Kingdom Matters

America Under Attack

slambert@slm.org (Dr. Steven Lambert) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 20:20:00 +0000

It was eight years ago today that the horrific events of 9-11-01 occurred. In light of that, I wanted to reprise the article I wrote the day after, because it is obvious now that what I wrote was both prescient and prophetic. I knew that day, as I watched the events unfold on television that we were witnessing the collapse, not only of the Twin Towers, but the world's economy, if not the "Fall of Babylon" prophesied in Revelation 18. Though the news commentators and pundits were unwilling to speak such things at the time, it was confirming and reaffirming to hear Alan Greenspan, the then Chairman of the Federal Reserve — the twelve banks that are the real control center of America — admitted in a recent televised interview on a CNBC progam about the 2008 global economic collapse that he too instinctively knew he was witnessing the collapse of the world economy when he flew over ground zero in a helicopter the day after to see for himself the utter devastation and ruin wreaked at the hands of few foreign terrorists. The article regarding 9-11 follows.

America Under Attack
September 11, 2001

"A Day that Will Live In Infamy"

By Steven Lambert, ThD

Dear Friends and Fellow-believers,

Regarding the tragic and incredible events of yesterday, September 11, 2001, another "day that will live in infamy," some ten years ago, the Lord gave me a prophetic dream showing me, in essence, devastation of this sort taking place specifically in NY City. He also showed me in my discussion with Him about what transpired in the vision (far more than I can disclose here), that NYC was the epicenter of the financial, communication, commercial, and international political infrastructure of America, and hence the world. In the days following, He went on to tell me that there would come a time (I believe this is the beginning of that time) when everything that we have come to rely upon as being foundational to our individual and collective lives, the "foundations" of America and the free world, would be rocked, critically wounded, and indeed, some of them fatally wounded and destroyed.

Consequently, "life" as we have come to know it in this country especially, (at the time of the fulfillment of the vision) would be "forever changed." The words that continuously reverberated in my spirit, which I knew to be the words of the Holy Spirit within, were, "Nothing will ever be the same. Nothing will ever be the same."

It was surreal for all Americans as well as people around the world to watch the events unfold on the TV screen, but especially to me personally, in that the WTC collapsing and decimation in a vital section of Manhattan was essentially a replay of what I saw in the dream. Without launching into detailed account of what the Lord has shown me concerning end time events particularly in this country, I will say that I believe these horrific acts of barbarism perpetrated against not only the bastion of freedom but also against the very precept of democracy are the beginning of a series of events that will precipitate international actions that will result in massive and wholesale global geo-political upheaval and modification; that is, "tribulation," if you will. Tribulation that will cast the entire world into unprecedented trepidation, uncertainty, and a sense of insecurity the likes of which has not been known since World War II, and in many ways greater. Modification that is absolutely necessary to protect and defend liberty and democracy against those radically diabolical elements of the world whose totally indefensible and irrational dogma, more appropriately, “doctrines of demons," make them enemies of all that is good and right. But, modification also that is required to comport the present geo-political landscape and international alliances with Biblical eschatological prediction to prepare the way for the only ultimate answer to the ancient struggle of good versus evil — the Kingdom Reign of Christ.

Nothing will ever be the same — for Americans, nor the world. Nevertheless, in many ways, into the relative immediate future, the changes that will take place in the natural, both nationally and among allies of democracy and freedom, will certainly be good and beneficial, and actually improvements to our personal and national security. However, the spiritual impact that will be realized from the ensuing global tribulation is the overriding "pot of gold" at the end of the rainbow that will manifest when the sun (really, Son) finally breaks through this dark and devastating storm sweeping through our world at the present. In short, the spiritual effect will be that many rational and common-sensed people will begin to realize as never before that the creation, including its supremely sophisticated specie, mankind, with all its intelligence and "powers," is not capable, in and of itself alone, of managing itself, but that a Superior and indeed Supreme Being, the Creator of the creation, the Originator of Life, is the only One capable of such macro-management of such a massive cosmos.

Myriads of so enlightened, in spite of their many unanswered questions concerning the seeming injustices and "mysteries" of this "life," shall begin to cast aside as irrational and inconceivable the inane notions that the cosmos with all its unfathomable intricacies could have possibly somehow "evolved" out of itself or nothing, and to call upon the Chief Architect to take control of their "world" as well as the world. Indeed, though such spiritual concepts may be extremely difficult for many spiritual "newbies" who may be reading this to comprehend or mentally ascend to, the ultimate end-result of all the "tribulations" that shall gradually transpire over the next unknown period of years will be that Jesus will be exalted and revealed as the Supreme Lord of All and the true Bride of Christ will be glorified, though as through the furnace of affliction unto purification. All of the events that will be taking place in the years ahead will have one ultimate purpose: to demonstrate that there is only ONE God, the Trinity of Divinity, and that Jesus is LORD and the ONLY name given among men by which mankind can be saved! (Acts 4:12)

Regarding the Church, the Church that Jesus is building, "purification unto glorification" will be the divinely inspired process through which it shall be taken. If the Ecclesia is to spare itself of unnecessary despair, grief, sorrow, and losses, not to mention delay in fulfillment of the plans and purposes of God which He has determined to carry out through her, as never before, then the Church MUST begin to comprehend and apprehend the strategies of God for the Church and in turn the Cosmos. The Body of Christ, and "now are we the Body of Christ," must begin to receive the instruction and commands of the Christ, the Head of the Church. The Body for far too long has been doing its own thing rather than the thing of its Head.

Moreover, the Church must begin to incorporate into its collective understanding and mindset the indisputable and immutable fact that, like it or not, we have been thrust into a WAR! An all-out, life-or-death struggle against the well-armed and -trained forces of a diabolical enemy, indeed, the father of all evil. He is not a mythical red-pajama-adorned, pitchfork-wielding, double-horned figment of religious conjuration, nor a specter of irrational cogitation and paranoia, nor a mere looming prospect. But rather, as the innumerable faceless "terrorists" hell-bent on annihilating the "great satan" we have been told for years exist around the world, and who, with these recent attacks, we now know are very REAL, so also the arch-nemesis of the Creator and thus His Creation, the fallen arch-angel, satan, is himself the consummate "terrorist."

And, the Church must quickly come to the realization, as did President Bush regarding the senseless attacks on America, that the attacks against us are not merely acts of terrorism by a terrorist. They go far beyond that. They are acts of WAR! The intent of this enemy is not merely to terrorize, but to "steal, kill, and destroy" (John 10:10). The chief enemy is not merely engaging in psychological warfare. Rather, it is shoot-to-kill WAR! The sooner we recognize this reality and respond with deadly and unrelenting force against the assailant, the fewer the casualties and the lesser the losses. Without the slightest hesitation, trepidation, and intimidation, we must aggressively engage ourselves in the warfare against the forces of the enemy in which we have been conscripted, utilizing "the weapons of OUR warfare (which) are not of the flesh but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses (strongholds)" (2 Cor. 10:4, emphasis, italics added by author), remembering at all times, though, that the real enemy is not flesh and blood, that is, people, but the true enemy behind all the warfare waged against us in the natural is a spiritual enemy, a spirit-being, along with unnumbered hordes of diabolical spirit-being cohorts:

"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." Eph. 6:12

There is one other critical word of advisement to the Church that it must begin to hear and heed. The Body of Christ must begin to understand and incorporate into its collective psyche and strategies that the Head does nothing without doing it through the Body. Christ is the Head; we are His Body. The perhaps enigmatic Divine Choice is, rather than by-pass the betrothed Bride, to deputize Her and to work through Her to implement every aspect of Divine plans and purposes. Though the Church assuredly is the Family of God endowed with and the conduit of the Agape-Love of God, it is also the Army of God equipped with the weapons of spiritual warfare and enjoined by God as His soldiers to carry out His strategic battle plans against the megalomaniac and master-mind behind all evil perpetrated upon the Earth (cf, Eph. 6:11). We are the Army of God, and not a bunch of rag-tag, undisciplined, untrained, independent commandos, without leadership or direction. No! Just as American armed forces are the most highly trained, skilled, armed, commanded, and lethal in the world, so also is the spiritual armed forces of God! Though many segments of the Church-at-large, do not understand this, nor even the imperativeness of it, it is nonetheless true. As outlandish as it may sound to some, no true believer is called to be a pacifist. Rather, every Christian is called and anointed to be a spiritual WARRIOR!

Indisputably, the foundation of any armed forces is its leadership. An army, as any enterprise, is only as effective as its leadership. No military can function or succeed, and therefore, survive, without highly skilled, knowledgeable, wise, tested and proven, and seasoned leadership. Likewise, the leadership of God’s military is its foundation. God Himself unequivocally and categorically states in His Word that the foundation of the Church is the apostles and prophets (Eph. 2:20).¹

God Himself has Hand-chosen, commissioned, extraordinarily anointed, thoroughly equipped, and specially and uniquely prepared an extensive corps of military leadership at every level of command to lead His Army in ferocious, unfailing, undefeatable, and Divinely designed strategic battle plans that in the end will thoroughly and finally vanquish the unseen forces of the ancient foe, the devil. The Church must begin to recognize, appropriately respect, and receive these leaders God has appointed and consigned with the unenviable and inglorious task of leadership in His military. In the wars that lie ahead, God will be communicating His Divine Directives through His appointed hierarchy of leadership, and the bona fide, Spirit-trained and -led soldiers of His Army will operate in total order, discipline, and obedience:

JOEL 2:4-8
4 Their appearance is like the appearance of horses; And like war horses, so they run.
5 With a noise as of chariots They leap on the tops of the mountains,
Like the crackling of a flame of fire consuming the stubble, Like a mighty people arranged for battle.
6 Before them the people are in anguish; All faces turn pale.
7 They run like mighty men, They climb the wall like soldiers; And they each march in line, Nor do they deviate from their paths.
8 They do not crowd each other, They march everyone in his path; When they burst through the defenses, They do not break ranks.²

America is under siege, and is no longer in peacetime, but rather war. Wartime brings with it constraints upon freedom necessary to preserve freedom and protect the citizenry at-large. Certain civil liberties in place during peacetime of necessity must be sacrificed for purposes of the greater good during wartime. Pacifism must give way to protectionism and the counter-aggression it requires. As a US Army Vietnam War Era veteran, I can tell you that war certainly is no game, but as in sports, the best defense is an overwhelming offense. In war, stealthy and preemptive strikes of overpowering force are absolutely necessary in order to swiftly vanquish the enemy, and thereby limit casualties. As with Desert Storm, under the direction of our current President's father, George Herbert Walker Bush, we must act suddenly, swiftly, decisively, and definitively. Moreover, if our armed forces and those of our allies are to win for us a quick and decisive victory, Americans must immediately acquire a political appetite for expanded intelligence gathering in groups and nations that pose a threat to American security as well as the absolutely necessary preemptive aggressive action against known potential terrorists that our intelligence agencies identify.

Likewise, the Church must draw the parallels of these principles regarding war in the natural and apply them to the war in which we have been engaged for eons against the real enemy behind all evil and hatred in the world. Believers must begin to develop an appetite for the spiritual intelligence and guidance of its corporate intelligence agents, the prophets, as well as give them the funding necessary for them to do their job, a la the U.S. Congress and our national intelligence agencies. The Body of Christ, that is, the Army of God, must also begin to follow the commands and directives of its preeminent spiritual military leaders, the apostles, though the wartime strategies they propose, in comparison to peacetime strategies, so to speak, the Church has been engaging for centuries, may seem to some to be radical, overly aggressive, mystical, and even irrational, at times.

Let us rise up, Saints of God, out of our arrogance and spiritual lethargy into which we have been allured by the accoutrements and privileges of our enormous and unprecedented per capita wealth in this country. Let us never forget that the love of money is the root of all evil. First comes the natural, then comes the spiritual (1 Cor. 15:46). Events taking place in the natural realm are often a reflection and even forewarning of what is or is about to happen in the spiritual realm. Let US, the Body of Christ, not wait for the terrorist attacks of the arch-terrorist, satan, to awaken us out of our arrogance and complacency.

Let us rise up now, listen to the reports of terrorists hell-bent on bringing destruction and devastation to our lives we have already received from the Supreme CIA, the Holy Spirit, which are published in the Word of God, and let us put on the full armor of God, go into battle alert, and launch a full-scale preemptive attack of our own against the forces of the enemy. For, we have one distinct advantage over our country's government right now, which is that we know without any doubt who our enemy is, for God has declared, "Your adversary, the DEVIL, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour" (1 Pet 5:8). So, we know that like it or not we HAVE an adversary, who is the ultimate terrorist, who incessantly is seeking an opportunity to devour and destroy us. And, the ensuing verse tells us we must OFFENSIVELY "RESIST him, firm in your faith." As America must identify, root out, and vanquish those that would choose to be our adversaries, lest we be destroyed, so also believers must engage in offensive warfare against our adversary, lest we too as individuals be irreparably destroyed.

Regarding America, America is a Divinely chosen and blessed country. For hour after hour, the eyes of America were riveted on our television screens and the live images of the horrifying events and resulting devastation transpiring within the infamous and seemingly immutable Manhattan Island skyline the news organizations broadcasted. Looming somewhat inconspicuously but poignantly in the foreground of the aerial camera shots of New York Harbor, was the comparatively tiny, Ellis Island, unscathed by the dastardly acts of terrorism perpetrated only a short distance across the Harbor. There proudly "stands a Lady with her torch held toward the sky," the Statue of Liberty, the universally recognized monument of liberty and democracy. Those profound images, which shall be forever etched upon our minds, perfectly symbolize the American spirit that shouts forth from our collective rooftop that though you lay siege to our institutions and the buildings that house them, the mere physical, outer elements of our nation and society, nevertheless, no one — no individual, no group, no band of terrorists, no foreign or domestic power — can destroy the American SPIRIT, the HEART, the internal elements, of this "one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all" — the greatest nation in the world!

Make no mistake about it, America, despite its shortcomings and imperfections, is still the greatest nation on the face of the Earth, and indeed in the history of the world. And we can know with complete certainty, that God has heard and answered the simple prayer uttered countless times by millions upon millions of ordinary citizens, performers, speakers, bards, and politicians, "God bless America!"

Though perhaps humbled and chastened in a variety of ways, America will survive, will prevail against all aggression, will rebound, will rebuild, will prosper, will coalesce, and will as a nation return to God, to be used by God as primary base from which "this gospel of the kingdom (of Christ) shall be preached in the WHOLE world for a witness to ALL the NATIONS" (Mat. 24:14, emphasis, italics added by author).

Look up, all ye that would believe upon the one and only Savior of mankind, for your redemption draweth nigh!

Many Blessings,

Dr. Steven Lambert

¹ For our purposes here, we must swiftly and completely debunk the cessation theories with the common sense assertion that if there is a viable, that is, living, Church today, comprised of "living stones," and no true believer would deny there is, then there must of necessity be a viable, that is, presently living, not ceased or deceased, foundation to that Church. This fact of living, functioning apostles and prophets today, is indisputably corroborated by First Corinthians 12:28, in which the Spirit of God testifies that GOD HAS (present continuous tense; not "did") SET (immutably fixed) in the CHURCH first apostles, second prophets." Inherent in this passage is the truth that as long as the Church exists God is continuously setting into the Church apostles and prophets as its primary leaders.

² The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, (La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation) 1996.

READ: The Evil Face of Our Adversary, another article regarding the Attack on America, with incredible photographs showing the face of the devil in the explosions of the World Trade Center!

The Children's Bread

slambert@slm.org (Dr. Steven Lambert) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:57:00 +0000

The Great Commission:
And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned. These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover." (Mk. 16:15-18)

According to what Jesus said, if you are a believer, you should be casting out demons! That's what believers do: cast out demons. Notice also it was the very first thing He addressed in what has been called, "The Great Commission!" While it is indeed the Great Commission to all the church, regardless of denomination, affiliation, or creed, yet it is the most disobeyed command Jesus gave.

The number five in the Bible symbolizes grace or another connotation of the Greek word, charis, which is giftings. It is no accident or coincidence that The Great Commission consists of five tenets, all of which delineate supernatural acts that believers are called and commissioned to perform through the power of the Holy Spirit and through the auspices of the authority Jesus relegated to the Church prior to His ascension into Heaven. The fact that there are five tenets indicates that the believer has been empowered and commissioned by the Spirit to perform them by the grace and supernatural giftings of God.

Jesus gave The Great Commission to the Church to be obeyed, yet it is so ignored and disobeyed by churches that it has been called "The Great Omission." It was not given merely to the leaders of the Church, but to believers of the Church. Any believer who is not performing these tenets of The Great Commission is, at the very minimum, a disobedient believer. My personal interpretation is that anyone who is not performing these acts is not a believer at all, for Jesus said this is what believers do; operating in these giftings to perform these acts is what defines a believer. At the very least, believers who are not obeying The Great Commission are unbelieving believers, if there is such a thing. Faith without works is dead; these works of The Great Commission are the works of a believer. James said, no one is saved by their works, but believers demonstrate their faith by their works.

The so-called "eleventh commandment," or Jesus' commandment, is Love—to love one another, as He loved us. Jesus also said that if we love Him we will keep is commandments. Setting the captives free IS love! God so loved the world that He gave or sent His only begotten Son, who demonstrated the ultimate love by performing the ultimate sacrifice, laying down His life, in obedience to the only commandment God gave Him when He sent Him to earth to become our kinsmen redeemer. Had the Father not given Him that commandment that He could lay down His life, He could have never died for the sins of the world—the ultimate act of ultimate love.

But, during His earthly ministry, one of the first and certainly foremost acts Jesus performed that demonstrated not only His compassion (love), but also His authority, which is rooted in love. Someone has calculated that two-thirds of Jesus' fleshly ministry as recorded in the Gospels consisted of casting out demons.

John revealed that the primary purpose of the manifestation of the first-born Son of God on earth was "that He might destroy the works of the devil" (1 Jn. 3:8). Indeed, every time Jesus cast out a devil or multiple devils, or healed someone, or raised the dead, He was destroying the works of the devil, for ultimately it is the devil's works that is behind all diseases, disorders, and conditions contrary to homeostasis—psychological and physiological.

Peter, speaking by the Spirit concerning "the thing which took place throughout all Judea, starting in Galilee, after the baptism which John proclaimed" (repentance):

"How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good, and HEALING all who were oppressed by the devil; for God was with Him." (Ac. 10:38)

Notice that in every case where healing took place through the ministry of Jesus, it was the devil who was causing the oppression, which stands to reason in so many ways. In healing those who were oppressed by the devil, Jesus was "doing good" and "undoing" or destroying the works of the devil. In essence, He was doing what He was sent to do—"reverse the curse" that the injection of sin into the mainstream of mankind had produced! When we as believers go forth following the model of Jesus' ministry and doing the works that He did and even greater works, we too are "doing good" for God is also with us! If you want to do good as Jesus did, you also need to start casting out and doing spiritual warfare against demons and thereby reverse the curse sin has brought upon mankind. Through the Cross of Christ and His shed innocent blood, we now have that right, authority, and power over all the works of the devil!

Then, when He called and commissioned the original apostles, He sent them out two by two—BEFORE the cross (salvation) and BEFORE the outpouring of the Spirit in the form of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit (power)—and empowered them with a two-fold commandment: to CAST OUT DEMONS and to HEAL THE SICK. The fact that these disciples were empowered to both cast out demons and heal the sick BEFORE they were even saved and BEFORE they were baptized in the Holy Spirit is a fact that will really mess up your preconceived doctrines and dogmas! It also demonstrates the efficacy of Jesus' authority on earth, for it was solely on the basis of Jesus' authority that the disciples were able to indeed do what Jesus sent them forth to do—heal the sick and cast out demons. That being so, how much more authority do believers AFTER the Cross and Pentecost have authority over the same forces. Yet, the vast majority of believers on the planet have no idea that this authority is available to them and therefore are not operating in it to do their part in "destroying the works of the devil."

In the incident involving the Syrophoenician or Canaanite woman who came to Jesus imploring Him to cast the demon out of her daughter (Mat. 15:22-28), Jesus said deliverance is "the children's bread," meaning the children of the Kingdom. Jesus is the ultimate deliverer. Thus, to deny, refuse, or reject the matter of deliverance as well as deliverance itself is to deny, refuse, and reject Jesus Himself as well as the provision He has provided to do warfare against the forces and effects of the devil on earth. That may sound radical, but it is nonetheless the irrefutable facts.

In Biblical parlance, "bread" is a symbol of required sustenance. The term "bread" is a metonymn symbolizing more than cooked dough, but it symbolizes the larger issue of "food." Food is not optional for human sustenance, but a requirement. God has designed the human body to require the intake of food in order to survive and thrive. For this reason, we can know with certainty that eating disorders are at bottom, demonic, the goal of which is one of the tri-fold purposes of Satan, to kill. Modern fixations with a myriad of new-fangled diets is a form of eating disorder.

But, much worse, the Body of Christ as a whole has a spiritual eating disorder—"spiritual anorexia"—because it refuses to eat and is repulsed by the spiritual bread—deliverance—Jesus has provided, not only for our own needs but also the needs of multitudes around us! Deliverance is the Children's Bread!

Now this matter gets very interesting, for which reason I cannot resist the temptation to follow briefly an obscure but pertinent tangent here. The Apostle Paul by inspiration of the Spirit, incredibly, predicted that one of the prevalent issues that would be extant during the last days apostasy would be an advocating of "abstaining from foods, which GOD HAS CREATED to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the Truth," and that these vain philosophies would be promulgated by apostate people who are influenced by "deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron." In other words, this seemingly endless range of diets and health-food crazes that has become a cottage industry are not inspired by God at all, but rather are demonically inspired, and according to this passage are by definition a form of eating disorder, in that they contravene God's design regarding gratefully partaking of the vast array of "foods" God placed on this planet for man's provision and sustenance.

This matter alone is an area in which a multitude of people, professing believers and non, are in great need of deliverance. In my 34 years of deliverance ministry there have been hundreds who have been set free from their chains of bondage to eating disorders and the "doctrines of demons" related to an obsession with "abstaining from foods," or diets that are actually demonic in origin. Diet demons, many will find incredible, are actually of the category of religious spirits. That's the reason that so many false religions or subcultures of false religions have special diets associated with them. The root of religious spirits is self-righteousness, which explains why invariably those who are obsessed with "health diets" display such an overt pride about their diet and attempt to evangelize everyone they come into contact with to get on the diet they're on and to read the books they've read extolling the excellency of the fad diet they are on. I don't know when believers are going to understand that it really is the Truth that the human body, as the Bible says, is "fearfully and wonderfully made!" It's made to work! And it will work, if we don't abuse it and do things that counteract the way it was designed to work.

In the model prayer He gave the disciples in response to their request for Him to teach them how to pray (commonly known as "The Lord's Prayer"), Jesus taught all disciples in all times to pray daily requesting the Father provide "our daily bread," which means far more than just the physical sustenance we need for each day, but also the spiritual bread, or food or provision, we need to sustain us that day.

Jesus also told us we cannot live on physical bread alone, but that we also need the sustenance of spiritual bread, which is every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, in order to be able to live the life of the Kingdom.

In all of this, God is speaking to believers concerning the requisite for deliverance. That's right—requisite! Deliverance is not an option, but a requisite—for ALL believers! There are two kinds of people in this world: those who need deliverance, and those who are lying and too proud to admit their need!

Jesus declared He was the true "manna from heaven," or "the bread of life," which the Father gave out of Heaven to give life to the world (Jn. 6:24-35). Jesus referred to Himself as the spiritual bread or sustenance during "the last supper" when He passed around unleavened bread which He had broken and told the disciples, "Take, eat, this is My body which is given for you" (comp., Mat. 26:26-29; Lk. 22:19), meaning that that this loaf of bread respresented His body which would be broken and crushed (symbolized by chewing with teeth) for you, which, of course, by extension, meant all disciples of all times.

If you are a Child of God, Jesus said, Deliverance is for YOU! He said deliverance is the "Children's Bread!"

I strongly urge you to listen to this short message, Deliverance—The Children's Bread:

For more information about deliverance, I recommend you download the simple and easy-to-read ebook, Deliverance From Demonic Powers at: DeliveranceNow.Com

If you or someone you know needs deliverance, check out DeliveranceNow.Com.

The Purview of Apostolic Authority

slambert@slm.org (Dr. Steven Lambert) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 23:17:00 +0000

Not long ago, I received an email from a subscriber who was asking me for answers to some questions he had concerning some troubling issues related to the nascent apostolic renewal. It was not until I was finishing the last paragraph of my response that I heard the Spirit tell me to post my answer to the SLM website, because it would also help others who have had similar thoughts and questions. Just bear in mind as you read my response, that this is not intended to be a theological treatise or comprehensive exposition on the matter of the apostolic or even this aspect of it, but rather I offer it to you as just one tiny little patch of the quilt the Spirit is weaving on the matter at this time in the Church..."line upon line, precept upon precept, a little here, a little there."

Question:

I hear a lot concerning "apostolic authority." What does apostolic authority mean? I have known apostles who march into churches and tell the pastor he has to submit to them because of apostolic authority or they will ask the pastor, who is your apostle? Does the apostle have authority over the pastor in the local church? Help!!

Reply:

I will try to give you a relatively succinct answer to a rather complex matter, without fleshing it out much. I will answer the first question in what follows. The last question, which is the essence of what you are asking, I will answer directly first: No, an apostle does not have authority over the leadership of local churches of which he is not a part and is not esteemed as the "set man" of that assembly merely by virtue of some perceived "authority" inherent in the title of "Apostle." Indeed, a true God-anointed, God-appointed, Spirit-trained apostle would never even THINK of such a thing.

Unfortunately, the kind of attitudes you describe represent what "Apostolic Authority" means to many misinformed and misguided people. A major problem in dealing with the matter of local church government, on the backdrop of the renewed awareness concerning Fivefold Ministry and the restoration of the Apostolic and Prophetic offices, in particular, is that while they are related, they are not the same, and the terminology we have been using regarding ministry offices or positions in the church has been contrary to Scripture.

Namely, in the last hundred years or so, predominantly, the Church has been using the term "Pastor" to refer to the chief or top leader in the local church, despite the fact that government, i.e., "ruling," is not included in the office of the pastor, per se, as delineated in Scripture. The Bible is clear that "elders...rule" (1 Tim. 5:17, et al.). The local church is to be governed by a presbytery of elders (plural). However, here again most local churches have had that wrong as well, as to who elders are, especially denominational churches. According to the preponderance of Scripture, the eldership of a local church should be comprised of those who God has appointed to Fivefold Ministry Offices (Eph. 4:11), which appointment is attested by the anointing (spiritual gifting) inherent in those offices. And, among the Fivefold Ministry Office, those functioning in the apostolic, prophetic, and teaching should be regarded as preeminent in the government of the church (1 Cor. 12:28).

