THOSE WHO ARE DOING IT!
THOSE WHO SAY IT CANNOT BE DONE SHOULD NOT INTERRUPT THE PEOPLE DOING IT.
I saw this and I had to laugh. It's very much how I feel about Disciple Christian Motorcycle Club. I've been told many times that Christians should not wear a three-piece patch with an MC, because it's 'being like the world' and maybe it looks hard-core. I guess Christians shouldn't be hard-core? One prominent internet biker pastor in SC told me that he is seen lots of Christian clubs come and go, and prophesied that we be gone in three or four years. Thanks for the vote of confidence, we are still here and are going global.
But even more importantly this reminds me of how people view the Bible. Man-made traditions are accepted more than the Word of God in some quarters. We associate some kind of loose spirituality in saying that we don't feel 'led' to do what the Bible says. We escape any faith in our supernatural God by looking at things in the Bible and saying we don't 'believe' them, because we were 'taught' differently. But the Bible says what it says, in plain English, and there's no explaining it away. You don't abdicate your responsibility to read the word of God and do what it says by using the excuse that someone taught you the word of God isn't true. This isn't a pick and choose proposition, Where you can say I believe this page, but I don't believe that page. When people start telling you that things in the Bible aren't true, grab tighter hold your Bible! When they start trying to explain how the Bible wasn't written for you, but for some other people, shut them up.
And why would people want to keep you from the things the Bible says? Because there is power in what the Bible says! If you look at the things people are trying to pick out of the Bible, you will find they are the things that give you the greatest empowerment and blessing!
Living a life of sanctification? Oh no, just say a prayer once and you're going to heaven no matter how you live.
Giving money to the church? Oh no, my money is my money and I can't stand when pastors preach about it.
Laying hands on the sick and seeing them healed? Oh no, that takes faith, and I don't believe in that.
Speaking in tongues and the other gifts of the Holy Spirit? Oh no, I was taught that doesn't happen anymore.
Biblical prosperity? Oh no, I was taught that Jesus wants you to be poor, sick, and miserable.
Sanctification, the process of living holy, makes God more able to use you in more places, more powerfully! Giving to the church and the man of God in your life brings a blessing on you that is repeatedly spelled out in many places in both the old and New Testament. When you lay hands on the sick, prayed the prayer of faith and see them healed, it's God reaching down and showing then that he loves them in a powerful and personal way! The Bible says when you speak in tongues, you build yourself up in your most holy faith, and that you're speaking to God, giving thanks and praising him! The nine gifts of the Holy Spirit are used by God to bring glory to himself, to empower us to spread his word, and to show people that he is real! Biblical prosperity is Jesus fulfilling his word that he came to give us life, and life more abundantly.
Just because you saw the TV Minister preach prosperity out of order, does not mean you throw out the baby out with the bathwater! Just because you were in the church where they were speaking in tongues incorrectly, does it mean it doesn't happen anymore? Just because you saw somebody pray for healing and not be healed doesn't mean the Bible is a lie. Our faith does not come from circumstances we have seen, but from an unshakable belief in the word of God! When people preach you can be saved by works, do you throw salvation out the window?
So when you see some of us practicing the full Gospel, don't interrupt us, don't try to argue that we should regress, go backwards, and cut pages out of our Bible. Many of us were sitting where you are sitting, and making the same arguments you are making, when we were given the revelation that God still works in the supernatural! It would be impossible for us to go backwards! It's the height of human arrogance to use 'logical' arguments to explain away and nullify passage after passage out of the Bible. When you see us practicing the full Gospel, stay silent, or better yet ask questions, so that you too can see the supernatural happening. Because God hasn't changed! It is time to start studying these issues diligently from both sides, rather than accepting what you were told without hearing all of the facts. Like it says in Proverbs 18:17 in a lawsuit the first to speak seems right, until someone comes forward and cross-examines.