Death in the Womb: Selective Midwives
I was not born in Pentecost. My pedigree harkens back to non-practicing Southern Baptists on my father’s side and something akin to the same on my mother’s side with a smattering of other “Christian” religions, prior to my parents coming to the truth back in 1980. What I have to say here I know will rub many wrong; however, I will not predicate what I have to say by beginning with an apology to those who have no stomach for hard-hitting truth. This message has burned in my spirit now for over 4 and a half years but I’ve put off presenting it in writing until recent things presented themselves to an extent that will no longer let me keep silent or refuse to write.
I spent 10 years outside the Apostolic movement as a young adult. It was a learning experience to say the least. Through that time, God never stopped dealing with me, talking to me, or pulling me back. Not so the church. That was 10 years without a single phone call, visit, letter or card from anyone in this apostolic truth and sadly they can’t say they did not know where I lived, where I worked, or what my phone number was…or that they never bumped into me in public. At one point I had a member of the church walk up to me in public and tell me I could never come back to their church because I would not fit in. Since coming back to God in December 2003, I now make it a point to stop by once in awhile just to worship and rub their ignorant hides the wrong way and in the words of a former pastor, “step all over their blue suede shoes.”
My coming back to Pentecost has shown me that I do not fit in with the standard mould. I’m comfortable with that. After spending 13 years in the Marines, every last vestige of introverted shyness has been stripped from my personality. Gone is the timidity I possessed as a teen growing up on a Pentecostal pew. When I left home at 19 to join the Marines, I left a very sheltered Midwestern lifestyle where we were hardly the cream of the crop if it came down to societal standing and financial freedom. Coming to God cost my parents something financially. After coming to God my father lost his job. The unions were busted out of the companies where he worked and he was forced to work in lesser paying jobs in his field for years. I know that’s not something any of our preachers that advocate a prosperity gospel want to stomach, but they will get over it. I’m sure it won’t be the last time I say it.
As a teen I got to see my first instance of Apostolic Abortion. My father worked at auctions to get extra money to pay bills and he met the local “street person,” someone you couldn’t really call homeless, because he lived in a little shack on the edge of town that was hidden behind piles of junk in the yard and the chickens, goats and other animals he let roam freely, feeding in the trash that was his yard. He never owned a car that I knew of. Everywhere he went, he rode an ancient Schwinn bike that had logged many tens of thousands of miles to auctions, farm sales, and down the side of back roads while picking up cans and bottles.
Roy rarely bathed and when he did, word was that he used a rain-barrel behind a local business. There was no running water in his house, but there was an outhouse out behind his place. It was not a pleasant sight or smell to be around. Compounding this was the fact that he wore multiple layers of clothes and coats, even in the summer heat, and his vinyl winter cap with the fur-lined ear flaps and bill was his trademark, winter, spring, summer and fall. You didn’t want to get caught downwind of him on a hot day and yet after dad made friends with Roy, he never failed to stop by and say hi with his rasping voice that never failed to shock me. He had a speech impediment that I was later told came after a severe nervous breakdown. Dad often invited him to church and one day he agreed and we spotted him on the 18 mile trip out of town to the little town where we were attending at the time.
It was winter, and at that time dad was out of work and all but one vehicle was broken down, so we were riding to church in an old farm truck with a makeshift camper on the back where all three of us boys were huddled in the back trying to keep warm during the ride. Dad stopped and picked up Roy and he loaded his bike in the back with us, both front and back baskets loaded with cans and bottles, rags and bits of things he had picked up. Roy climbed in back with us and the smell was unbearable, but we already had our faces buried inside winter coats and hoods, keeping warm, so he didn’t notice. We got to church and in the little building Roy ditched his outer coat, which did not help matters much. We sat down on the right side of the little sanctuary that if packed full might seat 100 people and every other family in the church promptly got up and moved to the other side of the church…literally.
The organist openly commented about how bad he stunk as she moved her husband and son to the other side of the church. At least some of them came by to shake his hand, but Roy knew the drill…and he had heard the comments. Homeless? Maybe. Poor? Yes. Jobless? Definitely. Stupid? Not hardly! Soul-less. Not in the coldest day….
