1. Understand.

The baptism of the Holy Spirit or filling of the Holy Spirit is available to all believers. We see the pattern throughout Acts of people first believing in Jesus, being water baptized and then receiving the Holy Spirit. In the apostles’ lives specifically we see that in John 20, they receive the Holy Spirit but then later in the story in Acts 1, Jesus tells the same apostles, as well as other disciples, “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5).” Search the Scriptures and understand what is available to all believers.

2. Believe.

We receive all gifts from God by simply believing in His promises. In the gospel of John, Jesus promises what is the inheritance of every believer. “On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified (John 7:37-39 NIV).” We ask for the forgiveness of our sins with simple faith, believing that God accepts our confession based on His promises. So it is with the baptism of the Holy Spirit, we ask in simple faith believing we receive based on God’s promises.

3. Ask (and keep asking).

Jesus taught that when we ask we receive because our Heavenly Father is a good Father who gives us what we ask for. We don’t need to be afraid of not receiving or somehow something bad interfering with our request when we earnestly seek God for this gift. Sometimes we need to be persistent in our hunger and pursuit. Some people receive very quickly when they ask and God seems to bring others into the baptism of the Holy Spirit through a journey of pursuit. “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him (Luke 11:9-13 NIV)!”

Throughout the book of Acts we see that sometimes the Holy Spirit falls upon people and baptizes them with His power as they pray to God without anyone praying for them in Acts 1 & 2. We also see that other prayers are very intentional where you ask those who have received the Holy Spirit to pray with you to receive through the laying on of hands as in Acts 8 and Acts 19. Either way, there is typically some process of asking God to fill you and baptize you in the Holy Spirit. Here’s a prayer you might pray to help you as you seek God and have others pray with you:

Father God, thank You for Your promise of the Holy Spirit. I ask in faith today that you would fill me with the Holy Spirit and baptize me with power from on high. I invite you Jesus, the baptizer of the Holy Spirit and fire to come and fill my life. I yield my heart and life to you. Consume me. Fill me and release the rivers of living water from within me. I receive of Your Spirit. Fill me with tongues and all the gifts you have for me. In Jesus name, amen.

4. Receive.

Expect to receive what you ask for. This is not something you strive for, the Holy Spirit’s gifts are just that, gifts. As you understand, believe and ask in prayer for this gift, God will fill you with the Holy Spirit. Spend time waiting on the Lord in a time of prayer personally or with other believers who pray with you. Stressing and striving will not help you out. But praying, asking, and waiting on God to fill you will yield results. Paul said to the Corinthians, “we were all given the one Spirit to drink (1 Corinthians 12:13b NIV).” Receiving is simply waiting upon God and drinking of the Spirit He has given us. I realize there is a level of mystery and faith involved and receiving is not as concrete as a formula or steps we can just speak out to automatically experience this gift. But this is the beauty of a relationship with the Lord that we wait in a posture of trust and God births something supernatural in us through His Spirit.

5. Practice.

When you receive the gift of tongues you may hear a word in your heart that is not your native language or you may feel something bubble up from within. It’s important to give voice to the spiritual language that God is giving you. It could be a tongue from another nation that you haven’t learned (Acts 2) or it could be a spiritual language of angels (1 Corinthians 13:1, 14:14). Either way, tongues is not something you understand with your mind (1 Corinthians 14:14). When you pray in your native language you pray with your mind and your body, but when you pray in tongues, you pray with your spirit and your body, bypassing your mind. In Acts 2, those in the upper room prayed in other tongues “as the Spirit enabled them (Acts 2:4).” The Spirit gave them the words but they gave the Spirit their body. You have to surrender your tongue to God in faith to speak in tongues. As you receive, keep practicing this gift in your daily times of prayer and worship. For the Bible makes us amazing promises about what takes place when we pray in the Spirit:

“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God (Romans 8:26-27 NIV).”

“But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life (Jude 1:20-21 NIV).”

May God bless you as you seek Him for the fullness of the Holy Spirit’s work in your life. May you overflow with His power and grace. If you have further questions, please leave one in the comments. If you would like prayer to receive, please reach out and I would love to help pray with you or arrange for someone to pray with you.

I want to share the three components that I believe are necessary to keep Gen Z in the faith. This is from my perspective and experience but I don’t want to pretend that these are three simple steps or that these three things guarantee success in passing on the faith. After all, we are in an all out spiritual war over faith continuing to the next generation. In Revelation 12, the dragon is at the foot of the woman about to give birth so that it can attack the offspring. Satan is always trying to break up the blessing of generations and attack the children of the righteous. Too much is at stake. Right in the ten commandments in Exodus 20, God warns us that curses flow 3-4 generations on disobedience but blessings flow to thousands of generations to those who love God and keep His commandments. Satan is throwing every worldly distraction and evil in the face of our youth from cell phone addiction, suicidal ideation, the erasing of moral truth, sexual confusion, immoral seductions and on and on… Ultimately, it will take a work of God to keep the lives of our young people trusting in God.

But like a three legged stool, each of these elements is necessary to win this war. Without any one of these three things, the stool collapses:

1. Understanding the Word of God.

2. Personal Encounters with God.

3. Relational examples and influence.

1. Understanding the Word of God.

The Christian faith is the revelation of God to us. Revelation comes directly from God Himself to humanity through the general revelation of His creation and natural law. But God has given us something even greater: the special revelation of His Word, the Bible. It is the writings of God’s Word through the prophets and apostles from who our faith is built upon in the Holy Scriptures (Ephesians 2:20). The Scriptures point us to the even higher special revelation of God, the incarnation of God Himself in the flesh, in Jesus Christ the Son coming for us as a fulfillment of the Bible prophecies and promises. The Christian faith is passed on by a knowledge of God through the Scriptures.

This is a no-brainer. If you are a Christian, it’s obvious the Bible is important. There is no solid faith without a commitment to reading the Bible, understanding it, applying it and meditating upon it. The faith is sustained by passing on a love for God’s Word and walking your children through it over and over again. “These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates (Deuteronomy 6:6-9 NIV).” Read the Bible to them and with them. Teach it to them. Use catechisms, books, tools, podcasts and sermon notes with them. Take them to church to be taught. Reward them for reading and memorizing the Bible. Teach them the reliability of and defense of the faith through Scripture.

2. Personal Encounters with God.

I’ve heard so many Christian parents in our Speech and Debate League be totally convinced that if kids learn apologetics (apologetics means how to defend our faith with reason) they will not ever abandon Christianity. But this is short-sighted and unbiblical. God is not an abstraction, an idea to be studied, He is a person to be known and loved. Jesus heavily rebuked the religious community of His day in John 5 for knowing the Bible but not knowing Him. “You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life (John 5:39-40 NIV).” You can know the Bible and not know Jesus, which means you have missed the entire point of the Bible according to Jesus.

If you have experiences with God but you don’t get rooted in the Bible, you can be deceived by false doctrines and counterfeit experiences. I will grant the critics of spiritual encounters that. But I won’t grant them everything they claim. To know the Bible without a personal experience of Christ is literally contrary to every person’s experience in the Bible. As many have said before me, “you need the Word and the Spirit. Without the Spirit you dry up and without the Word you blow up.” We need the power of experiences with God coupled with a strong Biblical foundation. Prayer being answered, worship that brings supernatural joy, spiritual gifts, tears in experiencing God’s manifest presence, failing to stand under the weight of God’s glory, seeing visions, having dreams and experiencing miracles are all a normal part of the Christian life. Church history is full of people from all denominations experiencing God’s manifest presence and power through the casting out of demons, prophecies and miracle God encounters. Young people need their own history with God being who He says He is in His Word in their lives. If you have Gen. Z students and young people in your life I would try and get them to any conference, camp, church service or special meeting that gives them a chance for a God encounter.

3. Relational Examples and Influence.

Young people might make it pretty far with reading the Bible and having an experience with God or two at church or summer camp. But the faith is not likely to stick with them if they don’t have parents, mentors, pastors and a community surrounding them with a living example and influence. The most powerful thing besides the Bible and prayer is seeing someone else live out the Bible and prayer. We have the power to provoke each other to good works (Hebrews 10:24) and to minister love to one another in a way that builds one another up in faith (Ephesians 4). The greatest examples of faith are my parents and my wife’s parents. They along with many others I have witnessed may not be totally perfect but they exude love, grace, integrity and righteousness. They have peace. They have a blessed life. Not an easy life, but a richly blessed one. They enjoy life and they enjoy God.

Young people need examples around them who share from their life witness and testimony that God answers prayer, helps people through trials and that His ways are above all others. But they also need the influence of praying parents and mentors. Again, we are in a spiritual war. Satan is throwing everything he can at the next generation. Our prayers have the power to defeat the hordes of hell in their onslaught against our youth. Time would fail me to tell you of all the prayers that have been answered by Grace and I as parents and just the parents we know. We have to keep our hearts and influence connected to the next generation by paying attention to them, praying for them and being a faithful example. We can’t rely only on getting young people into the Bible and into places they can experience God, we need to be there for them intentionally blessing them. If we are divided in our families and across generations, we fall apart. But where we stay connected in blessing through our example and influence, we will subvert the curse and pass the faith on to Gen. Z. “See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction (Malachi 4:5-6 NIV).”

Where it seemed that the historic Christian view of sexuality had lost the culture war, Christian beliefs have experienced a rebound and we are at a pivotal place in culture. This is an important time for Christians to pray and act as God leads us in our places of influence. Critical gender theory and critical sex theory are starting to lose ground in some places. The number of young people identifying as Trans has declined by almost fifty percent in the last couple of years. Here are ten ways that Christians can seize this moment to make a difference in our world through grace and truth.

1. Pray.

“The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” James‬ ‭5‬:‭16‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The Christian believes that cultural and moral battles are primarily spiritual battles and that prayer is our mightiest weapon. Prayer positions our heart properly before God. But prayer not only allows our heart to find its proper posture, prayer is powerful and effective.

2. No compromise Bible study.

“Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people.” ‭‭Jude‬ ‭1‬:‭3‬ ‭NIV‬‬

In every generation Christians are faced with the choice to contend for the faith as it was once delivered to us or to reshape our faith by the popular trends of culture. We must be diligent to study the Scriptures in a way that challenges our own ideas and our cultural beliefs. There are many attempts to reinterpret the Bible by new psychology and science discoveries. While the science and psych communities have many positive contributions to our society, they are constantly changing and coming up with discoveries that contradict one another. The bedrock of the Bible above all offers truth for the Christian and we must keep being shaped by it in a spirit of no compromise. God’s definition of male and female along with His standards for sexual morality have stood the test of time for thousands of years. We must be shaped by His truth rather than try and reshape it to fit our own modern notions in society.

