Jonathan Brenneman's Blog

I’m passionate about Jesus and the gospel message, but I don’t fit in the box of churchianity. Much of what people consider to be “Christianity” today is actually churchianity. It’s based on tradition. Sometimes, those traditions are all right, but not essential. Sometimes, those traditions lead us directly into disobedience to the commands of scripture, just as the Pharisees broke God’s commands for the sake of their tradition.

In my communion with people from many local churches, I often get asked, “What church do you go to?” and “Who is your pastor?” I wrote about these issues last year, but I want to revisit the issue of pastors and my relationship with the body of Christ.

I fully agree about the importance of church leaders and elders, being teachable, being accountable, and being connected to the body of Christ. However, my understanding of what that looks like is so different than what it is in “churchianity” that it’s as if we’re living in different universes. Our thinking is so different that it takes a lot of time and effort to explain, and few in churchianity have the patience or humility to listen rather than just judging by external standards.

People immersed in churchianity often think something isn’t healthy about my relationship with the church. Yet they are looking at superficial standards, not at reality. My relationship with the church may be more involved and healthy than theirs is. Let’s look at a few points explaining some differences between how I think and the paradigms of churchianity.

Before continuing, I want to state that I’ve met several precious pastors who truly cared for God’s people and were serving the Lord with all their hearts, even if sometimes within broken and dysfunctional paradigms. I want nothing more than to encourage and strengthen such people. My criticisms of churchianitys’ broken paradigms are meant to help, not discourage, anybody who is serving the Lord and truly loves His people. If the shoe fits, wear it! We all need to grow in understanding and in God’s grace.

As you read, remember that “pastor” and “shepherd” are the same word in the Bible and in most languages other than English.

Churchianity says sheep need to seek a shepherd. The Bible says the shepherd seeks the sheep.

In Ezekiel 34, God tells Ezekiel to prophesy against the shepherds of Israel who care only for themselves, not for the flock. They eat the curds, clothe themselves with the wool, and slaughter the best animals, but have not strengthened the weak, healed the sick, or bound up the injured. They ruled them harshly and brutally.

These shepherds did not bring back the strays or search for the lost, and the sheep were scattered, wandered all over, and became food for wild animals because the shepherds didn’t care for them, and nobody searched or looked for them.

Likewise, in the New Testament, Jesus had compassion on the people because they were like sheep without a shepherd. But they had no lack of religious leaders and meetings.

Churchianity sees people whom they think are lost sheep, whether or not they really are, and tells them, “You need to find a shepherd.” Yet we see consistently in scripture that the problem of lost sheep is the responsibility of shepherds who have failed to really shepherd them, but rather have abused the flock. Instead of pointing the finger at the sheep, the shepherds in the body of Christ should examine themselves in humility and repent if they have failed to care for God’s flock and seek the lost.

Instead of telling people, “You need a shepherd,” who don’t you BE a shepherd and care for them? You can’t “make someone” your pastor, as churchianity imagines. The responsibility is on the shepherds to be pastors, not on the sheep. The problem the Bible highlights is not rebellious sheep, but the lack of true shepherds.

Churchianity Doesn’t Understand That Genuine Shepherds Are Sometimes Rare

Just as God couldn’t find shepherds who genuinely cared for God’s flock in Ezekiel 34, and the religious leaders were not caring for God’s flock when Jesus came, the churches of the New Testament also often experienced a lack of true pastors. The apostle Paul said, “Everyone is seeking their own interests, and not those of Jesus Christ,” and “I have nobody like Timothy who genuinely cares for you.”

There are still many people called pastors who are seeking their own interests today, and those who are not often have so much work to do that they can’t take care of everybody! But Jesus said, “The shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”

I was recently asked to visit a couple in need. I was going to visit on a Saturday night, but the husband was hospitalized for low blood sugar after not eating for two days. We rescheduled for Sunday morning. Both of them were severely stressed with major health issues and trying circumstances. Their house had been robbed, the cabinets were stripped off the walls, and they stole even the cups so that they were drinking out of little plastic containers. They had no running water, but their neighbor filled a cooler for them. Someone gave them a mattress to put on the floor and a refrigerator. The only food they had in the house was 50 grams of noodles.

I spent several hours there. The husband kept talking on and on about all his problems, lawsuits, situations, and health diagnoses. I listened for quite a while, but then I said, “You’ve told me what’s wrong. Now tell me, “What can Jesus do for you?” He started to tell me how God helped him in the past. And I asked, “What can Jesus do for you in this situation now?” He replied, “He can heal me.”

I prayed until all the pain left his body, and it went numb, under anesthesia. His wife was sleeping because she’d been awake for two days, but when she woke up, we prayed for her repeatedly. Most of the pain she was feeling left, and her body got hot with God’s power. She still felt a little pain when we finished, but much less, and we believe God was still working.

With only about $40 from donations, we were able to get enough food for them to eat for a few weeks. We bought 7 kilograms of rice, 4 kilograms of beans, more than 3 kilograms of noodles, cooking oil, salt, sugar, 3 kilograms of hot dogs, tomato sauce, toilet paper, a big chicken, toothpaste, tangerines, onions, garlic, mozzarella cheese, lunch meat, mayonnaise, bread, potatoes, soap, and more.

This couple told me they belong to a certain church. It happens to be the biggest in my city and has church plants in other countries. They “had a pastor” according to the paradigms of churchianity. They had someone to tithe to. But where were their pastors when they didn’t have food to eat? Where were the true pastors willing to lay down their lives for God’s people, or even the true brothers willing to lay down their lives for each other?

Somehow, many people in their church think that their paradigm is healthy, but mine is dysfunctional! People among them are in need, and instead of their “pastors” caring for them, outsiders who feel no need to be called “pastors” are caring for them. The man told me about other people who helped. A politician, not a pastor, paid for his surgery.

Churchianity Cares A Lot About The Title “Pastor,” But Cares Little About The Function

I know from experience that many people sitting in churches and saying, “so and so is my pastor” are like sheep without a shepherd. I know because I’ve ended up caring for them. I get messages from all over the world, from people seeking healing, deliverance, care, and counsel that they have not received in a local church. And locally, I visit people and bring the help they haven’t received from the local church. Healing for the sick, deliverance for the oppressed, teaching and guidance for the young, and food for the hungry.

Many people who say, “So-and-so is my pastor” barely even talk to them. It’s just about religious hierarchy and not actually about pastoring. Often, if there are people who are actually doing the work of pastoring within their religious institution, they are not the ones who are called “pastors.” The demands of the religious institution and its programs are so great that often, what those called “pastors” are busy with is not actually pastoring.

We see in Ezekiel 34 that healing the sick and rescuing the oppressed are some of the essential functions of pastors. Most people I see who are called “pastors” in the institution are not healing the sick or casting out demons. If someone has a problem with demonic oppression, they usually have to go outside the local church, sometimes to a meeting in another country, to get the help they need. What is the problem? It’s the lack of true shepherds. And “churchianity” wants me to call someone “my pastor” who is not even caring for the other people who call him their “pastor.”

The apostle Paul said, “Imitate me as I imitate Christ.” Why is churchianity so concerned with everyone finding a pastor, rather than being concerned with being an example of Christ’s character, power, and grace for others to imitate? I find that many in churchianity care little if the guy you call your pastor has cheated on his wife three times, is teaching heretical doctrine, or has a terrible temper, as long as you call someone your “pastor.”

Jesus said to disregard the Jewish religious leaders because they were blind guides leading the blind. Just as in Jesus’ time, many religious leaders today are blind guides leading the blind. Churchianity often doesn’t care if the person you are following is blind and doesn’t know where they are going. It only cares about you having someone to call your pastor.

Churchianity is far more concerned about the person who can’t say, “So-and-so is my pastor” than about the person whose “pastor” is a blind guide, self-serving, teaching heresy, or cheating on his wife and addicted to porn!

Churchianity Sees Pastoring As Hierarchical And Fails To Understand That It Is Relational

I was talking to two guys from the local institutional church I participate the most with. I go on missions with them and sometimes to other events, but almost never to church services. They thought I was wrong to not have someone I call my personal pastor.

I tried to explain: “Consider your church, for example. Your church has more of the values that I share than any other local church I know. Still, if I were to say, “I’m a member of your church,” and call Vinicius “my pastor,” what difference would it make? Would anybody be caring for me more than they are now? I don’t even know him. I have nothing personally against him, but I can’t say there’s anything particular in his life that I see that challenges my faith or makes me say, “I want that in my life.” Maybe there is something I would like to imitate in his life, but we don’t have the relationship for me to see it. It would make no difference for me to call him my pastor. He doesn’t even have time to talk to me. I saw a big line of people waiting just to get a few words in with him.

One guy replied, “Now Jon wants the pastor to have all this time for him!” By saying this, he tacitly admitted that his concept of “pastoring” had nothing to do with caring for people. I’ve spent a lot of time in recovery houses and with street people, talking, listening, praying, and caring for them. I didn’t charge them anything for it, but rather, it cost me. Yet “churchianity” wants me to pay a tithe for someone to have a full-time salary to be “my pastor,” and he doesn’t have even a fraction of the time for me that I have for those street people. And many Christians think that’s what pastoring is about.

I’m honest. I’m not going to call someone “my pastor” for churchianity’s sake if he isn’t pastoring me, doesn’t have time for me, and isn’t an example challenging me to grow in Christ! Do you want to pastor me? Will you lay down your life for me?

The Apostle Paul said, “I may not be an apostle to others, but I am to you.” He laid a foundation for their faith, discipled them, served them, and laid down their life for them. The “Churchianity” mindset has trouble understanding that plenty of people have served as mentors and examples to form and build me up in the Christian faith, but they are not the local church leaders in this city! Some of them may genuinely be pastors to others, but they are not to me. If Christians think someone needs to be cared for, why don’t they just care for them instead of telling them they need to find a pastor?

Churchianity Expects Perpetual Spiritual Infancy

Churchianity has no grid for spiritual maturity. They talk about the importance of discipleship, but they are often really hindering the people they think they are discipling from coming to maturity. They don’t understand that people don’t stay in the university all their lives. They graduate and get jobs after a few years. The idea of imitating Jesus, who told his disciples, “It’s better for you that I leave” after three and a half years, is terrifying. Jesus’ disciples had a “graduation.”

Churchianity seems to expect you to be always struggling, always falling into sin, always dependent. They are there to give you a bottle and change your diaper. But Jesus said when a disciple is fully trained, he will be like his master. And he took three and a half years to train his disciples, about the time of a university education.

Paul said he laid a foundation in the lives of believers and strove to bring them to maturity so they would be established in Christ. Churchianity can’t understand if you already have a foundation built in your life and have already been discipled. I am in another country. Several people in the past were examples who helped disciple me and lay that foundation, but it wasn’t the local church leaders in Goiania!

I’m not looking for someone to give me a bottle of milk or change my diaper. I’m not looking for someone to disciple me and lay again the elementary teachings about Christ and the foundations for my faith. Hebrews 5:12 rebukes the Hebrews for needing to be taught the elementary truths again and needing milk, not solid food, when they ought to already be teachers. Hebrews 6:1 says “Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation…”

That doesn’t mean that we ever stop learning or needing to be teachable and relate to other Christians. But it does mean there is a change that happens, and an engineer’s place is not in a classroom learning that 5 times 5 is 25, but making blueprints for buildings and bridges and doing what he was trained to do. Churchianity’s notion of “needing a pastor” and “needing discipleship” is putting me in a kindergarten class, and that would hinder me from obeying Jesus and doing what I was trained to do.

Churchianity does Not Understand Or Honor The Role Of Jesus As Our Shepherd In The New Covenant

In Ezekiel 34, after rebuking Israel’s shepherds who abused the flock, God said, “Because my flock lacks a shepherd and has been plundered and has become food for all the wild animals, and because my shepherds did not search for my flock but cared for themselves rather than for my flock, hear the word of the Lord! I am against the shepherds and will remove them from tending my flock and rescue the sheep from their mouths. I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. I will be their shepherd, tend them in good pasture, and care for them myself. I will shepherd the flock with justice. I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them and be their shepherd. I will make a covenant of peace with them.”

This prophecy was written about 500 years after King David. It is a prophecy of Jesus, who came from the line of David. In the New Covenant, Jesus himself is our shepherd. We see this in John chapter 10, which continues the narrative of Ezekiel. Jesus says in John 10:11-15 (NIV): “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.”

The New Testament has about a dozen references to Jesus himself as our pastor, but only one verse in the New Testament uses the noun “pastors” for church leaders, and it is in the plural. Churchianity is offended when I say, “Jesus is my pastor,” but my language is thoroughly biblical and theirs is not.

Churchianity thinks that the emphasis on Jesus himself as my pastor will make me unstable and liable to going astray. The opposite is true. A few years ago, the pastor of a major church here had a big scandal. I already expected it, but some of my friends were so hurt and struggling. I remember a few times when people said in amazement, “We’re all in this big battle, but Jon is just as happy as ever, doing what he always does, praying for people everywhere.” What was the difference? I never called that person, “My pastor.” I believe there are pastors in the body of Christ, but Jesus himself plays the primary role of “pastor” in my life, because anybody else will always fall short!

Because I call Jesus himself, “My pastor,” my faith is intact and growing stronger, but many people have had their faith shaken because they built their foundation on a “pastor” other than Jesus.

Churchianity doesn’t Understand That “Pastoring” is a role for many people in the body of Christ

The only verse in the New Testament that uses the noun “pastors” to refer to church leaders is Ephesians 4:11, and it’s in the plural. If you are a Christian, Jesus is your pastor, and God gives you “pastors,” plural, not one church leader who is your pastor. The roles of church leaders as pastors are limited and secondary to the role of Jesus himself.

I can tell you about many people who have been “pastors” in my Christian development, even though I reserve the singular possessive term “my pastor” for Jesus alone.

The New Testament uses the verb “to pastor” in a few places to describe what elders and bishops do. As some scholars do, I believe that “elder,” “pastor,” and “bishop” are the same roles in the New Testament. These terms are interchangeable. The point is that this is a lighter role shared by more people and secondary to the role of Jesus himself in the Biblical paradigm.

In the paradigm of “churchianity,” the role of a pastor is often a heavy role for one person and supplants the role of Jesus himself in the life of a believer.

Churchianity Doesn’t Understand That Mutuality Is Essential In A Healthy Church

Churchianity exaggerates the role of a pastor into something that scripture never envisions, so that he is seen as the man of God, the priest, and the spiritual father for everybody else. At the same time, it doesn’t know how to receive mature Christians because its paradigm is all about immaturity and unhealthy dependence that runs contrary to Jesus’ example when he said, “It’s better for you that I leave, because you will receive the Holy Spirit.”

I ask Christians stuck in the churchianity paradigm, “Who was the apostle Paul’s pastor? How about Peter?” Church leadership is scriptural, but the idea that everyone must have a specific person whom they call “my leader” is not. That’s a construct of churchianity.

Even Jesus is not called our “spiritual father,” but our brother. The “one-another” commands of the New Testament emphasize mutuality, and the apostle Paul repeatedly used language like “brothers,” referring to how he related to even new Christians. Christians should always seek fellowship with the body of Christ, be teachable, and receive from others. However, they should not forever be at the stage of needing basic discipleship.

The Apostle Paul was in fellowship and relationship with other pastors and leaders, but it was not that Peter was Paul’s pastor, or Paul was Peter’s pastor. Even though Peter was an apostle before Paul was saved, Paul rebuked him to his face. There was mutuality among elders and even between elders and new Christians. In 1st Peter 5:1, Peter appeals to his “fellow elders.”

Don’t you think it’s a little arrogant to meet a fellow Christian for the first time and immediately assume that he needs you to be his pastor? By God’s grace, there are things in my life that can challenge and help other pastors and leaders in my city. But the assumption that I need a pastor, rather than considering that we can grow together in Christ, makes mutuality impossible. When your paradigm for “pastoring” makes mutuality impossible, healthy Christian relationships are impossible, and the body of Christ does not function as it should.