This picture becomes clear when the entire mosaic of Scripture is put together rightly ("rightly dividing the Word of Truth" [2 Tim. 2:15]), which is too complex and expansive of a matter for us to deal with here, but I will offer the following. Jesus chose Twelve of His disciples, and appointed (named) them "Apostles" (Mat. 10:1-5). These Apostles of the Lamb were His chief delegates, surrogates, or representatives in the Early Church following Jesus' ascension. This set the precedent of Apostolic Appointment.

Additionally, 1 Cor. 12:28 clearly states the order of preeminence of ministerial authority and government in the local church: "And God as set in the CHURCH, FIRST Apostles, SECOND Prophets, THIRD teachers...." Notice that the pastoral office is not mentioned in this verse, per se. In fact the word "pastor" (poimen) only occurs once in the entire N.T., which is in Ephesians 4:11. So, using Scripture as the sole precedent and paradigm (and this order is clearly further corroborated throughout the N.T.), the office of apostle is unequivocally the preeminent ministry office, functionally speaking, with prophets and teachers respectively following next in succession. The Greek word in this verse translated "first" is the word "proton," which connotes, first in time, first in order, first in rank, first in function, first in priority. (Now, while I fully realize that such teaching is controversial to those unfamiliar with it, exegetical development of these concepts is simply beyond the parameters of this article. Though, they are developed in several of my books and will be addressed further in forthcoming books.)

Now, the problem is, since the church fell into apostasy in the third and fourth centuries, it has not been recognizing these offices, and erroneous cessation theories purporting that the apostolic and prophetic offices ceased with the death of the Apostles of the Lamb have been prevalent, especially in mainline denominational doctrine. And then, somewhere along the line, primarily, as I said, within the last hundred years or so, local churches began calling the chief minister "the pastor," even though that office, according to Scripture, does not entail government, per se.

But, the Scriptural pattern is that there is a "set man" (Num. 27:15-23) whom God recognizes and has appointed as the chief leader or elder in a local church. Functionally, this person is actually a "local apostle," according to the Scriptural pattern, and should possess and demonstrate the giftings or anointing of an apostle, which are the entire range of the Fivefold Ministry offices. This man is esteemed by the other elders as a "chief among equals," as was Peter among the Twelve, as was James in the Jerusalem Church and as the presiding elder at the Jerusalem Council (Ac. 15), as was John over the churches of Asia Minor in the latter part of his ministry, and as was Paul over the churches he founded, or to whom he became the spiritual father, for example.

However, "Apostolic Authority" is intrinsically parochial; that is to say, limited, to the particular local church(es) where God has established the apostle relationally—usually churches which they have had a part in founding, or existing churches that voluntarily have placed themselves under the leadership of an apostle who has become a "spiritual father" to those people and its leadership. Thus, "Apostolic Authority" is decidedly not some sort of automatic universal authority inuring to an apostle by virtue of the title of apostle. Morever, legitimate "Apostolic Authority" is never organizational, but rather is always relational. And it is vital to remember that all relationships among Fivefold Ministers are horizontal, not vertical. All Fivefold Ministers are peers with different functions, giftings, anointings, and callings. None is more important than another, or superior or inferior to another.

The church is the family extended and the family is the church in miniscule; thus, the principles of governance are the same for both (cf, Eph. 5:22-33). The family has ONE head — the husband/father (male). While a man is the husband/father of his OWN HOUSEHOLD, his authority is limited to that one household; his title/office of husband/father does not mean that he is the husband/father of any other household, and indeed he would be a trespasser and unlawful intruder if he tried to assert his husband/father authority over any other household. In fact, God's Word expressly addressed that scenario through the writings of the Apostle Paul, dealing with the unlawful actions of deceived deceivers who were attempting to do that very thing in the Early Church:

For among them are those who worm their way into homes {households, NAS} and captivate silly and weak-natured and spiritually-dwarfed women, loaded down with [the burden of their] sins, [and easily] swayed and led away by various evil desires and seductive impulses. (2 Tim. 3:6; AB)

So, in the circumstance today in the local churches, regardless of what term is used to refer to him, the local church has a "set man" who presides as the chief leader, rightly so, because he has been so anointed and "set in" to that place of authority by God. Government and leadership of the local church is not a matter of titles, ascendancy, and authority, but of function, servitude, and esteem.When multiple Fivefold ministers are laboring together to provide pilotage (leadership) to a local church, the proper Spirit-inspired attitude should be to regard one another as co-equals ministerially and functionally, though there is one among them who is esteemed as being the "leader of the leaders," a la James in Jerusalem. Their goal as leaders should be to ascertain the "consensus of the Spirit"; in other words, to reach unanimity based on what the Spirit is speaking to them individually yet collectively. "It seemed good to us and to the Holy Spirit...." "WE have the mind of Christ." Christ reveals His full "mind," counsel, to a plurality of elders, not a solitary leader. The notion that God speaks the entire vision and direction for a church to a single "vision-holder" is nonsense, unbiblical, and the height of hubris. I wouldn't follow someone across the street who said he had no need for the counsel and consensus of other leaders. Apostleship is anything but autocracy.

Governmental AUTHORITY is limited to the role of leadership of the local church, and is not personal authority (i.e., authority over people), but authority to provide spiritual impartation as well as "pilotage" to the church and its affairs. Beyond the local church, there is no "authority" among ministers — Jesus told the apostles they were "all on the same level as brothers" (Mat. 23:8, LB), meaning they were co-equals. Thus, there is no ascending authority structure, or rank system, or "chain-of-command" among Fivefold Ministers, that is to say, no one of the ministry offices has authority or ascendancy over another, as purported by the erroneous concept of "positional authority.") In other words, the premise is not that apostles are over prophets, prophets over evangelists, and so on, as if there were "rank" inherent in the the Fivefold Ministry Offices. That's just not the way it works.

Though, clearly, as mentioned earlier, there is a preeminence among the Fivefold Ministry Gifts in terms of FUNCTION and ROLE — its governmental role, in particular. Governmentally and functionally speaking, the apostolic function is first, or preeminent, followed by the prophetic, and then the teaching function (1 Cor. 12:28). Among those functioning in the Fivefold Ministry offices, there is to be no envy, competition, or jockeying for position, but a faithful and willing subjection to the Scripturally-revealed Kingdom order. The commanders of God’s Army understand authority, march in line, do not deviate from their assigned lanes of function, and do not break ranks (Joel 2:7,8).

Nevertheless, there is, however, a deference, among Fivefold Ministers that is based entirely on earned ESTEEM, not any perceived or ostensible "authority." Such esteem and deference toward proven and attested senior ministers, wherein believers, including ministers, esteem highly certain other ministers for the spiritual giftings, wisdom, leadership acumen, they demonstrate, is proper, appropriate, and Scriptural:

"But we request of you brethren, that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you, and have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction (lit., admonition, warning, correction) and that you ESTEEM THEM HIGHLY IN LOVE because of their work."

----------------------
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The Vision of Obadiah

slambert@slm.org (Dr. Steven Lambert) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 13:04:00 +0000

Obadiah 1-21
1 The vision of Obadiah.
Thus says the Lord God concerning Edom—
We have heard a report from the Lord,
And an envoy has been sent among the nations saying,
“Arise and let us go against her for battle”—
2 “Behold, I will make you small among the nations;
You are greatly despised.
3 “The arrogance of your heart has deceived you,
You who live in the clefts of the rock,
In the loftiness of your dwelling place,
Who say in your heart,
‘Who will bring me down to earth?’
4 “Though you build high like the eagle,
Though you set your nest among the stars,
From there I will bring you down,” declares the Lord.
5 “If thieves came to you,
If robbers by night—
O how you will be ruined!—
Would they not steal only until they had enough?
If grape gatherers came to you,
Would they not leave some gleanings?
6 “O how Esau will be ransacked,
And his hidden treasures searched out!
7 “All the men allied with you
Will send you forth to the border,
And the men at peace with you
Will deceive you and overpower you.
They who eat your bread
Will set an ambush for you.
(There is no understanding in him.)
8 “Will I not on that day,” declares the Lord,
“Destroy wise men from Edom
And understanding from the mountain of Esau?
9 “Then your mighty men will be dismayed, O Teman,
So that everyone may be cut off from the mountain of Esau by slaughter.
10 “Because of violence to your brother Jacob,
You will be covered with shame,
And you will be cut off forever.
11 “On the day that you stood aloof,
On the day that strangers carried off his wealth,
And foreigners entered his gate
And cast lots for Jerusalem—
You too were as one of them.
12 “Do not gloat over your brother’s day,
The day of his misfortune.
And do not rejoice over the sons of Judah
In the day of their destruction;
Yes, do not boast
In the day of their distress.
13 “Do not enter the gate of My people
In the day of their disaster.
Yes, you, do not gloat over their calamity
In the day of their disaster.
And do not loot their wealth
In the day of their disaster.
14 “Do not stand at the fork of the road
To cut down their fugitives;
And do not imprison their survivors
In the day of their distress.
15 “For the day of the Lord draws near on all the nations.
As you have done, it will be done to you.
Your dealings will return on your own head.
16 “Because just as you drank on My holy mountain,
All the nations will drink continually.
They will drink and swallow
And become as if they had never existed.
17 “But on Mount Zion there will be those who escape,
And it will be holy.
And the house of Jacob will possess their possessions.
18 “Then the house of Jacob will be a fire
And the house of Joseph a flame;
But the house of Esau will be as stubble.
And they will set them on fire and consume them,
So that there will be no survivor of the house of Esau,”
For the Lord has spoken.
19 Then those of the Negev will possess the mountain of Esau,
And those of the Shephelah the Philistine plain;
Also, possess the territory of Ephraim and the territory of Samaria,
And Benjamin will possess Gilead.
20 And the exiles of this host of the sons of Israel,
Who are among the Canaanites as far as Zarephath,
And the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad
Will possess the cities of the Negev.
21 The deliverers will ascend Mount Zion
To judge the mountain of Esau,
And the kingdom will be the Lord’s.

The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, (La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation) 1996.

The Passing of the Passe' in 2009

slambert@slm.org (Dr. Steven Lambert) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 16:17:00 +0000

Among the things this earthen vessel hears the Lord Jesus Christ saying in 2009 to the Remnant Church He is building is:

"The 'former things' have come to pass, and indeed have now passed. This is necessary in order that 'new things' be ushered into your individual and collective lives. Whirlwinds of wholesale, seemingly radical change are now whirling. Everything is being shaken, in order that the things that remain be only authentic Kingdom things. The new things that are coming and have come are a passageway of promotion unto a higher dimension of the Spirit into which I am leading you. The challenges before you demand that you walk in a higher dimension of the Spirit in order to meet and resolve them. So also the trials, troubles, and tribulations ahead shall drive you deeper into the Kingdom and require you to walk in greater comportment with the Order of the Kingdom of Heaven in order to overcome them. There is an order and structure of the Kingdom you must begin to apprehend, comprehend, and implement through intense personal prayer. Ask of Me and it shall be given unto you. Seek Me and you shall find Me. Knock and the Door unto this new and higher dimension of the Kingdom shall be opened unto you. Remember, I AM the Door! As you seek ME in greater intensity and intimacy than ever before, you shall find Me in this hour. Draw nearer to Me and I will draw nearer to you. What I speak to you will be whispered in your ear as of a still, small voice, so you must draw nearer to Me in greater intimacy as did John who laid His head upon my breast to not only hear with his ears but to feel the reverberation of My Words and Heartbeat. Many shall begin to hear anew and get in sync with my very Heartbeat this year as you dine with Me in greater intimacy of the Spirit. It is then incumbent upon you to 'Shout from the housetops' what you hear whispered in your ear and what reverberates in your heart!"

(This post is the second part of the message, 2009 -- A Year of Changing Paradigms!)

Isaiah 42:9
Behold, the former things have come to pass,
Now I declare new things;
Before they spring forth I proclaim them to you.

Isaiah 43:18,19
Do not call to mind the former things,
Or ponder things of the past.
Behold, I will do something new,
Now it will spring forth;
Will you not be aware of it?
I will even make a roadway in the wilderness,
Rivers in the desert.

There are two vital truths we need to extract from these passages of Scripture regarding "the former things." The first and most obvious is that the things that used to be, "the things of the past," are now completed and are now passed, which means they are passe'. That is to say, they are history. In speaking of someone who has died, we use the euphemism that they “passed away.” That is precisely how God wants us to regard the modus operandi, or ways of operating or doing things, that are of the past — as “the former things” — particularly at those junctures when He begins announcing, “Now I declare new things! Behold, I will do something new, now it will spring forth!” And this can apply either to individual believers or the collective church. God is at those times acting as a spiritual attending physician, pronouncing "the former things" dead, deceased. Yet, at the same time He is also acting as a spiritual obstetrician, delivering the newborn, "the new thing" that God is birthing, which will replace the former or passe' thing.

Simultaneously, at that juncture, we have the stark dichotomy of the lifeless corpse of the deceased, whose heart has ceased to pump the warm blood of life, and has already begun to grow cold and to undergo the death and decay process, and at the same time we have the vibrant embodiment of new hope and all the effects of new life surging through the veins and arteries of the newborn, the new thing. The new thing has indeed sprung forth and we cannot help but be aware of it. Its cries and whines demanding our attention ensure that we are aware of it.

The only thing we can do with the deceased at that point is embalm and bury it. Otherwise, all we’d be doing is propping up a lifeless corpse merely for appearance sake or for the sake of our emotional well-being. Soon, like it or not, we must come to grips with the cold reality that the former things have passed away — they’re dead, deceased, departed — and no matter how much we would wish it so, they are not going to be revived. We must begin to grasp and deal with the immutable fact that they're simply not coming back. Their span of existence on this earth, whether it be "the former things" — scenarios, circumstances, methods, paradigms — or people we've known or loved has concluded.

Another of the things I foresee transpiring in 2009 both in the church and in the national and even international political scene is a large scale "changing of the guard" with respect to leadership. The fact that this is an "inaugural" and "transition" year in terms of executive political leadership in this nation, is reflective of the fact that it shall likewise be an "inaugural" and "transition" year in the Spirit with regards to the Remnant Church. Much of that changing of the guard will be as a result of death of a significant number of existing and former leaders who continue to exert de facto influence in one form or another over the status quo and current systems of governance. In many cases this will be God's sovereign removal of impediments and hindrances to advancement and the fulfillment of His purposes and plans. In some of these cases it will be the removal of overt evil influences, and in others the removal of passe' influences. In yet other cases, it shall simply be that some have "finished their course" and their work on Earth is finished, and God in His infinite Wisdom will call some Home to enter into their eternal reward. In the aftermath of the loss of loved ones, when the last note of their life has been played, we must all come to deal with the truth that cessation of life is both an integral and inextricable part of life. In those times, we must hearken unto and take solace in the Divine Wisdom that —

There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven — a time to give birth, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot what is planted...a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance. (Ecc. 3:1-4)

Then, at some point, the sooner the better, like David with the loss of his infant son, when cessation of life has come, we must cease mourning over the deceased, wash our face, and rejoice in the God of Life who always gives a Solomon, in one form or another, to replace the deceased.

Then, when the last trump has sounded separately for one of "His Godly Ones," we must allow death to be swallowed up in victory (1 Cor. 15:55), and recognize it as transition rather than tragedy! It's only a cessation of life in this here and now temporal realm, but not in the there and then eternal realm, for in that realm there is no death, but only life eternal; there is no sorrow or mourning, but only joy and celebration; there is no crying or pain, but only laughter and peace.

When the passing from the temporal to the eternal has transpired with finality, rather than mourn interminably, we must commit our attention and energy to the newborn, the "new thing," that has been birthed and is alive and has not departed but is present, for it is now our progeny, our seed, the means God has ordained for producing our future posterity. At that point, there really is no choice; life cannot be produced by the dead. Only living things can engender living things. Dead things — that which has passed away, passe' things — cannot produce anything, for they are impotent, barren, lifeless.

Whenever God takes you into a new thing, there’s always an old thing to leave behind — an entire set of circumstances and settings, trappings, systems, models, methods — that have exhausted their usefulness, are now outmoded and obsolete, and will not be useful in the new thing, i.e., the new phase, the new paradigm, the new dimension.

Unfortunately, sometimes that which must be left behind also includes people, relationships (I speak not of the departed here, but cessation of relationships with the living). Some just will not or cannot make the trip, for various reasons. Sometimes cessation of relationships is necessary for us, the person moving on, because we need a new and different kind of provision in the new phase that those relationships simply cannot provide, and sometimes it is because WE are a new provision to the new relationships that are formed in the new phase. Yet other times it is because of issues in the lives of the former phase people that prevent them from properly relating to us in the new phase. But, unfortunately, parting company with people who are incongruous and inharmonious with the new phase God is taking you into is part of the process of pursuit of God and His plans and purposes. Moving into new dimensions, of necessity, always entails the founding and forging of new relationships, and a forgetting of what lies behind in order to reach forward to what lies ahead (Plp. 3:13), particularly in the case of those things that lie behind that are entirely incompatible with and therefore adverse to the things that lie ahead, i.e., the new dimension into which we are transitioning.

Notice the associating of the word “now” with the word “new” in all these passages in which God is speaking about declaring and doing new things. This is the part people commonly neglect to recognize. When God decrees something new into effect, unlike other matters especially in personal prophecy over individuals, He always intends it to be “effective immediately!” And, indeed, in the realm of the spirit, it IS effective immediately when He decrees, declares, proclaims, speaks it! Certainly, He is demanding that we behold it, see it, look at it, give our attention to it, immediately. In the Isaiah 43 passage, He reinforces that truth with the Divine inquiry, “Will you not be aware of it?” What God wants us to understand from these passages is that beholding, giving our attention to, acknowledging, pursuing, walking in the new thing that springs forth with God’s declaration and proclamation is not optional, but mandatory, compulsory. If we are to continue our pursuit toward Him, being conformed into His Image, being transformed from glory to glory into the glory of His Image (2 Cor. 3:18), and walking in intimacy in His manifest presence (glory), and if we are to position ourselves in the “place” where His favor and provision is being poured out, we must walk in the new thing that He has decreed.

That is what He means when He follows up the 18th verse of Isaiah 48 with what He says in the 19th verse: “I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.” Wildernesses and desert experiences almost always precede a “new thing” God is about to do in our inidividual lives or the collective Church. But, eventually in those seemingly aimless wanderings in the spiritual wilderness and slow trudgings through dry spiritual deserts, when mentally we know He is with us but our soul is parched and thirsting for a fresh infusion of the Water of the Spirit, He makes a roadway in the wilderness where roadways do not normally exist and a river in the desert where rivers do not normally exist that leads to His Precious Presence. But, at that moment—when the roadway in the wilderness or the river in the desert appears—we are in a dilemma, a fork-in-the-road crisis! For, now the pathway has been illuminated—by the lamp unto our feet and light unto our path—and now we must choose, either to follow the illuminated pathway toward God and the next juncture He has ordained for our life, or stay on the path we’ve been traveling and remain in the familiar and friendly surroundings of the wilderness or desert we’ve been sojourning in, continuing to reap the same results we've been reaping! All the while we are neglecting to walk into the new thing, the blessings it holds are held in abeyance.

The second, somewhat more obscure, meaning we need to draw from God’s declaration, “The former things have come to pass,” is that the reason that the former things came in the first place is so that they can in time pass. That is, they have come in order to pass. It is vital for people who are intrinsically resistant to change and set in their ways to understand that many circumstances and situations in life that develop were never intended by God to be permanent, but have come in order to one day pass. Generally, we are more amenable to that aphormism when it involves the passing of things that are not so good, and especially things that are bad. But, what we need to understand is that it is also true in the case of what we consider "good things."

The saying, “All good things must come to an end,” is more apropos than we realize or want to acknowledge. Human nature does not want “good things” to end. But, sometimes that is the will of God. Sometimes the good, especially the good with which we have become comfortable and are comforted by, is the thief of the better or best. Thus, sometimes good things must come to an end in order that we can advance into better things. Oftentimes the ending of good things is actually a precursor or pathway to promotion. Often what appears to be grevious is in reality graduation, and what appears to be trouble is in reality transition to a better place or higher dimension. We must be willing to let go of the status quo to move into the place in the Spirit where God wants to take us.

“This too shall pass!” is a concept that can carry great consolation, encouragement, and hope when we are traversing through trials, troubles, and tribulations. Just knowing that everything in this life eventually passes can be a source of great strength and assurance. It is inevitable that our journey of pursuit of God will take us through “high water,” so that we can come to know the God who is a strong tower that the righteous run into in the time of trouble. Sometimes it is our own Sea of Galilee raging storm experiences, so that we, like the Apostles of the Lamb, can experientially know the Omnipotent Jesus who has the power to calm the raging storm with a two-word command: "Be Still!" Or, a Red Sea experience to introduce us to Jesus the Deliverer that Moses and the Israelites met following their deliverance from Egypt. Primarily, these kinds of crises come into our lives to drive us closer to God, to force us to come to know Him and His power and provision in a new, more spiritually advanced, dimension.

Virtually every set of circumstances and scenarios we traverse through in our own trek through the wildernesses of life toward God and His Kingdom are merely temporary. Usually they happen for our teaching, training, and testing in preparation for further spiritual advancement along the continuum of being conformed into the Image of Christ and being transformed from glory to glory. Not recognizing this is a source of needless despair and despondency for individual believers.

Moreover, one of the most problematic tendencies of Christians is to set as permanent what God intends to be only passing. It is the spirit of religion that engenders that kind of misjudgment and misunderstanding of events and circumstances. A characteristic of religiosity is obsession with preserving the past — what once happened, what God did in another era, and the status quo — rather than “press(ing) on,” a la Philippians 3:14, to possess as our present possession what God is doing today in our midst. The attitude God's Word prescribes that we have is: “THIS is the day (today) that the Lord has made; I will be glad and rejoice in IT!” In fact, Paul said that in order to “press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus,” we must “(forget) what lies behind and reach forward to what lies ahead!” If Christians acted as if God is truly the “I AM,” contrasted to the “I WAS,” our personal lives as well as our churches would be a whole lot different than they are!

The various phases of our journey are only temporary, but rarely, especially at the intrusive inception of adverse circumstances — times of trouble, trial, tribulation, and temptation to despair — do we perceive them as such. Indeed, one of the most effective weapons the enemy of our souls has in his arsenal to use against us is discouragement and despair. Whenever adversity hits our lives, our first reaction typically is to despair and become discouraged, because we presume it is here to stay and defeat us, instead of something that has come to be overcome and to pass, “for in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Rom. 8:37, KJV).

Often, our first reaction to trouble is to be highly offended. It’s as if we say, “What is this?! How dare you come into my life! Don’t you know who I am?” Well, the truth of the matter is that Satan brings these things into our lives and God allows him to bring them into our lives because they both — God and Satan — DO know who we are! Satan authors it to test our mettle; God allows it to prove our mettle through Him and Him through us. Difficulties come into our lives so that we can advance into the dimension in which we indeed are "MORE THAN conquerors" by appropriating the powers of Him who loved us and overwhelmingly CONQUERING those difficulties via His Power and Might operating in and through us (cf., Rom. 8:31-31)! Remember, God will not allow any temptation, test, trial, or trouble to beset us beyond what we are “able” — able not merely to withstand, but to overcome!

So, why does God make such a big deal about pondering and recalling passe' matters, saying, "Behold, the former things have come to pass; do not call to mind the former things, or ponder things of the past?" It is that we cannot possess as our present possession what God is doing now in this time — the dimension of His Power and Presence He is manifesting now in the present — from where we have been, what was, and through what has been previously; i.e., "the former things" that have come to pass! We can only possess as our present possession what God is manifesting now, at the present time, by forgetting the former things, by “not call(ing) to mind the former things," and by not “ponder(ing) things of the past,” in order that we can “Behold” (look at, gaze upon) and “be aware of” the new thing God is doing! In other words, we cannot operate in a new dimension until we leave the former dimension and move into it.

Passe' things (former things, things of the past) are dead things, things that have passed away. Living in passe', obsolete, outdated modes, methods, paradigms, and dimensions is living in the flesh realm, which is the realm of the dead, the lifeless, the deceased, being infused with death. It profits and produces nothing, Jesus said. He also said to let the dead bury the dead, the lifeless, the deceased. But, Spirit-led believers must separate themselves from the flesh realm and move on into the "Land of the Living" — the dimension where God lives and where all things are alive and living, being infused with the Zoe-Life of God.

God is now saying to many maturing believers, "The former things have come to pass, and have indeed passed. The new things that have come are a passageway of promotion unto a higher dimension of the Spirit into which I am leading you. Fear not! Fret not! Falter not! Come, and follow Me!"

2009 -- A Year of Changing Paradigms

slambert@slm.org (Dr. Steven Lambert) — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 16:11:00 +0000

Earthly life entails few constants. Indeed, the only constant in life is change, someone once observed. Change is inevitable and certain. When it comes, our attitude regarding it determines whether it comes as friend or foe. Of all that 2009 holds, it promises to be a Year of Change!

For a number of years now, for what it's worth, I have published at the beginning of each year my sense of what God is saying to me concerning the new year. I always compose my article before reading the commentaries of other prophets, prognosticators, and pundits to avoid being influenced by them. I do my best to hear what God is saying. Prior to the close of 2008 I posted some articles reflecting what I heard God saying regarding some of the events and circumstances transpiring at that time and their prospective impact upon our collective future. The theme of one of those posts was God's Plan for the Global Economic Collapse of 2008, which I invite you to read if you have not already. Though I indicated in that article that I believed that God indeed did have a plan for the economic collapse which would involve the manifestation of His purposes, I also indicated that I was not delineating in that article the particulars of what He was showing me regarding His Plan. I will be writing what He allows me to write about those particulars in forthcoming posts. However, the upshot of all that God is showing me in that regard is that this new year of 2009 promises to be a year in which the Lord initiates significant change -- paradigmatic change -- in mindsets, methodologies, and ministrations -- both in the world and in the Church Jesus is building. The question will be who will have an ear to hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church and give heed to -- i.e., flow and grow with -- what they are hearing, for it is not the hearers of God's Word who are justified (aligned and allied), but rather the doers.

Though the self-testimony of God is that He Himself changes not, paradoxically, change is a God-thing! That Truth is supported in the following portions of God's Word.

Isaiah 42:9
Behold, the former things have come to pass,
Now I declare new things;
Before they spring forth I proclaim them to you.

Isaiah 43:18,19
Do not call to mind the former things,
Or ponder things of the past.
Behold, I will do something new,
Now it will spring forth;
Will you not be aware of it?
I will even make a roadway in the wilderness,
Rivers in the desert.

Isaiah 48:6-8
I proclaim to you new things from this time,
Even hidden things which you have not known.
They are created now and not long ago;
And before today you have not heard them,
So that you will not say, `Behold, I knew them.'
You have not heard, you have not known.

