It Is Not Only Rome That Has Its Pope!

After reading a post on this blog of my experiences with a church group, a Christian man sent me an email the other day asking to make contact by telephone. He had been having dealings with two or three people from that church and he mentioned my name and that particular testimony about them. Even though one man told him, it was the writing of “a deeply hurt man,” the uneasiness in his spirit caused him to think and believe otherwise, so that’s why he made contact. He said he was  glad and blessed to have done so because his thoughts and belief were confirmed by the spiritual peace that had now replaced his spiritual uneasiness.

I get a few private emails from concerned members of that church and others like them.  They too are sent as a result of experiencing spiritual uneasiness.  It is not deep hurt they discern from what’s written in that testimony, it is truth, and they want to know more … not gossip, not slander, not criticism for criticism’s sake – simply truth. How most people hate to hear truth!  Christians or otherwise, they hate it – especially when it clashes with what they’re taught or want to believe is truth. I love the examples of Jesus and the apostle Paul; they were accused of being all sorts of things; labels of all kinds being put upon them, but the one label they couldn’t stick was, “liar” … in all their own lies, deceits and hypocrisy they knew better not to.

These people can’t stick the “liar” label on me either. Why not? Two answers – first: most don’t know their Bibles well enough to know whether I am a liar or not. Second: most don’t know the God of the Bible well enough to ask. The reality is, the man who follows the thoughts and opinions of any man but the Man Jesus, leaves himself wide open to get deeply hurt at some point; it’s rarely the other way round.  Then we have those Christians among us who accuse truth-proclaimers of having ‘no love’ ‘no tolerance’ ‘no compassion’ ‘full of self-righteousness’ ‘full of spiritual pride’ and, the in-word these days … ‘full of hate speech.’

What a motley lot they are. Lets have a look at the “hate-speech” John the Baptist used on this kind of people – brood of vipers! (adder, poisonous snake). How about the “hate-speech” of the Lord Jesus? – brood of vipers! – neither fit for the land nor fit for the dunghill – you hypocrites! – as much a son of hell as yourselves – blind guides – fools and blind – you are like whitewashed tombs….full of dead men’s bones – you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness – you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets, how can you escape the condemnation of hell? – I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds – I will kill her children with death – I will spew you out of My mouth.

If Jesus were here in Person today, “hate-speech” would be the crime to put Him away and it would be the church as much as the in-crowd who would do it! How about when He took the whip to those hypocrites in the Temple? Anyone else today would be diagnosed with intermittent explosive disorder and be given all the pity and pampering in the world. But not so, Jesus. He’d be charged with temple rage today; fined and sent off to carry out an anger management course. “A deeply hurt Man” perhaps? And if we think Jesus was bad, what would they do with the apostle Peter today? So strong were his words when challenging a lying, hypocritical married couple in the church, both of them fell dead at his feet! Acts 5:1-11.

To another church hypocrite Peter said, “….I see you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity” Acts 8:23.  If Peter did and said those things today, there would be a church meeting of elders and he’d be told he was the one that needed urgent ministry.  Let’s draw our attention to the apostle Paul. “Oh full of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness…….And now, indeed,……..you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a time…..” Acts 13:10-11. To those bringing false doctrine into the church, twice in New Testament Galatians he said, “Let him be accursed” and once, “As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate (castrate) themselves!”  Language indeed!

Sad it is that the best some Christians can do when faced with truth, is to go on the defence.  Instead of taking themselves to God in prayer asking, “Lord, is there something in this I need to look at?”, they turn the whole thing back on the one who faces them with it and brand him or her, using religious terminology. And in a church, you can’t get any better religious terminology than that which speaks to hurts, because that’s what the church is supposed to be all about – getting delivered from them. So, all someone has to do to convince a concerned, questioning person is to tell him what this man was told … and usually it works, they will buy the lie.

My concern here is not at all for myself, that’s in God’s hands. Neither is it for the man who emailed me because he was spiritually sharp enough to discern which voice in his ear was the real deal, before he made contact with me. All he needed was a little confirmation and he got that within 60 seconds. My concern is for those who buy the lie not just at that church, but others like them.  A spiritually sharp Christian lady from another country read that same testimony and likened it to similar goings on in her church. It is taught that the “bishop” of that church is the one who hears from God, no one else. All the “leaders” hang on to his every word and believe all the revelation he gets is from God. It is not only Rome that has its pope!   

