I heard within, "The Glory of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the seas. The manifestation of God's Glory shall now be released through the church Jesus is building!"

Since then, a Statewide drought of historic proportions and duration has been gradually unfolding over the Sunshine State. There have been short-lived, intermittent periods of relief in the form of precipitation during that interim, but nowhere near the amounts needed to restore the State’s aquifer levels anywhere near to normal. Epoch drought-level rainfall over the last several years has reduced to marshlands mammoth Lake Okeechobee, a crucial reservoir and resource of fresh water for vast portions of the State, decimating the fresh-water commercial and sport fishing industry of which it was the perennial epicenter.

Over the last few days, “red flag” fire weather warnings have been posted by the National Weather Service over expansive, multi-county areas of the State of Florida, based on the potentially combustive combination of low dew points and relative humidity, high temperatures, and a specter of strong winds, “creat(ing) explosive fire growth potential,” in the words of the NWS.

The July 2007 post concluded with this prediction:

The fires shall increase and the drought shall continue in the natural realm in certain strategic places as a precursor and reflection of what God is doing and is about to do in the spiritual realm. Let us pray that God's purposes for the fires and related circumstances be fulfilled, and that the Body of Christ begins to get the revelation of its responsibility to cover His chosen vessels on the leading edge with strong intercession of the Spirit so that His plans and desires be no more waylaid or hindered.

With the increased ambient temperatures and the continuing drought, the fires along the eastern coastal areas and Central Florida, have resumed, and I believe will be more aggressive, numerous, and destructive than in the preceding years in those areas.

The following is an overview of reports of the latest flare-ups of Florida Fires over the course of the last few days (not updated after 5/14/08):

108 total known fires statewide, involving an estimated 17,000 acres total, over 14 counties. Nine of the infernos involved very large areas and pose great potential for damage. Currently, 200+ firefighters and first-responders are employed in affected areas. As of May 14, 2008, there were 40 destroyed structures reported (downgraded from original report of 60+), with 160 structures impacted, totaling an estimated $9.6 million in damages. The approximate average value of destroyed homes is $150,000. Fortunately, at the time of this writing, there have been only 3 reported injuries and no deaths. The wildfires have forced closings of Long stretches of I-95 as well as scores of school closings in multiple eastern coastal counties over the course of three days. A major portion of the fires that so far have destroyed 6,400 acres in the Brevard County communities of Palm Bay and Malabar is believed to be an act of arson, and authorities have apprehended the suspected arsonist.

The impression I am getting from the Spirit is that these current wildfires will not be ending anytime soon. In fact, I feel it is possible that they could continue for months, and that a series of inordinately strong winds coming into Florida could fan and spread the flames over even greater portions of the State. I am almost certain that the current drought conditions are not going to end for quite a while, maybe a couple more years, or even more, without God’s intervention. Meteorologists are already reporting that the global climactic patterns they are seeing makes it appear that the onset of Florida’s typical rainy season is likely to be delayed, resulting in extended fire weather conditions.

Until now, the 2008 wildfires have mostly been occurring in eastern to the central regions of the State. However, I believe that I’m hearing the Spirit say that Southwest and South Florida are about to experience massive wildfires as well.

About two weeks ago, the Lord gave me another vision, this one in a dream. I was dining in a restaurant located atop a high tower-like building, from which I was able to see a panorama of what I would estimate to be about a thirty-square-mile area of Southwest Florida. I had the impression that my vantage point was from the east, looking westward. Suddenly, at about one-o’clock, directionally, I saw some sort of an explosive fiery flare-up that produced a tall plume of fire, which became a billowing plume of dark smoke that rose high into the air. Then at around ten o’clock of the panorama there was another similar flare-up, followed by another at about four o’clock. Then I could clearly see some very strong winds that began to blow over the entire panorama, further fanning and spreading the flames, until soon almost the entire panorama was engulfed in flames, producing a sea of dark smoke rising higher and higher into the upper atmosphere.

As much as it grieves me to have to do so, I can no longer resist speaking what the Lord has been telling me to speak for quite some time which is a warning that God is releasing judgment upon the State of Florida, which actually is not something that is just now starting, but started with the rash of massively destructive hurricanes of 2004-5. The relative “lull” of the subsequent years has been God’s “selah,” or interlude, giving Floridians time to hear and heed the obvious and deafening warnings of God, and repent. My response to those asking me what God was saying in the historic multiple 2004 hurricanes that decimated Florida was that it was like the cell phone company commercials, where the guy keeps asking over and over, “Can you hear me now? Can you hear me now?” One would think that the utter devastation those hurricanes wreaked in various parts of Florida would have gotten the attention of its population, but sadly, little has changed in the interim. Obviously, people are hard of hearing; “dull of hearing,” Jesus called it. So, unfortunately, God is releasing more judgment upon the Sunshine State, and will continue to do so until it repents and becomes the SONshine State. (Repent of what? That expansive topic must be left to another post.)

In no way, lest I be misunderstood, do I relish this whole specter of judgment, especially upon Florida, where I have resided for 47 of my 60 years. Florida is a special State to God, which is not a statement of bias. Consider these excerpts of what I wrote in another article concerning Florida:

Florida is an apostolic state, in that the apostolic anointing and function is a "first-in" anointing and function (1 Cor. 12:28) — a forerunner, pioneering, breakthrough anointing. Virtually all the original famed explorers' forays into the New World were along Florida's then surreal sand-covered beaches....

Further demonstrating the State's apostolic roots, though it has not been widely chronicled, a number of critical conflicts, conflagrations, and events precipitating the colonization and early establishment of America occurred here in Florida....

Florida is a proverbial "Fort Knox," financially speaking, because much of the world's wealthiest and most influential people reside in or hold properties or interests somewhere in the pearled peninsula….The unimaginable dense concentration of mammon represented in the State of necessity then comprises a lion share of the "wealth of the wicked" God declares is stored up for the righteous of the End-times Church Jesus is building that is required to finance the final great global ingathering of souls.

For these reasons and much more that cannot be addressed in this article, one of the most ferocious pitched battles between Heaven and Hell is over the 60,000 total square miles of land mass comprising the State of Florida, but more importantly, over the some 18 million souls who inhabit it. Numerous profound and portentous prophecies by prominent voices foretelling major moves of the Spirit of God have been trumpeted during the 20th and now early part of the 21st Centuries.

Unfortunately, however, as an apostolic State, the master-deceiver, the "prince of the power of the air," has also in times past hijacked the spiritual air-currents of the fair State…for propagation of some of his most diabolical and damaging handiworks of deception—"winds of doctrine," i.e., false movements founded on "doctrines of demons"—in modern church history.