The above Scriptures indicate so clearly that our Father God is a God of new things! When it comes to paradigms and patterns, the fact of the matter is humans tend to be much more conservative than God with respect to change versus maintaining the status quo, and indeed are often resistant to the change God wants to bring about in various aspects of our lives. God is the God of new things! He is forever breaking the old molds and casting new ones. In the arena of the establishment of His Kingdom on Earth, He is constantly declaring and decreeing "new things" before they spring forth.

God speaks in these passages about “new things." In the first, He says, “I declare new things” and that He proclaims them to us before they spring forth, which means, before they come into existence, or before the new things He is about to initiate show up in our lives. In the second, He proclaims, “I will do something new” in our lives. Then, in the third passage He declares that He proclaims new things, even things that have been hidden from us previously of which we had no knowledge or understanding, and that they are created at the moment He proclaims them and that they were non-existent prior to that moment, so that we cannot boast that we knew anything about them or even heard about them prior to their coming into existence in our lives.

God speaks of new things repeatedly in His Word: new wine, new moons, new growth, new things, new strength, new song, new name, new heart, new spirit, new covenant, new tongues, new garment, new commandment, new creature, new self, new man, new and living way, new heavens and new earth, New Jerusalem—just to name the most salient. He not only talks about new things, but also, as alluded to previously, about re-newing things, meaning He takes old, obsolete, outdated, outmoded, passé things and somehow transforms them into new. Again, all this tells me that new things are God Things!

Thus, we can see from these and many other passages of Scripture that God specializes in new things! Declaring new things is something God does recurrently or repeatedly. Moreover, whenever God says, “I will” as He does in the second passage, we can safely deduce that whatever it is that He says He will do is indeed His will, since He never does anything contrary to His will. Thus, we can be assured that decreeing, doing, and bringing forth new things in our lives is within God’s will. The question is then: why are change and new things so contrary to our will as humans, generally speaking?

God specializes in declaring and doing new things! And, yet so many people specialize in old things or the status quo! God has an affinity for the new, and humans, by and large, have an aversion against it. In American culture especially, we venerate, if not idolatrize, the status quo. We like things to be as we have always known them to be in our lifetime. We dread and are threatened by the least prospect or semblance of change. We all but canonize the person who lived at the same house, woke up every morning at the same time, drank his morning cup of the same brand of coffee from the same coffee cup, made in the same pot, drove the same route to work and back to the same job, and ate the same few varieties of meals, on the same plates using the same silverware—for forty years! (Then, the irony of it all is that to that person who in his own world insisted on making time stand still, we pay tribute with the gift of a gold watch, as if he even has a need for a watch, since for him time already “is no more!”) Salt of the earth, grounded, good people, we call them. And, God help the preacher who dares to stand up before the congregation of the dying faithful and even suggest that something in the church needs to change or that it needs a transfusion with new blood.

We have almost a national obsession with preserving the memories of those and that which has passed, contemporaneous with such a barbaric contempt for the new that has yet to live that millions are unceremoniously murdered and their remains strewn about refuse landfills like discarded chicken parts and flushed through the sewers like human waste. We construct elaborate monuments to immortalize the dead. We spend billions of dollars on museums and such things as presidential libraries, Smithsonian Institutes, Halls of Fame of various genres to preserve memorabilia and memories of departed people and artifacts of passé cultures. Treasured “antiques” and venerated “historic” structures are valued many times higher than their modern counterparts. A plethora of books and magazines filling our national libraries and booksellers’ shelves are devoted exclusively to reminiscing nostalgically and longingly of days gone by, eras past. All this underscores our collective proclivity of living in the past.

God declares that He will shake everything that can be shaken, as of created things, in order that only those things that cannot be shaken shall remain (Heb. 12:25-29). Yet, people shake in terror at the mere thought of those things that can be shaken being removed and the treasured status quo changing!

Why is that? Two words, insecurity and idolatry! We make huge investments in the status quo. We are vested in what has been, what has already transpired, rather than in what will be and what is becoming. Without even realizing it, our security, our hope, our faith, all become wrapped up in the status quo—our own world we have worked so hard to create. It gets to the place, though few ever see it, where we are trusting in that status quo— the world we have been the creator of—rather than God, the true Creator! It takes little thought to see that that is the very essence of idolatry. Only the deity we are exulting is not some wooden or stone object representing some strange, mythological false god, as do the heathen of foreign lands, but rather it is ourselves, as the "creator" of the world we have fashioned and which we are venerating. So, the form of our idolatry is literally that of self-deification.

And, then along comes God, and says, “Behold, I will do a new thing!” Talk about shock and awe! Such a concept just does not compute or comport with our thinking and our ways. “A new thing?!” Wait a minute! Doesn’t that mean change? Change?! “New?!” Instinctively, subliminally, we know the inference of the word “new” is that what has been is now old, outdated, outmoded, worn-out, obsolete, uneffectual, passé, and has passed away. How can that possibly be? we ask. And, even more pressing, “Then, what now?!”

The Kingdom of God is replete with paradoxes. Give to get, sow to reap, die to live, lose to gain, all of these concepts on the surface seem contradictory, but in God’s Kingdom the seeming paradox produces the desired provision. Such is the case as well regarding the dreaded “C” word — CHANGE — the mere mention of which causes angst, anxiety, and apprehension to course through the veins of many people, and triggers tangible tremors of trepidation, repulsion, and resistance, through most congregations of professed “believers.” Most people recoil from and are repulsed by the very concept of change. Yet change is what the Kingdom of God is all about. Ever since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, change has been required for remedy, recovery, restoration, and renewal. Human nature detests change; Divine nature relishes it. While God emphatically declares His own personal unchangeableness with regard to His Nature, “I, the Lord, do not change!” (Mal. 3:6) nevertheless, the Kingdom of God is all about change—bringing forth into existence “new” things, renewal, restoration, or returning things to their original, pristine state.

In this hour, God is declaring, decreeing, proclaiming, doing new things—in individuals lives, families, in the church, and in the world. The old things, the status quo, are simply not going to be effective or productive anymore. Where you've been and where you are now is not where you're going. And you're going to have to be willing to leave behind the familiar and friendly in order to lay hold of your future, your destiny. Your destiny is not in your past or even your present, but in your future. To apprehend your destiny, you must let go of and cease striving to preserve all that is comfortable and comforting—the known—and embrace the new and the unknown thing God is doing in your life. It's new to you, but not to God, for with God there's nothing new under the sun (Ecc. 1:9,10). It's unknown to you, but it's always been known by God, for He is omniscient.

If change has come to your life or is in the offing, there is nothing to fear! You are simply experiencing transition—the place between the promise and the Promise Land. Sure, change intrinsically entails upheaval and turmoil, along with accompanying sensations of disorientation, but as FDR so eloquently orated in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, "the only thing we have to fear, is fear itself!" And fear is a spirit that you have authority and power over!

Remember: nothing can happen in your life unless God allows it, for He is Sovereign. Let Him lead, and simply follow His leadings. As high as the heavens are above the earth so are His ways above our ways and His thoughts above our thoughts! Lean not to your own understanding, but in all your ways and thoughts acknowledge Him as God, your Master, Savior, and Lord.

Change often feels like trouble, but feelings are unreliable and will absolutely lie to you and deceive you. It's not really trouble, it's transition, to take you to a new dimension of the Spirit so that you can move closer to your destiny! God is simply moving you to higher ground, so that you can see the enemies and obstacles in your way that are/will attempt to deter, distract, and defeat you on your way to the Promise Land. "But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us," (Rom. 8:37) for we are "more than conquerors" (Ibid; NIV).

2009 will be a year of change in which you will have many opportunities to view many emerging circumstances and occurrences either with the carnal mind which assays them as trouble, or with and in the Spirit which reveals that the troubles of change, course corrections, and adjustments are in actuality transition to a new position or place in the Spirit where new victories can be won, the spoils of victory attained, and new territory can be taken for the Glory of God. In 2009 many will be delivered entirely -- liberated and released -- from all the elements and composition of their past that have been intimidating and incarcerating them in some cases for decades, and all the bottled up energy and zeal that has been squelched and squashed for decades shall be supernaturally converted to the super-fuel of their launching -- THIS YEAR -- into the circumstances of their true destiny and destination. Look for SUDDEN change! And do not allow the unbelief of over-analysis to be the thief of advancement!

Beloved, we simply cannot go down for going up. We cannot go under for going over. We cannot lose for winning. The end of the book says WE WIN! The devil is already a defeated foe! He's just trying to intimidate and bully you to deceive you into believing he's winning. But, the fight is already over, the adversary was already KOed and counted out by the Referee more than two-thousand years ago! Hallelujah! Raise your hands in victory and triumph, for YOU ARE THE WINNER!

In the next post, we'll talk more about this matter of the new things God brings about in our lives, what times of transition are all about, and how to navigate through the tumultuous seas of change. Stay tuned!

Peace On Earth?

slambert@slm.org (Dr. Steven Lambert) — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 22:53:00 +0000

One of the things I love about the Christmas Season is that for a few days and weeks at the close of every year virtually the entire world is confronted with the belief held by millions throughout time that two-thousand years ago a Baby was born in a lowly manger who was the long-awaited Messiah of Israel and the Savior of all Mankind. "You shall call His Name, Jesus," the angel of God instructed His human parents, which means Savior, for He would save the world from their sins. His Name would also be Immanuel, which means, God with us; and that He is! for all those who receive Him, are infused in their human spirit with His very Life, His Being, His Spirit, the Divine Nature.

Author Narration Audio
(Click to Play):

There are some other aspects of the Christmas Season that still make it a very special time of the year, despite its annoyingly overt commercial exploitation. For one, it is by far the most protracted of all the holiday seasons, and with its proximity to the turn of the new year, it has become not just a day of celebration as with Easter and Thanksgiving, for example, but several weeks of celebration. Another aspect that distinguishes it from the others is the fact that it is the only holiday season that is celebrated to some degree in virtually every country of the world by at least some of its citizenry. Then, one of the most unique aspects of the Christmas Season is that it is celebrated with its own extensive and ever-expanding collage of season-related music playing almost ubiquitously in the background in both public and private venues for days and weeks as people throughout the world go about the events and traditions that have become a part of the landscape of the season.

As grating and even offensive as the super-commercialization of the Christmas Season increasingly becomes, in a sense, I can see that in the end, God being Sovereign as He is, it is He and His people who have the last laugh. What an irony it is that the season that has been set aside to celebrate the birth of the Savior of the world, is the most crucial, and in many cases, pivotal financial period for retail merchants great and small around the world. It is its commercial value that undergirds the global tradition of Christmas celebration and commemoration. Our sovereign God, even uses the root of all evil—the love of money—for His own purposes, commandeering each year even the secular system to dramatically proclaim to the whole Godless world that He so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son to die in their stead in order to redeem "whosoever will" from the sin that separated all humanity from Him. Throughout the days and weeks culminating each year, the message of redemption, reconciliation, and restoration is conveyed in word, song, and various art forms. The sovereignty of God is truly awesome and awe-inspiring.

Perhaps the most familiar refrain of the master-collage of Christmas-related narratives, poems, songs, melodies, tunes, and orchestral odes is that of "Peace On Earth and goodwill to men."

What a pious-sounding adage and noble longing—"Peace on earth and goodwill to men!" Who in his right mind could be opposed to the prospect of goodwill among all men and greater peace in any segment of human relations than that which currently exists?

But, if "peace on earth and goodwill to men" was the primary purpose of the Christ-Child’s birth two-thousand years ago as the Christmas carols proclaim, why has so little of it transpired on Earth since then?

This never-fulfilled proposition of peace on Earth has for ages been prime fodder for the naysayers and critics of the Gospel, who point out the very obvious fact that to this day wars and all manner of conflict among men have not only not ceased, but rather have increased. Indeed, the fact is that Man has never achieved peace anywhere, at any time on the Earth. There has never been a time in the history of the world when peace was ubiquitous on Earth, i.e., the absence of all conflict among nations or peoples. Rather, nations have always been at war, either against one another, or against themselves in the form of civil wars or internal conflicts.

The fact is, as annoying as the question of why peace on Earth has never existed in the history of mankind is to many Christians, it is nonetheless a valid and fair one. Why hasn’t there been peace and goodwill in the affairs of men through the last two millennia? Is the prospect of peace on Earth really even a scriptural concept? Even more pertinent to our real lives, is it a viable possibility?

Well, to uncover the answer to those questions, we must separate the holy from the profane, the true from the fictitious, and the mythical from the factual. The short answer is: there is a genuine peace that is spoken of repeatedly in Scripture and is an underlying theme of the Gospel of Christ. But then there is also a fallacious and counterfeit peace the Godless seek that is a deception and false hope.

Man-centered Rather Than Christ-centered Peace

A primary reason that the "peace and goodwill" that the world and the false religions of the world seek is a counterfeit is that it is Man-centered, and Man is wholly incapable of achieving peace on his own. Proof of that is inherent in the fact that—he never has! Since the very beginning of the Creation of Man in the Garden of Eden there has never been a time of prevailing peace upon the Earth. Man’s very first generation of progeny—Adam and Eve’s sons, Cain and Abel—engaged in the first deadly conflict recorded, wherein Cain murdered Abel.

The fact is that the permeation of Mankind and the entire Creation with the corruption of Satan’s nature of sin—rebellion against God and His righteousness—brought forth a state of incessant conflict of every possible kind upon the earth that continues yet today, and will remain until the millennial reign of Christ and His Eternal Bride. Though the idea of utopian peace is a wonderful thought, it is nevertheless a vain, humanistic, and unscriptural philosophy, in this age. That is the reality that every Christian needs not only to understand, but also thoroughly embrace. To think or imagine otherwise is futile, fruitless, and a false hope.

True peace, on the other hand, is not at all Man-centered, but rather Christ-centered. Christ Jesus Himself is the only true source of genuine peace and it emanates only from Him, "For HE HIMSELF IS our peace" (Eph. 2:14), the Spirit testifies in the Word of God. True peace is a PERSON, not a philosophy or principle.

It is Christ Jesus who is the Child who would be born unto us and the Son who would be given unto us, who is the "PRINCE of peace" (Is. 9:6). It is Christ Jesus who Melchizedek, the king of Salem, which translated means the "KING of peace" (Heb. 7:2),typified.

It is Jesus who is the "LORD of peace" who alone, because He is Lord over all, can "continually grant you peace in every circumstance" (2 Thes. 3:16).

It is "the peace OF CHRIST"—the peace that emanates from Christ Jesus—that we are to let "rule [hold sway, act as an arbiter] in (our) hearts, to which (we) are called in one body" (Col. 3:15).

Jesus Christ is Himself Peace, because true peace is a part of and emanates from God, which is corroborated, for one thing, by the fact that the salutation of twelve of the thirteen Pauline Epistles includes the benediction "peace FROM GOD" (the exception, First Thessalonians, he simply invokes "peace" to them without explicit reference to its emanation from God). It is the "peace OF GOD," the peace Jesus gives unto us, which is unlike the "peace" the world gives (Jn. 14:27), "which surpasses all comprehension, (and which) shall guard your hearts and your minds IN CHRIST JESUS" (Plp. 4:7).

Paul informs us, "GOD is not a God of confusion (disorder) but OF PEACE" (1 Cor. 14:33). His valedictory to the Romans included the blessing: "Now may the GOD OF PEACE be with you all. Amen." (Rom. 15:33), plus the assurance that "the GOD OF PEACE will soon crush Satan under your feet" (16:20).

The Apostle promised the Philippians that if they practiced "The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me," then "the GOD OF PEACE shall be with you" (Plp. 4:9).

He also revealed it is, thank God, "the GOD OF PEACE" who sanctifies us (1 Thes. 5:23). Thank God it is as the God of peace rather than the God of wrath, which He is as well, that He makes us holy, lest we all be consumed.

We are told in Hebrews it is "the GOD OF PEACE, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep in the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord" who equips us "in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ" (Heb. 13:20,21).

The Fallacious Peace of Humanism

Moreover, the secular idea of peace is fallacious primarily because it is based on the vain humanistic philosophies of men, or humanism. Simply defined, humanism is the exaltation, at the minimum, or the deification, at the maximum, of man. It is a man-centered philosophy that for all intents and purposes ignores or, at the least, minimizes the sovereignty of God, and instead vaunts man to a place of supreme veneration. Indeed, humanism can also be accurately defined as the worship or veneration of man.

We live in an age of humanism. A popular song of the sixties promulgating New Age astrological doctrine called it "the Age of Aquarius." Anti-Scriptural humanistic doctrines are pandemic in our world. Mankind gropes and longs, almost pathetically now, for an ever-elusive, idyllic, universal, utopian "peace" and utter tranquility, in which what it considers evil is no more and all semblance of conflict is non-existent. Volumes and volumes of expressions of the false hope of world peace have been written in the annals of human history, especially since the Mass Communication Age began with the invention of the printing press, and now in the computerized Technology or Information Age.

Indeed, a primary contributor to the notion that Christ came to bring peace upon the Earth is the melodious and highly inspirational Christmas carols charged with lyrical jubilation concerning "peace on Earth," to which I alluded at the outset, that are sung ad infinitum during every Christmas Season all over the world. Just a few examples are:

Hark! the herald angels sing,
"Glory to the new-born King;
Peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled." (Hark! The Herald Angels Sing)

O morning stars together
Proclaim the holy birth,
And praises sing to God the King,
And peace to men on earth. (O Little Town Of Bethlehem)

It came upon the midnight clear,
That glorious song of old,
From angels bending near the earth,
To touch their harps of gold.
"Peace on the earth, good will to men,
From heaven’s all-gracious King
The world in solemn stillness lay
To hear the angels sing." (It Came Upon The Midnight Clear)

The lyrics of such Christmas standards, because of the time in which they were written, were based upon the King James Version of Luke 2:14, which renders the doxology of the angel of the Lord as: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, good will toward men." However, that is not the correct translation of the text, which fact is corroborated by most every English translation published since the KJV. The correct translation is as Marshall’s Literal English Translation of the Nestle’s Greek Text [The Zondervan Parallel New Testament in Greek and English, 1982] renders it: "Glory in (the) highest places to God and on earth peace among men of goodwill." The New American Standard Version as well captures the true import of the text: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased."

Thus, we see a glaring example of how the mistranslation of a passage has resulted in a "doctrine of men" that is in truth antithetical to Scripture. For you see, the testimony of the angel of the Lord was not that with the birth of the Christ-Child peace would prevail upon the Earth and Divinegoodwill would inure to all men. Rather, the angel was proclaiming that people with whom God was pleased and whose hearts had been infused with goodwill from God—that is, "as many as received Him" (Jn. 1:12), the Christ who had been born—to these persons living upon the Earth would peace with God inure, not universally to all of mankind on the Earth. Neither was this peace proclaimed by God’s Word peace between men and nations, but rather peace between believing men and God. The message was that with the birth of the Christ, reconciliation with God had come for all men (humans), which reconciliation would produce internal peace within all humans who accepted Him as their Savior and Lord. In other words, it is to redeemed humanity that peace would inure, not all humanity.

Peace Not the Purpose of the First Coming of Christ

Indeed, the unequivocal truth that inherently is so difficult for the majority of Christians to comprehend, and accept even if they do comprehend it, is that Jesus in His first bodily visitation upon the Earth did not come to bring peace to the Earth. Nowhere does the Word of God teach that He did. In fact, it conveys the exact opposite—that the purpose of His first coming was to bring conflict or war!

Jesus Himself explicitly and unequivocally declared, "Do not think that I came to bring PEACE ON THE EARTH; I did NOT come to bring peace, but a sword [a symbol of conflict, war]!" (Mat. 10:34). He is telling us here to not even think that the reason for His first visitation was to bring peace on the Earth. Yet, that is the very thing that the majority of professing Christians think. But, as already discussed, the reality is that there has never been a time of total peace on the Earth, neither since the birth of the "First Adam" nor the "Second Adam," Christ Jesus, and there never will be peace on the Earth until after the Second Advent or Coming of Christ!

Jesus did not come to bring peace to unregenerate, evil-willed men in this corrupted cosmos, but war and more war, until it is irrefutably established that true peace will only come when the Kingdom of the Prince of Peace is manifest in the hearts of men and on the Earth. He is the Christ, the Savior of all mankind, and there is none other!

After telling us not to think that He came to bring peace on the Earth, Jesus categorically stated, "I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." Luke’s version of Jesus’ statement is: "Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on the earth? I tell you, no, but rather DIVISION" (Luke 12:51). Not only do professing Christians—against Jesus’ explicit admonition not to—suppose that an inherent purpose of His first coming was to bring peace upon the Earth between peoples and nations, but they also presume, totally erroneously, that Jesus’ coming should automatically produce peace in all forms and levels of interpersonal relationships, especially familial relationships, and are quite bewildered if that does not take place. However, that presumption is false, foundationless, and humanistic. Indeed, the rest of Jesus’ statement makes it clear that Jesus will also be the "rock of offense," that is to say, source of division, among relatives as well:

Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life shall lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake shall find it. (Mat. 10:34)

True Peace Is Of The Holy Spirit, Not The Human Spirit

True peace is a fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22), an attribute of the Divine Nature, and emanates from the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is manifest in and through only one breed of person on planet Earth—those who have been regenerated and infused with the Divine Nature, which is the Holy Spirit. It cannot be manufactured or merely simulated. Nor can it be legislated. True peace is a matter of the heart, which is the reason that until the Kingdom Rule of Christ is effected upon the Earth among people, races, and nations, peace will not exist in the world.

True peace is a peace that comes from God and is resident within the regenerate heart of the redeemed. It transcends all comprehension and circumstances, and is contingent upon neither. God Himself is the God of Peace. True peace emanates from Him. True peace among humans is the result of having peace with God. The peace of God emanates to humans who have peace with God.

Indeed, Christ Himself is the very essence of true unity and peace. Any so-called unity and peace not established upon the foundation-rock of Christ is a Godless, humanistic, and totally counterfeit unity and peace. Utopian peace void of all conflict simply is not going to occur "until the perfect comes," and it is impractical to expect that it will.

What men call "peace" is in reality nothing more than a truce—an agreement not to be in conflict, and invariably it is an instrument of gain and self-interest for one or more parties who have in some way overpowered or vanquished another party or parties. At the most, what is effected is a "peace treaty," wherein the vanquished (subjects) agree to the terms of surrender and subsequent governance by the victors (subjugators). True peace, however, is not a mere truce.

In Amos 3:3 the inviolable Divine principle is stated that two cannot walk together except by agreement. When two entities are walking together it is by agreement, whether the two parties be marriage partners, criminal conspirators, or demons with humans. In Christ what causes us to walk together, to be at peace with one another, is not a humanly contrived truce or peace treaty founded on the overpowering or predomination of one believer over another, but rather on the premise that the same Holy Spirit lives within each of us and motivates us from within to holy attitudes and behavior. The Holy Spirit is always in agreement with Himself and with the Father and the Son. We may not always agree on the mundane matters of life or even non-essential elements of the Walk with Christ, but the fruit of the Spirit nevertheless compels us to "be at peace with" (Mk. 9:50; Rom. 12:18) and "live in harmony with" (Plp. 4:2) others.

Satan is the master-deceiver. Everything he does he does for the purpose of trying to extend his kingdom and maintain his rule upon the Earth. And, his chief weapon is deception, his lies; Jesus called him "the father of lies." One of his primary lies is the vain prospect and false hope of "world peace," which he purports through his agents will be achieved through humanistic pacifism. Yet, he himself is by no means any pacifist, but rather he is the master-insurgent, who is maniacally and eternally bent on total world domination with the ultimate goal of establishing himself as sovereign over the cosmos. Indeed it was this master-motive of making himself to be like God that he actually and literally "said in (his) heart" that precipitated his violent expulsion from heaven:

I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne above the stars of God,
And I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north.
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds:
I will MAKE MYSELF LIKE THE MOST HIGH GOD." (Is. 14:13,14; NAS)

This is the reason believers are commanded to "resist him, firm in your faith!" (1 Pet. 5:9); and, "Resist the devil and he will flee from you." (Jas. 4:7). But, this resistance that we are commanded to employ against the devil is not passive or defensive "resistance" of running away or doing whatever is necessary to avoid any semblance of conflict or confrontation, as some suppose and propose, for that will never work, because Satan is the classic playground bully, who will continue to harass and harangue and aggress against you until you finally plant your feet firmly, stand your ground, and face him head on in whatever means of offensive resistance is necessary to put an end to his bullying. When you do, like the playground bully, he will turn tail and run in fear from you, because he really is a complete COWARD at heart, internally terrorized with fear and trepidation, which is why he employs his tactics of terrorism and intimidation in the first place.

So the resistance we are to engage in against the schemes and devices of the devil is OFFENSIVE resistance, not weak, Casper Milquetoast passivity. Jesus declared, "The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by FORCE" (Mat. 11:12).

And, all this, it must be understood, is true whether the application is our personal lives in our struggles against the wiles of the enemy of our souls, or national matters on the international front. War is nasty. War is ugly. War is unpleasant. War inevitably bears grave consequences. "War is hell!" But, wars must be fought to protect and defend our national sovereignty against the aggression or threat of aggression posed by maniacal rogue despots bent on world domination or hegemony of any magnitude. The line must be held at all costs. "Give NO PLACE to the devil." NONE! For, given the proverbial inch, tyrannists will take the proverbial mile. Aggression and intimidation by terrorism must be CRUSHED the moment it raises its dastardly head! That's the only way to deal with it successfully.

The Spirit made it clearthrough the Apostle Paul that there is a "WARFARE" (1 Cor. 10:4) that believers are, have always been, and need to continue waging until Jesus returns. But, it is a warfare in which we have been given special spiritual weapons that we must employ to offensively resist the devil and his schemes, and to pull down his strongholds. He also tells us that the WAR in which we are engaged is "against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Eph 6:12; RSV), and not against mere flesh and blood, or human, foes.

Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force” (Mk. 11:12, KJV). Indeed, the Christian walk is no cakewalk, and it certainly is not for wimps! Like it or not, when someone becomes born again, he/she is drafted into the army of God, and it is either become a warrior, put on the armor of God, pick up the weapons of our warfare, join the battle, and begin to fight, or be defeated by the foe. It’s just that simple!

Nevertheless, many believers, unfortunately just do not get it—that, like it or not, we are indeed engaged in a fierce battle—a constant, never-ending struggle against the "wiles (lit., strategic battle plans) of the devil" (Eph 6:11; RSV). Pretending it doesn’t exist will not make it go away. Pacifism will not make it go away. It’s either conquer or be conquered; overpower or be overpowered—"not by might, not by power, but My Spirit, sayeth the Lord!" (Zech. 4:6).

