A question about separating oneself from erroneous teachings?

Beloved brothers and sisters in Christ. As we continue our walk with Jesus and as a body of believers, has any of you ever felt a sense of a need to spend less time with other christians who strongly follow and advocate erroneous teachings such as WOF teaching. In essence they love Jesus but are embracing another gospel one( they often tell me I need demons to be cast out of me because I often face trials and tribulations,persecutions my life ought to be health, wealth, prosperous evidenced by material possession etc).I personally have no care for material things just would rather be spiritually rich and trust the Lord to provide for all my needs even the smallest and he faithfully provides all the time.I have met many believers from different fellowships and have for a season become close to many, thing is I love anyone who loves Jesus:) I only ask because I pray and ask the Lord to fill me with his love so as to be able to love all those around me but at times I sense that I need to withdraw myself from some fellow christians due to their practices or beliefs. I have had bible study sessions with them and at times God has opened their eyes to their error glory to God! I was just wondering if some of you have had similar experiences whereby you felt led to separate yourself from a body of believers, because the greatest commandment after loving The Lord our God is to love one another. So in essence can we still love each other but from afar.

Dearest Lindi1208,

I am needing to go now ,but could you refer back to what I wrote to 'Desertlilly' ...about ' Reclaiming the seven mountains'...?

Bless you,

Elizabeth

Ya, you bet :-)
I believe that what the Lord said to His disciples still rings true to this day - that is, to stay in a certain place, and wait for the Holy Ghost to come upon you, before going out into the world to do His mighty work. For it is better to have Him do it through one in His Love and power, than have one do it themselves, thinking God is with them when He isn't - my reference being that when many will say to Christ, and even believing by a strong, false delusion that they did many works for Him, but He responds, "I never knew you."
Better to sit at His feet than do many things out of the wrong spirit... Even what could be considered good things in themselves.
I'm not implying that this is your case, but truly the Lord said in His Word, that this will be, and is the case of many.

Lindi1208,

The problem with separating yourself too much is that you will end up very much alone. When you think about it, no one believes exactly as you do, and everyone hears the message with a different ear. Maybe you would be more effective in your dealings with other Christians by just saying something like, "I don't see it that way."

Believe me, I have argued to facial blueness over a lot of issues inside the larger umbrella of Christian thought. When Sonny Bono was living and serving in Congress I was privileged to be chatting with him one day, and he had this observation:

"Just one time I'd like for one of my fellow congressmen to say, 'Gee, that's a great argument. I think I'll change my vote!'"

I don't know if he ever got to hear that before he died.

Not something you hear very often, but I keep trying. I have had the experience of making a major change in my Theological perspective by the witness of one man who I know loved me and showed me better things than what I had thought were taught in the Bible. I learned to "Buy the truth, and sell it not!"

But stay in the conversations, and let the joy of Christ be evident to your friends. The words you want to hear are "Whatever it is that you have, I want some!" You'll never hear that if you separate yourself.

Sometimes the only cure for "Word of Faith" people is the occasional bus that runs over them. Unfortunately, they often feel so betrayed by God that they abandon Him completely. Better to approach life with a desire to know Christ as Paul describes in Phil. 3:10 with the power of His resurrection and also the fellowship of His sufferings. Life will bring both!

Later in chapter 4 he mentions that being able to be content in both want and prosperity was a secret he'd learned. Not everyone figures it out!

Stay confident and keep smiling- He has given you the people in front of you!

QUOTE:
"I personally have no care for material things just would rather be spiritually rich and trust the Lord to provide for all my needs even the smallest and he faithfully provides all the time."

My dear, I hope you still are working?

QUOTE:
"I was just wondering if some of you have had similar experiences whereby you felt led to separate yourself from a body of believers, because the greatest commandment after loving The Lord our God is to love one another."

