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compassion, deception, discerning the spirits, divorce, exhortation, experience, eyes of the heart, God's guidance, grace, Jesus Christ, leadership, Remarriage, repentance, Satan, sin
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God alone knows our hearts and why we do what we do. From hence, we have no right to judge others wrongly and condemn them. However, we need to know with which people we can be open and which people we should beware of. Just yesterday I had two seemingly similar, yet also different experiences.
In one case I had to do with a Christian woman who was never married, yet had several relationships with men over the years. For some reason, she could not make these relationships work for a long time and is quite desperate about how things are. Listening to her, I believe I felt God’s compassion as, perhaps, Jesus might have felt it as he met the woman at the well. In fact, it is crucial to understand someone’s suffering by listening to them first instead of quickly passing judgment on another person. Nonetheless, it should be clear that we cannot have continued (spiritual) fellowship with someone who never repented from their sins because these evil spirits that ‘drive’ these people will easily find access to our own spirits when we open our hearts to them and pray together. I believe that prayer is the gateway, the entrance door, to the spiritual realm, either to God’s kingdom or to the kingdom of Satan and I don’t think that there is any ‘neutral’ realm in between.
The second case was the one that grieved me on another level. I read on the internet that a former pastor on whose blog I had commented a lot in the past would not only leave his wife and kids, but got divorced and lately remarried as the guilty party at that. Having prayed for him to repent beforehand, i.e. for him to return to his wife, coming to know that he got (happily) remarried grieved me a lot. Even more, as I read that he kept preaching about the grace of God while living in sin! He is alleged to have said that although he was no longer part of any clergy (which is good!), he would preach as God led him. Ouch!
Dear brothers and sisters, no, I won’t tell you who he is. Some of you might know it, though. I simply wanted to publish an earnest exhortation to not listen to preachers whose lifestyle is not biblical. If someone preaches about the grace of God because their soul and body feel happy due to their licentious life, you can be sure that these preachers are led by Satan. Really!! God is not mocked! We should not listen to someone’s sermon nor read their writings if they do not walk like Jesus walked as the apostle John told us.
“And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” ( 1 Jn 2:3-6 ESV)
Even the Old Testament prophets had a lot of things to say about divorce. I think the following verses speak for themselves. Malachi wrote,
So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth. “For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the Lord, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.”
You have wearied the Lord with your words. But you say, “How have we wearied him?” By saying, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them.” Or by asking, “Where is the God of justice?” (Mal 2:15-17 ESV)
I would like to go one step further here and warn about having fellowship with those who believe they were led to live a licentious life by God (!). Whoever stumbled over my latest statement, I can tell you that these things happen way more often than you might think. We are a generation that is (being) more deceived than any other before us, as it sometimes seems to me. If someone wants to read a bit more about this, I described one of my own experiences with two Christians who had visited me about 1 ½ years ago here: Do not allow demons to speak! I cannot tell you how difficult it was after having opened the door to these people (and the seducing spirits that were involved) to finally get rid of the torment these spirits caused me in the following few weeks. That was a lesson I will never forget!
Just for clarification at the end of this article. It is not my intention to condemn anyone who stumbles and falls into temptation. We are all human beings and these things can happen to every one of us. I only wanted to warn about having fellowship with unrepentant sinners (read more here: Do not be deceived: Bad company ruins good morals). Furthermore, it has caused me some concern to see how far deception can go. It always begins with some tiny little things that go wrong. However, a little leaven is enough to leaven the whole lump (Gal 5:9). If preachers do not return to their first love which is Christ, they will fall in love with this world and with everything this world has to offer (fame, riches, licentiousness etc.). Please, dear reader, be cautious to whom you listen and whom you believe. The kingdom of God is neither about reading the Bible, nor about knowing all teachings and doctrine, nor is it “a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men.” (Rom 14:17-18 ESV)
Susanne,
Satan seems to have an age old tactic, “Smite the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered” (and become easy prey). Those who climb to a high profile. take on titles to themselves and garner attention to themselves in the church might even get there with the help of our enemy so that they will have a greater influence. But why would he do that? So that when they get to a place where they think they are above reproach, he can tempt them all the more easily and entice them to fall. And when they DO fall, the faith of all those who faithfully followed them and their teachings will be shattered.
