Egotism and Narcissism in Ministry

September 1st, 2010 admin

Over time in the ministry you have opportunities to meet and know people in various forms of ministry and ancillary fields of endeavor such as Christian entertainment of various levels of notoriety. My beginnings in the ministry afforded me perhaps more opportunities than most in that regard. One of the observations I was forced to make early on in my experience as a Born Again Christian is that no matter how spiritual and humble those of this ilk I met or became acquainted with were, they all had an ego, some larger than others, but they all had an ego. In the first couple of years of my Christian walk (though I now know how silly that was), I was troubled about that, to the point of being somewhat disillusioned and distracted, especially in the case of those who were famous or well-known.

As much as those who are earnestly attempting to emulate the life and nature of Christ endeavor to die to themselves and become of “no reputation” as Jesus did, I think we all pretty much are always going to be saddled with the bane, if you will, that when we get right down to it, we all have an ego. Though I’ve thought about it many times, I really still do not know how to reconcile some things about that. Does having an ego mean that we haven’t died to ourselves yet? Does having an ego mean we have not made ourselves of no reputation as Jesus did? Does God not want us to have an ego at all?

I really don’t know the answer to any of those questions. I’m not even sure any of us mere mortals will ever know the answer to those questions, definitively, as long as we are in these mortal bodies. Basically, I chalk it up to being way beyond my pay grade, and end up dropping it. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Uncategorized Tags: ,

Disarmament or Discernment?

August 1st, 2010 admin

Cajoling the foe to disarm, thereby rendering him defenseless against his diabolic deceptions and dastardly designs of captivation, has been the ploy of the enemy for time immemorial, whether in the sociological systems of the world or the polity of the Church. Relative to the latter, Satan’s obsession is to disarm believers of the “weapons of our warfare” we’ve been issued by God. With the former, the doctrines of Marxism are replete with demonically inspired dogmas and idioms aimed at pacification of the masses to pave the way for totalitarian hegemony of submissive peoples achieved solely through ideological indoctrination and the total avoidance of militaristic resistance. Use sophisticated mind control tactics to disorient and disable your target is the underlying methodology of fascist guerrilla warfare. It’s a mind game, and no one is more skilled at conjuring and effectively utilizing it than the Serpent of old, the craftiest of all the beasts of the field God had made (Gen. 3:1). Psychological enslavement is his game and total dominion of the Creation is his aim! “But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in fierce anger (fury), because he knows that he has [only] a short time [left]! (Rev. 12:12b; AB)

(Note: This article was originally written/posted on June 21, 2008.)

“At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will. Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. Then if anyone says to you, ‘Behold, here is the Christ,’ or ‘There He is,’ do not believe him. For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. Behold, I have told you in advance. So if they say to you, ‘Behold, He is in the wilderness,’ do not go out, or, ‘Behold, He is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe them. For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.” (Mat. 24:10,11,21-28).

As I wrote in the preceeding 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 hundred 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,” aka, “Lakeland Outpouring,” 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. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Cult-Occult, Demonic, Discernment, False Ministers, Revival Tags: , , ,

Paying The Price

July 5th, 2010 admin

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

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

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

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Perseverance Tags: ,

Fast From Judging

June 13th, 2010 admin

Isaiah 58:6-12 (New American Standard Bible)
6″Is this not the fast which I choose,
To loosen the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the bands of the yoke,
And to let the oppressed go free
And break every yoke?
7″Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry
And bring the homeless poor into the house;
When you see the naked, to cover him;
And not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
8″Then your light will break out like the dawn,
And your recovery will speedily spring forth;
And your righteousness will go before you;
The glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
9″Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
You will cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am ‘
If you remove the yoke from your midst,
The pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness,
10And if you give yourself to the hungry
And satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
Then your light will rise in darkness
And your gloom will become like midday.
11″And the LORD will continually guide you,
And satisfy your desire in scorched places,
And give strength to your bones;
And you will be like a watered garden,
And like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.
12″Those from among you will rebuild the ancient ruins;
You will raise up the age-old foundations;
And you will be called the repairer of the breach,
The restorer of the streets in which to dwell.

