Last Resort

Without going into details, we have been used and abused by many different Pastors/Leaders and prosperity preachers over many years while we were simply trying to serve The Lord. Have gone bankrupt as a result and now we are so confused. Not even sure what to ask prayer for. I suppose we need a breakthrough in our finances initially, and then the correct heart attitude to have a personal relationship with the Lord and then proper Godly people to fellowship with. At the moment our confidence in God and people in general is shot to pieces. The only good we see in ourselves is that we are humble enough to admit that we are in a real mess in every area of our lives and need help!!!! Thank you for any help in advance.

Jesus went about teaching and proclaiming the acceptable year of the Lord, the apostles learned that the teaching of what Jesus taught was a safe haven for the believer, I would start by learning what Jesus said in the gospels and re-build from there.

Dear GavElle,

I hope it will be alright if I do not offer you any advice directly but I wanted to say welcome here to you and wish you love in Christ,

Chris

Praying for you and family, Jesus is with you, He will see you through. He Loves and cares for you, He will turn what was meant to harm you, into good for you and your family. Cast all your cares on Him. He will help you in your time of need.

Love in Christ tom

Matthew 11:28-30
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. [29] Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. [30] For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

John 8:31-32
Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; [32] And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
John 8:36
If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

GavElle,
Please feel free to pm me if you wish.
May the Lord keep you and yours in His love and heal your broken hearts as only He can.

In His Love
pastorfrin

Dear GavElle,

This is like a sword to the heart ...

Will hesitate the impulse to rant but this is precisely the result and fear, the ramifications of all this fallacious construct and reasoning.

I and others here came out of these very notions in various ways with a variety of struggles. My heart goes out to you in ways I cannot express.

I will never forget the day that everything hit in full force, my struggles with how to break the sad news to my wife who was very much raised up as a Christian through these people - I was brought to the Light by her in a sort of final exclamation after being hunted down by the Lord over the course of a couple of years. So I too at least early on latched on to these things until, ironically enough the same church that promoted these things also had a blurb in their handout for a Christian radio station, I think they had at one time a slot on the weekend. The point of the matter was that I began hearing other voices denouncing the very things they were promoting. It sat sideways with me at first, "how can they?" "They are doing great things for God", "But people are getting saved ..." I couldn't shake their scriptural warrant however and I also couldn't get past many of the things that I was suppressing all along anyway - Something was amiss deep down inside ...

But I stood at the door with tears running down as my wife arrived from work and said 'Babe, we have been duped'. I really expected a defense and an argument, there had been some natural suspicion as I aired out my concerns before hand. This is also that part that they are so very clever to implant in the minds; "Touch not mine anointed" so that it might ward off any investigation or consideration otherwise. But to my surprise, she heard and listened and initially agreed ...

All that being said, it took years for it to work out of the system in practical application. It had become such an intertwined assumption that a 'give to get' mindset still carried over even after moving on to a better, more normative church. After only a few days we foolishly signed on to give upwards of 10K over 3 years for their building program ... All that while being more than double that in debt, a debt I am still to this day trying to pay off.

I only wanted to share that much I guess to commiserate, it sounds far worse from your mentions.

This is a safe haven GavElle, there are some truly remarkable saints here, a lot of wonderful resources ... It is where I am convinced the Lord led after the fallout and where I also thought;

[i]At the moment our confidence in God and people in general is shot to pieces.[/i]

I was at a point of just chucking it all, but deep down I knew that I could not, everything had changed internally but the [i]why[/i] of it all, the shattered promises from these charlatans, who had promised so much ... in Gods Name ...

I pray you will find help, hope and trust here, there are a few of us veterans ...

GavElle,

I would like to echo Mike Balog and Chris JD's sentiment and extend a warm welcome to you here. I trust you will find a body of believers on SermonIndex who can sympathize and offer sound words of advice for you to get you back up and rooted to where you belong: in the Word. Now that your eyes have been opened (thank the Lord for His grace), it is time to allow the light to flood in and saturate every fiber of your being. The Bible is the only source of light you can trust; familiarize yourself with it, eat the scroll, search the scriptures daily as the Lord leads. In time, you will grow in wisdom and grace and truth...and blessed discernment.

There are many resources here to aid you. Participate in forum discussions, learn to contribute and speak your heart...but most of all, [i]learn to learn[/i]. SermonIndex is a Christian cyber chamber for all sorts of wonderful things the Holy Spirit can use in your life to foster growth. We are honored the Lord brought you here.

