Tag: Prayer

Discernment, False Doctrine, False Teachers, New Apostolic Reformation

A Call to Reject The Response

Michelle Lesley

the response

This article is mainly for folks in my immediate area (Baton Rouge, LA), but if a politician in your state ever holds a large prayer rally (especially one called The Response) you might want to keep this information in mind.

Dear Fellow South Louisiana Christians and Pastors-

You may have seen some publicity recently for a large prayer rally promoted by Governor Jindal called The Response. It is to be held on January 24, 2015 at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center (PMAC) on the LSU campus in Baton Rouge.

I am urging you not to attend or promote this event.

I have nothing against Governor Jindal (I voted for him twice and think he’s a great governor.), and I certainly believe that we should pray for our nation and our elected officials as 1 Timothy 2:1-3 instructs us.

However, the Bible also tells us not to partner with unbelievers, that anyone who preaches a gospel other than the one laid down in Scripture is damned  and that we are to have nothing to do with those who do so.

What do these passages have to do with The Response?

Though it is being touted as a meeting for Christians to gather and pray, certain individuals and organizations behind the scenes who are responsible for this event are part of a movement that, while claiming to be Christian, preaches another gospel. They are therefore unbelievers. These individuals and organizations are part of the New Apostolic Reformation movement.

Don’t know what that is? Maybe you’ve seen videos like the one below, or others, that show people participating in “holy laughter,” being “slain in the spirit,” barking like dogs, being “drunk” on the Holy Spirit, or “toking the Ghost.” NAR “churches” often claim that during their worship services, gold dust, jewels, or angel feathers fall from the ceiling. People involved in this movement also claim to take trips to Heaven and talk to Jesus face to face.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

The NAR movement has a long list of anti-biblical doctrines, beliefs, and practices that no Christian should support or take part in. Below, I’ve compiled some resources for you on what the NAR is and how The Response is connected to the NAR.

On January 8, 2015, I attempted to confirm, via a polite question on The Response‘s Facebook page, if the Baton Rouge event is in any way connected with any NAR individuals or organizations such as the International House of Prayer (IHOP), Bill Johnson, or Bethel Church (Redding, CA) who were also connected to Rick Perry’s The Response in Texas in 2011. The Response did not answer my question, and when another concerned Christian citizen confirmed that my information was correct and offered to send me more information, The Response deleted my post from their page. A pastor friend of mine sent The Response a private message on Facebook asking the same questions and was never answered. There is no information on The Response‘s web site to indicate who is really behind this event, though, for Rick Perry’s 2011 event, a list of event co-sponsors was clearly available on the event web site.

One is left to wonder -when any doctrinally sound entity would be quick to deny any ties to NAR organizations or individuals-

What is The Response trying to hide?

Resources:

What is the New Apostolic Reformation?

New Apostolic Reformation by Apologetics Index

The Dangers of the International House of Prayer (IHOP) by CARM

Love and Death in the International House of Prayer by Rolling Stone

Links between the NAR and The Response

NAR individuals/organizations sponsored Rick Perry’s The Response in 2011

A video on The Response’s own web site connects Rick Perry’s 2011 event to the Baton Rouge event

The American Family Association is sponsoring Baton Rouge’s The Response

The American Family Association’s connection with the NAR

Doug Stringer, an event coordinator for The Response, is a member of and writes teachings for ICAL (the International Coalition of Apostolic Leaders). C. Peter Wagner, one of the founders of the NAR movement, was the first Presiding Apostle of this organization.

Two of the non-local personalities who made promotional videos for The Response, Cindy Jacobs and Jennifer LeClaire, are major players in the NAR movement. Cindy claims to have the gift of prophecy, yet many of her prophecies have not come true (this qualifies her as a false prophet according to Deuteronomy 18:20-22). She was also one of the sponsors of Rick Perry’s The Response. Jennifer writes for Charisma magazine. A quick perusal of her web site and the titles of her latest books, The Spiritual Warrior’s Guide to Defeating Jezebel and Developing Faith for the Working of Miracles should leave little doubt as to Jennifer’s involvement in the NAR.
UPDATE (1-13-15): Since the writing of this article, Cindy Jacobs’ promotional video has been removed from The Response‘s web site.

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.
2 Peter 2:1-3

I urge you, brothers and sisters in Christ- reject The Response.

Prayer

GREAT NEWS! PRAYER ANSWERED!

Michelle Lesley

PAULS prayer

Over the past couple of months, I have asked that y’all pray for Hugh Paul and his family. He was diagnosed with stage 4 lymphoma at the end of October. More details here.

Well, today, he had surgery and the doctors discovered he does not have lymphoma after all! He has something called sarcoidosis. (I’m not really familiar with it, but from this article, it looks like it could mimic lymphoma.) Prognosis according to this source:

In most cases it clears up by itself without any medical intervention, but some cases go on to affect the person long-term or become life-threatening and require medical intervention, most often with medications. The average mortality rate is less than 5% in untreated cases.

