The Signs Of Spiritual Abuse

Are you one of the many loyal and sincere church members who faithfully and cheerfully attend, support and participate in a local church, but have a nagging, persistent inward "thought" that "something is just not right here?"

Then, you begin realizing, somehow, somewhere along the line you began losing your joy, your zeal for the Lord. It used to be you could hardly wait for the services and to be involved; now it is drudgery to go at all. You used to have such a light and blissful feeling as you worshiped the Lord in the services; now you just go through the motions, feeling heavy, staring placidly toward the platform, sometimes wishing you were somewhere else. You used to be able to "look past" the leaders, and focus only on the Lord; now, all you see during the service is people, people behind the pulpit, people on the platform, and people in the pews. You used to feel God's love and pleasure with you; now it seems all you feel is unworthiness, guilt, and that nothing you do is ever enough or pleasing to Him.

"What on earth has happened to me? What's wrong with me?" you ask yourself. "Is it just me?" Then, you begin to look around the room and study other long-time members. You compare how they are now to how they were when they first came. Is their life, as it should be, appreciably better, or have they and their family experienced an inordinate share of tragedies, seemingly inexplicable difficulties, and reversals? By and by, you begin to realize that many of the other members have lost their "first love" too, their zeal, their enthusiasm, their joy in serving the Lord, and that, though Christians, like everyone else, certainly experience adversity, many of these members' lives have been on a gradual, downward spiral, instead of advancement and blessing.

Does this scenario sound familiar to you? If so, don't think you're alone—myriads of sincere, faithful, and trusting believers attending ostensibly Christian churches are experiencing the same thing. They've had this inward intuition for quite some time that something was just not right at their church or in their group, but just couldn't put their finger on precisely what it was. What is coming from the pulpit and platform "sounds" and "seems" right. Seemingly things having an outward appearance of being "good" are happening. Some members, seemingly, are being "used" in various "ministries" of the church. There's an overall pall of "piety" prevailing over the various activities of the church. Still, this nagging inward sense something is awry persists. Something subtle. Something not on the surface. Something that's hidden.

Often, these are the symptoms of a church or group laboring under the heavy-hand of hyper-authoritarianism. That is to say, the leadership is dominating, controlling, and manipulating their followers, and exploiting them for their own personal gain and private kingdom-building. Wholesale abuse and misuse of authority is an integral part of the very foundation, fabric, and functions of such groups.

Exploitative abuse of authority occurring in groups where these hyper-authoritarian systems of governance are instituted come in various shapes and shades, ranging from members having to receive the approval (usually referred to as "witness") of their spiritual leaders to date and/or marry, to virtual sole dependence upon the supposed superior spirituality of group-gurus regarding every detail of their personal financial matters and requiring their leaders' approval for virtually every significant expenditure. Commonly, in these groups there is constant allusion to the members as "dumb sheep" who must be "led" by the shepherds, ad nauseam. The definition of the term "led" in these groups is that the "dumb sheep" cannot trust their own judgment or ability to receive direction from the Lord for the important decisions of their lives, but must rely instead upon the transcendent wisdom and spiritual acumen of their "personal pastors."

The proper role of human under-shepherds is to lead people to the Great Shepherd, Jesus Christ, and teach them how to be His disciples, in submission to Him and His authority. Hyper-authoritarian leaders, instead, lead people to themselves, and indoctrinate them to be their followers, in total submission to them and their authority. In essence, these dominating shepherds teach they are the church-members' de facto lord, master, and savior, rather than Christ. They indoctrinate members to believe the spiritual leaders of the church themselves are the members' "spiritual covering" (a totally false and patently unbiblical concept), and any member who ever leaves the church will be "out from under" their "covering," be without any covering or what they call, "uncovered," and will experience terrible curses and other horrible consequences as a result. From the pulpit often come "horror stories" about what happened to such-and-so person or family, who were so spiritually bereft or rebellious as to leave the group without the blessings and approval of their "spirital authority."

In these groups, the "authority" of the "shepherds" is absolute, sacrosanct, and inviolable, that is, without reprisal. Any semblance of anything other than total and unquestioning obedience to the desires and counsel of the church's leadership chain is considered rebellion and insubordination, and simply is not tolerated. Members live under the constant threat of being branded with the Scarlet Letter "R" for "rebel," openly denounced and shamed from the (bully-)pulpit, and consequently shunned by the "covenant-community" for failure to comply with the unwritten, unspoken rules and expectations established by the leadership. An oppressive performance-based approval and promotion system keeps members in constant internal turmoil and fear as they jump through all the hoops the spiritual taskmasters put before them, in an attempt to seek their leaders' approval and favor. Moreover, members are indoctrinated and compelled to accept the leadership-set agenda of the group, regarding which they have next to no real say, as their personal burden and responsibility, and thus to commit their time, talent, And most importantly, their tithe, to its successful completion. Sadly, most never see past the spiritual smoke and mirrors to realize that the so-called "church" to which they have sworn allegiance and promised their wholehearted and unflagging support, is nothing more than the personal "business" of its leaders, and not only are they free labor, but they actually pay out of their own resources for the privilege of being a participant, i.e., member.

The following are some of the signs and symptoms, or common characteristics, of hyper-authoritarian groups, churches, networks, and ministries. It simply is not feasible to elaborate on them in an article such as this. However, I have addressed most of them in various books, booklets, and articles I have written on the topic. Bear in mind that the list is by no means exhaustive, and that these are general, rather than, exact descriptions.

1. Apotheosis of the leadership — exalting them to God-like status in and over the group;
2. Multi-level authority/government hierarchy;
3. Absolute authority of the leadership;
4. No real accountability of the leadership to the corporate body;
5. Hand-picked sub-leaders, based on their demonstration of submissiveness to the ultimate leader rather than on the basis of their leadership skills, spirituality, and anointing and appointment by God;
6. Pervasive abuse and misuse of authority in personal dealings with members;
7. Paranoia and insecurity by the leaders;
8. Abuse, misuse, and inordinate incidence of "church discipline;"
9. Personal materialism, covetousness, and self-aggrandizement by the leaders;
10. Members and/or sub-leaders must make a "spiritual covenant," sometimes a signed covenant agreement, pledging their total commitment and financial support to the leadership and church/ministry;
11. Partitioning of the group into smaller groups that are led by internally "raised up" lay-leaders who have not been anointed or appointed by God for leadership within the church;
12. Financial exploitation and enslavement of the members;
13. Inordinate attention to maintaining the public "image" of the ministry;
14. Doctrinal demeanment and devaluation — the requisite of espousing and teaching "sound doctrine" is demeaned and devalued;
15. Theological incompetence by the leadership, especially with respect to the rules of hermeneutics and Bible exegesis employed in the formulation of doctrine, giving license to twisting and adulteration of Scripture in order to provide proof-texts for unorthodox and invented doctrines;
16. Spiritualism, mysticism, and unproven doctrines;
17. Abuse and misuse of prophetic giftings as a means to dominate and intimidate;
18. Devaluation, disallowance, disregard, and displacement of the true Fivefold Ministry within the church;
19. De facto legalism, or works mentality, and its resulting loss of the "joy of salvation," though "freedom" is forever preached from the pulpit and the church is constantly touted as being a "safe church" by the leadership;
20. Esotericism — hidden agendas and requirements revealed to members only as they successfully advance through various stages of "spiritual enlightenment," i.e., unorthodox, unproven indigenous doctrines;
21. Isolationism — corporate and individual, especially with respect to exposure to outside ministry sources;
22. Performance-based approval and promotion system of members predicated on "proven" "loyalty" (i.e., submission) to the leadership;
23. Devaluation, suppression, and non-recognition of members' bona fide God-given talents, abilities, gifts, callings, and anointing, as a means of subjugation;
24. Requiring members to perform menial tasks, such as cleaning toilets, setting up chairs, and acting as the leader's personal valet or slave, as a supposed means to humble them and teach them to "obey their leaders;"
25. Constant indoctrination with a "group" or "family" mentality that impels members to exalt the corporate "life" and goals of the church-group over their personal goals, callings, and objectives;
26. Members are psychologically traumatized and indoctrinated with numerous improper fears and phobias aimed at keeping them reeling in diffidence and an over-dependence or co-dependence on their leaders and the corporate group;
27. Corporately, there eventually develops an inordinately high incidence of financial, marital, moral, psychological, mental, emotional, and medical problems, including sudden deaths and contraction of "incurable" and "unknown" diseases;
28. Lack of true personal spiritual growth and development, especially in terms of genuine faith and experiencing the abounding grace, forgiveness, goodness, blessings, kindness, and agape-love of God;
29. Members are required to obtain the approval or "witness" of their leader(s) for decisions regarding personal matters;
30. Frequent preaching from the pulpit regarding not getting out from under the "spiritual covering" of the leadership;
31. Members departing without the prior permission and blessing of the leadership leave the group under a cloud of manufactured suspicion, shame, and slander;
32. Horror stories frequently told by leaders about individuals or families who left the group without the prior permission and blessing of the leadership, and the terrible consequences and curses they suffered as a result;
33. Departing members often suffer from various psychological problems and display the classic symptoms associated with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

So, what should you do if you realize that you have been exposed to the spiritually and psychologically devastating actions of authoritarian abuse?

