The Forgotten Call of Christians (Part 1)

"The Spirit of the LORD is upon me...He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners...to set the oppressed free..." The Lord Jesus, reading the words of the Prophet Isaiah

Jesus was, and is, a liberator.  He came "to save us all from Satan's power."  Satan is the oppressor, the slave master.  Jesus is the one who redeems us and frees us from Satan's tyranny and slavery.  We are set free to know and be like God.  This was, and is, Jesus' calling, what the Spirit came upon and anointed Jesus to do.

The Spirit of the Lord is also upon us, you and me, those who believe in Jesus.  We have the same calling and anointing.  We are liberators, by the Spirit of liberation, as it is written, "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom."  It is also written, "whom the Son sets free is free indeed."  The freedom spoken of here is freedom from sin and from sinning.  Paul said it as well:

"Don't you know that your old self was crucified with Christ, your bodies of sin were destroyed, you are no longer slaves of sin?"

"You have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God."

Free from sin.

Slaves of God.

How can a slave be free?  Click HERE to find out.

The Forgotten Call of Christians (Part 2)

Here is the issue.  God is our Creator, and thus our Master, our Owner, Definer, and Determiner.  But when we belong to God, we are actually free to be what He made us to be.  Our true Master sets us free.  And a slave can only have one master, as it is written, "No one can serve two masters.  He will love one and hate the other, or serve one and despise the other."  We have a Creator, a true Master.  But if we reject Him, we are accepting Satan, and his oppression.  There is no way around it.  We are going to be someone's slave.  But we can choose our master, as it is written, "Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves, whom you obey?"

We can choose our Master, and we can point others to their true Master, God their Creator.

We can be liberators.

We can be truly free, and let others be truly free around us, seeking only self-control as our goal.  

Imagine that.

Imagine that the only one you're trying to control, the only thing you're trying to control, is your own will.  Imagine how free you will be, and how free others will be around you.  And when they want to know why you're so free, you'll tell them:

"Whom the Son sets free, is free indeed." 
"It is for freedom that Christ has set me free.  I stand firm, and will not allow myself to be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."

Be free.

Set others free.
This is the forgotten call of Christians.

How God influences our behavior (and how we can influence each other) Part 1

"When the sentence of a crime is not speedily carried out, people's hearts are filled with schemes to do wrong."  Ecclesiastes 8:11

Listen to the very first words of God to the first man, "You may freely eat from the trees in the garden, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for on the day that you eat of it, you will surely die."  Genesis 2:16-17.    

Notice two things:

1. First, God gives Adam a positive command or blessing, what he could do:  Eat from the trees of the garden, including the tree of life, which would lead to eternal life.  God gave Adam a positive incentive.  Freely eat from any and every tree you want, including the best tree in the garden.  Then God gives Adam one, and only one, limitation, the second thing to notice.

2. Second, God gives a specific prohibition with very specific and immediate negative consequences:  You shall not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  Don't do that, or this will happen:  you will surely die on the day you eat of it.

God was, and is, very effective in influencing our behavior without violating our free will.  In the book, The Influential Mind, Tali Sharot writes about the effectiveness of using rewards to influence active behavior (to influence doing something good), and punishments to influence negative behavior (to influence NOT doing something bad.)  She points out that rewards are more effective than punishments for getting people to do something because our brains were made by God to move towards a reward.  (Sharot doesn't attribute this to God, she attributes it to evolution.  I am attributing it to how God made the brain, not to the brains "evolution.")  Tarot also shows how it is more effective to use punishments or negative consequences to get people to refrain from an undesirable behavior, especially foreseeable negative consequences in the present.  (This, again,  is because God made our brains to avoid pain and to approach pleasure.)  The farther away the negative consequence, the less impactful the threat of a punishment.  For example, if we tell someone to wash their hands or they may get sick, this is an uncertain future event that may or may not happen, at least in the person's mind that you are warning.  But if a hospital staff was promised daily points that would lead to pay raises, this would most likely have a higher impact on influencing them to wash their hands.

(Click HERE for part 2.)

How God influences our behavior (and how we can influence each other) Part 2

Apply all of this to God's dealing with Adam.  God promised Adam immediate rewards for doing good (freely eating from the permissible trees,) and an immediate punishment for disobedience.  Take note of this as well:  Adam had not eaten from ANY of the trees as of yet.  He has NO frame of reference for how any of the trees will taste, nor for the effect of any of the trees on his life.  In other words, God isn't telling Adam to take JUST ONE bite from the tree of knowledge, then forbid him to ever taste it again.  God isn't tempting Adam.  As far as Adam knows, an apple is just as delicious as the forbidden fruit.  The tree of life is just as unknown as the tree of knowledge, and as every other fruit is.