3. Deal with your own sexual sin.

“You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” ‭Matthew‬ ‭7‬:‭5‬ ‭NIV‬‬

No one likes a hypocrite. If we as Christians are going to lift up our voice against something in the culture we need to let God deal with our own sexual sin such as lust, pornography, adultery, etc. I’ve heard some Christians teach that we should’t speak out against the sin of our culture until the church is free of our own sin. While this is admirable in some respects, Jesus was teaching on a matter of priority. We are to take most seriously our own sin and then help deal with the sin of others.

4. Love people.

“Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.” ‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭13‬:‭6‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Everything a Christian does should be governed by a love for God and love for people. We cannot let the culture redefine love to include an endorsement of all behaviors. Christianity has historically been at odds with many cultural practices while also maintaining a posture of love. The Biblical definition of love includes rejoicing in the truth. Love is not rejoicing in evil. We need an uncompromising love for those in the transgender or LGBTQIA community but we are not called to support their beliefs as Christians. Let us be a voice that is speaking the truth in love. If Christians are marginalized over these issues, let it be for our commitment to Christlike values, not because we are mean spirited.

5. Protect children.

““If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.” Matthew‬ ‭18‬:‭6‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Some of the most chilling warnings of Jesus have to do with those that harm children. There is a false compassion movement to give kids gender reassignment surgery and life changing drug treatments believing this will save kids’ lives. Many reports and studies are starting to come out about how quickly children have been given these life altering treatments without an honest attempt to deal with the inner beliefs and feelings of the children. More and more testimonies are coming fourth of sex change regret. Children are not to be offered up as test subjects with these highly dangerous and experimental treatments. Christians are called by love to protect the well being of children.

6. Teach.

“These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.” Deuteronomy‬ ‭6‬:‭6‬-‭8‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Christians, and especially Christian parents, need to teach the Word of God and the ways of God to their children. Parents are to be the primary disciple-makers of their children. We need to regularly discuss with our children the things they are hearing about at school, from peers and on social media. Then we can find Scripture that helps give them understanding about the cultural issues that we face. Christian children need to understand how God’s Word applies to every area of life and promotes true freedom as well as human flourishing.

7. Vote.

“Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.” ‭1 Peter‬ ‭2‬:‭17‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

We don’t live in a county in the USA with a king. We live in a constitutional republic and we get to affect the outcome of our public policy by voting. We are called to honor our elected authorities as Christians but we are ruled more by a document (The US Constitution) than we are by our politicians. We have been given a right to vote and in one way, we honor our government by our participation in voting. If we keep voting in people that disregard families, the health of our children and Christian values then we will keep getting these results. Register to vote and use your God given governmental authority as a citizen to vote.

8. Advocate for change.

“Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man.” I was cupbearer to the king.”’ Nehemiah‬ ‭1‬:‭11‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Nehemiah was a man of prayer, but his prayer motivated him to advocate for change according to God’s purposes. He did not only pray, he also went to the king to ask for help according to his cause. Christians need to advocate for change by running for office, getting on school boards, calling and writing government officials, fostering and adopting children, becoming lawyers and volunteering in the community.

9. Tell the Gospel stories.

“Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 NIV

Christianity is full of people who were once broken in their identity, morality and sexuality. But through the glorious gospel of Jesus are now washed, sanctified and justified. We need to give hope to people who are trapped in confusion and darkness that Jesus can remake and renew people. The real change that Jesus brings has been a subject of legislation and threats. But we must not backdown in believing that the gospel of Jesus can heal and redeem people in their sexuality. We need to tell the true stories of change that testify of God’s love and power to bring real transformation.

10. Create. Create. Create.

“Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”’ Matthew 28:18-20 NIV

We are called to make disciples of all nations as Christians. One of the ways we disciple people is by the resources we create. We need Christians to create social media channels, testimony videos, children’s television programming, books, articles and more. When desire to see the world impacted by Christian ideals, we need to fill the world with truth from God’s Word.

So what are we to do after Easter is over? For many pastors building up to Easter is such a work of love, attention, prayer and preparation. We put so much into our services believing for record attendance, new confessions of faith, baptisms and changed lives. The week after can feel like a let down from either the pure adrenaline and spiritual momentum now fading or a disappointment in results after such major effort.

Pastor, believer, disciple of Jesus, I bid you, don’t lose the joy of Easter. JESUS IS ALIVE! Nothing else matters. If the resurrection is true (and it is!) than literally nothing else matters. Low attendance the next week compared to Easter? So, what?! Jesus came out of the grave! You only had half the conversions as last year? Sin, death, hell and the devil have been defeated and rendered powerless by the waking of the God-Man from His Sabbath rest in the tomb! Church was so exciting last week and people don’t carry that much enthusiasm usually on other weeks? Well, He is still alive and the sting of death has been broken!

So again, what do we do after Easter? We go about life like the apostles of Jesus day after day, week after week and year after year. “And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all (Acts‬ ‭4‬:‭33‬ ‭NKJV‬‬).” Jesus is risen from the dead and we share this truth, this hope, this message everywhere we can. I’m convinced more than ever that the hope of the gospel alone has the power to heal the ache and reverse the evil of our present age. Oh how I want to make the good news of our resurrected Lord known to all!

The hope for every human heart is that Jesus is alive! The hope for our families, for cities and nations is that Jesus is alive! The resurrection of the King of Glory means that death is overthrown and immortality is not a pursuit of vanity but a gift from God. He became as we are so that we could become as He is. The immortal God became a mortal Man, died in our place and rose from the dead so that we mortal men could become immortal like God. He is always uncreated and we are created. We never become His essence but He took on our nature so that we could live forever like Him. As He overthrew the power of the grave, so do we through faith in His name.

Is your life facing disappointment this week? Are you troubled by war, corruption and evil in the world? Have you received a bad report? Do you want to make a lasting difference? Let the resurrection not just be an annual celebration but a daily reality that a great resurrection and glory awaits all who believe in the Resurrected One! There is no greater meaning and purpose in life than living in resurrection power and making this message known that the Son of God who died for us on the cross is risen and reigning!

Is it a lack of skills?

A lack of education?

Is it the wrong personality type?

I’ve been a leader in the church world for over 20 years and observing people has led me to believe that there is a lid on how much a leader can grow.

Now to be honest, there is more than one lid or one main cause of leadership failure. For instance, I’m not writing about integrity today but if you don’t have it, that is definitely a lid on your leadership. If you don’t treat people well, lie, practice immoral behavior or steal, then you are definitely going to have problems growing in leadership. People won’t trust you when you lack integrity. Wherever you compromise to get an advantage early on, will cripple you later on as a leader. The lid of lacking integrity is almost self-evident.

Lacking certain skills or continuing education can be a lid as well. Times change and the skills that get you to a certain level of leadership may not keep you if the demands and responsibilities of your position change over time. I’ve seen leaders with great integrity no longer progress with the growth of their organization because they don’t learn new skills to address the new challenges of growth. If you quit growing and your organization, business or church doesn’t you will be left behind. You need to keep learning and refining your skills or you can hit a lid on your leadership.

But I think there is a lid that a lot of people don’t recognize on leadership but it could limit you more than a lack of skills and almost affect you as much as a lack of integrity. The lid on your leadership that is often ignored is…

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1. It sounds funny and embarrassing.

When you pray in tongues you pray with your spirit. It will sound different because you are not praying with your mind (1 Corinthians 14:14). 1 Corinthians 13:1 implies that tongues could be an earthly or heavenly language. There is nothing to be embarrassed about, but I suppose that many Christian practices and principles seem embarrassing to people who don’t believe in Jesus. Be informed by Scripture more than your experience.

2. Someone pressured me to try it.

No one should pressure you to speak in tongues. I am not a fan of people having others copy their tongue to get them speaking in tongues. Some have argued that tongues is a language and just have people copy someone else’s spiritual language and it will kickstart them into their own. They liken it with natural reasoning how children learn to talk. But Acts 2:4 says the apostles and those believers in the upper room prayed as the Spirit enabled or gave them utterance. This is a beautiful spiritual gift that is bestowed by the Holy Spirit. This is not something that is helped by pressure to make something happen.

3. I can’t get my mind around it.

1 Corinthians 14:14 tells us that praying in the Spirit does not speak to our mind or understanding. We can have a tongue interpreted to understand what we are praying, but tongues by itself is not for our mind. You have to surrender your tongue which the Bible says is the most unruly part of the body (James 3:8). You also have to surrender your mind and try and seek to understand in a Biblical and supernatural way of faith.

4. I think it’s fake.

Well, tongues can be faked but just because something can be faked doesn’t mean that it always is. Counterfeits are made after things that are valuable. Tongues can be demonic or can be faked from a human spirit. Satan and humans like to mimic God’s gifts at times, but it has nothing to do with the legitimate and Biblical expression of the gifts of the Spirit.

5. The gift has died with the apostles.

The doctrine of cessationism is a teaching that the gifts of the Spirit and the sign gifts of the Bible like miracles, tongues and prophecies all died with the last apostles and the completion of the Bible. This doctrine is often held up by people who claim to be “the Bible” people or “the Word” people. However, this doctrine is easy to refute Biblically. If tongues is not supported by the Scripture, Christians should have nothing to do with it. Additionally, there are records of Christians throughout church history who continued to use the gift after the apostles. The idea that 1 Corinthians 13:10 speaks to the ceasing of spiritual gifts when the Bible is complete is false. The context is clearly about the return of Christ and the future kingdom of God when we have perfect knowledge. The Bible is perfect but we don’t have perfect knowledge yet. We won’t need spiritual gifts at that point when Jesus makes everything perfect and we know in a perfect way.

6. I was taught it’s Satanic.

This is hard for people to overcome at times. Even when they disagree with the premise that tongues is of the devil at this point in their life, there can be a deep fear that something is wrong with tongue talking. There is nothing in the Scripture that tongues is of the devil. We learn in Exodus that gifts could be imitated or copied by evil spirits when the magicians of Egypt can do the same signs as Moses. We must reject unBiblical notions of spiritual gifts. We must also reject that the devil alone gives spiritual power and miracles. Don’t accept a powerful devil and a powerless God just because the Bible is complete.