When we idolize our spiritual leaders and teachers, we become part of their downfall. This is why Jesus said, “Call no man teacher, for only One is your Teacher, even Christ.” ONLY CHRIST is worthy of our trust and only HE has passed the test of Satan trying to get Him to rise up over the kingdoms of men by His own greatness and spiritual abilities. He even told one of the rulers of the Jews who called Him, “Good Teacher,” “Why do you call me good? Only ONE is good,even our Father who is in heaven.”
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This is also why John wrote,
“These things have I written unto you concerning them that deceive you. But the anointing which you have received of him abides in you, and you need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teaches you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it has taught you, you shall abide in him.” (1John 2:26-27, KJ2000)
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Yes and amen, Michael! Excellent!! ⭐
The anointing even teaches us about the things our natural five senses are not aware of. His Spirit in our own spirit enables us to even read between the lines. We might immediately FEEL it when something is wrong, but the explanation often comes much later. However, we ought to submit at once to whatever the anointing points us to at any given moment.
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Yes, Susanne, this is so true. You just feel something is not right, though to our natural senses and logic everything is fine. When this happens if our souls are enticed by the temptation by wanting to be “accepted” or to “not offend” or we like the feelings that the temptation brings with it, we will have to find out the hard way once we cave into it, why we should have resisted. Someone once said, “Experience is the best teacher.” I wonder if experience is often the ONLY teacher!
Jesus left plenty of room for His disciples to screw things up so that they could learn. I think that as much as we would like to be perfect and always do what is right, God lets us blow it, too, so that we also may learn to obey His voice. Sometimes you just have to let a child find out the hard way what, “Don’t touch! Burny, burny!” means.
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Amen! Well said, Michael! Burny, burny… so true. 👀🔥😲🤕
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Yes, these Scriptures perfectly affirm the truth of what was said here. Very good, Michael! ⭐
It is sooo easy to be deceived as we both have known from our own experiences! If we indeed were able to resist the devil, we would only boast in God’s grace that saved us from another delusion. No one is good but God. AMEN!
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It is interesting that I was thinking of something like this my self. A lot of times I am not sure who to listen to. It is hard for me to know who to listen to as the teachings seem sound even though they do not agree with some one else who also seems sound. I also don’t know them or their life style. This is one reason I get so confused because I know both can not be right but both sound right.
I have how ever stopped listening to some sermons when I find out the person preaching has been doing something I do not agree with. I feel some times bad about doing that as I make a lot of mistakes my self. I feel some times I still have a lot to repent from. I know because of things like this I try to make sure that I am being lead by GOD and only him. It seems to be hard to tell though and I some times feel I maybe upsetting GOD in questioning who I am being lead by. I get so scared sometimes.
Oh and about the devoiced and remarried pastor. I know of one I used to follow before he did that. Lots of people were upset at him about it and were mainly upset that he would not listen when he was told it was wrong. There was a lot of comments on his youtube video about it. This is probably not the same pastor as he does not have a blog that I know of just a youtube channel that I used to watch. A lot of his videos were helpful too.
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Yes, interesting that you had thoughts along the same lines, Fred.
I make a lot of mistakes myself, still, and I cannot say I am always led by God as much as I want to. God’s answers or silence regarding some matters still leave me wondering at times, even confused until it gets clearer later (in hindsight).
As for this pastor, no, I don’t think it is the same one. But alas, there are so many of these ‘lonely men in the spotlight’ that are being deceived because they have been put on a pedestal. This is not the way it should be in the Body of Christ. We are members one of another and no one of us is beyond reproach. This pastor’s blog has been removed from the net and, in fact, he preached some helpful sermons, too, before his great fall… I need to admit that this case still grieves me a lot. It is like a heavy burden on my heart. 😦
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Susanne,
You said “Nonetheless, it should be clear that we cannot have continued (spiritual) fellowship with someone who never repented from their sins because these evil spirits that ‘drive’ these people will easily find access to our own spirits when we open our hearts to them and pray together. I believe that prayer is the gateway, the entrance door, to the spiritual realm, either to God’s kingdom or to the kingdom of Satan and I don’t think that there is any ‘neutral’ realm in between.”
