Category: Authority
Apostolic Strategy for the Defeat of Principalities and Powers of the Air (Part 1)
An understanding of the principalities and the powers of the air is foundational to all true seeing. There is a realm of invisible, angelic beings brooding over this earth, profoundly influencing the conduct of individuals and nations. They are the rulers of this present world. It is extraordinary how naïve, ignorant, or indifferent the church is toward these powers, despite the fact that this theme is absolutely foundational to the whole calling of the church!
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
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Coming Soon To A Church Near You!
In preparation for a great visitation, God may raise up many messengers, each preparing the way of the Lord in his own appointed sphere. This is surely a day when God is looking for forerunners to blaze the trail of revival; not smooth preachers, but rugged prophets: men of the stamp of Elijah, who, with the hand of the Lord upon him, girded up his loins and ran before the king to the entrance of the royal city (1 Kgs. 18:46). Thus, he demonstrated the spiritual work he was doing as a forerunner. On Carmel Elijah had prepared the way of the Lord, and now the Lord was coming “as the latter rain that waters the earth” (Hos. 6:3).
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The Role of Fivefold Ministry (Part 3)
Now as pointed out before (in the book, Charismatic Captivation), the Church is the quintessential Theocracy. Its government is not a political government wherein the governed themselves constitute, devise, and effect their own government, such as that of this nation, the United States, which is a form of democracy (republic), supposedly “of the people, for the people, and by the people.” Rather, the Church is literally governed by a singular Supreme Potentate—the Lord Jesus Christ—who God has appointed as its Sole and Sovereign Head. The absolute necessity of understanding this one concept is emphasized and re‑emphasized repeatedly in this volume, and indeed is the ultimate and salient point of this book.
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Divinely Determined Ministry Scope
In vocational ministry, however, there are divine limitations to our fruitfulness. Those limitations are often intuitively understood, but not as often well defined. We may subconsciously realize that the large majority of God-called ministers will never have the impact of the Apostle Paul, yet we sometimes talk as if all ministers could attain to Paul’s level of spiritual success, if only “we were as dedicated as the apostle Paul.”
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12 Reasons “Spiritual Covenants” Are Not of God
Recently, I interfaced and interacted with a group whose primary commonality is their claim to be apostolic leaders, which, in my view, is extremely dubious in the case of but only a few. In the aftermath, a great disappointment and matter of dismay to me was being made aware, despite the decades of disapprobation and disrepute, some of their number, including some of their senior leaders, continue to employ in working/relating “covenant relationships” with junior leaders of their group such “spiritual covenants” of the ilk described and referenced herein. I was deeply grieved in my spirit by what I saw, discerned, and experienced at that conference.
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Uncovering the Myth of Spiritual Covering
“Spiritual covering” as theorized by those who teach, promulgate, and adhere to it is an absolute myth. No semblance of the version of “spiritual covering” taught by its proponents exists anywhere within the pages of Holy Writ (Scripture). I will take it a step further and state straightforwardly and unambiguously: “Spiritual covering,” in the vein that it is presented by its proponents and proliferators, is an unmitigated lie and complete myth! It is a complete fabrication concocted by the originators of these fallacious doctrines by which to facilitate and perpetuate their purely self‑aggrandizing objectives of subjugation, domination and control of the sheep of God’s Flock.
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Functional Vs. Titular Church Leadership
Through the years, I have observed various types of leadership styles as well as how people operate within the flow of leadership titles. I have found that those who attempt to lead merely through their official title have little or no respect in the organization. This is not to say that titles are unimportant; titles are useful in the military, politics, business, and the police department, not only to depict who is responsible for what task but to explain their job description. However, in the context of the business and the church world, continually touting one’s title is often unnecessary since relational leadership trumps hierarchical leadership more often than not in these contexts. In the context of Christianity, the church went from a functional style of leadership in the first two centuries to a hierarchical form of leadership.
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Identifying Hyper-authoritarian Doctrines and Practices
Hyper-authoritarian doctrines and practices have become cemented into the foundation, fabric, and functions of many churches and even whole denominations or networks of churches. The problem has become so widespread that it is almost pandemic in Pentecostal and Neo-Pentecostal churches. But, the reason these scripturally-condemned doctrines and practices have been able to proliferate and endure is that they have been going on so long that the present generations of church-goers in these ecclesiastical groupings have been reared in these cultures where domination and control by church leaders is the norm and are accepted as being normal.
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How God’s Theocracy Manifests on Earth
Billions, in the last two millennia since Christ gave believers a model for prayer that became known as “The Lord’s Prayer,” have prayed, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.” But, a rarefied few have prayed that portion of the prayer with knowledge of what it means and conviction that it would or even, if they were honest, could be answered. For most, it’s just a petition by rote, and they don’t really mean it. But, Jesus meant it when He instructed believers to pray that way and petition God in that regard. He really meant for us to petition God that His Kingdom come to Earth and that His Will be manifest on Earth as it is manifest in Heaven. The Government of the Kingdom of Heaven and God is the ultimate Theocracy.
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Solved: Conundrum of Violence, Violent men vs. Meekness!
All my Christian life I have found the idea that Jesus somehow endorses violent human effort (even if metaphorical or spiritual) for His cause as very odd. It contradicts the rest of His teaching, the life He lived, the example He set, and the rest of the New Testament. Typical translations of Mat. 11:12 fit like a gorilla in a tuxedo. You don’t have to be a scholar to know: “something just ain’t right!” The fact that there’s some divergence among translators provides us with its own warning: difficulty ahead. It’s always a mistake to be dogmatic, or to make much of a little, on a point based on an obscure and difficult passage. Recent discoveries of papyri and developments in scholarship have provided a more contextually valid understanding of this difficult verse.
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25 Reasons Hyper-Authoritarian Church Leadership IS Disqualifying
In the previous post I indicated my strong disagreement with the conclusions of the group of elders and an overseer who identified themselves as the “investigators” who conducted an investigation into the long train of abuses, misdeeds, and other allegations against the founding senior leader of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Mark Driscoll. Those men concluded that “While we believe Mark needs to continue to address these areas in his life, we do not believe him to be disqualified from pastoral ministry.” I ended that post by saying that abuse of spiritual authority is one of the most, possibly THE most, egregious affronts in existence to the One who is the Source of all legitimate authority, and that in a follow-up post I would offer 25 reasons why that is so that immediately come to my mind. This post consists of those 25 Reasons.
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The Outrageous Claims of Mars Hill Church “Investigators”
God’s people – leaders and laymen alike – need to give heed to the judgments of God that are clearly and undeniably manifesting all around us, and begin to earnestly and thoroughly “Humble (themselves) under the mighty hand of God!” (1 Pet. 5:6) for “God is opposed to the proud but gives His grace to the humble” (1 Pet. 5:5). It is much better for one to humble himself, as Scripture commands, than to refuse and leave it to an angry and avenging God to do the humbling.
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