7. What if I try and I make it up or the devil takes over?

Sometimes people are afraid that if they open themselves up to a spiritual experience with God, then the devil will jump in last second and take over. Jesus tells us that if we ask the Father for the Holy Spirit, we will receive (Luke 11:13). Our Father in heaven ought to be a bigger vision to us than our vision of the devil. If we seek other gods or false spirits, we could open ourselves to the devil. But when we seek God through Christ, we can be assured the devil cannot take over.

8. It will make me weird.

I’ve met a lot of people who don’t speak in tongues over the years that are weird. Being weird makes you weird, not speaking in tongues. Yes, all Biblical spirituality is weird to a materialist mindset that believes in a physical world only. The virgin birth of Jesus, angels, demons and the resurrection are all weird to atheists. I say be weird if it means being true to God. But being extra weird is not necessary. God will at times do things when we experience the Holy Spirit that are weird in some sense (like when the apostles appeared drunk after being filled with the Spirit in Acts 2), but being filled with the Holy Spirit strengthens us and helps us love others more (Jude 20-21).

9. It’s the least of the gifts.

In 1 Corinthians 12 in the list of the gifts of the Spirit, you will see tongues and interpretation of tongues as the last gift in the list (in a couple of places in this chapter you see tongues at the end). In the Greek language whatever is listed first is most important and whatever is listed last is of the least importance. I’ve heard people criticize tongues as the “least of the gifts.” I don’t understand why people would use this as a reason that tongues doesn’t matter. It is a gift of God to us. Would you like to be the last on a list of the top nine wealthiest people? What about last on a list of the top nine people who have most impacted the world? Tongues can be the least of the gifts and still of incredible value and importance. It’s a spiritual gift of God’s grace and power to us. It may be the last or the least, but’s it’s the last of something that is still powerful and incredible.

10. Jesus didn’t speak in tongues.

We don’t know if Jesus spoke in tongues or not. There is some teaching that we should only follow the words and life of Jesus but not the rest of the Scripture. We definitely must follow the words and life of Jesus, but not to exclusion of the rest of the Bible. The whole Bible is inspired. If Jesus is not mentioned in connection with tongues, but the Spirit gives us the gift of tongues after Jesus told the apostles to wait for the Spirit in Acts, then we embrace the gift!

Creative Casualty

I’m a little upset.

I’m having a hard time getting over the fact… 

That I was told this growing up...

Would you bare with me just a moment?

A noun is a person, place or thing...

It's not what what said.
But that which was left unsaid,

Which seems okay at face value
but if you pay attention to what is not there, yea,
what is omitted...

See, at some time around my teens
the list started to grow,
a noun was not just
a person, place or thing

but also an idea.

An idea?!

What a wicked concept, an invention of evil,  a bad idea

to not tell children 
That nouns are ideas.

For how can we have 
People, places or things without 

First having ideas?

For yes an idea is a dangerous thing!

Especially for uncorrupted minds of pre pubescent youth.

Ideas are why pens conqueror swords
Because pens move swords.

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To be honest, I could not have predicted the sadness I felt when I heard that this bill passed.

Why do I care after all?

I don’t make $1 million annually.

I’m just a pastor, what do I know about economics and taxation?

Maybe it’s because wonderful people from our church and state keep leaving for greener pastures of lower taxes, lower home prices and a better business climate in other states.

I’m not totally sure, but I do feel that many people are being demoralized with mismanagement, corruption and higher taxation that squeezes the motivation out of people who aspire to be productive. I will stay in my lane as a pastor and tell you why I think its the ideology behind our ever increasing taxes in my beloved Evergreen State that’s the most dangerous.

Are Taxes Biblical?

First of all the Bible tells us to honor governing authorities and pay our taxes (Romans 13) as long as obeying the government does not stop us from obeying God (Acts 4:19). But we also have warnings about how governing authorities can abuse their power and government can demand too much of its people. When Israel wanted a king God warned them through the prophet Samuel that a king would want their best and would even want a tithe on many things (1 Samuel 8). The warning was that a king would require as much as God.

The sentiment I hear from people that are supportive of the “millionaire-tax” is that the “rich should finally pay their fair share.” I think fairness in taxation is right. But the sentiment seems to imply that profits are evil. In the Bible, the love of money is evil when we worship money as a god (1 Timothy 6:10, Matthew 6:24). But money itself is not evil because we also learn in the Bible that God gives us the power to get wealth (Deuteronomy 8:18). He is not giving us power for evil.

Greed is clearly condemned throughout Scripture, but why is it greedy for people to want to keep their own money and not greedy for people to demand other people’s money who have more? Throughout the Bible we see that there are righteous and unrighteous wealthy people and righteous and unrighteous poor people. Profits if used for human flourishing and God’s glory are good. Taxes are Biblical within boundaries but become oppressive when profits for honest work are treated as evil.

Wealth Redistribution and 5 Points of Marxism

While some are sad over our states tax policies, others are filled with glee over “the rich paying their fair share.” Our governor said that this tax will allow the rich to pay more and now special tax cuts will go to families in need and small business owners. Underlying it all is a dangerous and anti-Christ ideology call Marxism or Communism. I’m not saying that raising taxes is Marxist all the time. But the idea of wealth redistribution by the state and attack against profits as evil is Marxist. We need to be aware of the ideas that influence policy and governance. As Darrow Miller puts it well in his work Discipling Nations, “Ideas have consequences.” We can pass policies, laws and taxes but we cannot separate the consequences from the choices we institute. I want to share 5 points of Marxism as summarized by Jordan B. Cooper from his recent work as a scholar, Makers of the Modern Mind(1) and expand on why these things are damaging to our faith and society from a Christian point of view:

1. “There is no transcendence or immaterial reality.

Following Feuerbach, Marx believes that there exists only the physical world, and all must be understood by means of material reality.”

Many Christians have embraced Marx on the Left of American politics and think that Marxism reflects some of the same values of Christ, since Jesus cares for the poor. It’s foolish to think that material Marxism supports the ways of Jesus or that caring for the poor in Jesus name means anything resembling Marxism. Marxism is anti-Christian at its root because it creates a completely materialistic framework. To Marx sin, evil, God, Satan, spiritual consequences, etc. do not exist. Why is this dangerous? It strips society and policy of truth because it wipes out all metaphysical belief.

2. “Marx believes that people are defined by their social relations, rather than as distinct persons or substances.

Second, Marx believes that people are defined by their social relations, rather than as distinct persons or substances. For Marx, this rationality is economic, but later thinkers expand this socio-relational anthropology to gender, sexuality, and race.”

People are lumped together in groups and defined by their class or social environment. This removes the idea of people being personally responsible for their life and the consequences of their choices. The reason people are poor in the Bible is not always because they are oppressed but also because they make poor choices. Sin brings a curse and obedience brings a blessing. Marxism doesn’t account for this.

3. “People can broadly be divided into exploiters (the bourgeoisie) and the exploited (the proletariat).”

While, again, this is an economic issue for Marx, this division between classes later becomes the groundwork for broader oppressor and oppressed dichotomies used in feminism, critical race theory, and queer theory.”

There is some truth to the idea of power being a corrupting influence in the Scripture but the Marxist view of the “haves” and “have-nots” or “oppressor” vs. “oppressed” creates an oversimplified view to measure everything by. There are too many factors to account for why people are rich, powerful, poor, influential or overlooked. This leads to jealousy, blame, and oppressive thinking by keeping people in bondage to their conditions thinking that all progress in their life is being hindered due to someone more powerful than them.

4. “Marx believes that society is progressing, and that improvement means destroying the past rather than preserving it.

Real change in society is and must be revolutionary.” It’s so easy to tear something apart. How long does it take to demo a house? A day or even an hour with heavy equipment? How long does it take to build that same house? It could take months or over a year sometimes. Destroying the past causes people to lose their sense of story and legacy. Customs, culture, norms and both good and bad stories of the past are important to be remembered so that we can learn lessons from those who have gone before us.

5. “For Marx and Engels, this revolution ultimately means the loss of traditional structures in society, including organized religion and the traditional family structure.”

The deconstruction of religion and family breaks down the most important fundamental building blocks of culture and society. Our belief in God and the importance of God’s first institution of marriage and family hold our world together. But to Marxists, revolution is all that matters. Many will argue that true Communism has not been tried, that’s because the worldview of Marxism always self destructs just in its build up to the dreamed up utopia. As Communist prisoner Richard Wurmbrand said after his experience in Romanian prisons, “Don’t believe the newspapers when they say that the Communists only hate Christians or Jews — it’s not true. They simply hate. They hate everybody. They hate Jews, they hate Christians, they hate anti-Semites, they hate anti-Christians, they hate everybody. One Communist hates the other Communist. They quarrel among themselves, and when they quarrel one Communist with the other, they put the other one in jail and torture him just like a Christian, and they beat him.” The Revolution of Marxism makes great promises but has a devastating track record throughout history.

In Conclusion

Taxes going up doesn’t guarantee that people support communism or that they are Marxists. However, I think if you look under the hood of what is driving many of our progressive states, it’s a far-leftist radical agenda to break down business as evil, redefine marriage and break up or replace families. These ideas come from somewhere and these ideas have consequences. If we don’t examine the foundations that we build our policy and taxes upon, we can end up in horrible place. Christians we need to wake up and educate our children about the power of ideas. Voting right or left won’t save your soul, but what we build upon matters for us, our neighbors and for our children. We need to let our voices be heard in prayer, voting, education and media.

States that are passing Marxist type policies in morals and economics as well as teaching these things in our schools are the same places nationally where churches and Christians are least likely to be found. I love our state and I’m here to pray and obey and make a difference for the cause of Christ. The disciples of Jesus had to deal with oppressive taxes from Rome and God provided for them. He will be faithful to us now.

1. Cooper, Jordan B. Makers of the Modern Mind, p. 143-144.

If Christians have grown up in Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran or Presbyterian contexts, then catechism is nothing new. But for many Evangelicals and Pentecostals, a catechism is not quite as common. Many churches do Bible studies for new believers and use booklets or some type of group learning guides. I set out to write a catechism that was true to the historic creeds of the Christian faith and also included the distinctives of Pentecostal beliefs and practices. As a Protestant I affirm that the Bible is the only infallible rule for our faith but also believe that creeds and catechisms can be helpful for us clarifying and applying the faith to our lives.

