Heresy hunting, or genuine concern?

[PastorPoad]

With all of the weird teaching going around, I am finding that it would be easy to spend your whole time pointing them out. There are so many fires to put out, that you could exhaust yourself, doing nothing but running around, putting these fires out! I am finding that it is wisdom to pace myself and to pick our battles. For if all we do is point out faults all the time, we will find that we will be misunderstood and people will shut off when we speak.

Because of my background, and the people that I rub shoulders with, I have chosen to address the word faith heresies and extremes. I am finding that most people who address this particular heresy are Baptists, and for this reason those who are trapped in these heresies, or at very least extremes, switch off and disregard all critique’s of their beliefs, accusing these folks of being anti- spiritual gifts,  and anti-Holy Spirit.

Personally it doesn’t bother me what part of the body of Christ a believer comes from, if they can show me from scripture that my beliefs are wrong or extreme, I hope I will be able to receive that correction.

I think anyone has the right to point out heresy, no matter from where they come from, but I also feel like, having walked in Charismatic circles all my life, at least I cant be accused of being ant-gifts, or anti-Holy Spirit. I was a Christian first, before I joined a charismatic church. I got saved by reading the Bible at home. Christ saved me outside of church, then put me into a physical location a short time after.

In pointing out heresies, the goal should be to restore those who are in it. Or to safe guard others from getting in it! To give people discernment about what teachings are healthy for their souls, and what teachings have the potential to hurt their souls and lead them astray.

When I was a new believer, I had other, older believers recommend certain books and Teachers to me that were not healthy for my soul. I had my bout of following word faith teachers, and I found that those who were in this in the church I went to, began to elevate themselves spiritually over the rest of the local body I was a part of. They were more spiritual than all the rest, and knew better. The others, including the leadership that God had placed over the church were holding them back.

This mindset made a schism in the church and caused a split in the church, the spiritual ones formed their own group, but it had disastrous results for those who broke away. It didn’t take to long for this group to disintegrate. With all chiefs and no Indians so to speak, it was doomed to failure.

Pride and arrogance is the biggest danger connected with word faith teaching. This is the fruit of this kind of teaching. It makes us think we are more spiritual than we really are! We walk around thinking we have all this spiritual power, but most of the claims we make can’t be proved in the real world. We may convince ourselves that we have the power to create things by the word of our mouths, but only Gods word has the power to create.

I will be posting more on this topic in the days ahead!

 

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