This last paragraph brings me to the most recent emergence of what is being called “The Lakeland (Florida) Healing Revival,” which I believe is a false move, orchestrated not by God, but by Satan Himself. Space will not permit me further elaboration on that matter in this article, but I will in an upcoming post. All I am able to proffer on that topic here is the following Scripture that I believe the Spirit is speaking to me regarding it, with my parenthetic explanations:

The Lord has accomplished His wrath, He has poured out His fierce anger; And He has kindled a fire in Zion Which has consumed its foundations. The kings of the earth (believers) did not believe, Nor did any of the inhabitants of the world, That the adversary and the enemy (Satan) Could enter the gates of Jerusalem (spiritually, the Church). Because of the sins of her prophets And the iniquities of her priests (pastors), Who have shed in her midst The blood of the righteous…. [Lam. 4:11-13; parentheses and emphasis added]

My strong sense is that God’s patience with Florida believers and churches, and especially their leaders, has run out, and He is now angry with them because of their constant predisposition to “believe the lie,” and to be taken in by false moves fraught with—“the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders” (2 Thes. 2:9). There is no doubt in my mind whatsoever that the power, signs, and wonders being demonstrated in the Lakeland “revival” are not authored by the Holy Spirit at all, but rather “deceiving spirits” accompanied by “doctrines of demons” (1 Tim. 4:1). The leader of it, Todd Bentley, along with many of his allies and associates are neo-gnostic, New Age, sorcerers operating by the same spirit as did Simon the Sorcerer who was "claiming to be someone great," performing his MAGIC ARTS and seducing the "smallest and the greatest" among the people of Samaria into calling him "The Great Power of God," and "giving him attention (lit., deference afforded deity) because he had for a long time astonished them with his magic arts" (Ac. 8:9-11). They are magicians and stigmatacists, a la Elymas the Magician (Ac. 13:6-12), and psychic diviners like the slave girl "who was bringing her masters much profit by her fortunetelling," and out of whom the Apostle Paul cast the spirit of divination (Ac. 16:16-21).

What is going on in this latest “revival,” hosted and promoted primarily by the pastor of one of the offshoot congregations of the church (Carpenter’s Home Church) that hosted the mixture “Laughing Revival” of the 1990s out of which was spawned the “Toronto Airport Revival” and “Brownsville Revival.” However, this “revival” exceeds all of those former ones in terms of its falsity, because this one is nothing but SORCERY and DIVINATION of the highest order! No mixture of the Holy Spirit and evil spirits is involved at all, as some are claiming. This one is purely Satanic!

This “revival” is “strange fire” offered before the Lord, and it shall elicit the same judgment Eli’s sons, Hophni and Phinehas, elicited from God—death! It is being hosted, fittingly, in a newly-named Church, “Ignited Church,” whose senior leader is Stephen Strader, son of Karl Strader, former Senior Pastor of Carpenter’s Home Church, who in the past has traveled with, has an ongoing relationship with, and claims to have received a special anointing from, Rodney Howard-Browne, the original principal of the “Laughing Revival.” I further believe the natural wildfires that have been breaking out in Florida before and concurrent with the Lakeland phenomenon are God’s prophetic warnings regarding the spiritual wildfire in Lakeland (1 Cor. 15:46).

This Steven puts out an open call to two other Stephens—Stephen Strader and Stephen Strang—the latter being the founder and leader of Strang Communications, publisher of Charisma Magazine, which is the leading print medium promoting this event, to cease all their activities in promoting this false, Satanic, and extremely injurious “revival.” God will hold you accountable for the fallout from the demonic incursion these meetings are producing, as well as the judgment that they are engendering.

I hear the Spirit saying God is sending “strong delusion”:

For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence (strong delusion, KJV) so that they will believe what is FALSE, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the TRUTH, but took pleasure in wickedness. (2 Thes. 2:11,12; parentheses and emphasis added)

Judgment has already been released upon Florida, and there is more to come relative to the “Lakeland Revival,” in the form of many sudden and unusual deaths, I predict, so that “great fear came upon all who heard of it” (Ac. 5:5).

Despite how such a prediction may sound to those without understanding of God’s purposes and ways, the kind of judgment God is releasing upon Florida, it is crucial for believers to understand, is NOT the kind of judgment that God will release upon the unbelieving world at the final judgment. Rather, it is a refining judgment, a judgment of purification. It is the kind of judgment that God says, “MUST begin with the household of God,” that is, the Remnant Church. It is the kind of judgment of which Zechariah prophesied:

“It will come about in all the land,” Declares the Lord, “That two parts in it will be cut off and perish; But the third (The Remnant Church) will be left in it. And I will bring the third part through the fire, Refine them as silver is refined, And test (purify) them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, And I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are My people,’ And they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’” (Zech. 13:8,9; parentheses and emphasis added)

Judgment Prophets

In 1986 I attended what was billed as a “prophetic gathering” in a tiny Florida Panhandle town. What it was billed as is not what it was in reality. It really was a cleverly disguised recruitment rally for membership in a network of prophetic ministries that was a newly formed subsidiary of the hosting organization, which, in the words of the leader, who they called “papa-prophet,” would soon be recognized as “the international prophetic clearinghouse.” His amplification of this stunning declaration was that the advancements in technology that were on the horizons (in 1986) would soon make it possible for this organization to compose and maintain electronic dossiers on every person around the world who claimed to be a prophet, and use the "information" in those dossiers in their self-appointed "oversight" role over the emerging global prophetic movement. As shocking as this fascist-like statement was, and still is to this day, relatively few of those in attendance seemed to grasp at the time the implications such an outrageous and extreme proposition represented.

As preposterous and radical as it sounds to rational minds, becoming the international clearinghouse of the prophetic is exactly what that organization was successful in pulling off to some degree out of that initial conference. Aided by the approbation and endorsement of a number of other self-appointed Neo-Pentecostal ministerial “networks” with whom they were in league, this organization, “The Panhandle Prophets,” essentially achieved their goal of duping the majority of Charismatica into accepting the premise that this single, man-made organization was chosen and appointed by God as the supreme sanctioning prophetic organization in the world.

To a large degree, depending on one’s perspective, this organization under the auspices of its leader either successfully hijacked the emerging prophetic movement, or presided over a false “prophetic movement” that was a Satanic preemption of the emergence of a company of prophets that has yet to commence. Over the past three decades, The Panhandle Prophets have been somewhat successful at forging and maintaining a lock, of sorts, on the prophetic, which they have jealously guarded, because of the manifold self-aggrandizing benefits it has produced for them, not the least of which has been relative wealth. The hold they have been able to maintain over the prophetic is due to the fact that many carnal-minded Charismatic leaders have accepted the proposition widely promoted by this organization that they are the sanctioning organization for prophets. The self-stated self-view of the leaders of this organization is that God has appointed them to recognize, approve, and authorize prophets. The implication, which they of course deny, is that if a prophet is not "submitted" to and a "member" of this organization, he simply is not a genuine prophet.