Wikipedia explains a catechism like this:

A catechism (/ˈkætəˌkɪzəm/; from Ancient Greek: κατηχέω, “to teach orally”) is a summary or exposition of doctrine and serves as a learning introduction to the Sacraments traditionally used in catechesis, or Christian religious teaching of children and adult converts.^[1]As Daniel R. Hyde has shown, this word is used in the New Testament (Luke 1:4; Acts 18:25; 21:2, 24; Rom. 2:18; 1 Cor. 14:19; Gal. 6:6) for the instruction of believers.^[2]Catechisms are doctrinal manuals—often in the form of set questions and answers to be memorized—a format that has been used in non-religious or secular contexts as well.

The term catechumen refers to the designated recipient of the catechetical work or instruction. In the Catholic Church, catechumens are those who are preparing to receive the Sacrament of Baptism.

Catechism is a teaching that involves questions and answers. Scriptures are mainly referenced with straightforward answers. I believe this type of learning is very dynamic and simple to grasp. The Way of Jesus Catechism: A Foundational Teaching for Christian Beliefs and Practices is of medium length. I wanted to keep things simple but develop it enough to help Christians navigate the faith and the Pentecostal church with Biblical parameters.

The first portion covers what is the way of Jesus and what is the gospel. This first part covers the nature of God, the Trinity, the creeds (Apostle’s, Nicene and Athanasiun), salvation, water baptism and Spirit baptism. The next portion is about being established in the faith by learning how to overcome the world, the flesh and the devil. This includes renewing the mind, confessing sin, discovering your identity in Christ and deliverance from demonic influence. The last portion of the catechism covers the spiritual practices (or disciplines) that include things like Bible reading and prayer, as well as spiritual gifts, giving, worship, leadership standards, vocation and the mission of Christ. It all culminates with being prepared for the return of Jesus.

The Way Of Jesus Catechism Second Print Edition

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You can download this catechism here and share it where you would like. The purpose of the catechism is to establish you and your family in the Christian faith. I pray that Christians in church, in the home and through self study will get rooted deeply in the foundations of Christian beliefs and practices.

Like a tidal wave

They all line up

Every reason to stand against

The dreams of my future

Prayer becomes oxygen

And I’m tired of not breathing

Concerning the potential

That lies residual in my DNA

Read more

Over the years I’ve seen some incredible testimonies of how people’s lives have changed as a result of praying for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I’ve seen demons, flee, people receive healing from depression, find strength in God’s love, start to hear the voice of God more clearly and receive boldness to witness and live out their faith in Christ all as a result of receiving the baptism and speaking in tongues. There have definitely been excesses and aberrations of how spiritual gifts like tongues are to be used but I want to encourage you to examine the Scriptures and consider these benefits of speaking in tongues.

Before getting into the list, what is speaking in tongues? It’s a gift of the Holy Spirit found in the New Testament (Acts 1 & 2, 1 Corinthians 12 & 14). It is a gift where the Holy Spirit prays through you in a tongue or language that is unlearned by your natural process of learning a language. Tongues can be a language that is heard and interpreted for specific languages (Acts 2, 1 Corinthians 14) and it can also be a private prayer language you speak directly to God (1 Corinthians 14). Tongues can be earthly languages you don’t know or a heavenly language (1 Corinthians 13:1).

10 Reasons Why should Christians Speak in Tongues:

1. Honor a gift of the Holy Spirit.

Receiving and using a gift of the Holy Spirit honors His place in your life (1 Corinthians 12:10). It stands to reason that if the Holy Spirit is giving Christians gifts to express, we honor Him by receiving these gifts and expressing them for His glory. Many Christians say pursue the Giver not the gifts. I say pursue the Giver and honor His gifts.

2. Experience the flow of the river.

Jesus said that those who would be full of the Holy Spirit would have rivers of living water flow from their inner most being (John 7:38-39). Tongues is a gift and language of the Spirit that allows you to experience the work of the Holy Spirit in prayer. All through the Scripture the refreshing of God’s presence through the Holy Spirit is likened to a river (Psalm 36:8, 46:4, Ezekiel 47). Praying in the Spirit allows you to experience the flow of God’s presence in your life.

3. Build yourself up in the faith.

Praying in the Spirit builds you up in the most holy faith (Jude 20). This gift allows you strengthen your faith and experience spiritual renewal. Satan loves to discourage and weaken Christians in our walk. Praying in the Spirit renews spiritual vitality to love and serve God.

4. Keep yourself in the love of God.

If context matters (and it does in Bible study) Jude’s instruction on praying in the Spirit to build ourselves in the faith is followed by an instruction to keep ourselves in the love of God. Praying in the Spirit keeps us in the love of God. St. Augustine taught that the Holy Spirit’s place in the Trinity is the personal bond of love between the Father and the Son. Other ancient Christians taught this too. The Holy Spirit is not just the virtue of love between the Father and Son, He is a person of the Godhead. However, the Spirit’s work is to flood our hearts with the love of God (Romans 5:8) so it stands to reason that praying in the Spirit keeps us in and causes us to experience God’s Triune love (Jude 21). Which is also the answer to the end of Jesus’ High Priestly prayer for us (John 17), that we would experience the same love the Father shared with the Son.

5. Experience the ancient roots of the faith.

I love the ancient roots of our faith. Christians have a faith handed to us by Christ and the apostles (Jude 3). We aren’t to innovate and add-on to or change our faith. We are to contend for what was given to us to stay pure and faithful to the original gospel. The church was birthed by the Holy Spirit and an expression of tongues was first released on that glorious day of Pentecost. Tongues isn’t new or novel, it’s the ancient expression of the Spirit working in our faith from day one of the church.

6. Prayer for when you don’t know what to pray.

We don’t always know what to pray. Many times we don’t know what or how to pray about a specific situation. So Paul the apostle told the Romans that we are given help in this weakness of not knowing how to pray: the groans of the Spirit (Romans 8:22-27). Now these groans may be tongues or even deeper than tongues in a type of travail. Some might believe that these groans are made by the Spirit apart from human agents, but I believe with other Scriptures on praying in the Spirit, Scripture best helps interpret Scripture and shows us how the Spirit can help us pray when we don’t know what to say with our natural language.

7. Pray the will of God.

In Romans, Paul goes on to describe these groans of the Spirit (Romans 8:22-27) as prayers that are in accordance or alignment with God’s will. When we pray in the Spirit, the Spirit prays through our spirit and the Holy Spirit doesn’t get His prayers wrong. This is a pretty radical claim by the apostle and beautiful invitation for us to elevate our prayers. We are not to only pray in the Spirit (1 Corinthians 14:15) but we can have confidence in the Spirit when we don’t know how to pray with our mind.

8. Grow in boldness.

Praying in tongues at the time of receiving the Holy Spirit for the early church released an incredible boldness over early Christians. We can’t reduce the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the ensuing boldness completely to tongues but it does seem to be a real part of producing boldness in the Christian. This is my testimony along with countless others, that praying in the Spirit stirs up boldness to live for Christ, witness, pray, turn from sin and pursue God in obedience (Acts 1, 2, 4, Jude 20).

9. Walk in spiritual power.

In the early church the Christian faith was associated with spiritual power. When the church expands into Samaria through an outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the apostles lay hands on people to receive the baptism of the Spirit, Simon the Sorcerer is so impressed with their power that He wants to pay for the work of the Spirit. He is rebuke for his trying to buy spiritual power with money. But it should not be lost on us that although we don’t see tongues specifically in Acts 8 connected to the baptism we see that something visible happens so that Simon wants to pay for it. With the rest of the testimony of Luke’s accounts in Acts, we can see that tongues through the baptism of the Spirit rivals and exceeds the power of witches (Acts 1, 2, 8, 10, 19).

10. Do something that AI can’t do.

When we pray in the Spirit we speak mysteries and directly to God (1 Corinthians 14:2). Some people believe this means that we bypass the devil when we pray in tongues. Others believe Paul tells us this in his letter to Corinth because the focus of tongues is more on us praying to God than praying to be heard by others. But whatever happens with tongues, we are tapping into mysteries. The mysteries of the New Testament of godliness, of the gospel and of the church all things to be discovered by the Christian. Why not the mystery of speaking to God in tongues as well? After all, artificial intelligence doesn’t have a spirit and can’t pray in tongues. So you may as well do something that AI can’t do.

I encourage you to seek God through the Scriptures and prayer about this gift. I have some more to write on this topic coming soon. But for now I pray that as my friend experienced after prayer in a Starbucks parking lot that you would experience the power and work of the Spirit in your life.

I’ve been blogging and writing articles for almost 20 years. I went from Blogger, to Tumblr, to a Wordpress site and I’m happy to be at home on Substack now (which is a writer’s dream as far as I’m concerned). I have a passion to write about theology, culture and leadership from a Christological and charismatic perspective. I’ve written on this website about prophecy, current charismatic leadership failures and revival. In 2023, I wrote a daily devotional for all 365 days on the Presence of God (it’s still all available in my archives for free). I have plans to share more articles, inspiration and my personal archives of poetry.

Lately, I’ve had more people inquire about supporting my writing and so this week I turned on a paid subscription option on my Substack. Which means you can become a paid subscriber if you would like to support me as a writer. Most of my writing will be free for all to read. But paid subscribers will receive special articles exclusively from time to time and will also exclusively receive access to my poetry. Some of my exclusive content for paid subscribers I have planned is my preaching coarse I’ve developed over the past few years. For $8 a month you can become a paid subscriber or $80 a year (you get a little discount for paying all at once).

I am so grateful for everyone who has subscribed, followed, commented, shared and written to me about how my writing has impacted you. I’m cooking up some articles on Speaking in Tongues, a series on the apostolic ministry and the NAR, abortion, communion and overcoming leadership limitations. Substack makes it easy to become a paid subscriber and to cancel your subscription should you want to get out at any time. Thanks for anyway (paid or free) that you support and follow my writing and I pray that my writing will continue to make a positive impact on your life for God’s glory.

I made a post on Instagram and Facebook last week in response to a video that played on President Trump’s social media of the Obamas’ faces on monkey’s bodies. You can find plenty of angles on this event on social media. I decided to speak up about it and I wasn’t sure what to expect, but the responses I received went like this:

“Stick to the pulpit.”

“Stay in your lane... You have no moral or legal authority in politics and governement.”

“I’m dissapointed in you.”

“John is very stubborn, he never says sorry...”

On top of the responses I received was the growing annimosity between my friends and followers that did not know one another. I decided to take it down after consulting with my wife because my explanation I added seemed to help some but made others think I was backing down from my original post. I just didn’t feel it was helpful when I communicated in a way that brought confusion, accusation and more arguements. As my Dad used to say, “it created more heat than light.”