CLICK HERE to read the rest of this article that tells you how you can obtain the information and help you need to be liberated from the damaging effects of these dastardly, demonic workings of Satan.

OUR MOST CRITICAL NEED

"The Glory of the Latter House shall be greater than the Former!" (Hag. 2:9)

The hour we live in without equivocation is the most spiritually profound of all of history, and certainly of all “His-story.” Indeed, it can be no less when we are told that all of the historical Biblical events comprising His-story—i.e., the history of Israel—“happened to the them as an example (illustration) and they were written for OUR instruction upon whom the ends of the ages have come” (1 Cor. 10:11; cf., Rom. 15:4). God is therein declaring that the entire content of the Old Testament—the events it chronicles and the wisdom and instruction those events illustrate—are and always were intended for the true end-time believers comprising the end-times Church that Jesus is building!

Moreover, our spiritual assimilation of the morals illustrated and reflected in those Old Testament events and examples coupled with those given us in the New Testament will play a major role in producing the outcome that the Glory (tangible manifested presence of God) that abides upon those comprising the “Latter House”—the house of the faithful High Priest, who was faithful over His house as a SON (Heb. 3:1-6), that is, the Church Jesus is building—will far exceed any Glory that was ever upon the Former House—the house of Moses, who was faithful over his house as a SERVANT.

While the faithfulness of God’s SERVANT Moses produced per the Law of Reproduction a succession, intermittent as it was, of SERVANTS, the faithfulness of the SON over His House produces the surpassing results of “bringing many SONS unto Glory” (Heb. 2:10). By virtue of the fact that the House Jesus is building is a House of SONS, versus SERVANTS, the Glory of the Latter House MUST indeed be GREATER than the Former, for the Glory of SONS of God versus SERVANTS of God is like unto the glory of the sun compared to the glory of the moon (a non-illuminary planet).

God’s ultimate intent in the Creation of the Cosmos has always been to produce a burgeoning House or Family of SONS—SONS OF GOD! The choice and perfect Seed He sowed—His ONLY BEGOTTEN SON (itself one of the inscrutable mysteries of God, in that He was “begotten” and not “made”)—spiritually germinated and ever since has been producing like unto its Kind, that is, SONS! Abraham and his lineage, the Patriarchs, were SERVANTS. Moses was a SERVANT. David was a SERVANT. Though the magnitude of their servitude and faithfulness was incomparable, their highest expectation could only ever be to produce a legacy of SERVANTS, reflecting the Glory of SERVITUDE.

But, the SON, His legacy shall be an innumerable company of SONS, who “shall be like Him,” reflecting His Image—the Glory of SONSHIP! And, now, in these days, more than ever before in the history of the Creation, the Creation groans and writhes in the excruciating pangs of childbirth as it with rapt expectation awaits the revelation of the SONS of God.

Reader, I implore you to keep listening to this word. Stay attuned to the Spirit to hear this! Your life and the life of those you love depends on it!

Absolutely every segment and aspect of the foundations of all the systems of this world are unraveling and disassembling as God’s Spirit is shaking every thing that can be shaken to orchestrate a massive removal of all those things that can be shaken (earthly, humanly-made things) in order that only those things that cannot be shaken (Kingdom things, things of God) shall remain. So corrupted have the very foundations, fabric, and functions of the world’s systems become as the consequence of the utter corruption of its delegated stewards, the “sons of men” (Ps. 115:16), that the unseen elements that have been providing it stability, order, and cohesion, are being systematically removed at breakneck speed. While people go obliviously about the business of their self-consumed lives, the world we live in—that is, the systems that comprise human existence—has deorbited and is hurtling downward in its final spirals unto utter perdition. Do not be deluded, Church: nothing can or will stop its rapid descent! The world is on a collision course with Hell!

The end-times Church, the True Church, the Church Jesus is building, is not OF the world, but it is IN the world, for now. So, in this hour when the world is spiraling out of control in this final irreversible, precipitous decline, what is God’s message to the True Church? His message is the same as it has always been:

2 Corinthians 6:17,18
“Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,” says the Lord. “And do not touch what is unclean; And I will welcome you. And I will be a father to you, And you shall be sons and daughters to Me,” Says the Lord Almighty.

2 Corinthians 6:14,16
Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, “I will dwell in them and walk among them; And I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”

1 John 2:15-17
Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.

These are God’s words of advice to His children in these last days. The world is indeed in the process of passing away, along with all its self-indulging and self-consuming lusts, including the most damning lust of all—greed, or covetousness, or the love of money—which is the root of all the evil that pervades this dark and deceitful world. God’s people must be delivered out from under the strong delusion of the world and the spell of its lusts. But, seldom in the annals of history have the captives been liberated through self-deliverance. Jesus said the Spirit of the Lord was upon Him to set the captives free. Captives rarely gain freedom through their own efforts. God always sends a DELIVERER! A Deliverer like Moses unto the Israelites and Jesus unto ALL HUMANITY!

Our “most critical need” in this hour, as A.W. Tozer wrote more than four decades ago in the following article, is "men—the right kind of men, bold men." Bold men who will come marching out of the desert, like John The Baptist, to a different drumbeat, confronting the systems of this world and the religious orders that are keeping the people of God bound in invisible chains of deception and delusion, whose pied-pipers continue to fiddle while the ship is sinking and Rome burns down all around them! We need MEN OF GOD who will rise up as DELIVERERS to set the captives free! GOD, SEND THE DELIVERERS, who will speak the truth in love to your people and thereby snatch some out of the fire!
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"OUR MOST CRITICAL NEED"- by A.W. Tozer*

THE MOST CRITICAL NEED of the Church at this moment is men—the right kind of men, bold men. The talk is that we need revival, that we need a new baptism of the Holy Spirit—and God knows we must have both—but God will not revive mice. He will not fill rabbits with the Holy Spirit.

We languish for men who feel themselves expendable in the warfare of the soul because they have already died to the allurements of this world. Such men will be free from the compulsions that control weaker men. They will not be forced to do things by the squeeze of circumstances. Their only compulsion will come from within—or from above.

This kind of freedom is necessary if we are to have prophets in our pulpits again instead of mascots. These free men will serve God and mankind from motives too high to be understood by the rank and file of religious retainers who today shuttle in and out of the sanctuary. They will make no decisions out of fear, take no course out of a desire to please, accept no service for financial considerations, perform no religious acts out of mere custom, nor allow themselves to be influenced by the love of publicity or the desire for reputation.

Much that the church—even the evangelical church—is doing today, it is doing because it is afraid not to do it. Ministerial associations take up projects for no higher reasons than that they are scared into it. Whatever their ear-to-the-ground, fear-inspired reconnoitering leads them to believe—or fear—the world expects them to do, they will be doing come next Monday morning with all kinds of trumped-up zeal and show of godliness. The pressure of public opinion calls these prophets, not the voice of Jehovah.

The true church has never sounded out public expectations before launching its crusades. Its leaders heard from God and went ahead wholly independent of popular support or the lack of it. They knew their Lord's will and did it, and their people followed them—sometimes to triumph, but more often to insults and public persecution—and their sufficient reward was the satisfaction of being right in a wrong world.

Another characteristic of the true prophet has been love. The free man who has learned to hear God's voice and dared to obey it has felt the moral burden that broke the hearts of the Old Testament prophets, crushed the soul of our Lord Jesus Christ, and wrung streams of tears from the eyes of the apostles.

The free man has never been a religious tyrant, nor has he sought to lord it over God's heritage. It is fear and lack of self-assurance that has led men to try to bring others under their feet. They have had some interest to protect, some position to secure, so they have demanded subjection from their followers as a guarantee of their own safety. But the free man—never. He has nothing to protect, no ambition to pursue and no enemy to fear. For that reason he is completely careless of his standing among men. If they follow him—well and good. If not, he loses nothing that he holds dear. But whether he is accepted or rejected, he will go on loving his people with sincere devotion, and only death can silence his tender intercession for them.

Yes, if evangelical Christianity is to stay alive, it must have men again—the right kind of men. It must repudiate the weaklings who dare not speak out, and it must seek in prayer and much humility the coming again of men of the stuff of which prophets and martyrs are made. God will hear the cries of His people as He heard the cries of Israel in Egypt, and He will send deliverance by sending deliverers. It is His way.

And when the deliverers come—reformers, revivalists, prophets—they will be men of God and men of courage. They will have God on their side because they are careful to stay on God's side. They will be co-workers with Christ and instruments in the hands of the Holy Spirit. Such men will be baptized with the Spirit indeed and through their labors He will baptize others and send the long-delayed revival.###

SOURCE: This World: Playground or Battleground?, [Chapter 7]

* NOTE: A.W. Tozier (1897-1963) for many years was the pastor of the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church in Toronto and Chicago, the editor-in-chief of the Christian and Missionary Alliance's official organ, Alliance Weekly, as well as a prolific author. Many revered him as a twentieth century prophet. Of his many books, The Knowledge of the Holy (Harper & Row), was perhaps the one for which he was best known.

