Throughout our nation there are hundreds, if not thousands of churches and pastors that have differences in the doctrines they teach their congregations. Each one of us seek a church to attend where we see and hear those things being taught that appear to be truth and what we consider to be a message from God.
The Bible teaches us that a person must be called of God and sent by God to preach or teach the meaning of his Word and if they are not called and sent by God, they should be considered false preachers and teachers.
Rom “And how shall they preach, unless they are sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!”
If all the preachers and evangelists in the world that say they have been called of God to preach and teach, really were called and sent by Him, would they not be teaching the same message and in all cases saying the same things? It stands to reason that they would and there would be no differences in their doctrines. So does this not tell us that all of these people are not sent by God to preach and teach? Most certainly it does say that to us. Then knowing that we are being instructed by false teachers, how can we tell which is which? Which ones God has sent and which ones have not been sent. The scriptures say that the Lord sent preachers and teachers to bring us into the unity of the faith. How can our teachers do this when they all teach different things?
Eph 4:11-13 “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers”; [12] “For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ”: [13] “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ”:
We read in our Bible, specifically in Ephesians 4:5, that there is “One Lord, one faith, one baptism”. This one Lord would be speaking the same thing to all of his people and by way of those teachers He has sent, would be teaching us the principles of the “one faith”.
Satan set out in the Garden of Eden to deceive Eve and cause her to fall out of the will of God and he succeeded. He was so successful doing this in the beginning that he has continued now for thousands of years and is even more subtle now than he was then. For in this day, he does not appear to us in the form of a beast of the field, but in the form of a minister. Can you believe that? Will you believe what the Bible says? And if you do not believe this, then read what it says in 2nd Corinthians 11:14-15. “Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light” and his ministers are transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works. Yes his ministers will pay for the errors they teach because of being so deceived, but that is not the worst part, so will those innocent followers that are being misguided by their false teachings.
So what can we do? How can we be certain that a person truly sent by God is teaching us? The Lord said that in the last days, the false teaching would be so close to the truth that it could deceive even the elect. And I say to you, if you do not follow the leading of the Spirit and keep His Word, you will not be able to tell which is the truth and which is false. For Jesus said, the Holy Spirit will lead you into all truth and teach you.
Note exactly what was stated in the above paragraph. It is absolutely imperative to keep His Word. There is only one truth and that is His Word as He spoke it in the beginning, just as He gave it to His Prophets and Apostles. We cannot depend on what any man teaches us, without determining if it lines up with the original scriptures. We each, as individuals, have the responsibility to insure that we know what the truth is and hold to that truth, just as He gave it to them in the beginning.
Now even in the days of Jesus, the apostles could do nothing unless Jesus ordained them and sent them. Does the Bible not say that He gave them power against unclean spirits, to heal all sickness and disease and to preach the gospel? And when the twelve apostles went out, they did all these things because He sent them. There were definite signs that followed them confirming their ministry.
Mat 10:7-8 “And as you go, preach, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” [8] “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely you have received, freely give.”
Some time later, Jesus also sent out seventy more of his disciples to preach the gospel, cast out devils and heal the sick. They also were successful in doing these things because He sent them and those same signs confirmed their calling.
Luke “And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through your name.”
After the resurrection of Jesus, He commissioned His Apostles to go into the entire world and preach the gospel. But He also said to them, wait in the city of Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit to come upon you, and then you will have the power to accomplish the task I am sending you to do. Now the Greek word “dunamis,” which was translated into the English word “power,” actually means “miracle-working power.” Jesus knew that they would need this miracle working power for their ministry to be effective as it was when He sent them out before. The powers to heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead and cast out devils.
Acts 1:4 “And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem Jerusalem , and in all Judaea, and in Samaria
It’s the same today. He must send you and you must be baptized with the Holy Spirit in order to have the power to do the works He is sending you to do. If the signs are not following a man’s ministry, as they were in the apostle’s days, then the Lord has not sent that man.
In the third chapter of Jeremiah, the Lord says “I will give you pastors according to my heart”. And again in Romans 10:15, Paul says, “How shall they preach, unless they are sent?” The Lord God will confirm the ministry of those he sends to preach, with signs and wonders and all those he sends will speak the same message, if they stay true to their calling.
On the day of Pentecost, after they were baptized with the Holy Spirit, Peter gave his first sermon to the Jewish people. The very first day three thousand people were converted, not because that was the first time they had been preached to, but because the Holy Spirit confirmed Peter’s calling with many signs and wonders.
Acts “And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.”
There are a lot of men called to preach in this day, but how many of them have been called by the Lord and sent to preach? Can you tell if the Lord has sent a man or not? In some cases you can because they are so far off of the Word and have no signs following their ministry, it is obvious that they have not been sent.
But in other cases, there are those that are so close to the truth, maybe just a little bit off or just changing the meaning a little bit, that you will not be able to detect it unless you have the Holy Spirit confirming God’s Word to you. Nothing will take the place of your own personal confirmation of the truth of the Word by the Holy Spirit.
How does a person know for himself/herself personally if they have been called by the Lord into the ministry? The answer to that is if you have any doubt at all, then God has not called you. Let us look back into history and see how God has called people into service before.
God called Moses by speaking to him from a burning bush and confirmed his call to the people with certain signs. Moses knew from an early age that he had been called of God for a certain work, but it was very late in his life before he was sent to do that work. He first had to be prepared by God for that ministry, which was done after spending 40 years in the wilderness. Moses was called, prepared and sent by God.
God called Gideon by sending an angel messenger to him and confirmed that call with certain signs.