So therefore, Brothers and Sisters in Christ, as Spirit-filled, Spirit-baptized believers in Christ, who is the Word of God and was the Word of God made flesh during His first visitation to the Earth, let us resolve to believe who the Christ really is—not merely the Child born in the meekness of a manger, but the Person, Prince, and Almighty God of Peace—the One from whom true peace emanates. And, let us cast off the bonds and bondages that the vain philosophies of men place upon us, in particular those of a false, humanistic peace and pacifism foisted upon us at this wonderful time of the year, and let us walk instead in true peace and freedom of the Spirit, which is a peace and freedom that requires constant vigilance and spiritual warfare against the devices and schemes of the enemy of our souls. For, if we abide in God's Word and His Word abides in us, then we shall know THE TRUTH, and the Truth that we know shall set us and keep us FREE—free from the throes of every bondage, affliction, and oppression that comes in an attempt to bind us! For truly, "He whom the Son sets free, is FREE INDEED!"

The 2008 Election: Democracy or Oligarchy?

slambert@slm.org (Dr. Steven Lambert) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 23:08:00 +0000

Here, one day before perhaps the most important presidential election in the history of this nation, I am painfully aware that this article, if it were to have any impact at all, will be far too little far too late. Unfortunately as well, in terms of the demographics of the readership of this blog, it likely will only amount to “preaching to the choir.” Moreover, I hold no illusions that its message will turn the mind of anyone regarding their vote tomorrow. Despite all this, I am somehow pressed with a patriotic and spiritual duty to write and publish it any way.

Only a year ago, I must confess at the outset, I had basically resigned myself to the premise that in the 2008 election America was going to get what it deserved politically. Considering the precipitous moral and spiritual decline of this nation, and the dizzying speed with which it is taking place, it is easy to arrive at such a conclusion, not from a pessimistic but realistic prospective. Yet, when I mentally scan all that I know regarding the scenario before us, the only thing that gives me a modicum of hope is the Apostle Peter’s resonating descriptor of God the Father, that He is “the God of all grace” (1 Pet. 5:10). As we know, the Gospel of Christ is all about, through and through, the Amazing Grace of God extended to humanity instead of the judgment we so rightly deserve.

So it is indeed a hard call, difficult to prognosticate, what will be the outcome of this pivotal election. Will America get what it deserves, or will God once again extend His grace? Frankly, I absolutely don’t know. Probably, few, if any, do know with even relative certainty. Though, we will ALL know our fate and future as far as things in the natural realm go within the next 48 hours.

Lest new readers misunderstand my tenor and thesis, I refer you to my previous post, God’s Plan For the Economic Collapse of 2008. I indicated there my belief that believers understand that we cast our vote not for a mortal human nor for a human ideology, but for a Superhuman and Sovereign God and Savior. The natural realm of this world is not the believer’s source for anything we need in this life. God is our source. And though we are IN the world, we are by no means OF the world. Our life on this planet is not limited to or by the world’s system, rather we live by another system called the Kingdom of God. For us, our daily prayer, according to the model prayer Jesus commended to us, is that God’s will be done ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN. That prayer will not always produce a manifestation of God’s will on earth in all the affairs of men, nor does Holy Writ give us a hope that it will. But, for the believer, there is a hope, and even a confidence and expectation, that God will indeed bring forth a manifestation of His will in the affairs of true believers.

The result is that while on one hand, we at times may be tempted to despair, yet on the other hand we despair not, knowing that God the Father is still on the Throne, and the mighty Conquering Christ still reigns supreme, who instructed us:

“These things I have spoken unto you that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulations, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” (Jn. 16:33)

I know and wholeheartedly believe all these things I just enumerated, yet I, like many other American believers, nevertheless find it difficult to shake off the troubling and unsettling sentiment that the systematic dismantling of our democratic system and republic engenders within our patriotic souls. Heaven is our ultimate “Home,” of course, but America is our earthly national home. Many of us have served our country in some capacity, whether military, Peace Corp, civil organizations, political involvements or office, or some other way, which we did because of our deep-seated allegiance to our nation. We still get chills every time we hear the National Anthem, can barely resist the emotional reflex to salute the flag when its over, and tear up as we proudly recite the Pledge of Allegiance. When fellow Floridian Lee Greenwood sings, “I’m proud to be an American where at least I know I’m free,” he is not singing a solo, but is only one voice in a choir of millions who sing every word right along with him; maybe a little staccato and maybe a little off pitch, but sublimely melodious nonetheless. So, yes, it has been more than a little disconcerting for the vast majority of “boomers,” I suspect, over more than half a century now, to witness the gradual erosion of the foundations upon which this great republic was founded. The “unalienable rights” to which the founding fathers ascribed so profoundly and eloquently in one of our nation’s most sacred documents, The Declaration of Independence, are being systematically supplanted by the plenary activism of a decided elite minority who with their relentless and resounding hue and cry for the establishment of secular humanism have successfully convinced a majority of Americans that they represent the majority and that the majority of Americans subscribe to and support their anti-American, anti-God agenda. And, that, my friend, is more than a little troubling. It causes a righteous indignation to rise up within many patriotic Americans who are proud to be Americans, proud of this nation and what it stands for, and grateful to God we were born such.

The stark fact is that since, ironically, the “Great War”—WWII—America has slowly moved from being a democratic republic to being an outright oligarchy (rule by a few) in every sense that oligarchies were extant in past eras and previous societies. The oligarchy that has hijacked our nation is comprised of a relatively small (at the most, 15%) enclave that has surreptitiously infiltrated and systematically seized control of the segments of our society where true power rests: the legislative and judiciary branches of the federal government, commerce, financial institutions, the media, the educational system, and the religious sector.

The epicenter of the nemesis to democracy today is the third branch of government, the judiciary, its command center being the Supreme Court. It is from these nine men and women that “clear and present danger” for America’s future emanates. This tiny cadre of jurists has become the nerve center of the oligarchy, the apex of the pyramid, the Joint Chiefs of Staff for the prosecution of the secular absolutism war. Yet, it was the intent of the Founding Fathers that this branch of government be the weakest and most passive. It was never their intent that the purview of these nine jurists include sitting in judgment on the actions of the legislative and executive branches and have the negating power of “interpretation” of duly enacted civil laws that the Court has ascribed to itself. The genius of the framers of the Constitution was nowhere more evident than in the separation of powers instituted in the democratic republic they designed, which was intended to negate and nullify the power by any one branch to dictate. An ingenious system of “checks and balances”—that is, when it is not spuriously circumvented. Nowhere in that Constitution did the framers articulate anything close to the doctrine of judicial supremacy upon which the judicial domination that presently prevails over America is predicated. Jefferson himself thoroughly rejected the concept, and expressly repudiated and warned against it in a letter he penned to William Jarvis in 1820:

“[t]o consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions [is] a very dangerous doctrine, indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy…. The Constitution has erected no such single tribunal, knowing that to whatever hands confided, with the corruptions of time and party, its members would become despots. It has more wisely made all the departments co-equal and co-sovereign within themselves.” (Emphasis added)

“A very dangerous doctrine, indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy”—such is precisely what has transpired 188 years since the primary author of the Constitution wrote those eerily prescient warnings. The Supreme Court has become a despotic oligarchy ruling over a larger oligarchy (judges of the lower courts system) which presides over an even larger oligarchy (the left wing liberals), subverting the elective branches of government and the will of the American people. In his book, Real Change, Newt Gingrich deftly articulated the essence of the impending quagmire:

It is hard to overstate the danger of tyranny from elitist judges who believe they have the right and the power to dictate to the American people what we will do and how we will do it.

Real change in American life will occur when the American people come to understand that we do not have to sit passively by while the federal judiciary redefines American history and takes away the people’s power to decide their future. The nature of judges and the power they have should be the most important single domestic issue of the 2008 campaign. It is that central to the future of America.

This issue alone—the appointment of Supreme Court justices to replace retired and retiring justices who are waiting to announce their retirement until after the election—is perhaps the most critical element making this election and its outcome so vital to the collective future of Americans. It is crucial that Americans vote not for a personality or persona but for a president that will appoint judges that are most likely to eschew judicial activism and the ludicrous notion that somehow the Constitution is a “living” document that must be interpreted according to the prevailing mores and ideologies of each succeeding generation. The Laws God transacted through Moses were literally, not figuratively, “written in stone.” The Founding Fathers considered the civil laws of our land to be an extension of those Laws of God. So it is preposterous to think that the Constitution is to be interpreted in accordance with changing mores. Thus, in my view, of all the reasons for believers and traditionalist Americans to go out to vote tomorrow, the matter of bringing a halt to judicial dominance in this country is at the top.

Nuances could be debated, but essentially that is the current state of affairs. Indeed, there was a time, not so long ago, when elections in this nation were mostly about nuances among men of good will regarding political expediencies and methodologies relative to shared goals and intents—the preservation and protection of our commonwealth. Such is far from the case today. Such is also the reason behind the extreme vitriol that has now pervaded the political system and process. No longer is the national debate about disparate opinions concerning how to reach the same destinations, but rather it is about the foundational ideologies that dictate the destinations. The fact of the matter is: the 2008 election is about a New Age hybrid of socialism, founded upon an anti-God, secular humanism ideology, against democracy “under God,” founded in the laws and principles of the Kingdom of God.

The world we live in today is a far different world as post-WWII, when our nation was the lead nation in putting down attempted world conquest by a crazed megalomaniac (Nazism) and an imperialist society (imperialism), as well as global proliferation of socialism, fascism, and communism. Have we, as a nation, so quickly forgotten the precious victories that were won in that momentous struggle to defeat world aggression predicated on ideologies wholly antithetical to those of this nation and the high cost that was paid by “The Greatest Generation” to secure them?

Have we so soon forgotten the great cost that was paid within our own nation 150 years ago to preserve the union when the ideals of its founders—namely the truth they held to be “self-evident,” “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”—were challenged by a renegade judicial system that overstepped its purview of authority, overruled the two elected branches and thus the will of the American people, and arbitrarily and without legal precedent ruled with its findings to uphold and extend slavery (Dred v. Scott, 1857). The horrendous result of that blatant abuse of authority by a few maverick judges was a Civil War in which 620,000 Americans lost their lives.

Need we be reminded of the oft-quoted aphorism that those who cannot or do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it?

The now infamous ode attributed to the German anti-Nazi activist Pastor Martin Niemöller lamenting the German people’s unforgivable inactivity and passivity as they stood by watching the Nazi systematic rise to power under Adolph Hitler should serve as a lasting warning to all civilizations:

First they came for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me —
and by that time no one was left to speak up.

Well, all Americans who believe in and hold dear the traditional principles and beliefs upon which this country was founded and has made it the most blessed nation of God ever, need to give heed: Next, they are coming for YOU!

The signers of the our Declaration of Independence, who with their signatures of assent knowingly committed their fortunes and futures to the founding formulation of this the greatest of all nations, eloquently articulated the premises under which separation from tyranny by a people who believed themselves to be inherently free and the resultant establishment of a new and independent form of governance becomes necessary:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.

It was from their deeply held beliefs in the freedom that Christ purchased for all men that the framers drew their ideology concerning governance. They believed to their very core that “whom the Son sets free is free indeed.” Indeed, the Gospel of Christ is all about freedom. Thus, so also was the founding of this country all about freedom. Freedom—first and foremost—to worship God according to one’s creed and conscience, rather than according to the dictums and definitions dictated by the State. The agenda of the secular humanists forming this oligarchy is to “define” God and His place in American life.

Though the term is nowhere evoked in the document itself, a genuinely democratic republic was born out of the auspices of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776. Indeed, the Founding Fathers with this document and in the formulation of the Constitution envisioned a nation whose government “deriving [its] just powers from the consent of the governed”—a system of governance truly “of the people, for the people, and by the people.” Intrinsically such language connotes the majority of the people. Yet, what we now have holding the reigns of control over our beloved nation is rule by an elite minority, and the democracy intended by the Founding Fathers has been supplanted by an oligarchy.

Much to my chagrin, when in a prophetic seminar in 1989, under the inspiration of the Spirit, I prophesied concerning the “fall of democracy” in America (which I have recorded on tape), I didn’t really understand, as I do now, nearly 20 years later, what the prophetic prognostication really meant. What is clear now though is the effect that the political activism of this minority of secular humanists has had over the preceding 20 years in securing the stranglehold it has over the control centers of the country. The effect is that democracy is indeed in danger of falling against the onslaught of a well-positioned and well-funded oligarchy.

Though there is so much more I could and wish I had the time to write about all this, the lateness of the hour before the election tomorrow simply will not allow it. The upshot of what I feel compelled to write is my personal conviction, which I believe was not generated through mere scrutiny of the candidates and their political philosophies and pledges, but from the Spirit within, and therefore is not an advocating for a particular candidate. My personal conviction is that tomorrow Americans will not be voting so much for a man, a race, a gender, or a political party, but for ideals and an ideology. Ironically, a vote for the Democratic candidate will be a vote for the continuation and establishment of an oligarchy—rule by an elite few, whose ideals and ideology is predicated on secular humanism and socialism. A vote for the Republican candidate is a vote for the retaining and sustaining of democracy and traditional American values founded upon God’s Word. Of course, there are numerous issues involved, but the overriding issue I believe is democracy or oligarchy.

What I sense in the Spirit is that there is some similarity between this election and another “election” when the Israelites clamored for a king to be there judge “like all the (other) nations” when Samuel the Prophet, who had been God’s surrogate judge and ruler to the nation, had grown old and would soon die. The people’s insistence on a human king instead of a theocracy in which God was the ultimate ruler greatly displeased Samuel. But, he prayed. Surprisingly, God told Samuel:

“Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being King over them. Like all the deeds which they have done since the day that I brought them up from Egypt even to this day—in that they have forsaken Me and served other gods—so they are doing to you also. Now then, listen to their voice; however, you shall solemnly warn them and tell them of the procedure of the king who will reign over them.”

So Samuel spoke all the words of the Lord to the people who had asked of him a king. He said, “This will be the procedure of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and place them for himself in his chariots and among his horsemen and they will run before his chariots. He will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and of fifties, and some to do his plowing and to reap his harvest and to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He will also take your daughters for perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and your vineyards and your olive groves and give them to his servants. He will take a tenth of your seed and of your vineyards and give to his officers and to his servants. He will also take your male servants and your female servants and your best young men and your donkeys and use them for his work. He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his servants. Then you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.”

Nevertheless, the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel, and they said, “No, but there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.”

Now after Samuel had heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the Lord’s hearing. The Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to their voice and appoint them a king.” So Samuel said to the men of Israel, “Go every man to his city.” (1 Samuel 8:7-22)

This description by God sounds to me astonishingly like socialism, wherein the citizenry surrender their sovereignty and liberty and even their personal possessions unto the government and thereby become the property and chattel of the kingdom or State in return for the protections and provisions the kingdom provides.

In short, tomorrow Americans will be casting their vote not for a man, but for either democracy under God and the freedoms it engenders or oligarchy under a godless government that intends to own its constituency.

My prayer, and I pray the prayer of all believers and all Americans, is that God’s will prevails tomorrow, and that God continues to extend Amazing Grace to America. Amen and God Bless America!

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
-- Edmund Burke

"I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something.
What I can do, I should do and, with the help of God, I will do!" -- Everett Hale

Obama-Farrakhan Ties Are Close, Ex-Farrakhan Aide Says

God's Plan for the Global Economic Collapse of 2008

slambert@slm.org (Dr. Steven Lambert) — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 22:26:00 +0000

In this crucial hour when not only Americans but all peoples of all nations collectively are faced with the catastrophic effects of the most expansive economic collapse in the annals of human history, it is calming, comforting, and cheering to know that the Sovereign and Almighty God has a plan, has eternally known what the plan is, and that His plan—for individual believers and His true Body alike—is not for harm, calamity, disaster, or destruction, but welfare, good, prosperity, peace, and a hope-filled future.

'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.’ (Jer. 29:11, NASB)

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (Ibid; NIV)

For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome. (Ibid; AB)

For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. (Ibid; NLT)

In the present tumultuous times in which talk of crisis, collapse, and calamity fill the air and images vividly portraying same fill our television screens, it is vital for believers to understand one thing—God has a plan. He’s always had a plan. In fact it is not just a plan, rather His plan is THE plan. The various translations of this oft-quoted verse cited above reflect some poignant points concerning the plans that He has for us.

First, it’s thrilling to just know that the Almighty has a plan for our welfare and well-being—that a plan actually exists. How often do people—believers and non-believers alike—languish in life for lack of a plan and because they don’t know what God’s plan is! One of the most pitiful divine laments in the Word of God is: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hos. 4:6). In other words, those who profess to be God’s people and wear the badge—“Christian”—don’t know that God has always had a specifically and intentionally devised plan for their life, and they have no clue what that plan is.

Many don’t know where they’re going, nor how to get to wherever it is they are going. As someone has said, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.”

Lack of knowledge or ignorance of God’s plans for us is not just a “bummer,” as people say today, but it will cause you to live a defeated and destroyed life. Myriad are the professing Christians living lives of devastation and destruction due to ignorance of God’s plans, pledges, and promises for them.

Secondly, God says He knows the plans He has for us. Just the knowledge that He already knows the plans He has for us should be extremely comforting, calming, and cheering to us in the troubled and tribulation-filled times comprising our current collective life as Americans here in the fall of 2008, as the world reels in the wake of ubiquitous financial devastation for which there are no ready remedies.

Thirdly, the plans God has for us, by His own pronouncement, are NOT for calamity, disaster, devastation, or evil, but on the contrary for our welfare, good, prosperity, peace, and to give us hope and a hopeful future. Again, if there’s ever been a time a plan that will engender all those results is needed, especially hope and a hopeful future, it is now!

Yet, the stark reality at this present hour is that the scenario before us as a nation appears to be completely antithetical to what God declares concerning “the plan” He has for His people. Over the last few days the economy of the world’s greatest super-power has been officially, albeit reluctantly, diagnosed by the economic experts and the politicians charged with overseeing and managing it, as “collapsed”—in unprecedented, historic proportions. Our national economy lies listless on a blood-soaked gurney on life-support in the ICU. The team of highly-skilled ER physicians have signified with the familiar side-to-side swivel of their heads that at this point there’s nothing much they can do for the dying patient but provide comfort. And, since believers, though not of the world, are in the world, they are impacted much the same in the natural as the rest of the world.

The financial “fall” long predicted by a number of prophetic voices over the last two decades finally became an undeniable reality on Rosh HaShana, New Years Day for the year 5769 on the Hebrew calendar, signaled by the most precipitous one-day decline ever recorded on Wall Street with the leading stock market index plummeting precisely 777 points—a mark that surely is a divine signature. “Black Monday 2.0.” “The Super-Fall in the Fall 2008,” it could be dubbed. Humpty-Dumpty has fallen off the wall, and all the king’s horses and all the king’s men it now appears are incapable of putting Humpty-Dumpty back together again.

Virtually all of the longest standing financial institutions heretofore forming the economic foundations of the greatest nation ever to exist in the history of the world have totally collapsed; many literally are no more. The highest, mightiest, and smartest of our republic are totally bankrupt of credible answers and viable solutions. The nation’s most powerful and highly positioned government leaders cannot even begin to account for either the genesis or the denouement of the most immense national debacle in time immemorial. The most brilliant economic and political minds of the free world are totally stymied by the sheer scale of the dilemma and basically unable to offer a stunned and reeling American citizenry any plausible strategy for resolution and recovery. All that the entirety of Washington can offer is some hastily-devised dubious and purely speculative proposals that in effect transfer the retributive burden for the sins of the true offenders onto the collective back of the present generation of Americans, to bear for the whole of their and their children’s children’s lifetimes.

The cause, of course, we know with absolute certainty. Basic greed, bare avarice, and brazen aggrandizement are the uncontested and undeniable motivators. That—we all know. No debate needed in that regard. The proverbial chickens have come home to roost, and barring divine intervention the people of “the land of the free” will be suffering the wages that inure to those who foolishly disregard the biblical adage concerning the borrower becoming the slave of the lender. Unless and until Americans return to Biblical principles regarding financial integrity and morality, we will remain incarcerated in a debtors prison, where one of the horrible consequences is forfeiture of common human freedom and the freedoms we as the most prosperous nation on earth have enjoyed for well over two-hundred years.

For decades our national adversaries have well known and implemented strategies based on the understanding that there is no need for them to resort to expending massive amounts of their resources on a military aggression against “the great Satan,” when they can use American resources to bring the nation to its knees through economic and entrepreneurial exploitation of our national Achilles Heel—materialism, and more specifically the ills that unrestrained and pandemic avarice produce. The unfortunate result of decades of moral decline and spiritual apostasy in this country is that our gates are now overrun and our nation is overflowing with mortal enemies filled with venomous enmity.

What is critical for the true Church—the Church Jesus is building, the Remnant Church—to recognize in the face of current events, the presidential race in particular, is that, though the matter of what candidate and political party prevails in the election will certainly affect us all, nevertheless, our destiny does not rise and fall on who is president and vice president of the United States. Bona fide believers, one and all, cast their vote for the ultimate Commander-in-chief the day they accepted the risen Christ as their personal Lord and Savior! The Born Again Child of God can take solace in the fact that Jesus is Lord over all and has been permanently given a Name which is above every other Name—on earth and in heaven.

In a sense, so far as our own life is concerned, each of us are electors of the supreme electoral college that does not convene every four years for a new election, but once and for all. For those of us who by virtue of the New Birth have been become members of the Holy Race, earthly political races are of only minor consequence. We are IN this world, but we are not OF this world. The world’s systems and kingdoms are not the system and kingdom in which we operate. Oh our natural lives are surely affected by the earthly systems and kingdoms, but we are preeminently spirit-beings operating in the system of the Spirit—the kingdom of Christ—which cannot be seen with natural sight. Thus, we must ensure that we not limit ourselves or consign our destiny to the natural systems of this world, but rather seek to effectually function in the Spirit realm on a daily basis.

When compared with Jesus’ explicit description in His didactic discourses unto His contemporary disciples of “the last days,” can the current tribulation-filled times possibly not be the manifestation in earnest of His preternatural predictions (see Mat. 23; et al.)? I think not. Are these the times concerning which Jesus said, when you see these things taking place, LOOK UP, for your redemption draweth nigh? I think so. Are there those among us who seriously believed, say thirty years ago, that theirs would be the generation who would experience these scriptural predictions? I think not many.

Yet are the events that produced the present circumstances part of the Divine Plan of which I speak—meaning, did God orchestrate them? The answer is a resounding “No!”

Succinctly stated, God gave dominion of the earth to man, namely Adam and Eve, but Satan wrested it from man in the Garden of Eden through the aegis of man’s fall into perdition. “The heavens are the Lord’s, but the earth he has given unto the sons of men.” In Jesus, the Second Adam, God sent the Kinsman Redeemer and Prototype to generate Redeemed Mankind, the Holy Race, but it is now up to that Holy Race, the Church, Christ’s Betrothed, to wrest dominion back from Satan’s control. That is the Church’s ultimate mission, and heaven shall retain Christ until that mission is fully accomplished and all things are restored, at which time He will return to claim the Church as His Eternal Bride.

Clear and plain, Mankind—unredeemed humanity—in cooperation and collaboration with Satan, “the ruler of this world,” “the prince of the power of the air,” is responsible for the present circumstances. Man, operating through the aegis of the powers and principles of the kingdoms of this world, which are under the sway of the original rebel, Satan, has produced these circumstances.

Indeed all this is what makes the fact that God has an eternal plan that holds the welfare and prosperity of His People, the Remnant Church, in the midst of global tribulation, so indescribably magnificent.

As I said at the beginning, God clearly and unequivocally declares in the verse cited at the beginning that, one, He knows the plans He has for us, and, two, those plans are NOT for calamity, disaster, or evil, but rather for our welfare, good, prosperity, peace, and a hopeful and blessed future.

God knows the plans He has for us, but there are some things we need to know and understand concerning His plans for us, however—things that even His people, His Body, the Church, His betrothed, often, unfortunately and to their detriment, do not understand. As He says in His Word, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hos. 4:6). Now we know and have little problem assimilating that the unbelieving people of the world are destroyed and live decimated for lack of knowledge or spiritual understanding. That is pretty much a given. But, the lament of God through His prophet Hosea in this verse is that God’s people—what today is Born Again Children of God—are destroyed and experience destruction in their lives, needlessly, due to their lack of knowledge concerning God and His Kingdom.

It is what we don’t know that allows destruction to invade and oftentimes prevail in our lives. It is not—as the world, the occult, and the New Agers erroneously proclaim—“the truth” that sets us free. That is a misquote and twisting of Scripture. Jesus never said that. Rather, He said it is the truth of His Word that we KNOW from abiding in His Word that sets us free, and the ones the Truth sets free is not everyone and anyone, but rather only His disciples (John 8:31,32)! The obverse of that adage holds true as well, however: the fact that what we do not know of the Truth precludes our liberation and permits our bondage and slavery to continue.

So there are some things we desperately need to know about the plans that God has for us, which we will look at in the next edition of this article. But, the most important thing of all to understand in the interim is that God has a plan and knows exactly what that plan is, and how He is going to implement it. In fact, everything is right on plan, despite what we see and hear going on in our world today. So there is no need whatsoever for the true believer to despair or become dispirited at all. Yes, the kingdoms of this world are being shaken to their core, but we have a kingdom that cannot be shaken.

Moreover, the True Remnant Church that Jesus is and has been building for two millennia should be rejoicing, and again I say, rejoicing, at the events and circumstances transpiring at this time, because (this much I will share in this edition regarding what the Lord has shown me) where it is all leading is the most monumental transference of wealth and earthly means in human history.

But, hear this, and hear it good, this massive transfer will be only unto the proven righteous, the third part remnant who have been tested as gold is tested in the fiery furnace, refined as silver is refined (Zech. 13:8,9). God will get it TO these, because He knows He can get it THROUGH them to fulfill His purposes and plans the ultimate end of which is the glorification of the Bride:

Haggai 2:5-9
‘As for the promise which I made you when you came out of Egypt, My Spirit is abiding in your midst; do not fear!’
“For thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘Once more in a little while, I am going to shake the heavens and the earth, the sea also and the dry land.
‘I will shake all the nations; and they will come with the wealth of all nations, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the Lord of hosts.
‘The silver is Mine and the gold is Mine,’ declares the Lord of hosts.
‘The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘and in this place I will give peace,’ declares the Lord of hosts.”