I don’t remember much more about that service other than the pastor welcoming Roy to the service from the pulpit, and the time right after service when dad went out to help him unload his bike so he could continue on further up the road and the tears that came to Roy’s eyes as he told my father. “Thank you for inviting me to church. I really appreciate you and your family for being my friends…but I will never come back here again. They did not want me there.”
My father relayed Roy’s comments to the church that night in tears. I say with no small amazement that not a single one of those “saints” or that pastor is with us anymore. Every single one of them has lost out with God. A new pastor and congregation now meet in that location. I’ve not been back there in over 20 years, but I have never forgotten that day, nor will I ever. It impacted my life, my walk and my outreach far more than anything in my childhood.
Roy never got to the altar. Like many thousands every year around the world, Roy was aborted before birth. He never even got a fighting chance. There was no trauma late in the pregnancy with an anxious mother passionately fighting for the life of her child. No…Roy became part of the selection process of a “spiritual pro-choice” group of Pentecostal mid-wives known for specialized breeding. It wasn’t your fault. No hard feelings, Roy. You just weren’t the right flavor. Maybe if you had been a doctor, lawyer, or even someone who made a modest living and acquired some measures of personal hygiene, you might have made it…that is if you made enough to drop one of those little brown envelopes in the plate on Sunday.
You see, Roy, we are modern Pentecostalism. Yes, years ago our forefathers came from the wrong side of the tracks too. We were labeled in the same breath with any kind of common “human trash” from the early days of the Azusa street revival outpouring. However, no one would mistake us for that early group. We’ve come a long way, and now we drive to church in the finest clothing, the finest cars, and our buildings are often multi-million dollar edifices. Some of these congregations have not forgotten their roots or where we came from as a people and some do a lot of outreach to the lower income groups, the homeless and the domestic violence shelters…but often, this is not the case.
You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, Roy, but don’t worry. You weren’t alone. Others have been rejected because of their ethnicity, lack of education, medical issues, looks, cultural background, obesity or any long laundry list of personal issues that made them less than perfect applicants for the positions we have open, that of a pew dwelling tithe-payers. Unfortunately they just did not figure you were worth the extra time, effort and cost, both financially and spiritually, that it would take to “clean you up.”
Let’s compare this to natural abortion. Every year in America, over 4,000 abortions are performed each day, for a total of over 48,589,993 since 1973 … the tragic consequences of Roe v. Wade.
- The overwhelming majority of all abortions, (95%), are done as a means of birth control.
- Only 1% are performed because of rape or incest;
- 1% because of fetal abnormalities;
- 3% due to the mother's health problems.
Source: Central Illinois Right To Life
Reasons Women Choose Abortion (U.S.)
- Wants to postpone childbearing: 25.5%
- Wants no (more) children: 7.9%
- Cannot afford a baby: 21.3%
- Having a child will disrupt education or job: 10.8%
- Has relationship problem or partner does not want pregnancy: 14.1%
- Too young; parent(s) or other(s) object to pregnancy: 12.2%
- Risk to maternal health: 2.8%
- Risk to fetal health: 3.3%
Other: 2.1%
Source:Bankole, Akinrinola; Singh, Susheela; Haas, Taylor. Reasons Why Women Have Induced Abortions: Evidence from 27 Countries. International Family Planning Perspectives, 1998, 24(3):117–127 & 152 As reported by:The Alan Guttmacher Institute Online:
Unfortunately, abortion is legal in the USA at any time throughout the entire nine months of pregnancy... but spiritual abortion is one of the greatest crimes anyone in the bride of Christ can commit, and one that will no doubt go down on Judgment Day as one of the single greatest crimes ever committed against a soul. It ranks up among one of the most heinous things I’ve ever seen happen in a church.
I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not.
Hear the word of the LORD, ye that tremble at his word; your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name's sake, said, Let the LORD be glorified: but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed.
A voice of noise from the city, a voice from the temple, a voice of the LORD that rendereth recompence to his enemies.
Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child.
Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.
Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? saith the LORD: shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb? saith thy God. Isaiah 66:4-9
God will never send people to us without the intention of either planting a seed in them to grow later, to water a seed already planted, or to give the increase of grown and bring a soul into the kingdom. Nobody goes untouched in his presence.
Recently I confronted the administrator of another religious website that also claimed to be set up for apostolics and more specifically focused at men. He had posted comments publically to a minister who was looking for new ideas for doing outreach in his community and stated that we did not need to be reaching for more new people for our churches, but just needed to take care of the ones God had already given them. Sadly to say, the man professed to be an apostolic minister. I confronted him with the word in private on his “our four and no more” mentality and he threatened to ban me from their site.
Yet another time he stated that he refused to fellowship anyone who did not believe as we do and that they were not his brethren, basically charging them with being an enemies and devils, not a friend. Ultimately I referred him to my pastor and mentors and he withdrew his threats, not wanting to push the issue with other ministers who would have clipped his wings or requested his resignation. Just 5 months later he barred me from the site during an email exchange on another debate. I never ceased to be amazed at the lengths some will go to among us to silence the voices that are trying to wake them up and call them back into alignment with the word of God.
Genocide in the Pediatric Ward: Predators in the Altar
She was new to oneness Pentecostalism, a mother of a little girl and married to a backslider who had brought her to church for the first time. She had been raised in an Assembly of God church but had never received the Holy Ghost as her family was more of the bench-warmer variety. Jesus name baptism was new to her and even our intense worship. Still, she felt the drawing to go down to the front that night and a new friend led her down to the altar where she was prayed for and received the Holy Ghost and agreed to get baptized.
Behind her, unknown to the new born saint, the altar-shark waited on the cushioned pew, biding her time. Her every sense was alert to the “new blood” in the water, a New Birth experience was in the making and she sense a meal. This was her hunting ground and she knew it well. Her jaws salivating in anticipation she made her attack run as soon as her innocent new convert cleared the edge of the altar. She was on her as soon as she passed the first pew.
“I’m so happy for you.” She hugged her and said, “but you know you will have to get rid of those earrings and that makeup now and stop wearing those pants. You aren’t allowed to do that in this church!” The visitor turned new-convert stood in shocked awe, her face turning pale in amazement as her countenance fell.
It was done. Not a clean kill, but a mortal wound. Those were the best though, because this kind of attack always deeply frustrated those who had worked so hard to get the new convert to come to church. Life’s blood flowed out of the new convert as she went to her spouse in the back pew and told him what was said to her and by whom. He made a beeline for the pastor’s wife to let her know there was a predator in the altar and a holy fire lit her eyes as she heard what happened and headed for the predator whose “dorsal fin” Pentecostal hairdo was now sinking below the surface of faces now headed for the back door. Scratch one altar-shark…but scratch one new convert. The backslider never got her to attend church regularly after that. Today she is a hardcore backslider who hates the church.
Genocide From The Pulpit
He was tall, slim, and all Marine. He smoked, cussed like a sailor and over his face was a large purple birthmark that set him out in a crowd and covered the majority of the front of his face. The district superintendent had given me his number, because John was hungry and had visited their church. You could see it in his eyes when we talked about God to him. I had mentioned him to the brothers at church and they were ready to meet him, so I rushed as I picked him up at the barracks and headed for town. John loved church. His brother had talked to him about the truth and he knew some of the word. He made quick friends at church and we took him to fellowship rallies, conferences and conventions, never leaving him out.
At a rally one night we prayed him through to the Holy Ghost. He had never heard himself speak in other tongues although many of us had prayed with him before. That night in a Baptist church rented for the rally, I prayed for John and he began to speak in those languages again, but because of an inner ear problem he just could not hear himself talking. I cupped my hands by his ear and for the first time he heard himself speaking in other tongues. Timber! He hit his back on the floor and how he missed the front pew only 5 feet from the altar has always amazed me. John stood over 6 feet tall. He lay under the pew a half hour talking in tongues. After service he immediately called our district superintendent’s wife and told them that he had received the Holy Ghost.
