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The Word of Truth Ministries | |
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Carnal Leaders
Cripple & Kill a Church |
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There is an idea that
somehow a single God-given ministry can sufficiently position the saints
of God into Christ. But God’s call upon the new and the old
saint/Christian is this: as new born babes desire the sincere milk
of the word that they may grow thereby. [I Pet. 2:2 ] And the
growth that the Word of God directs us to is to grow into perfection.
[Heb.6] Just as Peter instructed
the saints to grow as newborn babes, the writer of Hebrews expounds the
word more perfectly, saying, to leave the principles of doctrine of Christ
[the rudimental aspects of salvation] and go to perfection. Not laying
again the foundation of repentance from dead works [sin] and of faith
toward God [that he is faithful to forgive you of that sin] etc., and this
we will do if God permits. [Heb. 6:1-3] Certainly God does permit and even
commands it so. In
Matthew 5: 48, Jesus says, be perfect even as God is perfect. This be
perfect command is a command of the Lord for the saints of today. Many
worldly Christians have taken the idea of perfection and declared, since
there are so many views of perfection, that no one can be perfect. The
problem with such assertion is that it flies in the face of God’s
definition and God’s command. God
would not command us to do something beyond our capacity. That would be
unjust and unfair—and He is neither. Not only has he commanded us to
be perfect, He has also given us the wherewithal to be as He has commanded
us. First, He defines what perfection is in Philippians 3:10-15, and
second, He has given us the means to be perfect, as seen in Ephesians
4:11-16. So perfection to God
is not according to the fancies of men; it is not according to a
definition of man. Perfection is according to the definition of God, and
as God has defined it, so must we define it. [Since this essay is not about perfection, I will not
linger on this discussion. I treat that subject elsewhere.] Perfection
is a definite command of God for New Testament saints, and He has
given us the means to achieve that end! It is because of the carnality of
church leadership, that the perfection of the saints is being hindered.
The present leadership of the church, in large part, has no vision or
sight for the saints. And where there is no vision in that leadership, the
people perish. [Prov. 29:18] The Bible says, the
leaders have caused the people to error, and they who are led of
them are destroyed. [Isaiah 9 When we see what the leadership is comprised of and what they allow in the churches today, we can see that, in large part, the leadership of the church today is interested only in enlarging their bank accounts and enlarging their personal importance, but not really interested in feeding the flock of God to position that flock properly in the body of Christ. Much of the leadership crow about their big million dollar homes, boats, etc., while the poor of the flock only wish for the crumbs of these blessings to fall on them. But this distorted, self-important leadership breeds a culture of pastor worship, which is nothing short of a cult of men. The Clefro Dollars, Leroy Thompson’s, Kenneth Coplands, etc., are becoming larger in possessions, while the flock they are supposedly serving are not likewise becoming rich or richer. The fact is they are becoming poorer in order to make the pastors rich and richer. The Dollars, Copland's etc., are the better known religious profiteers. But in every sector of America, especially in Black, supposedly holiness, churches, there are lesser known gods of greed who, cloaked in the ministry of God, con, cajole, spiritually threaten and intimidate poor, unknowing saints out of their money, possessions, their homes, their welfare or retirement checks, their bodies, their loyalties, and out of their minds. These religious hustlers drive the best cars or fly first class to their million dollar homes that are spread here and there, across the nation and around the world. They have expensive clothing that poor saints have bought; they eat at restaurants poor saints cannot afford; they send their children to the best schools that poor saints cannot afford--all these at the expense of poor saints. And they spout the blessings of the Lord, but they are the only ones being blessed so handsomely by their god. And what type of god are they serving? The god of religious profiteering, the god of Scriptural slight-of-hand, the god of the business of religious giving to me, and you make it the best way you can. A God that is not biblical. But the Bible is their tool to wrestle the money away from the unknowing and weakened saints of the living God. But be assured, God will not look the other way on these religious sinners who pluck the flock and use them as cash-cows! The Lord shall come with fire and his with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury and his rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire and his sword will the Lord plead with all flesh; and those slain of the Lord shall be many! [Isaiah 66:15-16] God
is raising up prophets and ministers who see this error and will cry
against it; these ministers are not bound to this ungodly school of
thought or entangled with sins that would taint them. These ministers have
the gifts of God and the sight of God's word; these are ministers that God
has raised up, NOT MAN! Hence, no man can put them down or take away their
gifts. There
is today, a sin that is grievous to the spirit of God and to God's true
ministers: there is a widespread religious con-game that is being perpetrated against the people of God
using the name of God! And in legal terms, that con is, a fraud by
deceit. This deceit is a
religious deceit, and it depends upon a lack of knowledge of the Word of God
and the development of a culture and cult of men to be perpetrated against
the saints. In short, for these
religious profiteers require two things: 1.) their
victims [congregations] not really know the Word of God in a mature way
2.) they need a culture around themselves [a cult of men] that
allows them to take over the lives of these individuals so that adult
individuals submit themselves to them as a child does to a parent. When saints are
babes in the Word of Truth, they can easily
be led, and they never question those leaders. That non-questioning is deadly, but the religious con-men
depend on it to
cloak their actions. And carnal saints do not question because
they are carnal and unlearned in the Word of God--they cannot rightly
divide the Word of God well enough to see the con artist.[1
Cor. 3:1-5/Heb. 5:12-14] In
Paul’s discourse with the Corinthians church, he said that he could not
speak to them spiritually but as babes; he said that he had to feed them