PROPHETIC PURPOSE

With all the proliferation and promotion of the prophetic that is happily taking place now in some streams and camps of the Church, it is critical that we understand what the true Purpose of the prophetic really is. Some prophetic novices and new prophetic groups appear to think that prophecy itself, whether in the form of personal prophesying over people or publishing prophecies on the Internet, for example, is the goal of the prophetic. Moreover, the actions, attitudes, and speech of some regarding the prophetic seem to indicate that they think that the prophetic is an end in itself. But, it's not.

Though it may seem enigmatic to say, prophecy is not the Purpose of the prophetic. The true Purpose of the prophetic is not the prophetic itself as an end in itself. It's not just prophesying. It's not seeing who can prophesy the most, the loudest, the longest, the most authoritative sounding, or the most profoundly. It's not to use the prophetic to build a name for oneself, or to promote and proliferate a ministry, a minister, or a movement, or to develop a means of support or income for a ministry, or to sell books, or to become well-known or famous, or to build a church, a following, or a prophetic organization, or to achieve personal ambitions. The true Purpose of the prophetic is none of those things.

To understand what the true Purpose of the prophetic is, we first have to understand what Purpose is. Purpose is one of five elements of Vision. Purpose is the vehicle of Vision. Purpose is what defines and drives the Vision. Of all the elements of Vision, Purpose is the most critical. Without Purpose there will be no Performance of the Vision. Without a place to go — a destination or Destiny — there's no need for a vehicle. Without Destiny there is no need for Purpose. Purpose is the substance of Destiny. Purpose and Destiny are not synonymous, but they are symbiotic. They are inextricably linked and interdependent, and yet they are distinct. One is meaningless without the other. Purpose has no reason to exist without Destiny, for Purpose is the servant of Destiny. Destiny cannot be attained without Purpose.

Vision and the Prophetic

Everyone is born with a Destiny. In order to attain unto our Destiny, we must have a Vision of our Destiny. We must see and know our Destiny to act as a road map to tell us where we're going, and then we must have a Purpose to take us there. As someone has so aptly said, "If you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there." That's why God told the prophet Habakkuk to write the Vision down — to delineate it, explain it, make it plain, make it understandable — so that those who are running to complete the vision, those who are running in the race, may run to the finish line. You can't run to the finish line, or carry the ball to the goal line, if you don't know where it is.

This article is not about Vision, per se, and there has been an abundance of teaching about the subject of Vision over the last few years, but prophetic people do need to gain some understanding on the relationship of Vision to the prophetic realm. Vision has to do with SEEING. If anyone should be about Vision, it is prophets and prophetic people. The Bible tells us that the prophets were first called "SEERS" before they were called prophets. Prophets see, or perceive, things that are not perceived by or manifestly obvious to others.

Many subscribers to the SLM Prophetic Messenger and others who will read this message are prophetic people. You have an affinity for, a calling to, an inward connection with, the prophetic. Among the readers there are prophetic people of every type and every stage in development and maturation. Many of you have been tutored and/or trained to varying degrees in the prophetic. Others are prophetic leaders themselves who are mentoring others in the prophetic. Some have ministered in the prophetic realm for a number of years, while others only for a short time. Some have been reading, studying, and learning all you can about the prophetic realm from whatever source of information and teaching you can find. Some of you may be old hands at operating in the prophetic gifts and some in the prophetic office, while others may be just learning how to operate in either or both. Nevertheless, regardless of your level or length of experience and expertise in the prophetic, I can tell you that unless you understand "prophetic Purpose" — that is, the Purpose of the prophetic — you will never tap into the dimension of pure and unadulterated prophetic flow that emanates from the Spirit of God and operate in the measure of the anointing God desires to operate through you. (By "unadulterated" I mean: uncorrupted by the psyche, [soulish mind] or the psychic [supernatural satanically-sourced information].)

No matter how much knowledge you obtain regarding the prophetic gifts and office, you will never understand it as you need to understand it, you will never have the revelation that you need to have about it, you will never be used in it as you desire or even as God desires you to be used in it, you will never have the full measure of the anointing that God intends for you to have — UNTIL you understand it, not in a vacuum, or as an end in itself, not abstractly, but contextually, that is, understanding its proper application — its ultimate goal and mission — its Purpose.

Jesus' Primary Purpose

To understand the true Prophetic Purpose, we must turn to the Prophetic Prototype, the Preeminent Prophet — Jesus Himself — and examine carefully the Prophetic Paradigm inherent in His earthly Life and Ministry.

"The Son of God appeared for this Purpose, that he might destroy the works of the devil." (1 Jn. 3:8)

In this verse, the Holy Spirit revealed through the writing of the Apostle John that Jesus' Primary Purpose was to destroy the works of the devil. He said that the primary reason that the Son of God appeared was for the very purpose of destroying the works of the devil. Destroying, or negating, undoing, reversing, bringing to naught, the works of the devil, meant restoration and redemption. The end result of His primary Purpose was the restoration and redemption of all things in the Creational Order of God that the devil had corrupted, perverted, and deterred through the perdition of Man and the permeation of the world with his carnal nature of sin. Of course, at the apex of that list of the corrupted that Jesus restored and redeemed was the apple of God's eye — His Mankind Creation.

Jesus had a singular, primary Purpose — this was His mission, His calling, His Destiny. And, His Purpose was His motivation — what drove Him, what compelled Him — to do all that He did during His fleshly life and ministry here on Earth in order to fulfill His mission, calling, and Destiny. That Purpose, mission, motivation, and calling, as stated succinctly by the Spirit through the Apostle John, was to "destroy the works of the devil." It was for this Purpose and Destiny that He voluntarily and eagerly left the portals of Glory, cast aside His Deity, in an act of inscrutable humility stooped to take on human form, was born in a lowly manger stall, lived for thirty-three and a half years as a human, endured the pangs of rejection, sorrows, testings, scorn, ridicule, mocking, and disdain of His own family and people, unspeakable suffering, humiliation, death, and even momentary separation from His Father God! He did all that for a solitary purpose — to REVERSE THE CURSE! To give His life as a ransom for the many! — an exchange of the Sinless for the sinful, the Guiltless for the guilty, the Righteous for the unrighteous. The sins of the world were laid upon the spotless Lamb of God to redeem us and save us from the eternal punishment and banishment we so rightly deserved.

Jesus had a Destiny. He had a Purpose that drove Him to Calvary, that put bounce in His step and briskness in His cadence as He marched triumphantly out ahead of the disciples toward Jerusalem and the horrid fate that awaited Him when the time for His suffering had come. It was for the JOY that was set before Him that He endured the Cross — the sheer euphoria of foreseeing His mankind Creation at last REDEEMED by the BLOOD OF THE LAMB, and RESTORED back into rightstanding and relationship with Father God! This final outcome — REDEMPTION and RESTORATION — is what motivated the God of Love and "the God of all Grace" (1 Pet. 5:10) to come to Earth and became one of us in order to give HIS life as a propitiation, a substitutionary sacrifice, in exchange for ours!

But, as glorious and central to the Gospel of Christ as the prize of human redemption is, too often we focus upon it virtually to the exclusion of the restoration aspect of what He came to Earth to accomplish. The Greek word used in the New Testament 118 times to refer to various aspects of the restoration that Jesus effected by His death, burial, and resurrection is — sozo. The King James translators rendered the variants of this word "saved" all but a few of the times it appears. A host of evangelical concepts revolve around that rendering of that small but key word of the Gospel. An emphasis of Evangelical teaching is that salvation or being saved means that "we have a home in Heaven," and that believers will "go to Heaven" when they die. And, thank God that is true. However, the word sozo, per se, does not have anything to do with Heaven or us going there. Rather, it connotes to restore, to return to a former condition, to heal, to make whole, and it is even the root component for the word that connotes sanctification, that is, to make holy. Seeing the salvation that Jesus purchased for us with His shed blood in this light gives it another dimension of meaning, and makes the significance of John's declaration concerning Jesus' Purpose for coming to Earth in First John 3:8 more understandable and its application more comprehensible.

Jesus' Purpose in coming to Earth certainly encompassed our salvation and redemption, but it also transcended human salvation and redemption to encompass all manner of restoration resulting from the corruption of sin.

Lest I be misunderstood, let me say that I am not referring to "restoration" in the way that it is taught in "Kingdom Now" and "Manifested Sons of God" doctrines. Rather, the kind of redemption and restoration that I am talking about and that the Apostle John was talking about is personal redemption and restoration — the "undoing," in the lives of human beings, of the effects of Satan's corruptive schemes and strategies, which are a direct consequence of the permeation of the world with sin that the devil originated and the perdition of Mankind that transpired with the permeation of the human spirit with the sin nature of Satan at the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. THAT is what John was telling us was the ultimate Purpose of Jesus' manifestation in human form on the Earth in his statement: "The Son of God appeared for this Purpose, that he might destroy the works of the devil."

