Faith doesn’t compel God to act on our behalf the way prosperity/health/wealth false teachers say it does. Our words are NOT containers of power. Our prayers do not make God do things for us, no not even when we add, “In Jesus name.” to the end. Faith is the belief that God will do what He has said. Faith is the belief that He is who He says He is. Here is a section of scripture that is always violently twisted by the false teachers. I want you to notice something. The centurion didn’t make Jesus heal his servant. He came asking humbly for his servant to be healed. Jesus, being God decreed that it is so, and it was. The servant was healed because Jesus did it in accordance to His own will. He wanted to heal the servant. He demonstrated the love, mercy, and sovereignty of God in this healing. The lesson is to come to Jesus humbly and ask, believing that He is God and if it is “HIS” will it will be done. Then when He says it is so, we demonstrate great faith by believing Him. Do you want to hear Him tell you things? Read the Bible. Don’t wait for a, “word” or, “a still small voice.” Open your Bible and study it. Read His words and believe them. Live your life as if you do believe them. That is great faith.
Matthew 8:5-13 NASB And when Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, imploring Him, (6) and saying, “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, fearfully tormented.” (7) Jesus *said to him, “I will come and heal him.” (8) But the centurion said, “Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed. (9) “For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.” (10) Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those who were following, “Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel. (11) “I say to you that many will come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; (12) but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (13) And Jesus said to the centurion, “Go; it shall be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed that very moment.
Tag: false teachers
2 Peter 2:1-3 False Prophets and Teachers then and now.
1But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.2Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned;3and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. 2 Peter 2:1-3 NASB
Here Peter is warning that there will men who deceive people into believing they are speaking the words of God to them, and that these men will be among them. (The believers) These false prophets will teach false doctrines that are destructive in intent towards the church and towards the personage of Christ. The Gnostics were the main group that was being warned against here. They taught that all flesh material things are evil and a hindrance to the spiritual things which are good. They also taught that Christ was either a purely spiritual being who only appeared to have a body or that the body he had was just a shell to be shed at the crucifixion. Gnostic teachers would come to town and claim to be prophets. They would stay in a home and teach for the time they stayed. Usually they would find the home of a woman whose husband was away or a widow’s home. They would seduce them with lies about some deeper knowledge that could only be gained by them through sex or money. The Gnostics had no problem teaching that Christ was God, but denied His human nature. On the other had we had the Judaizers who were teaching to keep obeying the laws for righteousness instead of teaching the appropriate doctrine of grace through faith, in Christ’s work and righteousness.
Because of these false teachers, good teachers and the truth would get a bad reputation. People then didn’t know the difference just like many people now. We always hear about some Christian doing something or teaching something that is bad. When this happens people tend to lump everything with the words, “Jesus” or “Church” together, and throw the baby out with the bathwater. So the way of truth was maligned. These same teachers would stay in the household where they were guests, eat the food, do no work, and lead people down the wrong path towards mysticism or legalism much like what happens today except ours are on television, going door to door, or selling books marketed to all of the undiscerning.
The warning was needed then and it is needed now. We must be vigilant and be on the alert for false teachers and lying men (and women) who say they are speaking the words God gave them. There is some comfort in verse 3. “…Their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep…” We know that our God is true and all knowing. Nothing escapes His notice or knowledge. All of the deeds of these abusers are weighed against them and they shall surely be punished for their crimes. God is just and will punish the wicked and restore the victims. We can trust Him.
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