If you have ever gone on an extended fast, you know it can be a life changing experience. There are many types of fasts. The king of Nineveh along with the people of his nation fasted three days from food and water. God heard the sincerity in their repentance and spared their nation, making them an example of the power inherent in fasting and prayer (see Luke 11:32). Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Uncategorized Tags: ,

Prophets–God’s Change Agents

May 20th, 2010 admin

Here this and hear it well, America! God’s anointed and appointed prophets, not politicians, are and have always been God’s change agents whose divinely inspired announcements and pronouncements are what bring change on earth and in the affairs of men! God’s prophets are His Watchmen and Warriors operating in the unseen Spirit realm, where all things are upheld by the Word of His power, who by their unveiling and revealing, decreeing and declaring, of the Secret Counsel of God establishes and sets into motion all that God is doing and establishing upon the earth at any given moment and season in time! “Change” is their middle name and “new things” is their game!

This article is Part 2 of a series regarding the “new things” God is decreeing for the days ahead. I believe the topic of this series is both prophetic and timely, in that God is right now decreeing and effecting major and in some cases paradigmic changes both in the world and the church, and causing particular events to transpire that have never happened before; i.e., “new things.” God is “suddenly” releasing and launching much that has been held in abeyance for many years. He is also bringing a sudden end to much that has been for a many years as well. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Change, Prophetic Tags: ,

Demonized People Need More Than “Religious Bandages”

May 12th, 2010 admin

This is the third part in a series on the subject of deliverance written by my good friend, Charles Carrin. As best as I can recall, I believe it was in the mid-90s when I first had the great honor and privilege of meeting Charles Carrin. The first night I met him at the church he was pastoring at the time, he graciously invited me and my wife to join he and his wife for dinner following the service. I immediately recognized the special anointing upon his life and that God had “set me up” for one of those divine connections. Over the past few years, I felt led to reach out to renew fellowship with Charles. Each time I’ve called, he graciously invited me to join him and his precious wife, Laurie, for lunch at one of the South Florida restaurants he dines at for lunch most every day of the week, usually sharing it with one of the many younger ministers who look to him for fatherly and sometimes grandfatherly mentoring. I’ve always hated when anyone refers to a man as being “sweet,” and still refuse to do so myself, but no one I’ve ever known manifests the sweet presence of the Holy Spirit like Charles Carrin. One of the best tributes I can give him is I always feel disappointed when the visit’s over and it’s time to leave — a rarity for me.

One of the things Charles and I share in common, though it has actually never been the subject of any of our conversations, is our experiences with the deliverance ministry. As I’ve shared numerous times in live preaching, conversations with other ministers, as well as a few of my articles, my personal introduction to deliverance ministry occurred totally unexpectedly and without my permission in one of the evangelistic meetings I was ministering at early in my ministry in 1977. In this article, Charles shares that that was the year he personally received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit and was introduced to the “charismata,” or manifestation gifts of the Spirit, as well as deliverance ministry. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Deliverance, Demonic

Beware of the Angry Watchmen

April 26th, 2010 admin

There is a false revival on the rise. It is the rise of the angry watchman who will cast stones at those who have gone astray from the Lord. This false revival consists of ministers who have led people away from the truth through legalism and a misguided prosperity gospel. They will forbid and command prodigals not to come into the presence of God until you work your way back into His favor through human effort and religion. We must not remove the veil from the Bride of Christ. Only the Bridegroom has the right and righteousness to remove the veil of His Betrothed, The Bride of Christ! Woe to him who would presume upon his own deceptions of self-righteousness to be worthy to remove the veil! We have a righteousness that cannot be taken away from us because Jesus is our veil.

Carter Conlon, one of the preaching pastors at Times Square Church founded by David Wilkerson, preached this message at TSC on 10-28-07. He relates a dream he had that disturbed him greatly from which he drew this powerful message, in which he foretells of the emergence of yet another false prophetic movement that will emerge in the last days that will be driven by a company of false prophets who believe and proclaim that they have been appointed by God to berate, castigate, judge, and condemn the precious Bride of Christ for whom Christ died to purchase her for His own eternal possession with His precious shed blood!

Pastor Conlon prophesies about a time in the last days when many spiritual prodigals are going to suddenly begin to realize they have been duped into becoming a part of the false movements that exist in this hour which have drawn many believers away from their first love to follow after false self-aggrandizing prophets building their own personal kingdoms. They will be preaching legalism, relgious works, and condemnation, telling the prodigals they cannot come back to God because they are so unclean and spiritually defiled that God will not receive them back. It will be a false revival, what the Apostle Paul called a departure from the faith, apostasy.

