Chapter 11 Ministry Pitfalls
One of the primary pitfalls, particularly for the Deliverance Ministry is the carnal hook. The minister can begin to believe that their gifting is active continually. They can become enthralled on one hand and go beyond God’s hand and will or they can believe that since this gift is what people expect of them that they have to “perform” to maintain a reputation that can be either financially or ego-driven.
At a meeting, I heard an internationally known prophet say that if he said the word he had confirmed to him by other prophets the church he was ministering to would not ask him back. John 12:49 For I did not speak on my My own initiative but the Father Himself who sent Me has given me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak. I know that His commandment is eternal life: therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me. To verify with God and others the word He has given is important. Anytime “our ministry” overrides what God has asked us to do is a time to stop and pray.
If God is not speaking to you on a particular day, you can through personal charisma or through manipulating people, who trust you, make it look like God is speaking when He is not. And if you are good at this, people who are desperate to see God move will buy into it. The devil has no problem with this, because as people veer slightly off center of God’s will the amount increases with time.
The other side of the coin is depending on your gifting more than on hearing God’s voice. A minister was ministering to someone in an occult group. God had sent several people to war him not to minister to this person. This person was a “plant” sent to disrupt this man’s ministry. As soon as spirits were driven out, he asked more in. The minister brought himself to exhaustion and almost physically died. The person went on to other churches to try to disrupt other pastors.
Whether out of compassion or belief that authority was enough, there was no lasting fruit, anything done outside of the confirmed leading of God leaves vulnerability, even if the intentions are noble. We do not possess gifts that override the necessity to find out what God is doing in a particular situation. Generalizing can lead us in the flesh to try to combat something in the spirit. When someone asks me if God has given me a word for them and I have nothing, I tell them I will pray. We fight a battle that is fought on behalf of another, the reward from which is from Him as well. A freedom arises when we realize who supplies the weapons of our warfare and who the victory truly belongs to.
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