So God's way of influencing Adam was perfect in wisdom and goodness and justice.  God didn't promise a "future pie in the sky" if Adam obeyed.  Adam would have immediate experiences of very good and perfect fruit.  He only had one fruit forbidden, and he'd never tasted that fruit before, or any other fruit, as I've said.  He literally didn't know what he would be missing.

God is good, and He hasn't changed.

There is immediate reward in obeying Him:  a clear and peaceful conscience.
There is immediate punishment in disobeying Him:  an unclear and convicted conscience.

There is no reward greater than a clear conscience, and no punishment harsher than an unclear conscience.  The way God influences us is how we should influence each other.  We should speak the truth in love in such a way that it rewards clear conscience and punishes unclear consciences.  We should influence people to do good for the reward of an immediately clear conscience, and influence people to refrain from evil by the punishment of an immediately convicted conscience.  By the Spirit, who convicts us of sin, righteousness, and judgment, this is possible.  This is how God influences our behavior, and how we can influence each other.

Is there anything GOOD about PROSPERITY MINISTRY? (Part 3)

My second mistake was telling Yusef what I thought the Spirit was saying to me.  (A word of advice to those practicing hearing the Spirit's voice, or prophetic ministry, or following the Spirit's leading:  If you believe you are hearing a message from the Spirit for you, about you, and exclusively dealing with you, keep it to yourself.  It's about you, after all.  So just wait.  If it is from the Spirit, it will come to pass, and Christ will be glorified.  If not, then lesson learned--and it will only affect you.)

Yusef was ecstatic, and encouraged me to make mistake number 3:  tell James-Michael and the gang!  Which I foolishly did...and "the message" grew and grew and grew until it became a message about a ministry money messenger making millionaire ministers out of me and my brothers...culminating in us sitting one night and waiting for the promised messenger...who never came.

So now, I'm a false prophet...not just for the three mistakes I clearly made, but for many others I made during that time...but the three money mistakes I just mentioned are relevant to our discussion on prosperity ministers.  Before I outline the other mistakes I made in this situation, I will point out some that I did not make, not to excuse myself, but because they are very relevant:

• I did not ask JM or the brothers for money, or anyone else for money.
• I didn't want money for bling:  for jets, cars, mansions or suits.  (I think we joked around about some of these, but these weren't my focus, or our focus.)
• I actually wanted to do ministry.  I wanted that more than anything else in the world.  And I still do.

Yet I did make these mistakes:

• I violated the scriptural principles outlined by Paul concerning ministry--the principles of working to provide for yourself as a minister.
• I violated the scriptural principles outlined by Jesus concerning ministry--if I had indeed been called to street ministry/prophetic ministry, and the body affirmed that calling, and felt called to support me, then that would have happened by the Spirit's leading in their lives.  Until it did, I needed to work.

So...I got a job.  I worked at Chilli's, then at the Movies.  I was miserable, devastated because I wasn't doing what I'd hoped I'd been called to do--"full time ministry."  I felt lost.  I doubted whether I knew how to follow the Spirit at all.  Yusef seemed to know how to do that better than me (so did Bobby, one of the gang.)  So I figured if I follow them, then I'll vicariously be following the Spirit.  I decided to follow them...to Key West Florida, which leads to example number two from my life, and to the answer to the questions:  Is there anything GOOD about PROSPERITY MINISTRY?

(Click here for part 4)

Is there anything GOOD about PROSPERITY MINISTRY? (Part 2)

Please allow me use two examples from my life to answer the question posed by this blog.

EXAMPLE 1:  MY "STREET MINISTRY"...AND MONEY
After a tragic event took place in my life, I devoted myself to following the Spirit as the sole purpose of my life.  I did this because that which I wanted more than anything else did not, and could not, happen.  I was at the end of my definition of life, and I turned to Christ to save me, as He had done before.  The Spirit led me to move to Athens, Georgia with my friend Yusef.  I stayed there and spent my days and nights in prayer, not knowing what was to take place next in my life.  I had left my job as a Middle School Music Teacher, and thus was unemployed, being taken care of by Yusef at the time.  While Yusef was in school at UGA, I spent my days practicing hearing the Spirit's voice, then sharing whatever the Spirit shared with me with Yusef.