John began to change. He stopped drinking. He stopped smoking. No one had to tell him. John stopped cussing. He was always reading his Bible, always in church and always on his feet with the preacher when he was preaching. God gave him boldness and knowledge of the word like few I’ve ever seen, reminding me of one of my childhood heroes by his boldness with the word. We fed his hunger for the word and gave him preaching tapes, of which his personal favorites were some of our best, including Jeff Arnold, Johnny Godair, and our pastor, James Gilbert.
I got out of the Marines to go to college and left the state for almost 3 years, but I felt John was in good hands as our pastor was a powerful pioneer of this truth. I knew John could make it if anyone could.
I returned to town at the end of 3 years only to find John had been transferred to a base in another state. He had left our home church on fire with the call of God on his life to preach the gospel. Yet the word came to me upon inquiry, that John had been transferred to another state, where he crossed swords with a minister for preaching false doctrine. John knew enough from being under our pastor not to tolerate that, but his newness in the church had not given him the strength to overcome failures, ridicule, being set down for speaking truth, perils of false brethren and being crucified by those he should have been able to trust. He quit going to church.
I met the man responsible for his demise almost 13 years later. Suffice it to say he is now no longer with us either…but how many other “Johns” are there out there? How many have had to pay the price for the foolishness, carnality and hard-handed hard-heartedness of many that still walk among us? Trust God to begin to weed them out soon. He keeps good books.
My tabernacle is spoiled, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone forth of me, and they are not: there is none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains. For the pastors are become brutish, and have not sought the LORD: therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered. Jeremiah 10:20-21
From the very lips of the man who did this, I saw God’s word jump to life right out of the word of God. He told me before one of his services, “God did me a favor and cleaned the bad ones out of my church.” He had at one time built the church he pastored up to between 120-180 people. Reports varied by the ministers and saints in that area. At the time he told me this he was running about 29. One of his good saints told me that other churches in the area had experienced revival because of what the man had done and had grown (meaning they left his church for other area churches). All I could think when I heard this stunned amazement of wanting to know when we started considering survival as revival?
Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness. They have made it desolate, and being desolate it mourneth unto me; the whole land is made desolate, because no man layeth it to heart. Jeremiah 12:10-11
The church as a whole had not grown because of his insanity, spiritual abuse and heresy…they had fled for their spiritual lives from a sheep beater! The section presbyter snorted in disgust when I told him what the pastor had said and sought counsel from him and the district superintendent about the matter. He told me God had not cleaned the man’s church out…he had run them off all by himself. Let God’s word be true and every man a liar!
And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks? Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock. The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them. Ezekiel 34:1-4
Seven months I sat under the man and not one time in seven months did he ever step to the pulpit with a message of encouragement, but began to rant, rave and scream at us about his “new doctrine” that “God” had given him that no one else in Pentecost knew or believed. That was seven months of name-calling over the pulpit, maligning, insulting, verbal abuse and railings. He had tried to convince me that everyone in his church believed his doctrine and that I, the newcomer, was the only one that did not buy into his heresy. All I can do is pray that he is one of a very minute few who have slipped into Pentecost unseen and undetected.
I once again sought counsel from one of my mentors during that period, a dear sweet man of God who grew up in the Texas/Oklahoma region, a true Pentecostal pioneer. He had preached since he was 13 years old and retired after nearly 70 years of ministry. When I told him what was being preached over the pulpit he was shocked. He had not heard of anything like it in all his days as a minister, at least, not in Pentecost. I pray I never do again! Sadly it was an issue that had been dealt with by the apostles back in the book of Acts and should not have cropped up again with anyone with half-sense. It goes to show that when you let something get in your life and won’t listen to God, he can turn you over to the enemy.