But I want to take a moment to contemplate what is happening in our culture. Now, I am conservative for many reasons and I voted for President Trump. I have primarily supported the Republican party or the GOP (Grand Old Party) which is many of you know is represented by an elephant. I’m thankful for many things Trump and republicans have done for our country and for Christian values while I also have concerns and issues with other things they do. I am pro-life, believe in small goverment, support Israel, support free speech and stand against woke gender ideology. But I also believe the elephant needs a conscience.

I often hear Trump supporters say that President Trump is not “pastor-in-chief” and he is not perfect. But I also notice that as soon as someone makes a public response to a public imperfection, people start to rage. My language sounded too judgemental to Trump supporters and not judgemental enough to never Trumpers. I’m not saying that makes me right by being in the middle of the two. But where is the line that you would speak up when you disagree with someone you have supported? Many people thought I was out of line for posting publicly, but responded publicly to tell me I was out of line. I even had people say to write a letter or handle this privately. But notice they did not write me a private message but they called me out on my public page. Oh, the irony!

Who are the best people at holding somone accountable? Who has the best chance of getting through to someone whose actions and words are being misunderstood? Who can most effectively talk someone back if they have gone “over the line?”

I get that in our republic we vote for a party and our party is kind of like our team or our family. We want to support our team becuase they are “so much better” than the other side. Many people feel at home in their party and they want to support the family from threats and things that can undo the success of the family or team.

I agree with what the late great Bishop Harry Jackson used to say, “we should look at our own political party as a mission field.” Politics is a place to influence our world for positive change and just laws. But our parties are not only a place to influence the world, they are also a place that needs our influence. When Christians are with republicans or democrats, they are not with the church, they are in a place that needs the values of Christ and Scripture to continually reform and influence them.

As one of my other friends tells his children, “don’t look at a politician as your team that you root for at all costs. Look at them as an employee. They work for you. You choose your politician to do certain things for you so do a performance review and hold them accountable for doing their job.”

As a pastor and a Christian, we have been given a place in society to be a prophetic voice. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said about the church engaging with government, “The church must continually ask the state whether its action can be justified as legitimate action of the state, i.e. as action which leads to law and order, and not lawlessness and disorder... And if on the other hand, the state is creating an atmosphere of “excessive law and order,” it is the churches job to draw the state’s attention to that too... The church must reject the encroachment of the order of the state precisely because of its better knowledge of the state and of the limitations of its action. The state which endangers the Christian proclamation negates itself (from Bonhoeffer by Eric ).”

I reject the idea that pastors, Christians and churches need to be in politics to use their voice on political issues. As Bonhoeffer said, the church has the best understanding on how the government should be held accountable. Jesus and the prophets of Scripture spoke truth to power many times without being in politics themselves. Taxes, morality, sexuality, race relations and more are not just political but theological and spiritual in nature too.

We might not agree on every political issue but Christians are called to stand against evil. If we see evil or what can be perceived as evil in our own party, we ought to be able to call it out. Afterall, don’t the Christian within the Republican party owe it to the party to function as its conscience? If we won’t hold our own party that we vote for accountable to our values, then who will?

I never want to speak dishonorably about President Trump or democratic leaders. I publicly post and speak about things I have affirmed related to politics as well things I disagree with sometimes. I think the elephant needs a conscience.

When is it appropriate to disagree with public statements or images publicly? Is it our idolizing of a leader that makes us so angry when someone calls for repentance and accountability?

I do need to stay in my lane of preaching the gospel and making disciples. I don’t believe the government or power of the sword ultimately changes the world, but rather the power of the gospel. But should gospel values influence government too if we want a world of peace to spread the gospel (1 Timothy 2)? I think the answer is yes.

My wife Grace and I have been married for 21 years. As comedian Nate Bargatze says about his marriage, “things are getting pretty serious.” Dating, marrying and raising a family with Grace has been such a great adventure in this life. We have been best friends and had some incredible seasons of joy and some incredible seasons of challenges. This woman still leaves me speechless (a tough feat) with her beauty and fills my world with laughter and sparkles. We recently sat down on our Sonrise Pastor’s Podcast to share about dating, finding the right person, love and marriage. But for this Valentine’s day I want to share what is the biggest lesson I’ve been learning about marriage.

When I asked Grace what is the biggest thing she’s learned about love in marriage, it’s that you have to put the other spouse and their needs above yourself. She said that married love is about selflessness and not selfishness. It’s so true and something that is a continual challenge and opportunity for me in marriage. It’s a challenge because it’s not easy to die to self but it’s simple. It’s an opportunity because it’s liberating to serve and prefer the other once you get over yourself.

The biggest lesson that I’ve been learning about love is that love is first suffering. I know, “how romantic” to bring up suffering on Valentine’s day. The greatest passage on love in the Bible is considered by many to be 1 Corinthians 13. Paul gives us the most thorough definition and exposition of what love really is from a Christian perspective. In verse 4, when Paul begins to get into the definition of love he tells us that “Love is patient (NIV).” Other translations like the NKJV say that “Love suffers long.” In the Greek language, lists often signify an order of importance. So before love is anything, it is patient or suffering long.

Is love really about suffering? From the wisdom of the classic The Princess Bride, young Wesley tells Princess Buttercup, "Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.” We will all experience pain in our lives and relationships. What we do with pain in relationships in many ways determines if we are choosing love or not.

Lately I’ve enjoyed the powerful romantic but heartbreaking music of Vincent Lima who explores love through some of the ancient myths in his new album To Love a Thing that Fades. One of his tracks “The Fire” probably does the best description and most poetic reflection I’ve ever heard about a woman wanting a man to sit with her in her pain and suffering and not try and rescue her. One line in the song says, “Love isn’t rescue, it’s someone to lose.” Where I am thankful that God rescues humanity in His love. In human marriage and romantic love, we can’t rescue one another in some sense, we can only be patient with one another in our pain and allow healing to come through our presence with the other.

Love is not about getting our way or always feeling good. How many relationships end because we aren’t willing to suffer long? Pain drives a lot of our decisions, but love stays connected with the other in the pain. Love plays the long game. Love is a covenant. My Dad would often tell me growing up, “marriage is an unconditional commitment to an imperfect person.” And it’s also the same thing for my spouse.

This is not to say that love is always awful. Love not only suffers long, but it also rejoices, hopes, endures and never fails! Christian love in the teaching of Jesus and the New Testament authors revolutionized romantic love between husbands and wives. Love is amazing and it’s worth every struggle and challenge.

Love that goes the long haul has unexpected seasons. We’ve experienced highs like I never imagined and trials that seemed impossible. That’s why marriage is based on a covenant with God and one another. Our vows continue to mean something that we took on our wedding day because we don’t know what the future holds. You can’t choose a partner that makes you immune from suffering. But choose wisely so that you choose someone who will stick with you in the pain.

Maybe this seems a little heavy for Valentine’s day but we only celebrate Valentine’s day because St. Valentine was willing to suffer to the death for His commitment to the gospel of Jesus Christ and the ministry of performing marriages for Christian couples. I hope you married couples enjoy a romantic and blissful day. I’m enjoying this season of my marriage with my best friend and wife. I know we both keep growing by prioritizing love through patience with one another.

What about the evil of the abortion industry? Immigration? Corruption? Lawlessness? Racism? Caring for the poor? There are many issues of injustice to deal with in our culture and many more to deal with from a global perspective. But I submit to you that the greatest issue of injustice to stand against and act towards as Christians is gospel poverty.

Gospel Poverty?

What is gospel poverty? Well, some define gospel poverty as a rival for the prosperity gospel and Christians taking on a lifestyle of financial poverty. However, for the purpose of this article, I am defining gospel poverty as “a deprivation and lack of access or knowledge to the good news of Jesus Christ.”

You might ask how is gospel poverty a more important justice issue than abortion or financial poverty? Well, the Bible tells us as Christians that we are pilgrims and foreigners. We are made for another world. There is a future judgement and a future world. Heaven and hell is on the line for humanity. The writer of Hebrews says it like this:

Hebrews 9:27 NIV

Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.

Every justice issue on earth is important and matters to God, but the justice issue that matters for all eternity is the issue of gospel poverty. If we preach the gospel or good news of Jesus Christ and don’t care about justice issues on earth, we are misrepresenting our faith at best and close to abandoning it at worst. But we have completely abandoned our faith if we no longer prepare people for their death and for judgement day.

Even the late and famous atheist Christopher Hitchens was known for saying that if Christians really believe Jesus is the Messiah, they have a moral obligation to try and convert others to their faith. It would be cruel to believe that we have the way of eternal life and we hold it all to ourselves.

When Christians withhold the good news and don’t make the salvation of Jesus known through the Scriptures, we are participating in the greatest injustice against all mankind. You don’t believe me? Well, even in Psalm 2 which is one of the most quoted Psalms in the New Testament, the rulers of nations are judged primarily for how their rule and life honors (or dishonors) the reign of Jesus the Son of God.

In the New Testament, Paul says to Timothy that the church’s prayer life should prioritize praying for government leaders with a specific purpose in mind:

1 Timothy 2:1-6a NIV

I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people--- for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people.

Paul says the reason we are to pray for leaders is especially important because they can create an environment that allows the good news to spread because God, “wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” If we are supposed to pray for leaders for this outcome, do you think if we can speak, vote or advocate for the same outcome in our republic we should do the same?

Freedom of Speech

Freedom of speech and religion is of the utmost importance in our culture because it allows Christians to preach and teach the gospel through the Scriptures freely. The only way we can really deal with other injustice issues is to be able to live and persuade from the Scriptures. The eternal gospel proclaimed from the Bible also gives us truth to apply to every area of culture. If we can’t teach from the word of God, we are not left with a standard by which to call into question the evils of our day. Gospel poverty should be contended with by every generation of Christians to complete the great task of preaching the good news and making disciples of all nations.

A Local Lawsuit that Matters

In Everett, where my wife and I pastor and have raised our children a new local chapter of a national ministry known as Lifewise Academy started hosting a weekly Bible outreach in one of the public elementary schools. Many people are surprised that the US Constitution allows for Bible instruction during public school hours as long as the Bible teaching is optional, during an appropriate time (like lunch or other extra-curricular activities) and it doesn’t use public funds. So Lifewise is legally conducting Bible studies all across the USA, walking or bussing children to churches near public schools so they can learn about Jesus from the Bible.

Bible sales as I understand it are at an all time high right now or at least experiencing a surge. A lot of families, students and even young children have a longing to learn about God and the Bible. Lifewise has wonderfully filled a gap in the lives of many of our children and families across America, they are addressing gospel poverty.