As time passed, I went to classes with Yusef as his guest, and to UGA's campus--following the Spirit's lead in Yusef's classes, and following the Spirit in whatever way He led me on campus.  In classes, the Spirit led me to challenge students and professors who proposed Anti-Christian philosophies.  I experienced a lot of victories in these classes.  On Campus, I would stumble upon ministers who preached messages that were controversial--messages about sin.  I would have side conversations with Christians in the crowd during these times, and I met several Christians on UGA's campus; James-Michael Smith was one of them.

I became friends with James-Michael and with others who were apart of a ministry on UGA's campus.  I also did "street ministry," and continued to end up with the same campus ministry James-Michael was a part of.  Again, my goal was to practice hearing the Spirit's voice, and to share what I believe the Spirit was sharing with me.  There was one thing I thought the Spirit was sharing with me that relates to what we've been discussing about prosperity ministry.

I wanted one thing in life, and one thing only:  to be a "full time" minister.  My time in Athens was the closest I'd ever gotten to doing ministry that was what I saw being done in the Book of Acts.  I felt like I was finally going to be able to live by following the Spirit, and sharing with others what the Spirit gave me, doing ministry like Jesus and the apostles did it.  One day I was praying about how this would happen, and I thought about traveling and doing street ministry all over America.  I prayed that God would enable me to do this, and thought about how much money it would take to do this.  It seemed like it would take millions.  I prayed that somehow, some way, God would provide for me financially to do ministry.  I prayed that he would somehow send someone to miraculously provide for me.  And I believed the Spirit was saying to me that this would in fact happen.  Then I made my first mistake.  (Well, my second mistake...the FIRST was what I thought the Spirit said...but I'm getting ahead myself.)

Click HERE for part 3

Is there anything GOOD about PROSPERITY MINISTRY? (Part 1)

Some ministers condemn prosperity ministry as "heretical" or "apostate" or "false teaching," or worst and most pointed of all--a "false gospel."  They believe that the very essence of the good news is negated and replaced with false promises and false hopes.  The true good news of salvation is reconciliation to God and to each other by faith in Christ Jesus; but prosperity ministers, according to the ministers who condemn prosperity ministry, preach a good news that promises first class jets, expensive Armani suits, huge mansions, and very many cars to the prosperity ministers, if their followers will "sow into their prosperity ministries."

The key to what I just said is the followers of prosperity ministers.

Who would these be?
Who would be most attracted to prosperity ministry?

Those most in need of prosperity!  The poor.  The struggling.
To them, there is a gospel that prosperity ministers preach that is good news.  And what gospel would that be?  I believe that some prosperity ministers preach (or at least started out preaching) messages like this one:

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor." Luke 4:18a.

Again, the prosperity ministry probably doesn't appeal to the wealthy, or to those already experiencing prosperity. But the poor would be very drawn to a message from God to the poor.

Yet sometimes poverty has been spiritualized.  Some ministers focus on when Jesus said "blessed are the poor in heart..."  So they take Isaiah's prophecy and spiritualize it.  Ironically, these same ministers will renounce the gnostic claims that the physical body, or physical reality, is less important, if not totally insignificant, in spiritual life.  They will correct Gnosticism and focus on the resurrection of the body, the Spirit indwelling our physical bodies, and even Jesus saying "Seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things (meaning food and clothing, our physical needs) will be added to you."  Matthew 6:33 (parentheses mine.)

Here's the thing:  many "prosperity ministers" agree with those who correct Gnosticism, just like many "liberation gospel" ministers agree that the physical needs of God's people are included in salvation.

I'll repeat this crucial point:
There are prosperity ministers, like "liberation gospel ministers" who mainly want to emphasize that salvation encompasses more than just the forgiveness of sin.  It encompasses healing, deliverance, and provision.  These ministers, prosperity and liberation ministers, point out that Jesus didn't just forgive sin, He healed the sick, cast out demons, and fed the hungry.  Many prosperity ministers focus on the "full gospel," if you will.  