God has a plan, and He knows what that plan is, but even more exhilarating is that He promises to reveal those plans to us, His Children, through the Spirit:

But, on the contrary, as the Scripture says, What eye has not seen and ear has not heard and has not entered into the heart of man, [all that] God has prepared (made and keeps ready) for those who love Him who hold Him in affectionate reverence, promptly obeying Him and gratefully recognizing the benefits He has bestowed]. Yet to us God has unveiled and revealed them by and through His Spirit, for the [Holy] Spirit searches diligently, exploring and examining everything, even sounding the profound and bottomless things of God [the divine counsels and things hidden and beyond man’s scrutiny]. (1 Corinthians 2:9,10; AB)

True Unity of the Spirit (Part 3)

slambert@slm.org (Dr. Steven Lambert) — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 16:59:00 +0000

I believe in and covet unity among believers—wholeheartedly. I grealty prefer unity over disunity, harmony over disharmony, accord over discord, concord over controversy, agreement over disagreement, amity over animus. There are numerous Scripture passages stating God's desire for unity among the Brethren. Genuine unity of the Spirit is vital to the Body of Christ in order to accomplish the purposes and plans of God on Earth. Unfortunately, however, the notion of unity that many in the Church today have been indoctrinated with is not true unity at all, but rather a convoluted counterfeit that is used by some unscrupulous and unaware leaders as a subtle mechanism of manipulation aimed at predomination for self-aggrandizing purposes.

If you did not read Part 1 and 2 of this three-part article, I strongly urge you to do so, because the foundation was laid for this portion in the previous posts. This part cannot be properly understood or assessed apart from the backdrop laid out in those previous posts. Links to archived articles are on the right side panel. You may also read the entire 2-part article on my website at: http://www.slm.org/trtdigst/articles/unity_part2.html.

In the first post, I said I believe in and covet unity among believers—wholeheartedly. I talked about my surpassing personal preference for unity over disunity, harmony over disharmony, accord over discord, concord over controversy, agreement over disagreement, amity over animus. I quoted Scripture passages indicating God's affinity for unity among the Brethren as well. Moreover, I stated that I believe genuine unity of the Spirit is vital to the Body of Christ in order to accomplish the purposes and plans of God on Earth.

But, then I indicated that the unity I believe in and strongly desire is Biblical unity, juxtaposed to the many other ideas of unity that exist today in the world. Then, I narrowed our focus to the particular notion of unity that many Pentecostals, Charismatics, and other Neo-Pentecostals have been taught, the centerpiece of which is the premise of "covenant relationships."

Here again I will state emphatically and unequivocally that I believe in the concept of "covenant relationships"—within its Biblical bounds.

I believe it is vital that relationships among believers be predicated on our covenant with God that we share, and that it is vital that our interrelations be rooted in the koinonia that the Early Church experienced for a time. But, again, the pivotal qualifier with respect to unity is the word—Biblical. Indeed, the point of this article and the book chapter from which it is adapted is that, unfortunately, the notion of unity that many in the Church today have been indoctrinated with is not true unity at all, but rather a convoluted counterfeit that is used by some either unscrupulous or unaware leaders as a subtle mechanism of manipulation aimed at predomination for self-aggrandizing purposes.

As I stated in Part One, the version of "covenant relationships" that has now permeated much of the Pentecostal and Neo-Pentecostal church is a product of a spiritually toxic rue of Truth mixed with mysticism. Under the auspices of the fallacious and errant teachings of the Shepherding Movement of the 1970s that were woven into the very fabric, foundation, and functions of the Neo-Pentecostal Church at large, the application of the Scripturally-valid principle of interdependency and fraternal responsibility among believers, i.e., koinonia, is extended far beyond its import and true intent, and is conveniently transformed into very unscriptural chains of spiritual bondage and psychological captivation . While believers are to value and validate fraternal relationships, as well as demonstrate a certain measure of unceasing and "unconditional" commitment to one another, those relationships in terms of their application in the natural realm in the here and now are not sacrosanct or inviolable, and they most definitely do have limits. Understanding and acknowledging those limits is imperative to avoid excess and error. In this Part of the article, we will examine the salient characteristics of Biblical unity juxtaposed to those of this fallacious unity to which I allude.

Good and Pleasant Unity
Firstly, let's look briefly at the nature of Biblical unity. One dictionary offers the following definition and synonyms of the word "unity," which supply us with some excellent concepts concerning the unity that God desires the Body of Christ to flow in:

The state or quality of being one; singleness.
The state or quality of being in accord; harmony.
a. The combination or arrangement of parts into a whole; unification.
b. A combination or union thus formed.
Singleness or constancy of purpose or action; continuity.

Synonyms: unity, union, solidarity. These nouns denote the condition of accord resulting from an identity or coincidence of interests, purposes, or sympathies among the members of a group. Unity implies agreement and collaboration among interdependent, usually varied components… Union connotes harmony, cohesiveness, and often unanimity among individuals united in a whole…. Solidarity refers to the community of objectives and responsibilities that enables a group of people to think and act as one.¹

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity! (Ps. 133:1)

Separating the holy from the profane, we can see from the very first of the unity passages I cited in the first Part, above, that the unity being described by the Spirit, in that it speaks about "brothers," is a unity that is mutual among all the brotherhood, not just certain ones. Indeed, the pivotal word in this passage is "brothers." To understand properly the unity that God has designed for us to walk in, it is imperative to understand that all believers—laymen and leaders alike—are coequal brothers and part of the Brotherhood of Christ. In this Biblical unity there is an inherent mutuality, void of exclusivism and elitism—that "big me, little you" attitude—so overtly manifest and prevalent in so many churches, church groups, networks, and denominations today, leadership in particular. Nothing is more divisive and stifling of comm-unity and camaraderie than such attitudes of arrogance and ascendancy.

One revelation concerning which much of the Body of Christ needs a fresh and added awareness is that regardless of our God-assigned function and responsibilities, status, or station in life, all believers—leaders and laymen like—are on par as brothers. Jesus explicitly stated that in Matthew 23:8: "all of you are on the same level, as BROTHERS" (L.B.). Spiritually, i.e., in our spirit-being, all believers, male and female, leader and layman, are coequal brothers. Though there is diversity in function, there is yet coequality or parity in our spiritual status or standing in Christ. In a word, we are "peers" or "fellows." Understanding that we are fellows is the fundamental ingredient in experiencing blessed "fellowship." Indeed, the overriding point this passage expresses is that unless believers relate and interact with one another as coequal "brothers," there will be no true unity, and their relationships and interactivity, rather than being good and pleasant will be bad and unpleasant—yea miserable!

Having become spiritual sons of God through the New Birth, believers are even (cherish the unfathomable thought!) on the same level with Jesus in terms of our heritage and inheritance. Jesus is even our Elder Brother!

the FIRST-BORN of many BRETHREN (Rom. 8:29);

For both He who sanctifies (Jesus) and those who are sanctified (believers) are all from one Father, He is not ashamed to call them BRETHREN, saying, "I will proclaim Thy name to My BRETHREN" (Heb. 2:11,12).

Merely by virtue of the New Birth, every believer is baptized into the family of God, the Brotherhood of Christ (also known as the Church). Moreover, God has Himself elevated the entire entity of the Brotherhood of Christ to as sublime a height as possible short of infringement on the God-Head itself! Truly, if we ever fathomed the profound depths of this glorious Truth, all perceived need for preeminence and predominance over fellows among the Brethren would be instantaneously and eternally eradicated! Would to God it would be!

Part of what we can draw from this unity passage is that the unity that is being spoken of is mutually beneficial in many ways and produces "good" results. In Part One I talked about the anointed ambience, or supernatural atmosphere, that was manifest in the Early Church as a result of the apostolic dimension that was present among them. What it generated was works of supernatural power in the form of healing, deliverance, and miracles as well as supernatural working in the lives and relationships of the believers. The result of it all was that the Jerusalem Church was "having favor with all the people," and "the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved." Certainly that would qualify as "good" results of the "brothers dwell(ing) together in unity!"

The unity passage also described this kind of unity that occurs when the Brethren live in harmony and oneness of purpose, or koinonia, as "pleasant." Pleasant is defined as giving or affording pleasure or enjoyment; agreeable; pleasing in manner, behavior, or appearance; amiable, fair and comfortable (as in pleasant weather); merry; lively. When Brethren gather and live their lives in comm-unity, all of those elements are manifest. And when they are, that certainly is pleasant! Where that kind of comm-unity exists, it always exists because of the Presence of God, and the Presence of God is manifest there because there is a core group of true worshipers who are worshiping Him in Spirit and Truth, which causes God to inhabit the praises of His people. And wherever the Presence of the Lord is, the atmosphere is to say the least—pleasant! It is pleasant because where the Spirit of the Lord truly is present and truly is Lord rather than humans, there is always discernible liberty, liberality, and liberation from the influences of demons (2 Cor. 3:17).

However, there is nothing whatsoever pleasant about the obverse of that—the atmosphere in which human predomination is manifest. In groups where it prevails—where the leadership is wittingly or unwittingly employing witchcraft to dominate, control, and subjugate the followers—there is a distinctive foul, foreboding, fiendish sense of demonic captivation tangibly present and readily discernible to those not bewitched by its spell. Indeed, when the interrelations among the members of a group are not a "good and pleasant" experience, chances are the "unity" being promoted and pursued is not a bona fide unity emanating from the Spirit of the Lord, but rather a bogus man-centered "unity" characterized by bondage, restriction, constriction, and demonic activity and attack.

All of these conditions are indicative of the spirit of divination or witchcraft, which some expositors posit is symbolized in Scripture as the Python Spirit. A python is a huge specie of snake often 20 feet or more in length that kills its prey by wrapping itself around its victim and squeezing or "constricting" it until it crushes or asphyxiates it. Constriction is the primary modus operandi of witchcraft. Its ultimate goal is to squeeze the life right out of its prey. That's precisely what happens to followers of spiritual leaders who are exercising witchcraft over them—eventually they become spiritually crushed, the Pneuma (Breath) of God, the Holy Spirit, spiritual life, is squeezed right out of them, and they die of spiritual asphyxiation.

Coerced Conformity
there are two other distinctive characteristics of this type of false unity predicated on and supposedly emanating out of this erroneous version of "covenant relationships"—coerced conformity and required or expected uniformity. Here again the nature of a counterfeit is demonstrated. A counterfeit by definition is a fraudulent copy of an original, a mock up of the real. It has the appearance of the real thing, but it really is not the real thing. It is a pretense of the real thing, but it only feigns the nature of the real thing. It is a phony, a fake, a sham, a falsification, a fraud. The intent of the counterfeit is to defraud by making you think you have the real thing but you really don't.

In the case of the hyper-authoritarian counterfeit of "covenant relationships" and the sham unity it engenders, the very valid principle of interdependency and fraternal responsibility among believers is extended beyond its proper import and intent to virtually nullify and eliminate any semblance of personal autonomy and individuality. Contrary to the prevailing "wisdom" within much of Christendom, "autonomy," "individuality," and the much-maligned "independence" are not "four-letter words." In their proper application and context, these concepts are not at all incongruous with the Divine Nature and Christ-likeness. Ezekiel's vision of a wheel within a wheel portrays the precept of "interdependence with independence" inherent in the Kingdom of God and which is to exist in the administration and the interrelations of the Church of God.

God has created every human-being with a will, or volition, and endowed us all with the inviolable right to self-rule, or autonomy. So inviolable is that prerogative that not even God will violate or impinge upon it. Even when we choose to subject and subordinate our will unto God's as Jesus Himself did in the Garden of Gethsemane, that in itself is a voluntary exercising of our own free will. We choose to submit and subject our will and purposes unto God and His will and purposes, but He never coerces us to do so.

It may come as a surprise to some, but being Born Again does not mean that we forfeit our free will and right to self-rule in order to become some sort of mindless spiritual robot or zombie. Even after the Holy Spirit inhabits our being, we are still free moral agents, and are given the prerogative and privilege of operating in accordance with God's revealed will, allowing the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us by His inner promptings and urgings, submitting to His desires, and thereby allowing Him to live His Life through us. Being a willing participant in this cooperative coexistence is the great joy and privilege of it all. We are not compelled and coerced, but entreated and enabled.

Even when we are indeed Born Again, inhabited by the Spirit of God, and have become doers of His Word—active cooperatives for God on this planet—we still are not merely a contingent of identical "clones." Even then, we still have a certain amount of individuality, we still have the right of self-governance, or autonomy, and we are even given a certain kind and degree of latitude and independence within the bounds of righteousness. Independence is not intrinsically evil. While there is a certain amount of interdependence inherent in our relationships as members of the Body of Christ, nonetheless, God made us independent as well. Though those two concepts may sound contradictory, in fact they are not, but rather are quite congruous.

Yet in churches and ministries where predomination or hyper-authoritarianism is flowing down through the leadership unto the members, there is a definitive usurpation of their free will and right to self-governance. The followers are indoctrinated to believe that God requires them to surrender their will unto the will of their spiritual leaders, and that they must receive the approval of their leader(s) for major and in many groups even mundane decisions of life. They are taught that Scripture teaches that they must conform to the dictates and desires of their "masters in the Lord." This "coerced conformity" often starts out small and seems somewhat innocuous, but then continues to increase and expand until it is invasive and eventually pervasive. The victim is no longer his own or even God's, but the slave of some flesh and blood human.

Required Uniformity
The other characteristic of this fallacious unity is that of "required uniformity." True unity is not and does require uniformity. Too often, however, people perceive unity as being uniformity. In fact, it is quite a common thing among humans to view diversity as opposition and even as a threat. People are commonly suspicious, distrusting, and unaccepting of anyone who is significantly different than they. Sadly, that is too frequently the case among believers also, both individually as well as the groups they comprise. But true "unity of the Spirit" engenders a oneness and fellowship with members of the Body of Christ actuated in the natural, physical realm, however, based purely on "likenesses" in, of, and by the Holy Spirit. True unity can never be attained on the basis of our fickle carnal personal likes and dislikes. Rather, "the unity of the Spirit" is a unanimity in, of, and by the Spirit, produced by the confluence of diversity to create a complimentary and harmonious concinnity (working together) of "the body for the building up of itself in love" (Eph. 4:16).

All of Creation itself makes it abundantly clear that uniformity is not a God thing at all. And if it's not a God thing, it certainly is not a good thing. God, like so much of His Creation, created us all unique. There's no carbon copy of any of us anywhere. We are all "one of a kind," not just the "weirdos" to whom that term is often attributed. God delighted in making us all unique and so we should embrace it and learn to appreciate and like those things about us that distinguish us. It is okay to be different than everyone else. After all, even God called us "a peculiar people," and I always like to add, "some more peculiar than others." We all have things about us that make us "weird" to somebody else. We all have what others consider idiosyncrasies, and that's okay, as long as it is indeed idiosyncrasies and not neurosis or psychosis.

Today, with the prevalence of amateur psychology in our culture, it is common for people to try make a character issue out of what is in reality merely a personality issue. I enjoyed immensely what Graham Cooke said in different contexts concerning the uniqueness of his personality, in his book, A Divine Confrontation, which I highly recommend:

To read the rest of this article click here.

In the next and final part we will take a look at some of the effects of false unity and what it keeps us from possessing that God desires and has made provision for us to possess. We will also examine the limitations of true unity.

____________________

Endnotes:
¹Excerpted from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition. © 1996 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Electronic version licensed from INSO Corporation; further reproduction and distribution in accordance with the Copyright Law of the United States. All rights reserved.

This article is an adaptation from the book, Charismatic Captivation, which may be ordered online at: http://www.slm.org/pubs/ccbook.html, or from booksellers worldwide.

False Unity and the Lakeland Revival Cult -- Part 2

slambert@slm.org (Dr. Steven Lambert) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:05:00 +0000

Finally and mercifully, the "strong delusion" known as "The Lakeland Outpouring" or "Lakeland Healing Revival" is no more, after its main leader, Todd Bentley, has been exposed as the charlatan that Biblically-grounded and spiritually-discerning believers always knew him to be. In "ONE DAY," the farcical charade Bentley passed off as "ministry" emanating from the Holy Spirit and shamefully flaunted over satellite airwaves around the globe nightly for months on end on a television network audaciously, if not blasphemously, named by its founders, "God TV," was suddenly brought to a screeching halt by God Himself.

Almost immediately the ever-growing cadre of self-proclaimed international apostles and other leaders who virtually stampeded the Lakeland platform to make PR hay for themselves by associating with and effectively endorsing Bentley and the Lakeland fiasco are now scrambling to disseminate their statements of regret, explanation, and even apology. As sincere as their post-facto sentiments and apologetics may be, many believers, myself included, find it difficult to see it as anything more than variants of damage control and spiritual spin-meistering.

The fact of the matter is: the entire "outpouring" or "revival" — from the beginning — was indeed a shameful fiasco and fraud that surely those who brazenly claim to be the God-appointed "gatekeepers" of the Kingdom of God on the earth, should have been discerning and knowledgeable enough to recognize from the start. I'm sorry, I really am not meaning to be unkind or overly critical, but how much discernment does it take to know that someone who tattoos and body-pierces himself from head to toe more than a decade AFTER claiming to have been Born Again, and employs WWF "wrassling" body-slams, forearm shivers, step-over-toeholds, airplane spins, fireman carrys, and solar-plexus punches accompanied by such Neanderthal outbursts as "bam, boom, sheeka-heeka, batta-batta-boom," to "minister" to severely infirmed, crippled, pain-tortured, devil-oppressed, and even terminally-ill people desperately seeking Divine healing is not ministering through the genuine anointing of the Holy Spirit? Seriously — how much discernment does that take — to know instinctively and without any doubt that none of that is inspired by the HOLY Spirit but rather some very uncouth and unclean EVIL spirits? I mean, really people! The gift of discernment is not needed to know that! Nor is it needed to look into someone's eyes, smell their breath, and watch their physical movements to know that they are inebriated, as Bentley has now reportedly admitted he was during some of the Lakeland meetings. How much spiritual acumen does it require to recognize the lustful looks, body language, and behavior of a practiced and habitual adulterer, and to be able to deduce from his speech, attitudes, and interactions with his wife that their marriage is not what it should be?

Again, I'm honestly not trying to be unkind, nor am I reacting out of envy, as spiritually immature or untaught people often allege regarding anyone making comments such as these, but I seriously doubt the validity of the claim to apostolic or prophetic anointing and function of anyone who could be so easily duped by such obvious doctrinal deception that in some cases crossed the line of heresy and blatant ministerial travesty that at times crossed the line of outright blasphemy against the Holy Spirit! I'm seriously having trouble believing those that are that gullible, theologically liberal, and given to such compromise could possibly be genuine apostles or prophets.

Of course, I am not an "approved" prophet by the ICA apostles and the self-proclaimed "clearing houses for the prophetic" such as Christian International, in fact those of them who know me, and a number do, highly disapprove of me, nonetheless I AM a Heaven and Head of the Church approved prophet, and I have a pretty good idea what genuine prophets are like, and one of the fundamental characteristics of a genuine prophet is that they are obsessed with the Truth. They can't help themselves. They seek the Truth, speak the Truth, and refuse to compromise the Truth, no matter what — who it offends, or what it costs. Genuine prophets, who themselves are not compromised in some way, can no more compromise regarding the Truth than the sun can stop shining.

I'm sorry, but I just can't give the "high and mighty" — those who so arrogate themselves to purport to comprise the highest echelons of the Charismatic chain-of-command — a pass on this obvious display of lack of discernment and concern for the Sheep of God's Flock.The Charismatic corps d'élite totally missed it BIG TIME on this one, which really is nothing new, but the difference in this case is that they are publicly chagrined and chastised. If I were one of them, I would turn in my Apostle or Prophet badge, resign my position of status, and publicly admit I am not spiritual qualified to accept the title. But, hey, that's just me. I don't look for anything even close to that kind of integrity and honesty coming from the ranks of the ICA types of organizations.

Frankly, I believe it's all God! I believe it was a Divine "set-up" or "sting" of sorts. As I said in my first article on this matter, I DO believe the Lakeland things is a move of God — a move of "strong delusion" such that God promised to send upon those who do not "receive the love of the TRUTH...so that they might believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the TRUTH, but APPROVED (lit.) wickedness" (2 Thes. 2:9-12). There were a vast number of people other than Todd Bentley who were and are still being exposed by this "Sting of the Spirit." I don't mean for the same kind of faults and failures as Bentley's, but others that are just as spiritually defiling, destructive, ungodly, and grievous, both to God and genuine believers.

While one, so far, of the elite echelon of the International Coalition of Apostles, Dutch Sheets, has come forward to express his personal remorse and repentance for his implicit involvement in the Lakeland looniness as well as a host of the other Charismaniacal excesses and spiritual failures that have gone on over the course of the Charismatic Movement, others of the exclusive club's leadership have yet to acknowledge or accept any complicity in the obvious errors that were made, including the public and televised coronation ceremony over which the ICA's top leader, C. Peter Wagner, presided, along with three other ICA brass. Wagner has published some statements since his endorsement of the Lakeland Outpouring and Bentley attempting to explain his rationale, but many view his statements as too little, too late, and reflecting that he apparently is genuinely unaware, as sincere as he may be in his beliefs regarding the ICA's stated purposes and mission, of the negative view of the organization held by the majority of Charismatic and Evangelical leaders as well as laity. Apparently, similar sentiments are now being espoused within the ICA's membership, resulting in a number of them resigning from the organization.

Moreover, Wagner is not helping his cause at all by now suggesting that the Lakeland Outpouring should now be viewed as "Lakeland I" and "Lakeland II," which will be viewed by many as being just another attempt to whitewash the many errors that occurred in "Lakeland I" and to promote "Lakeland II," the supposedly "redeemed" continuum under the new leadership of Stephen Strader, the leader of Ignite Church and ICA member. Many believers are finally beginning to recognize "organizationalism" as the bane it has always been with respect to the Kingdom of God. Organizationalism and institutionalism has always been the assassin of every move of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit will not be confined, contained and controlled by men and their contrived organizations. When organizationalism moves in to hijack the move of God, the Holy Spirit departs and moves on to find true worshipers through whom He can operate. From that moment when the Holy Spirit departs, "Ichabod," is written by the Hand of God over the doors of the meeting place, and it becomes a haunt of vipers and overrun by serpents as evil spirits hasten to fill the spiritual void.

How I see it all is that those who were on the Lakeland stage the night of the ICA coronation, all became the natural ground when God downloaded a true "outpouring" of Kingdom Power into the whole "movement," and they were all electrocuted! I believe it was God, and that a lot of good things — meaning, a lot of long needed changes — are going to take place as a result of the Lakeland debacle.

The good thing about the recent implosion of the Lakeland Outpouring is that maybe we can all now move on to better things — real God things — and everyone can get back to daily and faithfully doing what they do in, of, and for the Kingdom, void as it is of all the hype, hoopla, and fanfare.

In the previous post, I was addressing the calls for "unity" that were coming out of and on behalf of the Lakeland Outpouring prior to its debacle, and how that the so-called unity that was being demanded by a multitude of voices endorsing and promoting it, is not the "unity in the Spirit" delineated in the Bible. Often, the "unity" that is being touted in religious sectors is not true unity of the Spirit at all, but a "coerced conformity" that does not promote the freedom that is always present "where the Spirit of the Lord is," but rather a dark, diabolical, and demonic bondage. In this case, the unity enforcers were saying that if you were not onboard endorsing and promoting the Lakeland hubbub you were anti-spirit, anti-supernatural, anti-charismatic, anti-prophetic, rebellious, legalistic, and had a critical spirit and a spirit of unbelief. Well, all those childish, revealing, yet dangerously demonic charges all sounded very familiar to anyone who's been part of the Charismatic Movement for any significant period of time. I've been so labeled by the Charismatic Cosa Nostro for most of my three decades plus in the movement regarding a plurality of new trends and developments that I refused to simply "swallow and follow." So, I'm used to being the odd man out on such things. I'm gettin' so I like that scarlet "R" for rebel they've branded me with, 'cause I've just never been one to go along to get along. Never have; never will.

The following is Part 2 of this series of posts that compares false unity to true unity. If you did not read Part 1, I urge you to do so. Links to archived messages appear on the right of this blog. If you are a new reader, I suggest you take a little time to browse through the past articles, which I pray will also bless and inspire you.

True Unity is Not All-Inclusive

It's just not humanly possible to be committed to everyone in the same way and degree as we are to our own immediate families or our spouse, nor is that what God intended. Contrary to the idiotic, New Age, one-world, humanistic philosophies, the human race is not "just one big cosmic-family." Yet, many professing believers have not disabused their minds from the plethora of these kinds of "vain philosophies" and replaced them with the Truth of the Word of God. The result is that the belief system of these professing Christians is an eclectic mixture of false doctrines rooted in false philosophies and false religions from Astrology to Zen and everything in between. Certainly no less can be expected when masses of professing Christians are practitioners of scads of demon-associated practices from martial arts to Freemasonry to occult rituals to yoga and a slew of other false religious rituals, and are ensconced in romantic relationships with practicing and therefore demon-possessed Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Shintoists, and so on.

God simply does not intend for us to be in "unity" with everyone! Unity is a oneness in mind and purpose. It is an agreement of sorts. Amos 3:3 says that two cannot walk together except by agreement. Believers cannot be in unity or agreement with and walk with certain people. That's just the way it is—deal with it! As much as you may want to bring the world's humanistic unity along with the rest of its vain philosophies with you into the Kingdom when you enter it, that cannot fly. And, at that stage of your immaturity, if you do not yet understand that and all the whys and wherefores of it, then you've just got to accept it by faith as being the wisdom of the wiser than you! Sorry, you've got to check all the world's philosophies at the door when you enter the Kingdom of God! I know it makes you feel diminished and vulnerable as you start off-loading all that "wisdom" and "knowledge" that you accumulated from the world's university of "higher learning," but that's the way it's supposed to make you feel—humbled is the word—so that you will cast the whole of the weight of reliance upon God Himself and none other. All of that is nothing more than hot air and bluster that just makes you feel smarter, wiser, and more grandiose than you really are anyway. It's all a lie, and you've bought into it all hook, line, and sinker. So, how smart are you really, O wise one? All along the devil's been lying to you and making you think more highly of yourself than you ought, which results in separation from God, so that he can ultimately destroy you. "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall" (Prv. 16:18); and, "God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble" (Jas. 4:6; 1 Pet. 5:5). So, why don't you make it easy on yourself and humble yourself before you are humiliated and come on down here with the rest of us Lilliputians who have realized we're a big fat ZERO in ourselves apart from God?

Believers are not called to be in unity and agreement with everyone! We can't be! Our quest is fellowship, union, and communion with God preeminently—to walk with God. By definition, to walk with God, we must be in agreement with God. To be in agreement with God intrinsically means that we are going to be in disagreement, disunity, disfellowship with fellow humans who are not walking with God. It's just that simple. The Spirit puts it this way:

Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and
lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? 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. "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 Cor. 6:14-18, NAS)

This is one of the many promises of God in Scripture that is a promise of contingency. It's a covenant, an agreement, a contract—with God. It is a promise, for sure, but it has conditions that are just as sure, and those conditions must be met if the promise is to be fulfilled. The benefits of the promise are great—to the person who meets the conditions. To that person, God promises to dwell with them, walk with them, be their God and be their Father. But, if the conditions are not met, one cannot expect the benefits of the promise to inure to them.