Well, a few vocal Americans in our region are not happy about our Constitutional freedoms and rights to share from the Bible. A small group of angry parents and/or community people have been pressuring the school and the board and the school board has become unfriendly to Lifewise Academy. Children are not supposed to have their Bible’s outside of their bags at school. The school is putting unfair requirements on Lifewise that they don’t use on other clubs or activities. I’ve even seen video of an angry woman enraged that Lifewise taught a Bible lesson on… wait for it… something so dangerous…are you ready for it?.. OBEDIENCE! That’s right they are enraged about teaching children obedience (which I thought was every parent’s and teacher’s dream).

Lifewise Academy ended up having to sue the Everett School district to restore their freedoms and allow them to continue to run successfully and peacefully. You can read more about the story in the Everett Herald or even see an interview that reached Fox News.

Pray for Lifewise Academy Everett or reach out to see how you can help them. Pray for the national ministry and program as they seek to expand in many states. What an amazing opportunity we have in this generation to combat gospel poverty.

The Tide is Turning

In the Old Testament there is a story about a boy Samuel that God raises up to be a great leader in His kingdom. When he was a child God called him and it set the trajectory of his life purpose. But the Bible tells us that when Samuel was a boy the times were like this: “In those days the word of the Lord was rare (1 Samuel 3:1 NIV).” This statement that the word of the Lord was rare comes in a tone of sadness. The rarity of God’s Word is something to grieve in our culture, but what hope we should have as the tide is turning and God could raise up a Lifewise ministry to reach young Samuels in this cultural moment in our public schools.

Dear Mike,

here is something briefly about myself. I have been in pastoral ministry for over 20 years. I pastor a Pentecostal church in the Seattle area. Over the years our church, Sonrise Christian Center, has been a hub for conferences on revival, prayer, the apostolic ministry, prophetic training and power evangelism. We’ve hosted many leaders and been affiliated with many ministries that would be associated with the NAR. I reject many ideas about the NAR or the way things are characterized often by its critics. I agree with some criticisms of the apostolic movement but still believe in the Ephesians 4 ascension gifts of Christ. We’ve hosted Peter Wagner, Dutch Sheets, Bill Johnson, Todd White, Cindy Jacobs, Heidi Baker, Randy Clark and many others over the years. Just to give you some context from where I am coming from. I love our movement but was raised to think Biblically and confront things with integrity by my Dad (who was my predecessor), my mentors and Bible training. While I love and appreciate the amazing aspects of the movement that I am part of, I grieve for the way we have handled leadership failure and ministry ethics (as well as some important doctrines like Christology).

In a lot of ways, evangelicalism and even more so the charismatic movement, is like the wild wild west. People love to follow mavericks and strong leaders who are building movements outside of traditional denominational structures which has allowed great growth and influence but creates challenges when things start to come apart. Knowing how to apply Matthew 18 and 1 Timothy 5 can get a little tricky with technology and our global audiences.

I believe God is using you to bring correction and speak up for the victims of unhealthy and even toxic church leadership. God loves those who lend their voice to those that don’t have one. I know it comes at a cost for you to make these videos. I think you actually desire the health of the body overall and your purpose is not to slander or tear people down, but bring correction like setting a broken bone to restore it.

Of course I don’t agree with all of your conclusions and methods, but I thank God that health can return to the body by dealing with sin, lying, immorality and spiritual rot. Exposure can be the mercy of God for leaders that won’t repent since you can have a very successful ministry with signs and wonders and hear the chilling words from Jesus, “I never knew you, depart from me… (Matthew 7:23).”

Here are ten things I plead with you to consider for future impact:

1. Be the Mike Winger on the last few minutes of your Shawn Bolz video.

At the end of the almost 6 hour video on Bethel and Bolz you come back on to add a few minutes of commentary. Your tone on that last portion of video sounds like the tone of a peacemaker who could build bridges with leaders and movements you are trying to appeal to most. “Blessed are the peacemakers (Matthew 5:9).”

2. Don’t make room for conjecture or filling in the blanks with your own imagination.

The evidence, the witness testimonies and investigation you have done have a lot of integrity and clarity but then there are plenty of times in your Bethel and Bolz video and new Todd White video that you move from facts and evidence to conjecture. You are building a narrative with judgements added of people’s motives based on your opinion. You say things like “Bethel doesn’t care about people faking, they only care about people faking who get caught (or something close to this).” You say things at the end of the Todd White video that you have earned cynicism. There are many moments where I appreciate you being honest and clear but then I ache when you move from truth and integrity into opinion based judgements. I think your facts and testimonies don’t need the additional narrative creation. I think you have enough to bring forward with your facts.

3. The pendulum swung to create a protected class for ministry leadership, but if it swings too far the other way and we descend into false accusation, gossip and slander towards leaders, another type of damage will be unleashed.

I realize some leaders and charismatics think that everything you are doing is gossip and slander. I don’t think that, but I think there is a danger of that. Things can start out well but descend quickly if we don’t follow Biblical protocols and don’t do things with a Christ honoring heart. “If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other (Galatians 5:15 NIV).” “I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people (Romans 16:17-18 NIV).” What started as a holy hatred for sin and the health of the church, I pray doesn’t turn into personal vengeance and self-appointed justice.

4. Scoffing, mocking and being condescending will hinder the impact you desire to have on those who need what you have to say the most.

Sometimes I notice exposure ministries laughing at and mocking the people they criticize. I realize sometimes it’s a stress response and feels justified because of the amount and nature of evidence and testimony you are receiving. Additionally, the charismatic world can have some wacky stuff that’s hard to not laugh at sometimes. Maybe I am misreading you (or even mentally lumping you in with other exposure ministries/channels) but I think it limits your impact with those who need to hear you the most. I realize Jesus mocks the Pharisees and Paul calls out the Judiazers with strong language. The list could go on. But I believe you when you say you want health and restoration. So I think you would do well if you appeal as a brother to these people as mostly genuine in their desire to honor the Lord, but have picked up some poor theology, practices or hidden sin. Your voice will bring a greater impact if it’s without a mocking tone.

5. Don’t create a sport commentary culture about everything with people you don’t agree with.

I watched a Remnant Radio short the other day where Michael Miller said, “We are going to keep calling balls and strikes.” Not to make you guilty for what he said, but it made me think about what is currently happening and it’s like every time a video comes out and a response there is another response. I think an exposure response platform that’s like ESPN Sportscenter would not be a good look overall. “Did you hear that apology Bob?” “Yes, he averages a 3.5 in forgiveness and hopefully can get it to a 5 if he improves his forgiveness technique.” I’m not saying to not make your videos, but there has to be some kind of going too far afterall, doesn’t there? “In the multitude of words sin is not lacking, But he who restrains his lips is wise (‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭10‬:‭19‬ ‭NKJV‬‬).”

6. Seek to understand the theology and practice of the movement you are criticizing.

I think you are doing a pretty good job overall of understanding Pentecostals, charismatics and the prophetic stream of the body of Christ. And you are doing better than many other critics of our movement. But I do cringe sometimes because I think you are misrepresenting certain cultural and theological distinctives that aren’t necessarily sinful. It comes in subtle ways. I am thankful for the way you have held a mirror to us because sometimes we are way too sloppy in our speech and imprecise. We need correction with how we speak. What else can we be judged by other than our words (and actions of course)? Please continue to seek to understand us as you critique us.

7. Help think through a better system of accountability, confrontation and restoration in our independent ministry world.

At the end of the day as a self-appointed exposer of sin (not sure what to call you here, I don’t mean it as an insult at all), your authority really only goes so far. Which is a challenge in our evangelical ecclesiology intersecting with something as big as the internet. Once you do your duty and call people out, do you have recommended ways for people to confront well? I believe if local church elders and ministry boards do their job, you wouldn’t be necessary in this way, which I think you would agree with (I wish every minister at large submitted to local church eldership). But when dealing with itinerant ministries and Bible teachers who minister widely, how or when should people Biblically do things the right way when things go wrong?

8. Resist guilt by association and broad stroke narratives.

Not all charismatics and Pentecostals are the same (even like me lumping you with other exposure ministries, lol). Some of your narrative can stick to us as a movement but just because people share a platform at a conference or have mutual friends doesn’t create the same level of guilt or authority to bring charges against another ministry. I think you know this and agree to some extent, but I don’t see what Randy Clark, Heidi Baker and Michael Koulianos had to do with Shawn and Bethel. I realize many leaders knew things, but the things you charged them with confused people in my own church or make it look like they all had authority in Shawn’s life and were part of cover up culture. Just like you are not responsible for everyone you have ever interacted with, this muddies the water. Building a case for disqualification should be done with truth and integrity not with petty details and piling on. Not all sins in leaders are disqualifying and not all judgements and punishments should be the same. As the old addage goes, “if all you have is an hammer, everything looks like a nail.” I think with the evidence you bring, leadership teams will hopefully be empowered to bring appropriate judgements and discipline, but its hard to see all these people you accuse on the same level.

9. Bring hope to victims and highlight people doing things well when you get the chance.

Your voice is giving hope and strength to victims and people that feel like all integrity has been lost. I applaud you for that. Please keep using your voice to point to the healing and redemption that is in Christ for victims, leaders, movements and sinners. Christ is redemptive and we ought to be too (of course there are still consequences for sins and not everyone should remain in ministry temporarily or permanently). Many leaders I have relationship with are genuinely serving Jesus in Pentecostal and charismatic churches and they have no tolerance for the lying and immorality that has been covered up. I think you are doing this more and I really appreciate it.

10. The measure you use, will be used on you.

As Jesus said the measure we use is what is used on us. I hope you continue to do well in your ministry and point many to Christ. I hope you finish well. I really honor your statements like, “I will become Bethel’s biggest cheerleader if they repent” and others like it. I see so many demanding forgiveness and then when it comes, it is never enough for them. If we as Christians abandon forgiveness, we have abandoned the core of our faith. None of us deserve forgiveness but Christ gives it freely. This doesn’t excuse unrighteousness, especially in ministry leadership, but we need to be a people that move towards forgiveness in godly and healthy ways. Thank you for modeling this and I pray you help people move this way forward.