People all over the world call me for prayer and counsel. Pastors and missionaries have come to me for counsel, prayer, and encouragement. Some have told me that something I shared changed their life, and many value my input. I could say I’ve been a “pastor to pastors” if I wanted to, but I don’t think like that. It’s mutuality. We’re friends. We receive and learn from each other. Yet churchianity makes it impossible to have that same relationship with many local pastors.

There are other Christians whose examples I want to imitate. I see something in their lives and say, “I want that in my life.” However, none of those people are very close to me geographically. Many of those older Christians I most respect, who could be mentors in some sense, also value the grace God has given me and relate to me as a brother and friend.

I have a wide network of like-minded friends through Facebook and other media. Churchianity thinks that is somehow not valid like their organizations are, but we have much more relationship and everything church is supposed to be over Facebook, Skype, and Zoom than I would have in many churches by calling their religious organization CEO “my pastor.” There are brothers I respect whom I can ask for advice and I’m open to receiving correction from, but all of those relationships are online, not in churchianity, and they are mutual. Churchianity thinks such online connections aren’t valid. Were the apostle Paul’s letters not valid because they were written from a distance?

I’ve experienced far more teaching each other, confessing our sins to each other, encouraging each other, praying for each other, exhorting each other, miracles, testimonies, and godly counsel in the functioning of the body of Christ over Facebook than I ever have in churchianity’s programs.

My online community includes a few hundred people who preach the gospel with power, healing the sick and casting out demons. Several of them have raised the dead in Jesus’ name. We have a strong relationship of mutual respect, cheering each other on, and encouraging each other. We care for each other. It’s not “I’m your pastor,” or “You’re my pastor,” although we recognize elders and leaders. I could say, “I appreciate this person so much. He challenges my faith.” Yet he would say the same thing about me. A one-way “my pastor” relationship makes mutual edification impossible.

One more extreme example of my experience with Churchianity and its dysfunctional paradigms for leadership was a cell group I joined when I moved to Goiania. I just wanted fellowship, but not so many other things the institution had to impose on me. I loved the people, but the denomination had some very unhealthy leaders higher up and was becoming very cult-like.

The person who was leading the cell group was about to get married, so the church appointed another “leader” who was supposed to be “pastoring” the group. Of course, he had to teach just what the senior pastor told everybody to teach during the cell groups. Even seminary-trained pastors could not share what the Lord showed them when they opened their Bibles, but had to preach what the senior leader instructed them.

They appointed a young man, barely in his 20s, who was extremely immature but zealous to move up in the religious hierarchy, and he would defend anything the senior leader said, regardless of the Bible. The young man didn’t even have a solid foundational understanding of salvation.

I had given my life to the Lord before he was probably born, read the Bible many times in many languages, and been walking in God’s power with signs and wonders for 15 years. But Churchianity said he was my “leader” and I needed to learn from him, and that excluded him from learning from me! Actually, that paradigm limited how much the whole group could receive from what I had to share.

In another case, a senior pastor (whom I never called “my pastor”) called me his “son.” Such language is common in churchianity. He was famous all over the country, and people nearly worshipped him. He expected me to listen to, submit to, and learn from him. Yet he was addicted to porn and married to his third wife. I still have the same wife, a longer history in Christ, and could have helped him in many ways if he were willing. But he thought his role was to be my spiritual guide, and my role was to listen, submit, and serve him, but without mutual submission or mutual service!

The paradigms of churchianity, judging by mere appearances, judge me to be isolated from the body of Christ, a lone ranger, unhealthy, unaccountable, unsubmissive, and not properly connected to the church because I say, “Jesus is my pastor.” But isn’t it ironic that churchianity’s paradigm for pastoring is isolating the ones they call pastors. It is disconnecting them from mutuality and healthy fellowship with the church, separating them, and making them unaccountable, uncorrectable, and often unsubmitted to God’s word and to the body of Christ.

Churchianity’s Paradigm for Pastors is bad for the church and bad for pastors

When I wrote, “I am Persuaded,” I quoted several statistics from the Barna Group about pastors. I won’t go through all of them here, but they showed extremely high rates of burnout, marital problems, secret sin, spiritual problems, family problems, isolation, and mental health issues among pastors. Something is clearly wrong with this picture.

Why? Consider what I’ve said about mutuality and “pastoring” being a role filled by many people in the body of Christ and secondary to the role of Jesus himself. Consider how every member of the body of Christ is supposed to function together, and the Bible speaks not just of pastors and teachers, but of apostles, prophets, and evangelists.

Churchianity’s paradigm for “pastors” is based very little on the New Testament’s teaching, but very much on pagan priesthoods. In Churchianity, the pastor is the one who speaks, while in the New Testament, every member is to minister supernaturally with God’s grace, prophesying, praying, teaching, instructing, and exhorting one another.

Churchianity’s concept of pastoring causes the church to say to many members of the body of Christ, “I don’t need you,” while putting an undue burden on one person and expecting him to do far more than God has given him grace to do. Then it becomes about a hierarchical position and not about what the pastor is actually doing.

Churchianity’s paradigm for “pastors” keeps people as religious spectators and hinders them from ever becoming disciples of Jesus. It dishonors the body of Christ, dishonors the grace that God has given to other members of the body who may be evangelists, prophets, or apostles, and dishonors the Holy Spirit by attempting to supplant his role. Churchianity’s concept of “pastoring” hinders other Christians from fulfilling their God-given roles.

Churchianity’s paradigm for pastors fosters the divisive, carnal attitude of saying “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” which the Apostle Paul equated with spiritual immaturity in 1st Corinthians one. Churchianity asks, “What church do you go to?” whereas the New Testament refers to the church in a particular city as one, even though they might meet in different places!

Churchianity’s Programs And Paradigms Often Hinder True Pastoring Rather Than Facilitating It!

Churchianity imagines that the kingdom of God depends on big budgets and massive resources and programs. It requires an enormous amount of energy. I am dumbfounded by how much time it takes many churches to prepare for just one church service. It often takes more than 40 hours for a church to prepare for one meeting, more than a single work week for one person.

In the midst of all the work, the programs, the volunteering, and the things to do in churchianity, many people are like sheep without a shepherd. They don’t even have basic discipleship. They are oppressed and uncared for. Those who are bearing the most fruit in the kingdom of God often have the least resources and the smallest budgets, but they have different priorities. They don’t say, as I recently heard, “We decided to have only one mission a month so we can keep people in the church services.”

Jesus died to restore relationships with God and with each other. However, Churchianity all too often impedes and destroys relationships rather than facilitating them!

There is so much real work to do that we must embrace the multiplicity of elders, mutuality, and full functioning of the body of Christ that scripture teaches. What many consider to be “church” is dysfunctional. It’s not functioning as scripture instructs.

Those immersed in churchianity don’t understand that what they call “pastoring” usually has little to do with pastoring. I’m busy caring for people, and what I want is not someone to say he’s my pastor, but friends who will join me in the work of ministry, stir me up to faith and good works, and honor God’s grace in my life. I don’t have time or energy for all the demands of churchianity, and trying to satisfy the demands of churchianity would hinder me from caring for people and being a disciple of Jesus.

Churchianity Doesn’t Understand That Walking Alone Isn’t Always Because Of Rebellion!

I don’t walk alone, but I’ve sometimes felt like I was walking alone. Churchianity thinks I’m walking alone and need to “get connected,” and I think it’s funny how little connection “getting connected” to churchianity can bring.

The apostle Paul wrote in 2nd Timothy 4:16, “Everyone abandoned me.” Many people in scripture and throughout history who have walked with God have been rejected and faced isolation. How about Joseph in the Old Testament? In Jesus’ hour of need, even his disciples fell asleep! Hebrews 13 says Jesus died outside the camp, so let us also go outside the camp to share in his disgrace! Churchianity forgets that many of its past “heroes of the faith” faced the rejection of the religious establishment in their time. Jeremiah and other prophets had to set their faces like flint against everyone around them. Many Christians have faced isolation for following Jesus.

Curry Blake said, “If you’re going to walk with God, at some point you’re probably going to have to walk alone.” My values challenge the paradigms of churchianity, but I am experiencing things that very few people in churchianity are, so maybe the hungry should pay attention.

If you believe churchianity is exactly what God intended and there’s no need for growth and change in the body of Christ…Well, I just can’t relate to your lack of spiritual hunger and satisfaction with less than all God has for us! But if we do need change, and if anything I’m saying is true and scripturally sound, I’m not going to be able to challenge God’s people by bowing to the paradigms and priorities of churchianity and going with the flow. If this is what God is saying, and I believe it is, I will follow Jesus even if it means I sometimes have to walk alone!

Churchianity Misinterprets A Deep Involvement In The Body of Christ As A Lack Of Commitment

The Holy Spirit’s work abounding in my life keeps connecting me with many groups of believers, all over any city that I’m in. The people I’m in fellowship with in my city are from multiple “churches.” Besides that, I’m in contact with Christians all over the world, sometimes even speaking with a group in another country via Zoom. I love God’s people.

To churchianity, it looks like I’m uncommitted. They say, “You need a church.” I don’t see this church or that church. I see the body of Christ and the people I’m in relationship with. That commitment is so deep that thinking in terms of “this church” or “that church” seems absurd and quite carnal. I’m committed to people, so I have little time for spectator Christianity.

I think I’ve probably seen more than 4,000 healing miracles since I moved to Goiania six years ago. That sounds like a lot, but in six years it only takes praying for an average of less than two people a day to see 4,000 healing miracles. However, it does require contact with many different people. And if I’m teaching other Christians to do the same, for me to be effective, I have to hang out with a lot of different groups of Christians.

Didn’t the role of the Apostle Paul and Barnabus, the “Son of Encouragement,” touch many different congregations, even in different cities? Churchianity so exaggerates the role of a “pastor” that it often has difficulty understanding other functions in the body of Christ. That’s why churchianity may have a hard time understanding that I have a role in the body of Christ that touches many people, and I can’t do everything and be everywhere all at the same time!

Ironically, some Christians would go as far as refusing me THEIR fellowship because I’m not “IN FELLOWSHIP” according to the standards of churchianity.

What Needs To Change?

Do you know how to offer people your fellowship and invite them to your house, where they can talk, not to a church service where they feel lonely? How long have you been keeping Christians in kindergarten classes while they are still not doing what Jesus said to do? Do you know how to disciple people without monologue lectures? Do you know how to listen to people first and talk last? Do you know how to care for people rather than telling them they need to find a pastor? Do you know how to seek the stray sheep rather than telling them they need to seek a shepherd? Can you envision what it looks like for every member of the body of Christ to function? Do you honor the role of Jesus himself as the chief Shepherd of every believer? These are my challenges to the broken paradigms of Churchianity!

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Preaching the Gospel Requires Confrontation!

When was the last time you confronted someone with the gospel?

Today, I’d like to share two recent stories of God’s power moving miraculously through a confrontational sharing of the gospel. As I shared in The Mechanics of Miracles, many New Testament scriptures make it clear that the gospel must be shared with power. In fact, Romans 1:16 says the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Salvation brings people out of darkness and into God’s light, breaking chains of oppression such as addictions, demonization, and sickness. One of the greatest keys I’ve learned to praying with power is that we pray based on what Jesus did. We pray because God loves that person and Jesus paid the highest price for their redemption. Our prayer is that Jesus would receive what he paid for.

You can watch the YouTube video here, or continue reading the blog post below.

There is a war for people’s souls, and wherever there is war, we have a confrontation. We pray and speak aggressively. The gospel is confrontational. With God’s word, we attack what is holding people in bondage. Consider Peter’s confrontational gospel presentation in Acts:

Acts 3:13-26 (ESV) The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.

“And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago. Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.’ And all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him, also proclaimed these days. You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’ God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.”

In Acts chapter 4:10-12, Peter again says, “God has glorified Jesus who you crucified and rejected, and he is the only way you can be saved!” Stephen spoke the same way in Acts chapter 7. In Acts 17:30, Paul told the Athenians, “God now commands people everywhere to repent.” He was giving an order from heaven!

One of the hardest things about sharing the gospel is that it requires a confrontation and saying, “You’re wrong.” We can only do that effectively when empowered by the Holy Spirit and God’s love for the person.

Challenging Self-Righteousness and Unforgiveness

On one of my visits to a men’s recovery house, they asked me to pray for a new guy. He’d been stabbed in the leg before he arrived. I was about to pray for him, but I paused and asked, “Are you ready to forgive the guy who did this to you?” He replied, “No way! I want that **BLANK** to get what he deserves! I want justice!”

I looked at him, said, “Then God won’t forgive you,” and paused to let it sink in.

I continued, “Jesus said that if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you don’t forgive them, your Father won’t forgive you.” (Matthew 6:14-15)

He replied, “I’ve done wrong things, but nothing like what he did. I never shed blood.”

I asked, “Do you believe Jesus shed his blood for you? Do you believe Jesus died for you?”

“Yes, of course, Jesus is the best, yes, he gave his life for us.”

“Then you can’t say your sin is any less serious. Your sin was so serious that Jesus had to shed his blood and die a torturous death to redeem you from it. You can’t say you’re free from the guilt of bloodshed. You deserve death, but Jesus died to give you life. Jesus, on the cross, looked at his torturers, loved them, and said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing.’ (Luke 23:34) God loves you, and he’ll heal your leg. But he also wants to save and deliver the man who did this to you. He was blind and didn’t know what he was doing. Will you forgive him?”

He agreed and prayed together with me, from the heart, to bless the man who stabbed him.

Please understand, I didn’t do this as a formula for how to get him healed. I just felt the need for him to forgive the man. God cares about everything, including people’s healing and repentance. It’s not about one thing or another. We want people to receive the whole package.

Then I prayed for him. He had a lot of pain in his back and leg. The whole side of his body went under anesthesia, and he felt the muscles moving in his leg as we prayed. Remember, when I say, “prayed,” it’s not a passive request but an aggressive agreement with God and a rebuke of whatever would resist God’s purposes. “Jesus carried his pains and sicknesses, so all pain get out and everything be now on earth as it is in heaven! Be healed now, as if you were never stabbed!”

In a little while, all the pain was gone from his back. We prayed more, and his leg no longer hurt. Then I said, “I see God’s glory on your left ear. Is there anything with this ear?” He answered, “This ear is almost deaf. I can barely hear on this side.” We prayed, I whispered in both ears, and he heard the same volume on both sides. It happened quickly. His hearing was completely restored the first time we prayed.

I had him walk, and we prayed some more. He was still limping, but had no pain and could hear again! In such a case, we thank God for continuing to work.

Challenging Accusation and Condemnation

Last Saturday, I was with friends doing evangelism in the park. When we finished and were on our way to leave, a homeless guy was on the side of our path with his arm in a sling. I stopped, looked in his eyes, and greeted him by raising my arm and grabbing his good hand. Anyone who saw it would’ve assumed we knew each other well, but I’d never seen him before!

We’d split into two groups for the evangelistic outreach, and it turned out that the other group had already talked to him and prayed for him. But I didn’t want to see him leave still injured, so I started sharing the gospel and said, “God wants to heal your arm. Let me pray for you.” He said he’d been run over by a car and had lots of pain in his arm and back.

I prayed, but it was obvious he had little expectation. After praying the first time, I asked him to move, and he still felt pain. I asked, “Has it improved?” but it hurt just as much. He said something like, “God can do this if he wants to in his time,” and I said, “Did you know the Bible says now is the time of God’s favor? Twice in the New Testament, when they didn’t want Jesus to heal someone on the Sabbath, he said, “How can I wait until tomorrow? This person is suffering, and I have compassion! Jesus said, “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.” Of course God wants to heal you now. Let’s pray again!

This wasn’t the first time that I’ve found myself arguing with someone’s unbelief and they ended up healed! I prayed again a few times, in spite of his reluctance, and he felt no improvement. The pain was the same.

He said, “God is giving me what I deserve. I’ve done so many terrible things, and now I’m suffering for it. My life is such a mess!”

