Do Not Be Deceived. God is not your slave.

The very first thing Jesus said when asked about the end times was:

“Don’t let anyone mislead you“

Why do you think that is? Because people will be deceived. Many of them. The bible states that few will find the narrow road and many will be left out when it comes to entering the Kingdom of heaven.

Jesus said,

“Work hard to enter the narrow door to God’s Kingdom, for many will try to enter but will fail.“ Luke 13:24

I say this because I feel a lot of people are being misled when it comes to the charismatic movement. It appears to be Christian if you don’t know any better because they use lots of Christian phrases. But that is how deception works. It is 99% truth and 1% lie that leads to your death.

You have to WORK to make sure you are on the narrow path. It takes effort.

The Charismatic church has a lot of problems. But before I get into specifics, let me share what first should concern you. They focus on how you feel. They do everything in their power to empower YOU; to make it all about you. They go so far as to twist scripture to make you feel like you have more power in you. Even to the point of performing miracles. And they are not shy about it either. This should cause you to be VERY concerned.

Here is what a lot of Charismatic churches say about healing.
“We believe that divine healing is the power of Christ to heal the sick in answer to the prayer of faith “ – Life Center – https://lifecenter.net/beliefs/
They use a couple of verses to endorse this belief. One is James 5:14 and the other is Isaiah 53.
First off, if God decides he wants to heal, HE will heal. That being said, I challenge any of these church movements to show me one case of verifiable healing. A case of healing that cannot be attributed to medicine, nature or something along those lines. Show me one case where someone grew a limb. Doctors heal people every day, so if what these churches are saying, they should be able to show me one case of supernatural healing. If they were able to do these things, why aren’t they in the hospital on a daily basis? James 5:14 in context is more than likely speaking of Spiritual healing since the chapter is dealing with those that are being persecuted and under attack. But if God is speaking of physical healing through James it may be specific to the Apolstic time frame. The apostles raised the dead, and we are definitely NOT seeing that either. Why? Because God is not proving His church is His church right now. Jesus did miracles to prove He was God. The Apostles did miracles to prove they were the church that Jesus Himself sanctioned. Now that we have the Word of God, and the Holy Spirit we are not in need of the signs that helped verify the church. We have HIS Word to do that.

Paul healed people in the bible. Lots of people. But there is one case where he didn’t heal someone, but God allowed him to live anyway.

“I am sending him because he has been longing to see you, and he was very distressed that you heard he was ill. And he certainly was ill; in fact, he almost died. But God had mercy on him—and also on me, so that I would not have one sorrow after another.” Philipians 2:26-27

Some churches use Isaiah 53 to claim divine healing. “He was whipped so we could be healed.” But this verse has nothing to do with physical healing at all.

Like I said before, if you can heal people, why aren’t you in the hospitals daily healing the little children that have to suffer through cancer? Obviously there is something VERY wrong with their claim.

Along the same lines as healing, these churches teach that Christians should expect the same experience from being filled with the Holy Spirit as Acts 2 describes. They not only misunderstand the point of the signs at that time, but they distort what they actually were as well. Specifically, speaking in tongues.

Speaking in tongues is an actual language. It was NOT taught, or sought after. It was not meant to empower the believer. It was a sign for the unbeliever. It was a fulfilled prophecy to Israel. Trust me, speaking in gibberish doesn’t impress anyone. It is meaningless.

What these movements do is convince you that you are a second class Christian if you are not doing any of these things they claim you need to be.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
You do not measure your Christianity/Spirituality by your power. You measure it by your selflessness. Humility. Mercy. Forgiveness. You measure it by the fruit of the Spirit. Love!
Joy!
Peace!
Patience!
Kindness!
Goodness!
Faithfulness!
Gentleness!
And SELF CONTROL!!

If you are feeling like you should be more empowered in order to be a Christian, you might just be deceived. God is not your servant. He is not there just to do your will. He is not there to make you feel more powerful. He is not there to make sure you have a better job. He is not there to make you popular. He is not there to make you feel like you are all that. He is not there to grant you your worldly desires.

You need to align yourself with HIS will. Being a Christian means repentance. It means believing Jesus is the Son of God and that His gift of salvation is a free gift for those that believe. It means coming to Him broken in Spirit. It means you recognize that He is the only thing that can save you from God’s wrath. You come to Him without pride. You come to Him with respect. You fear Him.

I am making such a big deal out of all of this because I am afraid a lot of people are thinking that God is there to their will. I was just like that myself. If you think He is there to do your bidding, I want you to wake up!

WORK. Work to make sure you are on the right path. WORK!!