I hope I haven’t misjudged you at all. I seek to honor you and try and be helpful for the glory of Christ the health of His bride. You’ve given me much to think about and I am prayerful about how to handle different situations and relationships since we’ve done a lot of ministry with Todd White over the years (from about 2009 or so to 2017) and others. I have seen so much good and honestly almost only good from some of the leaders you have mentioned. I know they aren’t perfect but I have seen incredible grace, generosity and the fear of the Lord that leaders have wrestled with that you take on at times. May God cover you, guide you and bless you as you seek to honor Jesus Christ.

In Christ,

John Hammer

If you haven’t heard yet, Mike Winger, a former Calvary Chapel pastor and online Bible teacher/apologist dropped another video with accusations, testimonies and evidence of leadership failure. These accusations have primarily to do with Shawn Bolz and Bethel leaders but also include many other ministry leaders in this almost six hour video. You can watch it here.

My heart is burdened for the Pentecostal church, which I am so thankful to be a part of. I wanted to share my heart with others in our movement, especially with other leaders. I will write an open letter to Mike Winger, Remnant Radio and other people doing exposure/rebuking ministry next. But this one first is for us who lead within Pentecostal and charismatic churches.

Is it Biblically right for Mike Winger to expose Shawn and Bethel leaders?

The issue of judgement in the New Testament has to do with authority. We are told to judge not in some instances (Matthew 7:13) but also to judge righteous judgement in others (John 7:24). So why should Mike Winger get to make judgements against Shawn Bolz and Bethel leaders? This is a fair question and in some ways, he has no right or authority to do so. Ideally, Shawn’s local church, ministry board or closest ministry friends who said they were close friends or even spiritual fathers over Shawn should have acted to bring discipline. But according to many witnesses and evidence, people tried those routes over and over and then brought Mike Winger evidence has a Bible teacher. As their brother in Christ, I believe Mike Winger has some biblical authority to act on their behalf following the steps of Matthew 18 and 1 Timothy 5.

In Acts 17, the Bereans were commended for testing what the apostle Paul was teaching to make sure they could receive it. In Revelation 2, before Jesus rebukes the church at Ephesus for leaving their first love, He commends them for having “tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false (Revelation 2:2 NIV). So their is totally a place for believers, local churches and ministry leaders to make judgements according to Scripture about public teachings and ministers (again more on how this is done right in my next post about exposure ministry). Christians must refrain from gossip and slander while also have room for public rebuke, confrontation and discipline done in the right spirit.

Bethels’ Response and the Weighty Call to Leadership.

Initially, Kris Vallotton made a response after the Mike Winger video came out in a Bethel church Sunday night service. You can watch it here. It was not well received and thankfully Kris humbled himself and Bethel took very seriously the responsibility for this whole situation. The Senior Leadership Team (SLT Team) key leaders of Bethel Church Dan Farrelly, Kris Vallotton and Bill Johnson all addressed the church and their global movement in their Sunday services this past weekend. You can watch that video here. This was a very powerful video of confession, humility and repentance. I am much more hopeful for the Pentecostal church and revival stream of the body of Christ after this response. Yes, things still need to be carried out and real change needs to be implemented to handle leadership failure more faithfully. But those who call for change and repentance sadly just accuse Bethel of doing image repair and trying to manage the damage. I have rarely seen any leaders after failure lower their defenses and own their failures like the Bethel team did. At the end of their service of repentance the Bethel online pastors Steve and Ruth Moore through tears thank Mike Winger for bringing these things to them and call him “a man of God.” Pastor Moore said that he is in regular communication with Winger.

One of the things that Kris repented for was the realization that they bear responsibility for their level of influence. In Kris’s first response he seems to make the assertion that it’s really tough to be a leader with so much responsibility, so people should take it easy. But what He realizes over the next week, I think has been one of the biggest challenges and failures in our movement: the call to leadership is weighty. This is probably why James warns us not to aspire to be a teacher because we get a stricter judgement.

Answer me this One Thing on Privilege and Responsibility and Honor Culture.

This is the one question we have to answer as leaders: Does a leader’s responsibility equal the size of their privilege? Or should we hold leader’s accountable to their level of influence or authority? Answer me this one. Think about it. If a leader is not responsible to the level of their influence then ministry leadership is actually a lower class of leadership than anywhere else in society. If a ministry leader should only be corrected privately, then the best place to never get caught or be held responsible in life would be the ministry. All through Scripture we learn that leaders are held to a higher standard (the OT priesthood, through the prophets, the teachings of Jesus, Paul and James).

There are some things that are more difficult to discern in the Bible, but it seems very clear to me that a leader is responsible to the level of their authority. If a leader pastors a local church, they are responsible to that church. If they oversee many churches, they are responsible to those many churches. If they are an author, they are responsible for what they write and how it influences people. If they have a global platform influencing millions, they are responsible to the millions they influence. I’m not saying that a leader or author is responsible for everything people do that they influence. I’m saying that if they teach something or do something that violates the truth of God and the trust of their authority, they should be accountable to that level. The call to leadership is weighty.

Bill Johnson even said in his portion of the repentance message that his greatest strength of seeing the good in leaders and the belief in restoring people in this case was his greatest weakness. He called it being too merciful or “unsanctified mercy.” One of the areas I disagreed with Winger was his assertion that Bethel doesn’t care about fakes. A lot of online critics of Bethel have judged Bethel’s character and motives beyond what the evidence clearly states (again more on this in my next post). But I think Johnson’s confession was very important as it relates to honor culture. Honor culture has some good aspects but when it leans towards honoring fallen leaders at the expense of Biblical responsibility and at the expense of victims, it gets toxic.

If we call someone a spiritual son or a close friend as long as they do right but then take no responsibility when things go wrong, is that right?

A Plea for Repentance, Clarity and Biblical Fidelity.

We need reform in our movement to discuss and correct theology, morality and prophecy. If we don’t start dealing with sin, false teaching and false prophecy within our own movement, God will allow or even raise up many Mike Winger’s from outside our own camp to hold up a mirror to what we are saying and doing or not saying and not doing.

The standard for how to deal with failure of ministry leaders, elders, pastors and 5-fold ministers of the gospel is 1 Timothy 5:19-22. There are obscure passages like Noah’s nakedness that have been horribly applied to leadership failure and covering over a leader when they have sinned. There certainly needs to be wisdom for when a leader needs public rebuke. All leaders have some sins and shortcomings that are not necessarily disqualifying. The main issue is when someone has violated by their character the Biblical standards of leadership. The level of a leader’s repentance is also of the utmost importance. I don’t think most people are expecting sinless perfection from their leaders, but we all should have Biblical expectations for New Testament leaders or else we don’t actually have New Testament leaders.

I’ve heard so many leaders call people like Mike Winger heresy hunters (maybe he is sometimes), anti-charismatic (which is not true) and just seeking money for his videos (which he actually took the ads off of these types of videos to not generate ad money for them). It’s uncomfortable when Winger (and others) hold a mirror to our movement and I don’t agree with him wholeheartedly. But one thing I see is that as charismatics and Pentecostals, we lack clarity often in our speech. One moment a leader says something like, “Shawn is my spiritual son or most trusted and powerful prophetic voice I know really well” and the next moment, “I have no authority over Shawn.” We have to get clearer with what we mean. We crank out content, endorsements and prophetic affirmations left and right and now some of those words we have shared are the very things we are being judged by. We have to be more precise and faithful in our speech about doctrine, affirmations, prophecies and “revelation.”

Ultimately we need to faithful to the Scriptures. We need leaders to follow the clear and simple commands of Scripture. I haven’t had to administer leadership discipline the way I’ve seen my Dad and others who have gone before me need to deal with it. It’s one of the toughest weights a leader can face. But that’s what leaders are supposed to be here for. I am thankful for Bethel church. Bill Johnson’s had a big impact on my life. I am thankful for their response and hope for better things. I think we should all search our hearts and join them in repentance to see if we have any areas in our own lives and ministries that contribute to these types of problems.

I write about this more extensively in some of the later chapters of by latest book, Altars over Thrones: How a Revival of the Altar Changes the World. We must protect and purify the altar. We need the fear of the Lord. May the Lord grant us the gift of true repentance and may us leaders not perform on stages but truly allow the Lord to purify the altar of our lives and ministries. I pray God searches me and deals with me to remove any compromise in my life and in our ministry. Will you allow the Lord to search your heart and ministry?

In Christ,

John Hammer

• water purity?

• food additives?

• medical procedures?

• safety technology?

I want my prophets like I like my water, with testing standards!! It’s great, I love water. I need water. I want more water! So how much more important is it to make sure it’s something that’s not lethal?

In continuationist churches, those that believe in the ongoing use of spiritual gifts in the post-first century church, we have many prophets who prophesy many things. I am so thankful for the powerful gift of prophecy and the fruit I’ve seen from this powerful gift. But with anything powerful, it needs to be used properly with care so its power is harnessed for building rather than harming.

In a teaching series we are going through in 1 John 4 (titled “The True Jesus: Christian Belief and Practice in 1 John) I preached through a passage about false prophets and wanted to use the time to address our own prophetic movement in our Pentecostal and charismatic churches. This article comes as extension of that message and a chance to share the notes.

The Passage

1 John 4:1-3 NIV

[1] Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. [2] This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, [3] but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

Definitions (in my own summary of basic Biblical terms)

1. A prophet: one who hears God and speaks for God.

2. Prophecy: the communication of a message from God.

Different Types of Prophets

1. True prophets - know, love and represent the true Christ, point people to JESUS, the Human and Divine Son of God. They may make mistakes at times, we only know and prophesy in part according to 1 Cor. 13. But overall they accurately speak in alignment with Scripture and the Spirit, with an accurate record of foretelling and forth-telling. No one should expect perfection from a prophet, this is not Scripture they are speaking. Every word God speaks is flawless, but we can have human communication errors in how well we see, hear, perceive and communicate.

2. False prophets - point people away from Jesus. They are deceivers, believe a different gospel, and they have departed from Christianity. They lead to a false christ, no salvation, other religions, etc. They may have accurate predictions about future events at times, but their ministry steers people away from Christ as seen in 1 John 4:1-6.

3. Immature/inaccurate prophets - God speaks clearly to them, but they muddle things, speak from their own mind or make additions, wrongly interpret or they mix accurate and inaccurate words. I realize some people believe everyone is true or false with no middle ground. Everyone in this category of immature that I’m describing will either mature and become a true prophet or end up as a false prophet most of the time. Also, we need discernment because someone may have a true gift but get into moral compromise, corrupted motives or during a season of testing give into pressures to fabricate things. Prophecy is a little more nuanced in the Scripture. It’s basically true or false on the one hand, but the way things work in the spirit world and in both Old and New Testament prophecy don’t always fit into nice categories. To unpack this point fully, I would need much more time. But we ought to follow 1 Thess. 5:20, by testing prophecy while we cling to what is good and reject what is evil, even in a single immature prophecy.