I asked, “So, are you too hard a case for the Holy Spirit?”

What could he say! That something was too hard for God? Of course not. He replied, “No.” Something powerful happened as he answered.

I asked, “What do you think God is more impressed with? What you’ve done, or what Jesus has done?” He didn’t get what I was saying. I continued, “What do you think is more powerful? What you’ve done, or what Jesus has done? You’re right that you deserve this. We’ve all sinned, and the result of sin is death. But the Bible says Jesus carried our sins, our iniquities, our pains, and our sicknesses in his body on the cross, and the punishment for our peace was on him. Jesus paid the highest price for our redemption, so that we would be free from torment, have peace, and be healed. Do you really think it’s right for Jesus to suffer for your freedom and for you to be here like this, in torment, in pain, and with no peace? Shouldn’t Jesus get what he paid for?”

He agreed, “Yes.” I continued, “We’ve all sinned, but what Jesus has done to redeem us is greater than what we’ve done. The Bible says death entered through our sin, but life and redemption come through Jesus. (Romans 5) You being healed now isn’t really even about what you deserve. It’s about what Jesus deserves. He paid the price, and he deserves to receive what he paid for. How can we honor the high price that Jesus paid, if not by receiving everything he paid for?”

He was starting to agree as I spoke. He understood. I said, “Why don’t you lift your arm?”

He moved his body. No pain in his arm or back. I kept encouraging him and asking, “Is there any pain?” and he finally took his arm out of the sling and was raising it with no pain. My friends who were just about to leave after our evangelistic outreach were thrilled! He was healed, not as we prayed, but as we confronted Satan’s lies with the gospel message.

I’ve often spoken to homeless people and those in recovery in a similar way. God’s power is in the gospel!

There was a slight smell of alcohol on his breath when we first met him. I’m not sure, but I assume that he was drunk when he got run over by the car. That may have been why he said he was getting what he deserved. But God has poured out his mercy abundantly on us in Jesus Christ!

Receive The Full Package of Salvation!

People who lack a solid grounding in scripture are sometimes concerned that the first thing I offer someone in an evangelistic context is often healing ministry, as if it were a conflict of interest with the more important issue of their soul. One guy thought healing was distracting me when I should have been focused on getting them to repeat a salvation prayer with me!

I’ve seen various Christian groups visit recovery houses and ask everyone who wants to receive Jesus to raise their hand. Many people raise their hands, and then the church talks about how many salvations there were. However, many of the same people also raised their hands the last few times when other groups made the same invitation. I’ve heard that the number of converts reported in Pakistan exceeds the population of the entire country. If that’s true, it’s probably due to this dynamic in which the same people get counted multiple times.

I’m not interested in merely getting people to raise their hands or repeat a prayer. I want to see people come to faith in Christ and believe the gospel message, resulting in transformation. Although I’m not opposed to a “salvation prayer,” a person can believe the gospel, agree with it, and repent without repeating a prayer! In Acts chapter 10, the Holy Spirit fell on the Gentiles as they heard the gospel message and believed it! There was no invitation to “raise your hand and come up front if you want to go to heaven.” When our gospel presentation is weak, many people end up raising their hands and going up front with little understanding, no repentance, and no transformation.

The two men whose stories I’ve shared both heard, understood, and believed the gospel. Their stories illustrate that it’s not about a dichotomy between getting healed and receiving salvation of the soul. We present it all together, because Jesus paid for both. In both of the stories I just shared, healing ministry exposed the need for forgiveness and repentance. In Acts chapter 3, the healing of a lame man initiated a gospel confrontation with a call to faith and repentance. Healing demonstrates God’s forgiveness in Christ, by which grace reigns unto righteousness!

The post MIRACLES Happen When You CONFRONT People With The Gospel! appeared first on Go to Heaven Now!.

Preaching the Gospel Requires Confrontation!

Today, I’d like to share two recent stories of God’s power moving miraculously through a confrontational sharing of the gospel. As I shared in The Mechanics of Miracles, many New Testament scriptures make it clear that the gospel must be shared with power. In fact, Romans 1:16 says the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Salvation brings people out of darkness and into God’s light, breaking chains of oppression such as addictions, demonization, and sickness. One of the greatest keys I’ve learned to praying with power is that we pray based on what Jesus did. We pray because God loves that person and Jesus paid the highest price for their redemption. Our prayer is that Jesus would receive what he paid for.

There is a war for people’s souls, and wherever there is war, we have a confrontation. We pray and speak aggressively. The gospel is confrontational. With God’s word, we attack what is holding people in bondage. Consider Peter’s confrontational gospel presentation in Acts:

Acts 3:13-26 (ESV) The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.

“And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago. Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.’ And all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him, also proclaimed these days. You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’ God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.”

In Acts chapter 4:10-12, Peter again says, “God has glorified Jesus who you crucified and rejected, and he is the only way you can be saved!” Stephen spoke the same way in Acts chapter 7. In Acts 17:30, Paul told the Athenians, “God now commands people everywhere to repent.” He was giving an order from heaven!

One of the hardest things about sharing the gospel is that it requires a confrontation and saying, “You’re wrong.” We can only do that effectively when empowered by the Holy Spirit and God’s love for the person.

Challenging Self-Righteousness and Unforgiveness

On one of my visits to a men’s recovery house, they asked me to pray for a new guy. He’d been stabbed in the leg before he arrived. I was about to pray for him, but I paused and asked, “Are you ready to forgive the guy who did this to you?” He replied, “No way! I want that **BLANK** to get what he deserves! I want justice!”

I looked at him, said, “Then God won’t forgive you,” and paused to let it sink in.

I continued, “Jesus said that if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you don’t forgive them, your Father won’t forgive you.” (Matthew 6:14-15)

He replied, “I’ve done wrong things, but nothing like what he did. I never shed blood.”

I asked, “Do you believe Jesus shed his blood for you? Do you believe Jesus died for you?”

“Yes, of course, Jesus is the best, yes, he gave his life for us.”

“Then you can’t say your sin is any less serious. Your sin was so serious that Jesus had to shed his blood and die a torturous death to redeem you from it. You can’t say you’re free from the guilt of bloodshed. You deserve death, but Jesus died to give you life. Jesus, on the cross, looked at his torturers, loved them, and said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing.’ (Luke 23:34) God loves you, and he’ll heal your leg. But he also wants to save and deliver the man who did this to you. He was blind and didn’t know what he was doing. Will you forgive him?”

He agreed and prayed together with me, from the heart, to bless the man who stabbed him.

Please understand, I didn’t do this as a formula for how to get him healed. I just felt the need for him to forgive the man. God cares about everything, including people’s healing and repentance. It’s not about one thing or another. We want people to receive the whole package.

Then I prayed for him. He had a lot of pain in his back and leg. The whole side of his body went under anesthesia, and he felt the muscles moving in his leg as we prayed. Remember, when I say, “prayed,” it’s not a passive request but an aggressive agreement with God and a rebuke of whatever would resist God’s purposes. “Jesus carried his pains and sicknesses, so all pain get out and everything be now on earth as it is in heaven! Be healed now, as if you were never stabbed!”

In a little while, all the pain was gone from his back. We prayed more, and his leg no longer hurt. Then I said, “I see God’s glory on your left ear. Is there anything with this ear?” He answered, “This ear is almost deaf. I can barely hear on this side.” We prayed, I whispered in both ears, and he heard the same volume on both sides. It happened quickly. His hearing was completely restored the first time we prayed.

I had him walk, and we prayed some more. He was still limping, but had no pain and could hear again! In such a case, we thank God for continuing to work.

Challenging Accusation and Condemnation

Last Saturday, I was with friends doing evangelism in the park. When we finished and were on our way to leave, a homeless guy was on the side of our path with his arm in a sling. I stopped, looked in his eyes, and greeted him by raising my arm and grabbing his good hand. Anyone who saw it would’ve assumed we knew each other well, but I’d never seen him before!

We’d split into two groups for the evangelistic outreach, and it turned out that the other group had already talked to him and prayed for him. But I didn’t want to see him leave still injured, so I started sharing the gospel and said, “God wants to heal your arm. Let me pray for you.” He said he’d been run over by a car and had lots of pain in his arm and back.

I prayed, but it was obvious he had little expectation. After praying the first time, I asked him to move, and he still felt pain. I asked, “Has it improved?” but it hurt just as much. He said something like, “God can do this if he wants to in his time,” and I said, “Did you know the Bible says now is the time of God’s favor? Twice in the New Testament, when they didn’t want Jesus to heal someone on the Sabbath, he said, “How can I wait until tomorrow? This person is suffering, and I have compassion! Jesus said, “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.” Of course God wants to heal you now. Let’s pray again!

This wasn’t the first time that I’ve found myself arguing with someone’s unbelief and they ended up healed! I prayed again a few times, in spite of his reluctance, and he felt no improvement. The pain was the same.

He said, “God is giving me what I deserve. I’ve done so many terrible things, and now I’m suffering for it. My life is such a mess!”

I asked, “So, are you too hard a case for the Holy Spirit?”

What could he say! That something was too hard for God? Of course not. He replied, “No.” Something powerful happened as he answered.

I asked, “What do you think God is more impressed with? What you’ve done, or what Jesus has done?” He didn’t get what I was saying. I continued, “What do you think is more powerful? What you’ve done, or what Jesus has done? You’re right that you deserve this. We’ve all sinned, and the result of sin is death. But the Bible says Jesus carried our sins, our iniquities, our pains, and our sicknesses in his body on the cross, and the punishment for our peace was on him. Jesus paid the highest price for our redemption, so that we would be free from torment, have peace, and be healed. Do you really think it’s right for Jesus to suffer for your freedom and for you to be here like this, in torment, in pain, and with no peace? Shouldn’t Jesus get what he paid for?”

He agreed, “Yes.” I continued, “We’ve all sinned, but what Jesus has done to redeem us is greater than what we’ve done. The Bible says sin entered through our sin, but life and redemption come through Jesus. (Romans 5) You being healed now isn’t really even about what you deserve. It’s about what Jesus deserves. He paid the price, and he deserves to receive what he paid for. How can we honor the high price that Jesus paid, if not by receiving everything he paid for?”

He was starting to agree as I spoke. He understood. I said, “Why don’t you lift your arm?”

He moved his body. No pain in his arm or back. I kept encouraging him and asking, “Is there any pain?” and he finally took his arm out of the sling and was raising it with no pain. My friends who were just about to leave after our evangelistic outreach were thrilled! He was healed, not as we prayed, but as we confronted Satan’s lies with the gospel message.

I’ve often spoken to homeless people and those in recovery in a similar way. God’s power is in the gospel!

There was a slight smell of alcohol on his breath when we first met him. I’m not sure, but I assume that he was drunk when he got run over by the car. That may have been why he said he was getting what he deserved. But God has poured out his mercy abundantly on us in Jesus Christ!

Receive The Full Package of Salvation!

People who lack a solid grounding in scripture are sometimes concerned that the first thing I offer someone in an evangelistic context is often healing ministry, as if it were a conflict of interest with the more important issue of their soul. One guy thought healing was distracting me when I should have been focused on getting them to pray a prayer after me!

I’ve seen various Christian groups visit recovery houses and ask everyone who wants to receive Jesus to raise their hand. Many people raise their hands, and then the church talks about how many salvations there were. However, many of the same people also raised their hands the last few times when other groups made the same invitation. I’ve heard that the number of converts reported in Pakistan exceeds the population of the entire country. If that’s true, it’s probably due to this dynamic in which the same people get counted multiple times.

I’m not interested in merely getting people to raise their hands or repeat a prayer. I want to see people come to faith in Christ and believe the gospel message, resulting in transformation. Although I’m not opposed to a “salvation prayer,” a person can believe the gospel, agree with it, and repent without repeating a prayer! In Acts chapter 10, the Holy Spirit fell on the Gentiles as they heard the gospel message and believed it! There was no invitation to “raise your hand and come up front if you want to go to heaven.” When our gospel presentation is weak, many people end up raising their hands and going up front with little understanding, no repentance, and no transformation.

The two men whose stories I’ve shared both heard, understood, and believed the gospel. Their stories illustrate that it’s not about a dichotomy between getting healed and receiving salvation of the soul. We present it all together, because Jesus paid for both. In both of the stories I just shared, healing ministry exposed the need for forgiveness and repentance. In Acts chapter 3, the healing of a lame man initiated a gospel confrontation with a call to faith and repentance. Healing demonstrates God’s forgiveness in Christ, by which grace reigns unto righteousness!

The post Confront People With The Gospel! appeared first on Go to Heaven Now!.

I’ve been quite busy and haven’t posted for about two months. We continue to see the Lord do wonderful things regularly. Recently, on an outreach in the park, God revealed a lady’s suicidal thoughts. I was praying for others in the park, then I returned and found her still talking with my friends. We then prayed for her, and she felt “light.” We prayed a few times, and all the pain from fibromyalgia left! She was quite happy.

After some men received physical healing at one rehab ministry, two guys requested prayer because they were “hearing voices.” The first felt peace, felt “light,” and the voices stopped. The second said, “When you prayed, it felt like something exploded inside of me, and something left me.” Both those men received deliverance, but there was no clear external manifestation. Not everyone falls on the ground or speaks in another voice when they receive deliverance! In my experience, it has been more common for the person receiving to simply tell us they felt something leave. That’s why it’s important to interview the people we pray for. I was at the same rehab last night, and after several healing miracles and much joy, a man who had a tormenting buzzing sound going from one ear to the other was set free, and the noise stopped.

I could share other stories, but I’d like to share a video of a recent ministry time with a church in Maryland. I’d been there in person about eight years ago, and they invited me to share through Zoom this time!

I’m not great at recording videos, and it’s sometimes hard to do while praying for people. Most testimonies I have recorded are in Portuguese, so I’m happy to have ministry time recorded in English! The first part of the message I shared was an interpretation of tongues from what God was giving me just prior, and I later also received an interpretation of tongues for what Katie was saying as she prayed for a man. God revealed some of the physical problems people had to heal them through prophecy, including a lady who wasn’t even there because she wasn’t feeling well that day and didn’t go! God revealed her reflux issues, and she said she didn’t have pain for the first time in months after we prayed for her.

If you’ve read The Mechanics of Miracles, I think you’ll enjoy seeing some of what I talk about put into practice. Notice how we pray and interview the people, and how we get the people involved in praying for each other and acting as the body of Christ.

Lately, I’ve written about how the Bible’s instructions demand that we allow every member of Christ’s body to speak and participate in our meetings. Monologue sermons were primarily for proclaiming the gospel, not for discipleship. I even wrote a radical post on Why Church Leaders Should Speak LAST. So maybe you’re wondering why I’m speaking so much in this video!

I listen to Mark Heman’s messages and some other sermons on YouTube. I enjoy special events with guest speakers who have something powerful to offer the body of Christ, and I’ve heard some great sermons. Truth is always good! I’m not against sermons, but they shouldn’t subvert dialogue and teaching each other. Our regular meetings must allow all to speak and should be focused on communion, not centered around a sermon. I’m fine with big meetings when they are special events or conferences. That kind of event does restrict participation because of its size and the program. However, regular fellowship must involve the participation that the Bible describes.

I encourage everyone to speak in meetings in recovery houses, our Open Heaven meetings, and many online meetings. I am also learning to teach using questions and answers, dialogue instead of a monologue. However, that wasn’t as easy in an online meeting over Zoom! This was a special occasion. Even so, we got everybody involved and still had much more dialogue after the teaching than in many church services!

Our friend Brian Hogan shares that the people in Mongolia loved big meetings, but the churches stopped multiplying whenever they had big meetings more often than once a month. It seems that the churches in the New Testament had some bigger meetings for a special occasion, like a visit from Paul. Some bigger meetings are fine as special events, but spectator events replacing participatory meetings as the main thing isn’t healthy. I may speak more when invited to a special event, but even then, I get people involved and participating. In local fellowship, I want to share what God has given me. Yet I don’t want to be the only one sharing or to preach a weekly sermon!