The priests said not, Where is the LORD? and they that handle the law knew me not: the pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit. Jeremiah 2:8
Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. 1 Timothy 4:1-3
When God’s man penned those pages, he was trying to send out a message of dire warning to the church of the last days. The Holy Ghost was speaking to the man of God 2,000 years ago to warn us that in our time this was going to happen. Why? Because he feared there might not be any men of God willing to listen to the voice of the Spirit. What can we learn from this? If God was speaking so emphatically to the prophet then, we might want to check ourselves and see if that is what WE are speaking today! If we can sit and speak peace, blessings, grace, mercy and financial blessings, (and I believe in all of those things) and not hear the voice of the Spirit warning us that there is a peril in the end times we need to be worried about in listening to the TRUE VOICE of the Spirit in this last hour before the coming of our Lord. Try the spirits!
In vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction: your own sword hath devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion. O generation, see ye the word of the LORD. Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? a land of darkness? wherefore say my people, We are lords; we will come no more unto thee? Jeremiah 2:30-31
Preventing Justice and Judgment: Ministerial Turf Wars
Ultimately, here is where the problem is in this generation…we like to take anything that is said to us over the pulpit or from the word and project it outward. The word of God was meant to reflect INWARD. We always want people to turn our messages we preach inward and know that we are preaching to them…but why is it when we read in the word of God that in these last days some men shall give ear to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, that we always have to tag those unwritten words onto the scriptures in our minds “in the world,” or “in the denominational churches,” or “in those churches that don’t preach all the truth.” God rarely addressed the world in scripture. Most often when he was speaking he was talking to his people, his bride, his church, his ministers.
Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it. And though they say, The LORD liveth; surely they swear falsely. O LORD, are not thine eyes upon the truth? thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return. Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the LORD, nor the judgment of their God. Jeremiah 5:1-4
God is looking for men in this generation who will take a stand for justice and judgment based in the word of God, over the pulpit, out in the streets and in the counseling chamber. He’s not looking for ministers that temper their judgment according to who pays the most tithes in their church, who does the most work, who has been attending the longest and dresses like cookie-cutter Pentecostals, or who will or won’t stand up against us with the word of God when we do or say something wrong. That’s our problem in Pentecost. In the past century we’ve built mega-million dollar organizational structures, constructed ministerial “fellowships” that completely disfellowship the very saints they pastor from any membership in the very organizations they are supposed to represent. Then we set up bylaws that violate God’s word and weave us body-armor style protection from any type of correction within the body of Christ that does not conform to what we want to submit ourselves too.
I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of the LORD, and the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds. Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities: every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces: because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased. How shall I pardon thee for this? thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots' houses. They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbour's wife. Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? Go ye up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: take away her battlements; for they are not the LORD's. For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, saith the LORD. They have belied the LORD, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine: And the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: thus shall it be done unto them. Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them. Jeremiah 5:5-14
If ever we have lived in a generation when leadership refused correction, it is this generation. We can stir up a quick battle of the sexes in the church by preaching about wives being submitted to their husbands, but God help us if we really dig deep into submitting ourselves to ONE ANOTHER.
I tapped into this awhile back, but the very Bible that instructs our wives to submit to their husbands also directs us to submit our selves one to another in the fear of God. Age and position are not factors in taking correction either. We like to think so, yet there are commonly misquoted, misread and misinterpreted passages in the Bible that say to esteem our elders, but yet we take on a Catholic mode of leadership in our churches where pontiffs reign supreme and the word of God is made void among us in refusing correction. Let’s just put it this way…write your bylaws any way you want them, put loose-leaf pages in your ministerial manual so you can change them annually and save money on the reprint,…but God will bypass your bylaws in the blink of an eye.
The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: 1 Peter 5:1-6
We talk about Jobs trials and there isn’t a pulpit where his story hasn’t been preached, but the thing that has slipped under Pentecostal radar for decades is the fact that Job had 4 friends, not three, but it is only recorded that God got angry with three of them. The fourth friend, Elihu, was younger than either Job or his three friends. I did an article awhile back about the Wrath of Elihu. He waited to speak last, but when he spoke, he cut loose preaching in a stern rebuke to both the three friends and Job for not giving glory to God in his storm. He literally preached up a storm, because as soon as he left off speaking, God immediately spoke to Job from a whirlwind. God rebuked Job too. (Sounds like Elihu plugged into the voice of the Spirit!) Job repented and offered a sacrifice and prayed for his three friends and God heard him and forgave him…after he took a tongue lashing from a young preacher and the Almighty himself.