Absurd as it sounds to the sane, many Neo-Pentecostal leaders actually accepted the ludicrous sales pitch of this organization and would only allow their “authorized and approved” prophets to minister in their churches, or contacted a representative of this organization to find out if a prophet who was contacting them to minister in their churches was authorized and approved by this leader and his organization. The upshot of the organization’s methods, though they have always adamantly denied that this was their intent, was blatant "black-balling" of prophets who were not a member of their organization, resulting in untold damage, not only to those prophets’ ministries, and thus their lives, but also to the Body of Christ who were prevented from receiving the benefits of those prophets' ministries. In engaging in all these activities over a period of more than two decades, this organization has been among the worst violators of the divine admonition to which they themselves so often allude, "Touch not my anointed, and do my prophets no harm." Obviously, their leaders and constituency are oblivious to the harm and hindrances they have inflicted upon the ministries of those prophets who they have adjudicated as "unapproved" because they have refused to cowtail to their authoritarian dictates and attempts to subjugate the prophetic under their auspices. Yet, to this day, I have never heard of anyone affiliated with this organization expressing any sort or degree of concern about any of the harm they have perpetrated upon outside prophets or the prophetic movement itself.

At the “prophetic gathering” hosted by this organization that I attended back in 1986, there apparently arose a debate among the attendees who had come from all over the world under what turned out to be an erroneous assumption that what was being convened was an open forum for prophets and prophetic people to discuss what they sensed God was speaking and doing in the church, the nation, and across the globe. Obviously this was never the intentions of the conveners. The “question,” as the leader referred to it, was over the existence of “judgment prophets,” and apparently there was some cause for him to address it in one of the meetings. I remember his response was vague and equivocating. The essence of it was that while he could not entirely dismiss the specter of “judgment prophets” existing today, he also could not justify the concept with the requisite that prophecy should be unto edification, exhortation, and consolation.

While it’s not my intent to be unkind, I have to confess my inward reaction to his response was, “This is the person being acclaimed by this organization as the 'prophetic pope,' and that’s his answer to what may be one of the most crucial issues to the church in the last days as we await the return of Christ?”

Time and space will not permit a treatise on the Biblical evidence of judgment prophets here, but the overwhelming answer to that question from the preponderance of Scripture is that judgment prophets do indeed exist today, have always existed, and will always exist, certainly through the end of the Church Age. Just one example based on the papa-prophet's response is that the main passage he is referring to, First Corinthians 14:3, is not even talking about “prophets,” per se, that is, the office of the prophet, but rather the gift of prophecy, which is made clear by its prefatory phrase, “One who prophesies.”

There are vast differences between the office of the prophet and the gift of prophecy, and confusion resulting from convergence of the two has always caused a lot of problems in terms of the operation of each. To expand upon the differences very briefly, the Ministry Gift of prophet is given by Jesus as the Head of the Church only to “some” (Eph. 4:11), not “all” (1 Cor. 12:28-30). The Manifestation Gifts [charismata], on the other hand, are distributed by the Holy Spirit “to each one as He wills (1 Cor. 12:4-6). The simple Manifestation Gift of prophecy is indeed limited to edification, exhortation, and comfort, however, the Ministry Gift of the prophet has no such restrictions, but also includes the six facets of the prophetic office: to root or pluck up, break down, destroy, overthrow, build, and plant (Jer. 1:10).

There is no doubt or equivocation in my mind that there are judgment prophets and that they are beginning to emerge in significant numbers. I have also made my stance clear on the topic in numerous previous posts. In light of the multiplicity of problematic matters existing in the church at-large, including the deluge of deception that has been released from the pits of hell that is causing Jesus’ prediction that even the elect shall be deceived in the last days, I personally pray that the day of the company of judgment prophets God will bring upon the scene comes quickly.

Art Katz posits in the following article the proposition that God actually requires His true prophets to be spokesmen of His judgments as a prerequisite of the privilege of speaking genuine words of benevolence, a premise with which I fully agree. Inherent in the article is the concept I also wholeheartedly agree with that its really not so much a matter of whether there are “judgment prophets” and prophets who, in juxtaposition, would be “benevolence prophets,” but rather that prophets are prophets, and genuine prophets are called upon by God to pronounce words of judgment as well as announce words of blessing. His perceptions concerning the prophetic function are dead on target, and could only be articulated as they are by someone who has himself lived it.

The Prophetic Function
By Art Katz

The quintessential definition of the prophetic call is given to Jeremiah at the inception of his ministry:

Then the LORD stretched out His hand and touched my mouth, and the LORD said to me, "Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. See, I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant." (Jer. 1:9,10).

The first expression of the prophetic calling is judgment. Unless we have a stomach for that, then we will not be allowed the privilege of the word that builds and plants. Note the order of the words: the hardest thing first. Everything that is painful to the flesh and that will earn for us the displeasure of men must first be addressed.

The prophet is called to pluck up and break down the things that are dear to men, namely, their religious tradition, the false things that they have celebrated for generations, the things that they want to cling to because it has to do with their identity and their dignity and the way in which they even see themselves. Men will kill for this and yet the prophet has got to tear down and destroy. The things that are false will be contended for fiercely! He has got therefore to be painful and a destroyer. His word then is destructive before it is benevolent. Unless we are willing to speak the destructive word, we will never be used for benevolence. Only the prophets who were faithful to speak the word of exile and judgment were also the prophets who spoke the word of restoration and return. They were given the privilege of speaking the creative word of restoration.

It would be a much simpler task if we just had to establish fresh principles where it falls on virginal consciousness. When you first have to deal with and penetrate a whole existent medley of opinions and traditions that have become dear (if not sacrosanct), you will ironically be accused of being opposed to God!

A prophet not only identifies falsity, but he ruthlessly destroys it. There is something about his word that is like a fire. It is plucking up, rooting out and destroying before it is planting and rebuilding. Who wants to hear men like that? They not only just bring things into question, but they absolutely reduce it to rubble before your eyes. For you to pick it up after that is to touch the unclean thing. They have identified it and now you are stuck with that word. It is little wonder that such men are not welcome in places where people want to continue their lifestyle unchallenged.

A prophet critiques and unsparingly lays bare, without fear and regard of man, the lie or even 'conventional' truth, that is to say, the assumed, mindless, uncontested premises that constitute death in the midst of life. It is to reveal the lie, to expose it and to 'blow the whistle.' That lie may well be the lies of the false prophets. The whole world is predicated on lies, but how shall it know unless a word of truth comes. If that word is to come, then it is to come from one who is totally without fear of man.

We all know that the fear of man is the most powerful and crippling factor that works in the lives of God's ministers. To be free of that and to speak without regard to the fear of man is an ultimate statement that implies such a history of dealing with that servant. We are all born with the fear of man. We live for the regard of man, for their acknowledgment and for their applause. Men love the acknowledgments of men, particularly prestigious men, but we have got to be weaned away from that necessity. It is a process; it does not take place in a day. Every time that God brings us to that place of weaning, we have got to submit to it, until we come to the place where we do not need it. We need to come to the place where we are not only indifferent to the applause of men, but also to their criticisms and reproaches.