Enjoy the meeting! If you watch the video, I’d love to hear what you got out of it. You can email jonathan@gotoheavennow.com.

The post Ministry Time Brazil and Maryland! appeared first on Go to Heaven Now!.

Leaders’ Goal Should Be To Bring God’s People To Maturity

Recently, we’ve been examining the Bible’s instructions for Christian meetings. The Bible uses the words, “everyone, each one, anyone, and all” to describe who speaks in a Christian meeting. God desires to manifest his grace through each member of the body of Christ. The “gifts of the Spirit” or, literally, “grace-manifestations,” usually require speaking. Scripture commands us to teach each other, instruct each other, exhort each other, encourage each other, and more! The Bible is so emphatic about this that the apostle Paul wrote that we should not recognize anybody who does not acknowledge that these instructions are the Lord’s command, not mere suggestions!

Paul wrote in Romans 12:3 (KJV) “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.” In First Corinthians 12, God’s grace is manifest in various forms as every member of the body of Christ speaks. The statement that “no member can say to another member ‘I don’t need you'” is in the context of grace-manifestations that usually involve speaking. God does not give all that needs to be said to one person alone.

A leader who expects to be the only one to speak thinks of himself more highly than he ought to think. He’s not thinking soberly, understanding that even as a leader, he is still only one member of the body of Christ. By saying this, I don’t want to be overly critical of leaders’ intentions. Some don’t know any other way of operating. This dynamic has been the status quo for a long time, and it’s not only the leaders’ fault. The church has encouraged it. But a Christian meeting as scripture commands is not a church service as we know it.

Failing to prioritize every member speaking and acting is saying to the other members of the body, “I don’t need you.” Leaders are in position to serve and honor the body of Christ. Honoring every member of Christ’s body involves valuing the grace God gives them and allowing them to speak. If we fail to honor and receive every member of Christ’s body, we fail to honor Christ and receive his grace.

Furthermore, Jesus and the early church taught primarily with questions and answers in a dialogue format. The Bible associates doing God’s will and being able to teach each other with spiritual meat. Jesus taught with dialogue, gave an example to follow, and then quickly sent his disciples to do the same works they saw him do. After three and a half years, he told them, “It’s better for you that I leave.” Jesus’ goal was bringing his disciples to maturity, not giving them baby bottles for the rest of their lives.

Ephesians chapter 4 teaches that Christ gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers to equip God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ will be built up, until we all become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Why Do We Think Of Leaders As The Ones Who Speak?

Let’s compare the current paradigms with the Bible’s instructions. Most churches think of leaders as the ones who speak. They get to have the microphone! Growing Christians who aren’t recognized as leaders covet that position. The immature are happy to sit and enjoy the program.

Many leaders and immature Christians are happy with this paradigm. There’s no concept of the leaders’ role being “until we all become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” There is no vision for maturity. Few leaders can even imagine saying, “It’s better for you that I leave,” as Jesus did with his disciples. If we aim for maturity, we must strive towards Christians eating spiritual meat by doing the works of Jesus and teaching each other.

The Bible’s instructions for Christian meetings and discipleship are opposed to the current paradigm! If our paradigm fails to facilitate Christians doing Jesus’ works, teaching each other, and ministering in God’s grace as 1st Corinthians 12 and 14 describe, then we hinder maturity rather than promoting it. Our system works against God’s goal, which is for the whole church to attain to maturity and the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

The status-quo paradigm of leaders as the ones who speak hinders maturity rather than promoting it. This is the opposite of what God intends.

A Radical Paradigm Shift!

Our book, “I am Persuaded,” examines Jesus’ teaching about Christian leadership. God’s design for Christian leadership is radically different than greatness as the world sees it. In God’s Kingdom, the first will be last and the last will be first. The greatest is the servant of all. God’s wisdom is foolishness to the world, yet it is wiser than human wisdom. God’s paradigm for Christian leadership is foolishness to worldly values regarding leadership and greatness. Yet the current status-quo paradigm for church leadership is all too similar to how the world sees greatness.

Before sharing a radical thought about how servant leadership applies to speaking in the church, I want to clarify that this is truth in tension. Elders and teachers do have speaking roles. Elders have more experience, so we pay special attention to what they say. That being said, they are not the only ones who speak. What does Jesus’ teaching about Christian leadership imply regarding speaking?

Luke 22:24-27 (NIV) A dispute also arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest. Jesus said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors. But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.

Jesus said the greatest among you should be like the youngest. What does this imply about speaking in the church? The youngest wait until last to speak. The youngest ask questions and listen to the others before expressing their own thoughts! When Jesus was twelve years old, his parents found him in the temple listening to the teachers and asking them questions!

As Job’s friends spoke foolishly and Job responded to them, Elihu the son of Barachel was angry because Job justified himself rather than God, and because his friends found no answer. After listening to everybody speak, Elihu said, “I am young in years, and you are aged.” He listened to those who were older and spoke last. (Job 32) God finally answered Job. Job confessed he’d spoken of things he didn’t understand, and he repented. God rebuked Job’s three friends. The only one who didn’t get a rebuke was Elihu, who was the last to speak!

Jesus also said that the first would be last, and the last would be first, and that whoever wants to be first must be your slave. What implications does this have for speaking? The slave defers to others and is the last to speak. He first listens.

In 3rd John verse nine, the Apostle John rebukes a man named Diotrophes who loved to be first and refused to welcome other believers. Might “loving to be first” include the desire to be the first to speak? Doesn’t welcoming other believers include allowing them to speak and listening to them? Our paradigm for leadership in the church is so far from Jesus’ teaching that many assume Diotrophes’ behavior is what leadership is supposed to look like!

Does Simon Sinek Get What Jesus Was Talking About?

Does Jesus’ teaching about Christian leadership really apply to speaking? It seems so radical! Let’s consider the matter further.

Bestselling author and business leader Simon Sinek teaches that great leaders speak last! He says, “The skill to hold your opinions to yourself until everyone has spoken does two things. One, it gives everybody else the feeling that they have been heard. It gives everyone else the ability to feel that they have contributed. And two, you get the benefit of hearing what everybody else has to think before you render your opinion. The skill is really to keep your opinions to yourself. If you agree with somebody, don’t nod ‘yes’. If you disagree with somebody, don’t nod ‘no.’ Simply sit there. Take it all in. And the only thing you’re allowed to do is ask questions so that you can understand what they mean and why they have the opinion that they have. You must understand from where they are speaking, why they have the opinion they have, not just what they are saying… and at the end, you will have your turn.”

Sinek observes: Well-intentioned leaders, we sit at the head of the table and say, “Well, here’s the problem we have and this is what I think we should do but I want to know what you think.” Too late! You’ve biased the room, as if their opinion doesn’t matter. As opposed to sitting down and saying, “Here’s the problem. I want to know what you think.”

Sinek uses Nelson Mandela’s words to illustrate this truth: “A journalist once asked [Nelson Mandela] how it is he came to be such a great leader – and he said that when he was a kid, he remembered going to tribal meetings with his father. And he remembers two things: one, they would always sit in a circle, and two, his father would always be the last to speak. And I think that that is a better way of framing the phrase ‘be a better listener’; it’s practicing being the last person to speak. So often, well-intentioned leaders walk into a meeting and say “okay guys, here’s the problem, here’s what I think we should do, but I’m going to listen to what you have to say.” It’s too late, right? There’s a skill set that comes from when everybody else is speaking, you don’t agree or disagree or give away what you’re thinking – but rather, you take input and you ask questions to better understand where their perspective comes from. And at the end of it, not only do you make everyone else feel heard, but you also get the benefit of all of their thinking.”

I think Simon Sinek, a secular business leader, understands Jesus’ teaching on leadership better than many Christians do! The Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, “I want you to honor Jesus by honoring every member of the body of Christ.” First Peter 2:17 says, “Honor all men.” This includes listening to them. The Holy Spirit desires to manifest God’s grace through every member of Christ’s body, and that usually involves speaking. Simon Sinek teaches leaders to honor every member of the team.

First Corinthians 10:24 says, “No one should seek their own good, but the good of others.” I once read that the least effective way to retain information is to listen to a lecture with no interaction, and the most effective is to teach the subject you are learning. A leader who wants young Christians to be fully equipped for every good work encourages them to speak and act for the sake of their own maturity. Christian maturity and spiritual meat are associated with doing God’s works and being able to teach each other. Rather than seeking preeminence or needing to speak first, leaders who aim for the church’s maturity seek not their own good but the good of others.

The Wise Wait To Speak!

Are you still unconvinced that Christian Leaders should be willing to speak last? The New Testament church appointed elders as leaders. We respect elders for their wisdom. What does the Bible tell us about how the wise speak and listen?

James 1:19 says that everyone should be slow to speak and quick to listen! Proverbs says that the wise person keeps his knowledge to himself, weighs his answers, learns from rebukes, speaks with humility, holds his tongue, guards his lips, and doesn’t multiply words! A wise man listens to others, seeks guidance, attains wise counsel, and hears and increases learning! A man of understanding draws council out from the heart! On the other hand, Proverbs says there is more hope for a fool than for a person who is hasty in his words, and it is folly and shame to answer before listening! These are more reasons that it makes sense for a leader to listen before speaking!

How Do We Deal With The Challenges Of Everyone Speaking?

The idea of allowing everybody to speak terrifies many Christians! Some insist it will never work. This participatory order comes with unique challenges, but we must acknowledge that it is God’s command, not a mere suggestion. We ought to first humble ourselves and acknowledge that God is right. He is wiser than we are, even if doing things his way is challenging! After first submitting to God, we can consider the challenges involved in Christian meetings that allow all to speak.

First Corinthians 13, the famous love chapter, is in the context of this order of a Christian meeting with all participating! First Corinthians 14:40, “Let everything be done decently and in order,” is also in this context. These exhortations regarding love and orderliness equip us to deal with the challenges posed by participatory gatherings.

First Corinthians 13 begins, “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.”

Love thinks soberly according to the measure of grace we have been given. It says, “I have something of God’s grace that I want to share with the church,” but it also acknowledges that I’m not the only one with something to share. The goal is edification, not wanting to have the preeminence to the detriment of others! Scripture continues,”Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”

The context of this exhortation to be patient and kind, not envious, boastful, or proud, not self-seeking, but honoring others, is instruction for a Christian meeting in which we all function together as the body of Christ. This exhortation was needed to give order as all spoke and ministered in God’s grace!

The Bible’s Instructions For Leaders Only Make Sense In The Context Of Many Speaking!

The pastoral epistles of Titus and First and Second Timothy deal much with a leader’s responsibility to correct false doctrine. These instructions only make sense in the context of many people speaking. Today, many Christians prefer a monologue to the problems caused by having so many people speaking. They avoid such problems rather than deal with them as the Bible instructs. By doing so, they do not allow the church to function as God wills.

In Titus 1:9, Paul wrote that an elder must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. Yet this has little relevance when church is a program in which only one person speaks. There is nobody to refute or correct if nobody but the pastor speaks!

The problem we often face today is that rather than recognizing a Biblical plurality of elders and pastors, we have one pastor who gives a monologue. Then, there is nobody to correct or refute him if he starts teaching false doctrine! Erronious teaching can often be corrected with as much as a simple question, without even any need to argue. But monologues do not permit questions, correction, or testing what is said!

Paul writes in Titus 1:11 that those who are teaching false doctrines must be silenced. However, such a command is irrelevant in a Christian meeting in which everybody is silenced, not just those teaching false doctrines! In Titus 3:9-11, Paul writes, “avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless. Warn a divisive person once, and then warn them a second time. After that, have nothing to do with them. You may be sure that such people are warped and sinful; they are self-condemned.” Yet there is little need for the instruction to warn a divisive person or avoid foolish controversies and arguments in a church program centered around a monologue! The exhortation to avoid unprofitable conversations only makes sense in a context in which there is conversation!

2nd Timothy 3:16 says scripture is useful for rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. Paul tells Timothy to correct, rebuke, and encourage in Chapter 4 verse 2. In First Timothy 1:3, Paul writes, “Command certain people not to teach false doctrines any longer.” He doesn’t tell Timothy to stop everybody else from teaching, as many churches operate today!

Elders’ responsibility to correct and rebuke only makes sense in the participatory environment that scripture commands. Does the person who corrects and rebukes speak first or last?

Some people imagine that the participation scripture commands, with everybody speaking, will cause false doctrine to proliferate. History shows that the opposite is true. Monologue sermons in which questions and disagreement are taboo result in false doctrine. Questioning, disagreeing, discussing, and receiving correction promotes sound doctrine, not error.

Leaders Give Godly Examples, Facilitate, and Correct!

Some people ask, “If leaders aren’t the ones who speak, then what do they do?” As I shared in “I Am Persuaded,” the New Testament uses the terms “elder,” “pastor” and “bishop” interchangeably. Elders have an important role in the church, but it is not to speak while everyone else only listens. The elders’ purpose is to bring the church to maturity, and spiritual meat is equated with doing God’s will and teaching each other.

Spiritual milk is associated with saying, “I follow Paul” or “I follow Apollos.”Therefore, Elders encourage Christians to take personal possession of their faith and be taught by the Lord rather than depending on a human leader. Elders encourage Christians to think about and wrestle with God’s word for themselves rather than blindly accepting what someone else says.

Elders facilitate, encouraging young Christians to move in God’s grace and power. Elders ask questions. Elders allow others to speak and act first, then they correct! Elders make sure that our meetings are done “decently and in order” to edify the whole church and honor the grace God gives to every member of the body of Christ!

God desires to manifest his grace through every member of Christ’s body in our gatherings through supernatural grace-effects, which typically require speaking. God desires for the whole church to move in his power, speaking as those who speak the very words of God and acting by the Holy Spirit’s enablement. Elders should have God’s agenda, not their own. They are servants of Christ.

Elders are not entertainers for us to watch but examples for us to imitate. They must be examples of moving in the Holy Spirit’s power and encouraging others to do likewise. Their goal is not preeminence, but the church’s maturity! They are like coaches on the sidelines, not the team’s star players!

Is your church ready to recognize and receive these kinds of leaders? What do you value? Do you value church leaders who show preference for others, facilitate rather than dominate, and happily wait to speak last? Or are you all too happy to have a leader who takes first place, acts as the star player instead of a team player, and coddles immaturity?

Does your church encourage timid young Christians to pray, share, and act in God’s grace and power? Or does it hold back young Christians who are full of God’s word and want to share? Is the way we are doing church promoting maturity as defined by scripture, or is it hindering it? Are we promoting the function of every member of the body of Christ, or are we suppressing it? All prophesied on the day of Pentecost. Since the Holy Spirit chooses to distribute God’s grace through every member of Christ’s body, we will only receive all God has for us when we allow all to speak!

The post Why Church Leaders Should Speak LAST! appeared first on Go to Heaven Now!.

You can watch the video, or read the text below!

Today, I’ll share some of the dozens of miracles I’ve seen God do in the last few weeks. The miracle stories give some context to my position that church services as we know them systematically quench the Holy Spirit. Why would someone who loves Jesus, loves the church, and regularly experiences so many miracles usually avoid religious programs? Why are these miracles happening mostly outside of church services or in spite of them but rarely because of them?

I have a full-time job and work on Sundays and sometimes at night. I have a family with a wife and two daughters who are jealous for my attention. Maybe as you hear about these things the Lord did in a three-week period of time, you’ll understand why I don’t have time or energy for sitting through religious programs!

We Have No Authority to Deviate From God’s Commands Which Allow The Whole Body of Christ to Function!

In recent months, I wrote about “When church programs quench the Holy Spirit,” and I made a case that “You can have revival if you want it!” I made an even more detailed YouTube video about how church services quench the Holy Spirit and hinder Christian maturity. The Holy Spirit keeps deepening my understanding of these topics.