This is a new thought for me, and I am at a loss at the moment to remember anything in Scripture which relates to prayer being either the gateway to Satan’s realm or a pathway by which believers’ spirits may become demonically accessed. Do you, (or, Michael, do you?) have scripture to back the thought up? (I remember that we aren’t to lay hands on anyone too quickly…)
Also, perhaps I have misunderstood you, and need further explanation…
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Difficult question, Louise. Indeed, this ‘laying hands on somebody’ issue came to my mind immediately, too. In the case I experienced 1 1/2 years ago, there was no such thing but hugs. Although I felt uneasy before having been hugged (against my will), afterwards I had felt that there was something very wrong with me. I got confused and upset, suffered from sleep disorder and anxieties etc. I wrote several blog posts about these things later and, eventually, when the line was clearly drawn (no contact with these ppl anymore), it got easier and finally more restful for me again.
Regarding prayer being the entrance door even to Satan’s realm, well, that thought sprung from my experiences in the Pentecostal cult and from what I have heard and seen esp. on TV in the past about what esoteric and ‘Christian’ spirit healers do. In fact, they often pray to God, to our Father and to the Holy Spirit, even Jesus as a ‘Christ-Consciousness’ is part of their twisted trinity thinking.
However, I did not want to say when you or I pray to God that Satan would enter our spirit. Nonetheless, if someone has opened their heart and mind to Satan beforehand and they remain disobedient toward God’s voice, He sends them the spirit of delusion (2 Thes 2:11). Actually, just today I got an email from someone who would be extremely happy about a ‘healing’ that happened in their Pentecostal congregation after many, many prayers. No wonder that they would see about 40 conversions afterwards at that.
I know there are some Scriptures, but I believe Michael knows them better than I do. So, I will leave the room for him here. Michael, any ideas? 🙂
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Louise, my only experience with this “laying on of hands in prayer” thing as being negative was when I went to a “Toronto Blessing” conference with two brothers where we were told not to be “cerebral Christians” and to just blank out our minds and receive while they placed their hands on us and prayed that we would receive a manifestation. Well, I focused on and followed an old saints advice to “seek God’s face and not His hands.” I came away without any problems, but the two guys that I was with both had some serious mental problems that occurred in them, even on our long drive back from southern California. One guy even insisted that we take him to the airport at Sacramento so he could fly back to Spokane without us. The other one ended up cutting himself off from all other Christians and sought out psychotherapy once we were back. I saw a lot of crazy manifestation happen in those who were prayed for by these leaders, too, barking like dogs, roaring like a lion, slithering on the floor, “holy drunkeness,” uncontrollable laughter, etc.
Seeking after spiritual signs is very dangerous and can lead to all manner of craziness. Jesus said that “an evil and an adulterous generation seeks after a sign.” The “adultery” comes in when other spirit come into people who open themselves up to people who lay on hands while they blank out their minds and to bring forth these questionable signs. This is how practitioners of many eastern religions operate. It is spiritual adultery when these other spirits come into us.
Remember Paul’s warning in 2 Thess. chapter 2:
“The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with ALL POWER AND FALSE SIGNS AND WONDERS, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (2Thess 2:9-12, ESV2011)
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Thank you so much for sharing this part of your testimony, explanation and Scriptures. VERY helpful, my dear brother! ❤😊👌
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You are welcome, Susanne. I am glad it helped. ❤👌
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🤗❤🌟
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I do understand about spiritual transference upon the laying on of hands, and that what is transferred may be either godly or ungodly. And it is true that laying on of hands is usually accompanied with prayer.What puzzles me is the idea that prayer, without laying on of hands, can be a vehicle for such transference. But maybe that is not what was meant by the bit which I asked about…
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I also thought about a blend of ‘Christian-Zen’ meditation where they try to empty their minds in order to meet ‘god’. Without Jesus as our mediator they will hardly meet the real God by doing so unless God Himself intervenes.