So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes. Then was kindled the wrath of Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the kindred of Ram: against Job was his wrath kindled, because he justified himself rather than God. Also against his three friends was his wrath kindled, because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job. Now Elihu had waited till Job had spoken, because they were elder than he. When Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of these three men, then his wrath was kindled. And Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered and said, I am young, and ye are very old; wherefore I was afraid, and durst not shew you mine opinion. I said, Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom. But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding. Great men are not always wise: neither do the aged understand judgment. Therefore I said, Hearken to me; I also will shew mine opinion. Behold, I waited for your words; I gave ear to your reasons, whilst ye searched out what to say. Yea, I attended unto you, and, behold, there was none of you that convinced Job, or that answered his words: Lest ye should say, We have found out wisdom: God thrusteth him down, not man. Now he hath not directed his words against me: neither will I answer him with your speeches. They were amazed, they answered no more: they left off speaking. When I had waited, (for they spake not, but stood still, and answered no more;) I said, I will answer also my part, I also will shew mine opinion. For I am full of matter, the spirit within me constraineth me. Behold, my belly is as wine which hath no vent; it is ready to burst like new bottles. I will speak, that I may be refreshed: I will open my lips and answer. Let me not, I pray you, accept any man's person, neither let me give flattering titles unto man. For I know not to give flattering titles; in so doing my maker would soon take me away.
If false doctrine has killed it’s thousands, respect of persons has killed it’s tens of thousands in Pentecost. God help us as a movement when we will use respect of persons to protect one of our own from any correction or revelation of justice. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if this nation falls it will fall because the ministers of the Oneness Apostolic movement have failed to call the church and the nation to repentance and rendered justice and judgment. God isn’t just looking for a buildings filled with benchwarmer “ain’ts” and “preachers” who stand in the pulpit and speak soft words of mercy, peace, grace, forgiveness and love and mislead their people. If God wanted that he could find it in Joel Olsteen’s mega-crowd. Don’t you dare call that abomination he propagates a “mega-church” when the dude won’t preach against sin!
If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him. Deuteronomy 13:1-4
And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel. Ezekiel 14:9
Why is it that any time the word of God is giving a promise of blessing, praise, or uplift that it’s accepted without question that it is ALWAYS talking about US the Oneness capital-B Believers, but whenever God is warning about judgment, false doctrine, heresies, seducing spirits in this generation that we immediately turn it outward and not inward and point our mental finger at the world or other religions and say in our spirits “God and his man are talking about someone else,” and not at us?
My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction: For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth. Proverbs 3:11-12
Why is it that we are all about the grace, mercy, forgiveness, blessing, and financial prosperity stuff, but we can’t take justice and judgment, nor can we as a church or as ministers render judgment and justice in matters between brethren? We live in a generation of such political correctness even in the Pentecostal movement that we think that anything that is correction, direction, discipline or warning is NEGATIVE and therefore must be of the devil. What foolishness! God’s correction is always positive, even if it seems negative.
And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: Hebrews 12:5
We need not revolt and desire to step back, quit, or fail just because we did something wrong and God has to correct us, but it is the spirit of the world that says…don’t correct that child! It’s the spirit of this age and it has crept into our churches and into our pulpits!
If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? Hebrews 12:7
This scripture alone should be a warning to those among us that think that God will not speak to correct. Maybe I’m just too opinionated on this matter because I am a son, but I am also a father and have been a step-father. My dad never just walked into the room and started laying a whipping on me without a warning. Whether it was something I was doing then or something he had warned me about prior to over and over again, there was always a precursor to punishment. There was always a verbal warning. Do I really have to go into a spiritual equation here? We are made in the image of God our Father.
Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Hebrews 12:11
Correction may seem to be negative to some, but true correction is always positive. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a message of correction come from prophecy or tongues and interpretation that said, “Hear ye the word of the Lord, you are a dirt-bag and I’m going to kill you because I hate you.” I have however heard a message come through tongues and interpretation in a church telling an individual, “In one year, if you do not repent, your corpse will bear record that you are but flesh and I am still God.”