Similar to my experience, she said they speak of Jesus and salvation, but hardly any teaching on the Holy Spirit or the 5-fold ministry. Such churches dare not, otherwise they will be quickly found out for the frauds that they are.  The men of her church (over 800) set up a covenant with the “bishop” and swore an oath to him that he is their spiritual father. Never mind that there’s no such thing required in the New Testament, they’ve gone ahead and done it, he’s smothering the men and the men are smothering their wives! But such churches are clever … the men don’t call it “smothering” they drag out religious terminology and call it “submission.” It is far from biblical submission, however.

The lady informed me that the men each purchased a ring costing over $300 to show their loyalty to God and this man.  A few months later the women were offered the opportunity to purchase a small charm pendant to go with this.  How sad for these spiritually stupid, gullible men-pleasers. Their hearts are so black there’s no way they can express them in loyalty to God. “Loyalty” they call it. I call it “idolatry”! I knew exactly where the lady was at when she told me what was taught was done so in such a way that it’s difficult to know for sure what is truth and what is error. That’s how the religious spirit of CONTROL operates – it misquotes, misuses and abuses Scripture leaving you confused, doubting and restless.

“We have recently been taught that we are the church of the first born sons and we are the latter church now, not the former,” she said. The language differs from place to place, nevertheless, it is still the language of a cult. There’s only one TRUTH and there’s only ONE church … it’s an organism and never an organization. Imagine the heart of Jesus right now if it were otherwise! Next I was informed that council consent was granted in one town to build schools. It already has a school of 250 kids. This grieves me. Those kids are being set up for controlling at deeper levels. Heathen councils don’t know any better, but sadly, neither do gullible Christian men and women who treat their leaders as the sole voice of God to them.

Her husband and herself have been leaders of a small group for some time, he being, “absolutely committed and loyal to the church, he actively supports everything they do whether it be men’s meetings, men’s camps, going to conference each year or wherever we are asked to go.”  I understand perfectly. Thank God Jesus leads us (follow Me) and doesn’t drive us. That means we are free to go and free not to go. Worse by far: “he sees me as having always had a problem (with this) and this can cause him to feel really unhappy within our marriage, so over the years I have learnt to try and be less forthcoming with my different points of view.”  A spiritually-controlled man can never say, see or feel anything else. It is always his wife’s or someone else’s fault.

What a dilemma for this dear lady.  Here she is, faithful in ministry and fellowship suffering years of turmoil “and it’s getting worse.” She went to see the “bishop’s” wife about her feelings only to be told that she’s still part of the former church, she does not have the revelation she needs to move into the latter church. That’s simply cult language for, “get yourself in order around here, lady – knuckle under!” She can’t knuckle under. She has too much love for truth and the Lord of Truth. Whilst she is experiencing turmoil she knows liberty is her inheritance in Christ, not slavery, so the Holy Spirit will make sure she doesn’t cave in, husband or no husband … and that will be his choice.

She’s in my prayers. So is everyone else like her. “True-hearts” I call them. “Lord would you bless all Your true-hearts today, plus all those You know who will become Your true-hearts tomorrow.” I love that prayer because I don’t know the true heart of any person, which means I don’t have to get into bondage about someone who wants to put a label on me. If he’s a true-heart then the Holy Spirit will minister truth to him. If he’s a hard-heart or a deceived-heart presently, but ear-marked to become a true-heart some time down the track, he needs my prayer right now, so I can’t lose either way.

There is nothing more important than truth. People say love is more important; even most Christians will say that, but that’s not the truth. Truth must come first or we can never define what true love is. God is love 1 John 4:8 but we only ever accept that on the basis of truth, not partial truth, compromise, error, deception and lies. If we get caught up in those things, there are dimensions of true love for God missing. Truth must be proclaimed and anything that hinders it must be exposed. “The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own power; and My people love to have it so, but what will you do in the end?” Jeremiah 5:31. “Truth shall spring out of the earth….” Psalm 85:11. “….His truth shall be your shield and buckler” Psalm 91:4. “Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth…..” Ephesians 6:14.