The standard paradigms for “Church services” and leadership clearly disobey the Bible’s instructions for how the church should function, and they systematically quench the Holy Spirit. I made a case that God is rich in grace, generous, doesn’t withhold anything good, and wants revival more than we do. The problem is not that God is failing to send revival but that the church systematically quenches the Holy Spirit.

Scripture’s instructions for a Christian meeting require allowing everyone to speak. The Holy Spirit chooses to manifest God’s grace through every member of Christ’s body, through what are commonly called “spiritual gifts.” I prefer to call them “grace-manifestations,” as the Greek text does. Five of those grace manifestations are explicitly speaking, and the other four also usually require speaking and understanding to operate. If the Holy Spirit desires to manifest God’s grace through all, a program that doesn’t allow all to speak quenches the Holy Spirit.

Multiple one-another commands involve everyone speaking. Teach and instruct one another, encourage one another, exhort one another, confess your sins to one another, and more. In First Corinthians 12 and 14, Paul says the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the common good, no member can say to another, “I don’t need you,” you can all prophesy one by one, and each one has a hymn, word of instruction, revelation, tongue, or interpretation! If one person is sitting and another receives a revelation, the first person speaking should sit down so they can allow two or three people to prophesy, and the others should test what they say, which necessitates dialogue.

Then, Paul quotes the Corinthians and rebukes them for trying to silence women. Women are included in the previous instructions “all” and “each one.” Paul gave instructions for women that prophesied in chapter 11. The Corinthians claimed that the law said, “Women should be silent,” but it says no such thing! Paul’s response to any attempt to limit the functioning of any member of Christ’s body was the following:

1st Corinthians 14:36-38 (NIV) Or did the word of God originate with you? Or are you the only people it has reached? If anyone thinks they are a prophet or otherwise gifted by the Spirit, let them acknowledge that what I am writing to you is the Lord’s command. But if anyone ignores this, they will themselves be ignored.

This order is the Lord’s command, not a mere suggestion! The church is not even supposed to acknowledge a person who ignores God’s command allowing all to speak in a Christian meeting! This reveals that we need radical paradigm shifts regarding the order of Christian meetings and the roles of leaders! Christians say they want revival, a new Pentecost. Yet, everybody prophesied on the day of Pentecost! Most who say they want revival don’t want to change how they operate to allow everybody to prophesy!

Crying Out To The Lord Over The Unwillingness To Change!

When I started ministering healing twenty years ago, I would pray for people after or before the church service. Then, I started receiving words of knowledge. Three churches would regularly allow me a few minutes to speak from the front and share words of knowledge for healing. Many miracles happened before or after the church services and through words of knowledge during them.

The pastor would often allow someone to speak if they felt they had a word from the Lord. That was more than most churches would do! Still, the programs did not encourage or allow the level of participation that scripture commands. For many years, I have seen the Holy Spirit’s move with power outside of religious programs to the point that I feel that almost any environment is more conducive to the Holy Spirit’s move than a typical church service. I can pray for people, prophesy, and share God’s word more easily almost anywhere but as a spectator in a church service!

Frustrated by the lack of biblical fellowship and discipleship in a city full of churches, I began the Open Heaven meetings. For the first several weeks, we had 20 or so people. We experienced the Open Heaven we teach about: prophecies, healing miracles, and deliverance. People who’d never seen Jesus do a miracle through their hands before experienced it for the first time.

But some people got offended when a Christian girl manifested a demon because they thought that wasn’t possible. Then two of our key girls who were only here on vacation went home, and we had a much smaller group for several months. Still, we usually experienced more in these meetings than I’d seen in many big church services with hundreds of people. But by the end of last year, our people increasingly said, “I’m busy this week. Something came up,” until we were no longer meeting weekly. They said they would start again in February, but again, every week, it just didn’t work out for some reason. We still haven’t had a meeting this year!

I don’t believe in attempting to manipulate people to come. They are free! However, I felt frustrated with the lack of any context that allows us to minister to each other and simply open the Bible together, read it, and talk about what it says! That is far more edifying than most sermons! Yet many Christians simply don’t value the Holy Spirit’s work or the context that facilitates it.

I have seen the Lord do so much and it seems like I’m constantly struggling against the religious programs. Miracles happen one after another, people weep as God does what only he can do, but it’s nearly always in spite of religious programs, not because of them. Many churches here have home groups, but they operate like miniature church services. I’m used to seeing dozens of healing miracles at recovery houses, but several times when I’ve gone with groups that had leaders who didn’t yet know me, I had to be very assertive to pray for people and share words of knowledge despite the religious programs.

Many Christians who have seen the Holy Spirit’s work regularly demonstrate that they have other priorities. They don’t have time in their programs for what the Holy Spirit wants to do, and they don’t receive the people Jesus sends with his grace, but then they beg God to send revival! I’ve seen repeatedly that when a mighty work of the Holy Spirit is right under their noses, they don’t even care! I would love to receive ministry in the Holy Spirit’s power through other Christians, but that has very rarely happened in Brazil! I was weeping and crying out to the Lord about this situation late at night on February 11th.

Wait On The Lord Together!

As I was praying about this, the Holy Spirit spoke to me. He said, “Wait on me together. If the church can’t quiet themselves and wait on the Lord together, the church thinks it doesn’t need the Holy Spirit.”

That word of the Lord didn’t directly answer the issue I was praying about, but it increased my understanding even more. This was what the Lord wanted me to promote. I thought of many scriptures about waiting on the Lord, of how in Acts 13 the church was ministering to the Lord and the Holy Spirit said to appoint Saul and Barnabus, and how many revivals were preceded by a group of people waiting on the Lord.

If we are simply acting to do something in human ability, or speaking with human words, it is as if we think we don’t need the Holy Spirit. Do you want to do your own thing, or yield to the Holy Spirit and let him do his? Do you want to speak with your own words, or yield to the Holy Spirit and let him speak his. Do you know that you can do nothing apart from him?

Personally, if I feel like I acted or spoke on my own without it being empowered by the Holy Spirit, it brings me to the place of tears and brokenness before the Lord. I don’t know how anybody can be satisfied thinking they can live the Christian life or do church without the Holy Spirit’s help!

When we walk in God’s glory, we aren’t satisfied with mere human words or human effort. We don’t want to do or say what He isn’t doing and saying! Waiting on the Lord is an expression of humility, faith, and dependency. Being led by the Holy Spirit is not only about acting and speaking, but it is also about knowing when to shut up and be still as the Lord is acting and speaking through someone else!

If we are led by the Holy Spirit, all can speak and all can participate. But we don’t just speak to say something or act to do something. We wait on the Lord, then speak and act as he leads us! The place of glory is total dependence on the Holy Spirit!

More Miracles Outside The Programs!

Right after I received this word from the Lord, one local church I’m involved with announced they are beginning “House to House” discipleship meetings! That was certainly a positive development! They previously had various groups such as a men’s group, women’s group, couple’s group, etc. I had taught at the couple’s group and several times at the men’s group. However, the men’s group grew and became much more like a miniature church program. I would still go when they had a BBQ, a more informal atmosphere that facilitated the Holy Spirit’s ministry. People were healed, delivered, and even fell out on the concrete as we prayed for them at BBQs!

You mean a BBQ is more conducive to the Holy Spirit’s work than a typical church service? Yes! The reason the Bible gives for the early church’s gatherings was “to break bread,” not to listen to a sermon. The Lord’s Supper was part of a full communal meal, and Jesus and the early church leaders taught with dialogue, not monologues. The Bible’s instructions require dialogue.

Of course, much more of a paradigm shift is still needed, but meeting in small groups in houses is a step in the right direction. I attended one small group with only three other young men that Tuesday night. Before the meeting even started, I said, “It’s really good we are doing this,” and talked about the Biblical necessity of participation in a Christian meeting.” The leader understood and he taught but gave everybody the opportunity to speak. The meeting was about to close, but I spoke up and shared about the word God gave me. “Wait on me together.” I asked if they would like to take five minutes to wait on the Lord before closing.

They agreed, and as soon as I closed my eyes, I saw a vision of a problem in the leader’s digestive system. Then, I received a prophecy for another young guy. When we finished, I asked, the leader confirmed the digestive problem, and the Lord healed him. Then, I shared the prophecy with the young guy. We all prayed together for the one other person, and he said he was nearly falling over as we prayed for him!

On the 13th, I went to the Casa da Paz Recovery House. We went shopping and spent 2000 reais (about 350 dollars) for a car loaded with food, and then I spoke at the chapel after we arrived. I talked about the Lord’s word, “Wait on me together.” We all waited on the Lord for five minutes, and I invited anybody who wanted to share to speak. I felt heat come on my right knee as we waited, and a man responded and was healed. Several other people received prayer and were healed, including a man who could no longer find his hernia after we prayed. Just recently, two ladies’ intestinal hernias had also closed at a ladies’ recovery house. They felt movement and pulling as we prayed, and then they could no longer feel pain or find the hernias.

Various other people were healed. One man wept as we prayed for his daughter, who was not present but had diabetes, and we felt God’s glory so strongly. Two transgender guys wearing dresses had recently entered the recovery house. One requested prayer for a migraine, but I also had a vision of God burning an infection out of his liver. (Probably hepatitis) I prayed and asked what he felt. He felt heat on his head and liver, right where I’d seen the vision, and the pain left. I told him about the vision and said, “Go and get tested for that disease again. It’s gone.” I prayed, but also got several people to “help me.”

On February 15th, I went with a group to a men’s recovery house at 2 PM. I had been there one time before with a new group, but the first time it was very difficult to pray for people effectively because of the group’s religious program. This time, we had an interval when we were waiting, and I started praying for people. Several people received miracles and were set free from pain, feeling God’s glory tangibly. Once again, a guy who had an intestinal hernia received prayer, felt it pulling as we prayed, and then could no longer find it!

I was getting a ride home, but my ride stopped at a ladies’ recovery house that I’ve been to before on the way. It was an informal stop with nothing planned or programmed, but I started praying for people. I prayed for two of the ladies in recovery and they felt God’s fire come on their hands, then they prayed for a whole line of other ladies for about an hour! I pitched in but also just let them pray at times. Women received healing miracles one after another. Another lady had a hernia and felt it moving and then could no longer find it as she received prayer. A second lady felt the hernia pulling together and the pain leave, and it felt smaller when she touched it. We believed God was continuing to work on it. A lady sobbed as she felt God’s glory moving and healing her uterus. Only one lady left that line with any pain. I also gave a prophecy to one of the women, and it hit the mark. Some others felt evil spirits leave them.

We saw a greater move of the Holy Spirit through two ladies in drug and alcohol recovery in an hour than I see through most pastors in a typical church service! I went from there to a prayer meeting, but it was mostly people isolated from each other in a dark room with music, no real communion or communication to edify each other, so I skipped much of it and went to a restaurant because I’d been so busy praying for people that I hadn’t eaten.

Then I got a message from a friend saying that revival broke out at a small Assemblies of God church, and they were all going. It was already about 10 pm, and I went there. This church had a meeting about a week before that, and nobody wanted to leave. Since then, they were there every night, often until early in the morning.

I had been saying, “Revival starts with participation and ends with programs.” I arrived at the small church where my friends were, and sure enough, people were scattered everywhere, inside and outside the sanctuary, praying and ministering to each other. It was not a church service! The pastor prophesied to me about ministering in the United States. I got home at about 1:30 am.

That Tuesday night, I went to another home group. They had asked me to come. The paradigm still needs to change, but it’s an improvement. When the program ended and snack time came, I started praying for people. Everyone who had pain felt it leave. People felt God’s glory tangibly and wept, received deliverance, feeling light after prayer.

On Wednesday, I went to Casa de Paz at night again. Thank God, they had a participatory meeting with various people from churches and in recovery speaking and sharing! I shared for about ten minutes, then prayed for people after. Those who received prayer were healed or blessed. I shared a prophecy with a missionary who was visiting, and then prayed for a lady who was a pastor. I took her hand, thanked Jesus, and her knee was healed! I’m so grateful to the Lord every time this happens!

Someone gave me a ride and dropped me off a few blocks from my house, and I walked by the church that was beginning home meetings. It was open, so I walked in and found people snacking after a leader’s meeting. I stayed there for a time of communion and learned that one of the pastors, who I’d prayed for repeatedly for over a year, just got tested and they found no tumors or cysts! He still had some pain, so we prayed again. He had suffered many tumors or cysts in his body and many people all around, including his wife, had been healed. We’d prayed repeatedly with some improvement and manifestation of God’s power various times, but he still had trouble and we persevered. Now they were gone. Don’t give up or get discouraged!

On February 23rd, our Mova-se group went to a hospital. Only three other people besides me showed up, and we brought ground beef and bread to share a free snack. The first hospital didn’t allow us to enter, but they allowed us to minister and share food outside. The nurses came out and received prayer and a snack. A few of them were healed, and one who had a hernia could no longer find it or feel pain after we prayed. Other bystanders received the snack and were healed too. I ran after a lady because I had a vision of pain on the right side of her lower back. I asked and she confirmed it was true and started crying. The Lord healed her.

We still had plenty of food, so we found a public hospital nearby and started sharing our snack there. I raised my voice and told everyone we have a free snack and also we pray for people and God heals them. Miracles happened one after another outside as people received food and prayer. Then we learned that this hospital let anybody who wanted to pray walk through the whole hospital. We went from one room to another inside the hospital, with miracles happening everywhere. Nurses were also healed. We met brothers and sisters in Christ and prayed for them, God’s fire came on them, I prophesied over one lady as God’s glory inundated her. I lost track of how many miracles happened. Someone who was healed invited me to preach, and I’ll go there on March 30th. If I get an invitation to preach on a Sunday, I take off work and then go and get everybody involved! We are looking forward to seeing what God does there!

When we were done at the hospitals, I went to the last half-hour of another mission group’s barbecue. I ate some meat and started praying for people. Various people were healed or felt God’s fire come on their hands as we prayed for them, then they prayed for others and they were healed. Instead of me just praying for everyone, I prayed for God’s fire to come on people, then instructed them on praying for others.

At the end of the BBQ, a lot of food was left over so they decided to take it to homeless people. Multiple homeless people received healing miracles, and I gave away several New Testaments to people who didn’t have Bibles. Two transvestites were healed from serious pain. I got home at almost 2 AM.

On February 28th, I wanted to go to the Metamorphose rescue mission to bring donations and pray for people. I tried to arrange my work schedule to leave earlier, but I couldn’t. Someone with a car was going to help me, but that fell through last minute, as it often does! It was 1 PM, and I was considering waiting until the next week and spending time with my daughters instead, but I felt the Lord said, “Go now.” I called them and someone there had a car and was able to help me get the supplies.

They were so excited for the help. It was an answer to their prayers that morning, right on time. They needed many cleaning supplies, especially due to all the elderly people they were caring for. We also bought toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, and cooking oil. I went shopping with a huge tattooed guy who had biceps the size of melons. It was a lot of fun, and the tattooed giant was thanking the Lord and singing hymns the whole way! We contributed 800 reais (about 140 dollars) to the purchase.

They had a celebration when we arrived with the supplies! I spent several hours praying for people there, and many received healing. As I was leaving, the Lord gave me a prophecy for one man about restoring what was lost through sin and prospering him in business. He confirmed that he had been a business person before, but he lost it due to addiction!

On Friday March 1st, I went to a “revival night” meeting at the church of some friends. I don’t usually attend such events, but I figured many people would be there who I wanted to see. The pastor preached about begging God to open heaven. Then I found out that they were having a big Carnival outreach the next day! I hadn’t known about that, so it was worth going to the meeting to find out about it. But after the revival night, I told the pastor who preached, “I’d like to talk to you about revival some time.”

The next day, we went on outreach. We had people from other churches and a large YWAM group as well, about 100 people. Some of my other missions in a similar party context had been quite difficult. Those types of missions usually had lots of drugs and sex, many transvestites, open demon worship, and loud music that made it difficult to talk. In my previous experiences, it had been hard to find people who were open to prayer.