A prophet requires, therefore, an extraordinary discernment to critique and an analytical ability honed by the Spirit. It is not a 'taking of pot shots', but an apprehending of God's own view of something, and expressing that.

The prophet's own lifestyle must itself, therefore, be a repudiation of the lie. We cannot 'blow the whistle' on false values if we ourselves are subscribing to them. There is something about poverty that is more than an accident or happenstance. It is appropriate to the authenticity of our union with God. Camel's hair garments and the eating of locusts are symbolically intrinsic to the prophetic life. There is a reason why John the Baptist was in the wilderness and not in Jerusalem, though he was the son of a priest. He could not be where the Establishment was. He could not enjoy its benefits and at the same time 'blow the whistle' on the falsity of it. We cannot in our own lifestyle indulge in the very thing that we are condemning before others. Lifestyle is, therefore, remarkably important with regard to the word that is to be proclaimed and probably nothing more betrays whether you are a true or false prophet than this. The false prophets ate from Jezebel's table. Elijah had to be fed by ravens and live by the side of a brook. It is not that one seeks to wear a camel's hair garment because it is romantic or that you have to dress in such a way that marks you as being distinctive and different. The values that are false cannot have a place in us. A prophet is called to reveal the lie, the underlying premises that need to be examined in the light of God about value, about life and its purposes, and therefore your own lifestyle must be a repudiation of that lie, however much society and even the church legitimates it. A prophet's speaking not only reveals the lie but condemns and judges it. His word as is his life itself is a divine destruct.

When Elijah said, "There shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word (1 Kings 17:1b)," it was not just saying that there will be a little difference in your weather pattern. It meant that they were not going to have crops. They were not going to eat. They were going to experience a famine. It was going to be a judgment from God and it was to come through the speaking of Elijah's word. His word was not just a piece of information or an interpretation, however much it may be that, but rather it was a statement of judgment. It would actually affect the whole nation. That kind of word needs to be revived and restored. It is a trembling proposition to bear, and I can think of a few minor instances in my own experience where my word was a word of judgment, and God acted according to what I spoke. The church to whom it was spoken no longer exists because that was the word of judgment itself.

The prophet's task is to establish an alternative, powerful and valid enough to utterly displace the lie. He presents a view of reality not yet existent and that is contrary in most points and particulars to that which is thought to be 'real' and for which there is no precedent or model in the experience of the hearer. He brings a heavenly and an eternal sense that obliterates the kind of validation and endorsement that the world's values have had upon his hearers up to that time. If he had not come, they would have thought that what they were celebrating was real. When the prophet comes, however, he is not only blowing the whistle on what is false, but he brings a sense of what is true and what is eternally true. He brings the sense of eternity itself and inducts the hearer into it. By his speaking, he sets in motion and brings his audience to a place where the false becomes true. The word becomes creative and establishes the resonance of something not understood before—something that is ultimate and eternal. To pierce through the false and raise another kind of a standard and make that the foundation of life is, and must be, an extraordinary kind of speaking.

Those who embrace this model that the prophet is setting forth as the alternative to the lie, and that is a heavenly alternative, condemn themselves to being pilgrims and sojourners in the earth, and therefore able to die 'not having received the promise.' If they are going to receive a prophetic word like this that calls them to the heavenly vision in which Abraham walked, then this is going to be the consequence for their life. The word, therefore, that comes to the hearers has got to come with such a power, authority and credibility that the person who hears says, "If I say 'Yes' to this, then I am signing my death warrant." No-one is going to sign that lightly who has not been persuaded by the word that invites that kind of consecration. Only a prophet, a foundational man, can bring a word of that kind. He calls for something of ultimate consecration on the part of the hearer— unto death. That is why false prophets are more invited and listened to than the true. The false prophet affirms the hearer in his present condition and tells him that in that he is already 'well-pleasing'.

The prophet's purpose is singly and jealously the Father's will. He restores lost vision of a kind that energizes the people of God, especially in crisis times when despair needs to be turned to hope—having initially been stripped of false hopes by the prophet himself. He does not balk at having to be cruel before he can be kind. A man who can bring the necessary but painful, cruel word that must come in order to build is not unloving but very love itself. In a word the prophet brings the 'moment of truth'. Standing in the counsel of the Lord he is able to perceive error and state boldly and unequivocally the requisite truth though it be utterly at variance with the consensus being demonstrated.

The prophetic task is to restore to men who have lost it, the biblical mentality and the biblical view of things that are unchanging in God's sight. He conveys the view of God particularly to a people who are unwilling to hear it. If the prophetic word is critical to bringing an alignment of God's people with His own view, then the kind of word that is brought by the prophets is the ultimate issue. Where there are authentic prophets who are willing to bring the unwelcome word, so will there also be a plenitude of popular false prophets who bring the false word of comfort and who say, "Peace, peace" when there is no peace.

A prophet does not major in minors. Out of a consummate jealousy for the glory of God, he sets forth the ultimate purposes of God in such a way as to obtain the sacrifices of his hearers to fulfill it. It is not enough just to set forth what God's program is, but to set it forth in such a way that he has won the willingness of the hearers to be participant in obtaining the ultimate and eternal purposes of God— as sacrifice. That is where the prophetic word is more than the word of explanation. It does not just explain what the eternal purposes of God are, but he communicates it in such a way as to win the commitment of his hearers to the sacrifice necessary to fulfill them. That takes more than explanation. The prophet epitomizes the suffering that such an adherence evokes. In other words, those who are going to embrace the view that he is presenting are opening themselves to suffering. The prophet, therefore, who is inviting them to that suffering has himself in some sense to exhibit it and give the evidence that this is God's way and that the cross is central to the faith. He makes clear to his hearers that persecution, if not martyrdom, is intrinsic to a faith of this kind—and wins their willingness. It is one thing to establish that the cross, persecution and martyrdom are intrinsic to the faith, but to win the hearer's consecration to that call is an extraordinary stroke that requires the authority and anointing of those who bear His word. That is the prophetic task. We are not bringing information, but rather calling men to ultimate, sacrificial things and that is why that kind of a word will always be resisted.

The prophet announces and projects the impending end of this world in apocalyptic fury and judgment, sufficient to birth the longing for a new heaven and a new earth in which there is righteousness. He not only brings to the awareness of the hearer that the world that they have celebrated is under judgment and is intended for destruction, which means it will destroy a lot of where their own heart is, but he also births a longing for the thing that comes down from above and which will replace this present age.

A prophet is a man of the word who abhors lightness while deeply respecting and guarding the sanctity of language and its meaning from abuse and cheapening. He is not, therefore, always your enjoyable household guest and is not good for easy conversation and small talk. He guards his mouth because he knows the sanctity of words and will not, therefore, give himself to frequent speaking as it debases the currency of words. There is with him a history of waiting and silences.