God still heals, and God still answers prayer. Thank you so much for praying for, and supporting, this precious family!

Bible Study

Blog Swap ~ When Learning Styles Affect Relationships with God

Michelle Lesley

blog swap

It’s time for another awesome blog swap! Blog swaps give me the opportunity to share other talented bloggers with you, plus offer you fresh content that’s a great supplement to our regular fare here. If you’d like to do a swap, click on the link above for more information.

Today, I’m excited to be swapping with a new blogger, Candice, of Momma’s Wonderings. Momma’s Wonderings has all kinds of great information for mommies of little ones, from cloth diapers to home schooling to fun learning activities. One thing that sets Momma’s Wonderings apart from typical “mommy blogs” is that Candice not only blogs as the mom of a child with physical challenges, but as someone who has a learning disability herself.

With the new year right around the corner, I know many of us will be making resolutions to read the Bible more often or study it more effectively. Candice has found a method that helps her work around her learning disability to study God’s word in an organized yet meaningful way. Whether you have a learning disability or not, this is a method that might be a fit for you.

0001-24930728

Once upon a time not to long ago there was a young girl who thought the reason why she did not fit in with a crowd was because she was not christian enough. She could not memorize a memory verse if her life depended on it…Prayer was something she just did not get…Oh and don’t even mention Bible reading.

Do you relate to this girl/women? Do you struggle with personal time with God?

Head on over to Momma’s Wonderings and check out Candice’s article When Learning Styles Affect Relationships With God, and don’t forget to follow her on social media.

Have you tried Candice’s method of Bible study?
What are some Bible study techniques you’ve found helpful?

Politics, Prayer

Not Gonna Bow: 5 Reasons Prayer in School Isn’t the Magic Bullet Christians Think It Is

Michelle Lesley

Prayer In School

“We need to put prayer back in school!” It’s a well worn mantra that many Christians have been shouting from pulpits, in PTA meetings, and now on social media since the early 1960s when it was outlawed. No, we don’t need to put prayer back in public schools, and I think if Christians who think that the United States would revert to some idyllic 1950’s utopia by reinstituting classroom prayer would give it five minutes of serious thought, they would run as far as they could from the idea of prayer in public schools.

Now, just so there are no misunderstandings, when I say “prayer in public schools,” I’m not talking about things like a child saying the blessing over his own lunch, or a group of kids who want to pray together during free time, or an after school club that wants to include prayer. Those are all voluntary, private things that should, by all means, be allowed. When I say “prayer in public schools,” I’m talking about a teacher or a student or someone over the loudspeaker leading the entire class in prayer during class time. And we definitely do not want that. Why?

1. What’s good for the Christian goose is good for the Muslim/Mormon/Atheist gander.
There is no way in the current cultural climate –none whatsoever- that any court in this land will reinstitute Christian prayer, and only Christian prayer, in the classroom. And even if some well meaning judge did manange to do so, his decision would be overturned faster than you could say “amen.” You want prayer in the public school classroom? You might get Christian prayer, but you’re also going to get Muslim prayer, Mormon prayer, atheist prayer, Hindu prayer, Satanist prayer, and any other sect that comes along and wants to do prayer in the classroom. Do you really want your six year old faced with the choice of participating in a Satanic prayer or trying to get permission to abstain? Neither do I.

2. Why is it so important that we have prayer in schools?
Assuming you don’t work at a church or ministry, does your workplace gather all the employees at the beginning of the day and start with prayer? No? Has that been deeply detrimental to you personally or to your workplace? No? Then why is it so important that schools have prayer?

3. Post hoc ergo propter hoc.
This nifty little Latin phrase means “after this, therefore, because of this.” It refers to the faulty reasoning people sometimes use by assuming that because two events occurred near the same time or seem to be related, one of them must have caused the other.

Time and time again, I have heard Christians bemoan the moral state of this country and wail, “It all started when they took prayer out of schools!”

Post hoc ergo poppycock.

If the moral state of this country was so perfect before 1962, then how in the world did prayer ever get taken out of schools in the first place? No, things started going downhill in this country long before prayer was removed from schools. It was as a result of that moral decay that prayer was taken out of schools.

Saying that the removal of prayer from public schools created the mess our country is in today would be like someone sixty years from now saying, “When the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage nationwide, that’s when things started going bad for America.”

Because things are just so morally peachy right now.

4. It isn’t biblical.
It is not the job of a secular governmental institutition or employee to monitor or lead our children in prayer, and no one could make the case from God’s word that it is. Scripture tells us that leading in prayer is the job of Christian parents and the church.

Neither would it be biblical for the sake of unsaved children in your child’s class that you’re hoping will somehow get saved by someone leading a prayer every morning. That’s not how people get saved. If you’re concerned about lost children, teach your child how to share the gospel. Befriend the children’s parents and share the gospel with the parents yourself. It’s free, it can be done immediately, without waiting for court decisions (that won’t be coming anyway) and it’s biblical.

