No One Is Always Right

Bible knowledge and spiritual gifts are from God and they are good, but knowledge and gifts come with dangers. A gifted leader with excellent knowledge can become overconfident, self righteous, convinced that he is always right.

I knew a preacher with amazing bible knowledge, healing gifts and a wonderful evangelistic ministry. He was zealously devoted to sound doctrine, but this became an obsession which alienated him from other preachers who had different beliefs, even small differences of opinion.

He tried to pastor a local church, which was a mistake, because his primary gifting and calling was evangelism. His local church failed dismally, with membership declining until there was only a tiny home group left. Still he persisted, burning himself out to earn a living and missing his calling to be a full time travelling evangelist.

If you are in a church where the pastor has wonderful bible knowledge and spiritual gifts, that can be good or it can be bad.

• If the pastor believes he is always right, that is dangerous.

• If the pastor believes he knows better than everyone else, everyone in his church or even better than other ministers, that is dangerous.

• If the pastor believes he is entitled to make every decision for every ministry in the church, that is dangerous.

If you are in a church like this, there are several dangers.

• You can become overly submissive, so that you let the pastor dictate all your personal decisions.

• You can zealously adopt all the ideas of your pastor, so your pastor takes the place of God in your life.

• You can become like your pastor, believing you are always right.

• You can rebel against control, which is good, but then you construct your own understanding of truth in such a way that you disagree with your pastor, but you are infected by his wrong attitude, so that you believe you are always right.

• You can attach yourself to another prominent church member with a legitimate grievance but also with a personal agenda. This can lead to church splits.

• You can search the internet or christian bookshops for alternative points of view, which is good, but it can lead to being led astray in wrong directions.

So what should you do?
Seek out good teaching from different sources but be careful to be personally connected to Jesus.
Read you bible for yourself, not just to find confirmation for this or that teaching, but with an open mind and a questioning heart.
Ask God to show you what He wants to say to you.

Find a better church, where the pastor is not convinced he always knows better, because this is a delusion. No one is always right about everything. No one.

And if you faithfully apply all these things, you will still not always be right. You will make mistakes. No one is perfect. You are not perfect and I am not perfect.

Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. 
But whoever loves God is known by God. 1 Cor 8:2–3 NIV

 

How to Receive from God

 To rest in the Lord + get the achievements done: both are important. Wisdom is to find out, when its time for which one. (Sarah Fischer, Swiss preacher)

God has ways of giving and so there are two ways of receiving from God. Some of God's gifts require serious effort on our part to appropriate.

Great musicians like Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frederick Handel had amazing musical gifts but they worked incredibly hard to develop their gifts. Some of God's miracles can only come through intense, repeated or prolonged prayer and sometimes also fasting.

Other times God just gives you a present that falls in your lap because you are his child and he loves you.

So I say to you, Ask and keep on asking and it shall be given you; seek and keep on seeking and you shall find; knock and keep on knocking and the door shall be opened to you.
For everyone who asks and keeps on asking receives; and he who seeks and keeps on seeking finds; and to him who knocks and keeps on knocking, the door shall be opened. Luke 11:9-10 (AMP)

If God wants you to reach out and extend yourself to appropriate His gift, you will miss out if you just sit and wait for it to happen. On the other hand, if God just wants to drop a blessing on you as a present, you can miss out by fasting and praying or working hard.

We can limit God by expecting Him to give no more than we pray, work, expect and proclaim. God loves to surprise His children with little blessings but also sometimes overwhelming great gifts.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,
to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.  Ephesians 3:20-21 (NIV)

In my youth I studied German as a foreign language and I worked very hard at it. Over the years God has used me to minister to German speaking people. I preach, prophesy and blog in German. 

Writing a blog in my second language involves serious work. I often refer to a dictionary to find just the right word. Writing in English is easier. It also took me some time to become proficient in typing in German on my computer and I still type faster in English.

But sometimes I just get a German message that flows into me and through me to others. I had a German colleague in my workplace in Australia. When she left our workplace, I sat down and wrote a lovely poem for her in German. It was so easy.

"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 11:1-13 NIV

 If you are married, you will know that marriage is not easy. It requires work, sacrifice and patience. But if you have a good marriage, you will find that it is often easy and delightful to give and receive loving gifts. So it is with our relationship with God. 

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. James 1:17 (NKJV)