The Apostle John, who was reportedly the closest of all the disciples to Jesus and for whom Jesus had a special affection, and who witnessed most all of Jesus' miracles firsthand, is telling us in this passage that the works that Jesus performed during his fleshly life and ministry were all aimed at "destroy(ing) the works of the devil," whether it was in the form of healing the sick, lame, blind, deaf and paralyzed, negating death and raising from the dead, delivering the demonized and operating in the gift of the discerning of spirits, revealing a word of knowledge or wisdom, or proclaiming prophetic insight or counsel into someone's present or future, setting at liberty the psychologically traumatized and bruised. All these were Jesus' "works" to "destroy the works of the devil."

Doing The Works of Jesus

Jesus instructed His disciples then as well as His disciples today to "be about the Father's business," to "occupy" until He returns. The way we do all of that is by performing the works of Jesus, doing the things that He did during His ministry on Earth. All genuine ministry is merely the extension and continuum of the ministry and mission of Jesus. And, Jesus' ministry and mission, as we have seen, are summed up in the statement: "The Son of God appeared for this Purpose, that he might destroy the works of the devil." Thus, the primary Purpose of all valid ministry, including prophetic ministry, is to "destroy the works of the devil." The ultimate goal of all genuine ministry is to in some way destroy the works of the devil — in people and to that extent on this planet. The supernatural power to perform His works is His power; it flows from Him. And, His power is connected with His Purpose. When we become connected with His Purpose, we become conduits of His power!

Concerning His works, Jesus said to His disciples:

"Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe on account of the works themselves. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to the Father." (Jn. 14:10-12)

When Jesus Ascended On High

And, then on the Day of Ascension, Jesus did indeed "go to the Father." After having been raised from the dead on that original Easter morning, which Christians have celebrated every year since, and appearing to the Apostles and many others in His resurrected Body, on what we now call the Day of Ascension, He was taken up on a cloud and ascended into Heaven, and "sat down at the right hand of God."

But, something else happened that day as Jesus was ascending, an awesome and totally astounding transaction in the Spirit realm, which none of those present that day apparently, though understandably, perceived. Who among us also would not have been transfixed by the glorious events that those present that day witnessed — Jesus being transported upward into Heaven on a cloud of glory, and two angels arrayed in dazzling white garments that glowed who appeared and spoke unto them those now infamous words, "Men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing…"? We can totally understand how those present that day were so mesmerized by the natural events they were witnessing with their own eyes that apparently none of them saw what the Apostle Paul saw by the Spirit that took place. For it was he, the "apostle born late," not Peter, James, John, or any of the Twelve who revealed to us what Paul received by revelation of the Spirit concerning what transpired in the Spirit realm as Jesus was ascending:

"Therefore it says, when He ASCENDED on High, He led captive a host of captives, and He gave gifts to men (Now this expression, 'He ascended,' what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.) And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers." (Eph. 4:8-11)

This passage and the verses that follow, familiar to many of us in the Charismatic and apostolic-prophetic renewal, are revealing to us that as Jesus was ascending into Heaven, He relegated or delegated to men the ministry giftings He Himself had manifested during His ministry. The giftings that He imparted were what we now refer to as the Fivefold Ministry Offices." And, the verses that follow reveal the Divine PURPOSE inherent in those gifts that He gave to men:

1. The equipping of the saints — for the work of service or ministry — to enable them to do the works of Jesus and complete His continuing ministry (v. 12);
2. Spiritual and Numerical Growth — the equipped saints (believers) build up the Body of Christ, spiritually and numerically through their ministry works (v. 12);
3. Truth-Centric Unity — singleness of mind and solidarity of purpose, centered around consensual faith in and knowledge concerning the Son of God (v. 13);
4. Maturing of the Body of Christ — unto a mature (perfected) man, to the measure of the stature (Christ's character, which brings Christ's power, anointing) which belongs to the fullness of Christ (v. 13);
5. Doctrinal Purity and Stability — so that the Body of Christ will no longer be like children, being "tossed about," being led here and there by false doctrine, and captivated by the trickery and deceitful scheming of men, but will be founded, grounded, and stabilized in "sound doctrine" (v. 14);
6. Corporate Character Development — by speaking the truth in love — love and grace tempered reproof — the Body of Christ will grow up in all aspects unto Christ, becoming conformed unto the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29), reflecting His Image as the moon reflects the image of the sun, so that the collective Body of Christ will be lights in the midst of the blackness of a crooked and perverse generation (v. 15);
7. Concinnity — all of the various and diverse parts of the Body working together to form one unified Body — the Body of Christ — working together in harmony and one accord, that results when each part is functioning properly and supplying to the Body the unique benefit or function it is designed to provide (v. 16);
8. PURPOSE AND DESTINY — concinnity causes the growth of the Body for the building up of itself in LOVE — ACTIONS OF "OTHER-NESS" — the ultimate goal of the instruction of God's Word (1 Tim. 1:5).

Prophetic Purpose Revealed

So Jesus relegated and delegated giftings, which include the prophetic office for the carrying on of His ultimate Purpose and Plan of building His Church, over which the gates (power) of Hell or Hades would not prevail (Mat. 16:18).

We see then that the Church the Body of Christ, the Betrothed of Christ, which will ultimately be the Bride of Christ, the Lamb's Wife IS THE ULTIMATE PURPOSE AND PLAN OF GOD AND CHRIST! WE ARE IT!

Hence, we see also that "Prophetic Purpose," ultimately, is the edifying or building up of Jesus' Church. And as, I have already stated, when those of us who are a part of the Prophetic Division of God's Army, at last get plugged into Christ's Purpose, we will be plugged into His POWER, as He was during His fleshly ministry on Earth, so that we can work the works of Jesus that are aimed at destroying the works of the devil. For it is like plugging an electrical appliance into an electrical outlet, the source of power, which empowers it to perform its intended purpose.

[CLICK HERE to read this article in its entirety.]

Counting The Cost

The following is an excerpt of my book, The Mystery of the Kingdom, which is an exposition of what Jesus indicated was "The Paramount Parable"—The Parable of the Sower—meaning it was the most important of all His parables, in that it revealed the keys to the "mystery of the kingdom" of God. The excerpt is taken from a chapter in which I examine the second category of hearers in the parable who Jesus described as being "like rocky ground." He went on to reveal that this category of hearers of the Word are only "temporary believers," who "have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary" (Mk. 4:17).

Luke’s account of this part of Jesus’ parable aptly describes their walk this way: "they believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall away" (Lk. 8:13). This is an extremely crucial statement in that Jesus Himself explicitly and definitively indicates that these people were indeed bona fide "believers" rather than bogus believers as proponents of "once saved always saved" Eternal Security doctrine allege. Jesus said, "they believe for a while," which inherently means there came a time when they ceased being and living like a true believer, or saint. To argue otherwise is to call Jesus a liar. Likewise, to say these once bona fide believers did not subsequently fall away after having truly believed is to call Jesus a liar as well, for Jesus explicitly stated, "and in time of temptation (they) fall away."

Unfortunately, there are many people today who are of this category of only temporary believers. There was a point at which they truly believed in and accepted the Gospel of Christ, and were thereby Born Again and saved. At first, they are willing to follow Jesus and obey His Word. But, later, when they began to meet with temptation (Lk. 8:13), afflictions, and persecutions (Mk. 4:17), these temporary believers fall away in their relationship with God.

The Mystery of the Kingdom book was first published in 1984, yet its message is perhaps even more applicable now in this hour than ever before. Through the Spirit, the Apostle Paul looked two-thousand years ahead into these end-times and predicted with amazing precision the prevailing spiritual atmosphere and resultant apostasy:

2 Timothy 3:1-5
But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.

1 Timothy 4:1-2
But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron....

Some theologians postulate this last passage refers to and was fulfilled in the 1,200-year period known as "The Dark Ages" that culminated with the Protestant Reformation. Personally I am among those who believe that period was indeed a corporate apostasy of the Church but that another fulfillment of that prophecy is being fulfilled in these end-times in which we are living now.

Then there are the multitudes of professing Christians, Protestant and non, today who align with myriad others of the previous four centuries and subscribe to the Calvinistic "Eternal Security" doctrine, also known as "once-saved-always-saved," that posits that no matter what one does or how he/she lives after "confessing Christ," it is impossible for them to fall away and "lose" their salvation. The debate juxtaposing Calvinism (Eternal Security) to Arminianism (apostasy is possible), as theologians refer to these disparate doctrines, has existed since the 16th Century and continues to be a point of contention and divisiveness yet today. But, it is far more than just another abstract theological controversy studied by erudite seminarians preparing for assimilation into the ranks of the professional clergy. The matter of whether or not a bona fide believer can become so apostate so as to forfeit his/her spiritual birthright is the core issue of these end-times as well as the entire specter of so-called "revival" that so many profess to believe is coming.

Will real "revival," as the prominent principals of the past, albeit temporary, revivals passionately insisted and with whom many modern prophetic revival prognosticators adamantly agree, be contingent entirely upon the depth of personal repentance—i.e., real mindset and lifestyle changes—of those claiming to belong to Christ? Or, will end-time "revival," as some neo-prophets purport, consist merely of a global upsurge in signs and wonders and displays of supernatural power that God initiates for "evangelism" sake without respect or relation to the personal spiritual condition of those comprising the Church and therefore the Church itself? Will the now popular refrain by neo-prophets concerning the last days that "the glory of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the seas," have any correlation to the Betrothed of Christ and her reflection of the Glory of the Bridegroom, or just be something God does separately from her?