A prophet shuns the distinctions and honors that men confer. These things bring a certain aura of prestige and eminence and weight, but the prophetic man, in order to be true to God is the 'wilderness' prophet. Wilderness does not just mean physical isolation, but a conscious and willful separation from the kinds of things that are calculated to compromise. He does not effect any kind of prophetic outward 'appearance' to indicate his office. He is unprepossessing in appearance and demeanor and despises what is showy, sensational or bizarre. A prophet is intent on turning men to God and not to himself.

This calling is given and is not something that we ourselves summon or take for ourselves, but if we have it, then we need to know that God is going to work us over, again and again, in order to ensure that it is His word that comes forth and not our own.

Source: http://www.benisrael.org/OnlineBooks/prophetic_call/ProphCall_01.htm . [Chapter 1 of Book: The Prophetic Call]

The Fallacy of Personal Pastors, Part 2

[Editor's note: This article is adapted from the book, CHARISMATIC CAPTIVATION, by Dr. Steven Lambert, himself a Charismatic minister. The book exposes the widespread problem of authoritarian abuse in Neo-Pentecostal church-groups, and explains how it became infused into the very fabric, foundation, and functions of the Neo-Pentecostal church, emerging out of a false movement known as the Discipleship/Shepherding Movement (1970-77). References to "Discipleship" or "Shepherding" (and variables) doctrines, teachings, proponents and participants, and so forth, allude to those pertinences that arose out of that movement. The content of this article is contextual to the entirety of the book, and is best understood by reading the book. A small portion of the book's content is published in the posted articles listed and linked at the end of this article.

This post is a continuation of the previous post, which you should read to understand the context.

The adulterated concept of "spiritual covering" itself is problematic enough. Yet, its negative effect is increased by the fact that it is the predicate for several other, related elements of error comprising the heretical Discipleship/Shepherding doctrines and practices, one of which is the matter of "personal pastors." Indeed, this element has been the basis for at least as much excess, errancy, and authoritarian abuse as the others discussed in this series of articles concerning those doctrines and practices. To those who employ these practices for sordid purposes or with less than pure motives, the perverted concept of "spiritual covering" is sanction for a most insidious kind of unauthorized personal domination and control of their subjects under the auspices of this very delusive and destructive version of "personal shepherding."

As with most other elements of error with these and other false doctrines, this particular component is the result of perversion and adulterization of a valid Truth. The essence of the erroneous concept of "personal pastoring" is that because the spiritual leader, along with the entire chain of leaders extending from him in a vertical downline, provides and in effect IS the "spiritual covering" for his followers (which we have already shown to be a false hypothesis), the leader has not only the right, but also the duty to interlope into the private and personal affairs of the lives of the members of the group. In essence, the leader becomes the equivalent of tribal chief to the group, whose final approval members of the tribe must have for most every important transaction and decision in their lives, with some variability depending on the particular group and leader. In many cases, members must receive authorization from the leadership for the most mundane matters in their lives, including financial matters and purchasing decisions, matters of career and employment, housing, family, friends, social and educational matters, and just about every segment of the members' lives.

Now, of course there is a very valid role of shepherding that Fivefold Shepherds (and all Fivefold ministers are under-shepherds, not just pastors) are indeed ordained by the Lord to fulfill on behalf of the Chief Shepherd (1 Pet. 5:4), Jesus. Indeed, Chapter Eight of this book (CHARISMATIC CAPTIVATION) is wholly devoted to delineating the proper role of Fivefold ministers as elucidated by the Word of God to the extent that it relates to the errors of the Discipleship teachings. The meaning of the word "shepherd" is to feed and care for, to lead and to guide, and that is the crux of what Fivefold shepherds are to provide on behalf of Christ unto the sheep of God's Fold.

As I have repeatedly indicated in various ways, what is involved in the case of the Discipleship/Shepherding teaching and practices, unfortunately, is a bastardization of the shepherding principle. And the core of that corruption is that proponents and practitioners of this teaching "exceed what is written" by trying to impose their leadership authority and responsibility in the natural realm rather than limiting it to the spiritual realm. Corruption and counterfeiting of the genuine and true is one of Satan's favorite and most effective strategies. He attacks the manifestation of Truth by polluting it with subtle deception, excesses, and error. The result is mixture, and the product of mixture is confusion. Confusion in turn opens the door to further demonic incursion. Demonic incursion produces discreditation, and discreditation leads to the ultimate objective of the wiles of the devil — rejection of valid Truth. Most of Satan's evil machinations are predicated on this multi-part strategy.

Exceeding the God-ordained scope and sphere of ministry offices is one of the most common forms of error in the Church today. It is absolutely vital for every minister to understand that the context and sphere of one's shepherding role is limited primarily to the spiritual. While Fivefold ministers may occasionally be able to proffer some inspired or experiential counsel and advice even regarding natural matters, their foremost calling and enablement by the Spirit is to feed, care for, lead, and guide the sheep of God's Flock spiritually and in relation to spiritual matters, not so much natural affairs. We are charged by God with the responsibility to feed His sheep spiritual food, to care for them with the spiritual wherewithal of the Holy Spirit, to lead them unto the one and only true Rock of their Salvation and Provider, Jesus, and after the pattern given us by the Chief Shepherd (Ps. 23), we are to guide them "in the paths of righteousness," which is, the Way, Truth, and Life of Jesus.

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The Chief Shepherd

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What all of this speaks to us and what all ministers need to be reminded of from time to time is that for as much power and authority (along with abundant responsibility) Jesus has vested in us as His "stand-ins," His under-shepherds, to minister unto the Flock of God on His behalf, notwithstanding, and without any equivocation — it is Jesus Christ Himself, the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, who is the TRUE and SUPREME SHEPHERD. All of the rest of us are not even worthy, compared to Him, to be called after His name or to bear in any degree the title of which He alone has proved Himself so inimitably worthy — "Good Shepherd." Those mere under-shepherds on Earth who are so overtly impressed by themselves and their own "accomplishments" would certainly do well to take a cue in humility from the Twenty-Four Chief Elders who, when face to face with "the One who was sitting on the Throne," did "cast down their crowns before the Throne, saying, Worthy art THOU, O LORD, to receive glory and honor and power.'"

Compared to the glory of the SUPREME SHEPHERD, we are poor and miserable substitutes, mere mortals of flesh and bone, with no worthiness of our own, nothing with which to commend us to God, or in reality even to our own fellows. It is only as we reflect His Image, His glory, His Light, which we do only ever so sporadically and imperfectly, that there is anything comely or of worth within us. We merely reflect, with varying and variable degrees of illumination, unto a lost, broken, downcast, hurting, spiritually bankrupt, and dying world of undone sinners the Image of a glorious and risen Savior who suffered immeasurable shame, disgrace, sorrow, and pain, far beyond anything we could even imagine much less ourselves experience, in order to set the captives free from their bondage and eternal damnation.

