Spiritual pride, especially in the ministers of the Word, causes great damages in the spiritual development and growth of God’s people. One example is the following.
There is a preacher in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, whom the Lord put into my heart from the moment I saw him preaching on TV for the first time about 5 years ago. He preaches on many topics of the Bible and produces many sermons and teachings, writes many books and leaflets. But some of his doctrines and messages (also on DVDs) are not based on the whole Truth of the Word of God. They contain spiritual errors in being contrary to other passages of the Word of God which are being ignored. The Holy Spirit cannot support such doctrines or messages, hence, their fruitfulness is greatly diminished and believers get a false picture and are thereby deceived! They acquire beliefs, which do not and cannot correspond to the Truth of the Word as breathed by the Spirit of the Lord. Any partial truth is very dangerous as it always contradicts the whole truth and thus deceives people! (ex. Gen. 3:4,5)
Two major spiritual errors which the Lord had pointed out to him in writing are the following:
1 – The doctrine of the “unconditional love of God for every believer” is FALSE! It is a humanistic belief and it deceives multitudes of believers, who remain comfortable and see no need to strive or endeavour to have and keep His Commandments in their earthly life. The Lord says clearly:
“He that has My commandments (in his heart) and keeps them, he it is that loves Me; and HE THAT LOVES ME SHALL BE LOVED OF MY FATHER AND I WILL LOVE HIM, and will manifest Myself to him.” (Jn. 14:21)
What if you, born-again and baptized believer, do not have His Commandments in your heart (only in your memory) or do not keep them even years after your redemption? Will the Lord and His Father love you just because you believed in Jesus and were baptized? From where would you take such a strange doctrine? In fact, a born-again, baptized believer, who does not love the Lord, shall be CURSED! (1Cor. 16:22) So, is there a clear condition for God’s love for you in Jn. 14:21 and Jn. 15:10? Is His love unconditional or is it conditional? Can you answer this simple question in truth? My eleven years old granddaughter (whom I baptized in the summer of 2007) understands this clearly, and she is not a doctor of theology; this reminds me of the Word in Lk. 2:46,47.
In your natural soul, you may believe that you do keep His Commandments, and that you do love the Lord. In reality, you may not even be aware that you love yourself or your father or mother or son or daughter (much) more than you love the Lord, in which case, you are not worthy of Him. (Mt. 10:37) Natural soul cannot judge itself righteously because it is blind.
2 – The doctrine of “Once saved, for ever saved” with no possibility of losing one’s Salvation is totally FALSE! And DANGEROUS! It deceives multitudes of believers even more and exposes them to the dangers of losing their life eternal. Tears of their repentance may come too late… if they come at all! This fact was already shown from the Scripture and discussed before (see again pages 58-62).
These above points are never preached and never explained to the believers in the Light of the WORD OF GOD! The fact that we may sometimes teach or preach an incorrect doctrine is not a tragedy before the Lord. We do not start from our perfection, we should end there. The Lord sent to this preacher His Word from our Mission in Slovakia (Central Europe), which was delivered to his hands. He did not reply! Another five letters were mailed to him concerning the above spiritual facts. We are unsure whether he received them or not, but we have received no responses.
All proud ministers are already under the Judgment of the Lord and they do not even know it, do not see it and cannot believe it. (Pr. 16:5,6) Why? They preach and teach believers to be meek, teachable and open minded to receive what the Lord is giving to them through others, yet, they do not follow their own sermons in their own lives! They do not see and realize that this good advice applies to them just as much as to the “not-so-educated sheep” in the pews. They all behave as if the Lord God had nothing new to show them and teach them, to correct them and to further deliver them mainly from their spiritual pride, self-righteousness, self-confidence, self-respect, self-sufficiency and the other selfishness even after having preached for many (20-30-40-50) years! Is this not a Great Tragedy?
THE LENGTH OF MINISTRY IS NO GUARANTEE OF ANY SPIRITUAL PROGRESS! The proud REFUSE to be perfected by the Lord! During all those years of their ministry, they may have never shed a tear of remorse or repentance from their eyes being on their knees before the Lord of this Universe!
How many such ministers of God serve in His Church and may cause irreparable damages to multitudes of honest, sincere but naïve or ignorant believers who depend on them? Those that are spiritually blind cannot receive any Light from the Lord. They are unwilling to even admit that they may be deceived and that they do not know everything perfectly. Blindness is the fruit of pride.
Now, the blind man in Jn. 9:25b knew he was blind and it was natural for him to ask the Lord for his eyesight. The problem with us is that we do not know that we are, or may be, spiritually blind; therefore, we do not ask the Lord for our spiritual eyesight! But when we ask not, we have not, we receive not. (Jam. 4:2b) So, it seems impossible to receive spiritual eyesight from the Lord when we do not ask Him; and we do not ask Him because we do not know (and cannot believe) that we are spiritually blind. What is then the solution to break out of this “vicious circle”?
I believe that the simplest solution is, if we could deny ourselves, overcome our pride, personal convictions, persuasions and beliefs and just tell the Lord a simple thing:
“Lord, I do not know whether I am spiritually blind or not. I cannot be sure. I simply do not see that I would be blind. I am, therefore, asking You, Lord, that if I am truly blind, please, give me the eyesight that I may see and understand in spirit, that I may see You as YOU TRULY ARE in Your Word. Thank You, Lord. Amen”.
I do not believe for one second that the Lord would refuse your request. I believe, in fact, that He has been waiting for multitudes of believersjust for such a prayer because it is His desire more than ours that we, true believers, would all SEE.
Apostle Paul gives us a very effective solution in his letter to Ephesians. After having heard of their faith in the Lord and love unto all the saints, he does not cease to give thanks for them and prays “That the God of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, may give unto you the Spirit of WISDOM AND REVELATION in the knowledge of Him; the EYES of your (spiritual) understanding being enlightened (opened);” (Eph. 1:15-18a) We all need this prayer all our earthly life. Do we see this need only for others?
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To be continued next week in chapter 3 – part 14
brother Hanola
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