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THE TRUE POWER OF THE GOSPEL VS "FAITH MOVEMENT" EXTREME LICENSE
The very best example that I have personally experienced is the ministry of a relative of mine who has ministered to me in the power of God’s Spirit on many occasions. She is a true holy woman who spends a lot of time with God, in prayer and in His Word. She is not fancy or pretentious but rather extremely humble, loving and kind (even earthy!). When she prays for me (over the phone) I have actually felt the Spirit of God lifting burdens and delivering me from afflictions! She prays in great authority in the Spirit. She is a true saint of a person and loves to be a conduit of God’s mercy and healing. She respects and seems to agree with the core of the major Faith Movement ministries that I discern are adulterating the Gospel but she some how filters out the abuses and extremes and remains obedient to God and I believe that there are others like her. God hears the prayer of a righteous servant and His Word promises that “it availeth much.” Is it possible to love Jesus and yet have some faults or misconceptions in our theology or in the application of our Faith that is in error and still be in fellowship with God? Of course. Does God completely ignore us because we are not perfect and cannot see all of the error yet in our lives? Of course not. In my dear cousin’s case, she does not take Faith Movement extremes and their application, to the extent that those leaders do and I discern that she is not aware that she differs with them. Her focus is always Jesus! Her intimate walk with God and her exquisite ministry ALWAYS glorifies Jesus and she says and does nothing when she ministers without knowing that she has heard from God. It is quite obvious that the same is not true with most Faith Movement ministries as they often take great license to proclaim whatever vain imagining comes to thier minds. Many of them prance around and sound like they are crazy. The Lord's Anointing does not cause men and women to lose control of themselves and the fruit of the Spirit is not vociferous, flamboyant, arrogant or self-indulgent.
The Faith Movement leaders mostly go to extremes and completely indulge themselves in selectively applying and perverting God’s word concerning health, wealth, and success. They preach a “gospel” centered on the manipulation of God’s power called “name-it-and-claim-it.” It cunningly perverts the scriptures that promise us that we can proclaim and expect to have whatever we say in faith and preaches that message without any kind of biblical checks & balance. God does not want us to have everything and anything that we can imagine but rather demands that we be led by His Spirit when we pray. YES, it is possible to be instantly led by His Spirit to proclaim great things in Faith but their version of this perverts this teaching and basically makes them their own gods, deserving and entitled to “proclaim” for whatever they want “in faith.” EXTREME "FAITH MOVEMENT ADEPTS, PUT THEIR "FAITH" IN THE FORCE OF "FAITH" INSTEAD OF IN JESUS!My dear cousin Patty always waits on God and does nothing until she knows that she has been prompted and led by God’s Holy Spirit and there in lies the major difference between the righteous and the counterfeit move of God! She is a living example of a saint who always first ‘SEEKS GOD FACE AND NOT HIS HAND!” God wants us all to love Him and to seek His Presence- NOT to primarily lust for His blessings and especially not to lust for His power! I didn’t “feel” like writing this article but the Holy Spirit prompted me and anointed me to write it. The more I now write, the more of God’s Presence I am experiencing and being blessed by! There is no greater Treasure than knowing and loving Jesus and spending time in His awesome Presence! No one can manipulate or use God! He will abundantly bless us and perform great miracles through us IF we are walking righteously with Him and are in the flow of His Spirit! Simply put, you cannot “put the cart before the horse!” You cannot receive from God if you are motivated by selfishness, let alone flow in the authentic spiritual gifts. Others may think that they can manipulate God or command Him to do whatever they say (as if God were some kind of cosmic Santa Claus) but they have been subtly yet powerfully deceived into thinking that THEY can speak anything into existence, do anything, and have anything that they desire “according to God’s Word.” (What powerful "angel" thinks the exact same way?) What a slap to God’s face! Many of them have become their own “little god,” which some have been arrogant enough to proclaim on the airwaves! There in lies the worst perversion that takes them out of the holy movement of God and into the profane, spiritually decadent and ultimately counterfeit movement. Only the holy and Spirit-filled and Spirit-led will flow in the genuine gifts of God. This kind of disciple does not have to seek or proclaim “health, wealth, and success” because they live, walk and talk the Presence of Messiah Lord Jesus! Above all else, this kind of person seeks and knows Jesus and His righteousness and doesn’t lust for material or temporal blessings. Yes, God wants to bless us but not by giving us our every material whim or desire. God wants us to desire HIM above all and forever! Jesus longs to reveal Himself to us and within us but He cannot do that unless we desire to know, love and obey Him above all!
When we are primarily motivated by our selfish desires for money, power, material goods, success or prominence and recognition, we short-circuit the grace of God and His ability to live within us and for us to abide in Him. People, like the evil magician Simon in the book of Acts who lusted to have God’s power, may gain all sorts of the afore-mentioned things but God will not be in it. Perhaps in some cases God does give them what they really want in order that they might continue down the wrong path? Certainly Satan loves to blind, brainwash, and spiritually destroy many by helping them to achieve and obtain all sorts of worldly riches. (I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold, as the wonderful hymn goes.) Satan especially loves it when he can get Christians to pervert Christianity and destroy the move of God.
Can God bless us financially? Of course. Does He promise to provide for our needs? Of course. God still heals and delivers us and has given great gifts to men and women who can intercede for us and move God’s hand on our behalf. In the Faith Movement churches that I see on TV and have visited, the Spirit of God becomes grieved within me because it becomes painfully obvious that they primarily want to see and experience the supernatural and other strange antics that cause them to believe that God is in their midst. In lusting for the “power and blessings of God,” most of these “ministries’ have been spiritually ship-wrecked and are so consummately deceived and worldly, that they are clueless as to their own spiritual demise. The preaching and the services of many of these Faith Movement churches have become like crazy, surreal infomercials in which they hawk their particular esoteric faith formulas that are especially designed to make you send them your money! The sense and smell of sickly narcissism, entitlement, indulgence, and licentiousness just drips off of many of these preachers, while their followers are duped into believing that their preacher’s strange behaviors are signs of “God’s anointing”??? These counterfeits preach little to none of the genuine life-changing Gospel.
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