How are Christians guided?

Christians ought to use prophecy as only a PART of how they receive guidance. Each of these points that shows how God guides us should be used in balance or fullness with one another. Over-emphasis on prophecy or any one point of guidance can lead us astray. It’s important to not reject prophecy and not become overly enamored or dependent on prophetic words. Here is how we receive guidance as Christians:

1. By God, The Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, He created us, speaks to us and gives us direction as the Lord and Source of all humanity (Genesis 1-3).

2. We ultimately know God’s guidance and authority through The WORD OF GOD, the Holy Scriptures (2 Tim. 3:16-17) (Some might say that Jesus now speaks to us as the fulfillment of Scripture, which I say yes and amen! But we only know Jesus and who He is through the Scriptures. He is the point and treasure of Scripture).

3. Personally hear God’s voice (John 10).

4. Dreams and visions (Acts 2 and many passages throughout Scripture).

5. Prophecies from others (1 Cor. 14).

6. Circumstances and signs (Genesis 9).

7. The church (Revelation 1). The voice of Jesus comes from the seven golden candlesticks in Revelation, which are the seven churches.

8. Wisdom of elders (1 Peter 5, James).

9. Our own desires to the degree we delight in the Lord (Psalm 37:4). Our desires can deceive us, but when guided by Scripture and honoring the Lord (plus harmony with other listed points here), sometimes the Lord just allows us to make a choice without fear of getting something wrong and won’t give us a specific way to go.

This is important to remember when processing prophetic words over your life personally. They should always be governed by Scripture and then should be in alignment with wise counsel, the church and ultimately the inner witness of the Holy Spirit’s discernment in your own life.

How do we test Prophecy?

1. By the Scripture (2 Tim. 3:16-17). Prophecy never will contradict the authoritative and inerrant Word of God.

2. By Scriptural principles:

   1. Does the word edify, exhort and comfort (1 Cor. 14:3).

   2. Who does the word glorify? The prophet or the Lord? Leave some things in the realm of mystery like the Apostle Paul’s heavenly encounter (2 Cor. 12).

   3. 2-3 witnesses establishing a word (2 Cor. 13:1, Deut. 17:6).

   4. The greater the calling, the greater the confirmation (Acts 9). God doesn’t want you to miss His will, the greater the word He speaks, the clearer He will make it like Paul’s calling on the road to Damascus.

3. By the inner witness and discernment from the Holy Spirit - what spirit is behind the word and the person(1 Cor. 14)?

4. Does this point to Christ truly (1 John 4:1-6, Revelation 19:10)? Prophecy must get Jesus rightly.

5. By other apostles and prophets (1 Cor. 14).

6. By church governance authority, history, elders, pastors, deacons (1 Peter 5, Ephesians 6:1-2).

7. By trusted friends and wise counselors (Proverbs and James).

8. By the accuracy of what transpires (Many Scriptures where prophecy actually happens as predicted).

9. By not despising prophecy as we cling to the good parts of prophecy and reject any mixture that is bad (1 Thess. 5:20).

   Final Thoughts

   Prophecy is a great and powerful gift! Like anything great and powerful it can be used for glorious purposes and it can cause destruction. We should honor and value this gift in the church. We should honor every gift of Christ and the Holy Spirit given to us.

   John’s exhortation is brilliant about many false prophets being in the world. Should we shut down prophecy? No.

   Should we reject prophecy? No.

   Should we minimize prophecy? No.

   Should we despise prophecy? No.

   Should we fear prophecy? No.

   What should be done in light of these many false prophets? TESTING!

   Testing the prophets, the prophecies and ultimately the spirit behind prophecy is God’s brilliant strategy. Testing is not rejecting or dishonoring prophecy, it’s taking it seriously and elevating the impact. The great the integrity of the prophetic ministry, the greater the blessing it will be in people’s lives.

   How has prophecy been a blessing to your life? Or has it been a burden? Leave a comment or ask me a question in the comment section. And if this blessed you or helped you, please share it.

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1. Grieve the losses.

Matthew 5:4 NIV Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

To really grieve in a healthy way allows us to express true sorrow, where God meets us with comfort. In my observation of people as a pastor, people tend to grieve as little as possible or wallow in unending griefs. Grief is not just for experiencing the death of those close to us, it’s for any losses that caused our hearts disappointment and sorrow. Expressing your grief and mourning your losses creates an emotional reset. Pour out your heart to God. Receiving God’s comfort in this place of mourning allows you to be lifted above your woes.

2. Embrace the gift of tears.

Jeremiah 9:1 NIV Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night for the slain of my people.

The ancients called crying before the Lord, the gift of tears. Like St. Symeon the New Theologian (942-1022), ““What an unutterable wonder! Then when tears are shed from bodily eyes they invisibly flow over the soul and wash away the impurity of sin. They shake and burn out the demons as they fall to the ground and make the soul free of the invisible bonds of sin.” Science has discovered that tears release stress hormones. Don’t be afraid of your tears. Tears speak what your mind can’t express. Tears are the sermons of your soul. Tears are instructive and healing. Cry over the hurts and shortcomings in your past that have been unresolved. Ask God for the gift of tears.

3. Repentance.

2 Corinthians 7:10 NIV Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.

Grief and tears if in their proper perspective bring one to repentance. Repentance at its root means to change your mind. But in its Biblical context, repentance is about a deep change of mind that leads to turning from sinful ways and living in God’s ways. Repentance leads to life. We ought to express grief and sorrow but not in a way that leads to death. That is worldly sorrow. True Biblcial grief, sorrow, tears and repentance resets us to live in freedom and an empowered life. If you are ending up in a place of unresolved brokenness, head in a new direction: God’s way.

4. Forgive.

Matthew 6:14-15 NIV For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Unforgiveness binds us to the past like nothing else. As a friend in ministry once taught me through a story in His life, when we don’t forgive others we close our heart off. When we close our heart to people, we close our heart to God because we only have one heart. Forgiveness starts with a decision to let go of the anger and desire for vengeance. Forgiveness is about release in judgement to God. Forgiveness is a choice of obedience to trust God. Forgiveness is simple, but its not easy. Forgiveness sets us free. Unforgiveness will keep you locked in the past like nothing else.

5. Resist bitterness.

Hebrews 12:15 NIV See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.

When unforgiveness, anger and resentment fester in our lives, we end of up full of bitterness. If bitterness has taken root in your life, you have got to deal with it with a vengeance. Bitterness defiles you and everyone you care about. It will ruin your life by rotting everything. So many people have shipwrecked their faith, their marriage and their calling due to bitterness. Watch out for beliefs, attitudes and past events that feed bitterness in your life. Do whatever it takes to repent of bitterness and heal from the pains of injustice in your past or it will cripple your future.

6. Write.

Job 19:23 NIV “Oh, that my words were recorded, that they were written on a scroll.

Something powerful happens when you commit your story to writing. Putting your thoughts, feelings, experiences and dreams on paper can make them much more concrete. When you go back and read a journal or your own writing you can notice things about yourself that you haven’t seen before. You can expose lies and expose longings that you haven’t noticed before. Your creativity can be ignited. You can heal up quite a bit by spending time expressing your own thoughts with a pen and paper. Even your goals are more likely to be accomplished when you write them down. (Also, I’m planning to write much more on here in 2026 Lord willing).

7. Share.

James 5:16 NIV Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

All the previous steps are very helpful in cutting off the power of the past and moving into your future but they can be supercharged by sharing with someone else. Spend some time with a mature friend, counselor, pastor or mentor and share your griefs, your pains, your sins and your hurts. Confess your sins as sins. If you have knowingly hurt someone, confess your sin and apologize to them. Christians can go straight to God through Jesus Christ, but God has also instructed us not to go it alone and receive ministry from one another in the body of Christ. Having someone meet your confessions of sin and failure with love and prayer is a transformative blessing for future progress.

8. Practice thanksgiving.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NIV Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

I like to say that gratitude paints your current circumstances with hope. Spend time in thankfulness. Be thankful for all the lessons you have learned. Be thankful for what you have learned in failure and in triumph over the past year. Be thankful for opportunities and relationships. Thanksgiving puts you before the Lord and brings you into His manifest presence. Thanksgiving attracts positive thoughts of faith for the present challenges you face. Be relentlessly thankful in speech, in prayers, in songs and in writing. Gratitude aligns you with truth and empowers forward motion.

9. Renew your mind.

Ephesians 4:22-24 NIV You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

The un-renewed mind is going to pull you into the ditch of despair over and over again. You have to examine your thoughts and views about things according to the truth of the gospel and God’s Word. Do your thoughts remind you that you are loved unconditionally by God? Do your thoughts point you away from sin and unrighteousness? Do your thoughts cause you to be dependent upon God and the finished work of Jesus on the cross for you? You can be saved, forgiven and reborn spiritually, but you must continue to renew your mind by putting off your past or old self and and be renewed in God’s truth of your new self in Christ. When you identify thoughts and beliefs rooted in lies and sin, find corresponding Scriptures to memorize, meditate and pray over to allow God to transform your mind. Your mind can heal, change and grow. My life is proof of that (although I still have a long way to go)!

10. Pray out loud.

Ephesians 6:18 NIV And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.

My wife Grace and I keep saying, pray about everything always. Prayer unlocks faith and draws God’s empowering presence into your life. If you don’t have experience praying, the fastest way to learn is just to do it. Prayer is speaking out loud to God. Spend time expressing your heart to Him, like a child to a father. Spend time praying the Psalms or other prayers of the Bible. You can usually find a Psalm by scanning through them quickly that sounds exactly like what you’re experiencing emotionally. Another way to get better at praying is to spend time praying with other Christians that know how to pray. Prayer is for all seasons to bring you close to God, deal with your past and move you into the intended future that God has for you.

I hope these ten things are helpful. If they are please leave me a comment about what stood out to you or share something else that helps you at the start of a new year. Also, it always means a lot to have people share this with others as they find it helpful. Blessings in Christ on 2026!

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The Wonder of the Presence will take you through October, November and December. It builds upon the first three books and covers topics that include the Presence of God and the Tabernacle of Moses and David, the corporate Presence in the church, Thanksgiving, Advent, Christmas, the Return of Jesus and more. I weaved together Scripture with personal stories, reflections and Biblical theology to help readers grow close to Jesus through their time alone with Him.

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