Jonathan Brenneman's Blog, page 2

You Can Have Revival If You Want It!

The Abundant Riches Of Our Generous God’s Grace

One of the most powerful teachings we have done has been on the riches of God’s grace. Prophecy, healing, miracles, words of knowledge, works of power, and all the other manifestations commonly thought of as “spiritual gifts” are actually “grace-effects” or the results/manifestations of God’s grace.

Ephesians 1:7-8 says God made his riches of grace abundant towards us in Christ. Chapter 2 verse 7 again uses the phrase “abundant riches of his grace” and then verse 8 says “by grace you are saved through faith.” Romans 5:17 talks about receiving abundance of grace in Christ, meaning more than enough for every need. 2 Peter 1:2 says “Grace and peace be multiplied to you by the knowledge of God and of Jesus, our Lord.”

Mark 6:56 says all who touched Jesus were healed, but the word translated “healed” is the same Greek word as “saved” in Ephesians 2:8. Healing miracles are a manifestation of God’s grace. Ephesians 2:4 also says that God is very rich in mercy. Search the gospels and you’ll find people crying to Jesus, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” when they needed healing or deliverance.

We are regularly seeing many wonderful works of the Holy Spirit, and I know there is so much more. People are receiving miracles and feeling their bodies move under God’s power. Some are filled with joy. Some weep or sob with God’s love supernaturally manifesting. No emotionalism or music. The Holy Spirit heals emotional trauma. Some feel their bodies go numb and the Lord does the surgery for them. Some collapse on the concrete under God’s power, no suggestion trying to make them do that, no religious setting. God’s power drives out demons. Torment and burdens are replaced with God’s peace, and people “feel light.” All of it is wonderful. It’s just as wonderful or even more so to see someone sobbing as they feel God’s love as it is to see God’s power heal a broken bone.

I’m overwhelmed with thankfulness as I see the Lord’s grace manifest so richly. I know it’s not about my merit or lack of merit. It’s about what Jesus deserves. It’s not about my sufficiency or insufficiency, but it’s about the Lord’s sufficiency. This is what the gospel of God’s grace produces. Seeing God’s goodness produces the fear and awe of the Lord in my life.

Another great work of God’s grace is the work of sanctification. The Holy Spirit moves people so they are broken, they repent, they reconcile with others, and they weep because they see God’s goodness and no longer want to misrepresent Jesus to anybody. They surrender their lives fully to the Holy Spirit. People are filled with God’s love, weep with Jesus’ compassion, and receive calls to missions and ministry with the prophetic word.

It’s All Available, But Do You Want It?

I want you to see that all of this is available. God isn’t holding back. He is generous, and he pours out the riches of his grace abundantly, lavishly. Romans 8:32 says that if God gave his Son Jesus for us, he will also with him give us all things. Romans 10:12 says that God richly blesses all who call on his name.

Normal Christianity involves heavenly riches including an abundance of all of these supernatural results of God’s grace by the Holy Spirit’s power. Anything less may be normal to many in the church as it is, but it is not normal in God’s kingdom.

There is one qualification to receive all of this, and there is one problem that is always present when God’s normal is not our normal. James 4:6 (NIV) says “But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: ‘God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.'”

Do You Think You Don’t Need Help? Are You Happy With Church As It Is, Or Do You Know You Need Change?

As I continue to experience heaven’s abundance and interact with many of the local churches, it becomes clear to me that they lack the abundant supernatural manifestation of God’s grace simply because they don’t want it. They don’t have revival because they don’t want it. It’s not their priority.

Like the church of the Laodiceans, they think everything is wonderful, that they are rich and lacking nothing, but they don’t understand that they are really poor, blind, and naked. They like their way of doing things and don’t want to change. They don’t want to yield to the Holy Spirit or to God’s Word. They think they can do church by their natural ability without the Holy Spirit’s help. How arrogant!

People from all over the world have sent me messages asking for prayer and needing healing, deliverance, and counsel that they aren’t getting in their church services. Anybody who has a clue about the help people need must know that religion that is doable with merely human strength is never going to cut it. It’s not all right that desperate people who are tormented by demons can go to one after another of our religious programs and never find the freedom they need. We can’t do this without God’s help! We have a serious problem if the results of God’s grace are not abundantly evident in our meetings.

I have seen the Lord do so many miracles that I can’t count or keep track of them, but still I often weep and cry out, knowing that I need the Holy Spirit and I need to walk in more so that Jesus is glorified and people are rescued. I watch the Jesus Encounter Ministries meetings. They have so many miracles, including deafness, blindness healed, broken bones, and chronic diseases healed, deliverance from schizophrenia and depression, children healed of autism, people repenting from sin, relationships reconciled, and people baptized in God’s fire. Yet they cry out in prayer, “Holy Spirit, we need you!”

In contrast to this, many churches have none of this abundant manifestation of God’s grace in their meetings, but they are happy with how things are. They don’t think they need change. Their pride and self-sufficiency keep them from receiving God’s grace.

Rodney Howard-Browne on Revival

Rodney Howard-Browne was a catalyst for revival, and he laid hands on Randy Clark before the Toronto revival. I was not there in the early days of Toronto, but people who had been to Toronto visited our church and the revival touched me when I was 13 years old. I started ministering healing at a conference with Randy when I was 20, and met many people who had been touched powerfully by the Lord in the 90’s. Some of them were radiant with God’s glory.

I found this old video of Rodney. It strongly confirms what is now becoming so clear to me. You can have revival if you want it, and if the church isn’t in revival, there’s a pride problem. I recommend watching the whole thing, but here are some excerpts:

“I’ve got news for you. God has already sovereignly moved 2000 years ago when he sent Jesus to the cross. And he already moved 2000 years ago when he sent the Holy Spirit to the earth. We are in the sovereign move of God. We can choose to come into it or go out of it any time we want to.” (33:56-34:15) “The move of God comes because somebody’s hungry. The move of God comes because somebody’s thirsty. The move of God comes because somebody cries out ‘Oh God, come and touch me with your fire. Come and put a burning coal in my mouth. Come and touch me with the firebrand of heaven.’ Somebody got hungry. Somebody said ‘I’m gonna break through the status quo. ‘Somebody said, ‘I’m not satisfied with the traditional. I’m not satisfied with the same-old, same-old. I’m pressing on.’ Somebody said, ‘I’m swimming upstream.’ Somebody said ‘I’m tired of floating downstream with the dead fish.’…You can have revival any time you want! It’s not up to God, it is up to you.” (34:38-35:37)

Rodney recounts how they would have “outbreaks” here and there and thought it was a “sovereign move of God.” Then The Lord spoke and said “The only reason I didn’t move is because you didn’t let me move” and “I want to move more than you want me to move, but you won’t allow me to move.” (1:15:30-1:17:50)

James 4:8 says, “Draw near to God, and God will draw near to you.” Those who are comfortable, self-sufficient, and happy with the status quo will never have revival. Those who are so proud that they are full of the fear of man and concern about other people’s opinions will never have revival. The humble are hungry. The humble know they need the Lord. The humble aren’t concerned about their reputation. The humble are ready for change. The humble will drop everything they are doing and submit to the Lord and what is important to him.

One of the greatest manifestations of pride is to say, “Holy Spirit, we read in the Bible what you want to do, but that really isn’t our priority. We have our program. God, yes, we have read your suggestions in the Bible for how to conduct a Christian meeting, but we like our way better. Everyone does it this way! It works for us.” Pride keeps the church from receiving God’s correction which would result in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit if it was heeded. Pride considers God’s instructions to be mere suggestions subservient to our traditions. Pride causes the church to ignore Jesus when he comes to us. In our next post, we’ll briefly consider some of the Bible’s instructions for a Christian meeting and how failure to obey them quenches the Holy Spirit.

The post You Can Have Revival If You Want It! appeared first on Go to Heaven Now!.

Oneness With God and the Otherness of God

Friends, we have been holding an “Open Heaven” home group which includes much of the teaching I share in my new book, The Mechanics of Miracles. This teaching returns us to the simplicity of Jesus, the gospel, and communion with God. It produces power. The people in our meetings are feeling God’s power tangibly, prophesying, and seeing miracles. We’ve seen God’s power moving bodies as they are being healed, deliverance, deafness healed, restoration of speech after a stroke, people undergoing supernatural surgeries, and much more.

Several friends were interested in hosting similar groups, so I started a Facebook group for those who would like to begin an “Open Heaven” group or incorporate our ideas into an existing group. Open Heaven groups prioritize the whole body of Christ acting in God’s supernatural grace and power. They are participatory, not spectator events.

We don’t “cover” or control those groups, but we are simply sharing ideas and teaching to support those interested in doing what we are. One friend recently testified that they held their second meeting. She saw a deaf ear open for the first time, a person was delivered from a spirit of pain, and someone with stage 4 cancer felt the tumor go under anesthesia, then it shrunk and got softer. If you want to start your own “Open Heaven” group or incorporate any of our ideas in your existing group, you may request to join the “Open Heaven group leaders” Facebook group here, look over our posts, and share your own experiences.

Did Jesus teach the same as Plato, the Vedic writings, and Yogis?

As I was working on publishing The Mechanics of Miracles, I searched for similar books on Amazon out of curiosity. I found a book called The Science of Creating Miracles. The author is an accomplished scientist and extremely intelligent. I opened the “read sample” on Amazon to find out what the book was about. He talked about scientific experiments, which was interesting, but he could probably barely imagine the supernatural abundance I testify to in The Mechanics of Miracles. Figuring conservatively, I’ve seen thousands of miracles over the last 20 years.

I read enough to learn about the author’s philosophy and influences. His worldview was quite sad. I felt sorry for him. He wrote about the power of consciousness and creating miracles. He believed Plato, Vedic writings, Christian mystics, Yogis, personal development gurus, and Jesus taught the same thing: that “everything we need is within us.” Yet what I was reading sorely lacked the glory I know, which I share about in The Mechanics of Miracles. I thought, “I would hate to live like that!”

I’ve heard similar philosophies many times. They have crept into some Christians’ speech. Some talk about learning to “heal yourself.” When listening to the testimonies of people who were deep into New Age practices but then converted to Christ, the common theme seems to be “I was so blind. I thought that everything I needed was within me. I was completely self-reliant.”

The Holy Spirit spoke to me about what was missing. A distorted understanding of oneness with God denies the “otherness” of God.