Imbalanced "Unity" is an Abomination to God

Close study of the relatively (and surprisingly) small number of unity Scripture passages makes it clear there is a distinct difference between the "unity of the Spirit" God speaks about in His Word and the notion of "unity" centered around "covenant relationships" and promulgated by Latter Rain-influenced teachers.

Subtle twisting of the Spirit-intended and -inspired import of God's Word and an imbalance in the application of the precept of unity has resulted in a distorted and debauched version of unity. Virtually invariably, over-emphasis, or over-balance, is what makes erroneous teaching erroneous, rather than the radical deviation from truth people commonly look for in their vigilance to spot error and avert deception.

Over-emphasis is over-balance, over-balance is imbalance, and imbalance is error, and—"A false balance [imbalance] is an abomination to God" (Pro. 11:1). Truth consists of counterbalancing components. Imbalance is averted by counterbalancing each component of Truth with the rest of "the whole counsel of God" (Acts 20:27, RSV).

Theological Truth is analogous to human cells in that each cell contains the protoplasm that comprises the whole body. In other words, each component of Theological Truth gleaned from the Word of God contains the essence of the whole Word of God, and will be completely compatible and congruous with same.

The unfortunate dynamic of imbalance or over-balance is that once it occurs, everything, even that which is good and right, slides toward the imbalance or error and becomes tainted by it. So that, once a person or a group loses spiritual equilibrium, a downward spiral into apostasy is begun. Only the sudden applying of a counter-balancing weight equal to the imbalancing weight can halt the descent, rectify the imbalance, and regain the equilibrium.

Many believers and whole groups of believers, unfortunately have slid into an imbalance with respect to "unity" that is an abomination to God. Thus, an equal weight to the over-balance must be applied to the opposite side to regain the balance and rectify the abomination.

In groups who are "out of balance," God often uses prophets to bring a counterbalancing word which when given brings an offense to the mind of believers caught up in the deception. Though Satan perverts and misapplies the concept, and interjects it into a plethora of a New Age "doctrines of demons" being proliferated today in the name of the "prophetic," it is nonetheless true that — it often is necessary for God to offend our carnal mind in order to win or enlighten our heart, i.e., our spirit.

True Unity is of the Holy Spirit, not the Human Spirit

Unity among believers is vital, but it is secondary to and actually a bi-product of unity with God. A significant corroboration of that truth, though I will not elaborate on it here, is represented in the typology of Moses' Tabernacle, in that the Table of Showbread, typifying the Communion Table, one aspect of which is fellowship among fellow believers (cf., 1 Cor. 10:16,17), was located not in The Most Holy Place of God's presence, or Holy of Holies, but its anteroom, The Holy Place. The former signified fellowship with God and the latter represented fellowship with one another.

True unity is a union or "oneness" with God first and then with our fellows second. True unity is a unity in which our love for and loyalty to God is first or preeminent, and all other relationships are secondary or subordinate. In fact, true unity is a unity that results in unity with fellow believers but is rooted in and an outflow of union and communion with God. The nature of true unity is that apart from God it does not exist. True unity is a characteristic of the nature of God. Thus, He alone is the source of genuine unity. Contrary to what some people apparently believe, unity does not exist because you are wanting to have or produce unity. Rather, it transpires when you become, as the Early Church did however briefly, "worshipers in spirit and truth." In other words, unity is an outflow of true worship—"true worship" being defined as "worship in spirit and truth."

Unity is a God-thing! True unity is the unity that originates with the Godhead, the Trinity. The three Persons of the Godhead continually live in complete unity—oneness of mind and purpose. There most definitely is a "oneness" with the Godhead, but not the kind that unitarianists or modalists want us to believe. It is this perfect oneness or unity that flows from the Godhead that is genuine, bona fide unity. That's the Real McCoy! All other forms of unity are merely human and are counterfeits! Without God, and without His Spirit flowing through you to shape and formulate your life, you will never experience or appropriate the real thing! Genuine unity cannot be manufactured, but it can be generated through supernatural communion (union via fellowship) with the Spirit of God both directly and in the human spirits that He habitates.

Distinguishing True Unity of the Spirit From Contrived Counterfeits

Click here to read the rest of the article.

This article is an adaption from the book, Charismatic Captivation, by Steven Lambert, ThD. More information, sample chapters, and online-ordering of the book is available at: http://www.slm.org/pubs/ccbook.html, or from booksellers worldwide.

False Unity and the New Lakeland Revival Cult

slambert@slm.org (Dr. Steven Lambert) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 20:08:00 +0000

The so-called “Lakeland Healing Revival” has produced a new cult of dogmatic religious zealots, who claim to be “Christians” birthing a “new form” of Christianity. They speak the words, the phrases, the idioms, the expressions associated with Christianity, but their doctrine, or teaching, their theology, their ways, the values and culture they advocate and promote are all far from comporting with orthodox or genuine Christianity.

Plain and simple, this whole phenomenon is nothing but just another of the long list of "Christian cults" that have sprung up in church history. To the discerning and experienced, the signs of cultism are all there—glowing and flashing like a neon sign. And, cultism is, in effect, synonymous with the occult. Thus, there is no such a thing as an innocuous cult, because all cults are ensconced in the occult, and usually in a plurality of ways.

The Bible informs us that Satan, formerly named, Lucifer, before his rebellion and consequential expulsion from Heaven, is the craftiest and the most subtle of all the creatures God created. He is the master-deceiver, who possesses supernatural abilities for deception. Mere humans, especially unredeemed humans, are no match for angelic beings, of which creational-class are Satan and his fallen cohorts. Satan himself, was one of the arch-angels, the highest echelon of angelic order, which resulted in him possessing supernatural power that, in his apostasy and rebellion, he now uses for evil and destruction. Thus, to the uninformed, naïve, and carnally-minded, cultism and even what is blatantly occult, is often difficult to detect or discern. But, not to the Spirit-led, Spirit-infused, Spirit-Baptized, and Spirit-taught. To them, the truly “spiritual,” cultism and the occult are as blatantly obvious as the proverbial nose on their face. They can spot it a proverbial mile away. When “deceiving spirits” are afoot and at work, their spiritual antennae go up, their internal spiritual radar begins scouring the atmosphere, and the Holy Spirit within their human spirit sounds the alarm like a reverberating air-horn, declaring, “Something is not right here; this is NOT OF GOD, but is the work of the Deceiver!”

Such is the case with this latest of occult “Charismatic” cults—"The Lakeland Healing Revival" or "Lakeland Outpouring," whichever title you prefer. The spiritually-discerning are not the least bit deceived or even for a moment disconcerted by this phenomenon, but rather immediately know without a shadow of a doubt it is a counterfeit, no matter how many purported miracles and decisions are reported. The true and infallible test of the workings of the Holy Spirit is inward workings of transformed hearts, repentance, and sanctification, not signs and wonders affecting the outward and physical. Regardless, the fact remains that those who worship in (Holy) Spirit AND TRUTH are still the TRUE worshipers that the Father seeks (Jn. 4:23,24). Satan, the prince of the power of the air, is able to exercise supernatural power on the earth affecting the outward and physical, but he is powerless to perform the inner workings of the heart. Genuine salvation and having relationship with God is a heart matter, not a soulish or fleshly matter. The Holy Spirit and the Truth (Word, Jesus) ALWAYS agree; they are never contradictory of one another. Operating in spiritual power, even if it is the Holy Spirit, is only one-half of the requirements of being recognized by God as being “true worshipers” who are engaged in true worship. To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln’s famous quote, “You can fool some of the people all the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool GOD ANYTIME!” And He is the ultimate judge, whose “opinion,” judgment or assessment, is the only one that ultimately counts!

Make no mistake about it, Todd Bentley, and all of the supposed leaders who have now allied and aligned themselves and their ministries with him and his ministry, have birthed a CULT of religious ragers and ravers (which I prophesy will be manifest soon). And, in true fashion of all cults, the cult’s leaders are now “training” and “commissioning” any and all of their adherents following their lead down the path they have forged to worship of false gods and the demons behind them as “evangelists” to go out anywhere and everywhere to “evangelize” and “proselytize” the “unbelieving” with their peculiar brand of “Christianity” with all its cultural distinctives and peculiarities.

These are the “new Charismatic Hare-Krishnas” going out into the highways and byways compelling (button-holing, strong-arming, demanding, commanding, and in some cases physically assaulting) the infidels to come into their new found cult and the “kingdom of the cults.” Like all cults, the leaders of the Bentley Bangers, are indoctrinating their followers with the tenet that to validate their “conversion” and “commitment” to the “cause,” they must go out and spread the word to the uttermost parts of the earth. Churches and the new universal church, the Internet, are being invaded and pervaded with the new cult’s “evangelists” declaring to Christians and non-Christians alike that this is the “new” God-approved “Way,” and if you don’t accept and approve of this “move of God” and all its weirdo ways, cultish and counter-cultural conduct, anti-biblical teachings, and occult practices, then you just can’t be a genuine Christian, nor can you be of God. For after all, this is “THE new thing” God is doing, and if you were of God, you’d be on the bandwagon waving the banners and declaring your allegiance to this “new god” of “revivalism.”

Moreover, now that a litany of acclaimed and self-proclaimed “spiritual leaders” claiming “universal authority” as “the global gatekeepers” have lent their credibility to this “new way” by publicly declaring their approval and affirmation of the new cult and commissioning its primary leader, Todd Bentley, there is a new wave of “unity” preaching spreading across the globe like wildfire, positing to all spiritual leaders that if they do not get in line and begin to march in lockstep with the teachings, practices, and cultural ways of this movement, they are missing God and are enemies of God and the Spirit. The message of the Charismatic Costa Nostra to all Charismatic leaders is that you must “go along to get along,” otherwise you will be shunned, ostracized, black-balled, and discredited.

In light of these recent developments, I am compelled of the Spirit to write what I hear the Spirit speaking to me on this matter of “unity” and what true “unity of the Spirit” really is and what it is not. The following is the first part of an excerpt of my book, Charismatic Captivation, which was first published in 1996, twelve years before the Lakeland phenomenon. It is prophetic in that it reflects what the Spirit taught me about the matter of true unity of the Spirit, as opposed to personal opinion or understanding. Of particular importance is the reference I make in the article about a “movement” that began in 1948 with which Todd Bentley has openly and repeatedly associated the Lakeland Revival. He has stated over and over again that the Lakeland Revival, like its predecessor “revivals,” such as the 1992 Lakeland Revival under Rodney Howard-Browne, Toronto, Brownsville, et cetera, are all a resumption, renaissance, or revival of the “movement” mentioned in the article. YouTube, MySpace, and similar Internet portals host scores of video clips in which Bentley makes these claims as ostensible validation that the nascent Lakeland Revival is a genuine move of God.

Due to its length, I will have to break the article up into three parts and even cut some of the original text from those parts. So, in order to digest the full import of the article, I encourage you to look for the other two parts in upcoming postings, or click on the title link to read the article posted on the Real Truth Digest (see link at right).

Balancing The Scales of Unity
I believe in unity among believers—wholeheartedly. I believe it is vital to the Body of Christ in order to accomplish the purposes and plans of God on Earth. More importantly, beyond believing in it, I want it. No, I covet it! That is, I have a strong desire for it. I much prefer unity over disunity, harmony over disharmony, accord over discord, concord over controversy, agreement over disagreement, amity over animus. Don't you?

We know God likes unity too. God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit spoke about it in Scripture:

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity! (Ps. 133:1)

I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and didst love them, even as Thou didst love Me. (Jn. 17:23)
being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. (Eph. 4:3)

until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. (Eph. 4:13)
And beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. (Col. 3:14)

I believe in and strongly desire unity, but I believe in Biblical unity. There are more versions of unity than just the Biblical one, however, that are not based in the principles of God's Word, Will, and Ways, but in a far different philosophy and agenda. For example there is the Muslim version of “unity” in which everyone in the world must believe in Allah and practice the Koran, and the entire population of the world is divided into two classes—“the faithful” (believers) and “infidels.” There is the Catholic Church's concept of “unity,” in which all the religions of the world are coalesced into a single “unified” “universal church.” Then, there is the humanistic, Age of Aquarius, New Age concept of utopian unity poetically and melodiously articulated by the hedonistic pied piper of the 1960s, John Lennon, in his idyllic ode to Godless one-world collectivism (i.e., socialism, communism) in which there is no heaven, no hell, no life after death, nothing worth dying for, but only “living for today” in a fallacious “peace” of passivity and total surrender to Satan's machinations, Imagine:

Imagine there's no heaven; It's easy if you try.
No hell below us; Above us only sky.
Imagine all the people...Living for today.

Imagine there's no countries; It isn't hard to do.
Nothing to kill or die for; And no religion too.
Imagine all the people...Living life in peace.

You may say I'm a dreamer; But I'm not the only one.
I hope someday you'll join us; And the world will be as ONE.
Imagine no possessions; I wonder if you can.
No need for greed or hunger; A brotherhood of man.
Imagine all the people; Sharing all the world.

You may say I'm a dreamer; But I'm not the only one.
I hope someday you'll join us; And the world will live as ONE.

And, that's just to name a few examples of so-called “unity” prevalent in this world system of the last days!

Pentecostals and Neo-Pentecostals have been taught yet another adulterated version of unity that has actually become chains of bondage to them. The centerpiece of that version is the hypothesis of “covenant relationships.”

In a nutshell, the premise of “covenant relationships” is that since all believers have come into a covenant-based relationship with God through Christ and His shed blood, and consequently have been “adopted” into the Divine Family (all of which, of course, is most true), then therefore, by virtue of that union, all believers have also automatically entered into a permanent, binding covenant with every other professing “believer” who has likewise become a partaker of the same transactions. Hence the term, “covenant relationships.”

This precept of “covenant relationships” with which most Charismatics are familiar, were first introduced in the writings of the principals involved in the spawning of the New Order of the Latter Rain Movement that emerged in Saskatchewan, Canada, in 1948. Thus, it is important in scrutinizing this concept for the purpose of assaying its validity, to keep in mind that it was a key patch in the fabric of “the manifested sons of God” doctrine—a primary component of Latter Rain theology—which the vast majority of legitimate theologians consider heretical. Nevertheless, Latter Rain adherents continued to promulgate their version of “covenant relationships” during the Pentecostal Movement during the 1920—50s, the Charismatic Movement with all of its sub-movements that began in 1960 and ebbed in the mid-1980s, as well as the nascent Prophetic and Apostolic Movements. It was during one of the sub-movements of the Charismatic Movement—the Shepherding Movement of the 1970s—that the fallacious concept of "covenant relationships" was widely promulgated and accepted, and consequently was woven into the very fabric, foundations, and functions of the Neo-Pentecostal Church.

“Koinonia”—Comm-Unity
The primary emphasis of the “covenant relationships” teaching is the interdependence and “koinonia” (i.e., commonality) among believers that proponents predicate on the fact that believers become “blood-brothers/sisters” by virtue of our having been adopted into the Family of God. Typically, purported pretext, or scriptural support, for this version of interrelations or relationships among believers relies heavily upon Luke's account in the Book of Acts concerning what took place in the Early Church in the days immediately following the original Pentecostal outpouring of the Holy Spirit:

And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. And everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all those who had believed were together, and had all things in common [Greek, “koina”; hence, “koinonia”]; and they began selling their property and possessions, and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. And day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42-47)

This passage is indeed a key source of information about the supernatural atmosphere in the Early Church following Jesus' death, burial, resurrection, appearance, and ascension that prevailed as a result of apostolic anointing and impartation. It truly was an ecstatic time! As the Body of Christ, individually and collectively, were being transformed into a collective Holy Habitation of the Spirit of God, and were gradually becoming more and more cognizant of who they were through the apostles’ teaching, their commitment and dedication to one another increased commensurately. There was a commonality, koinonia, that developed among them, in which they were bearing one another's burdens in both prayer and practice, and living a life-style that was a daily practice of vivid connection with the Spirit of God and one another.

In trying to understand this commonality, it is vital to understand that it developed as a direct result of the early believer’s devotion “to the apostles’ teaching,” preeminently. The apostolic dimension, when a group of people truly receive and devote themselves to it, will produce a supernatural atmosphere—an anointed ambience—in which the supernatural is commonplace. And when I say, supernatural, I am not referring only to the signs and wonders of healing, deliverance, and the miraculous, that were taking place through the apostles, but also to the signs and wonders—the supernatural—that was taking place in the interrelations and interactions of these people. It is not “natural,” that is, normal human nature, for a group of people to be collectively and individually “devoted” to much of anything. It is not natural for a group of people to “day by day,” consistently and persistently, “continue” in anything, much less something good and noble. Moreover, it is certainly not natural for a group of people to day by day continue in something “with one mind,” and especially not in the Temple (church). But then to continue with one mind not only in the Temple but also as they broke bread together in Christian Communion in one another’s homes, even doing it with "gladness and sincerity of heart," confirmed beyond doubt that what they were living in was truly a supernatural atmosphere! No wonder they were “having favor with all the people!”

This was genuine commonality, koinonia, or interdependence at its finest! This was living out in daily life Jesus' Commandment, which He said summed up all the law and the prophets—Love God and love one another. This was the essence and summation of the “Christian Life.” For this brief moment in time described in Luke's account, the Early Church was a living paragon of Truth. They were “true worshipers,” because they were worshiping God both in spirit and in truth, simultaneously. There was no separation between the spiritual truths they espoused and the application of those truths in their daily lives. This snapshot of the Early Church when koinonia was its centerpiece, is the model that the End-times Church should be attempting to emulate and regain.

So, lest I be misunderstood, let me hasten to say I wholeheartedly believe the principle of interdependence and commonality among believers is a valid principle, that is, within its Biblical bounds and framework. It is an incontrovertible fact that all genuinely Born Again believers have been “adopted” into the Family of God, and as a result have become spiritual brothers and sisters in the Lord. So also, the New Testament especially is replete with passages reminding us of our especial responsibility toward “the Brethren.” Thus, in no way am I demeaning or diminishing the validity of the special familial-type relationship in which the Brethren all share, or the special responsibility incumbent upon each of us regarding our brothers and sisters in the Lord. A study of the “one anothers” in the books of the New Testament will bring to light the privilege and responsibility really entailed in Jesus' command to “love one another.” Moreover, I would wholly concur that this privileged responsibility inherent with our special fraternal relationship has very real and pragmatic application in the natural realm and by no means is to be construed merely as spiritual rhetoric.

The Perverting Effect of Latter Rain Mysticism
Nevertheless, while the precept of interdependence and commonality among believers is certainly a valid one, as is the case with a number of other facets of truth, the version of “covenant relationships” that so many Charismatics have been indoctrinated with is a distortion and perversion that “exceed(s) that which is written,” going beyond the God-intended meaning and application delineated in Scripture. A common denominator of all heretical teaching is the “super-spiritualization” of perfectly valid principles presented in the Word of God that are intended to have a fairly natural, pragmatic application, and on the other hand, “naturalization,” or codifying in the natural realm, those things which essentially are spiritual metaphors and not intended to have a literal or natural application. The term that describes such super-spiritualization is: “mysticism.” Mysticism was quite prevalent in the doctrines of the Latter Rain Movement. Unfortunately, due to the continued strong influence of Latter Rain teaching upon the Neo-Pentecostal church, mysticism and mystical doctrines remain quite prevalent in the theology and culture of the Pentecostal/Neo-Pentecostal church today.

The version of “covenant relationships” that has now permeated much of the Pentecostal and Neo-Pentecostal church is a product of this spiritually toxic rue of Truth mixed with mysticism. Under the auspices of the fallacious and errant teachings, the application of this Scripturally-valid principle of interdependency and fraternal responsibility among believers is extended far beyond its import and true intent, and is conveniently transformed into very unscriptural chains of spiritual bondage and captivation. While believers are to value and validate fraternal relationships, as well as demonstrate a certain measure of indefatigable and unconditional commitment to one another, those relationships in terms of their application in the natural realm in the here and now are not sacrosanct or inviolable, and they most definitely do have limits. Understanding and acknowledging those limits is imperative to avoid excess and error.

Disarmament or Discernment?

slambert@slm.org (Dr. Steven Lambert) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 18:45:00 +0000

As I wrote in my last article, the fair State of Florida is an apostolic State, in that there is a long list of "firsts" relative to the history of the United States that transpired in Florida, even before it received its present name. Throughout human history going all the way back to the Garden of Eden itself, Satan has always had an uncanny "knack" at showing up wherever God is moving or about to move.

Such has been the case with the moves of God in the State of Florida. In so many ways, the Sunshine State is a "Garden of Eden" of sorts. It is no mere coincidence that over two centuries multitudes have been attracted to the pearled peninsula, whether it be its now 18 million residents or the multiplied millions of tourists who visit and vacation in the State every year.

Over the last hundreds years or so, there have been a number of prophecies predicting mighty moves of God that would/will be initiated in Florida. I believe a great move of God is yet to originate in Florida. But, as I am already on the record as stating, I do not believe the so-called "Lakeland Healing Revival" is the prophesied revival or move of God, nor do I believe it is a genuine move of God at all. The fact that supernatural signs and wonders are occurring at an event, regardless of its duration, is not and never has been the signature of God upon a move. As discussed in the previous post, the Bible warns us repeatedly about false signs and wonders authored by Satan. For some reason that fact is hard for some Christians to truly accept, and to acknowledge that not all manifestations of the supernatural are authored by God.

There are many voices in the world, the Word tells us, none without significance or impact, but not all are speaking on behalf of God. There are many voices out there in the blogosphere now extolling the validity of the Lakeland outbreak based on the fact that God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are moving in the midst of the assembled with healings, miracles, deliverances, and salvations. But, what those people fail to recognize is that those occurrences are not a fail-safe litmus indicator that the move or the principals involved in the move are operating through the auspices of the Holy Spirit, are sent from God, or that the persons and their ministries are approved by God.

The familiar passage that Jesus spoke during His fleshly visitation and ministry in which He described people who would prophesy, heal, work miracles, and cast out demons in and invoking His Name, but then astonishingly foretold in the day of judgment He would call them "workers of lawlessness" and command that they "depart" from Him, ascribing the cause for such severe treatment will be that "I never knew you," is a hard to understand passage for many, considering the fact that Jesus in His omniscience surely "knows" everyone who has ever lived. But, the true meaning becomes abundantly clear when it is understood that the word translated in most versions as "knew" actually means "approved." Jesus is saying that these people used His Name to elicit the results that Name, which is above every other name, produces, but that is a testament to the power and rank of that Name—the Name of Jesus—not to the person(s) using the Name. Approval of the person using the Name of Jesus is not predicated on the results he/she elicits through the Name, but rather it is based on who that person is—their life and their lifestyle. That's what Jesus meant when he said that false prophets shall be known or identified by their "fruit."

The Biblical term "fruit," contrary to the teaching of many, is not results or the produce of someone's ministry, such as how many salvations are attributed to their ministry during its history, or the number of miracles or other works of power recorded, but rather it is a reference to the "fruit of the Spirit" (Gal. 5), or the attributes of the Spirit that are manifest in and through their life along with the other mentions of "fruit" in the New Testament, such as James' dissertation regarding the "wisdom from above" that he concludes with, "And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace" (Jas. 3:18). Whatever results any ministry has been given the grace by God to produce are not attributable to the minister or their ministry, but rather the working of the Holy Spirit through that minister or ministry. Even in the case of salvation, we so easily forget in this age of hype and Madison Avenue marketing and slick public relations campaigns that people are born again by the abiding or living Word of God and they are drawn to Jesus through the wooing work of the Holy Spirit, and they are saved by grace through faith and that not of any man. Miracles and salvations are not the work of any human, but rather of God Himself. So, miracles, even if they are from God do not indicate God's approval of the minister or the ministry through whom they are being manifest.

With all of the false "fires" (purported moves of God), that are more a festival devoted to a pantheon of false gods, fraught as they are with a cornucopia of false manifestations, false doctrines, fallacious teaching about angels and angelic appearances, and New Age guided visitations into the Third Heaven nonsense, and the like, it is more vital than ever before that the End-time church heed the many warnings in the Scripture to examine and test all things, hold to that which is genuine and true, and discard and avoid all that are nothing but counterfeits. Moreover, believers just need to use their common sense that God gave them to analyze and judge things to know if they be of God or not.

But, I personally believe that our greatest need in this hour is a renewed awareness and understanding concerning one of the most vital yet often overlooked of all the Manifestations of the Spirit, or Charismata, which is the gift of the discerning of spirits (1 Cor. 12:10). The Apostle John, who saw and experienced about as much or more of the genuine supernatural as anyone who lived, especially of the New Testament era, admonished, "Test the spirits, to see whether they be of God." Testing the spirits to determine their origin and essence is not something that can be done with the carnal mind. Spiritual matters and operations are spiritually discerned. Supernatural, as compared with natural, discernment is what is needed to assess and judge the nature and origins of supernatural spirits.

There are three kinds of spirits: 1) Divine (God); 2) human; and, 3) angelic, which are divided into two types—good (God's) and evil (Satan's), who are those who fell with Lucifer and were evicted from Heaven and cast down to the Earth with their leader. Though it is not the purview of this article to explain all about it, discerning positively what spirit is at work when the supernatural is manifesting requires the operation of the Holy Spirit through the gift of the discerning of spirits. Indeed, in my next post I am going to begin discussing our great need for all of the supernatural gifts given to believers by the God-Head.

Though Pentecostals and Charismatics have talked about these gifts for a century, individual believers, churches, and whole denominations greatly underestimate their value and necessity in the believers every day life. When we understand what God intended in His giving of these gifts to us, it becomes clear how unfortunate our underestimation of the power and need for the operation of those gifts really is.

The following article, though it was written at the close of the previous millennium, makes some excellent points concerning our vital need to exercise discernment juxtaposed to the Adversary's deceptive calls for disarmament.
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PREPARED For The SLAUGHTER: The Disarming Of The Church
By John Green (1998)

"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom in Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed..."
—Noah Webster of Pennsylvania, An Examination of The Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution, Philadelphia, 1787

"[W]hen the resolution of enslaving America was formed in Great Britain, the British Parliament was advised by an artful man, who was governor of Pennsylvania, to disarm the people; that it was the best and most effectual way to enslave them; but that they should not do it openly, but weaken them, and let them sink gradually."
—George Mason of Virginia: Virginia's U.S. Constitution ratification convention, 1788

As history has shown, it is a common tactic for the oppressing force to gain control of a nation by seizing the means by which individuals might defend themselves. Once the citizenry are disarmed, it is a relatively easy matter to exert complete tyrannical control. It seems to me that the same principal holds true in the spiritual realm.