It is these sentiments and understanding the Apostle Peter, who over a period of three and one-half years had walked and talked and eaten and lived with this GREAT SHEPHERD OF OUR SOULS, was trying desperately to convey when he wrote:

Therefore, I exhort the elders (Fivefold Ministers) among you, as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed, shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; not for sordid gain, but with eagerness; nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. (1 Pet. 5:1-4, parenthesis added by author)

The Amplified Bible's version of this passage conveys in even more graphic terms the sense of what the Apostle was communicating in these words:

I warn and counsel the elders among you — the pastors and spiritual guides of the church — as a fellow elder and as an eyewitness [called to testify] of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a sharer in the glory (the honor and splendor) that is to be revealed (disclosed, unfolded): Tend — nurture, guard, guide and fold — the flock of God that is [your responsibility], not by coercion or constraint but willingly; not dishonorably motivated by the advantages and profits [belonging to the office] but eagerly and cheerfully. Not (as arrogant, dictatorial and overbearing persons) domineering over those in your charge, but being examples — patterns and models of Christian living — to the flock (the congregation). And [then] when the CHIEF SHEPHERD is revealed you will win the conqueror's crown of glory.

To me personally there are few things as repulsive and infuriating as a "spiritual" (or, more appropriately, "religious") leader who is all the very things the above text warns us not to be: arrogant, dictatorial, overbearing, and domineering, over the meek and innocent sheep of God's Flock under his charge. This, to me, is about as despicable as it gets — to take advantage of and exploit the need people have for a human pattern and model of Jesus they can see, and use that need as a pretext to dominate and subjugate those needy people for sordid and self-aggrandizing personal gain. I know that it is also a stench in the nostrils of God! And, if it is so utterly offensive and repulsive to me, one who is of the same fleshly nature as they, it must only be the expansive and encompassing mercy and forbearance of God that keeps Him from wiping such vile vermin completely off the face of the Earth and taking them instantly to their final and just reward, wherever and whatever that may be.

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Whose Flock Is It? Whose Sheep Are They?

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I mean, it appears to me that when those in leadership positions engage in such sordid attitudes and activity they have forgotten one very vital and important factor in the scenario, which is that the sheep don't belong to any man. The true sheep of God, which is every truly Born Again believer, are all the sheep of GOD'S FLOCK. The true sheep, it will come as a shock to many "leaders," are GOD'S sheep, and Jesus is the true Shepherd of God's Fold. They are not the personal possession of human pastors, despite the fact that the attitudes of many pastors seem to reflect that they think they are. Human shepherds, it must never be forgotten, are merely custodial under-shepherds.

The Apostle Peter made all this abundantly clear in the passage we just examined, where, in verse two, he exhorted the presbytery of the local church to "shepherd THE FLOCK OF GOD." Moreover, it is on this foundational fact that he bases his further exhortations to under-shepherds not to lord over the flock, but to rather prove themselves examples, visible models, live representations of the Good Shepherd which the sheep can actually behold with their physical eyes.

Another passage which specifically alludes to the fact that it is to GOD'S FLOCK that the sheep belong is found in the Apostle Paul's exhortation unto the eldership (Fivefold Ministers) of the church at Ephesus, whom he had called together for a final word of exhortation and admonition prior to his departure to Rome. To these "episkopos" (elders, overseers, shepherds) he said:

Be on guard for yourselves and for all THE FLOCK, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church OF GOD which he purchased with his own blood. (Ac. 20:28)

In this passage we see "the flock" equated with "the church of God." "The church of God" is the "Ecclesia," the assemblage of the "called out" saints Jesus referred to when He said, "I will build My church; and the gates (lit., powers) of Hades shall not overpower it." In this Truth-replete statement, Jesus was succinctly indicating four major points about this "Ecclesia" He was personally engaged in building: one, it was His own personal possession, and no other person or group of persons; two, this particular group of called out, consecrated, and set apart believers, the Holy Race, is the only one He Himself is engaged in establishing; three, those "churches" or collections of peoples being led and built by mere men apart from His personal engagement are imposters and bogus counterfeits, false imitations, of the true Church that He Himself is building; and four, that the identifying and distinguishing mark of the true Church that Jesus Himself is building is that the individuals of this Ecclesia, and thus its collective whole as well, are not being overpowered and vanquished in terms of constitution, character, and conduct, by the powers and assailment of the devil's kingdom, Hades.

Relating all this with what Paul said to the elders of the church at Ephesus: the bona fide, Born Again, called out, set apart from the world, sanctified, consecrated believers who comprise this Ecclesia which Jesus is building, are the exclusive possession of Christ Himself; they are the sheep of the Good Shepherd, Jesus; they are the sheep of God's Flock, and not that of any mere human. The true sheep, the sheep of this Ecclesia, are those who "belong to Christ," meaning they are His possession, and are those who "have crucified the flesh with its (carnal and worldly and devilish) passions and desires" (Gal. 5:24, parenthesis added by author), which speaks of their having been sanctified and set apart in deed, not merely metaphorically.

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AntiChrist Wolves

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Now the portion of the Apostle Paul's poignant and impassioned exhortation to the Ephesian elders just quoted began with an admonition to "Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock...." The subsequent verses specify what it was that the Apostle told them it was their responsibility from God as shepherds and overseers of God's flock to guard against — the intrusion and infusion of "savage wolves." He indicated this was an inevitable occurrence following his departure unto Rome (where he would be put to death), inevitable, presumably, that is, if preclusive action was not taken. Though Paul himself was speaking entirely of the churches of that day to whom he had ministerial responsibility, his Spirit-inspired admonition, especially since it is now part of canonized Scripture, is also a dire and rousing exhortation to the Ecclesia of Christ of every era, including the present one. Here is the entire text:

Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his own blood. I know that after my departure SAVAGE WOLVES will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears. (Ac. 20:28)

Paul was warning these Fivefold ministers who were charged with edificational and governmental responsibility that there would be persons purporting to be anointed and appointed leaders infiltrating their ranks who were false, self-imposed interlopers motivated by self-aggrandizement, who would exploit the sheep for their own personal sordid gain. Paul seemed to be indicating that some of these "ravenous wolves in sheep's clothing," as Jesus called them, would emerge even out of this very group of current elders who were assembled before him. He said these imposters would teach perverted, erroneous, and unproven doctrines in order to draw away the disciples after themselves, in effect causing those disciples to fall away from Jesus as their Shepherd in order to follow after and adhere to these errant and bogus ministers.

Now in so deceiving and leading astray those sheep, these seducers would prove they are "antiChrist wolves," possessed and driven by an evil antiChrist spirit of the devil, because they are actually engaged in seducing the sheep to abandon Christ and the Truth in order to follow after these false shepherds and false saviors and their fallacious doctrines and indoctrinations.