Now there are other prosperity ministers who pervert the "full gospel," and these are the ones that are being renounced by other ministers as "heretical."  And they should be renounced.  Jesus did not come to tell His people to buy their ministers jets, Armani suits, mansions on earth, and cars filling their drive ways if they "sow their tithe into the minister's ministry."  Jesus did say that we would have trouble in this world.  That with His provisions there will also be suffering and persecution.  Yet He undeniably provided for the needs of His followers.  And the early church "lacked nothing" BECAUSE they shared everything with each other, those having much not having too much, and those having little not having too little.  AND the early churches "prosperity" promoted the preaching of the gospel and the making of disciples.  For me, this is the litmus test of prosperity ministry:

If by "prosperity" the minister means that our needs (and even our desires) will be met for the purpose of promoting the kingdom of God, for preaching the gospel and making disciples, and if the means by which this occurs is that Christians share everything they have so that no one in the body has need, so that those believers in the church who have much will not have too much, and those who have little will not have too little, then this prosperity gospel is simply the gospel. There is one gospel.  We shouldn't have to add any label to it, whether "prosperity," or "liberation," or "full" gospel.  Jesus preached one gospel that encompassed our reconciliation to God, and would result in our healing, deliverance, and provision, according to the means He established:  The Spirit of God filling and leading believers.

Yet what we unfortunately see is those who have much (many prosperity ministers) having too much, and those with little (their followers) having too little.  We see disproportionate wealth, undistributed like we saw in the book of Acts.  We don't see "mega-churches," or at least we don't hear about them, "sharing everything in common."  I'm not saying this doesn't happen, because I've actually been a witness to it happening.  I'm saying that many "mega-churches" seem like capitalistic corporations where the ones on top (the prosperity ministers) have too much--and are asking for more!!!  This is heretical...but prosperity is not.  So is there anything good in prosperity ministry?  We'll see, in the next part!

(Click HERE for part 2)

Is there anything GOOD about PROSPERITY MINISTRY? (Part 4)

EXAMPLE 2:  WORKING TOWARDS GOD AND NOT MAN

I'm moved to Key West, Florida with Bobby and Yusef, a city I'd never heard of in my life.  I became a bouncer, something I'd never done before.  I did that for 4 years.  I then became a corrections officer.  Again, something I'd never done before...or planned to do...or wanted to do.  I did that for 10 years.  I met my wife, Lucy, while I was a bouncer.  That seemed to be the primary purpose I worked at Sloppy Joe's.  The secondary purpose was to learn all the lessons about manhood, authority, and ministry I learned while being a bouncer, and continued to learn as a corrections officer.

During these 14 years in Key West, I worked really, really hard, but was struggling financially.  I had 7 children in Key West, and a job that allowed me to take 3 months off for each of my children's births to give relief to Lucy...which again, I believe is THE reason I worked corrections, at least the primary reason.  At the end of my 14 years in Key West I got sick, very sick--I had sarcoidosis.  During this sickness, as with each of my vacations and paternity leaves from the jail, I prayed about God's will for my life, seeking a way out of the jail and into ministry.  Once I got accepted to Biola University in California, but had no where near the money to make that journey.  When I got sick, we got a significant amount of money, so I prayed about God's will for my life.  Lucy suggested being a marriage counselor.  I prayed about that, and felt the Spirit leading me to do exactly that...which disappointed me. I wanted to write and speak for God, not go back to school.  But I knew the Spirit was leading me.  So I applied to schools in North Carolina, where Lucy suggested we move for the sake of the children being raised in a good place.  No school responded except one, and that one responded the day after I applied online...literally the day after.  None of the landlords accepted me and my family except one...the one house I felt peace about when Lucy showed me the picture of that house--that house I live in, and that I am writing you from right now.  I told her to focus on that one house, and sure enough, the landlord accepted us.  And we've been in this house for 4 years, and I've completed my masters in marriage and family therapy after these four years...but not without extreme financial hardship.  And by extreme financial hardship, I mean literally being one pay check away from homelessness.  I mean working two and three jobs as a full time student and intern, and still being one pay check away from homelessness.  Without school loan refunds, income tax refunds, and financial blessings that God would lead brothers and sisters to send me, I would have been on the street with my family, literally.  On our way to North Carolina, my van broke down on the highway.  We had to use almost all of the money we had been given to fix it.  One day we were all sitting on some steps in West Palm Beach, Florida, not even out of Florida yet, with my wife crying, and my children just there with there parents, not knowing how bad we had it.

At that time, I needed "prosperity ministry"--I needed my salvation to include provision.

I had worked for 10 years, working 60 hours a week, also working over time, because my philosophy sense the time "the messenger" didn't come was this: If I lack money, that means I must work more hours, or make more money per hour.  And working more hours was more under my control than making more money per hour.  So that's what I did.  And I was still struggling.  I had "picked myself up by my bootstraps."  And I was still struggling.