One With The Lord

Luke 17:21 (NKJV) nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”

 Colossians 1:27 (NKJV) To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Being united to the Lord is fundamental for walking in God’s power and glory. However, this truth as scripture teaches it does not deny the “otherness” of God. The Bible teaches that being joined to the Lord is like the union of a husband and wife in marriage. Who wants to marry someone who is no different than you are?

1st Corinthians 6:16b-17 (NASB) For He says, “The two shall become one flesh.” But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.

God created us in his image and likeness to have communion with him, and he invites us to be united with him. Like the union of a man and a wife, that union does not deny the “otherness” of the One we are united to. Rather, the “otherness” is what makes that relationship so precious.

My wife is quite different than I am. I can’t imagine any fulfilling relationship in which there is no “otherness” to the person you are in a relationship with. That’s why it’s so sad when I hear, “Everything you need is within you.” That philosophy embraces part of the Bible’s teaching, but fails to comprehend all of it. It fails to lead to joy, freedom, and power.

The “Otherness” of God

The Mechanics of Miracles shares almost 100 supernatural testimonies and the belief system that produced these miracles. It talks about unity with the Lord, but it also shares many truths that would be impossible without the “otherness” of God.

Jeremiah 10:6 (NIV) No one is like you, Lord; you are great, and your name is mighty in power.

1 Samuel 2:2 (NIV) “There is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God.

Many other scriptures point out that there is none like our Lord. The glory, the awesomeness, the delight I testify of is only possible because of the “otherness” of God. Any belief system that fails to understand God’s “otherness” is even sadder than the suggestion that we don’t need relationships with other people because everything we need is found within!

Here are some of those Biblical truths that are only possible because of the “otherness” of God:

-Repentance. In The Mechanics of Miracles, I defined this as entering communion with the Holy Spirit and breaking communion with every other spirit contrary to His nature. Repentance leads to life and produces great joy, but it is impossible without the “otherness” of God.

-Beholding. I discussed the principle of beholding God’s glory and being transformed into his image. This is impossible without the “otherness” of God.

-Communion with the Holy Spirit. It takes at least two to have communion.

-Dependence. God gives grace (power) to the humble but resists the proud. Humility is dependence. Pride is self-sufficiency. Humility focuses on the Lord. Pride focuses on one’s self. Humility, dependence, and trust in God are impossible without the “otherness” of God. Even Jesus said he could do nothing of himself, but only as he saw the Father doing. This life of glory is a life of absolute dependence on the Holy Spirit.

–Yielding to the Holy Spirit. The Mechanics of Miracles doesn’t teach how to “heal yourself,” or how to “heal others” by your own innate ability. It teaches how to connect with God’s Spirit through Jesus, and then yield to the Holy Spirit so that God’s love and compassion manifest in power through you. We receive God’s power, and we are not sufficient of anything in ourselves. Our sufficiency comes from him.

All Who Call On The Name of the Lord Will Be Saved

Walking in unity with God requires yielding, change, humility, trust, and communion, just as a happy and successful marriage does. Yes, the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of us. Yes, we are united with him in Spirit. But it’s foolish to think that, “Everything I need is inside of me,” apart from God’s grace and salvation. Such a belief system of self-reliance brings a curse.

 Jeremiah 17:5-8 (NIV) This is what the Lord says:

“Cursed is the one who trusts in man,
    who draws strength from mere flesh
    and whose heart turns away from the Lord.
That person will be like a bush in the wastelands;
    they will not see prosperity when it comes.
They will dwell in the parched places of the desert,
    in a salt land where no one lives.

“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
    whose confidence is in him.
They will be like a tree planted by the water
    that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
    its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
    and never fails to bear fruit.”

There is none like the Lord. He is holy. He alone is wise. He can do what we can’t. Without him, we are foolish. Without him, we are helpless.

Romans 16:27 (NIV) …to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.

1 Timothy 6:15-16 (NIV) God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.

Job 12:13 (NIV) To God belong wisdom and power; counsel and understanding are his.

We can’t save ourselves. We can’t heal ourselves. Our ways are foolish when we rely on mere human wisdom. We go the way that seems right to us, but it leads to death. We need Another to teach us, to help us, to rescue us, to give us His wisdom, to show us the way we should walk in.

Psalm 143:8 (NIV) Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life.

Romans 10: 12-13 (NIV) For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Humble yourself, and God will exult you and give you grace. Acknowledge your foolishness apart from the Lord, ask Him for wisdom without doubting, and He will give it to you. Acknowledge your helplessness, and receive His strength! Call on Him, and He will rescue you! Don’t let pride and self-reliance rob you of receiving heavenly riches!

Psalm 60:11 (NIV) Give us aid against the enemy, for human help is worthless.

Psalm 94:11 (GNT) The Lord knows what we think; he knows how senseless our reasoning is.

Psalm 94:11 (VOICE) The Eternal knows the highest thoughts of the wise, and they are worthless.

1 Corinthians 1:19-20, 25 (NIV)  For it is written:

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
    the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”

Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

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“Are you a regular tither?” Part 3 of answering religious objections

Several weeks ago, we started talking about religious burdens which add all kinds of human regulations to God’s word. The number of people who are considered “unchurched” has been growing rapidly. Yet many Christians accuse the unchurched of rebellion, trying to remove the speck from their brother’s eye and ignoring the log in their own. (Matthew 7:3-5) Rather than pointing an accusing finger, they need to repent for the ways they have used people instead of serving them. They need to repent for piling heavy burdens on people and honoring tradition and the status-quo paradigm over God’s Word. Jesus was moved with compassion for the people because they were like sheep without a shepherd. It wasn’t because they didn’t have religious leaders. It wasn’t because they were “rebellious sheep.” It was because the religious leaders were not shepherding God’s flock.

I was going to expound on these religious burdens in-depth, but I felt that the Lord was leading me instead to answer three questions that people often ask when judging by outward appearances. In Part One, we discussed the question, “What Church Do You Go To?” and my answer “I belong to the church in Goiânia, Brazil.” In Part Two, we discussed the question, “Who is your pastor?” and my answer, “Jesus is my pastor.” Today, in Part Three we consider the question, “Are you a regular tither?” and my answer, “No, I’m not a tither.”

The Bible teaches that it’s important to be in Christian fellowship, be teachable and accountable, respect and listen to elders in the faith, and give generously. However, religiosity conflates these commands into much more than the Bible teaches. Consequently, many who are considered “unchurched” are actually obeying these teachings of scripture even more so than those who wrongly judge them! Not all who are called “unchurched” actually are “unchurched!”

We’ve dealt so thoroughly with the issue of tithing before, in previous blog posts and in the book The Trojan Horse of Tithing, available for free in most places. So to finish up this series today, I’ll share my sincere response briefly.

You’re in Sin if You’re Trying to Evaluate People’s Character with this Question!

Jesus taught, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.” (Matthew 18:15) Paul wrote, “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.”(Galatians 6:1)

A person who uses a question about tithing to evaluate others’ character is in sin for multiple reasons. They may love the Lord and not be deliberately in sin.

Ps. 19:12-13 (NIV) But who can discern their own errors? Forgive my hidden faults. Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then I will be blameless, innocent of great transgression.

We may not realize how we have sinned against, wronged, or hurt other people. But for the sake of the church’s unity and many other reasons, scripture commands us to show our brother if he has sinned against us.

If you ask about me tithing in order to evaluate my character, you are sinning because Jesus taught me to give in secret for heavenly reward, not for favor with men. Yet you want me to disobey Jesus by telling you about what I give in order to gain favor with you. You are in sin because you have become a “judge with evil thoughts” in determining people’s standing in the church by financial criteria. (Of course it’s possible for a rich person or a poor person to tithe, but doing so is easy for a rich person yet often means neglecting one’s family and failing to pay what is owed for a poor person.)

You are in sin especially because you break God’s commands for the sake of your traditions. Do you think tithing as taught today is anything more than a command of men? If you’re here with me, let’s sit down, ask questions, read our Bibles, and go to the relevant passages. If not, read my plea to the church, The Trojan Horse of Tithing. When we face the facts, it’s clear that this isn’t a disputable matter. And in The Trojan Horse of Tithing, I shared nine specific commands of God that churches regularly break for their tithing tradition.

Titus chapter 1 calls teachers who use human commands to bring in the money, “rebellious.” You have a choice. Either submit to the correction of God’s word, listen when your brother shows you your sin, humble yourself – or live in rebellion against Jesus and the gospel, as did the Judaizers who the Bible rebukes in Titus 1, Acts 15, and the letter to the Galatians.

My Questions to the Religious Who Continue to Accuse

Luke 18:9-14 (NIV)  To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’” “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Many harden their hearts, refusing to listen when a brother shows them their sin. They refuse to be accountable or submit to scripture. All they have is accusations for those who don’t submit to their religious standards. They say, “You are just stingy. You just don’t want to give. Why don’t you do your part?” Here are some questions I’d ask them, at least in my own city.

You say, “You’re just stingy” to someone who is not a tither and prefers to obey Jesus and give in secret. If that’s so, why are a handful of people who don’t believe in tithing doing far more than any church I know in this city to help recovery houses every month? Many of these churches here have multi-million budgets. Can you show me one of the churches in my city that is teaching tithing and doing more for recovery houses than that small group of non-tithers? Do you want those non-tithers to stop doing the work of caring for the elderly and homeless so that they can tithe into your system that isn’t taking care of those elderly and homeless people?

I understand that you believe people should “do their part” because the overhead is expensive. But why are you complaining if I don’t really want your overhead anyway? Are you a better Christian because you meet in a building that costs 5 million? How many people in your own apartment building have been healed or delivered from demons? When was the last time you saw revival in a beauty salon or pizza shop? Maybe I just have different priorities than you.

Why are you more concerned with people serving your system than if your system is serving people? Have you considered how many people want Christian fellowship but the big budget that religiosity considers “essential” is cost-prohibitive for them? They have unpaid bills and rents, and barely have food at home. Roger Sapp shared about a situation that I have also seen personally. He went with a Canadian pastor who was visiting six widows who had stopped going to church. He soon realized that all six had stopped attending because they didn’t have money to tithe. If this is an issue in first-world countries like Canada, how much more so in poverty-stricken areas. I remember my elderly mother-in-law saying, “I can’t go to church tonight because I don’t have money.” What if your big budget excludes the poor rather than helping them? What if they feel ashamed to come because it’s all so expensive and they can’t afford it?