Carter announces God sent him to the pulpit to issue the strongest of warnings to these false prophets: “Jesus is not going to let you touch the Bride of Christ! You must not remove the veil of Christ! You must not touch MY Bride!”

Oh, Saints of God, you MUST hear this message! The Spirit bears witness to it! I believe it is 100% of God! Moreover, I believe the “movement” he prophesied of is already here, led by some of the false prophets of Baal, Baalam prophets, who have their own agenda for building their own kingdoms, who are demanding and commanding the undying loyalty of their followers as well as huge portions of their hard earned money in these desperate times to support their earthly selfish endeavors. These false prophets are becoming more and more brazen and militant in their designs of extortion of the people of God, claiming to have special powers and authority that they wield around to lord over their followers!

“Come out from among them!” the Spirit of the Lord is saying. “Separate yourselves from these false pharisaical prophets! Return to Me, your first love! And I will in no wise cast you out!” says the Bridegroom. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in False Ministers, False Teaching

Deliverance Ministry May Be Your Answer

April 12th, 2010 admin

CLICK HERE if you think you might need deliverance.

By Charles Carrin [Mar 18, 2010]

I spoke at a Conference in Tennessee recently and afterward, [didacted by publisher], a brother long-acknowledged for his prophetic gift, asked that I minister deliverance to those in the congregation suffering from depression. When I gave the opportunity more than 100 people came forward. The Holy Spirit moved in power and some of the same demonic manifestations recorded in the New Testament took place. This large number who experienced new freedom in Christ re-enforced a fact I have strongly suspected:

Many Christians suffer from long-term crises which pass unhindered from one generation to the next. These include such problems as depression, disease, explosive anger, alcoholism, lying, domination, manipulation, and numerous other destructive habits. Few realize these are not unavoidable ancestral “traits” or that they can be stopped.

Since demons and curses are spiritual in nature they can only be corrected by spiritual means. Medical, psychiatric, or other forms of therapy, excellent as they are, may relieve symptom but not touch sources of spiritually-based problems. Such depths can be penetrated solely by the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Years ago, a Christian psycho-therapist who understood only the psychological nature of such problems sat in my office and said, “I have often wished I could reach inside my patients and pull out the offender.” I looked him straight in the eye and said, “You can.” Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Deliverance, Demonic, Discernment Tags: , , , , , ,

The Children’s Bread

April 10th, 2010 admin

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 earned the attribution: “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. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Deliverance, Demonic

Warning To The Super-Apostles

March 18th, 2010 admin

A newly formed “apostolic network” of self-appointed super-apostles meets clandestinely in Florida to divvy up the nation into apostolic regions, or apostolates, and appoint certain member apostles as the arch-apostles over those territories.

For several years I have been receiving the email messages from Andrew Strom. I have also read his writings in which he addresses various prophetic as well as apostolic related issues. We also had one extended phone conversation, I believe in 2007, in which we touched briefly upon a number of issues of common concern. While I cannot say that I know everything about his theological/doctrinal positions, beliefs, and motives, and thus am in no way endorsing the totality of his ministry, in general, I agree with much of what he has written regarding the error and errancies associated with the nascent prophetic and apostolic movements and the need for reform within them.

I presume, based on his own expressed beliefs, that Andrew would not attribute the term “prophet” to himself, but my personal assessment of his ministry is that it has a definite and identifiable prophetic aspect to it. Based on his writings, he is of the cotorie today who believe that terms describing a person’s function in the church, such as the fivefold ministry functions, should not be used at all, despite the undeniable fact that they are scriptural appellations. Personally, I do not agree with that position for a number of reasons, all of which I believe are Biblical, that I won’t go into here. I will say that if that notion were true, the Apostle Paul violated it in every epistle he wrote save one, because he identified himself as an apostle in every one of those letters except one. However, where I do agree with Strom is that I do not believe that those terms are terms of entitlement as they are apparently viewed by many leaders in the Pentecostal/Neo-Pentecostal church, especially those who have ascended to the top of the pyramid in the babylonic system that claims to constitute its governance. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Authoritarian Abuse, Authority, Prophetic Tags: ,
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