Yet I believe it’s important to get outside of our comfort zone so we can grow. I was teamed with a young friend and two girls I’d never met. This Carnival mission was much easier than I expected. A guy came up because he recognized me from a recovery house, and he was there with his family who were selling alcohol. I thought I had a word of knowledge about chronic pain for a woman. She said she didn’t have pain but her lesbian partner did. The Lord healed her. We prayed for the whole extended family. Then I met another family, prayed for a guy who said he had emotional trauma and physical pain, and the Lord healed him. I invited the father to help me pray for his wife and daughter. His wife received healing, and everyone in the family felt shivers go through them as we prayed.

What? You invite partying, drinking, smoking, unbelievers to help you pray? Yes! Why not? Isn’t it good to get them praying and teach them to put their trust in the Lord? When a guy is there with his wife, daughter, or girlfriend, this is a great way to include him so he doesn’t feel uncomfortable with a strange guy holding his wife’s hand! I just hold her hand and he puts his hand on her back, belly, or head, wherever she needs healing. I get non-Christians to pray with me all the time! Sometimes it’s easier than getting Christians who are addicted to spectator Christianity to pray!

My friends were talking to a mother and her daughter nearby. I walked up and said, “Hey, I want to show you something.” I had them hold their hands out, palms up. Then I told them to relax as I held my hand over theirs. In a few moments, they were feeling God’s power flow.

I asked them, “Do you know what that is?” They didn’t. I said, “That’s God’s glory,” and then explained the gospel of salvation through faith in Jesus. They hadn’t even known I was there to talk about Jesus until I explained what they were feeling! They talked quite a while with my friends. At the end, the guy whose back was healed in the other family came over and prayed a salvation prayer.

We also shared the gospel with others, and others were healed. At the end, one of our girls had pain in her leg and the other a headache. I had the girl with pain in her leg hold out her hands. I prayed, she felt God’s glory come on her hands tangibly, and I instructed her to pray for her friend. Her friend was healed and they were thrilled! Then I prayed for God’s glory to come on her friend’s hands, her friend prayed for her, and her leg was healed! All the missionaries met at the end. We prayed for all the missionaries who needed healing and about a dozen received miracles. Then, others came for prayer and received prophecy and impartation.

We went out to eat, and I had a conversation with the pastor who’d preached on revival the previous night. I shared my perspective on revival and what it has produced in my life. I shared that heaven is open because Jesus’ body was torn for us, that asking God to open heaven or descend is a prayer of unbelief, and that the problem is not that God doesn’t send revival, but that the church quenches the Holy Spirit.

He was quite polite and open to listening. He partly understood some of what I was saying, but I think he still mostly didn’t get it. I talked about the need for participation and how the church at large needs reformation if we are going to experience revival. I said, “I love your church, and I thank God for how you’re sending missionaries. What I’m talking about isn’t related to just your church, but reformation needed in the church as a whole.” I emphasized how the Bible requires participation and letting everyone speak, and when we don’t have that, we quench the Holy Spirit.

Later, I sent him some voice messages with specific stories illustrating how Christians had a great move of the Holy Spirit right under their noses and were missing it simply because they lacked expectation due to believing heaven is closed, and they failed to honor or partner with the Holy Spirit. I shared some specific suggestions about facilitating the functioning of the body of Christ, especially in their home groups. The ones I’d visited operate very much like miniature church services!

I had found out on Wednesday that a guy from one of the churches was now homeless and hungry, so I sent him a little money to eat a meal and then followed up with him later. A couple who were themselves in need took him into their home. They were going to church that Sunday, but nearly giving up on Christian fellowship because of various hurts. I only had classes starting at 2 pm on Sunday, so I spent the morning with my wife and kids. Then I walked over to the church as the service was finishing to meet them.

As the church service ended, I saw a lady leaving and had a vision of a problem in her hip. I followed her out and talked to her when we got away from the loud music. She confirmed it was true, and I said, “Jesus is healing you now.” God healed her hip. Then, I was talking with a friend, and we approached a lady who had fibromyalgia and pain in her arm. We prayed, and the pain she was feeling left.

I met my friend and the couple he was staying with, and we spent 120 reais (about 21 dollars) of our mission’s budget to get some things like eggs, chicken, and ground beef for them to eat. I believe they are getting back on their feet and won’t need that help again, but they were in a situation of acute need. I prayed for the husband and his back was healed. He was shocked and thrilled. Then I had him pray for his wife, and God healed her! After thanking the Lord together, I rushed back home to work!

Why Is This Happening Everywhere But In Church Services?

That was an overview of what I saw the Lord do in just under three weeks, from February 12th to March 2nd! It would be too much to even share the details! To me, it’s obvious the hospital, drug and alcohol recovery houses, a street full of homeless people, a BBQ, and even a pagan party full of drugs and ungodliness were all more welcoming to a move of the Holy Spirit than most church services I’ve sat through have been!

I know it’s hard for many people to see that as clearly as I do, and it often takes time for paradigms to shift! It took years for me to begin to see this so clearly. Now it’s obvious. I feel it’s important to be gracious and patient with people who can’t see it yet, but still to challenge them.

If the church isn’t stewarding the grace given it, then how will it ever handle full-blown revival? All of these things we’ve seen outside the church could happen in the church if it would let go of programs in which one person speaks and all the others listen.

Many people around me have seen the miracles outside the church. If they really wanted revival, they would value that enough to have me share God’s grace with them in the church! God sends people! I don’t want to be the only one speaking, but I do want to be one of the people who speaks and share the grace God has given me with the body of Christ.

How many times have I spoken for five minutes at a recovery house, had everybody pray for each other, and everybody or nearly everybody was healed? I’ve seen the same, speaking a little longer, at churches in different states. I wouldn’t charge a thing to share in the same way at the local church here. I would expect hundreds of people to be healed as they ministered to one another. The church could have that! But they don’t, simply because it’s not what they value! How many times have people learned to minister healing with us on the streets but not in church services? There is very little expectation, room made, or honor, for anybody other than the leaders to speak. They lack the Holy Spirit’s move to the extent that they think they don’t need it!

If you want revival, it’s simple. Make Jesus’s priorities your priorities. Stop thinking you can do church without the Holy Spirit’s help. Wait on the Lord. Honor the whole body of Christ by receiving what the Holy Spirit has to give you through each member. When you ask for revival, receive those the Lord sends! Submit to the Holy Spirit even when it means letting go of your traditions!

The post Why Ask For Revival If You Systematically Quench The Holy Spirit? appeared first on Go to Heaven Now!.

Recently, I wrote this message to the church in my city of Goiânia, Brazil, and made it into a YouTube video. My city has many large churches and is probably one of the most evangelized cities in Brazil. It’s known for revival. I thank the Holy Spirit for what he has done here. Yet I also feel that many Christians in my city think they are rich when they are really spiritually impoverished.

As many of you know, I’m strongly opposed to the teaching of tithing, giving under compulsion, and giving to be seen by men. Did you know that about a hundred years ago, when tithe teachings were much less widespread, over a 10th of offerings went to missions? Now it’s more like 2%, and giving overall has dropped as well! Human commands and doctrines don’t produce generosity as led by the Holy Spirit!

Religiosity gets caught up on external things, percentages, and appearance, but God wants our hearts! Jesus taught us to give in secret, but when religiosity reigns in the church, people are afraid that they won’t have favor with church leadership if they give in secret! Here in Brazil, I’ve often seen carelessness regarding the poor combined with fanaticism over the tithe. The same people who become angry and accusatory if you question tithing make explicit statements about caring for the poor such as “that’s the government’s job” or “let the Spiritists worry about that.” I’m convinced that tithe teaching is one of the primary issues hindering the Brazilian church from caring for the poor. Many Christians believe they must tithe before they can give to the poor. Due to this, large amounts of money go to unnecessary things rather than to people’s urgent needs.

I believe many people want to care for the poor but human commands and the demands of religiosity hinder them. I was once in that boat! It’s so good to be free from religiosity to be able to express God’s love in freewill giving, motivated by love and not guilt or necessity! The following is my message to the church in Brazil. It includes the Biblical basis of how strongly God feels about caring for the poor. This is often ignored while tithing, “first fruits” and other made-up doctrines are taught constantly!

You can also listen to the YouTube video in English!

Undefiled Religion or Religiosity?

James 1:27 says religion that is pure and undefiled before God cares for the orphan and widow. Jesus taught about the difference between the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25. The sheep cared for the needy, and Jesus said, “Whatever you did for them, you did for me.” The religious goats failed to help the needy, like the religious Pharisees who walked by a beaten-up man by the road in the story of the good Samaritan. Jesus said, “Whatever you did not do for them, you did not do for me.” Ezekiel 16:49 says Sodom’s sin was that they were arrogant, overfed, unconcerned, and neglected the needy. 1st John 3:17 asks, “If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother in need but has no pity on them, how can God’s love be in that person?”

Jeremiah 22:16 says that taking up the cause of the poor and needy is what it means to know God! The implication is that those who neglect the poor don’t know God. Any unnecessary thing that the church puts before caring for people is religiosity, not true religion.

Are you full of religiosity, or do you have true religion that is undefiled before God? How you care for the poor in your city reveals the truth. One rescue mission in my city, Metamorfose, has been here for 28 years. They care for almost 100 people, including bedridden elderly people and those with disabilities. Metamorfose is facing a financial crisis and needs food, toilet paper, soap, and diapers to continue caring for people, many who can’t help themselves. There are hundreds of churches in my city, with millions in their budgets, but there isn’t a single Christian church that supports Metamorfose monthly. Other institutions are in a similar situation.

Many churches give more money in one night to a visiting preacher than in a year to help the poor. In my time in Goiania, I’ve seen people raise hundreds of reais to buy flowers for the pastor, thousands for a special program, and millions to beautify a church building that was already more than sufficient. I wish they would raise money to buy diapers for the elderly people at Metamorfose. There are far more Christians than spiritists in Goiania, but the spiritists are doing what the church is neglecting to do.

Some Christians in my city do feed the homeless and visit institutions that help the poor. However, most see caring for people as a nice thing to do, but they see their buildings, budgets, and programs as essential. They feel that they would like to do more, but they have to pay their tithes! That is religiosity! Is religiosity hindering you from following Jesus? Jesus’ #1 financial priority is caring for people!

For you who believe in tithes, study the Old Testament instructions for tithing in passages like Deuteronomy 12 and 14 and you will find that one of the primary uses of the tithe was to care for the needy. Less than 1% of the tithe went to the priests, and none of it was used for maintaining a building. These facts are verified by Bible study and by scholars on Judaism. Yet today tithing has become an excuse for the church to fail to care for the poor. That is religiosity!

Look at the food we bring to Casa da Paz every month. Is any church in Goiania doing this? Fewer than 15 people help me bring them this food every month, and they also help to bring soap, geriatric diapers, and other supplies to Metamorfose every few months. We wish we could do more, and we wish we could find a church that does more than we do.

Most of these people contributing to make these purchases for Casa da Paz and Metamorfose are not tithers. Maybe none of them are. Most of them live outside of Brazil, but this is the responsibility of the Christians in Goiania. Goiania is a big, rich city with many Christians who give millions of reais every month, but very little to help the needy. Caring for the poor is seen as optional and the buildings, programs, and infrastructure are viewed as essential, but the Biblical view is the opposite. Caring for the poor IS essential. Big buildings and spectator event programs are not. The early church did not have the buildings, budgets, and programs that we have, but they cared for the poor. Much of the persecuted church today, and many of the fastest-growing church-planting movements in the world, do not have the buildings, budgets, and programs we have, but they care for the poor.

Did you know that the early Christians were accused of being atheists and persecuted by the pagans because they didn’t have temples, priests, or altars? Yet Brazilian Christians call a building their “temple,” something that not even American Christians do! I saw a message about sowing to “improve an altar,” saying it has been an instrument of salvation, healing, restoration, and deliverance. Imagining that “an altar” is an instrument of healing or salvation is simply paganism. It has nothing to do with salvation, healing, or deliverance. These attitudes in the Brazilian church are religiosity, not pure and undefiled religion before God. I can’t think of a time I saw a church in my city raise as much money to care for hungry people or buy diapers for the bedridden elderly as they spend on projects like “improving an altar.”

I’ve probably seen a few thousand healing miracles in the last five years in this city. Most of these miracles happened outside of a church church building. The church building is a hindrance when it promotes spectator events. Miracles don’t happen because of a building. They happen because we are God’s temple, and God’s Spirit lives in us.

Are You Living in Paneled Houses While God’s Temple Lies in Ruins?

You’ll have what you value. If you value programs, you will prioritize programs and you’ll have programs. If you value miracles, you’ll have miracles, and you’ll have miracles as much as you value them. If you think God lives in buildings, you will prioritize buildings. But the New Testament says twice that God doesn’t live in buildings made by hands, but people are his temple. If you believe people are God’s temple, you will prioritize caring for people. In Haggai chapter 1, God rebuked the Israelites and said, “Is it time for you to live in paneled houses, while my temple lies in ruins?” The way I see it, your church buildings are paneled houses, but the poor in Goiania are God’s temple which lies in ruins and which God’s people have neglected.

How have I seen so many miracles? How am I bringing this help to Casa da Paz and Metamorphose with mostly exclusively non-tithers contributing? It’s because I value people and the Holy Spirit’s work in miracles, not buildings and programs. If I had a greater value for programs or for buildings, it would hinder me from seeing miracles and from helping the needy. I don’t have a big budget, and I get bored in church services. I don’t even have my own car, because it’s too expensive. I take an Uber on missions, or get a ride. Yet if you know any church in Goiania that is bringing 2,000 reais monthly help to a recovery house like Casa da Paz that this small group of non-tithers gives, please tell me.

After seeing all the things Christians take up offerings for and spend money on when Jesus’ servants at Metamorfose often don’t have powdered soap to wash elderly people’s bedsheets, I can confidently say that I see much more religiosity than true and undefiled religion in my city. People give in an offering to a celebrity preacher who sometimes takes home over 20,000 reais for a night of preaching, and I wish they would buy a used car for Metamorfose. Many Christians in Goiania imagine that the church in their city is strong and revived, but the church’s neglect of people’s real needs shows a church in a situation of spiritual poverty.

The demands of religiosity are keeping many Christians from pure and undefiled religion. Like I said, I won’t tell you what to do, but I will remind you of what the Bible says is essential and ask you to listen to the Holy Spirit. I don’t know how long I’ll be in Goiania, and I want to see the local church fulfill its responsibility to care for the needy in their own city when I leave. I think that if even 1% of the budget of all the churches in Goiania would go directly towards caring for people’s basic needs, the situation would be quite different.

Many of the people receiving this message may have contributed to institutions that help the needy. But my question to you is not if you have contributed anything, but has what you contributed reflected Jesus’ priorities? Or have you ended up contributing much more to things that really aren’t so important to Jesus? Is the church in your city fulfilling its responsibility by meeting these needs?

Have you wanted to do more to care for people, but instead you’ve ended up giving in a manipulative offering? Have you heard that you have to pay your tithe first, but you’re not responsible for how it is spent? Don’t let the demands of religiosity hinder you from being led by the Holy Spirit. Find out what Jesus’ priorities are, and take responsibility for where and how you give. After reading the Bible many times, I’m convinced that the #1 priority of giving in scripture is caring for the poor, and the #2 is reaching those who have never heard the gospel. Brazil still has many people who have never heard the gospel. Please consider how much money the church in Brazil spends, and what percentage of that goes to caring for the poor in your own country and reaching those who have never heard the gospel in places like Marajo Island. Do you think your giving and the spending of the church in Brazil reflect Jesus’ priorities? If not, what needs to change?

The post Concern for the Poor Reveals Undefiled Religion or Religiosity! appeared first on Go to Heaven Now!.

I recently attended one of the evening meetings at a large local church. I don’t often attend such meetings, but this time it was worth it. A Brazilian preacher spoke on our need for the Holy Spirit. Even though this has often been one of my main themes, the message challenged me. It’s good to be in a state of brokenness before the Lord and know our need for his grace! Dozens of children were also baptized in the Holy Spirit.