If a non-tither is serving people who may sometimes only have one or two meals a day, who can’t afford your expensive religious infrastructure, then why don’t you just leave them alone? What if I’m not in your church service but I’m in the homes of people who your church services aren’t reaching, sharing the gospel and watching Jesus heal them? Does that make me a “backslidden” Christian? Why does it seem that your churches spend 95% of their time and energy trying to reach people who have money, rather than trying to reach the people who need help the most?

Why does it seem like the only things you care about when evaluating someone’s faith are if you can control them and if they tithe? Why do you ask if I’m a faithful tither, but you don’t ask or care if I’m regularly and boldly testifying of Jesus? Why don’t you ask if I’m obeying Jesus’ commands?
Why do your actions show that it matters little to you if a pastor cheats on his wife, yet your religious system would never give a chance to someone who isn’t a faithful tither?
Why are you so adamant about me paying to hold together your system when it’s failing to produce disciples who obey Jesus?

I have different priorities than you. I don’t believe your value system and priorities are better. Your tithe doctrine enforces the division, carnality, and infighting that is so often the basis for the first question “What church do you go to?” and the second question, “Who is your pastor?” This doctrine hinders us from having a Biblical plurality of elders and enforces the one-man show in which “pastoring” is about control, not function. Your one-man show is in disobedience to the Bible’s instructions in 1st Corinthians 12-14 about the order of our services. How will we ever operate as the priesthood of all believers when the model is based on the Old Testament priesthood? Do you disagree? Show me how your people are disciples of Jesus, not mere spectators…

Your people are tithing and offering to be blessed and get their breakthrough every week. All I see that producing in your congregations is Christians who are always struggling, focused on themselves, powerless, and unsure of everything. If I’m wrong, show me your people boldly approaching God’s throne of grace, walking in God’s glory as heavenly people, full of joy and good fruit. I don’t see your system producing that.

I am not criticizing those who own or rent a building for ministry purposes if the Lord leads them. I am not criticizing those who receive an income doing ministry work or receive free-will offerings. I am responding to those who judge others by mere human commands and standards and want to control how they give. I’m responding to those who insist that others need to have the same expensive infrastructures and style of religious programming as they do in order to be disciples of Jesus.

I am for free-will giving, in secret if possible, to receive a heavenly reward rather than to seek favor with people. Jesus gave his life for us, so let’s lay down our lives for Jesus and for those He loves. Giving to be seen by people, tithing, and human commands stop or hinder many Christians from giving to the poor and giving as led by the Holy Spirit. Many religious Christians believe that someone giving to care for orphans should stop if it means they can’t first pay their tithe to a “local church. Yet scripture is clear that giving to the poor is one of the most important issues to God’s heart. It’s a major part of walking in God’s glory. We feel God’s heavenly atmosphere of love and glory as we give both earthly wealth and heavenly riches to meet people’s needs.

Matthew 6:1 (NIV) Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

Matthew 23:5-7, 27-28 (NIV) Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others….Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

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The Plurality of Elders and Jesus as My Pastor – Part 2 of “Answering Religious Objections”

In our last post, I shared about my answer to the question, “What church do you go to?” and the answer, “I belong to the church in Goiânia, Brazil.” Today, we’ll cover the question, “Who is your pastor?” My answer to this question is also quite Biblical, but it shocks the religious. It is, “My pastor is Jesus.”

Everything I share in this post, I explained in detail in my book I Am Persuaded. I am just sharing the overview of my answer here.

“Who is your pastor?”

When I say, “My pastor is Jesus,” many respond, “But you need a spiritual covering.” I ask them to show me where the Bible says that. A Bible study shows that every Biblical sense of the word “covering” is a role that belongs to God and God alone. The primary meaning of “covering” in the Bible is “atonement.” It is also the role of a husband to his wife. Having anyone other than the Lord himself “cover” us in any Biblical sense of the word is idolatry and spiritual adultery. Don’t put anyone else in the role that belongs to the Lord alone.

It is important to stay accountable to other Christians, as long as we are accountable first to the Lord himself. It’s important to learn from other Christians who have more experience, but only to the extent that they imitate Christ. The notion of “spiritual covering” goes far beyond the importance of being humble and teachable. It goes beyond anything the Bible teaches. It’s another tradition of men that negates God’s word.

Many talking about “spiritual covering” are repeating the errors of the Shepherding movement and of other groups that essentially turned into cults in the past. It was not that those groups exaggerated and became “too authoritarian.” It was that their whole hierarchical paradigm was in error. Some of them recognized that error and later repented, acknowledging that they had even destroyed families by their error. Those who insist on having a person as your “spiritual covering” might think I’m unteachable. Rather, I am convinced that they are being unteachable. They refuse to submit their doctrine to scripture and they imitate the errors of those who came before them. They should learn from the repentance of Derek Prince and others who got it wrong the first time!

The New Testament uses the singular noun “pastor” a dozen times in reference to Jesus himself, and never uses it in the singular form to refer to anybody other than Jesus. So while the religious consider it quite scandalous to respond “My pastor is Jesus,” my language is quite Biblical and theirs is not.

I’m 39 years old, I’ve been around Charismatic churches since I was a kid, I’ve been to a dozen countries, and I follow events in the worldwide church. I have repeatedly seen the “spiritual covering” and singular pastor paradigms lead people into error instead of protecting them. Examples? The pastor was in adultery and many people knew but everyone hid it. The pastor was caught acting as a sexual predator for the umpteenth time, and half the church still calls him “my pastor” and wants to follow him. The pastor teaches human traditions and nobody dares submit his teaching to scripture. Even worse, the pastor is preaching blatant heresy and the vast majority of the church is still following him. They are willing to follow their pastor right away from Jesus and right away from the gospel. Yet many of the people in those very churches would consider me “rebellious” or “unaccountable” because I say, “My pastor is Jesus.”

This tendency to idolize “the pastor” is even worse in the culture I’m in now, in which many people have a background in Catholicism and the pastor is sometimes treated as the mediator between God and man, when there is only one mediator, Jesus Christ. (1 Timothy 2:5) It is taboo for many to question anything a pastor says….even if what the pastor says directly contradicts scripture.

As we demonstrated in I Am Persuaded, what most people today see as the role of a pastor is exaggerated. It isn’t healthy for pastors, and it isn’t healthy for the church. This is evidenced by the immaturity of the church and the high rates of pastoral burn-out, depression, isolation, and other problems. The paradigm in which everyone comes to receive from “the pastor” keeps God’s people as spectators and hinders them from ever becoming disciples of Jesus. In the local churches where I live, most people who have been in church for more than 20 years are still not disciples doing what Jesus taught his followers to do.

Teachability, Humility, and a Plurality of Elders

I believe in humility and teachability.
I believe in learning from those who have come before us, from both their successes and mistakes.
I believe in being an “open book” with nothing to hide, and accountability.
I believe in having people in our lives who can give a godly rebuke.
I believe we should recognize, honor, and learn from the experience of elders in the church, imitating them to the extent that they imitate Christ. (1 Corinthians 11:1)

Yet the New Testament teaches a plurality of elders and pastors. Their role is important, but limited. It can never come close to the role of Christ himself. The only one who has the honor of being the singular, “my pastor,” is Jesus himself.

The New Testament says, in the context of teaching, that, “We all stumble in many ways” or, “We all err in many ways.” Jesus is the only one who doesn’t. If I put anybody but Jesus in the singular role of, “My pastor,” I will imitate their errors, not only their strengths!”

As I explained in I Am Persuaded, the Greek New Testament commands Christians to “be persuaded by” elders, not to unquestioningly obey them. In many churches, religious traditions take precedence over God’s word and there are certain traditions you just can’t question. For that reason, I’m making it clear in our “Open Heaven” discipleship group that you don’t “have to” agree with me, and that questions are welcome if you’re not so sure about what I’m saying. This protects the church from error and helps us to hold to the Bible as our standard. When I teach others, I want them to be convinced of truth for themselves. Christian culture today is full of religiosities that come from parroting others rather than being persuaded and grounded in scripture.

Many people have played a pastoring role in my life over the years. I’ve humbled myself and learned from them. But I often received something from one person that was beneficial, yet that same person was in error in another area. God used another “elder” to correct me where the first one had led me astray! This attitude of learning from different people yet following Christ is healthy. Calling anybody but Jesus himself, “my pastor,” is not.

Religiosity is Concerned With Appearances, Not With The Heart

Matthew 23:27-28 (NIV) “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness…”

Religiosity is concerned with appearances, not reality. I could easily pick one group here that I would call, “my church” and call their leader, “my pastor.” But I doubt that doing so would add any healthy relationship or godly accountability to my life. Jesus himself closely pastored a handful of people, including the 12 and a few others such as Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. Yet in today’s religious paradigm, often thousands of people are expected to call one person they rarely or never even talk to, “my pastor.” In this paradigm, being a “pastor” often has very little to do with pastoring. The only point of calling someone “my pastor” who is not pastoring me would be to satisfy the demands of religiosity. But it would not be honest!

A young man here was worried that I said, “Jesus is my pastor.” I asked what he thought I should do differently to have “a pastor.” He didn’t know. If I attend your Sunday morning services and call your leader “my pastor,” will that add any accountability to my life? Will it make that man more of an example to me of walking in the Spirit and imitating Jesus than he would have been if I didn’t call him “my pastor?” Will I suddenly have someone to talk with about my struggles? No.

In Greek and most other languages, “pastor” is the same word as “shepherd.” Just calling someone “my pastor” doesn’t make him a shepherd to you. Shepherding is what the shepherd does, not what the sheep do. A lack of shepherds is not the fault of the sheep. Although we have many people called “pastors,” true servants who shepherd God’s flock are lacking. Many who are shepherding God’s flock are not called “pastors,” and many who are called “pastors” are not actually shepherding most of the people who call them “pastor.”

For real shepherding to happen, we must have a plurality of elders with Jesus himself as the chief Shepherd. In Jesus’ day, there were many religious leaders, yet Jesus had compassion on the people because they were like “sheep without a shepherd.” Calling a person “pastor” doesn’t make him a pastor. Jesus didn’t tell the people, “You’re in spiritually dangerous territory. You don’t have a pastor.” Rather, he pastored them himself. People who are concerned about a lack of pastoring should become pastors. They should be concerned with the lack of true shepherds in the church. The religious blame sheep for not having a shepherd instead of realizing that the problem lies in the lack of servants doing the work of shepherding God’s flock. Humble under-shepherds will have no problem with the Christians they serve calling Jesus, the chief Shepherd, “my pastor.”

The Lord has used many people to teach me, correct me, and give me an example to imitate. But why would I even call someone “a pastor” to me, much less “my pastor,” unless I see something in their life that I want to imitate and learn from? In many cases, in the local churches and the religious system as it is, I see errors I want to avoid, not examples I want to imitate.