I don’t know what you believe to be the answer to this crucial question, but as you read this excerpt of The Mystery of the Kingdom, what I believe the answer to be will be abundantly clear. Indeed, if you are interested, this section coupled with the succeeding two chapters of the book make my beliefs on the matter unequivocally clear. Moreover, I believe…no, let me rephrase that…I KNOW—from personal experience—there is a personal COST to serving Christ all the way to the end. Some of that cost I have paid already, but I fully anticipate that there shall yet be more to be paid, which I am determined to pay…no matter what and no matter how dear. "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him!"

Now, my question to you is: Are YOU willing to pay the price…no matter what and how dear it may be? Or, will you in the end prove to be one of those Jesus called, "temporary believers," whose fate, according to Jesus Himself, will be eternal separation from God rather than eternal salvation for which He paid the full price?

Counting the Cost
Will it cost you something to serve Jesus?

You better believe it will! You must surrender your entire being—spirit, soul, and body—over to Jesus. You must die to every form of sin and unrighteousness (Rom. 6:1-11). You must put to death the sinful deeds of the fleshly body (Gal. 5:24). And, you must submit your mind, will, and emotions to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Jesus in no way preached an "easy gospel," as some allege today. He never used euphemistic persuasion to call people to Himself. He never expected people to come to Him unadvisedly. Quite to the contrary, He taught that people should first "count the cost" before they make a decision to follow after Him, because every true disciple, then and now, is required to carry his own personal cross of affliction and persecution:

Now great multitudes were going along with Him; and He turned and said to them, "If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate (margin-note: i.e., by comparison of his love for Me) his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate (count) the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it?" (Lk. 14:28)

Nothing could be more apropos in the case of these hearers of the Word who Jesus said are like "rocky ground." They did not first sit down and calculate the cost of discipleship, and realistically calculate what following Jesus was going to cost them. They did not foresee that there was going to be crosses to bear, that they were going to have to endure against many tribulations, temptations, tests, and trials. So, "in time of temptation (they) fall away," Luke’s synopsis quotes Jesus as saying. Mark’s account says, "when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away" (Mk. 4:17).

These people indeed are only temporary believers. They are willing to respond affirmatively to the Gospel in order to be saved and to escape Hell. But, they are not willing to effect a complete surrender and repentance. Nor are they willing to die totally to self and sin, and relinquish lordship over their own lives. Some are willing to effect a superficial repentance of surface sins, but not a complete repentance of the evil motivations which pervade the unredeemed soul. Much less are they willing to offensively resist the enemy on the battlefield of temptation, affliction, and persecution, in order to follow after Jesus.

Temporary believers, unfortunately, are only willing to stay married to Jesus and live the Christian life as long as life is easy and convenient and doesn’t cost them anything, as long as life is full of nothing but "showers of blessings." But, when the showers of blessings start to become mixed with intermittent droughts of even only relatively minor affliction and persecution, that is, when the sun arises, as Jesus put it in the parable, and "the heat is on," and their commitment is tested a little, temporary believers immediately want to dissolve the relationship, with a quick and easy, no-muss, no-fuss, no-fault divorce after the manner of the divorces meted out by our courts today.

But, that is not the way it is with true believers. True believers are in this thing forever. When they make their commitment to Jesus, they do it knowing full well it is Eternal Life, an everlasting life of never-ending fellowship with God, they’ve bought into, and they are eternally committed to Him through thick and thin, and no matter what may come, hell or high water. Indeed, if you have the great honor and privilege of living for Jesus in this world before being united with Him in the Spirit, it is guaranteed you will indeed experience both—hell and high water. True believers forsake all else in order to obtain the "costly pearl" (Mat. 13:45,46) of Eternal Life, and Eternal Life is what they will indeed be rewarded with in the end.

Indeed, this commitment to follow after Jesus has been known to cost some people literally everything. The Apostle Peter, after less than three years of following after Jesus, speaking apparently on behalf of the Twelve Apostles of the Lamb, railed at Jesus, "Behold, we have left everything and followed You" (Mk. 10:28). Overlooking Peter’s obvious rancor, Jesus in essence replied that such may indeed be the cost for earnest followers:

And He said to them, "Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who shall not receive many times as much at this time and in the age to come, Eternal Life." (Lk. 18:29,30)

Indeed, there has been more than one resolute believer down through the ages who has had to give up houses, wives, brothers, parents, children, friends, colleagues, business and vocational pursuits, and the like, in order to follow after Jesus and the revealed Will of God. It is terribly unfortunate and painful, but sometimes friends, relatives, and loved ones simply refuse to follow along with you when you make the decision to follow Jesus. Nevertheless, Jesus said anyone who is not willing to bear that cross of persecution and to follow after Him, is not worthy of Him. There is a chorus we sing that talks about all this, which says:

I have decided to follow Jesus.
I have decided to follow Jesus.
I have decided to follow Jesus.
No turning back, no turning back.

Though none go with me, yet I will follow.
Though none go with me, yet I will follow.
Though none go with me, yet I will follow.
No turning back, No turning back.

I have personally known people who have had to quite literally "give up" friends and loved ones, in order to follow Jesus; some for only a while, some forever. It didn’t have to be that way, and the believer certainly did not want it to be that way, but that is the way it happened nonetheless, because those friends and loved ones simply refused to accompany them on the path they had chosen to follow, the path of Eternal Life and fellowship with God.

I have personal knowledge of men called to the ministry who had no choice but to "give up" loved ones, in order to follow and obey Jesus and His revealed Will for their lives, and in order to pursue the call of God upon them. There were certain ministers of the past who were greatly used of God who experienced such heart-rending dilemmas with regard to family members, who, as they went on to be faithful to God, received an eternal, unfathomable reward that made it all worth it. So also are there contemporary ministers with a great call upon their life who shall be likewise rewarded for their undeterred faithfulness.

We must be willing to follow Jesus no matter what the cost. Otherwise, we will not be worthy of Him (Mat. 10:37,38). In fact, Jesus once even went so far as to declare, "No one of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions" (Lk. 14:33). Spiritually speaking, every true saint of God does indeed eventually "give up" everything he is and has; that is to say, he or she surrenders any claim of personal ownership and lordship of everything unto the Lord.

But, praise God, God is not a "taker," despite the wholly erroneous statement of Job: "The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away" (Job 1:21), which misstatement he later retracted in dust and ashes, and utter shame and chagrin (42:1-6). Rather, God is only a Giver. "God so loved the world that He gave..." (Jn. 3:16). God gave even His only begotten Son, because He is a Giver by Nature. He gives because He cannot help Himself. As someone has so aptly said, "You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving."

And so, God, who IS Love and from whom Agape-Love emanates (1 Jn. 4:7,8), is absolutely compelled by His overwhelming Love-Nature to give. He has absolutely no desire or interest in taking things away from people He has bestowed to them, especially not because of any need of His own. How ludicrous and even blasphemous the notion! That would make Him a selfish thief, which He is not. Satan is the thief, who steals, kills, and destroys (Jn. 10:10). Besides, God doesn’t need anything we have:

The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; neither is He served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since He Himself gives... (Acts 17:24,25)

No, God is not a taker, but a Giver. It’s just that He insists on being Lord over everything, as He indeed is. He requires that we abdicate lordship and rights of ownership of everything we have and are, and give it to Him, in order that Jesus may indeed be Lord of All that pertains to us. And, praise God when we do relinquish the "things" pertaining to this world in order to seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, He actually returns all those "things" we need for life, because He well knows that we need all these "things" (Mat. 6:32,33).

Moreover, He even returns them to us in multiplied measure, "a hundred times as much," and not "when we all get to Heaven," or "in the sweet by and by," but in the sweet here and "now in the present age" (Mk. 10:30). For you see, we won’t need those things in Heaven; we only need them now in this life here on planet Earth.

Indeed, there is a cost for discipleship, but true believers are willing to pay the price, whatever it may be. Temporary believers, however, are not. When things begin to get difficult, and they meet with a little trouble, tribulation, and hardship, temporary believers start to wither.[end excerpt]

To read more about The Mystery of the Kingdom, go to: http://www.slm.org/pubs/mkbook.html.

Polemic Prophetic Preaching

In an earlier post in which I was commenting on matters inherent in the Grassley Investigation, I wrote: "A 'Day of Reckoning' is surely coming to many irresponsible and unscrupulous ministries." I prophesied that we are about see a fulfillment of the Prophet Malachi's prophecy (Mal. 3) in the Church that will begin with the leaders." I also wrote:

"...it is a shameful indictment on the modern church, as well as on purporting neo-prophets that a Senator's spokesman has to be the spokesman God uses to issue the prophetic rebuke concerning the excesses found in some portions of the Neo-Pentecostal Church, 'The Christian public should have demanded a higher level of accountability a long time ago.'"

I further prophesied a release and sending forth of true prophets God would be initiating this year of 2008, who will come "proclaiming piercing prophetic messages that will penetrate the lukewarmness and complacency, and in some cases the apostasy, presently pervading the Church at-large, and whose central theme will be the first word of the Gospel — 'Repent! For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!'"

