Watch Out, Don’t be Fooled by Bizarre Mega-Churches. Part Two
In the last post, we talked about my dream that we called “Watch Out, Don’t be Fooled by Bizarre Mega-Churches.” If you have been around the Charismatic movement to any real degree, then you have most likely heard people talk about dreams. Dreams are a legitimate form of communication the Lord often uses with his people. The problem of understanding however does not rest in God’s hands but ours.
Now some people would argue that God should give us easy-to-understand dreams. But this is often not what He does. The reality is heaven has its own form of communication. Remember Jesus’s parables and how it was He who told Nicodemus, “If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” John 3:12. Clearly it is we who need to get up to speed in communication.
If He always told us plainly then we would not have the chance that is presented to grow in our relationship with Him. Part of the process of learning how to discern dreams comes as we seek to hear from Him. How would you grow into a better understanding and relationship with a friend if all they did was hand you a to-do list when they came over to visit?
While it might seem nice and simple at first, it would grow predictable and tedious over time. Every time you saw them you would think “Here comes another list…”
Instead of a cold impersonal list, we are offered a chance to ask questions and search out answers. Personally, I have found that God does not send you a dream that you can’t understand with His help.
One of the things we did was hand this dream over to our small group that meets in the North Idaho region. Based on their insights here is a sample of the comments on what they have seen.
1. A lot of these people are programmed to act like they do.
2. This was a well-known “evangelist” who was demonstrating demonic tendencies.
3. The worship leader was not worshipping in Spirit and truth but in a demonic tongue.
4. Blue suitcase = carrying baggage from the past into the future.
5. Blue something = melancholy and depression.
6. Blew up the church = no more church as usual with its religious and now “progressive” traditions.
7. Everything is at a child’s level, there is no spiritual maturity. This reminds me of scriptures like 1 Peter 2:2 & Hebrew 6:1
8. The leader is a puppet and if he is not given a fresh wind up then he has no blessing to give.
9. The leader operates in the fear of man.
10. The leader leads by keeping others under him with accusations and innuendo.
11. The leader…. Will not accept prophetic messages, is controlled by fear, and is handing out fake authority.
12. It struck me that the windup knob was in the back of his head and not some other place. He is operating completely from a human standpoint, not a spiritual one. And must require outside help to keep going. This to me reminds me of Jesus’s talk with the woman at the well. Apparently, this leader does NOT have a true wellspring of his own.
13. The “upgraded crowns:” Again more deception is being embraced by the people attending the church. They are being deceived and loving it, thinking they will achieve eternal rewards, but it actually is all smoke and mirrors and deception.
There was so much tucked into this dream that it would be hard to cover all the aspects of it fully. Therefore we are going to look at what we consider to be the central message, leadership.
Leadership involves more than just telling people what they need to do or what they should be doing. Genuine leadership is about leading them to a place where they can do it themselves. Let’s look at what Jesus did. He led His disciples into their faith, into the ability to be able to walk like he did. He demonstrated it for them and then led them into it. Jesus was not seeking all the praise or accolades to come to Himself but to His Heavenly Father. He was not motivated to have the best seat or the highest position on earth for Himself. Jesus was leading His disciples into how to share the gospel and teach the people so that they could save the most amount of people as possible.
What I described does not look the same as the leader from my dream. He was distant, hurled accusations, and was unwilling to give without getting something out of it. Think about what the people in the church were acting like. They were enjoying the show and taking it easy. Having submitted themselves to him, they could not see how much was wrong.
Who you seat yourself under can hurt or help you spiritually. In this dream, a very well-known (name withheld) evangelical leader was depicted as a terrible leader. I chose not to share the name as I have not personally heard him speak and I do not want to be attacking a man but the mindset depicted. Even if this attitude is true of this leader, we have more churches with these kinds of problems than just this one. This leader was keeping his people in a childlike state and making them feel good about it. There was no growing maturity in Christ, no real growth at all. In fact, they were still at the “A-B-C” level. Chances are a demonic spirit had entered in, usurping the role of the Holy Spirit and presenting a watered-down distorted version of Christ led them into a snare.
The issue within this leader’s congregation is not new as many large and smaller charismatic congregations have become so off-balance in their view of Christ that they are following… well anything other than Him.
“We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And God permitting, we will do so.” Hebrews 5:11 – 6:3
There is nothing new under heaven, every issue currently happening in our fellowships has a mirror parallel somewhere in the New Testament. When the writer of Hebrews brings up the issue that they need the elementary teachings about Christ again, by extension he is saying that their understanding of Jesus is now messed up, corrupted, and not consistent with Apostolic teaching. This is something that we find mirrored in the dream with the giving out of the “upgraded crowns.”
Accepting them demonstrates a lack of biblical knowledge that the crowns are not given in this life but at the end. And no human representative on earth be they an Apostle, prophet, pastor, teacher, or Evangelist has the authority to give you one on their own. They come from the hand of God himself. And no man can hand out “upgrades” to what God has.
The reality is this leader led them down a bad road and made them feel good about doing it. Resting in this immature spiritual state they no longer have the ability to “…distinguish good from evil.” It is dangerous to keep your people in a perpetual state of immaturity by using deception. In effect, this dream is showing a group of people who think they are advanced in the Christian ways, as they have been rewarded by the crowns. But in reality, they are standing in the middle of an illusion, entranced with false teachings to make them misplace their faith.
“… but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again.” It has often been said, no one is harder to convince than the deceived. We must grow up in our faith, but faith must be firmly planted in the soil of truth. Otherwise, it will be distorted and ugly. Wanting to go higher and farther with the Lord in healing, prophetic and anything else is not a bad desire. God wants us to do that. But all of that is pointless if we do not stay grounded in Christ. Be aware, it can be very deadly to you and those around you if you get cemented into the wrong fellowship.
So be watchful that you do not be deceived. Keep your focus on God first. And remember that leaders can be led astray as well. So it is up to you to watch what you put yourself under.
Headship matters more than people comprehend.
There is one very constant thing, almost a rule in life. You can not lead someone if have not been there yourself. As an example many spiritual leaders will try and lead congregations into “new things.” But how can you lead the people if you have never experienced the new? On the other side leaders often lead people down unintended roads. This is because what you carry as a leader, good or bad, often manifests in a congregation. If you want to know how to pray for your pastor, look at the congregation if the leader has been there for a few years. Do you see unresolved anger, family issues, the inability to communicate, etc? Chances are, if you are seeing this all over the congregation, then the root is in the headship. So if you want things fixed, then start praying for the leadership’s connection to the Lord and his family.
On the other hand, many blessings can flow spiritually from leadership. A great example would be I sat for several years under a well-known leader who authored many books. It was under him that my writing exploded. So what gifting you sit under can cause you to grow or wither.
Ian Winslow
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