The Religious Paradigm About Pastors Leads the Church into Error

The demand that you choose someone to call “my pastor” is sometimes presented with the pretext of “protection,” but what’s really behind it is usually the desire for control. Submitting to that control would lead me into disobedience to Jesus. I could not be ministering to people on the streets and in recovery houses or helping the poor to the extent that I am if I submitted to the control and demands of a local religious organization. Some may criticize, but I don’t believe anybody in any of the local churches is doing the work that I am. Some are to a much lesser extent, but more is needed.

Rather than protecting from error, I’ve often seen the notions of a personal pastor and “spiritual covering” used to excuse error and escape accountability. Nationally known preachers living in sin or teaching serious doctrinal error have often evaded accountability to God’s Word and to the church by saying, “I’m submitted to such-and-such” a person. Because they consider themselves to be the “spiritual fathers,” they are the ones who are unteachable and unable to relate as brothers with one Father. This paradigm is about appearances, not about the heart.

Some think I’m dangerous and susceptible to error because I say, “My pastor is Jesus.” If anybody is offended by me making such a thoroughly Biblical statement, it is because they are the one in error! Refusing to allow others to usurp Jesus’ role as the chief Shepherd has protected me from error. It has kept me from falling away from Jesus when I’ve seen so many leaders fail. Many who once called one of those leaders “my pastor” are no longer even walking with Jesus.

Do you think I need more pastoring? OK. Imitate Jesus and show me an example I want to follow. Maybe start by taking the time to talk with me instead of talking with others about how you think I need a pastor!

I dedicated my life to missions as a young teenager and never looked back. I felt love flowing through my whole body like a current and began to weep for nations. I learned languages to share the gospel. I couldn’t turn back just because few stood with me. I wanted relationship, fellowship, communion. Few offered it. It was lonely when I moved to Brazil!

The apostle Paul said “Everyone in the province of Asia has abandoned me” and “at my first defense, no one came to my support, but everybody deserted me.” I also felt abandoned by many. Yet a few friends from the United States encouraged me throughout the years. Bob Geiger, a Brethren in Christ Pastor who was a missionary in Colombia and helps people in drug and alcohol recovery in Lancaster PA, told me I could give people his reference if they asked about my “sending church.” I was involved in their church when I lived in the United States. It was a group meeting in houses, mostly of people getting off drugs and alcohol.

I call Bob every few months, as well as talking to my parents and a few other friends. Many of the people who’ve been the greatest encouragement are Facebook friends. When our lives were in danger and the pastor of my old church in the US said they couldn’t stand with us, it was blog readers and Facebook friends who prayed and helped us to care for Edgar, an elderly man we rescued. I connect online with Stuart Morrison from South Africa and other distant friends to talk and pray. I have good Christian friends in Brazil, both in my city and in other cities. Instead of asking “Who is your pastor?” it is better to ask about relationships and healthy connections in the body of Christ!

The post The Plurality of Elders and Jesus as My Pastor – Part 2 of “Answering Religious Objections” appeared first on Go to Heaven Now!.

“What Church Do You Go To?” Answering Religious Objections Part One

In the last post, we talked about the issue of the unchurched and the weights, burdens, and commandments of men that are hindering people from following Jesus. A weight may not be a sin, but it hinders us. What is a weight for one person is not always a weight for another. However, it is a sin to impose weights as burdens on others by teaching commandments of men as doctrines. Today we will expound on some of these weights and commandments of men related to how people define church, and I will answer the objections of those caught up in religiosity.

The Bible uses the term “religion” in a positive way in James 1:27, so I use the word “religiosity” to talk about these weights and commandments of men that people add to the gospel of Christ. For lack of a better word, I use “the religious” or “religious people” in the negative sense to describe people who are caught up in religiosity.

Many People Consider Me To Be “Unchurched!”

I remember all the applications for mission trips that I filled out as a teenager. The questions included:

“What church do you go to?”
“Who is your pastor?”
“Are you a regular tither?”

If you give the wrong answers to these questions, many people will assume that your walk with Christ isn’t strong. You are seen as uncommitted, unreliable, unaccountable, and maybe even dangerous! My answers to these questions, to the shock of many, are the following:

“I belong to the church in Goiânia, Brazil.”
“Jesus is my pastor.”
“No, I’m not a tither.”

People’s reactions to these questions reveal if they are caught in the deception of religiosity and teaching traditions of men as doctrine. I remember when I moved to Goiânia and told my wife, “Beth, they need so much help.” She replied, “Jonathan, they think you are the one who needs help!” A few years later, many of the people I was referring to have been in one mess and scandal after another. But I’m still following Jesus. Those who are shocked by my answers to the questions above think that I seriously need help. But I believe it is they who need help and have strayed so far from the truth!

Jesus’ name brings tears to my eyes every week. I read whole books of the Bible in one sitting. I weep often because I am so hungry to see a greater manifestation of God’s glory. I’ve seen hundreds of people in my current city healed or delivered from demons, most outside of any religious setting, but I’m hungry for so much more. I’m in fellowship at least three times most weeks, and I would be even more often if not for my work and the need to spend time with my wife and kids! Most of the people I am in fellowship with regularly attend traditional church services.

Yet even though I deeply love the people and see the Holy Spirit working among them, the burden of all their system entails and what it demands is way too much for me. I have no more energy for it. I feel exhausted even thinking about it. A few years ago, the Holy Spirit told me, “You can’t give your all for religion and give your all for Jesus.” I’ve stopped worrying about people’s religious expectations. If I were still trying to live up to those expectations, it would hinder me from doing what Jesus has called me to do. I don’t have the grace or energy to fulfill the expectations of religiosity and also to be faithful to Jesus’ call. So much work needs to be done that I don’t have time or energy for religious programs or spectator events.

I recently realized that some of the other people in my mission group are also considered “unchurched” but are on fire for the Lord and are in regular Christian fellowship. Yet those trapped in religiosity think we need so much more!

John 7:24 (NIV) Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.

I certainly understand an organization wanting to screen applicants for a mission trip. Yet those three questions are misguided. They judge by mere appearances. Let’s examine those erroneous religious expectations.

“What church do you go to?”

“I belong to the church in Goiânia, Brazil.” This sounds scandalous to the religious, but I am using the same language as the authors of the New Testament. The New Testament refers to churches in a city. The churches in the New Testament met from house to house, in various places, but we have no reason to believe they referred to those groups as different “churches.” We have many reasons to believe there was an overlap between those groups. People who had gifts to edify the church would probably often go from one group to another in that city to teach and share God’s grace, just as the apostle Paul went from one city to another.

The Bible says there is one body, but I constantly hear people referring to different congregations as different bodies in their religious jargon. This is another case of annulling God’s word for the sake of our tradition. Paul wrote that saying, “I follow Paul,” or, “I follow Apollos” was carnal sectarianism. What is saying, “I’m Lutheran” or, “I’m Wesleyan” other than saying, “I follow Luther” or, “I follow Wesley?”

A common mark of many revivals is the churches coming together in unity regardless of denominational labels. My view of the church as one body, and the Biblical language I use which reflects that, is a mark of the Holy Spirit’s renewal in my life.

I’ve encountered many stereotypes about uncommitted and independent “church hoppers” who just go to another place any time they encounter a problem. I am not uncommitted and I don’t run from problems. I am committed to people who the Lord has connected me with. I’m very involved in the church in my city. I cannot call one congregation “my church,” not because I am uncommitted, but because the people I am committed to belong to various congregations.

I go where it is fruitful. Someone just added me to a fourth mission group, and I’m going on a mission with them on Friday. I see miracles, healing, and deliverance on missions, at home meetings, and almost anywhere else more than I could in most church services. I have to work on Sundays. The need for laborers in God’s harvest is immense, and no single church does enough missions for me to go on. The people I go with happen to be from at least four different congregations.

Many people from various congregations in my city had never laid their hands on someone and seen them healed. I gave them simple instructions, and they saw miracles. My role in the body of Christ has touched many congregations, and I can’t say one congregation is “my church” more than another. I’m doing work with recovery houses that nobody else is. Most congregations don’t have anybody teaching the people to minister healing and deliverance, and I am. I would never have such fruitfulness as I am now if I limited myself to one congregation.

The Holy Spirit’s work in my life and spiritual hunger got me involved regionally in the church when I lived in Pennsylvania. I often attended Christian events, prayer meetings, and get-togethers with spiritually hungry people from multiple congregations. I went regularly to three different congregations and visited two others frequently. One congregation had a service Saturday night, another Sunday morning, and another Sunday afternoon. After a while, service times changed and sometimes I had to choose between one place or another. I often wanted to be in more than one place at a time. I started going to different congregations on different Sundays, not because I was uncommitted, but because of the strong bond of love I had for people in each place and because I was committed to building up the people in each of these churches. I wanted to maintain that bond with all of them. The pastors of two of those churches were close friends, and I often encouraged them.

Three of the five churches would regularly have me stand up front and give testimonies and words of knowledge for healing, and many miracles happened. The fruit was much greater because of that widespread involvement, and it is also much greater now than it would be if I called only one congregation “my church.”

Besides local churches, I’ve been involved in various congregations in different countries. I love people dearly in all of them. I wish I could be here and there too. All are just as much “my church” as the people where I live now!

God’s River Brings Unity!

Those who’ve read my blogs know about all the church scandals and problems I’ve encountered, especially at the congregation that calls themselves “Casa church.” In spite of all that, I never took off and said, “I’m leaving this congregation to go to that congregation.” The relationships are intact. On Monday night, I was just at the men’s group BBQ of the church that had so many scandals. I prayed for multiple people who tangibly felt God’s glory, then instructed them on how to pray for others. Those they prayed for were all healed. One woman had a painful broken foot. I prayed for her two friends. They felt God’s glory tangibly on their hands, then prayed for her. She felt something moving in her foot and then it went numb as Jesus did surgery!

A man came to me weeping at the BBQ and asked “Pastor, can you pray for me?” He told me about his family situation. I’m not known as a pastor of any specific congregation! Sometimes people just call you that in Brazil when they see you caring for people. At the end, the men’s group leaders thanked me for coming because so many people there received from God as we prayed. The pastor at that church’s couple’s group also often asks me to pray for people, thanks me when I can come, and asks when he’ll see me next.