I then proffered a spirit-inspired prayer on behalf of the corporate Body of Christ:

Send us, O God, those true prophets Leonard Ravenhill envisioned who know no compromise, have no price tag, cannot be bought out or bought off; who daily breathe the rarified air of divine inspiration; who march to a different drumbeat; seers sent to lead the blind; Noah-like "preachers of righteousness" who are unabashedly forthright, unashamedly outright, having lives that are upright, but who claim no birthright; dwellers in splendid isolation in the natural realm, yet in the heights of God in the spirit realm; firebrands possessed with passion, purpose, and pugnacity of the Spirit; sent-ones sent into the valleys of spiritual malaise and waywardness with a heart-piercing, conscience-pricking, "Thus saith the Lord!" God, send us, true prophets!

[If you did not receive or read that post, click here.]

That prayer, which has been prayed in essence by many other agonizing intercessors over the years, and more and more as we've seen the day drawing nearer, doubtless has been heard in Heaven and is being answered as I write. But, Friends, I come to tell you that the prophets God sends as His Spirit-Spokesmen assuredly will be nothing like the limp-wristed, mamby-pamby, compromised, Casper-Milquetoast, worldly-minded, smooth-talking orators spewing out a perfectly scripted and memorized easy-listening, all-positive, "it's-all-good," no-pain, self-improvement, 3-step message, who the churches welcome today with open arms, as they make their showy appearance dressed down or blinged up in the latest worldly fashion vogue, sporting the latest hip, weirdo, hair-do and facial-hair-do, along with the obligatory outrageous and mutilating body-tatoos and piercings, emulating the latest rising Hollywood or entertainment star. NO WAY!

You can know with certainty that these fearless prophets God sends will come preaching a polemic message that will sear your ear-hairs, make the hair stand up on the back of your neck, and cause a full-body outbreak of goose-bumps on top of your goose-bumps! More importantly, their polemic prophetic preaching will penetrate the most apathetic soul and pierce the most resistent conscience! It can scarely be said any better than what John Eckhardt wrote in his masterful treatise on the apostolic office, Moving In The Apostolic, which I highly recommend you read to gain an understanding of the apostolic office. The following is an excerpt from that book.

Polemic Preaching
During the reformation of the sixteenth century, Martin Luther and other reformers were known for their polemic preaching and writing. Polemic means an aggressive attack on, or refutation of the opinions or principles of another. It is the art or practice of disputation or controversy.

The word is derived from the Greek word "polemikos," meaning warlike or hostile. The reformers aggressively attacked the error and hypocrisy of the established Church, and defended the truth of the gospel against those who attacked their teachings. Their major concern was that the truth be preached and taught at any cost. They would die for the truth; truth was the only thing that mattered.

Today’s Church knows little about polemic preaching and writing. If one stands up for the truth of what he or she believes, that person is labeled dogmatic and non-ecumenical. The spirit of compromise has entered many churches, and they are not as concerned about the truth. But the Lord has always raised up defenders of the faith, people who are not afraid to preach and defend the truth. They recognize that the truth must not only be preached, but defended. If men do not defend the truth, lies will prevail. If lies prevail, people walk in bondage and deception. This is another reason why the church needs the ministry of the apostle.

Apostles have an anointing to defend and confirm the truth. They walk in boldness and proclaim the truth in spite of persecution and opposition. The Lord puts a word in their mouths to confound adversaries or opponents, or as the King James Version calls them, the "gainsayers." To gainsay means to deny, dispute, contradict and oppose.

For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist (Luke 21:15, KJV).

The Williams translation says, "All your opponents combined will not be able to resist and refute."

According to Titus 1:9, a bishop—overseer, pastor—should "by sound doctrine" both "exhort" and "convince" the gainsayers (KJV). This Scripture goes on to say:

For there are many insubordinate, both the idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole households, teaching things which they ought not, for the sake of dishonest gain (Titus 1:10,11, NKJV, italics added).

The Word of God says that there are mouths that must be stopped. The only way to stop some mouths is through polemic preaching, "sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you" (Titus 2:8).

The Beck translation says, "so that anyone who opposes us will feel foolish." The Norlie translation says, "Your message should be true, your language correct and not open to criticism. In that way, your opponent may be put to shame."

The art of the polemic is speaking the right words with apostolic wisdom to put to shame those that oppose the truth. "How forceful are right words" (Job 6:25). The correct argument, using the right words, carries tremendous force. This is not the wishy-washy Christianity that we see so much of today. This is a return to apostolic Christianity.

And this is what the Lord is restoring to the Church. Don’t let it surprise or confuse you. It is necessary for the Church to continue to walk in the truth. The Lord is raising up apostles whose words will shake the Church. Their words will be as a bulldozer in the spirit plowing through the lies the enemy has sown in the church. As a result, the truth will prevail, and multitudes will be set free. [end]

[Quote from: MOVING IN THE APOSTOLIC – God’s Plan To Lead His Church to the Final Victory, By John Eckhardt]

A Desperate Cry For Revival In Charismatic Camelot

Publishers Note: Charisma Magazine, founded by Stephen Strang, was originally an organ of my home church, Calvary Assembly of Winter Park, Florida. Roy Harthern, Benny Hinn's father-in-law, was the influential senior leader of the church at the time. Harthern convinced the church financial board that Calvary should commit quite a large sum of money to the upstart of this new magazine which would essentially be the church's PR organ. The year it was launched Calvary also helped to underwrite the launching of another upstart ministry I had a part in founding and developing, Festival of Praise, under the leadership of music extraordinaire, Thurlow Spurr. Because of my involvement in FOP and other areas of ministry, I had firsthand personal knowledge of Charisma's birthing.

What began as a small non-commercial magazine intended to be the in-house print organ of one of the fastest growing churches in America, soon grew into a relatively expansive and profitable publishing corporation with multiple divisions, Strang Communications. From its genesis, Charisma has been a primary source of print public relations and marketing exposure to the Charismatic/Neo-Pentecostal ministerial universe. To say it was a primary source, is putting it politely. The fact is, for more than a decade, it was just about the only game in town for reaching the Charismatic realm. That the publishing house realized their dominance of this niche market early-on was reflected in the exorbitant advertising rates, which were comparable to premier secular magazines, it soon commanded. The perhaps unintended result was that the mega-ministries who had the resources to purchase the broad exposure Charisma proferred became the hand that fed the multi-million dollar enterprise Strang Communications became.

In addition to that, over the years, personal relationships were forged between the publisher and the prominent ministers whose ministries were a source of hundreds of millions in advertising revenue. Add to all that personality traits and personal proclivities along with impure ambitions and the result is a rue rendering objectivity regarding these ministers and their mega-ministries a virtual impossibility.

Over its history Charisma as well as the other divisions and mediums of Strang Communications have reflected that reticence or resistance to be critical of the mega-ministries with whom it has been so cozy for so long. Historically, Charisma seemed to be locked into a look-the-other-way philosophy when it came to integrity issues regarding prominent ministers ministries. Only when scandal in Charismatic-dom broke in the secular media and therefore could not be ignored did Charisma cover the story. Intermittently, some breakaways from the organization's fundamental ostrich philosophy have occurred through the op-eds of Charisma editor, J. Lee Grady. The above article by Grady totally surprised me with its frankness and forthrightness, and, in my view, is a testament to just how bad things have become in our beloved Charismatic Camelot.

A DESPERATE CRY for REVIVAL in 2008
By J. Lee Grady

...Never in my 15 years at Charisma have I known a time of such intense spiritual turbulence. God is shaking everything that can be shaken, including our Christian colleges, our megachurches and our most prominent ministries.

At a time when a U.S. senator is investigating the financial practices of six well-known preachers, I sense that God has taken out His holy plumb line to conduct His own detailed inspection of every church and ministry in this country. He wants to unleash a nationwide revival, but He must bring His correction first.

These are desperate times that require desperate measures. That is why I have joined with the Awakening America Alliance to call for a solemn 21-day fast that runs from January 1-21. Here’s a list of the things I’m praying for during the next three weeks:

1. The fear of God. Holiness was so tangible among early Christians that false prophets were blinded and greedy liars fell over dead. As a result of God’s judgment on Ananias and Sapphira, “great fear came over the whole church” (Acts 5:11, NASB).

Where is this sense of “shock and awe” today? How can Christians be so cavalier about divorce or so flippant about adultery? How can television preachers sleep at night after robbing God’s people with manipulative fundraising appeals?

We celebrate His mercy but ignore His severity. We need a thunderclap from heaven and a display of Elijah’s fire to remind a wayward church that God will not be mocked.

2. Integrity and purity in the church. Our movement hit rock-bottom in October when charismatic pastor Donnie Earl Paulk of Atlanta announced to his stunned congregation that a DNA test had proved he is not the nephew of Bishop Earl Paulk but is in fact his son.That such unspeakable depravity was permitted to thrive for decades at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit is an indictment against the elder Paulk and all leaders who refused to challenge his behavior when they first learned about it years ago.