Correction is grievous unto him that forsaketh the way: and he that hateth reproof shall die. Proverbs 15:10
At a tent meeting as a child I heard a tongues and interpretation come forth after one of our elder pioneers preached that pronounced pending judgment, “I have spoken to you repeatedly this week from my pulpit and from my word. If you do not get right with me tonight, you will not see the morning.” The gentleman whom that message was for ran screaming to the altar and prayed back through that night. I’d rather meet a warning sign at the top of a cliff than an ambulance and hearse at the bottom of one.
He that refuseth instruction despiseth his own soul: but he that heareth reproof getteth understanding. Proverbs 15:32
I’ve even heard some of our One God preachers get in the pulpit as visiting evangelists for some of the biggest preachers in Pentecost and tell whole congregations that if the gifts of the Spirit work in prophecy or tongues and interpretation or in any way give a judgment or warning for them to stop and NOT GIVE the message! What foolishness. They misinterpreted the meaning of 1 Corinthians 14 to mean that edifying was always uplifting and encouragement, but not correction. I don’t know about you, friend, but there’s nothing more edifying to me than God sending a warning to me to stop doing something if I don’t want the judgment of God on my life and to end up in hell!
We live in a generation that wants power gifts, but doesn’t want to hear the vocal gifts. We stretch for power and fail in the area of purity. We demand submission, but will not submit! We want to cast out demons, heal sick people, raise the dead, and I want all of that, but why is it that we have raised a generation of young ministers and old who will not take correction from the Holy Ghost? True power will never come without submission. Hell knows this and is not afraid of us in our present condition.
Why is it that we can sport around the country or around this big blue marble in the finest of suits, ties and shoes and we love to receive the accolades of men, but not receive the correction of the Holy Ghost? In Paul and Peter’s age, they were servants of God…in our day we are “AUTONOMOUS.” If you don’t know what that means, then don’t worry, because I looked it up myself after I brought a very serious issue to a bishop in one province and was told he could do nothing about it because all his ministers were “autonomous.”
au·ton·o·mous –adjective
1. | Government.
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2. | having autonomy; not subject to control from outside; independent: |
In that particular situation I ultimately did not have long to wait on judgment. The other party that was under the ministry that would not correct their sin filed a court case against me. I counseled with my pastor again who instructed me to turn in every bit of information I had to the courts and let them decide the matter since the ministry, the church and a district had refused to judge the matter. The other party ranted for three hours into the hearing I presented every shred of evidence I had to the judge during the last 5 minutes. In less time than it takes to tell it, the judge ruled harshly against the other party and completely in my favor, ending the matter.
We read Paul’s stern rebuke of the Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians 6, how two brothers went to court against each other, but we have misunderstood the full impact of his rebuke. He was not merely reprimanding those who went to the judge, but the entire church leadership for refusing to pick out someone among them who was wise and let them judge matters between brothers and sisters of like precious faith. I’ve heard every excuse imaginable as to why we don’t do this in the church. Other religious bodies may get away with not doing this, but there will be not apostolic restoration of power if we do not restore justice and judgment to the church of the Living God.
To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice. Proverbs 21:3
And the LORD said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.
If we want God to bring to pass the things He has spoken of this last generation Apostolic Church, we must have a return to justice and judgment from our pulpits. We must be first partakers of the fruit. If we do not, God will bypass us and do a quick work among another people who don’t as yet know all truth and leave us in his wake as he brings this generation to a close. Instead of glory, he will stand as a tragic example of a people who did not balance his word, calling and message with the correcting power of justice and judgment. I don’t want to be bypassed for destroying God’s children, aborting unborn souls or refusing correction from whatever means or person God may send to correct me.
And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt shew this people all these words, and they shall say unto thee, Wherefore hath the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God? Then shalt thou say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, saith the LORD, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law; And ye have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, ye walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto me: Jeremiah 16:10-12
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