But when friends like James-Michael or Bobby or Cyril would bless me financially and abundantly, I would feel a literal change in my life, and in my wife, and in my house.  The world literally looks different when your financial needs are met then when they aren't.  When there is money in the bank, and the hope of more money consistently coming, life feels different, and it feels like God's blessing.  It feels like God helping me when James-Michael, or others spontaneously help me as the Spirit leads them.  Receiving money feels like salvation.  It feels like deliverance.  It feels like healing.

Not jets and suits and cars, mind you.

But I've received clothes and cars, again, from believers who spontaneously give as the Spirit leads them.  Once I needed some walking shoes for my job, and a believer spontaneously gave my wife some shoes that her husband didn't need--walking shoes in my size!  I've had 3 vehicles given to me for free...but of course in America, you have to pay for tags, titles, registration, etc.  Yet these cars were given to me as a free gift.

Money, clothes, and cars were given to me, and these felt like miracles from God.
Like prosperity.

Is there anything GOOD about PROSPERITY MINISTRY?

Yes, if the messengers you seek are those led by the Spirit to provide for God's will in your life; if you are doing what God called you to do to the best of your ability, prosperity ministry is when the body serves each other as the Spirit enables them.  Though there are prosperity ministers who are leading people away from the Kingdom of God and focusing them on the kingdoms of this world, and though the Kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, when we seek first God's kingdom, God will provide us with food and drink...and according to Jesus, with good things.

I bear witness to the need to be on guard against deception in the area of prosperity ministry;  I also bear witness to be on guard against denying the good news that Jesus is Our Savior, Healer, Deliverer, and Provider--that the Lord is indeed our Shepherd, the Good Shepherd, and that His sheep shall not want; that goodness and mercy shall follow them all of the days of their lives, until they dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

How to know the Spirit is leading you

"The fruit of the Spirit is love..." The Apostle Paul

What is better than following the Spirit and knowing it?

You can do both.

To follow the Spirit, do what He inherently wants to lead you to do, or lead you in doing.  There are nine things the Spirit leads us to do, or nine ways to know the Spirit is leading you.  The first and foremost way, the way He leads that encompasses every other way He leads, is the way of love.

Jesus said, "He who has and keeps my commandments, is He who loves me."  Jesus also commanded His followers to love each other as He had loved them.  He said that His followers would be known by their love for each other.

Loving God supremely, and loving people impartially, even our enemies, fulfills the entire law and will of God.  As Paul said, "Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. ...Love does no harm to a neighbor, therefore love is the fulfillment of the law."

God is love.

In all of these verses, all of these scriptures, we see that love is of God, from God, and fulfills God's entire will.  Therefore, if you "pursue love," as Paul said to the Corinthian church, you are pursuing a goal that the Spirit will lead and empower you to do.  You will experience His fruit and the foundation or motivation of His gifts.

Love God and people, and the Spirit will lead you in love.

This is one way to know the Spirit is leading you.

Click HERE for part 2.

How to know the Spirit is leading you (Part 2)

"The fruit of the Spirit...is self-control."  The Apostle Paul
"Do not be drunk with wine...but be filled with the Spirit."  The Apostle Paul.

When the Spirit leads you, when He completely influences and controls your life, you will experience freedom, as it is written, "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom."  It is also written, "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.  Stand firm then, and do not let yourself be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom--never burdensome pressure, never passivity of mind or will.

You can distinguish the influence of demonic spirits from the leading of the Spirit by this very thing:
freedom.

Demons try to possess and oppress us. 

The Spirit fills us and liberates us.

As we saw in part one, if you pursue love, you are pursuing a goal that the Spirit will lead you in.  The same is true for freedom, or self-control.  If you pursue self-control, or if you pursue encouraging others to be free or self-controlled, the Spirit will lead you in that.

Love people, and the Spirit will lead you in loving them.

Liberate and empower people, and the Spirit will lead you in that.

If I am trying to figure out how to best love my wife, I can ask her, and the Spirit, and they both will lead me in loving her.  And I'll know it.  God is love.  If I love my wife successfully, then I know the Spirit of Love is leading me.

If I am serving my wife, seeking to liberate and empower her, the Spirit of Liberty will lead me.  

The same is true for you.  

Love liberates, and liberation is an act of love.  These two are one.  So whether you focus on loving or liberating, you will feel the Spirit leading you.

Do you want to know the Spirit is leading you?

If so, pray this prayer with me,

"God, please lead me by your Spirit as I seek to love and liberate those in my life.  In Jesus name, amen."

Let me know how the Spirit has led you in the comments.