So as you can see we have as many different types of churches in Christianity as we have different types of Christians going to them. Some of whom because they are not being taught with the same zeal and understanding Jesus Christ had, or because they are not being motivated to pursue God more whole -heartedly are living more by the beat of the world's drum than they are living by the beat of God's. More by satan's agenda than Gods.
Because of how satan has been able to minimize accountability for sin and water down much of what Jesus had taught regarding God's power, purpose, and authority for us, we have people in our churches who are not striving to come out of sin in the way they should and not striving to walk in the fullness of what God has for them.
We have many kinds of people who have been drawn to the Lord in our church. We have true sinners struggling with their sins who want to change and who are coming to church for that help to change. We have the hurt and the oppressed carrying heavy loads on their back coming in the hopes of having those burdens relieved. But we also have the double-minded, proud in spirit, naive, deceived, selfish self-centered coming to church who were not drawn by the Lord, or were ready to make a decision for the Lord and who are more about, whether they realize it or not, changing the church than God changing them.
My concern and what I see happening far too often in our churches are people in need of radical change, healing and deliverance, finally making the decision to come to the LORD and willing to trust the Lord for the change they need, only to end up in a church that adds more to their problems.
I have seen new Christians making confessions of their sins to their new church only to have the pastor and congregation assure them that their sins have been taken care of two thousand years ago and that their decision to be a Christian has made them a new creation who is no longer bothered by sin.
Now these people are confused because the root of that sin has not been dealt with, they still struggle with it and now are afraid to share any more about their struggle with sin for fear they would be told that their confession for Christ is not sincere; otherwise they would be changed.
The same applies to the oppressed and heavy burdened coming to church who confess their need for healing and deliverance only to have the pastor and congregation assure them that Jesus death has healed and delivered them; all they need to do is praise God and walk in it.
Well such a person is wanting to believe that but because they haven't been healed or delivered yet and their mind has not been renewed, joy still alludes them, and now they are afraid to make mention of their problems again in fear that they will be told that they aren't sincere in giving up their burdens.
I have seen this type of church and have counseled many who has had this happen to them. The biggest problem in this is two-fold. This person in their struggle with sin, or oppression is not getting the help, or the knowledge they need to overcome their problems and so are still not free from them and secondly they become disillusioned and or confused with what God can do for them who they are in Christ and what their purpose is.
These type of churches are naive and in their naivety add a false sense of guilt to the sinner and heavy burdened for not receiving healing and deliverance when healing and deliverance has not been administered to them.
How can a person still struggling with sin or oppression but told by their pastor and congregation that they have overcome and are healed, effectively minister to another person in faith when they question why God didn't heal or deliver them? What kind of spirit will be ruling over this church? The Holy Spirit or spirits of confusion, ignorance and hypocrisy? What influences will this church provide to the person who goes there?
It shouldn't be so surprising that we have such ignorance, sin and lack of motivation to question what is good and Godly teaching in our churches when we see the light hearted and sometimes naive ways many people are being invited to come to Christianity.
Many times a person's invitation to come to church, or to become a Christian is nothing more than a suggestion, "hey why don't you come to church some time and give it a try", with no real follow up with that person to explain to them the importance of a decision for the Lord, and what it is going to mean to them if they make the decision to become a Christian.
A person should have a good education on the significance what it means to be a Christian before they actually make that decision and they should be aware of what they need to diligently seek after and acquire as a Christian and what pitfalls may occur in that pursuit. This person in their infancy as a new Christian needs to learn that it is ok to question, and that they sometimes need to, what is being taught to them in order that they will not fall prey to just anybody's teaching.
And this is what I see as another problem in our church and what we will talk about more in depth later on in this writing, "How we evangelize Christians." Are we giving them enough understanding so that they will know what they are accepting and surrendering unto the Lord? Are we preparing them for what lays ahead in pitfalls and snares, false teachers, doctrines and gifts of the Holy Spirit etc, that are out there? Note: As there are true gifts, there are also false.
There are those who have made the decision to be a Christian, but who were insincere, naive, or double minded in making that decision. Those who have not been taught the importance of changing their lives, where needed, and giving up their sins according to the ways of Christ and those who are not convicted, or who don't see the need to change and give up their way of living. Even a person contemplating to be a pastor can be naive in that decision, or double- minded, believing in Jesus Christ and much of what He taught, but holding onto worldly influenced beliefs, or characteristics as well.
1 Timothy 6:3-5 NIV 3 If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, 4 he is conceited and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions 5 and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.
The scripture above in 1st Timothy verifies this, that even a pastor's mind can be so corrupted by the world's influences that they may even think that becoming a minister is a way for financial gain to their life. These are corrupted ministers who corrupt the house of God (the congregations they sit over) because of that wrong spirit, or ignorance that has found a high position over this minister's thoughts.
It wouldn't be bad if these false types of Christians could attend our churches without causing any disharmony, or negative influence on us, but unfortunately they do and they will because of that ignorance, wrong motive, or wrong spirit that manipulates them.
Dark spirits rule over everything that lacks God's truth and direction for a person's life and these spirits enforce every false belief, double mindedness, wrong motive, ignorance and disobedience etc, to them. Christians included! Every time this type of person walks into one of our churches they bring in with them their wrong motives, ignorance, false beliefs, dark spirits and influences, unless of course that church correctly deals with what is wrong and false.
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