Paul the Apostle heard the voice of the Lord in a bright light and God confirmed his call with a sign of prophecy being fulfilled. Paul received his call, but was not sent out to preach until he had received the baptism of the Spirit and prepared himself for three years to do the Lord’s work. Many signs and wonders followed Paul’s ministry. (Acts )
The twelve apostles were called by Jesus personally, but were told to wait for the baptism of the Holy Spirit before they started their ministry. Only with the power of God performing signs and wonders in their ministry would it be effective. The confirmation of your being sent by God, with signs and wonders following your ministry, is necessary for it to accomplish God’s will.
Many others in the Bible received their calling as God spoke through His prophets. Others God spoke to directly or through angels. I believe that when God calls a person into service, it is as clear as any other instruction someone in authority gives you. Many men in this day use the scriptures as the sign of their calling and say when they read a certain passage that God was telling them to start preaching. There has probably been many a man called into the ministry, but the man, instead of waiting for God to send him out, thought that he was ready and impatiently started on his own, only to fail because he did not wait for the anointing from God.
What are the signs that will follow the ministry of one who has been called into service by the Lord? This is very important for all believers to know in order to recognize that a person has been sent by the Lord to minister to his children. If we follow one who has not been commissioned by the Lord, it will be like the blind leading the blind and both will fall into the ditch.
In Matthew, the 11th chapter, Jesus told the disciples of John the Baptist to go tell John certain things that would convince him that God had sent Jesus.
He said to tell John about the things they saw happening; the blind were receiving their sight, the lame were walking, lepers were being cleansed, the deaf were receiving their hearing and the dead were being raised. Without the evidence of those signs and wonders, John would not have been convinced that Jesus was the sent one.
When Jesus sent his twelve apostles out to preach to the Israelites, He gave them power to do those same miracles that He was doing. Without those signs following their ministry, the people would not believe that they were sent by God and would not hear the message being preached to them. For the miracles were to get the people’s attention and cause them to believe that God had sent them out to preach.
If those same signs are not following man’s ministry today, how can we be sure that God has commissioned him to preach the gospel? We cannot be sure!
Look at the story of Moses in the 4th chapter of Exodus. Moses told God that he did not think the people would believe him no matter what he said, so God gave Moses some signs to prove to the people that He had sent him. The same must be true today; signs and wonders being performed in Jesus’ name will evidence the proof of God’s calling.
The Lord said in John 10:27 that His sheep will hear His voice and will follow Him. Today we hear many voices saying they are of God. They say believe this, go this way, do these things, abstain from certain other things. How can we be sure that we are listening to the right voice? Hebrews 13:8 states that Jesus never changes. He is the same today as He was then. He is doing the same things, preaching the same gospel and performing the same miracles to prove the calling of those that have been ordained by God.
Heb 13:8 “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever.”
Mal 3:6 “For I <am> the LORD, I [change not]; therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed.”
Man not only has a responsibility to be sure that he is called by God to preach before he enters the pulpit, but he also has a responsibility to insure that what he is preaching is the truth of God’s Word.
Just because the Bible has been handed down to us through the past generations and we have been told that it is the Word of God, does not relieve us of the responsibility of insuring that what it contains is the truth of God’s Word. A person would not pick up any other book and believe everything it says without reservation, unless he researched it to the best of his ability and felt confident about what it said.
So knowing that man, who is not infallible, has translated the original scriptures into another language that we can understand, we owe it to God and to those who we are to teach, that what we are teaching is identical to what the original scriptures said.
Just as Paul the Apostle told Timothy to study to show himself approved, so must all other men who believe they have been called to preach God’s Word. If every preacher living today studied God’s Word to insure that what he was teaching was identical to the original scriptures, we all would be in the unity of the faith today and these diverse doctrines that have divided God’s people would not exist.
There is a difference between being called of God to preach and being sent by God. In between the calling and sending is a period of consecration and preparation.
The apostles were not ready to be sent out when they first received their call from the Lord. There was a period of learning the Word as they followed Jesus during His ministry. There was a period of consecration after His crucifixion and resurrection, when they determined in their hearts that His Word was in fact true and determined to consecrate their lives to the ministry of His Word. Only then were they prepared to receive the anointing of the Spirit and be sent out to perform His work.
It is not enough just to be called of God and then start out to preach the gospel. All men are not called to preach, some are called to do other things. After God’s calling, a person must determine what God has called them to do and prepare himself for that specific work. First, it takes consecration, preparing yourself to give all you have to the calling you have received. When you are prepared, then God will give you the power necessary to fulfill your calling by His anointing upon you. Then, and only then are you ready to be sent out to do the work He has called you to do.
If God has called a man to preach the gospel as He did the apostles, then He will give that man the same thing the apostles received and signs and wonders will confirm his calling. If these signs and wonders do not follow his ministry, then he either was not called to preach or he did not properly prepare himself to be sent out. Too many times man gets in a hurry to do what he thinks God has called him to do before he is properly prepared. He fails to wait for God to anoint him for the work and send him out into a ministry.
Nowhere in the Bible did the Lord ever send a man to preach the gospel without confirming his calling with signs and wonders following his ministry. In John 10:37, it is recorded that Jesus said: “If I do not the works of my father, believe me not.” Why shouldn’t that apply to any man that says God sent him? Should it be any different now? The answer is absolutely not.
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1 comment:
I have actually brought up this exact point to fellow church members along the way. Does your church believe in signs and wonders. Most of the time the answer is always the same, "No, that was just back in the bible days." (clueless)
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