This is precisely what is transpiring in the case of the perverted and invalid Discipleship/Shepherding doctrines and those who propagate them. Nothing could be a more exact fulfillment of what the Apostle Paul predicted would transpire than the overt abuses and excesses in terms of human shepherdship taking place today in groups and churches under the auspices of these fallacious doctrines. Those teaching and operating in accordance with these deviant doctrines are indeed "drawing away disciples after themselves" and away from Jesus as their true Shepherd and Savior, abrogating Him in those offices, and substituting themselves instead. Discipleship shepherds via the tenets of these errant doctrines pose and interpose themselves as the de facto shepherd and savior of their followers, even though they may evoke the name of Jesus with superfluity in all the discourse of their public ministry. By "speaking perverse things," these "savage wolves," motivated by sordid and demonic passions and desires for ascendancy, adulation, and personal aggrandizement, have set themselves in the place of veneration Christ alone is worthy to occupy. Such usurpation is overtly and quintessentially antiChrist.

[For more on the detrimental effects of submitting yourself under the spiritual coverings of men, I urge you to read The Curses of Unauthorized Covenants.]

[To read this article in its entirety, click on the title above. There are links on that page to other related articles.]

The Fallacy of Personal Pastors

[Editor's note: This article is adapted from the book, CHARISMATIC CAPTIVATION, by Steven Lambert. The book exposes the widespread problem of authoritarian abuse in Neo-Pentecostal church-groups, and explains how it became infused into the very fabric, foundation, and functions of the Neo-Pentecostal church arising out of a false movement known as the Discipleship/Shepherding Movement (1970-77). References to "Discipleship" or "Shepherding" (and variables) doctrines, teachings, proponents and participants, and so forth, allude to those pertinences that arose out of that movement. The content of this article is contextual to the entirety of the book, and is best understood by reading the book. A small portion of the book's content is published in the posted articles listed and linked at the end of this article.]

The adulterated concept of "spiritual covering" itself is problematic enough (for more on that subject, read the previous two posts). Yet, its negative effect is increased by the fact that it is the predicate for several other, related elements of error comprising the heretical Discipleship/Shepherding doctrines and practices, one of which is the matter of "personal pastors." Indeed, this element has been the basis for at least as much excess, errancy, and authoritarian abuse as the others discussed in this series of articles concerning those doctrines and practices. To those who employ these practices for sordid purposes or with less than pure motives, the perverted concept of "spiritual covering" is license for a most insidious kind of unauthorized personal domination and control of their subjects under the auspices of this very delusive and destructive version of "personal shepherding."

As with most other elements of error with these and other false doctrines, this particular component is the result of perversion and adulterization of a valid Truth. The essence of the erroneous concept of "personal shepherding" is that because the spiritual leader, along with the entire chain of leaders emanating from him, provides and in effect IS the "spiritual covering" for his followers (which we have already shown to be a false hypothesis), the leader has not only the right, but also the duty to interlope into the private and personal affairs of the lives of the members of the group. In essence, the leader becomes the equivalent of tribal chief to the group, whose final approval members of the tribe must have for most every important transaction and decision in their lives, with some variability depending on the particular group and leader. In many cases, members must receive authorization from the leadership for the most mundane matters in their lives, including financial matters and purchasing decisions, matters of career and employment, housing, family, friends, social and educational matters, and just about every segment of the members' lives.

Now, of course there is a very valid role of shepherdship that Fivefold Shepherds (and all Fivefold ministers are under-shepherds, not just pastors) are indeed ordained by the Lord to fulfill on behalf of the Chief Shepherd (1 Pet. 5:4), Jesus. Indeed, Chapter Eight is wholly devoted to delineating the rightful role of Fivefold ministers as elucidated by the Word of God to the extent that it relates to the errors of the Discipleship teachings. The meaning of the word "shepherd" is to feed and care for, to lead and to guide, and that is the crux of what Fivefold shepherds are to provide on behalf of Christ unto the sheep of God's Fold.

As I have repeatedly indicated in various ways, what is involved in the case of the Discipleship/Shepherding teaching and practices, unfortunately, is a bastardization of the shepherding principle. And the core of that corruption is that proponents and practitioners of this teaching "exceed what is written" by trying to impose their leadership authority and responsibility in the natural realm rather than limiting it to the spiritual realm. Corruption and counterfeiting of the genuine and true is one of Satan's favorite and most effective strategies. He attacks the manifestation of Truth by polluting it with subtle deception, excesses, and error. The result is mixture, and the product of mixture is confusion. Confusion in turn opens the door to further demonic incursion. Demonic incursion produces discreditation, and discreditation leads to the ultimate objective of the wiles of the devil — rejection of valid Truth. Most of Satan's evil machinations are predicated on this multi-part strategy.

Exceeding the God-ordained scope and sphere of ministry offices is one of the most common forms of error in the Church today. It is absolutely vital for every minister to understand that the context and sphere of his shepherding is limited primarily to the spiritual. While Fivefold ministers may occasionally be able to proffer some inspired or experiential counsel and advice even regarding natural matters, their foremost calling and enablement is to feed, care for, lead, and guide the sheep of God's Flock spiritually and in relation to spiritual matters, not so much natural affairs. We are charged by God with the responsibility to feed His sheep spiritual food, to care for them with the spiritual wherewithal of the Holy Spirit, to lead them unto the one and only true Rock of their Salvation and Provider, Jesus, and after the pattern given us by the Chief Shepherd (Ps. 23) we are to guide them "in the paths of righteousness," which is, the Way, Truth, and Life of Jesus.

[Addendum, 2008: How critical the discussion of this Truth is today in the first decade of the 21st Century, when hundreds, if not thousands, of purporting preachers are now misusing the God-ordained sphere of their ministry offices promoting themselves as get-rich gurus, wealth wizards, life coaches, securities sages, investment instructors, profit prophets, and all kinds of other demonically-inspired claims to specialized insight under the auspices of the Holy Spirit. All this absurdity is a bastardization of the ministry that is bringing discreditation and disgrace upon the good offices of the Fivefold Ministry! It is absolute BLASPHEMY against the Holy Spirit, from whom these unscrupulous, self-seeking, greedy charlatans purport to be receiving their inspiration for their avaricious ambitions at the expense of God's Flock! This is nothing more than money-changers in the Temple, and I for one, am OUTRAGED by it all and refuse to sit quietly and passively as these purveyors of poisoned waters perpetrate their diabolical schemes of sorcery a la Simon the sorcerer who was "claiming to be someone great," performing his MAGIC ARTS and seducing the "smallest and the greatest" among the people of Samaria into calling him "The Great Power of God," and "giving him attention (lit., deference afforded deity) because he had for a long time astonished them with his MAGIC ARTS" (Ac. 8:9-11). All of this is nothing but SORCERY of the highest order! The same kind of sorcery employed by Simon the Sorcerer, Elymas the Magician (Ac. 13:6-12), and the slave girl "who was bringing her masters much profit by her fortunetelling," whose masters, after the Apostle Paul cast the spirit of divination out of her, became enranged when they "saw that their hope of profit was gone, seized Paul and Silas and dragged them through the market place before the authorities," who proceeded to order that they be beaten with rods and threw then into prison and placed thm in shackles (Ac. 16:16ff). I prophesy to you that God is about to bring judgment upon this whole matter and every person claiming to be a "minister" or "prophet" who refuses to repent from all this witchcraft being perpetrated upon the people of God in the name of the Lord and the Holy Spirit! The same righteously indignant Jesus who wielded the whip in the Temple in Jerusalem to drive out the money-changers 2,000 years is about to wield His whip of judgment once more to drive the modern-day money-changers from the Church He is building! Mock this word at your own peril, Preachers and pundits of perdition alike!]