Brother Paul

Now you have come to realize and understand how
much you need the LORD to direct and guide you
in the choices that you face and make. This is
wisdom.

I have always known deep down in my heart from the early days that if one could be tuned into God like Jesus was, doing and saying only what he saw the Father say and do there would be no limit to what could be acheived through one such person let alone a group of believers. Yet everywhere we went this notion was frowned upon so yes have been duped as well. Being active on a forum is totally new to us, so any advice would be greatly appreciated. Our eyes and ears are open and we will carefully examine everything in line with the Word as we now have a much better idea of reading scripture in full context. Making mistakes is OK as long as you learn from them. We have learnt a lot over the last 20 odd years!!! From the replies so far I can tell We are on the right path.

Dear GavElle,

Welcome here on this forum. Praise God, he has opened your eyes. I come from a similar plave where you you were. The reason I got entangled in prosperity preaching and other nonsense is because deep down in my heart, prosperity appealed to my senses. I wanted prosperity AND heaven, too. This is why Satan's bait worked in my case. Once I got rid of my idols, the Lord set me free.

You wrote

I suppose we need a breakthrough in our finances initially, and then the correct heart attitude to have a personal relationship with the Lord and then proper Godly people to fellowship with.

May I kindly suggest you get your relationship right with the Lord before expecting a financial breakthrough. He is more than able to give you a breakthrough but your undevided heart is much more precious than all finances to Him.

Welcome Gavelle,

You are not alone as you can see that there are others that have been through many of the same things that you have, maybe to a lesser degree.

I thank God for this ministry. I praise God that He led me years ago to begin to question the teachings on prosperity. The hundredfold return was being taught, and I never believed this message as it was taught, that for every dollar that we sowed there would be a hundred fold return. I began to see that these teachings were based on "give to get". It really does appeal to the lusts of the flesh. I praise God that I had a confrontation with my pastor years ago over finances. We left that church and about 15 years later, the pastor sold the large church to another ministry, pocketed the money, because the church was in his name, divorced his wife, and moved out of town to resume his ministry in another state.

God has true prosperity for His people, but the true riches are in Christ Jesus. The true riches are in knowing Him. "My God shall supply all of your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus."

May the Lord continue to reveal Himself to you as your provider for everything that you need in life.

Mike

"Seduced From the Faith" - Christine Beadsworth

1Ti 6:6 But godliness with contentment is great gain.
1Ti 6:7 For we brought nothing into the world, and it is clear that we can carry nothing out.

1Ti 6:8 But having food and clothing, we will be content.

1Ti 6:9 But they who will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which plunge men into destruction and perdition.

1Ti 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all evils, of which some having lusted after, they were seduced from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

Doctrines of demons subtly introduced from the pulpit seduce people away from the true faith and cause them to focus upon something other than Christ. One of these doctrines perverts God's idea of prosperity and encourages believers to harness their faith in order to feather their own nests. What a perversion of the gospel of Christ this is! The true gospel calls us to die to self while the gospel of mammon calls us to adorn self with material possessions. The advertising industry is undergirded and energized by the spirit of mammon and the love of money. We must be alert to the inroads mammon's doctrines have made upon our belief system.

Even the current teaching that there is a huge wealth transfer coming to the church (because the wealth of the wicked is stored up for the righteous) is luring many into looking for their proverbial ship to come in, instead of looking for the extension of the Kingdom of God. Contrary to what many proclaim, the church does not need more money in order to advance the gospel of the Kingdom. What we need is more believers who are willing to be conformed to the death of Christ, that they may operate in resurrection power!

Prayer: Father, I can see how easily I am tossed about by every wind of doctrine. Help me to move on to maturity and leave behind the self-seeking behavior of teenage Christianity. Bring me to a place of godly contentment with my lot, amen

I am new to the forum as well and while I am not in a situation like you, I know what it is like to struggle financially (as all of us do, i'm sure). So, welcome to the forum. There is a lot to take in. All the writings take a bit of time to read, the sermons are long to listen to and an immature understanding of scripture create a sense of uncertainty, but know that you are in good community here.

A word of encouragement: Psalm 1
1Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
2but his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
3He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
4The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

5Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
6for the LORD knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.

I would urge you to mediate on God's word constantly. Delight in God through the reading and meditating of scripture! Do not put your faith in the words of weak, falliable men, rather put it in an almighty God who always was, is and will be.

We have a great God! He is just in all that He does and is worthy of our praise, in good times and in bad! There have been some threads started regarding faith and praise in difficult times. You could look at a thread I posted recently regarding some thoughts from Philippians 4.

May God bless you in your journey.