Despite my inability to spend as much time with the people from “Casa church” now, and the close ties I’ve developed with people from the “Emaus” congregation, “Casa” isn’t any more or less “my church” than it was before! How could I think like that if I believe there is one body of Christ? Many of the people I loved from Casa have scattered to other congregations, and some remain. Yet the Holy Spirit’s bond of love is unchanged. I’m still with most of those people in missions. This contrasts with some people who “leave” one church to go to another, and the relationships get broken off!

Because of the Open Heaven group we just started, I won’t be able to go to the men’s group. I felt such a yearning of love for them the last time I went. I wished I could keep going and do the Open Heaven group too. Then one of the guys just invited me to a Friday night mission and added me to a fourth missions group. The Couple’s group pastor is the administrator, and the group includes many people from both Casa and Emaus! The people from Emaus have also started participating in our Mova-se Missions group.

I heard the Lord say, “There’s a movement of revival that isn’t about the banner of one church or another. It is about the body of Christ!” I believe my involvement in many congregations is the Lord’s doing, even though it horrifies people stuck in religiosity and the doctrines and traditions of men.

Our Open Heavens Group

A fear years ago, Reinhard Hirtler held an event in my city. I told him about all the miracles and said something like, “I’m trying to teach other people.” Later, he said in his message, “Jesus didn’t say to try to make disciples. He said to make disciples.” I’ve often felt that making disciples was difficult because people are so caught up in religious activity that they miss actually doing what Jesus taught his disciples to do. But I felt that the Lord said, “Just do it.” I decided to act. I talked to friends and we organized a Monday night group. We need a time to ask questions, not just listen to a religious speech. We need the Biblical order for our gatherings, which facilitates each member of Christ’s body ministering with supernatural grace.

Jesus commanded his disciples to heal the sick, cast out demons, and teach other disciples to do the same. Healing and deliverance are part of discipleship 101: they are mandatory. Disciples of Jesus obey the commands to heal the sick and cast out demons. Yet most of the church is not making disciples. They are making converts.

I’ve had people contacting me from every continent in the world requesting prayer for healing or deliverance. They should be able to receive the help they need in the local church. The need is enormous, but there are very few disciples of Jesus in the churches who can do the work. Most pastors in my city are not doing what Jesus said to do, so how can they teach others? Because of the current pastor-centered spectator format of religious gatherings, I nearly always see more of the Holy Spirit’s supernatural move almost anywhere but sitting through a “church service.”

We were recently at McDonalds. I prayed for a girl to feel God’s glory on her hands, then asked what she felt. Nothing. We prayed again, and the second time she couldn’t answer me. Her eyelids were fluttering rapidly, her lips quivering, and soon she was consumed in God’s fire and speaking loudly in tongues. At McDonalds at almost 2 in the morning. Then a lady received healing. These things are happening everywhere, because we pray for people everywhere. However, people are not getting the foundational teaching and discipleship they need.

We had our first meeting with about 20 people. I shared my heart, and then we did a Bible study together with questions and answers. Our first topic was the commands of Jesus to heal the sick and cast out demons. We gave simple instructions and people ministered to each other. Most people present in need of healing received miracles, not when I prayed, but as the church ministered to each other. It was probably many people’s first experience of Jesus doing a miracle through their own hands. Many felt God’s glory touch them tangibly. People were impacted by prophecy. We had plenty of fellowship time and a snack, and people were praying for each other through it all. Weeping, laughter, cries of joy, tongues, until almost midnight.

Many say they want revival, but they disobey the Biblical commands to make disciples and to do everything decently in an order that facilitates the manifestation of God’s grace through each member of Christ’s body. They want to hold to their religious tradition that keeps people as spectators.

Now, imagine if I were trying to satisfy the religiosity of those who think, “You need to have a specific group that you call your church. You can’t just fellowship during the week with friends who happen to be from five congregations!” It seems that the group we started is likely to grow rapidly. I could easily just slap a name on it such as, “Heaven’s Glory Church,” and then say I’m the pastor. There you go! I have a church with a label. I’m not just a member of the “Church in Goiânia.” Now you guys can leave the other congregations you are fellowshipping with and come to “my church.”

Would such an attitude really be of God’s Spirit, or would it just be carnality? If we told people, “You are part of our ‘church,’ so you can’t be a part of that other ‘church’ anymore,” how would the people in our group influence and teach others so that the Spirit’s move spreads throughout this city? Why take them out of communion with people they are in fellowship with in order to satisfy the human tradition of thinking, “this is my church” as if people from other congregations were not?

We are providing something essential that most of the religious establishment has failed to provide. Still, we must honor the Holy Spirit’s work in the various congregations. We want to partner with whatever the Holy Spirit is doing in the congregations in this city. Religiosity defines “church” by labels and control, but God builds up his church by relationship and the bond of the Holy Spirit. We are neither for nor against one group or another. We are for everything the Holy Spirit is doing among his people. We are not solo flyers. We add what we have to offer the body of Christ, and we allow people to receive anything helpful from other groups and ministers. Your fellowship with us doesn’t have to be to the exclusion of others. I don’t need to be, “Your pastor,” and you don’t need to “join my church.” I just want to see the Holy Spirit’s purposes fulfilled in your life.

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Religious Burdens and the Unchurched

Religious Leaven Inflates God’s Word With Human Traditions

In recent weeks, a big Christian Instagram account in Brazil posted about the increasing trend of people who are “unchurched.” Many people in the comments condemned the “unchurched” harshly. Some believed that Christians having fellowship outside of Sunday morning services in the “temple” are unchurched and “desviados” meaning “backslidden.” Others were debating and commenting “I have fellowship outside of the church services and I’m following Jesus. You’re judging me wrongly!”

I commented, pointing out that by their criteria for what “churched” means, the early church and much of the persecuted church in countries like Iran, India, and China are also “backslidden.“

Hebrews 10:25 (NKJV) …not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

This exhortation of scripture is simple, but as the Pharisees did, many people inflate God’s word with their religious leaven so that their interpretation of it involves much more than what it says. In doing so, they violate God’s word by going beyond what is written and thus become puffed up and full of religious judgmentalism.

1 Corinthians 4:6 (NIV) Now, brothers and sisters, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, “Do not go beyond what is written.” Then you will not be puffed up in being a follower of one of us over against the other.

There is still so much of this religious leaven in the English-speaking world, and probably much more in Brazil! Let’s start highlighting some of those issues that are leaven: mere human traditions but treated by modern Pharisees as if they were commands of God.

Matthew 16:6 (NIV) “Be careful,” Jesus said to them. “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

We’ll continue by answering the many accusations of the religious and pointing out how far many of them have fallen from Christ and the gospel.

Matthew 23:24 (NIV) You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

Hebrews 10:25 is an important exhortation, and we should make it a priority to stay in Christian fellowship. Many of those called “unchurched” actually are in fellowship, just not in the institutional way. But even regarding those who are not in Christian fellowship, those who judge them so harshly are usually straining out a gnat but swallowing a camel.

Matthew 7:1-5 (NIV) “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

It’s important to deal with this issue of religiosity so that the church can be restored to unity and to God’s purposes. There is much need for repentance. Instead of judging those who are unchurched, why don’t we offer them our fellowship without the heavy burdens of religion?

You Load People With Heavy Burdens

Matthew 23:4-8, 13-16 (NIV) They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. “Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others…

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to. “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are. “Woe to you, blind guides!

Brian Hogan is a church planter and YWAM church planting coach. He did this skit in which a missionary team wanted to bring the gospel to an unreached man, but instead gave him a heavy burden or religious add-ons so that he got hurt and became angry and resistant to receiving Christ. The church-planting team realized the need to “lighten the load” and filter out everything not explicitly in scripture for people to be able to receive Christ instead of getting hurt by religion.

Brian’s skit and teaching are in the context of church planting, especially in foreign cultures. However, so many people today even in our Western cultures of religion find that they are no longer able to deal with all the baggage of religion. Some are trying to stay connected in churches as they are, but they are suffering. Some have found fellowship without all the add-ons of religion. Others have gotten burned out trying to carry the heavy burden imposed by religion, were unable to find fellowship without it, and are now isolated. Rather than condemning them, the church must repent!

Weights, Burdens, And Human Commands

Hebrews 12:1 (Darby) Let us also therefore, having so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, laying aside every weight, and sin which so easily entangles us, run with endurance the race that lies before us…

Weights in Hebrews 12 are distinct from sins. For example, reading the news every day may be a weight in your life. It is not wrong, but it may hinder you from using your time to do something more productive. What is a burden or weight for you may not be a burden for another. Mark Hemans shared that drinking coffee was a burden for him due to how it affected his energy. He felt better when he gave it up. However, I feel fine drinking coffee!

Some things, such as buildings and budgets, may not be wrong for everybody but are a burden for some Christians that God is not calling them to carry. It is not a sin to have them. However, it is a sin to impose heavy burdens of religious expectations on others. We see this in Acts chapter 15, in which the Jewish Christians wanted to put the burden of their regulations on the gentiles who were turning to Christ.

Acts 15: 10, 19 (KJV) Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?…Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God…And they wrote letters by them after this manner; The apostles and elders and brethren send greeting unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia. Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment: It seemed good unto us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, Men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who shall also tell you the same things by mouth. For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things; That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.

Weighing people down with religious burdens is the sin of testing the Lord and putting stumbling blocks in the way of those who are turning to Christ.

Matthew 18:6 (NIV) “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.

Having a building or budget, or doing church in a certain way, doesn’t necessarily make a person religious in the sense of being caught up in human traditions. But imposing these burdens on others and judging other people’s faith by them IS religiosity. Teaching human commands as doctrine is also sin.

Mark 7:7-8 (KJV) Therefore, in vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold to the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups, and many other like things ye do.

Titus 1:10-11, 13-14 (KJV) For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially those of the Circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not for the sake of filthy lucre…This witness is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men who turn from the truth.

In the next posts, we’ll look at some of these weights, burdens, and commands of men. I’ll also answer the objections of those who insist we need these things to follow Jesus.

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Our Trip To The Ribeirinhos Part 2

Please, Make Jesus Famous But Stop Spreading Your Religion!

In the first post about our trip to the Ribeirinhos on Marajó Island, I shared an overview of what we did and some of the miracles that happened. Now I’d like to share what I learned of the church in that area.

Many Christians, and most where I live, are part of a religious system that they think is “church” which frequently hurts people more than helps them. It is based on broken foundations and distorted values. That system consumes much of their time, money, and resources and hinders them from fully serving Jesus. Not all, but many leaders in that system are corrupt and self-serving.