When a minister routinely goes beyond the God-set, albeit, invisible, boundaries of his calling and purview of authority, which is the limitation of the spiritual realm primarily, and habitually interlopes into the natural, physical realm, interposing his own will in the ordinary private matters of his followers' lives, he is engaging in unsanctioned usurpation and illegitimate authority. In the process, he also leaves behind his legitimate duties, responsibilities, and sanctioning from God as an under-shepherd, as well as his effectuality. To take it a step further, a minister who engages in this sort of imposition and usurpation has essentially taken on the role, totally illegitimately, of the husband/father/head of those households and families over which he has imposed his authority; for, as the Scripture delineating true "spiritual covering" (1 Cor. 11:3-16) indicates, the role of headship (i.e., government or leadership) of a household or family in the natural, has been assigned by God to the husband/father of that house.

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Spiritual Adultery

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Another term for this illegitimate interloping and usurpation into another man's domain of authority is — "spiritual adultery." Now to some this attribution will seem to be overkill and a bit melodramatic. Yet, in light of Scripture, it is neither. This is precisely what leaders who engage in these practices are engaging in — spiritual adultery. Allow me to explain.

God said the head of every woman is her husband, and every woman, at least every Born Again woman, has a husband, even those who are widowed, divorced, or never-married. Born Again women who for whatever reason do not have a physical husband with whom they are living are joined to and one with the Ultimate Husband — Jesus Himself (1 Cor. 6:17), the effectuality and efficacy of which fact is determined by the degree of each unmarried woman's receptivity and faith in that fact. When a person other than the legitimate husband/head of a house invades the sanctity of that household by illegitimately interposing his own will and authority upon the woman of that house, that constitutes spiritual adultery. No person, man or woman, including ministers, is authorized to intrude into a household in this fashion.

It is with regard to this very sort of illegitimate authoritarian "home-invasion" that one particular New Testament passage alludes and admonishes with especial attribution to the "last days" in which we are now living:

But realize this, that in the last days there will set in perilous times of great stress and trouble — hard to deal with and hard to bear. For people will be lovers of self and [utterly] self- centered, lovers of money and aroused by an inordinate (greedy) desire for wealth, proud and arrogant and contemptuous boasters. They will be abusive (blasphemous, scoffers), disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy and profane. [They will be] treacherous (betrayers), rash [and] inflated with self-conceit. [They will be] lovers of sensual pleasures and vain amusements more than and rather than lovers of God. For [although] they hold a form of piety (true religion), they deny and reject and are strangers to the power of it — their conduct belies the genuineness of their profession. AVOID [ALL] SUCH PEOPLE — TURN AWAY FROM THEM. FOR AMONG THEM ARE THOSE WHO WORM THEIR WAY INTO HOMES AND CAPTIVATE SILLY AND WEAK-NATURED AND SPIRITUALLY DWARFED WOMEN, LOADED DOWN WITH [THE BURDEN OF THEIR] SINS, [AND EASILY] SWAYED AND LED AWAY BY VARIOUS EVIL DESIRES AND SEDUCTIVE IMPULSES. [These weak women will listen to anybody who will teach them]; they are forever inquiring and getting information, but are never able to arrive at a recognition and knowledge of the Truth. Now just as Jannes and Jambres were hostile to and resisted Moses, so THESE MEN ALSO ARE HOSTILE TO AND OPPOSE THE TRUTH. THEY HAVE DEPRAVED AND DISTORTED MINDS, AND ARE REPROBATE AND COUNTERFEIT AND TO BE REJECTED AS FAR AS THE FAITH IS CONCERNED....BUT THEY WILL NOT GET VERY FAR, FOR THEIR RASH FOLLY WILL BECOME OBVIOUS TO EVERYBODY, as was that of those [magicians mentioned]. (2 Tim. 3:1-9, AB)

I have alluded already to the fact that these false concepts of "spiritual covering" mixed with the "absolute submission" concept makes for an extremely poisonous and potentially lethal rue, which almost invariably eventuates into various forms of authoritarian abuse that frequently entail some kind of illicit sexual exploitation. This, of course, by Bible-definition, is physical fornication and sexual adultery, which obviously is utterly sinful and damning, not to mention the horrendous natural and spiritual consequences such abominable abuse and exploitation engender. Nevertheless, though it may be hard to imagine, the fact is that in these situations where leaders illegitimately interlope into the private affairs of their followers, usurping the role of the husband, even in those cases in which no physical fornication and sexual adultery have yet occurred, the "spiritual adultery" that has been committed is even more heinous and abominable and will produce even graver consequences, both spiritually and in the natural. The reason spiritual adultery of this nature is such a grievous offense to God is that it is His authority, albeit, intermediated in the case of the married woman by a human husband, that is being usurped. The true spiritual Husband is Christ, and it is His betrothed that is being assailed when one of His sheep is abused and exploited. Thus, spiritual adultery carries with it an even greater judgment than sexual adultery.

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Spiritual Idolatry

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Abhorrent as it is, that these Discipleship/Shepherding doctrines and practices constitute spiritual adultery, there is yet another offense they abet which in terms of gravity may even surpass spiritual adultery. In addition to spiritual adultery, adherents and practitioners of this false theosophy are also fostering and participating in "spiritual idolatry" as well.

These doctrines are idolatrous for two related reasons. One, because they lead people away from the objective of whole and complete trust in God alone as the ultimate Source of supply of all things. And, two, because in addition to leading people away from trust in God, they also lead people to put their faith, hope, and trust in mere flesh and bone human leaders for the things God insists we look to Him for, many of the particulars of which I have already addressed.

[Read entire article: Spiritual Idolatry]

[For more on the detrimental effects of submitting yourself under the spiritual coverings of men, I urge you to read The Curses of Unauthorized Covenants.]

[To read this article in its entirety, click on the title above. There are links on that page to other related articles.]