5. It’s hypocritical.
It is often Christians who exclaim the loudest, and rightly so, that the government should back off and stop trying to control, regulate, and meddle in every square inch of our lives. Yet with regard to prayer in schools, Christians talk out of the other side of their mouths and practically beg the government to insinuate itself into an issue it has no business touching. (Not to mention that the government does such a bang up job of handling things like this.)

Will those very Christians complain if the government reinstitutes prayer and then tries to regulate it just like they do everything else? And what about depending on the government for a handout of prayer when we are the ones who should be doing the work of teaching prayer and sharing the gospel? Isn’t that a sort of prayer “welfare” system?
Putting prayer back in public schools would be a nightmare of false religions and government regulations.

We don’t need prayer in schools. We need prayer in homes and in churches. We need people sharing the gospel with their friends, fellow students, neighbors, and co-workers. We need Christians to be the salt and light Jesus called us to be in the world we actually live in rather than pining away for an imaginary ideal that will never come to fruition.

Pop Theology, Prayer

Pop Theology ~ The Bottle

Michelle Lesley

Pop Theology- the bottle

 

Dear Pop Theology-

I keep seeing Christian pages post this video, but I was wondering, does this bottle prayer thing match up with what the Bible says?

Signed,

Praying for an Answer

Well, what about it, Pop? Could you give us any reasons why this might not be a biblical way to learn about prayer?

Spurgeon dawg

Lemme lay it down for ya homies:

1. No one has the right to put words in God’s mouth. When you hear someone say, “God says _____,” the only thing that blank can safely be filled in with is Scripture. Otherwise, you’re turning God into a ventriloquist’s dummy and making Him say what you want Him to say. (Deuteronomy 18:21-22, Ezekiel 22:28, Jeremiah 14:13-16).

The truth is, things DON’T always become clear to us on this side of Heaven. Talk to a woman whose husband has abandoned her, or someone in chronic pain, or a parent who has lost a child in an accident. There are things in this life that are painful, dark, and confusing, and no where in Scripture does it say that God owes us an explanation for them or that things will “become clear.”

Did you notice the gentleman in the video didn’t use a single Bible verse to back up his “God says____,” or “Things will become clear,”  statements? That’s because he can’t. Scripture doesn’t teach this. It’s just his opinion.

What Scripture DOES promise Christians is that, even in the darkest times, Christ will never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5), that God can use even the worst difficulties for the good (Romans 8:28), that even our Master learned obedience through suffering (Hebrews 5:8), and that when we trust God (regardless of whether or not we get what we want), He will keep us in perfect peace (Isaiah 26:3).

2. Where does Scripture say that “in order for Him to really begin to do the work that YOU want done” you have to “take the limitations off”? It doesn’t. Prayer isn’t about us maneuvering and manipulating God to get Him to do what we want Him to do. Prayer is about US getting on the same page with GOD’S agenda. Us submitting to His will. Us trusting Him regardless of the outcome. It’s not about the work that we have to do (and no matter how holy it might sound, all the “ya gotta…ya gotta…ya gotta” stuff in this video is work) to force God’s hand. The gentleman in the video makes it sound like everything rests on YOU and that if you’ll just pray hard enough, long enough, and with enough faith, everything will work out the way you want it to.

And if things don’t work out, guess whose fault it is? Yours. Because you didn’t have enough faith, or you didn’t pray long enough, or whatever. That’s a Word of Faith false teaching. It is not what the Bible teaches.

The Bible says that God is in the Heavens and does whatever He pleases (Psalm 115:3), that His ways and thoughts are higher than ours, not the same as ours (Isaiah 55:8-9), and that when we pray, we don’t have to feel anxious. Prayer is to produce peace (Philippians 4:6-7), not worry over whether we’ve said the right things or said them long enough (Matthew 6:7-8). Even our perfect, sinless, holy Jesus, when He prayed in Gethsemane before going to the cross, said “NOT My will, but Yours, be done.” (Matthew 26:39).

3. Watch this video again, paying attention to HOW the liquid in the bottle becomes clear. Who, in this analogy, initiates the action? You. Who does all the work? You. (You take off the lid, you put the bottle in the sink, you turn on the water, you make sure the bottle is in the right place, you readjust the bottle to make sure you’re getting the result you want, you decide when it’s clear enough.) So who gets the glory if everything works out the way you want it to? You.

God says He will not share His glory with another (Isaiah 48:11), and that HE is the one who wills and works for His good pleasure (Philippians 2:13).

Ladies, if you want to know how to pray, a video like this featuring a guy who dares to speak for God outside of, and in conflict with, Scripture and doesn’t offer a single Bible verse to teach you about one of the most important aspects of the Christian life is not the way to go.

Don’t believe somebody just because what he says makes you feel good and he has a cool visual aid. Instead, if we want to know how to pray, we need to go straight to the horse’s mouth. That’s what the disciples did when they wanted to know how to pray (Luke 11:1-4), and here’s what Jesus told them in Matthew 6:7-13:

And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this:

“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

If that was good enough for Jesus, it should be good enough for us. Ya feel me?

Prayerfully,

Pop