Sometimes people say “stop attacking the church” when we speak about brokenness in the religious system. I’m not attacking the church. I love God’s people. But I don’t love the system that so many are falsely calling “church” with the hierarchy, the control, and the tithes.

I pray and consider my words when I write about this because good things are happening in some institutional churches, some have genuine godly leaders who have much to offer the body of Christ, and I know many people in them who are on fire for the Lord. Much of what I received from the Lord when younger was in institutional church settings. But wherever there is tithing and hierarchy rather than Spirit-led giving and mutuality, many of the problems remain. It’s celebrity Christianity.

I hope to help others to recognize how much religiosity is hurting people and to change their paradigms of what Christianity and the church look like. So many who think they are non-religious Christians don’t realize how much religiosity and thinking founded purely on human tradition they still have! Much of the Church is not simply offering people Jesus and the gospel, but rather is imposing a heavy weight of human demands and traditions that many can’t bear. To those who think the church is tithes, hierarchies, and personal pastors, I say “I want you to spread the gospel. I want Jesus’ name to be famous and people to trust him. But I wish you’d stop trying to spread your religion! It is bringing dishonor, and not honor, Jesus’ name!”

The Missionaries at the IDE Base

We had almost gone to the Amazon with another organization, but it seemed they were more interested in money than in God’s kingdom. Thank God our leaders didn’t feel comfortable and finally decided to partner with the IDE base instead.

Thank God for the IDE missionaries! They were full of God’s love and the Holy Spirit. IDE is an acronym for the Great Commission in Portuguese, and it also stands for Institute for the Development of Evangelism. The base was founded by a couple, Paulo and Clarice Friere, who moved to the region with their two children at their own expense. Paulo had a construction business before, and used the money he earned to go as a missionary. They receive about $400 a month of support from a few churches, but they pay for most expenses themselves. They also have Maria working at the health outpost and counseling people who come in, and a couple who teach at the school and receive salaries from the local government. Pastor Josemar works with evangelizing and serving the people as well.

A major part of the orientation was reminding everyone that we were not there to talk about religion. We were not there to promote a denomination, or to argue about Catholic vs. Protestant. It would create resistance if we did that. We were there to share the gospel and talk about Jesus! I yelled “Amen” when they said that!

Paulo had a headache one night, and we prayed for him. I thanked Jesus and blew on his head. He said when I blew, the pain left. On Sunday morning, his wife asked for prayer because she was feeling pain in her legs and body. I had her cup her hands when we were on the boat and we prayed for the weight of God’s glory to come on her hands. She started sobbing and couldn’t answer when I asked what she felt or what was happening. But when I asked if the pain was gone, she nodded “yes.” I’m sure she was encountering Jesus in some way, whether in a vision or a powerful experience with God’s love.

I had a conversation with Lucas, who was there as a teacher. He told me how what he saw in the church didn’t seem like what he read in the Bible. He longed to see miracles, to risk his life, and preach the gospel to people who never heard it before. He found what he was looking for in Marajó. At one point, their boat wrecked and they were stranded for days and then rescued. He started talking to people about Jesus and they said “Jesus? Who is that?” They had never heard Jesus’ name before!

Maria was suffering from bursitis in both shoulders, pain in her body, and emotional pressure from counseling people who’d suffered sexual abuse. We prayed and soaked her in God’s glory on one of the first days of the trip. Most of the pain went and she felt relieved. We prayed again before leaving, the rest of the pain left, and she lifted her arms with no problem.

All of our time together was mutually beneficial and uplifting. It was precious to spend time with believers who have the same heart and spirit. I was able to minister to them, but I also received strength and encouragement from their love. We loved Pastor Josemar. I’ll have to share more about him and his stories in another post.

What Difference Is The Institutional Church Making?

Many people doing the work of Jesus struggle with the current reality of the religious system and environment, and it was the same at the IDE base. Nobody seemed bitter or especially focused on it, but several people I talked to were honest about the harm religiosity does to people and about how little most of the institutional church cares for the situation in Marajó.

I’m not opposed to institutions in themselves, but even things that are not inherently wrong (like a church building) often are not necessary and we don’t realize how much of a burden they are to those we bring the gospel to. Certain distorted values and harmful mindsets are also pervasive throughout many institutional churches, and this is how I see them affecting Marajó.

Giving

Paulo, the founder of the IDE mission, didn’t complain, but rather, was thankful for the help when he told us what support he receives from churches. Still, what he told me was a confirmation of what I’ve seen, about how little most religious institutions care for what is most important. He was paying for most of the work himself. The most a single church was giving was 500 reais, or about $100 dollars a month.

Think about that. IDE is one of only a few bases in the region and includes a health post and a school. This is one of the regions with the greatest need in a country full of megachurches which has more religious zeal than in the United States. It’s a region with 10,000 villages that don’t have a gospel presence. It’s common for many people to go days without eating. Most people who came to our event had never seen a doctor in their lives. How much care do we see from all the large churches in Brazil? What difference are their tithes making?

I believe the money model of most of the institutional church, especially tithing, is hindering Christians from being led by the Holy Spirit and giving towards those things that are most important to Jesus. The priorities of the institution are usually at odds with Jesus’ priorities. I previously commented that a single non-tither can easily, singlehandedly give more to support rescue missions in my city than any church I’m aware of in the city is doing. In the same way, a single non-tither can easily give more to help a mission like that in Marajó than the most that any whole tithe-receiving church gives.

Paulo also shared about receiving significant help from unbelievers and at least one atheist because he saw their work as humanitarian. I may be wrong, but it sounded to me like unbelievers had done more to support their missionary work in Marajó than Brazilian churches outside the impoverished area did!

Many are convinced that human commands such as tithing are necessary to support God’s kingdom and spread the gospel. I would like to hear them explain why, in most cases, their big churches full of faithful tithers give nothing or nearly nothing towards caring for the poor and bringing the gospel to those who have never heard it! Being led by tithing and manipulative practices hinders God’s people from giving as led by the Holy Spirit.

Hierarchy and “Honoring” those “Above” you

I heard about leaders who acquired churches in Marajó coming to collect the tithes so they could travel to Europe, while the local leader who is caring for God’s people goes hungry. They collect tithes from hungry people and ignore those doing the work of ministry.

I’ve often experienced the same value system, even in churches with on-fire Christians and more focus on missions. I just don’t understand how on-fire Christians can keep giving so much to sustain such a system or be convinced that they are honoring God by serving it. The leadership so often are concerned with how people can serve them, but don’t care for the people or for those doing the work of ministry that they themselves are not doing. Are there exceptions? Yes, but most of the exceptions I’ve seen have been when the leaders didn’t teach tithing, which means they probably weren’t part of the system anyway! The tithe is the lynchpin of the whole system that serves a few at the top but dishonors the rest of the body of Christ and hinders the church from functioning as God intended.

“Honoring” those who demand honor at the top of a hierarchy dishonors the whole body of Christ and dishonors Jesus himself.

I thought further. What if some of those “leaders” who are collecting tithes and letting the local servants go hungry, collected an offering to open a church in Marajó? Did the church they opened help people, or keep them in bondage? Did it cause Jesus’ name to be honored or blasphemed? Did it create resistance to the gospel in that region?

Many may have given towards “planting a church in Marajó” and thought they were serving God’s kingdom, but they were really participating in the sins of their leader against Jesus and against the people of Marajó. I believe many people in the church today are participating in the sins of others by where they put their money!

If the religion you support with your tithes and offerings is using people, not serving them, hurting people, not healing them, and creating resistance to the gospel rather than bringing honor to Jesus’ name, you are sinning with your tithes and offerings.

The tithe in the Old Testament was vastly different than anything practiced today, and we are not under it. But even if we were under the Old Testament tithe, it never worked like the practices of churches today. Because so many people today claim that the priest of the Old Testament is equal to the pastor of today, we should note that the priest in the Old Testament only received a tiny portion of the tithe. First it was eaten by the tither, then shared with the poor and Levites, and then the priests got a tithe of the Levite’s tithe. Levites received most of the tithe and had many functions such as worship leaders, judges, doorkeepers, and various helps ministries. But the unbiblical notion of a singular pastor or “apostle” having a super-exaggerated role as the “head” of the local church causes the church to dishonor the work of others who are doing the work of ministry.

Giving must be led by the Holy Spirit, not by human rules like tithing or manipulative practices, and ministry must be about a function, not a position. If not, we have rich orators claiming their “right” to the tithe but the church neglects the servants of Jesus who are caring for bedridden elderly people and need help to buy geriatric diapers for them. (A real situation I see in my city.)

Carnal Sectarianism, Positions To Be Protected, People Seen As Assets To Benefit From Rather Than The Bride of Christ to be Served

Some pastors in Marajó were prohibiting their members from going to the base because they said “If they go there, they’ll stop coming here.” Paulo pointed out that the base is not a church, but they didn’t care. This reveals the self-servingness of the system. Sectarianism and division are completely carnal, but they are pervasive in the mindset of the religious system that some falsely call “church.”

This is not unique to Marajó. It’s the effect of the religiosity exported from the values of most of the institutional church in the US and Brazil. There’s lots of religiosity and very little of Jesus. The only reason pastors would be worried about other pastors supposedly “stealing the sheep” is that they see the “sheep” as assets for themselves, not as people to be served for Jesus’ sake. If the motivation were serving God’s kingdom, they would be happy for more co-laborers to help them in the work.

In such religious environments, the leaders are not really serving God’s people anyway, but if somebody starts serving God’s people and ministering healing and deliverance, the leaders get jealous because they feel their positions are being threatened. How can they continue demanding tithes when they are not ministering healing and deliverance and someone comes along who is, but is not demanding tithes?

Likewise, the mission base in Marajó was feeding the hungry and giving them medical care. Pastors who were NOT doing this got jealous and felt like they would lose their people (assets) to the IDE mission base, so they tried to stop people from going where they would be cared for by receiving food and medical care from servants of Jesus who were demanding nothing from them!

Many leaders, rather than advancing God’s kingdom, are resisting God’s kingdom out of jealousy. Be careful that you aren’t serving a system that is hurting people rather than helping them and using people rather than serving them!

Thank God, the attitude of the missionaries at the IDE base is such a contrast to that carnal sectarianism. Their leader recently wrote to our group, “There are still many rivers in Marajó that don’t have the gospel. If Mova-Se wants to open a base in Marajó, we won’t be jealous at all. We’ll do everything we can to help you.”

Religion Or God’s Kingdom?