This and other recent religious scandals have so tarnished our credibility that we have become a curious freak show. Many unbelievers now associate ministers with wife-swapping, wife-beating, no-fault divorce, gay affairs and $10,000-a-night hotel rooms. We need a Holy Ghost housecleaning.

3. A return to evangelism. In the 1970s we were less sophisticated but so much more zealous for Jesus. We handed out tracts and witnessed to everyone. Sharing our faith was the priority. Yet most people in churches today have never led anyone to Christ.

We are no longer contagious. Spirit-filled believers spend more time chasing “financial breakthroughs” than lost souls. We have rejected sacrifice and compassion and embraced a counterfeit gospel that produces bored, selfish spectators.

4. Godly leadership. As we head into an election season it’s obvious that our nation is facing a leadership crisis. But this leadership vacuum is not just in the political arena. Many of our spiritual fathers have disappointed us, either by their own moral failures or by their refusal to confront sin.

I pray that God does not give us the president we deserve in 2008. If we cry out for mercy, perhaps He will upset the current slate of candidates and put someone in the White House who can model Christian integrity. May He also give us spiritual shepherds who care more for the flock than for the crowd’s applause.

5. A national spiritual awakening. There were seasons in America’s past when sinners became so convicted of their sins that they collapsed under the weight of their guilt. During the days of revivalists George Whitefield and Charles Finney, huge waves of conversions led to a widespread transformation of society. Drunks became sober, prison inmates sang hymns, stingy business owners stopped oppressing their workers, atheists surrendered their unbelief, and rebellious children returned to faith.

Can such a movement happen again? It must or our country will descend into its darkest hour. I urge you to join me in this solemn fast. Pray with desperation for the five topics outlined here. We can’t settle for anything less than a heavenly visitation.

J. Lee Grady is editor of Charisma
SOURCE: http://www.charismanews.com/

The Consequences of Covetousness

As I stated on the previous post, I am convinced this whole matter I am discussing in these previous several posts is far from being a mere side-bar, but rather is a prophetic warning from God. I believe it is a critical Kingdom Matter that the Church must turn its attention to in order to be delivered from the dastardly and destructive spirit of mammon that now pervades the Church. Many individuals in the Church are obsessed with the spirit of materialism, and if they continue in their ways and in giving place to the devil, what is an obsession now, will continue to escalate and take more and more ground in their heart until materialism, the love of money, will totally possess them. Some who were once bona fide believers and members of the Body of Christ, have become apostate in their heart having yielded to the allure of purely material "wealth," and as a result are already possessed by the spirit of mammon.

I believe the judgment that MUST begin with the household of God has begun, and will continue in the form of the economic collapse America and the nations of the world are facing. But, as I have written in so many words in so many of my writings, this judgment that God is bringing upon the Church precedent to the judgment He shall bring upon the world is a judgment of purification and refinement. It is a corrective and reproving judgment to purify the Lamb's Wife for the imminent return of Christ to claim His Betrothed as His Eternal Bride and Helpmate suitable to partner with Him in the judgment of the nations in the Day of His Fierce Wrath.

The love of money, or covetousness, certainly is the root of all evil, and it causes a complete breach in one’s fellow­ship with God. Jesus said, “Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions” (Lk. 12:15). As we have already seen, Paul said those who have coveted riches, often “have wandered away from the faith, and pierced themselves with many a pang” (1 Tim. 6:10). Hence, we can see that covetousness and greed can most certainly cause a believer to “wander away from the faith,” that is, become apostate subsequent to salvation.

The Consequences of Covetousness
As Jesus said, no one can successfully serve two masters, God and money. He said that if you “love,” that is, attribute your affections to and expend the vast majority of your energies pursuing, money, you in effect “hate” God. As the Apostle John put it, “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 Jn. 2:15).

“Out of touch,” irrational, and unduly harsh, these undeniably Biblical Truths are considered in this day when the pursuit of riches has come to be regarded as a wholly noble and honorable pursuit, and when Christians have become indoctrinated with the concept that materialistic obsession is even godly. Moreover, anyone who dares to preach such concepts is subjected to scorn, ridicule, and contempt. Christendom today, for the most part, has lost sight of or does not want to recognize the Truth that covet­ousness is still sin for which there is a penalty if it is not repented from. The unadulterated Truth is this: anyone who fails to repent of covetousness will ultimately end up out of fellowship with God, will be disqualified from Eternal Life, precluded from inheriting the Kingdom of God, and ban­ished from Heaven unto eternal judgment. The following scriptures trumpet forth warnings to that effect:

Or do you not know that the unrighteous SHALL NOT INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor IDOLATORS, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor THE COVETOUS, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor SWIN­DLERS, SHALL INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD. (1 Cor. 6:9,10)

For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or COVETOUS MAN, WHO IS AN IDOLATER, HAS AN INHERITANCE IN THE KING­DOM OF CHRIST AND GOD. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things THE WRATH OF GOD COMES UPON THE SONS OF DIS­OBEDIENCE. (Eph. 5:5, 6)

Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are:...IDOLATRY...of which I forewarn you just as I have forewarned you that THOSE WHO PRACTICE SUCH THINGS SHALL NOT INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD. (Gal. 5:19‑21)

But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murders and immoral persons and sorcerers and IDOLA­TERS and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. (Rev. 21:8)

Everyone should heed God’s warnings concerning the deceitfulness of riches and covetousness, including and especially believers, since it will most definitely choke the Word and prevent it from bringing forth fruit. Probably no warning in this regard is more poignant than the one Jesus issued through the medium of the parable of the rich fool:

And He said to them, “Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.” And He told them a parable, saying, “The land of a certain rich man was very productive. And he began reasoning to himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘This is what I will do; I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?’ So is the man who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” (Lk. 12:15‑21)

God called this man “a FOOL.” In his covetousness and greed he just stored up his goods, and as they increased, he merely built more barns to store up more goods. But, on the night his soul was required of him, he was spiritually bankrupt. He had stored up all his riches for himself, instead of being generous with it unto others in obedience to God. He was rich toward himself, but “not rich toward God.” God said to him, “You fool!”

The Word of God tells us to “give” (Lk. 6:38), not to “store up.” We are to be generous, giving to others who are in need and for the preaching of the Gospel. God Himself is generous, and is always giving. He gave the supreme gift of His only begotten Son, the best He had, to us for our salva­tion. A godly person, i.e., one who is like God, will also be a giving person. As a bonus, God says that whatever we give on behalf of Jesus unto the needy and for the sake of the preaching of the Gospel, will be returned to us in up to one‑hundredfold measure, NOW in this life and age, and in the age to come we will have the reward of Eternal Life (Mk. 10:29,30).

Jesus taught that the way to keep from being covetous and deluded by the deceitfulness of riches is to lay up our treasures in Heaven by giving on His behalf here on Earth. If we are covetous and greedily store up here on Earth instead, it will be constantly subjected to depletion by various forms of “thieves break(ing) in to steal” and eco­nomic modulation. If we are generous givers here on Earth, however, we will be storing up treasures in Heaven. But even greater than that, we will be demonstrating where our heart and what our “treasure” really is—things in Heaven, or things on the Earth:

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. (Mat. 6:19‑21)

Covetousness Not Exclusive to Rich
Having said all this concerning covetousness, it needs to be pointed out that there is a common misconception in this regard that covetousness is found exclusively among those who would be considered financially rich. But, that is a fallacy. You do not have to be rich to be covetous and caught up in the love of money. There are myriads with financial resources below the wealthy level who are covetous and deceived by the deceitfulness of riches. The fact is: there are many times more non‑wealthy people who harbor covetousness in their hearts than there are those who are rich and covetous.

The harsh truth is that their covetousness is often the very thing that keeps the poor reeling under the cruel curse of never‑ending poverty and financial lack. Sadly, the poor often stay poor because in their covetousness, or in some cases fear of lack, they never sow any financial seed, thereby precluding them from ever reaping a harvest. Those, on the other hand, who are generous givers, find the Law of Sowing and Reaping continually producing for them an abundant harvest that supplies their every need.

Summary
In bringing this series to a close, let me offer this summary concerning the second “thorn of worldliness.” Do not be deceived by the deceitfulness of riches. Place all your trust in God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. Riches will fail you; God will never fail you. Riches are temporal, and only indigenous to this life; Jesus Christ is the True Riches of Eternity. Do not seek riches, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these THINGS shall be added to you” (Mat. 6:33).

It seems to me that the best attitude concerning riches one can adopt is found in the Proverbs of Solomon: “Do not worry yourself to gain wealth, cease from your consideration of it”; and, “Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the good that is my portion” (Pr. 23:4; 30:8).

If we will seek the Kingdom and righteousness of God rather than riches, the Word of God will not be choked by the worldly “thorn” of “the deceitfulness of riches,” allowing it to produce the fruit of the Kingdom of God in our lives, that is, if we also remove from our lives the three thorns of worldliness Jesus warned about in the "Parable of the Sower. -- “the desires for other things.” We examine that deadly thorn in the next chapter.[end]

The above is taken from a book I published in 1984 entitled, "The Mystery of the Kingdom." Its message has turned out to be a timely prophetic message for every believer and the Church today. I urge you to read it. Click here for more information.