The New Testament is replete with warnings of false teachers and teachings, of lying signs and wonders, and of corrupt men who would seek to draw followers after themselves. God has not left His people defenseless. He has indwelt us with His Spirit of Truth, provided us with the example of Christ, His teachings, the teachings of the apostles, and all the other writings found in the Bible. There is a gift of the discerning of spirits given to some, but more importantly, there the ability to test all things and to be discerning, which is the responsibility of all believers. If the believer is to be armed against the deceptions of the enemy, and to remain free from his oppressive regime, then he must exercise discernment with continual vigilance. If this defensive weapon is seized and taken from you, then you are easy prey for any who would desire to take you captive.

Because of these things, it is very disturbing to me to observe a trend in the Body of Christ today. This trend is to scorn and belittle those who would exercise their God-given self-defense weapon of discernment. Those who would obey scripture and "test all things" are mocked and ridiculed from the pulpit, and labeled 'Pharisees.' It seems that the Church has fallen prey to the pluralistic, non-judgmental mindset of our present age. The one unpardonable sin is to question someone's belief, or dare to say that it might be wrong. These new leaders demand you climb on the bandwagon, and if you cannot agree, then you must remain silent at all costs. They call for us to experience now, and evaluate later. Adam and Eve had no experiential knowledge of good and evil. The Serpent called their attention to the attractiveness and desirability of the fruit, and enticed them to experience for themselves. In their later evaluation, they knew that they had been wrong to ignore what God had said on the matter, but by then the damage had been done.

Those who would remove the defensive weapon of discernment are binding the hands of the Church. They are preparing God's people for the slaughter. Why are they doing this? Why would they want to expose millions to the myriad deceptions of the enemy with no protection. Why do they take away what the Father has given? The Church is becoming a slaughterhouse slick with the spilled blood of saints who have been seduced by false teachers. The faithful plod forward to the killing floor, their trusting eyes fixed on their leaders. Error and deception runs rampant. Charlatans rule the bestseller list. Pseudo-knowledge is dispersed around the world, speeding through electrical synapses. Make no mistake. It is a battle, and much is at stake.

Let us examine the logic (or lack of it) behind what some of these leaders are saying: "You have to experience it yourself before you judge it." This is pure nonsense. It is the method the Mormons use to get people hooked in (pray about the Book of Mormon and see if you get a 'burning in your bosom'). You don't have to experience suicide to know that it is bad for you. Christians are never commanded to authenticate a questionable spiritual experience by submitting themselves to it. "If you don't jump in the River, then you may miss out on the move of God." If you don't exercise your duty to test everything and hold on to what is good, then you may be deceived. God is not in a hurry. If you are walking with Him, seeking to please Him, then He will guide you into all He desires for you. Just because someone proclaims something is a move of God, doesn't make it so. Beware of the salesman who pushes you to make a decision on the spot. He may have something to hide.

"God offends the mind to reveal the heart." I don't know what this is, but it is not Scripture. It is true that God's ways may be offensive to human wisdom. Often though, this quote is used to say that if you are offended by something going on in the Church, then your heart isn't right. The real issue is, are you offended because what is going on is unscriptural? If so, then stand fast. "Don't oppose what is going on, in case it turns out to be a move of God."

This is the argument used by Gamaliel in Acts chapter 5. Although this argument worked in favor of the apostles, it must be pointed out that Gamaliel was a Pharisee making a pragmatic argument. His was not a directive from the Lord on how believers should conduct their discernment. If something is not from God, ultimately, it is true that it will not succeed. In the time that it takes for a false movement to run its course however, many lives will be damaged, and many souls deceived and damned. Look at the phenomenal growth and apparent success of Mormonism. Christians rightly oppose Mormonism on a basis that it twists and deviates from Scripture. Things which occur within Christianity should receive no less scrutiny. Or consider the works of Satan. We know that he will not succeed, but we certainly do not sit back and allow him to do his work unhindered. When souls are at stake, we cannot afford to sit back and do nothing.

"Don't you want more of God in your life?" This is a sneaky one. Of course, any sincere Christian realizes that they need to grow closer to God, and they desire to do so. This should not lead us to embrace everything that comes down the pike however. Part of growing closer to God includes obeying His commands to test and be discerning. The desperation of some Christians reminds me of King Saul turning to the witch of Endor. He wanted an answer at any price. The price he ended up paying was his own destruction.

Look for yourself. See how many times the New Testament references false teachers, false teaching. Using your concordance, look up the commands to discern and test, to not be deceived. Shake off the chains of those who would seek to bind you. Exercise your "Right to bear arms" as a believer.

A.W. Tozer: "The healthy soul, like the healthy blood system, has it's proper proportion of white and red blood cells. The red corpuscles are like faith: they carry the life giving oxygen to every part of the body. The white cells are like discernment: they pounce upon dead and toxic matter and carry it out to the drain. In the healthy heart there must be provision for keeping dead and poisonous matter out of the life stream."###

This article may be reproduced in it's entirety for non-commercial purpose as long as it contains this notice. Reproduction of this article for free distribution is permitted. (C) 1998 by John Green. Questions or comments: azgreens@hotmail.com

SOURCE: http://housechurch.org/green/

FLORIDA WILDFIRES AND LAKELAND WILDFIRE

slambert@slm.org (Dr. Steven Lambert) — Fri, 16 May 2008 02:43:00 +0000

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

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

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

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

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

The July 2007 post concluded with this prediction:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Judgment Prophets

slambert@slm.org (Dr. Steven Lambert) — Fri, 09 May 2008 01:30:00 +0000

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Prophetic Function
By Art Katz

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Fallacy of Personal Pastors, Part 2

slambert@slm.org (Dr. Steven Lambert) — Tue, 06 May 2008 14:18:00 +0000

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Chief Shepherd

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Whose Flock Is It? Whose Sheep Are They?

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

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

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

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

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

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

AntiChrist Wolves

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Fallacy of Personal Pastors

slambert@slm.org (Dr. Steven Lambert) — Sat, 03 May 2008 16:04:00 +0000

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Spiritual Adultery

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

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

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

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

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

Spiritual Idolatry

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

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

[Read entire article: Spiritual Idolatry]

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

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

slambert@slm.org (Dr. Steven Lambert) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 21:18:00 +0000

So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, "If you continue in MY WORD, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the TRUTH, and the TRUTH will make you FREE." (John 8:31,32; NASB)

It was for FREEDOM that Christ set us FREE; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a YOKE OF SLAVERY. (Gal. 5:1; NASB)

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

Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that COVER with A COVERING, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin: That walk to go down into EGYPT [symbol of captivity in Scripture], and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh [symbol of Satan and autocratic dictators in Scripture], and to trust in the shadow of Egypt! Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your CONFUSION. For his princes were at Zoan [aka, Goshen, where Pharaoh met with Moses and Aaron; Easton's Bible Dictionary], and his ambassadors came to Hanes. They were all ashamed of a people that could not PROFIT them, nor be an help nor PROFIT, but a shame, and also a reproach. (Isaiah 30:1-5; KJV; emphases and parentheses added)

Before I begin this article, let me emphasize that it is vital that you first read Part 1 of this series which is its foundation.

Albeit, as a preface to this part, I will summarize some of what I stated at the outset of Part 1. To begin with, "Spiritual covering" as theorized by proponents, propagators, and practitioners of these hyper-authoritarian teachings is an absolute MYTH and outright deception! No semblance of the teachings concerning "spiritual covering" exists anywhere within the pages of Scripture. It is a complete fabrication concocted by the originators of these fallacious doctrines as a pretext for facilitation of entirely self-aggrandizing objectives of subjugation, domination, and control.

[For a detailed history of the Shepherding Movement and the genesis of these false doctrines, READ THIS ARTICLE.]

Indeed, what the Discipleship proponents refer to as "spiritual covering" is really "spiritual control." However, even the use of the word "spiritual" in this connection requires some qualification, because the only thing "spiritual" about this unauthorized control is that it is inspired by demon-spirits of deception and error. As I explain in detail in Charismatic Captivation, what the Discipleship version of "spiritual covering" really is, is nothing less than witchcraft or sorcery. When the myth has been thoroughly debunked, as it will be within these pages, it will be clear that this doctrine of "spiritual covering," like all the other aspects of the Shepherdship heresy, is a patently false "doctrine of demons" being manifested in these last days precisely in accordance with Holy Prophecy of Scripture which foretells of deception such as this being promulgated by demons in the last days, leading to many falling away from the Lord into apostasy:

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. (1 Tim. 4:1,2)

Spiritual Mediators
One of the foundational tenets of these fallacious hyper-authoritarian teachings is the matter of "absolute submission." Today, some thirty years after the Shepherding Movement teachings were soundly debunked and their originators publicly discredited, Neo-Pentecostal preachers and teachers for the most part are careful not to use that specific terminology. However, in the case of the majority of their audiences and adherents it is not necessary to expressly allude to the matter anyway, because the essence of the concept, as I repeatedly indicate throughout my writings on the topic, has been infused into the very fabric, foundation, and functions of the entire Neo-Pentecostal Movement. Not to say that the tentacles of these deceptive teachings have not reached into Pentecostal and non-Pentecostal sects and denominations as well, for they certainly have. Even Baptists, Methodists, Episcopalians, and other denominations have been polluted by the poisoned waters of the Shepherding doctrines in the form of the widely proliferated "Alpha Course," over several decades now.

The premise of "absolute submission" is predicated on the hypothesis that the spiritual leaders are in effect (though most Discipleship teaching adherents would emphatically deny the attribution) "spiritual mediators" between God and their followers, who assume the role of hearing from God on the behalf of their followers. According to the theory, the followers are spiritually deficient and inferior to the chain of leaders who are over them, and thus basically incapable of seeking and hearing from God for themselves and cultivating on-going communion and fellowship with God, so they need a human "mediator"—someone who supposedly has a more elite status and standing with God—to be a priestly "go-between" between "the stupid sheep" and God. The hypothesis is that the leaders are much more spiritual than the people, and therefore more capable of hearing from God what is best for their followers. By the way, if that premise sounds familiar to you, you are right, because in essence it is virtually identical to the theories upon which the surrogate priesthood and papal system of Catholicism were based, which, totally supplanted and negated the personal priesthood of believers in the Medieval Church. [Read Chapter 3 of Charismatic Captivation, for a revealing dissertation concerning the Nicolaitans and that sects' connection with the genesis of the "Universal (Catholic) Church."]

This whole matter of "spiritual mediators" is so totally ludicrous and such a complete affront to the truth of the personal priesthood of believers that every knowledgeable believer should be thoroughly disgusted and totally outraged at such an idiotic, outlandish, and even blasphemous notion. The Bible explicitly says: "There is one God, and ONE mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all...." (1 Tim. 2:5). There is never, ever to be any "spiritual mediators" between God and men, except the Christ—Jesus Himself. The Man with the nail-prints in His wrists is the only true spiritual mediator between God and Man. All the rest are pretentious impostors! Jesus is the only Man (human) who ever lived a perfectly sinless life, which was the requisite enabling Him to become the Spotless Lamb of God, the propitiatory sacrifice, typified by the oblational sacrificial lambs, which the Jewish high priests offered up for the sins of the people century after century.

So also was Jesus the true Spiritual High Priest, who those centuries of natural high priests who offered up the sacrificial lambs year after year represented. Those that came before Him were the types and the shadows, the mere "eikons" (Gr.) (reflections) of the real. Jesus was the real, the source of the reflection. He was the Image that the types and shadows reflected. He was the true Sacrificial Lamb who took away the sins of the world. And, He was the true Spiritual High Priest (Heb. 3:1), who offered up the true Sacrificial Lamb—His own sinless life—as a ransom for all, once and for all.

And the former priests, on the one hand, existed in greater numbers, because they were prevented by death from continuing, but He (Christ Jesus), on the other hand, because He abides forever, holds His priesthood permanently. Hence, also, He is able to save completely those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. For it was fitting that we should have such a High Priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens; who does not need daily, like those (O.T. Jewish) high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people, because this He did ONCE FOR ALL when He offered HIMSELF. (Heb. 7:23-28)

...we have such a High Priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a Minister in the sanctuary, and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man. (Heb. 8:1,2)

But when CHRIST appeared as a High Priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. (Heb. 9:11,12)

The point is that the true High Priest (i.e., Christ) has now entered into the true Holy of Holies into the actual presence of God as the ultimate and only effectual Mediator on our behalf (Heb. 9:23,24). He lives evermore in the presence of God as our Intercessor (Heb. 7:25), having appeased His righteous wrath, having taken upon Himself the punishment due us, and having canceled out our debt of transgressions which separated and disfellowshipped us from God. Hence, since Christ Jesus has accomplished the ultimate on our behalf before God, and perpetually lives in the presence of God as our spiritual High Priest and Intercessor, and since He has made peace for us between ourselves and God forevermore (Rom. 5:1), we hardly need human mediators between us and God.

His once-and-for-all sacrifice and entrance into the true Holy of Holies has granted us all equal access, free access, bold and confident access (Eph. 3:12), not only into the Holy Place, but also even behind the veil into the Holy of Holies, for each of us, even unto the very Throne of Grace itself, that is to say, the very Throne of "the God of all Grace" (1 Pet. 5:10). Of this access we are invited to avail ourselves freely, not coweringly but boldly, "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need" (Heb. 4:16, KJV).

To suggest that any human could do this for us as a mediator between us and God is not only preposterous and absurd, but also an affront to Jesus Himself. It is blasphemy! Those who pose and interpose themselves as mediators between believers and God are fortunate that God has not struck them down dead! Indeed, I believe this very thing will happen in the days ahead. God is now issuing fair warning! If Uzza, the loyal friend and servant of David was struck dead by God for merely touching the religious icon of God's presence, and if Ananias and Sapphira were struck down dead by God for having lied to the Holy Spirit, how much severer punishment would one deserve who is so blatantly blasphemous as to purport to be the spiritual mediator between God and men?

[To read how this matter of "absolute authority" and "spiritual covering" has been used as a premise for sexual authoritarian abuse by unscrupulous Pentecostal and Neo-Pentecostal church leaders, in particular, read the full article.]

Ultimate Accountability
You see, when taken to their fullest extent, what these false teachings culminate in, is an infringement upon the Biblical fact of ultimate accountability to God, which is to say that in the end everyone is accountable to God, and to God alone, for his/her conduct and for the substance of the life he/she lived. Ultimately, it is to an Almighty and All-Knowing God that we must give account for the totality of our lives. Ultimately, each believer is accountable only to the authority of God Himself, and not to any supposed "spiritual authority" of men, whether it be an individual or a humanly-constructed hierarchy.

This Truth and its veracity is unequivocally and wholly supported by the preponderance of Scripture, and proof-texts corroborating this absolute fact are so numerous that to quote them all would require a separate volume of its own. But, there is one passage that states it about as directly and succinctly as it can be stated, which is, Romans 14:12: "So then EACH OF US shall GIVE ACCOUNT of HIMSELF to GOD."

Moreover, the verses that precede this particular passage are also extremely enlightening and germane to this point regarding ultimate accountability unto God. In verse four, Paul poses the consummate question to which every believer would be well-advised to give careful heed: "Who are you to judge the servant of another?"

To judge someone else, it is imperative to understand, by its very nature, means that the person who is sitting in the seat of the judge is of a greater status, standing, authority, and behavioral stature, than the one who is being judged. Yet, clearly an overwhelming preponderance of Scripture teaches that as Jesus stated, "You (all believers) are all on the same level as brothers" (Mat. 23:8; L.B.; parenthesis added by author). As established repeatedly throughout this book, in the Kingdom of God there is absolute parity among believers. There is no such a thing as "big me, little you" in the Kingdom of God. Oh, to be sure, in real life, demonstration of carnal attitudes of ascendancy and arrogance over fellows is just as common among purporting believers as it is in the world. But, that is not the way it really is in the Kingdom of God and from God's perspective. Such fleshly attitudes are of the category of the "evil passions and desires" which every believer must crucify if he is going to show forth evidence or fruit that he has been genuinely Born Again and been made a bona fide partaker of the attributes of the Divine Nature (Gal. 5:24; 2 Pet. 2:4).

Notice also in the verse cited (Rom. 14:4) the phrase "servant of another." This makes it abundantly clear that every believer is a bond-servant of God, not of any man. Even when of our own volition we lay down our lives to serve others, we do so because in so doing the Person we are ultimately serving is God, not even the people we are serving, though they are the ostensible recipients of our service. The verse continues by saying: "To HIS OWN MASTER he stands or falls; and stand he will, for THE LORD is able to make him stand." In saying, " THE LORD is able to make him stand," the passage identifies the "master" of the believer as being the Lord Jesus Himself, and not any human.

Verses seven through nine of the same chapter in Romans go on to clearly indicate that every believer "belongs" ultimately to the Lord, and thus is not the subject of any human being in terms of ultimate accountability for his or her life:

For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; for if we live, we live FOR THE LORD, or if we die, we die FOR THE LORD; therefore whether we live or die, WE ARE THE LORD'S. For to this end Christ died and lived, that HE might be LORD both of the dead and of the living.

But, the next verse, verse ten, really puts it all into proper perspective by reminding us that none of us have the right to take unto ourselves the status of judge over our fellows with regard to the final analysis, assessment, and adjudication of their lives, as well as the fact that none of us have attained unto the transcendent or elite status required to grant us the right to regard a fellow believer with contempt or condescension, or regard any fellow believer, who is also a joint-heir, that is, equal-heir, with Christ, as in any way inferior or "subjectable" to us so as to be their judges, because we are not the judges; rather, we all are the "judgees," ourselves who will be judged by "the righteous Judge" (2 Tim. 4:8):

But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? FOR WE SHALL ALL STAND BEFORE THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF GOD. (Rom. 14:10)

Hebrews 12:23 refers to "THE Judge of ALL," which is none other than God Himself. Hebrews 10:30 plainly tells us: "THE LORD will judge His people," which means that ultimate accounting and the final adjudication of our lives is relegated to the Lord alone. The reason for this is simple: perfect and perfectly righteous and just judgment requires omniscience and infinite knowledge and wisdom, which we, in our human estate of extremely finite knowledge, do not possess. Only God is capable of judging "the thoughts and intentions of the heart" with perfect knowledge, wisdom, and understanding, for it is to His eyes, the manifold eyes of the Spirit, alone that all that we are is "open and laid bare" (Heb. 4:12,13). He who knows us most is the one who can judge us best. No one knows us—who we really are, the totality of our constitution and the reasons behind it all, good or bad—like God knows us. Amazingly, God is the one who KNOWS us BEST and yet LOVES us the MOST.

Thus, we see the incontrovertible and unequivocal truth that ultimately every believer is accountable to God and not to any mere mortal. As I have said elsewhere in this volume, only the one with the nail prints in His hands is the one who has been found worthy to be our Lord, Master, and Savior. This is precisely the import of James' statement wherein speaking of Jesus He says: "There is ONLY ONE Lawgiver and Judge, THE ONE WHO IS ABLE TO SAVE and to destroy, but who are you to judge your neighbor?" (Jas. 4:12).

So, dear saint of God, the next time someone tries to "pull rank" on you, intimidate, or subjugate you with some humanly contrived, imaginary, unauthorized, invalid, Scripturally-prohibited, and non-existent, claim of pseudo-authority, ask that person to stretch forth his or her hands, and look to see if there are nail-holes in those hands. If not, just have a good chuckle, turn, walk away, and simply forget it! Because that person is not YOUR Lord or YOUR Master! He's just another pretender and imposter—false Christ—motivated by an antichrist spirit! Then PRAISE JESUS—the One who is able to save and destroy to the uttermost—FOREVER! HE ALONE is Lord!

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

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

slambert@slm.org (Dr. Steven Lambert) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 18:24:00 +0000

So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, "If you continue in MY WORD, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the TRUTH, and the TRUTH will make you FREE." (John 8:31,32; NASB)

It was for FREEDOM that Christ set us FREE; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a YOKE OF SLAVERY. (Galatians 5:1; NASB)

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

Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that COVER with A COVERING, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin: That walk to go down into EGYPT [symbol of captivity in Scripture], and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh [symbol of Satan and autocratic dictators in Scripture], and to trust in the shadow of Egypt! Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your CONFUSION. For his princes were at Zoan [aka, Goshen, where Pharaoh met with Moses and Aaron; Easton's Bible Dictionary], and his ambassadors came to Hanes. They were all ashamed of a people that could not PROFIT them, nor be an help nor PROFIT, but a shame, and also a reproach. (Isaiah 30:1-5; KJV; emphases and parentheses added)

The second primary conceptual error on which the heretical hyper-authoritarian Discipleship/Shepherding doctrines are established, is the matter of "spiritual covering." Indeed, so-called "spiritual covering" is the very centerpiece of these wholly unBiblical teachings and the authoritarian abuse they engender, which is absolutely endemic in Pentecostal and Neo-Pentecostal (Charismatic, "third wave," and New Apostolic Reformation) sects. Over the course of the 20th Century it became institutionally infused into the very fabric, foundation, and functions of these groups, meaning in their protodenomination and network organizations. Virtually none of those in existence today are free from the influence and attitudes of domination and control over their adherents. It is witchcraft of the highest order for the basest of motivations—mammon—the love of money and self-aggrandizement.

Let me begin by stating plainly and directly: "spiritual covering" as theorized by the Discipleship theosophy is an absolute MYTH. No semblance of the Shepherding teaching version of "spiritual covering" exists anywhere within the pages of Scripture. "Spiritual covering," in the vein it is presented by proponents and propagators of these hyper-authoritarian teachings, is an outright deception! It is a complete fabrication concocted by the originators of these fallacious doctrines as a supposed pretext for facilitation of entirely self-aggrandizing objectives of subjugation, domination, and control.

[For a detailed history of the Shepherding Movement, READ THIS CHAPTER.]

Indeed, what the Discipleship proponents refer to as "spiritual covering" is really "spiritual control." However, even the use of the word "spiritual" in this connection requires some qualification, because the only thing "spiritual" about this unauthorized control is that it is inspired by demon-spirits of deception and error. As we shall discuss later in Chapter Nine, what the Discipleship version of "spiritual covering" really is, is nothing less than witchcraft or sorcery. When the myth has been thoroughly debunked, as it will be within these pages, it will be clear that this doctrine of "spiritual covering," like all the other aspects of the Shepherdship heresy, is a patently false "doctrine of demons" being manifested in these last days precisely in accordance with Holy Prophecy of Scripture which foretells of deception such as this being promulgated by demons in the last days, leading to many falling away from the Lord into apostasy:

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.(1 Tim. 4:1,2)

Proofing the Proof-text
Discipleship proponents point to a particular Pauline dissertation found in the Eleventh Chapter of First Corinthians as the primary purported proof-text for their concept of "spiritual covering." It will soon be evident, however, that, as is typical of the other aspects of Discipleship errors, the assertions made on the basis of these verses are the product of blatant and overt perversion, distortion, misrepresentation, and misapplication of the true import and intent of the passage. The unfortunate effect of this corruption of Canon is essentially the same as that which inured unto the Galatians, which was that they became guilty of "deserting" Christ for a different "christ" and a different gospel:

I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ; for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you, and who want to DISTORT the gospel of Christ.(Gal. 1:6)

The following is the passage from which the concept of "spiritual covering," as well as several other assertions made by Discipleship proponents, is extrapolated. Since it will be a basis for much of this discussion, it has been set in verse format for easier reference. Also, I have added some explanations which appear in italics and parentheses, to assist in understanding the true import of these verses.

First Corinthians 11:2-16:

Now I praise you because you remember me in everything, and hold firmly to the traditions, just as I delivered them to you.

But I want you to understand that Christ is the Head of every man, and the man

is the head of a

woman

and God is the Head of Christ.

Every MAN who has something on his Head

while praying or prophesying, disgraces his Head

But every woman who has her head uncovered

while praying or prophesying, disgraces her head (her husband); for she is one and the same with her whose head is shaved

For if a woman does not cover her head

, let her also have her hair cut off; but if it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, let her cover her head.

For a man ought NOT to have his head covered, since he is the image and glory of God; but the woman

is the glory of man

For man does not originate from woman, but woman from man;

for indeed man was not created for the woman's sake, but woman for the man's sake.

Therefore the woman ought to have authority on her head, because of the

angels.

However, in the Lord, neither is woman independent of man, nor is man independent of woman.

For as the woman originates from the man, so also the man has his birth through the woman; and all things originate from God.

Judge for yourselves: is it proper for a woman to pray to God with head uncovered?

Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair

, it is a dishonor to him,

but if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her? For her hair is given to her for A COVERING (a

protection)

But if one is inclined to be contentious, we have no other practice, nor have the churches of God.

Now I don't want to be unkind, but in my opinion a person must be totally brainwashed to read this text and in all sincerity and earnestness conclude it says what Discipleship proponents and adherents assert that it says. Indeed, this text has been used as a premise for a number of pretty silly and bizarre notions, ranging from the role of women in the church all the way to the assertion that God is saying here that women are supposed to wear little doilies on their heads when they attend church. So let's examine this passage, and see what it really says and what it does not say.

Pertinent Peculiarities of the Language
First of all, an extremely vital fact to keep in mind in all Bible study and interpretation, and one which I must take a moment to point out here at the very outset of our scrutiny of this text, is that the Greek language, in which most of the New Testament was written originally, did not have a specific word for "husband" and "wife" as in the English language. Instead, the word for husband is the word for "man," and the word for "wife" is the word for "woman." The only way to determine whether the reference is to the male gender class or to the office of husband, or likewise to the female gender class or the office of wife, is by deciphering the intent of the context. This fact is absolutely critical to the particular passage we are examining here and to properly evaluating and understanding its import.

So, with this in mind, careful scrutiny of the context of these verses on the backdrop of the whole of Scripture, leads to the unequivocal and incontrovertible conclusion that the words used here which are translated in many English versions as "man" and "woman" really should be "husband" and "wife." Validation of that is inherent in the fact that the principles evoked in this passage are limited in application to the husband and wife relationship. They are NOT applicable in the context of general interrelations between men and women, but rather only apply in the sphere of the husband and wife relationship.

Identifying the Subject and Scope
Once these peculiarities of the language are understood, the next matter of utmost importance is identifying the subject and scope of the passage we are examining. For reasons that shall become evident, it is vital to understand that the clear and unmistakable subject of this passage is the matter of Domestic Divine Order, that is to say, the order of authority existing among husbands and wives and their children, or to say it yet another way, the government operable within the structure of the FAMILY unit. "Domestic Authority" is the exclusive focus as well as the limits of the scope of this passage. The aspects and applications of the authority addressed in these verses are limited to the purview of that particular ilk of authority, and cannot be universally applied to other types of authority.