Discouragement will do this to a person. I also get weary of meeting people - so much I think that holing up in a mountain cabin for a year would be so relaxing - I would not have to meet people and talk with them. When I tell my brother this he says, "Sandra, you could never live like that!" and I am sure he is right. Having said all this, Jesus did remove himself physically from his friends for brief periods of time and spent that time with the Father - he need that time to rejuvenate himself. Since he is the Messiah and he needed it, how much more do we need it? Lots more. So, then the best solution, IMHO, is to quit looking inward and start looking upward and take your cues from Him in how to respond to life and matters of faith. Find someone who is in worse shape then you and see what you can do to ease their load in life. This is Jesus' way.

God bless.

Thank you all for your edification! @ginnyrose I am a student nurse full time God willingly will be finishing training within the next year so in the last three years have been learning to trust God to supply all my needs according to the riches of his Grace : ).I do belong to a small church that is biblically based and sound doctrinally but I also want to fellowship with other believers in other churches hence in so doing have met many WOF exhorters so when I asked the question about separating myself from their lives I will not be completely isolated! Sorry I did not clarify this earlier on. I totally agree with you and others that at times in our walk we need to get alone with Jesus and shut the world away! Ah the Joy of sweet quiet fellowship with Jesus in prayer and bible reading nothing can supersede these blessed moments of quiet time with Jesus! Also ministering to others in love truth and encouragement keeps us vital and full of joy and love for one another : ).

Just to take one more look at the original premise, we must remember that no one goes to some church because they enjoy the erroneous teaching there. They go because they like the teaching, believe it to be true, and push it at others.

In reality, none of us has the whole truth, and most won't argue with that. And every sect and movement has elements of truth along with some nonsense- the trick is to hold fast to what is good while at the same time allowing it to be washed by the Word of God. For me, I have had whole dirt clods blown off my theology when something better rings in my heart.

It's fun to look yourself in the mirror and tell God,

"I believe some nonsense. But I don't know what that is. Would you show me truth from your Word that will get rid of whatever keeps me from being conformed to the image of Jesus?"

In essence they love Jesus but are embracing another gospel one( they often tell me I need demons to be cast out of me because I often face trials and tribulations,persecutions my life ought to be health, wealth, prosperous evidenced by material possession etc).

This is Chapter 1 in church abuse 101, ridiculous.

You are right in not associating with them and you are in good company, they called Jesus the price of devils.

My wife and I have left churches for this exact reason, very quietly and people felt the same way towards us even though we told no one why we left. I guess they felt rejected by us when we left and didn't mention why, oh well, no worries there.

It's bizarre how someone gets saved in a church like this and they point him to Abraham and his wealth, totally discarding the fact that Jesus and all of the apostles died physically poor but spiritually rich. Wouldn't it be best to stay within the current contract (covenant)?

Much peace and Merry Christmas!

hi, follow after no man who doesn't have nail prints in his hands and feet. these teachers are mostly deceived and have some truth... any truth carried to extreems is error.keep the truth forgive the errors and the people and pray that God opens the eyes of those who are deceived and save those who are wickedly profiting over the body of Christ. i knew ken hagin and heard him many times.i read all the same books by kenyon and in them there is a lot of truth.these were fine men who did a great deal in their time that was good .hagins message was have the faith of God or the God kind of faith and speak to the mountain. the point here is (the difference between faith and presumption is a directive word from God to you personnally.)only speak to it if God tells you to speak to it.only build an ark if God tells you to build it.these other men who i have met and know are carried away in extreems that lead to personal profit.the judgement seat is going to be something ...jimp

Hey Lindi1208,

I understand completely where you are coming from as I am in the same situation. For me I am stuck betweem a rock and a hard place! But this has been good because under this pressure the Lord has helped me to grow so much! I am called specifically to be both in an extremely religious church and I am also part of aSpirit filled church with some sketch beliefs. Allow me to take explain I hope this will encourage you!