After the meeting, I found a young friend from some of the mission groups. He gave me and another friend a ride home. His friend asked where I “go to church,” and I explained that I’m a member of the church of Goiânia. I fellowship mostly in homes, outdoor meetings, recovery houses, and missions. The people I walk with are from several different congregations.

He had a lot of questions. I began to explain how many of the strongest churches in the world today meet in homes and follow a simple, low-overhead model. This enables me to care for the poor and participate as a member of the body of Christ. But for over an hour, both young men kept protesting and interrupting before I could finish answering the previous question. They believed I was missing something essential, and at the same time seemed to think the current state of the institutional church in Brazil was nearly perfect. They seemed to think the church in our city was the best in the world.

Of course, I thank God for the church in my city. However, there are obvious weaknesses in the church in Brazil, and it still has a long way to go to reach the full measure of the stature of Christ. I shared some areas in which I have different priorities than the institutional church, including the small percentage of giving that goes to helping the poor and those who have never heard the gospel. I explained that the church services are spectator events that usually don’t edify me or allow me to edify others. They don’t provide a context that allows us to obey the Bible’s instructions for Christian meetings.

We talked for about an hour and a half, but they barely let me finish a sentence. I realized their view of church history was quite distorted. They were convinced that the few references in the book of Acts to first-century Christians in the temple or synagogues corresponded to modern church buildings and that dedicated church buildings are essential to following Jesus!

The conversation reminded me that I tend to assume other people know facts I take for granted. I’m a voracious reader. I forget that it took years for my thinking to be formed in these areas, and not everybody reads as much as I do or about the same topics!

I made a YouTube video in English and Portuguese to review the history of Christian meeting places. I’ll send it to my friend soon! In Spanish and Portuguese, people regularly call the building a “temple” and their word for church services is “cultos,” coming from the Latin term “cultivation of the gods.” This is so built into the culture that tradition concerning “temples” and religious meetings carries more weight for many Christians than the Bible’s instructions for Christian fellowship do!

If you’re interested in this topic, you can watch the video or read the article below it.

Where have Christians met throughout history?

Where did early Christians meet? Can the Bible’s references to meeting in the temple and synagogues be equated to our modern church buildings? Are church buildings essential? Join us as we review the history of Christian meeting places and discuss why some Christians prefer to meet in homes.

The Role of Jewish Synagogues and Temple

Christianity was first a sect of Judaism, and the first Christians were Jews, so the first Christians initially met where the Jews met, including in synagogues and the temple. However, Christians today often erroneously assume that the first-century temple was like their church buildings and synagogue meetings were like their church services! The temple area where Christians met was a large courtyard and was more like a public square than a modern church building. Gentiles were not permitted in the temple, and there was also only one Jewish temple in Jerusalem. Only the first Jewish Christians in Jerusalem met in the temple.

Many cities had synagogues. The synagogue meetings involved robust debate and discussion of scripture, as well as question and answer sessions. That is far different than a modern church service with a monologue in which nobody dares to express disagreement with the preacher!

The Bible’s references to meeting in synagogues and in the temple show us that these meetings were highly evangelistic, and the believers who met there also met from house to house. Most of the people in the temple and synagogues were not Christ followers.

Christians Expelled from the Jewish Synagogues and Temple

Jesus prophesied that his followers would be expelled from the synagogues and the temple destroyed in judgement, and he would raise up another temple, his body. Christianity would soon be separated from Judaism. That happened within a few decades. Many Christians were expelled from synagogues around 40 to 50 AD, Christianity began to separate from Judaism, and the temple was destroyed in 70 AD. Being warned by Jesus’ prophecy in Matthew 24, Christians fled to Pella before the destruction of the temple and escaped death.

The book of Hebrews, written soon before the temples’ destruction, teaches that the Old Covenant and its temple were shadows of better, spiritual realities, and were about to disappear because the New Covenant made them obsolete. (Hebrews 8:13)

The church is the body of Christ and is God’s temple in the New Covenant. Both the Martyr Stephen and the Apostle Paul stated in the book of Acts that God does not live in temples made by human hands. That statement was likely a primary reason that Stephen was stoned by the Jews and Paul was persecuted.

The Primary Meeting Place Was In Homes!

The New Testament refers to meeting in the temple 7 times, in synagogues 11 times, and in houses about 40 times. Of the references to meeting in the temple, 2 are of Jesus teaching in the temple and the other five are in the beginning of the book of Acts, before the persecution that scattered the Jerusalem church, which happened in Acts chapter 8. We see no more references to meeting in the temple after that.

References to meeting in synagogues continue for a longer time, because there were synagogues all over the Roman world. Of the 11 New Testament references to meeting in synagogues, only 5 are of the church after Christ. All five of these references to the apostles speaking in the synagogues are evangelistic. The apostles were proclaiming that Christ is the Messiah in the synagogues, not teaching an exclusively Christian group for discipleship!

Being Jewish, the first Christians continued not only to meet in the temple and in synagogues but also to follow Jewish law and make temple sacrifices. Jewish Christians continued to tithe, but they tithed to Levites in the Jewish system and not to their church leaders! Paul himself made a Nazarite vow in Acts Chapter 21, which includes animal sacrifices and grain offerings as described in Numbers chapter 6.

Acts chapter 11 describes how the early church received God’s revelation that the gospel was for the Gentiles, and Acts 15 tells us of their decision that they should not compel gentile Christians to follow Jewish practices. Gentiles were permitted in synagogues, but many Gentile Christians may not have gone to the synagogue. All Christians were soon expelled from the synagogues.

The primary meeting place for the New Testament church was houses. The New Testament has more than twice as many references to meeting in houses as there are to meetings in the synagogues and temple combined. Paul spoke in Acts 20:20 of how he taught in public forums and from house to house. Paul’s words in passages such as Romans 16:5, “Greet the church that meets at their house” denoted the house as their primary meeting place. All of the churches Paul wrote to were house churches.

Christians Were Persecuted For Having No Temples, Altars, Or Sacrifices

Judaism was a legal religion, tolerated by the Romans. However, persecution by the Romans increased as Christianity separated from Judaism. 

Historical references, including from Roman Emperors Trajan and Marcus Aurelius and the Greek philosopher Celsus in the late 2nd century, reveal that one of the primary accusations against Christians was that they were atheists. Christians didn’t have temples, altars, sacrifices, or idols as the Roman gods did. Pliny the Younger described them as atheists and a “degenerate sort of cult” without temples or idols.

Early Christian leaders defended themselves against these accusations of atheism. They explained that Christians worship in spirit and truth, that our bodies are God’s temple, and Jesus is the sacrifice for sins. Temples, altars, and sacrifices are spiritual realities in Christianity. These defenses include Justin Martyr’s “Apology,” Tertullians’ “Apologeticum,” and Origen’s “Contra Celsum.”

There Were No Christian Synagogues Or Temples!

In the late second century, A Christian named Octavius responded to the accusations of Caecilius that Christians met before sunrise because they engaged in incestuous orgies. He said, “We meet before sunrise because we are working people. We have jobs to go to. We do not always meet in secret, but we have no temples or synagogues, so we use somebody’s home which has enough room. We call one another brother and sister and pledge to love one another because that is what our Lord commanded us to do. And we greet one another and bless one another with a holy kiss, not out of lust but out of genuine love and concern for one another. Come and you will see that we demand the highest standards of morality among all who join us.”

Octavius’ words confirm that there were no Christian temples or synagogues. Early Christians sometimes attended Jewish synagogues before they were expelled, yet even then, they primarily met in homes. Synagogue meetings were not exclusively or even primarily Christian. Only their home meetings were.

The word “church” in the New Testament always refers to God’s people and never to a building. Bible Scholar Alex Portillo explains that the first person known to use the word “church” to refer to Christian gathering places was Clement of Alexandria around 190 AD. He was the first to use the phrase “go to church,” and this would have sounded strange to the early church, because you cannot go to something that you are. Even so, Clement’s words did not refer to a temple but to a person’s home or a public meeting place.

The First Purpose-Built Church Buildings

Alex explains, as several other scholars have, that First-century Judaism centered around the temple, the priesthood, and the sacrifice. Greco-Roman pagan religion also centered around temples, priests, and sacrifices, but Christians did away with all three after Jesus’ death. Jesus was the temple, the high priest, and the perfect sacrifice. Christianity was the first religion to have no temple, priests, or sacrifices. But the church began to adapt pagan practices in the fourth to sixth century by establishing a professional priesthood and sacred buildings, and considering the Lord’s supper to be a mysterious sacrifice.

Some people today say early Christians met in homes due to persecution. To the contrary, meeting in homes and not temples was a cause of persecution. They would have avoided persecution by having temples, altars, and sacrifices like the Jews and the Roman gods did. In times of persecution, they fled to the catacombs.  

We know of no buildings originally constructed as Christian meeting places for the first two hundred years after Christ’s death. As time went on, many early church leaders brought the influence of their previous pagan backgrounds and Greek philosophy into the church. The first structure known to have been originally built for Christian meetings is the Megiddo church, built approximately between 230 and 240 AD. After it, the Aqaba church and Etchmiadzin Cathedral were built around 300 AD. Then the emperor Constantine converted to Christianity in 312. Christianity became a state-sponsored religion, and Constantine began building churches just as the Romans had erected temples for their pagan deities. Christians now had priests and altars like the Roman deities did.

Church Services-Cultivation of the gods!

We get our concept of a “worship service” from the Latin phrase, “cultus deorum” meaning “care/cultivation of the gods,” describing Roman religious practices. Christians had been accused of atheism for not engaging in these practices, but Constantine made them a part of government-sponsored Christianity.

The contrast between Christianity and Roman paganism is highlighted in Paul’s sermon in Acts 17. In verses 24 to 25, Paul contrasted the Creator of the World with pagan deities, saying, “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.” The Christian God does not need to be cultivated or cared for. Rather, the Christian God cares for us!

House Churches In The Modern Missionary Movement

Some Christians have continued to meet in houses throughout history, often being persecuted by the institutional church. The protestant reformers did away with the idea of the Lord’s Supper as a sacrifice that we make to God, but most still maintained church buildings that they treated as temples.

The modern missionary movement began in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In 1912, Roland Allen wrote the classic book, “Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or Ours?” It removed the pagan additions to Christianity, emphasizing indigenous church growth, simplicity, and decentralization. This book is now required reading for many missionaries!

The concepts in Roland Allen’s writing and some other more recent books promoting simple church have generated some of the greatest missionary movements in the world today! Today there are an estimated 10 million house churches in China, 2 million in India, 2 million in Egypt and the Middle East, and 20,000 in Uganda.

Many Western Christians assume that those Christians in India and Asia only meet in houses because of persecution. But if you ask the leaders of these church-planting movements why they meet in houses, many give a different answer that shocks some Western Christians. They say having dedicated church buildings hinders church multiplication and discipleship.

Don’t Add Human Commands and Traditions To God’s Word!

Why am I sharing this history? What ideas do I mean to challenge? Certainly, many of my brothers and sisters in Christ meet in modern, dedicated church buildings and spend a significant portion of their income on paying for and maintaining those buildings. I receive them in Christ. I don’t reject their faith. The Bible does not forbid Christians from constructing a building dedicated to their Christian meetings.

But while I don’t reject the faith of Christians who meet in those buildings, many of them reject my faith! They believe I “don’t belong to a church” because I have fellowship in small groups, meeting in public and in houses, but only rarely attending events in dedicated church buildings. Some tell me that their young converts would fall away from Christ without their building and that people who are seeking God need a place to go to.

The Pharisees added many of their own commands and regulations to God’s commands. Speaking to them, Jesus said in Matthew 15:9, “They worship me in vain, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.” The Bible simply tells us to not neglect gathering together as Christians. It doesn’t say where we must gather. Don’t be like the Pharisees, adding your own regulations to God’s commands and judging other Christians’ faith by whether they meet in houses, in parks, or in big buildings.

Furthermore, I regularly hear Christians refer to a building as, “God’s house,” or “the temple.” This language is completely contrary to the New Testament’s clear teaching that God does not live in temples built by human hands, but people are his temple. If we have a building dedicated to Christian meetings, its only significance is that it serves people, who are God’s true temple. To think any building is a house of God is to think like a pagan.

I believe church buildings are not forbidden and we should maintain Christian unity with all who love Jesus regardless of where they meet. However, I also believe that dedicated church buildings usually hinder God’s people more than helping us. In the next post, I’ll share five reasons the church may be healthier without church buildings!

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Dopamine

Our brains release the “feel-good hormone,” dopamine, to create a reward circuit that incentivizes us to learn and accomplish things. This is by God’s design, as we are “fearfully and wonderfully made.” However, addictions to drugs, porn, and even scrolling through video shorts, release so much dopamine so quickly that people lose the motivation to go after healthy rewards. The dopamine baseline for “normal” goes down so they need more and more stimulation to even feel normal. Although marijuana isn’t a hard drug, one of the notorious side effects is that the user becomes demotivated. Many guys on Reddit report how insanely productive they became when they stopped using porn!

Addictions to screens, drugs, and porn isolate people. Porn addictions in particular remove the healthy, God-given motivation to seek human relationships. One of the important keys to breaking addictions is to find community, build relationships with other people, and find healthy rewards to pursue. The gospel is all about restoring relationships, with God and with others.

When they compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise

I sometimes hear preachers talk about how many hours a day they pray, and some in Brazil are quite legalistic, making statements such as “If you’re a pastor and you don’t pray for at least two hours a day, you’re backslidden.” One said he prayed at least four hours a day, then asked everyone in the congregation to raise their hand if they prayed for four hours a day, or two hours, or one hour. Nobody raised their hand. I didn’t either, although I pray for more than two hours on many days. The whole idea of asking people to raise their hands to show how many hours they pray bothered me. I don’t keep track of it or set a target for how many hours I’ll pray. Of course, it may be helpful for some people to set aside a certain amount of time every day for prayer. But why boast in that? Is the point of prayer really, “Getting in my hours?”

Matthew 6:5-6 (NIV) And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

2 Corinthians 10:12 (NIV) We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise.

One of the weeks at the men’s group, a leader said something like, “You need to pay the price if you want God to use you. Look at someone like Jonathan, going around and people being healed everywhere. Jonathan, how much time do you spend praying every day?

I responded, “I don’t really keep track of it, but I pray a lot. I don’t really think about it. I’ve even been in an Uber and I forgot where I was and started praying out loud and tongues, then realized the Uber driver must be a bit shocked.” The leader said, “See guys! He’s saying he never stops praying. That’s what you gotta do!”

I felt the need to add a clarification. The man made it sound like you have to belong to an elite class of people who pray so many hours a day in order to see God’s power or be used by God. That is not what I want to communicate!

Yes, when I’m walking in God’s glory, I can pray for hours. But that’s really not anything to boast about. I’m not even a very disciplined person. I became addicted to prayer because I keep seeing what God does and I don’t want to stop. I want to go out and pray for people in the same way as an unsaved person gets bored and wants to go to a bar and have a good time. I don’t pray to meet some religious demand. In fact, I became exhausted by human religious demands long ago. I pray for a reward. When I go out on a mission, leaving my family at home, I’m not going out for nothing. I want my reward.

Let me explain this in the least religious way possible. Seeing the Holy Spirit’s works and the results of my prayers gives me a dopamine rush that makes me want to pray all the more. I don’t pray for no reason. I don’t pray so I can say how many hours I prayed. I pray for a reward. I’m addicted. When an adrenaline junkie jumps off a cliff with a wingsuit, are you impressed with his great spirituality and discipline? The thrill I feel when a person is delivered from demons or healed of fibromyalgia is similar to the thrill that an adrenaline junkie feels when jumping off a cliff.

Of course, I’m not saying that should be the only reason you pray. There are times to pray even when we don’t feel like it. Jesus’ disciples were falling asleep when they should have been praying on the night he was arrested! But I don’t feel particularly, “spiritual” for praying as I see the Holy Spirit move in power!