Recognizing the true focus and scope of this text is crucial to comprehending its import. Not recognizing these parameters, or blatant disregard of them, whichever may be the case, has been a primary factor resulting in the formulation of the fallacious assertions adamantly proclaimed and staunchly defended by Discipleship proponents supposedly based on this passage. To be specific, the matter of "spiritual covering" is the heart of the issue. And indeed, there is a type of spiritual covering that is addressed in these verses. However, what is critical is that, as stated already, the spiritual covering that is discussed in this context is NOT Ecclesiastical Authority, that is to say, Governmental Authority within the Church. Rather, Domestic Authority is the clear and unequivocal focus of Paul's dissertation here, which the Apostle makes evident in verse three by specifically identifying the topic of this portion of his letter and by expressing explicitly what it is he wants the readers to understand: "But I want you to understand that CHRIST is the Head of every man, and the MAN (HUSBAND) is the head of a WOMAN (his WIFE), and GOD is the Head of Christ."

Another way to characterize the focus of this passage, which the enbolded portions of this verse bring out, is: "spiritual headship." However, the propensity of some to "exceed that which is written" has resulted in the misconstruction and misapplication of this perfectly valid truth, and the manufacturing of a kind of so-called "headship" based purely in human imagination without any Scriptural foundation whatsoever. In point of fact, the only valid ilk of "spiritual headship" or "spiritual covering" there is, and the only one which is supported by the Word of God, is that which is being addressed here, which is the "spiritual headship" and "spiritual covering" the husband provides for his own wife as the God-appointed representative of Christ within the family unit. In no way, however, does this passage contain any evidence or corroboration of the sort of "spiritual covering" Discipleship proponents allege is provided by a shepherd to his followers. To extrapolate from this passage a pretext for some sort of "headship" interposable by "spiritual leaders" over subordinate believers is an act of gross distortion, convolution, and misrepresentation of the Word of God, as well as an act of blatant and extreme irresponsibility.

CHRIST—the Only Spiritual Covering for Every Man
Now as I stated initially, ecclesiastical authority is decidedly not the focus of this passage. Indeed, the only mention of the matter of ecclesiastical authority occurs in oblique references in verses four and seven, which actually state the very opposite of what the Discipleship/Shepherdship proponents purport the verses say and the very opposite of the assertions they cite the verses as a proof-text for:

Every MAN who has something on his Head

while praying or prophesying, disgraces his Head

For a MAN ought NOT to have his head covered, since he is the image and glory of God; but the woman

is the glory of man

In verse four, Paul specifically states that, juxtaposed to the married woman, who must have a covering of spiritual authority, i.e., a spiritual "head," which role is fulfilled by her husband, any man who covers his Head with a "spiritual covering"—a human, surrogate, intermediary "head"—is bringing reproach, dishonor, and disgrace to his Head, because, as Paul indicates repeatedly in this text, the man's Head is Christ Himself. Thus, to characterize the import of the text in another, forthright fashion: in this passage, the Spirit is expressly prohibiting human, surrogate, intermediary spiritual "headship" in the case of MEN, in that Christ Himself is the Head, or "spiritual covering" "of every man" who is truly Born Again and has truly submitted to the Lordship of Christ over his life.

Notice also the phrase "while praying or prophesying." Praying and prophesying are the spiritual activities and functions in which believers are to engage. This phrase gives qualification to this statement, making its import to be that it is in the realm of spiritual activities and endeavors in particular that a man is NOT to have another human being as his "head," or as a "covering," for that role and function is to be fulfilled by the Lord Jesus alone. Christ alone is qualified and capable of fulfilling that crucial role and function.

This is vital to the matter of the Discipleship error, because this has been one of the areas of greatest excess and abuse, in that many so-called "spiritual leaders" (especially laymen) in these in-house "chains of command" became extremely caught up in their newly acquired (albeit, illegitimate) authority, for which they were not properly grounded or adequately developed or sufficiently mature spiritually to properly handle, but which they nonetheless began to wield and intrusively interpose into the lives of their "subordinates," including their most private, personal, and even intimate choices and decisions. The outlandish and totally false hypothesis was that each of the multi-levels of "spiritual leaders" over the peonic, subjugated, and supposedly inferior believer were his "spiritual heads" and "spiritual coverings," and whatever communication or correction God desired to relate to the believer, He would relay through one of these surrogate "heads," and so-called "confirmation" of the validity and veracity of the communication would manifest in the form of unanimous "agreement" among all these "heads." Theoretically, if just one of the "heads" in the chain of "heads" did not have "a witness" for the matter, that meant the communication was not from or of God.

This "no witness" nonsense became a primary mechanism of control, manipulation, domination, and other more nefarious activities, in an array of circumstances ranging from preventing members from leaving the church or group, to sexually-oriented abuse under the color of spiritual authority. The gravely damaging effect of this absurd and wholly false theosophy and system of religious enslavement is well captured in the quoted impassioned complaint of a former member of the Discipleship Movement responding to Bob Mumford's attempted conciliation with disjoined former followers:

"Saying I'm sorry wasn't enough....We had been taught that the men who led us somehow heard from God better than we did. Even after we left the movement there was that hidden fear that they might be right and we were somehow less of a Christian and had failed God by not being totally obedient to them." (Mumford Repents of Discipleship Errors, Charisma & Life, February 1990, pp. 15,16)

Though we are certainly to avail ourselves of the ministry God disseminates through Fivefold ministers, and though we are to maintain a compliant and cooperative attitude toward them, and treat them with due honor and respect, no mere human is ever the "head" or "spiritual covering" of any other man, especially; or woman, for that matter, because "spiritual covering" exists and is effectual only in the relationship of the husband to his own WIFE—no other woman. In other words, even a Fivefold minister—apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher—is the spiritual "head" of only ONE woman on this planet—his own WIFE (if he is married)! That, my friend, is it! FURTHERMORE, a Fivefold minister is the spiritual "head" of absolutely NO MAN! I cannot state it any more succinctly or directly than that.

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

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

slambert@slm.org (Dr. Steven Lambert) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 13:13:00 +0000

The main focus of the initial installment of our discussion was the matter of hyper-authoritarianism in general and how easy it is for the most principled spiritual leaders to cross over the "thin line of leadership" between leading and lording, discipling and dominating, coaching and coercing, to operate in "foul ground" without even realizing it. In this part, we begin turning our attention to some of the whys and wherefors of ecclesiastical predomination.

Of course, as was pointed out in the Part 1, there is nothing new about authoritarian abuse by spiritual leaders. In any age, there is no shortage of unscrupulous religious dictators bent on self-aggrandizement facilitated through personal kingdom-building purportedly "in the name of the Lord." Nevertheless, while it is not indigenous exclusively to our time, due perhaps to the move toward organizational ecumenicism commonly referred to today as "networking," there is little doubt that it is more widespread than ever before, to the point that sadly the term, "ubiquitous," now applies. Unfortunately, today there is little difference between the ecclesiastical and the secular realm with respect to corruption. And, after no small number of years of studying this phenomenon, I have concluded that the primary cause is nothing more sophisticated than base greed fueled by the oldest and most powerful human propensity which God Himself testifies is the ROOT of ALL evil -- "the love of money."

Moreover, whatever the premise and psychology behind it, the sad historical record is that few of the corrupt and covetousness-crazed ecclesiastical autocrats alluded to herein are ever heedful of the criticisms or pleas of their fellows to turn back from such blatantly aberrant behavior, thus we will not engage here in the futility of attempting to convince them to do so. What is written here, is primarily for those sincere, honest, earnest, upstanding, and conscientious leaders who may realize from the reasonings offered herein that unwittingly and unintentionally from time to time they have transgressed the invisible line between leading and lording. The majority of that ilk, we are persuaded, will follow the leading of the Spirit to discontinue any unscriptural and improper leadership techniques, methods, and methodologies.

Most reasonable ministry professionals, if forthright, would agree that ecclesiastical predominance and authoritarian abuse exists in nearly every branch of the Church -- denominations, modern proto-denominational associations and "networks," as well as among independents -- and in far too great a quantity. Regardless of the "checks" against such errancy supposedly inherent in an "established" ecclesiastical hierarchy, every honest minister knows there exists -- between the sequestered and secluded air-conditioned offices of organizational headquarters and the salt mines of the local church -- a cavernous void rife for subtile selfish-ambition, self-aggrandizement, and corruption by unscrupulous church-leaders.

As earnest as organizational officials may be about their role of "overseeing," it has limitations. A local church-leader so disposed can construct a partition around the affairs of that local operation, buttressed by servile and intensely loyal church cronies, that is quite difficult to "see over." Despite genuinely believed, eloquently articulated, and convincing pontifications describing the purported fail-safe system of accountability in place between the senior church leader and headquarter officials, the unsavory reality is that a leader could be a drunkard, womanizer, wife-beater, child-molester, swindler, and egregious authority-abuser, without anyone at headquarters ever knowing until a cataclysmic public eruption occurs. Indeed, the increasing public scandals of this sort involving high-profile ministers lading the news-media these days is testimony of that reality. Impersonal hierarchical governance will never be a safeguard against these potentialities. Only down-to-earth, real relationships with real mutual accountability based on a balance between "the God-kind of love" and the standard of "God-kind of living" among equals having different functions and responsibilities can ensure against inappropriate behavior and improper practices by church leadership.

The stark truth remains, even in these days of supposed increased human knowledge, political systems by their very nature, whether secular or ecclesiastical, are fertile breeding grounds for corruption. As long as the Church insists on mimicking the world's way of star-worship and undue exaltation of its leaders, and coronating them with inordinate and undue political and monetary deference and "power" attributed to royalty, we will continue to subject ourselves to such ecclesiastical corruption and public chagrin. For, as Lord Acton so aptly observed, "Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely." By no means are the hallowed halls of the Ecclesia a safe-haven from that adage.

Maybe it's our European lineage, or maybe it's just a basic human propensity, but the American Church seems to have this inexorable need for a de facto ecclesiastical aristocracy from which it is not willing to repent. Like Israel in the day of Saul, we clamor for our kings and our queens after the manner of the other nations of the world. We are even willing to render unto our Caesars a superabundance of our personal resources in order to have royalty through whom to vicariously live a life of opulence, ease, and privilege. Like the nations of the world, we just plain want our kings. They need not even subjugate or conquer us to gain aristocratic ascendancy, for we freely and wantonly bestow it upon them. Speaking about the need for a single world leader who would have the political cunning and charisma to preside over a one world order, a senior United Nations official quipped to reporters some two decades ago now, "Give us a super-leader, be he devil or Divine, and the world will follow!" Likewise, this seems to be the collective clamor for Christendom as well. And, the worldwide, ever-expanding move toward the false unity of ecclesiastical ecumenicism taking place in the institutional churches is certainly further evidence of that religion-related proclivity.

So it is not only base lusts of crazed charlatans that leads to authoritarian abuse, but rather it exists and even flourishes also because of the unredeemed fleshly desires of those who are willing to be subjugated by charismatic beguilers spewing forth utopian promises of grandeur. Let's face it, somewhere in the human psyche is the desire for Oz, a new Garden of Eden, heaven on earth -- call it what you will -- we long for it, even Christians, who theologically should know better. Little wonder then that even the "elect" can be so easily deceived by new-age "New World" philosophies and vain promises. Unredeemed humanity and unenlightened Christianity alike crave utopia now, in this life, in this present world-system -- never mind that it is antichrist-ruled -- rather than have to endure the temporary duresses requisite to the manifestation of Christ's Kingdom on earth.

Besides having a general dislike for learning, mankind, as a whole, is intellectually and spiritually lazy. The majority of people don't want to have to study, to read, to seek, to investigate, to ruminate, to mentally assimilate, to pray -- we want someone else to do all that for us, because it requires too much effort and cuts into the time we allot to leisure, pleasure, and entertainment. Thus, what most people are looking for is not merely a spiritual shepherd -- someone to teach and guide us in the ways of God, but a guru, a dalai, a priest -- someone to do all the "spiritual stuff" for us, and then just tell us what we should believe and do.

The fact of the matter is, especially in a free society, there would be no authoritarian subjugation if there were no one willing to be subjugated by self-aggrandizing despots. Without question, in the case of many, their tacit acquiescence to predomination is purely a matter of intellectual and spiritual laziness coupled with general apathy. However, in those cases where a very defined and definitive system of deliberate domination and control has been instituted, there is another dynamic at work -- selfish ambition.

Indeed, at bottom, it is selfish ambition, both on the part of the subjugator, and, ironically, the subjugated as well, that drives hyper-authoritarianism. The subjugator is bent on building a private kingdom wherein he or she is exalted and exulted as lord, master, and supreme-ruler. And, the "subjugatees" are enticed into becoming a participant in the grandeur through promises of shared ascendancy and personal aggrandizement, which appeals to and appeases their own selfish lusts for superiority.

Where it is employed today, the nuts and bolts of ecclesiastical group-predomination, virtually without exception is a kind of multi-level, pyramid authority structure, or polity. It is identical to the M-L-M (multi-level marketing) schema so popular today in the business sector, wherein each participant recruits other participants, all of whom formulate his "downline." Supposedly, each participant's downline is his personal pipeline of income reaped from the efforts of his recruits as well as each of theirs, and so on down the line. The basic hypothesis is that this pyramid-shaped structure intrinsically produces exponential and near effortless synergism equating ultimately to perpetual residual income. Essentially, it's the modern, sophisticated version of the old chain-letter.

Two things that should alert thinking observers to the impropriety of these types of structures apparently escapes the notice of many. One is the fact that pyramid schemes, though most M-L-M have found crafty ways to circumvent it, have been deemed by every state in the U.S. to be illegal, essentially because the postulation of synergism is fraudulent except in the case of those in the first few levels at the apex of the pyramid. The second is that the pyramid, as evidenced by the pyramids of occult-rife Egyptian heritage, is the very signature and icon of the occult and its ultimate author, Satan.

Notwithstanding, there are a plethora of hybrids of this system being used very effectively in churches in America and around the world to expand their membership, from mainline denominations to independents, though all those employing it would adamantly and vociferously deny it. Nevertheless, it can hardly be denied that a staple of modern church "development" methodologies is the "small group" concept, which virtually all churches employ in some degree and form. In some churches they are called "cell groups." Others call them "care groups," or various other appellations. Whatever they are called, they are essentially small groups of only a few to fifty or a little more, who meet usually in someones house, usually the leader's, for the supposed purpose of fellowship, prayer, and exhortation.

In itself, of course, there is nothing wrong with that concept, and indeed it is quite Scriptural, useful, and effectual in terms of practical ministry. In fact, it is in the small group setting, away from the ecclesiastical formality of the sanctuary where people can be real that real ministry takes place. After all, real fellowship and ministry cannot be achieved with the back of someones head, or in the hour or two of a church-service. Moreover, there is certainly much more to real fellowship and ministry than mere handshakes, chit-chat, and congregational prayer.

The main problem comes in the leadership of those small groups, and the status given those who host or "lead" them. Indeed, the essence of the problem is in whether the people in charge of these meetings are considered merely "hosts" or spiritual "leaders." In many churches, those who host these meetings are considered and even called "leaders." Sometimes the term is prefaced by the prefix "lay-", nonetheless, they are given a status of being a "leader" of some echelon in the church polity, as well as varying degrees and forms of deference commonly attributed to that nomenclature.

Now the concept of deploying the laity of a local church in constructive and effectual roles of real and substantive function according to their God-given giftings and talents is an altogether proper, needed, even necessary, and certainly Scriptural concept (Rom. 12:3-13; 1 Pet. 4:10,11; et al.). However, where that concept goes awry in application is when untrained, ungifted, unanointed, untried laymen are all of a sudden dubbed "leaders," and congregants look to them for counsel, Biblical answers, and direction for the diverse range of problems and needs believers typically encounter in their Christian pilgrimage.

When it comes to such spiritual input into the lives of God's sheep who were purchased with the precious cost of the shed blood of Jesus, it is vital that it be: firstly, correct and Biblically-based; secondly, God-inspired; thirdly, prudent and pragmatic; fourthly, timely according to God's timetable; and fifthly, presented in a constructive rather than destructive way. All of that requires experience and expertise. Summarily, the matter of speaking unto God's sheep on His behalf is a fearful thing that should not be taken lightly. Nor, because of its extensive potential ramifications, should it be delegated to undeveloped, inexperienced, Sunday-morning spiritual "dabblers," or spiritual "weekend warriors," especially those steeped in self-absorption and a super-inflated sense of self-importance, seeking status, recognition, and ascendancy over others.

The problem with the multi-level downline or small group system instituted within the ecclesiastical mini-society also known as local churches is that by nature that system is fertile ground for such spiritual sophomorism and thus attracts the very people who engage in it. The very unfortunate result is two-fold. One, what in essence, to put it bluntly, is a bastardization of the ministry. True ministry is devalued, degraded, debased, and debauched, which is precisely what has happened on a large scale in many sectors of the Church today. Two, the sheep of those flocks are being subjected to a debauched, defiled, and, in some cases, a desecrated counterfeit of genuine ministry, depriving them of the benefit they could have derived from true God-ordained and -anointed ministry.

Almost without exception, where hyper-authoritarianism is occurring, such a small group system with lay-leadership is employed, supposedly to promote "church growth," which invariably refers to growth in terms of size rather than spirituality. And, in these multi-level downlines the under-leaders are indoctrinated by the ultimate leader with certain patent hyper-authoritarian precepts and practices by which to "govern" the affairs and functions of their particular downlines. The under-leaders in turn pass those dogmas and doctrines onto the group they lead. The result is an entire church of participants in an infrastructure of unauthorized domination and control over its members that to them seems wholly proper and good because they were spiritually reared and trained in it, in some cases from the very beginning of their new life in Christ.

This is a dire development in our churches today that sorely needs wholesale correction, but it is only one of the many factors leading to authoritarian abuse and psychological enslavement in church-groups.

READ PART ONE OF THIS ARTICLE and other related articles

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The Thin Line of Leadership (Part 1)

slambert@slm.org (Dr. Steven Lambert) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 01:13:00 +0000

There is a very thin line between leading and lording, discipling and dominating, coaching and coercing. So thin is the line, it is at times and in certain scenarios nearly indistinguishable.

Indeed, church leaders commonly cross the divide without even realizing it, and are much chagrined upon discovery of their transgression. Moreover, many find themselves alternatingly on one side or the other of the line at different times. For the majority of sincere, upstanding, and ethical ministers, transversing — or transgressing, as it may be — the line is altogether unintentional, and when they suddenly find themselves on the wrong side, they cannot remember when, how, or even why the misstep occurred. Unfortunately there are also ministers not of this upright ilk, who intentionally and indeed unabashedly leap over the boundary line to operate in "foul territory" as their habitual modus operandi.

The role of leadership, regardless the arena, is intrinsically complex. Certainly, because of human fickleness and unpredictability it is an art, not an exact science. Even for the most masterful, leading free-willed humans often resistant to the very premise of being led is a tenuous and slippery slope. The particular kind of leadership ministers are charged with exercising is especially formidable, in that the ministry is, at bottom, the arduous and precarious discipline of behavior-modification.

Further complicating the task, as every minister is painfully aware, is the fact that for church leadership professionals ministry is also their livelihood, their means of support for themselves as well as their families. While at first thought this may seem to be tangential, rather it is central. For, the unfortunate fact is that like most other areas of human endeavor, financial reward and unredeemed personal ambition are primary motivators to those who transgress the boundaries of Scriptural propriety to lord over the flock entrusted to their charge. Regardless of how sophisticated the world becomes, the love of money, as Divine Sophistry reveals, remains the root of all evil.

In the case of leaders who purposely and knowingly choose to be dominating and controlling dictators over associates and God's sheep in order to build their private kingdoms, the sad record is that precious few are influenced toward repentance or change by the criticism or pleas of fellows. Though those of this ilk always seem to be plentiful, nevertheless, there are also many sincere and earnest leaders who functioning in the fray leadership often is, err on the foul side of the line. With many of these, the transgression is unwitting and unwilling. That is to say, they don't realize they are engaging in improper domination and control, nor do they mean to, but are merely trying to fulfill as best they know how their responsibility to lead.

Frequently, especially in the case of organizational church leaders, they tutored under other leaders on their way to becoming leaders themselves. As a result, many ministers merely mimic, at least partially, the methodologyand methods of their mentors or some leader with whom they are impressed. The theory of mentoring, of course, is certainly Scriptural, however, it is also incumbent upon those who are being mentored to evaluate the Scripturality, ethicality, and effectuality of the methodology and methods employed by their mentors. Nowhere does Scripture advocate or condone "blind" obedience or obeisance of spiritual leaders, regardless of their status and stature.

On the contrary, God commands all believers to examine all spiritual postulations carefully, holding fast to that which is good, and abstaining from every form of evil (1 Thes. 5:21,22). Moreover, the Holy Spirit termed the Bereans "more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica" because they examined the Scriptures daily themselves to evaluate the veracity of the things being preached by the greatest of all God's theologians and messengers, the Apostle Paul, and his associates as well (Ac. 17:10,11).

While the Holy Spirit calls evaluation of teaching, or doctrine, "noble-minded," leaders who dominatefollowers, invariably call it "rebellion" when their adherents engage in it. Instead of teaching their followers to study the Scripture themselves in order to scrutinize what they and other ministers are teaching, they essentially insist their followers simply accept and believe what they tell them Scripture says and means, and to merely do what they tell them to do. Of course, that very proposition by Dark Ages Church leaders contributed greatly to twelve hundred years of apostasy.

Jesus' Great Commission charged all ministers to "make disciples...teaching them to observe all that I commanded you...." The word "disciple" means "learner." Jesus was saying that the task of ministers is to make or compel believers to become "learners" through the medium of teaching, which is systematic and specific instruction, not just generalized preaching. To put it another way, the role of ministersis to teach people to become learners. Unfortunately, this concept is novel to many believers as well as ministers. To paraphrase a familiar idiom regarding secular education, the Church should be the highest institute for the highest (i.e., spiritual) learning.

Still, the task of ministers does not end with teaching believers to be learners, but according to Jesus' exhortation extends beyond that to the task of "teaching them to observe." As James declared, we are not justified by what we have heard or know, but rather by what we do or observe. The job of ministers, as daunting as it may be, is not to merely teach believers to mentally assimilate abstract principles, but also to teach believers to obey and apply those principles in their lives. And, as any earnest minister knows, while teaching people to be learners is difficult, teaching them to be "obeyers" is even more difficult.

But, nothing exists in a vacuum, including ministry. What ministers are supposed to do according to Scripture and what they feel they can do according to the situation in which they function often do not correspond. Besides being ministers, they are also husbands and fathers, and therefore have a legitimate as well as Scripturalmandate to properly provide for their families, just as any other head-of-household believer. Factor in the element that all active professional ministers to some degree are "elected" to the positions they hold in their immediate organization by the very people they are to minister to, and you have a major, ongoing dilemma which every minister knows all too well. The expression: "between a rock and a hardspot," may have no more apt application than the ministry — the "rock" being Jesus and His impliable charge to ministers, and the "hardspot" being practical, personal ministry to intractable humans with an intrinsic propensity forspiritual non-compliance.

The result is another invisible line separating what a minister should be counseling, teaching, saying, deciding (et al.), and what the people are willing to tolerate, receive, accept, and allow from the minister.Ministers grapple with this very real predicament daily. From the perspective between what the people will allow and what God mandates, ministers are perpetually "damned if they do and damned if they don't."

Like the umpire, on every call, alternatingly, you have one team and its fans against you and the other team andits fans for you. It is never a win-win job, but always a win-lose job. Somebody is adamantly and vehemently against you on every call. That is just the nature of the job. A veteran major league umpire once bemoaned his was the only profession in which you must be perfect the first day on the job and then improve from there. Well, there is one other profession of that ilk — the ministry. But, the requisites of ministry are even more stringent than umpiring because in addition to having perfect knowledge and judgment, the minister is expected by his constituents to also be a veritable perfect replication of Christ Himself, totally devoid of anything human.

This Catch-22 is among the primary factors that cause even sincere, honest, earnest, and well-intentioned leaders to cross the invisible line between legitimate and illegitimate authority, and gradually gravitate toward domination instead of discipling, lording instead of leading, and coercing instead of coaching, coaxing, and convincing. And,as stated before, it often happens unknowingly and even unintentionally. The overwhelming majority of ministry professionals have no desire whatsoever of operating outside the bounds of authority, and would be appalled to find they have encroached upon "foul ground." In the continuation of this article, we will examine some practical tips for recognizing improper domination and control by church leaders.

Editor's note: This article is adapted from the book, CHARISMATIC CAPTIVATION, by Steven Lambert. The book exposes the widespread problem of authoritarian abuse in Neo-Pentecostal church-groups, and explains how it became infused into the very fabric, foundation, and functions of the Neo-Pentecostal church, arising out of a false movement known as the Discipleship/Shepherding Movement (1970-77).

The Signs Of Spiritual Abuse

slambert@slm.org (Dr. Steven Lambert) — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 16:24:00 +0000

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.

Apotheosis of the leadership — exalting them to God-like status in and over the group;
Multi-level authority/government hierarchy;
Absolute authority of the leadership;
No real accountability of the leadership to the corporate body;
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;
Pervasive abuse and misuse of authority in personal dealings with members;
Paranoia and insecurity by the leaders;
Abuse, misuse, and inordinate incidence of "church discipline;"
Personal materialism, covetousness, and self-aggrandizement by the leaders;
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;
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;
Financial exploitation and enslavement of the members;
Inordinate attention to maintaining the public "image" of the ministry;
Doctrinal demeanment and devaluation — the requisite of espousing and teaching "sound doctrine" is demeaned and devalued;
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;
Spiritualism, mysticism, and unproven doctrines;
Abuse and misuse of prophetic giftings as a means to dominate and intimidate;
Devaluation, disallowance, disregard, and displacement of the true Fivefold Ministry within the church;
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;
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;
Isolationism — corporate and individual, especially with respect to exposure to outside ministry sources;
Performance-based approval and promotion system of members predicated on "proven" "loyalty" (i.e., submission) to the leadership;
Devaluation, suppression, and non-recognition of members' bona fide God-given talents, abilities, gifts, callings, and anointing, as a means of subjugation;
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;"
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;
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;
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;
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;
Members are required to obtain the approval or "witness" of their leader(s) for decisions regarding personal matters;
Frequent preaching from the pulpit regarding not getting out from under the "spiritual covering" of the leadership;
Members departing without the prior permission and blessing of the leadership leave the group under a cloud of manufactured suspicion, shame, and slander;
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;
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

slambert@slm.org (Dr. Steven Lambert) — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:31:00 +0000

"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

slambert@slm.org (Dr. Steven Lambert) — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 18:51:00 +0000

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:

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);
Spiritual and Numerical Growth — the equipped saints (believers) build up the Body of Christ, spiritually and numerically through their ministry works (v. 12);
Truth-Centric Unity — singleness of mind and solidarity of purpose, centered around consensual faith in and knowledge concerning the Son of God (v. 13);
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);
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);
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);
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);
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.

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