I was told that in some churches, members aren’t allowed to show joy, clap, or say “hallelujah.” It’s all right if they are outsiders visiting, but not members. What! Joy is one of the marks of God’s kingdom! (Romans 14:17) Why don’t we stop talking about “my church” and start proclaiming God’s kingdom? We don’t need more merely human religion. It has done far too much harm, not only in Marajó, but in many other mission fields. We are ambassadors, not of a denomination or religious organization, but of the Kingdom of Heaven!

I also heard about a warlock who exercises great influence in the region. They told me that even people from the church go to him when they need a miracle.

1 Corinthians 4:20 (KJV) For the kingdom of God is not in word but in power.

God’s power is not an option. When people come bringing religion without God’s power, they innoculate others against the gospel. They create resistance. Miracles glorify Jesus’ name so that people put their trust in him, but Jesus’ name is blasphemed because of powerless religion. Bringing religion without God’s power only causes harm, training people in unbelief rather than causing them to turn from the power of Satan to God and from darkness to light.

The Mentality of Spiritual Poverty Spread By The So-Called “Prosperity Gospel”

The gospel does bring prosperity through Christ, but I refer to the whole mess some call the “prosperity gospel” that emphasizes giving money, tithes, and offerings as the way to obtain favor with God. Then the Seed that God sowed is all but forgotten. That Seed is Jesus Christ, who died, was planted in the ground, rose again, and is now bearing much fruit. Any so-called “prosperity message” that replaces Jesus’ redemptive work with “miracle offerings” leads people into spiritual poverty.

Giving in the true gospel is the outflow of receiving all God has given us in Christ and participating in God’s nature of love and generosity. It is the result of God’s grace, not a means of attaining it.

We met one local pastor, a godly man, who has sacrificed much to share the gospel with people in the region. However, I was heartbroken when I heard his wife’s testimony. Her grandson got something stuck in his ear, and she was so desperate that she promised God she would give him all her money that month if he healed her grandson.

Some people were impressed by this, but I thought it was terrible. I know God’s compassion for people and desire to heal them. What kind of view of God causes a person in poverty to give their whole month’s sustenance to try to get God to do a miracle? It is a mindset of great spiritual poverty. Look at how much harm religious Christianity, tithe doctrines, “give to get,” and “if you have a need, sow a seed” have done to people! How can Christians keep tolerating this? The so-called “gospel” of tithing isn’t a gospel that works for everybody! It has not met the needs of the poor. It has ravished them! There is a huge mess in Africa and in many other regions caused by ideas exported from American tithe-teachers!

I would have no complaint if that lady gave her whole month’s salary out of thanksgiving to God, even giving it out of her need, but with a desire to express God’s love and participate in His work. But it wasn’t that! She gave her month’s sustenance to try to convince God to heal her grandson. Horrible doctrine about “giving” and “sacrifices” obscured her revelation of Jesus Christ and His great generosity towards us!

We will continue in the next post by examining some of the criteria by which so many people define “church,” but are really just religiosity and ideas foreign to the New Testament. Then we will continue to talk about the growing number of people who are “unchurched.”

The post Our Trip To The Ribeirinhos Part 2 appeared first on Go to Heaven Now!.

The Highest Level Is The Lowest Place

In the last post, we shared part 1 about the trip to the Ribeirinhos on the Island of Marajó in northern Brazil. I’m planning to continue with some posts highlighting how much of what is often considered “Christianity” is really religiosity. However, it’s so important to do this in the right spirit.

Galatians 6:1 (NKJV) Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.

Rather than dealing with just one person who is overtaken in a trespass, we are dealing with broader issues in the church that can’t go unaddressed. We want the church to be restored to God’s purposes. We must stay in a spirit of humility, knowing that we ourselves are only saved by God’s grace, we have nothing to boast of before God, and we have nothing but God’s grace to boast of before those we seek to restore.

My posts may sound harsh against today’s religious institutions, so I want to preface them by saying I need God’s grace every day to keep me in line just as much as anybody else and I have often gone astray. I’m just a broken person who encountered Jesus and is hungry for a greater manifestation of God’s glory. I’ve had many frustrations with the institutional church, and they are issues that need to be addressed, but in the right spirit. Despite all those frustrations, I’m still very much in active fellowship and loving and serving God’s people….but not in the institutional way!

The Back Story

I joined a cell group of the largest church in Goiânia after moving here, and loved it. After over a year, I found that the church was showing strong marks of becoming a cult and the pastor was teaching blatant heresy. Sadly, I could no longer stay in fellowship with that group with our foundation on Jesus and the teachings of the Bible, and had to leave. I still love every one of them and consider them family in Christ, but they went astray by continuing to follow that pastor.

I just wanted to have fellowship, pray for people, and take food baskets to those in need. The church my wife was attending had a missions group. I knew the church was a mess, but I found it less controlling and manipulative than many other churches. The pastor had a sex scandal soon after, around 2021. I wasn’t surprised, but I was there for the people and the missions and ignored the leaders’ mess. I became much more involved, but mostly in missions, BBQs, the men’s group, and other events.

I saw many miracles as I prayed for people there. God began to give me visions, teachings, and words of rebuke concerning greed and pastors using God’s flock instead of serving them. At the men’s group, I preached that those who use false prophecy to bring in the money have eyes full of adultery, and I told my wife the pastor was in rebellion against Jesus. Then late last year, an even bigger scandal broke, worse than the first, and we read that about 20 women had already brought allegations of sexual misconduct. This time the church kicked out their founder instead of attempting to “restore” him again.

I recorded a video rebuking the church. I said I’d warned of this before and they didn’t listen. People knew what was happening and kept quiet, so others became victims. They couldn’t pretend it was just one man’s sin. The whole church needed to repent. They had kept idolizing him and kept him in ministry the first time, and continued to receive many other preachers who were greedy and had eyes full of adultery. They honored people who dishonored Jesus but failed to receive those Jesus sent. Their values were twisted.

I sent that rebuke to everybody I could, including each person in the mission groups. Some weeks later, more scandals among the other pastors came out one after another. It is hard to tell if some were slander or not, but there was significant evidence involved and it seemed that most were probably true. This included allegations about several other sex scandals and thefts of church funds, video of the current-pastor using profane language and speaking in a way that suggested the church was their family business for their benefit, allegations about her smoking marijuana, and significant evidence that she had stolen half a million reais in public funds in partnership with her son-in-law, who is the youth pastor.

Our Mission To Jandai Recovery House

Soon after I’d sent the rebuke to each person in the mission group, the pastor who leads the missions group posted in the WhatsApp group about continuing to agree with the mission of the church and not saying negative things about the church. I sent a private message, asking her how they could keep tolerating certain things, asking her to answer directly “Is this right?” about specific situations, and saying I’d like to talk with her and her husband about these issues. She never responded, but I stayed in the group. It is the first mission group in this city that I was involved in, and is less active than the others. However, there was such a great move of the Holy Spirit at the recovery houses I visited with them, that I wanted to keep the connection. So I didn’t leave the group.

This group was going to the Jandai, a ladies’ substance abuse recovery house, in late April. I’d already been there a few times before and the Holy Spirit’s move left me in a pool of tears each time, with many healings and miracles. I didn’t want to miss going again. But I was feeling some bitterness and pain creep in. When I’d shared those rebukes, it wasn’t out of bitterness. It was the word of the Lord shared in love. Much I’d said had been prophetic, spoken before the scandals became public. But after also seeing one scandal after another not only in Brazil, but also in the United States for several months, I began to feel angry and hurt, jaded towards the church and towards anybody new I met who was called a “pastor.” So I prayed “God, help me to keep loving. Help me to stay in the Holy Spirit.”

Now I was with the couple going to Jandai, both pastors in the church, and I felt distrust. “Are they sincere? How can they keep calling this person who is so carnal, who’s on video speaking like that, who stole half a million of public funds, their pastor?” But the Holy Spirit told me. “Build up the body of Christ.” I don’t understand, but God knows what he’s talking about! And he poured out a supernatural love for that pastor couple as we went to Jandai. It’s not the first time this has happened with pastors. I feel so frustrated with the religiosity and sometimes God says “Just love them. Encourage them.”

During our time of worship, I started sobbing because of God’s love. I remembered when I was 12 years old and felt like I’d committed the unforgivable sin. God’s love had come over me physically and tangibly and the Holy Spirit said “I not only forgive you, but I will do miracles through you.” God brought my heart back to that place when I had been desperate and encountered his amazing grace. I knew I deserved nothing but Jesus gave me everything. God reminded me of my own sin and his grace towards me, and I knew I could only extend the same grace to others.

The pastor couple showed greater honor and recognition of God’s grace in my life than I’d experienced on any previous trip. They wanted me to pray for the people. I stood up and got carried away by God’s river. First I thanked God and shared my expectations, telling of the miracles that happened the previous times I was there when other ladies were in the program. Then I asked for someone with strong pain. A lady came up, I asked someone to pray, both felt God’s power tangibly, and the pain left. I had a word of knowledge about pain on one side of the upper back, near the neck, and about 6 women responded. I invited other missionaries to hold their hands, one person holding each person’s hand, and we prayed together. Then they moved their bodies, and each person’s pain was gone. Others requested prayer and it was one miracle after another.

I felt that a certain lady in the back was tormented with anxiety, so I called her up to pray for another lady who needed physical healing. When she was done praying and the lady was healed, I asked about the anxiety and she confirmed it. Six or eight other women jumped up and said “I have the same problem.” I responded, “Why don’t you all come up and we’ll pray together.” They held hands and I invited some of the missionary girls to help me pray. Then we asked each person what they felt. They were saying “I felt a shiver go through my whole body. I felt so relieved. I felt a weight lift off of me. I feel light.”

We prayed for others who had pain, and each one was soon pain-free. Then I asked if there was anybody else, and a lady stood up and said “I need to be healed of depression.” She came up and a spirit began manifesting. I yelled “Thank you, Jesus! Do it all, Jesus!” She fell backward, the spirit left with a loud cry, and all the ladies stood up and applauded! She said she felt something leave her.

Not a single person who had pain in their body received prayer and left with pain. One lady had a painful nodule in her breast and pain in another area. Not all the pain left immediately. We prayed again several times and all the pain was gone, but she was still feeling the nodule. We encouraged her and left her in faith. Sometimes the tumor or cyst is gone soon after, and sometimes we may pray for a person and the pain leaves, and we pray again a few weeks later and the nodule disappears.