Many people get bored with prayer because they’ve learned to pray religiously in unbelief. You can pray for hours and hours in unbelief and it’s a waste of time. Instead of being pushed to pray more and more in the same way they’ve always prayed, most Christians need to learn to pray effectively. If Christians learn to pray effectively and not merely religiously, they have a reward that can motivate even the undisciplined to pray for hours. After all, how much discipline does it take to watch TV for two hours? It’s easy because of the dopamine released in the brain! How difficult is it to have a meal three times a day? Likewise, if you pray for a reward, it seems funny to emphasize “discipline” so much. When you pray with power, prayer is thrilling!

Addicted to the ministry of prayer

1 Corinthians 15:15 (KJV)  (ye know the house of Stephanas, that it is the firstfruits of Achaia, and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints,)

Colossians 4:12 (NIV) Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.

Prayer is one form of ministry, and you can addict yourself to the ministry of prayer. I’ve often talked about the virtuous cycle of praise, thanksgiving, and miracles. We could also call it, “prayer with thanksgiving producing miracles.” The prayer of faith is answered with such an outpouring of heaven that it just motivates you to pray all the more!

Jumpstarted in Prayer by God’s Grace

2 Corinthians 3:5 (NIV) Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.

There’s no requirement for how many hours a day you must pray for God to answer you and for His power to flow through you! It’s all by grace! My experience is that God’s work by grace motivates me to pray. Then even the praying is by God’s grace! Miracles have become my normal in Christ. Powerful prayer opens our souls for the Holy Spirit to flow through and forms our hearts in undivided, unwavering agreement with God’s purposes. A powerful expectation and confidence have been formed in my heart through prayer and seeing the Holy Spirit move!

I have often grabbed young Christians or others around me, taught them to pray with power, and miracles happened through them! I often do this with those in drug and alcohol recovery. They didn’t have to pray for three hours for a miracle to happen. In fact, some of them are even backslidden. They get jumpstarted by God’s grace in my life.

Many people have seen a miracle for the first time after I encouraged them to pray. Many of them experience that miracle but then return to their previous level of expectation. They saw God move when they were with me, but it’s not a reality they carry everywhere they go. But some respond in faith to God’s grace and allow that first miracle to fuel prayer and further action in faith. They take hold of that heavenly reality for themselves. They didn’t pray for hours to get started, but prayer established that reality in their lives so they now carry it.

Discipline in prayer is good, but not just for the sake of saying how many hours you prayed. The point of the discipline should be to get you into a cycle of prayer, faith, and miracles, in which prayer becomes an addiction, not merely a discipline. Receive God’s grace to pray!

Addict yourself to the ministry of prayer. It may take some discipline to get started, but when you’re on a roll you may just not want to stop! The prayer of faith is powerful and effective, and it accomplishes what many hours of great human effort cannot!

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Our last post was “You Can Have Revival If You Want It.” We saw that God is generous, rich in grace, and has poured out his grace abundantly on us in Christ. So if the church isn’t in revival and full of power, the problem isn’t on God’s end. It’s usually because the church really doesn’t want revival. The church doesn’t want to yield to the Holy Spirit and give up control. The church doesn’t want the message that brings revival. The church doesn’t receive the people that Jesus sends with his Spirit.

Rodney Howard-Browne said the Lord told him, “The only reason I don’t move is because you don’t let me.” He realized they were missing out on God’s move because his priorities differed from God’s priorities when they had a church service. Let’s consider if our programs are quenching the Holy Spirit and dishonoring Jesus. Do we have time for Jesus in them?

Are You Willing To Change And Yield To The Holy Spirit?

Proverbs 1:23 promises that if we listen to Wisdom’s rebuke, God will pour out his Spirit on us. This promise leaves no excuse for the church to not be in revival and filled with God’s power. He gives grace to the humble but resists the proud, so if his grace is not manifest among us, it reveals a problem with pride.

Humility yields to the Holy Spirit. It yields to God’s word, and it honors the Holy Spirit’s priorities. Pride resists. The abundant supernatural manifestation of God’s grace is lacking in many religious meetings because the church is disobeying the instructions of scripture for Christian meetings, and because the people don’t value what is important to the Holy Spirit. They have their own priorities, and they are not God’s priorities.

Who can tell me about a revival in all of history that did not require repentance and change? Who can show me a revival message that didn’t offend many people? Reproof offends the proud, but the wise welcome it. Correction requires us to either humble ourselves and receive God’s grace, or to harden our hearts in pride so God resists us.

Is Religion Replacing Relationships?

1st Corinthians 11 gives instructions for communion, which was the central part of an early church gathering and was a meal in which people reclined at the table together. The Holy Spirit values relationships and his power flows in that context. Do we value and prioritize what the Holy Spirit values? I hear from people all over the world who say they want communion but they can’t find it because the churches are all programs.

I met a guy whose wife suffered from fibromyalgia for years. He told me that he felt hurt because his mom was always in church when he was a child and never had time for her kids. He said he couldn’t imagine what it would be like to be with Jesus and see those miracles. I said, “I live it. I’ve been watching Jesus do miracles for years. Why don’t we meet and pray for your wife together?” We met briefly last Wednesday. I asked him to put his hand on her belly. I held her hand and prayed to release God’s glory. In a few minutes, she was sobbing. “I don’t feel any pain. My foot never stops hurting, and it’s gone.” He messaged me a few days later and said she never had pain since.

Relationships are central to God’s instructions for a Christian meeting, but I keep hearing people who have trouble finding relationships in the middle of so many church services and religious programs. They go to church and come back feeling lonely. Some feel that their parents were so involved in the church that they didn’t have time for them. My new friend grew up in church. He felt that it pulled his family apart rather than bringing them together, and he couldn’t imagine seeing Jesus heal someone. Religious programs had replaced relationships, and had also replaced power.

A positive example that contrasts with that was my experience at The Son Spot in Ocean City, Maryland. Children played happily in the back as we all communed together. They were part of the community and were a joy, not a “bother” to anyone. They tended to keep following the Lord with their whole hearts as they grew up, in stark contrast to many teens in other groups who were disconnected from their parent’s faith. The church shared many meals, and people were encouraged to share words from the Lord and read the Bible publicly.

Some Christians manage to find relationship in spite of the programs…but the religious programs consider those other events to be optional, but they consider the “main thing,” which is a church service that doesn’t facilitate relationships, as “essential!” In the Biblical view, relationships ARE essential.

Does Your Church Service Have Time For Jesus?

Romans 15:14 says the brothers are full of knowledge, able to instruct each other. Colossians 3:16 says that we should let God’s word dwell in us richly, teaching and admonishing each other. 1st Corinthians 11-14 has instructions for a Christian gathering. Chapter 11 says we must discern and honor the whole body of Christ.

Chapter 12 says that the Holy Spirit chooses to manifest his grace through every member of the body so that one is ministering healing, another is prophesying, another is giving a word of knowledge, etc. Every member edifies the whole body of Christ, and we cannot say to one member, “I don’t need you.” To say “I don’t need you” to any member of Christ’s body is to say “I don’t need you” to Jesus himself.

When the Bible says that the Holy Spirit chooses to distribute the manifestations of his grace to every member of the body, but our meetings do not make it possible for God’s grace to manifest through every member, it is as if we were saying to the Holy Spirit, “What is important to you isn’t important to us. We have our way of doing things.” How arrogant! Jesus is full of grace, and the manifestations of God’s grace among us are manifestations of Christ.

But when the Holy Spirit gives his grace to any member of Christ’s body and we don’t have time or a place in our program for that to manifest, it is the same as if we didn’t have time or a place in our program for Jesus. Jesus himself could walk into many church programs and nobody would notice, because it takes humility to receive Jesus. He doesn’t appeal to pride. If the Spirit of Jesus is not manifest with power and glory among us, it is simply because we don’t want Jesus and are too proud to receive him. But if we receive those who Jesus sends, we receive Jesus.

Chapter 13 says that if we don’t have love, we are like a noisy gong or clanging cymbal. This describes so many religious programs. There is lots of noise and a big show, but people leave feeling lonely. People all over the world send me messages describing this as their experience when they go to church. They go sick or tormented by demons, and they come back the same way. In Jesus, God’s love manifested in power, but religious meetings meant for spectators lack the manifestation of God’s love in power. I myself have gone so many times to a meeting longing for someone to pray for me with power, for a real prophetic word, for some kind of edification, but I can’t find it anywhere. Few are even disciples of Jesus. They are trained to watch, be quiet, and listen, not to act or obey Jesus. I go to these meetings, I am not edified, and I have no opportunity to edify others.

We cannot welcome Jesus unless allowing his Spirit to manifest through every member of Christ’s body is our priority. Many churches don’t have revival because they want their show instead. When most members of the body of Christ aren’t even moving in our meeting, it is as if the body of Christ is paralyzed.

How Can A Healthy, Active Christian Stand Such Meetings?

We have a gospel message that consistently produces power and is confirmed with signs and wonders. We regularly see great moves of the Holy Spirit when we preach that the heavens are open because Jesus’ body was torn for us. This abundant outpouring of God’s grace and love manifest in power is not happening in many Christian meetings simply because the people prefer another message that doesn’t manifest in power. They prefer cotton candy sermons instead of the pure, unadulterated message of repentance, faith, God’s Kingdom, and God’s grace. Some prefer to beg God in unbelief to open the heavens, and since they believe the heavens are closed, that is what they experience.

Many active disciples of Jesus can’t stand one more such program. It feels like they are being forced to eat and never allowed to exercise. And much of what they are expected to eat is junk food. They would rather just read the Bible together than hear another coaching message full of human wisdom. The Bible says the swamps and marshes won’t be made fresh (Ezekiel 47:11), but many people are actually expected to be swamps and marshes in the religious programs, with water always flowing in but not out. That is intolerable for disciples of Jesus.

1st Corinthians 14 instructs us that if one prophet is speaking and a revelation comes to another person, the first person should sit down and allow two or three other prophets to speak. In your religious meetings, whether church services or small groups, do you humbly submit to the Holy Spirit and obey this instruction of scripture? Or do you harden your heart in pride and say “I like our order better than what God instructs?” It also says the others should test what is said. Do you obey this instruction, or disobey it in your religious meetings? Can people ask questions about what is said? Or is there just one speaker and testing anything is forbidden?

Are You Quenching The Holy Spirit?

Jesus and the early church in Acts sometimes had large meetings. But these were not the regular Christian meetings and they were generally evangelistic, not for Christian discipleship. It’s not wrong to have a large meeting, if there is a proper occasion for it, but they should not replace our obedience to the Bible’s instructions for regular Christian meetings and discipleship.

The Holy Spirit chooses to manifest his grace through every member of the body, and scripture says “Don’t quench the Holy Spirit.” (1 Thessalonians 5:19) It’s not that God needs to send revival. It’s that the church needs to stop quenching the Holy Spirit, and instead, submit to him.

Some say, “We let people pray for each other in our church services.” 1st Corinthians says that the person is only edified if they understand, and it commands that everything be done for edification. But I have often gone to a meeting and people prayed for others, but nobody could understand what was being said to be edified. How do prophecy, words of knowledge, and words of wisdom edify people if the music is so loud that nobody can understand? People invite me to pray for healing in a church service, but it is very difficult because we can’t hear to speak. Ministering healing effectively usually involves interviewing the person, talking, and asking what they feel and what is happening.

Many churches have small groups, but the small groups function like a miniature church service. They have one speaker and people do not test what is said, in disobedience to the Bible’s instructions. Because of that dynamic, unbiblical human traditions abound and often carry more weight than the words of scripture.

I used to regularly share words of knowledge of healing at three churches in the United States. I often get words of knowledge in other places now, and wonderful miracles happen. Yet how many times have I been sitting in a church service and I got a word that the Lord was healing someone from cancer or a blood disease, and yet I couldn’t share it in that context. I would have yelled it out after the service was over, but the music was too loud and everyone was rushing home. Because the church did not honor the Holy Spirit’s choice to manifest himself through different members of Christ’s body, a person left with cancer and they could have left without it. They didn’t have that healing miracle simply because they didn’t want it. Other things were more important to them.

Do you think I’m being dramatic? I’ve shared words of knowledge in other places and a tumor disappeared, a blood disease was healed, or a person’s life was saved. Yet I can’t do that in most church services. I went to a ladies’ drug and alcohol recovery house on Wednesday. However, this time some of the leaders from a certain church were leading it. They are used to doing all the talking and they ran the program the same way at the recovery house. They didn’t give others a chance to speak. They figured that their people they took on outreach could pray for the ladies (in spite of all the loud noise), but they didn’t even stop to imagine that the Spirit of Christ might want to speak through anybody other than themselves.

I came with four words of knowledge for healing. They were ending the meeting but I went up and interrupted right as they were ending, saying I had something important to share before we finished. All four words of knowledge hit the target, others received prayer as well, demons manifested, and the ladies received healing miracles. An angel moved a lady’s neck until it was adjusted. All of that almost didn’t happen because the leaders were not honoring Jesus by honoring the body of Christ. It only did happen because I was quite assertive as they were closing the meeting. If the Bible says that the Holy Spirit chooses to manifest Christ in the various ways 1st Corinthians 12 names, through every member of the body, we must humble ourselves and submit to what the Holy Spirit wants to do.

Hundreds of times in the last 20 years, I have seen healing miracles and people delivered from demons before or after a “church service,” or other religious program but not during the church service. Now some church services have loud music as people are quickly leaving and there isn’t even the opportunity for people to be healed or set free from demons after the religious program, because it is too hard to talk to them. I have often seen more people healed or delivered from demons at a restaurant, in my apartment building, or at the park than in a church service. Church services are frequently the environment least conducive to ministering in the Holy Spirit’s power.

What Should I Do If I Want Revival?

Ask yourself if your church is not in revival, why not? If the things that happened all around Jesus are not abundant in your midst, why not? He is the same and his presence dwells in us. Ask God for his correction, read the Bible, and submit to what God says. I’m convinced that the church service as it is for most, considered essential by many, is done in disobedience to God’s instructions in scripture. It may be permissible for special events, but should not be considered regular Christian fellowship. If you’d like to take a deeper dive into that from a scholarly perspective, check out Dr. Tom Wadsworth’s series on how the early church viewed their meetings.

What can you do if you want revival? Here are a few points:

-Honor all men and especially every member of Christ’s body. When you receive anybody Jesus sends, you receive Jesus.

-Humble yourself and obey Jesus rather than being imprisoned by people’s religiosities. Jesus prioritized people, evident in his compassion and the time spent healing the sick and expelling demons. Honor Jesus by making his priorities your priorities. Religious people who have their own priorities will judge you, but seek to please God, not man.

-Obey scriptures’ instructions for Christian meetings. If there is no context for that and the others are not interested in changing, then start your own meetings.

-Go where Jesus is going. Find people who are hungry, humble, and want Jesus, and you’ll see Jesus’ Spirit manifest in power. We see so many miracles in drug and alcohol recovery houses, for example, but it seems many people are losing interest but prefer another religious meeting where people aren’t healed or set free from demons. Some prefer pleasing people and growing in rank in the religious organization. They could be experiencing God’s power, they know what happens when we go to the recovery houses, but that’s not their priority.

-Recognize your need and ask the Holy Spirit for help. Billy Graham once remarked that most of what the early church did was impossible without the Holy Spirit, but most of what churches do today can be done easily without the Holy Spirit. Don’t be satisfied with religion that relies on human strength or human wisdom. Be satisfied with nothing less than God’s manifest glory.

-Embrace the message that produces power and is confirmed with signs and wonders. Return to the simplicity of Jesus and what he has done. Don’t waste your time on human wisdom. If it’s a pure gospel message, it comes with power.

If you honor Jesus, he will show himself to you. We’ve gotten wonderful reports from people who started “Open Heaven” groups, prioritizing participation and the manifestation of Jesus through every member of Christ’s body. They decided to prioritize what is important to Jesus, so the Holy Spirit manifested in power!

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