Idolatry of Trusting in Riches

Keep deception and lies far from me,
Give me neither poverty nor riches;
Feed me with the food that is my portion. (Prv. 30:8)

As I have been indicating in some previous posts, in many Kingdom-related matters, the difference between truth and error is excesses and extremes. Those excesses extremes can be at either end of the spectrum.

Such is the case with the real truth regarding the matter of prosperity and success versus whatever is the diametric opposite of that, which I suppose is poverty and failure. The real truth, that is, the Truth of the mind of God that is both concealed and revealed in Christ through the Spirit of Truth, lies somewhere between these opposing messages. The extremes on both sides are error and deception. We must be careful not to swerve too far to either side so as to fall into a spiritual ditch of error. There are a great number of passages of Scripture telling us how much God indeed does want us to "prosper and be in (good) health even as our soul prospers" (3 Jn. 2). But, the last part of that Scripture is the weightier and balancing part. From God's perspective, true prosperity is commensurate with soul-prosperity, and not defined by the amount of mammon, or material things, we possess. Prosperity and success, and divine healing and health, taken to extremes and taken out of context of the rest of Scripture that speaks of counterbalancing matters can become an abomination to God: "A false balance is an abomination to the LORD; but a just weight is His delight" (Prv. 11:1).

(Please read the preface on the previous post for more on this aspect.)

Before I get to the topic of this post, I feel compelled to say I truly believe that this whole matter I am discussing in these posts are far from being a mere side-bar. I feel what I am about to say is of a prophetic nature. I believe it is a critical Kingdom Matter that the Church must turn its attention to in order to be delivered from the dastardly and destructive spirit of mammon that now pervades the Church. Many individuals in the Church are obsessed with the spirit of materialism, and if they continue in their ways and in giving place to the devil, what is an obsession now, will continue to escalate and take more and more ground in their heart until materialism, the love of money, will totally possess them. Some who were once bona fide believers and members of the Body of Christ, have become apostate in their heart having yielded to the allure of purely material "wealth," and as a result are already possessed by the spirit of mammon. I believe the judgment that MUST begin with the household of God has begun, and will continue in the form of the economic collapse America and the nations of the world are facing. But, as I have written in so many words in so many of my writings, this judgment that God is bringing upon the Church precedent to the judgment He shall bring upon the world is a judgment of purification and refinement. It is a corrective and reproving judgment to purify the Lamb's Wife for the imminent return of Christ to claim His Betrothed as His Eternal Bride and Helpmate suitable to partner with Him in the judgment of the nations in the Day of His Fierce Wrath.

What I see is that there is two sides of this coin regarding this matter of God's provision for us. The focus of the previous post was what the Word of God tells us about God's desire to prosper and abundantly bless His people. Like Abraham, he has promised to not only bless us, but also make us a blessing. In this and the next post, my focus will be the abundance of Scripture that counterbalance the "prosperity" side of the same coin.

The Parable of the Sower (see, Mark 4:1-20), according to what Jesus Himself said about it, could be aptly called "The Paramount Parable." When His disciples asked Him to explain it to them, He responded, as He did on several other occasions, with seeming frustration at their spiritual dullness, saying, "Do you not understand this parable? And how will you understand all the parables?" Jesus also indicated that this parable contained the key to understanding the "Mystery of the Kingdom." That is the title of a book I wrote and published in 1984 in which I explained what the Lord showed me concerning the meaning of this Paramount Parable and the "secrets" it unveils of how to bear Kingdom Fruit as well as "hidden" principles of how the Kingdom of God operates here on Earth. The rest of this post is taken from that book. Click here to read more about the book, which is available in both e-book and print versions.

Mark 4:7,18,19
7 And other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no crop.
18 And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word,
19 and the worries of the word, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

Jesus identified in the Parable of the Sower four different categories of hearers, all of whom heard the Word, though only one responded properly and became doers of the Word, thereby producing Kingdom Fruit in their lives. As Jesus said, the Seed of the Word of God was sown on this category of hearers, which means they heard the Word, but there were also thorns growing in their lives along with the Word that eventually choked out the Seed, and thus it "yielded no crop" -- that is, it produced no Kingdom Fruit in the lives of these hearers. In His explanation to the disciples, Jesus indicated these thorns were "thorns of worldliness," and identified them as being, 1) the worries of the world, 2) the deceitfulness of riches, and 3) the desires for other things. He said these thorns of worldliness entered into these believers' lives, and choked out the Seed which was sown into their lives by the Sower (Fivefold Ministers) as the two grew together in the soil of their hearts, and prevented the Word from becoming fruitful. In the previous post we began examining one of those thorns of worldliness -- "the deceitfulness of riches." I continue that discussion by addressing the Idolatry of Trusting in Riches, taken from the book, The Mystery of the Kingdom.

Idolatry of Trusting in Riches
God says He is a "jealous God," and that we are to have no other gods before Him, and that we are not to make or serve any idols (Ex. 20:1-5). An idol, or false god, is something you attribute undue homage and affection to, or something you trust in and place your faith in and look to, to deliver you, and to help you overcome the adversities of life, and to attain unto personal desires, ambitions, and aspirations.

By that definition, money is the false god of multitudes of people in this world. This has always been true, but never more so than it is in this last day in which we live, something which was explicitly prophesied by the Spirit, "But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, LOVERS OF MONEY..." (2 Tim. 3:1,2). Money, however, is such a vain thing in which to trust. God says, "He who trusts in riches will fall" (Pr. 11:28). Riches are only temporal, they do not last forever. They can be here one day and gone the next, as the following scriptures indicate:

For riches are not forever. (Pr. 27:24);

Do not worry yourself to gain wealth, cease from your consideration of it. When you set your eyes on it, it is gone. For wealth surely makes itself wings, like an eagle that flies toward the heavens. (Pr. 23:4,5);

Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to...fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches but on God. (1 Tim. 6:17);

Let the rich man glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with a scorching wind, and withers the grass, and its flower falls off, and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed; so too the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away. (Jas. 1:10,11);

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver have rusted; and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire. (Jas. 5:1-3);

But godliness actually is a means of great gain, when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into this world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. (1 Tim. 6:6,7);

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. (Mat. 6:19)

Without realizing it, multitudes in the world today have made money their god. They trust in it to deliver them from every adversity of life, for personal validation and to give them a sense of dignity and rightness, to afford them prestige and preeminence, to garner for themselves the favor and deference society bestows upon the wealthy, and to provide them with a sense of security, satisfaction, and fulfillment. In a nutshell, people look to money and riches to give them the peace, happiness, contentment, and sense of general well-being to which people commonly aspire. It is in looking to money to supply all this, that people unconsciously make money their god, notwithstanding the adamant denials of most that they have done so in their own case.

But, it is Jehovah God who is the true Supplier of all these things, and He desires that people recognize Him as such. In fact, all these things can only be realized in their truest form through fellowship with God. To seek any other object or entity as a source of these things is idolatry, and is making a false god of that object or entity.

The love of money, or covetousness, which is idolatry, is a natural motivation of the carnal nature which is inherent within us all, however (Eph. 5:5; Gal. 5:19,20). In varying degrees, before we were saved and began renewing our minds according to the Word of God, we all trusted in money for all the things we are supposed to trust God to accomplish in our lives. Thus, most people commit their entire lives and energies in the quest to acquire more and more money, the more the better. They seem to think that the more diligent they are in the pursuit of it, the more favorable the false god of money will be to them. The more they have of it, the more it will deliver them from the adversities and tribulations of life, and fulfill the various yearnings of their heart. So they think.

How often have we all thought at one time or another in our lives, "If I can just get this one bill paid off, then I just know everything will be alright." Or, "If I can just get that new car," or "that new house," or whatever, "I just know everything will be fine, then." Or, "If I can just save up $10,000 in my savings account," or "make this one great stock purchase," or "buy this new business," or "get that new job," or "that promotion," or "that raise," -- "well, everything will be great then!"

That, my friend, like it or not, is IDOLATRY. It is placing a false trust in money. It is making money your god. It is trusting in riches, and in your own power to make wealth. But, even more than all that, such reasoning indicates you have been deceived by "the deceitfulness of riches!" The truth of the matter is that once you do get that one bill paid off, you only get more and even larger bills to contend with, and everything is still not "alright." Or, have you ever noticed, after you buy that new house or car, everything is still not "fine?" Or you save up that $10,000, or purchase those stocks, or buy that new business, or you land that new job, or get that promotion or raise in pay, and then everything is still far from being "great?" Instead you have even more problems. That’s the deceitfulness of riches; he who trusts in them is heading for a fall (Pr. 11:28).

You see, God does not want everything to be "alright" merely through the means of monetary gain and because of financial wealth. He does not want you to be trusting in money as your savior and deliverer. If you do, money is your master and god, not Him. God delights in the prosperity of His servants, but therein is the key: He wants our lives to be prosperous in every way, not through the self-glorifying means of self-achievement, but through serving Him, whereby all the glory for our prosperity is attributable to Him alone. He wants to be our total Source, our only Savior and Deliverer, our Master, and our very present Help in the time of trouble. He wants to be the object of our affection and trust.