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A Scripture just came to mind, Louise. Jesus told the Samaritan woman that she did not know to whom she prayed/whom she worshipped (Jn 4:22). Furthermore, believers in all religions pray. But not to the same God we do unless Jesus is their mediator.
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It is that laying on of hands that really scares me. When I went down to Tulsa OK for a bible weekend I saw things I had never seen before. Like people running around the room as a sign of worship and people doing some strange dance moves during a worship service. Some time during the service people were asked about speaking in tongues and if you can’t speak in tongues to come forward. I kept hearing this voice saying do not go up front. So I listened and didn’t go up front. However later on some people were speaking in tongues and I opened my big mouth and said I could not do that. They would not let me leave until after I was able to speak in tongues. They did lay hands on me at that time. I went to the hotel and felt terrible and it took a lot of prayer that night to get the bad feeling to go away. That scared me a lot.
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Oh boy… 😔 Fred, I am relieved you got outta there! 👣👍
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Well, I now think part of my puzzlement came from not giving enough attention (despite nudging from God) to the little phrase, “…who never repented…”. I can think of scripture which supports that, at least in relation to Christians:
1 Cor 5:9 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:
10 Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.
11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.
12 For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? (KJV)
On the other hand,
Jude 1:23 And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. (KJV)
So, sometimes we are to avoid, and sometimes not. The principles which govern what is right must surely be following the Holy Spirit and discerning the spirits, which are recurring themes on this blog! 🙂
Blessings to all who gather here.
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Yes and amen, Louise. ❤
Great exposition by you! Could not be said better. ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Every blessing,
Susanne
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Susanne, you wrote, “Growth in Christ and His authority happens as we have come to grips that we have nothing in ourselves to help God out in any way. A complete surrender of every area of our life is needed before Christ finally lives in us and works through us as He sees fit.”
This is SO true! Oh, that more would have ears to hear your words. There are those who think that they have already been given everything they need just because they “believe” in Christ without coming to a complete end of themselves and the church is flooded with this kind of false authority. Paul knew the need to die daily to his old self-willed, scripture touting, human authority and that it was THIS Paul that persecuted the Church. Instead he wrote to the Corinthians,
Paul did not come teaching them in words of wisdom that he might have gained from Christ in the past, but rather he came in WEAKNESS AND FEAR dependent only on His Spirit in that very moment for what was needed to be said or done. It is in this kind of weakness and fear that Christ is made perfect in us.
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Excellent! Thank you, Michael! ⛤⛤⛤⛤⛤
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I am glad you could receive it, dear heart. ⭐
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Michael,
I had the following Scripture in mind as I wrote my last replies.
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. (Js 1:5 ESV)
Only God knows how weak I am and how VERY often I ask Him for His wisdom as I find myself at my wits end once again (three teeth aching now, you know). I can say that He always helps, however, sometimes I need to get acquainted to His way of communicating with me. And often times these trial are much longer than expected…
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I understand, Susanne. It is not fun being in such continuing pain as I have found out with my arthritis and recent back injury. Paul asked for Jesus to deliver him of his “thorn in the flesh” that constantly pestered him, but was denied. God knew he needed it because of the potential of his pride rising up and suffocating the Spirits work in and through him because of his abundance of revelations that Father gave him. Asking for wisdom on how to handle a situation we are in is one thing, but to just ask for wisdom so we can be “super Christians” without Christ is totally another.
And of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: That, according as it is written, He that glories, let him glory in the Lord. (1Cor 1:30-31, KJ2000)
I am praying with you regarding your many thorns, dear sister. We all love you dearly and so does He. ❤
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Thanks a bunch for your many prayers, dear Michael!
Much love to you, too. ❤
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