with milk, and not solid meat. They were weak and childish; they were
unsophisticated in the word of God. The Hebrew writer goes further. He
said, when the saints should be teachers, they are so weak that they need
others to teach them the first principles of the oracles of God
[repentance from sin]. But this is a weakness that is peculiar among
saints of the lesser gods of greed. This weakness is actual blindness to
the word of God. As long as they are blind, they can never question and
challenge unsound teaching. The
remarkable thing that a Bible for each Christian gave us was the
ability to know the truth for ourselves; and knowledge of the truth will
make us free. People can only be bound if they do not know the truth of
God’s word or they will not challenge incorrect teaching. And any
minister who is unchallenged by a congregation, by a saint of God’s
word, or by another minister will go astray and develop his own cult of
man. That is why Solomon said that in the multitude of counselors is there
safety. Never in one man!!! Furthermore, the Scriptures teach that iron
[an idea, a concept] sharpens iron. If your minister does not
encourage questions and challenges of his opinions, his teaching, his
views of the word of God, be weary of such a one. Questioning, challenging,
demanding of Biblical proofs are the only ways to keep a minister
biblically sharp and grounded in the Word of God. You have a Bible, use
it; you can ask questions; ask them! What can a minister do to you for
challenging his teaching? Put you out of HIS church? Maybe. And that is a
good thing; certainly Christ is not there, and you have been blessed to
suffer persecution for Christ’s name. The reason there are so
many religious deceptions is because Christians have not asked questions,
have not challenged the supposed man of God, they have not studied the
Word well enough to even see the mistakes and deceptions that are being
perpetrated against them. Hebrews 5:13 reads, everyone who uses milk is
unskillful in the Word of Righteousness, for he’s a babe. But solid meat
[a mature knowledge of the Word] belongs to those of full age [adults] who
by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and
evil. This scripture shows why
the majority of the ministers today want the people to be ignorant of the
Word of God. Ignorance will blind you to their deceptive practices. No
true saint, who has the light of God’s Word in him, will allow a
minister, regardless of how eloquent he is, to go unchallenged when he
develops his cult and culture
of man, and not God. But Satan has equipped
these ministers with the psychological technique of Splitting. Paul cites
this in I Cor. 3:4. The Corinthian church was pitting one minister against
another in some type of competition. One was saying that he was of Paul
and another of Apollos. This is a common practice today as well. If a
competent minister comes in, immediately there is the idea that he isn’t
AS competent AS so and so. This is the carnal [childish] behavior
of elevating one against another in esteem. You will hear the frequent
discussion of the BEST minister, NO ONE else can do it, say it, pray it
like so and so. This is immature, childish, and carnal. If any one
of these people-pitted ministers buys into this childishness, he too is
carnal. Paul said that he was not ignorant of Satan’s
devices—certainly Splitting is one of Satan’s devices. This is a particularly
egregious device Satan has installed in many of our church because it
takes that splitting/pitting carnality and ensures that the congregation
will not get the message and anointing that God has sent to a particular
church or flock through that minister—one of these ministers is
eventually driven from that flock. And when that congregation is deprived
of the anointing and blessing God has placed on him, they stay babes in
Christ--retarded. They can never grow into perfection. This is a case of
carnality crippling the saints because no single ministry in the church
can carry the people of God to where God demands them to go. Paul, in
Ephesians 4, said that God placed in the church apostles, prophets,
evangelists and pastors and teachers for the perfecting
of the saints; that perfecting of the saints was for the work of
the ministry; that work of the ministry was for the edifying of the
body of Christ, till we ALL come to the unity of the faith,
and the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure
of the stature of the fullness of Christ. It takes all of these ministries to bring saints to where God wants them to be. When Satan constructs childish competition, where it does not exist—it need not exist—all the saints are harmed. Paul said to the Corinthians that both Apollos and Paul are only ministers of God. One plants and another water, but GOD gives the increase. Diverse ministries are needed to grow the church of Christ as he desires, but carnal men have raised the aura of competition. Competition raised is a
device of Satan that is used mostly in the hands of insecure, jealous, and
unlearned leaders. Instead of appreciating and benefiting from the
ministering that God has given to profit by, they are concerned that the
Godly minister seems more Godly, more anointed, more learned, more
anything than they. This type of jealousy is unbecoming the saint of God.
But Satan inspired, it thrives in many of our churches. Because these ministries are not allowed to flourish, many of the saints are sickly and have arrested development in God. But this is a position that many Satan motivated ministers, whether are aware that they are satanically inspired or not, want them to be in. When in this arrested development stage—for when you ought to be teachers you need that one teach you./For he that uses milk is unskillful in the Word of Righteousness –the people of God can be made merchandise of; they can be fleeced of all they have or of too much of what they have; they can be kept children tossed to and fro with every wind and doctrine, and by the cunning craftiest of men, in which they lie in wait to deceive. [Eph. 4: 11-14] God does not want his
people to be children, [immature, slaps, doped by every con man that comes
along] but too many pastors want them to be children. That is contrary to
the Word of God. Christ is made unto us wisdom; He wants us to be
wise as serpents, but harmless as doves. Since he has been made wisdom
unto us, do not allow a pastor, preacher, or anyone to make you their
merchandise or cash cow in the name of the Lord! And that is what is
happening today. Second, do not allow some
immature saint to pit on minister of God against another. Anyone who does
this readily identifies himself as carnal and unlearned in the Word of
God. That one has arrested development and needs help.
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Copyright © 2002 by The Truth of God