With me where I am from the church is really against anything remotely having to do with the Power of the Holy Spirit. It is very conservative and religious. Faith has been rules and regulations. I grew up in this church but everything changed for me very quickly after the Lord saved me and Baptised me with the Holy Spirit! It was like a veil was lifted from my eyes and I could see how desperate the situation at my church was! Of course just having eyes opened to the spiritual turmoil made me react very strongly to a lot of things and I said and did things that may not have been the wisest though it was with good intentions but the Lord was faithful through it. It has been really hard to stay in the church because so few people understand and I am judged a lot. The hardest part is going to service on sunday's I shiver at that it is greiving to my heart that sometimes I cannot bring myself to walk in. I stay in the prayer room and pray. That being said there are also many who truly hunger for more of Christ and God has used me to encourage them. They are really into Reformed movement Its really bad because I feel so stuck but I also want these people to be FREE!

NOw around this time I also started Post Secondary Education! I was looking for a good Campus group and soo went to every single one. I walked into one and I just knew tht GOd was there! I felt a unity! I was a bit taken aback that everyone was speaking in tongues and I didnt think they should do it in public so much but I knew that they were brothers and sisters. It is this fellowship that has been such a source of encouragement, confusion and frustration! On onehand I saw for sure that there people had the Spirit of God in them and hearing their testimomies is so encouraging! they go evangelizing 4 days a week and love to worship and pray! We have all night prayer meetings every friday night!

I loved it I could be free to worship the Lord so decided to overlook tongues though I did talk to the leader about it.

However things started to become confusing as I started to become more invovled! The group believes a lot of doctrines that are questionable. They are very Charasmatic and very influeced by the prophetic movement that is stirring (ihop soe WOF stuff mixed in to)

This really turned me off and made me not want to be a part of the group anymore however, I knew so many believers in there that I enjyed sweet fellowship with!

I prayed a lot and was angry and frutrated and confused!
I was stuck I did not quite belong anywhere!

But God has been giving be strength in this
I used to question myself and wondered why I was so alone!

I believe some stuff from either side and see the good and bad.

There were times when I would give up but I knew the truth that God was showing me! and I came to conclusion that I just need to speak what God has shown me! this has given me much freedom and joy!

God showed me something that needs correction and in order to be able to change these things I need to be able to OPEN MY HEART to both these people and love them while speaking truth! The BIGGESTEST temptation was to withhold my heart from these people but it was the ONE THING that God wanted me to give and that was needed

SO with one group I talk alot about the Holy Sprit and with the other I talk a lot n sound doctrine to go along with the Spirit.

As I open my heart to these people and talk to them I found that it works WONDERS! I have seen God work in it! and i know that I need to open more of myself an be bold to speak more truth in order for the body to be completely restored.

hope this helps
IN Chist
Evangel

Evangel, are you me? I can relate almost one hundred percent!

Through the struggle, I have realized, in humility, that God is opening my eyes to the needs in the fellowships I am attending. And I feel inclined to, cry out to God for them (as well as be an exemplary christian...), although I am only learning what it really means to intercede.

I am also quite lonely in my walk with Christ, a feeling that I am learning many men that went before us dealt with. Paul the apostle, David Brainard, George Muller, A.W Tozer, Leonard Ravenhill, to mention but a few, speak in one way or the other, that at some point in their lives, they could hardly find an edifying companion whose heart was truly set on Christ. (2 Tim 4:9-22, for example)
Could it be that the Lord is preparing us for something? And not just us, but an army of believers, whose captain is Jesus Christ, that may or may not be aware of the great plan of the Lord to accomplish His work in the last days. I can only speculate, but the Lord knows exactly where everything is going.

In Christ,
Dlight.

PS. I apologize for not giving references for my claims concerning these men's messages. I basically relied on my memory, but I have read/listened to their work, and this is a general theme I remember, among other themes.

Hey Dlight,

Haha I'm sorry to say that I am not you. However, I have the same Jesus living inside of me.

Yes, I do believe that the Lord is at work to unify and restore His Body that has been so ravaged by the enemy. And He is raising people like us for that task. I guess we have the same calling from the Master so we are able to relate. This is very encouraging.

A sister of mine was recently reading Judges 19 about the Levite whose concubine was brutally raped by his own people and God gave us an understanding of what this passage meant. The concubine are those that Christ has called but are unfaithful - returning to their father's house. Christ, symbolized by the Levite, is the Shepherd who goes after the one lost sheep and patiently waits with the concubine who is persuaded by her father to stay at his house (the world). (It is interesting how the concubine is passive and allows the Levite to deal with her father.) However, the Levite finally leaves, taking the concubine with him. On the journey home, he does not allow himself nor his concubine to rest until he finds his own people to lodge with. He wants his concubine to be safe among his own people - the 99 other sheep in the fold. However, even in this town, no one is hospitible to him except one person (the faithful remnant) who still recognizes and allows christ to dwell in their house. In the middle of the night, the wicked men from the town go to the house of the host and asked that they may rape the man - rape symbolizing the men wanting to use Christ for their own pleasures and purposes. The host, being honorable towards the Levite, offers his virgin daughter to protect the servant of God - his virgin daughter symbolizing everything that is dear to him - he gives his very heart in love to these people, but still that is not enough. In the end, the host offers the Levite's concubine and they rape her all night. They take the closest thing to the Levite's heart and abuse her. This symbolizes false teachings and religious burdens placed on the one sheep to the point where they are spiritually killed. The one sheep was supposed to find fellowship with the 99, but instead the sheep was faced with 99 wolves dressed as sheep, who tear it apart.

The Levite, upon waking, finds his concubine dead at the front door and cuts her into 12 pieces, sending them to all the tribes of Israel. The tribes of Israel gather together and ask that the wicked men (their own brothers) handed over to them. However, the tribe of Benjamin (of the wicked men) did not hand them over and because of this the tribe was almost completely destroyed. There was great weeping over this amongst the rest of the tribes of Israel.

So basically, I think that we are at a time similar to this, where parts of the Body of Christ harm the precious sheep that is brought back by the Shepherd. We are called to be the ones who make retribution and to destroy the wickedness within the Body (the yeast of the Pharisees and false teachings). However, we must completely destroy this "cancer" in the Body, understanding that these are brothers and sisters with a disease that need to be restored back to the Head. This is a very different type of battle we are fighting - it is one where we must be as wise as serpents, innocent as doves and as strong as lions. We do not want to fall into the trap that they set for us and be abused by them, but we also don't want to kill them. We want to be able to destroy what's wrong without destroying them completely, just as the tribe of Benjamin was not completely destroyed. This kind of "civil" guerrila-like warfare is very difficult; in guerrila warfare, everything is very scattered and it is hard to tell who is on which side, and the attacks are hit-and-miss. One must be very alert and strategic in how they move or at any moment we can be destroyed. The enemy has really put a cloud of confusion over us so that we fight one another, not really knowing who is actually against us, and who seems they are against us but in reality are for us.

In Christ
Evangel

Lindi,

I'm glad that you realized that WOF is not a healthy place to be. It would indeed be wise to leave there and find a place where the Word is rightly divided and the people are connected to the Head.

You said:
"So in essence can we still love each other but from afar."

I hope people have not misunderstood you and thought that leaving the fellowship of the body is good. Upon leaving this group you ought to immediately seek His guidance in finding the body He wants you to be in. An early tactic the enemy uses is to isolate so that he can tear away at you until you are in despair or sin. I know this well.

When Paul excommunicated the disobedient brother in Corinth it was to remove him from the protection of the body so that Satan could get at him for the purpose of discipline, however, he was brought back upon repentence. We should not want to be outside of this protection.

The word saint is never found in scripture only saints.

Zionshield wrote:
The word saint is never found in scripture only saints.

Ps 106:16 They envied Moses also in the camp, and Aaron the saint of the LORD.
Da 8:13 Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?
Php 4:21 Salute every saint in Christ Jesus. The brethren which are with me greet you.

God bless,
Lisa