That whole time at Jandai was God’s river flowing from heaven, and it was pure grace. I just jumped in God’s river, and it swept away everything in its path. It was high-level. And the highest level comes from being in the lowest place.

Man, You’re on Another Level!

Bruno is the leader of our Mova-Se mission group. He’s a medical doctor, and also a friend. Our group started to have in-person discipleship meetings in apartments. I was happy about that because I get tired of too many online meetings!

Bruno noticed how I would run after anybody I saw limping to pray for them and that I was always praying in tongues when I wasn’t talking to people. He said, “Man, Jon is on another level!” I heard the Holy Spirit say “The highest level is the lowest level.”

At our event in Marajó, Bruno was attending dozens of people who had never been to a doctor in their lives. But he was feeling really sick in the stomach and asked me to pray for him twice. At one point he prayed “God, I don’t know how I can go on.”

Later he told me what happened. He felt God’s glory come physically, tangibly on his body. He saw a vision of Jesus’ face, covered in blood, and heard “I did this for you.” And God spoke to him “I’ve called you to be like the apostle Paul, who gave his body for my service.”

I listened to Bruno and then responded earnestly “Yeah man, that’s it. I’ve been praying for this to happen more. People need to see Jesus. People need to have visions of Jesus, not just religion.” And I told him about the impact it had when my grandmother had a vision of Jesus, and that I never had a vision like that but I saw Jesus with the eyes of my heart through the healing and deliverance, and God’s power came on me. I said “That happened to me dozens of times, probably more than 100. The eyes of my heart would be opened and felt God’s power physically on my body and I could only scream and cry. That’s what we need. Nothing else will meet the needs we face. We need to see Jesus. We can’t do anything without him.”

Later I heard Bruno telling other people about his experience, and he said, jokingly, “I told Jon I had a vision of Jesus and he said ‘Oh yeah, that happened to me more than 100 times and my grandmother went to heaven twice.’ That guy’s on another level!”

I’ve been getting messages from various people asking “How do you experience so many miracles?” I’ve often shared about the theological foundations for walking in God’s glory, such as understanding Jesus’ incarnation, God’s will to heal, and that we have a permanent open heaven because of what Jesus has done. But it seems that many of these people have a good theological background about God’s goodness and his will to heal. But they feel they aren’t seeing the demonstration of God’s power in their lives that they should. So I also encourage people to receive impartation and to fill their hearts with testimonies.

I hope this will also help. The highest level is the lowest place. It’s all grace. It’s all God’s power. It’s the deep, raging river of heaven becoming so deep that nobody can swim in it anymore. You are at the highest level when your heart is in the same position of humility as when you first got saved, knowing you deserved hell and Jesus rescued you. I knew I needed Jesus just as much as every person in that recovery house. I was just as desperate as any of them, and had no more merit than any of them, but God poured out his grace abundantly on me in Jesus.

You’re at the highest level when you know that you deserve nothing but Jesus gave you everything. You’re at the highest level when you understand that Jesus took everything you had; your sin, brokenness, and poverty, and gave you everything he has; righteousness, the Father’s glory, and heaven’s riches. And all you can do is weep, worship, and thank him. You cry out “Jesus, you’ve helped me before. Help me again!”

There is a weighty glory when your heart is in that place. People feel it when you speak or when you pray for them. Some just start crying and can’t explain what’s happening to them. They become mute in God’s glory because there are no words when you see the Lord!

When you’ve walked in God’s glory like that, you want to keep your heart in the position. If people put the focus on you, you need to get their attention off of you and onto Jesus. I heard Mark Hemans recount how someone said “Congratulations on your ministry.” He said “Don’t say that to me. It’s God who saved me. It’s God who healed me of cancer. It’s God who sent me. He gave me everything. I have nothing to do with it.”

People say “Thank you.” I say, “Don’t thank me. Thank Jesus. I was desperate and oppressed by Satan, and Jesus rescued me. I’m just privileged to serve him and see the wonderful things he does.” If you want to walk in the glory, keep the focus on Jesus.

Romans 3:27 (NKJV) Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith.

The glory is in the gospel, and the gospel humbles you. If you want to live in the cloud of God’s glory, bow down, see all that Jesus has done, and thank him! It’s very simple. God’s glory manifests when we honor Jesus. When the manifestation of God’s glory is lacking in the church, it shows a lack of honor for Jesus.

In future articles, I pray that the Lord will help me to stay high-level, speaking from a position of humility, as I highlight systemic issues many struggle with in churches today. Walking in God’s glory enables us to avoid falling into pride or becoming bitter and jaded as we confront such problems. We’ll continue by talking about the harm religious institutionalism has caused in Marajó, a deeply oppressed and impoverished region in which many people still have never heard the gospel, and some of the churches that have come have done more harm than good!

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Our Trip To The Ribeirinhos Part 1

The Most Remote Place I’ve Ever Gone With The Gospel

I just got back last night from an 8-day trip to the Amazon. We went 20 hours down the river and had two dentists and two doctors on our team.

The people live in board houses on poles and sleep in hammocks. Many of the children had teeth rotting. Most of the people who came had never had a consultation with a doctor in their lives. Now the houses have electricity from solar panels outside due to a Bolsonaro government project that installed them two years ago, but before that, they burned oil. Just having electric lights is a huge improvement. Oil lamps are hazardous, causing fires and emitting toxic smoke. We brought food staples and medicine, and I loaded all my luggage with about 150 New Testaments to distribute. Some people read, but many are also illiterate. They said 10,000 villages in the region don’t have a gospel presence. Next time if possible, we’ll plan to bring audio Bibles too!

I can’t keep track of the miracles, but they started in the airport in our home city, Goiânia. Two old ladies received healing in their knees, and one in her shoulder. She’d broken her arm six years ago and it still hurt. The pain left and she moved in a way that hadn’t been possible before.

We boarded a ship in Belem and were on it for 17 hours. Everybody hangs their hammocks on the ship. I went around the ship talking to people in their hammocks and praying for everyone I could, giving New Testaments to people who said they didn’t have one. I didn’t keep track of how many people were healed. After the ship, we took a smaller boat for another 3 hours.

The Brazilian couple who established the missions have a technical cooperation agreement with the municipality, so the missions base has a school and a public health base. The teachers’ salaries are paid for by the goverment. I shed many tears in prayer for the move of the Holy Spirit in the region of Marajó. We prayed over the school and several of the girls began weeping and wailing with God’s love for the children. We need more people who will let Jesus cry through them!

We had two days of evangelism, going from house to house by boat, and there were several miracles as we visited people. In one house, the mother said they hadn’t had anything at home to eat for days! We gave Bibles to families that didn’t have one. We also had our team’s day at the missions base. The event was publicized and people came from all around to get medical care, dental care, a big meal, and food staples to take home. I went from place to place praying for the people in line for medical care, helping at the children’s event, and praying for people standing around outside or having coffee on the boat.

Everything that happened is too much to recount, but I can share a few highlights. At one point, the line at the medical clinic was really long and I came back to pray for the people there again. Jose said that the line got short again when I was there praying for people because they were getting healed by the Lord instead and leaving the line! One lady had pain in her body and hepatitis. The pain left and her abdomen got really hot. I believe that if she is tested again, she will test negative for hepatitis.

Attacking Satan’s Work By Ministering Healing

I prayed for a lady outside who had a large tumor on her neck with lots of pain. The pain soon left but there was still a mass there. I wanted to pray more but she didn’t want to anymore and seemed not to care that the pain was gone, although it had been significant. We prayed and the pain left, so why not keep praying until the tumor is gone? Later I saw her consult with the doctor. She just wanted medicine in spite of what the Lord had done for her. She told the doctor it didn’t hurt but gave no honor or glory to the Lord.

Many children and also adults showed signs of sexual abuse…they would look away in shame and some would not speak. The woman who received healing of pain from the tumor in her neck rents out her young daughters for a week or two as slaves…those who rent them put them to work and use them for sex. At least one person on our team was having a hard time loving that mom when they realized the situation! She commented “God is just” when she saw the tumor! However, God has often transformed the lives of some of the most wicked people so that his redemption and river of life flowed through them to others. Even the apostle Paul was once a terrorist! God is so rich in mercy that his mercy and goodness challenge us. He took the pain from this wicked woman’s neck even though she was selling her daughters, and even though he knew that she would respond with a hard, ungrateful heart. His mercy keeps pursuing people!

Those of you who’ve read my book “Jesus Has Come in the Flesh” will understand that ministering healing is attacking the spiritual structure behind violence and sexual abuse. When we go ministering healing in a place like Marajó Island, it’s about so much more than people’s bodies being healed. The goal is for people to encounter Jesus through the miracle, for Jesus’ name to be honored and known so people put their trust in him, and for the Holy Spirit to undo the spiritual structure that is behind the violence and systemic sexual abuse. Every miracle is a strike against Satan’s work. Healing ministry is spiritual warfare. By ministering healing to a woman who is selling her children, we strike the spirit influencing her to sell her children.

Many people in the region, even those who go to a church, go to a spiritual healer when they are sick. We demonstrate God’s power to turn people from the power of Satan to God. The man in the video clip above was paralyzed from a tumor and was suffering from strong chronic pain in his kidney. I prayed for him the day before at his house and the pain left. We prayed again here for the movement to be restored in his legs.

Acts 26:17-18 (NIV)  I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.

Praying for People on the Boat and Everywhere

Five men were in one of the largest boats on the dock, and they invited me to have coffee. People were also crossing over that boat because they docked their boats on the other side. The boat’s owner had very blurry vision and a pain in his side. We prayed and I invited the others to put their hands near him and feel God’s power. He felt heat touching his eyes and side, the pain left, and he started seeing clearly.

When the other men felt God’s power and saw what happened, everybody wanted prayer. All the men who asked for prayer received miracles, and others put their hands near and felt God’s power as heat on their bodies as they were being healed. Several received healing for vision problems that day, including one man who told us he was going blind.

Thanks to Elon Musk and Starlink, the ship and the mission base had internet! I thought I would be disconnected going to a place only accessible with a 20-hour boat ride, but I was wrong! One night I got a message from a lady in Rio Grande do Sul, which is the extreme south of the country and much more developed. She shared how she received prayer by phone last year and God touched several conditions. Her vision improved, she rarely has headaches now, the severe pain in her uterus is completely gone, and the doctor said she can become a mother now! A friend of hers was diagnosed with a tumor in the uterus, so she passed on my contact. I prayed for her friend far away from that remote region, and we are expecting more reports of Jesus’ mighty works!

We went to two church meetings on Sunday. One was an open area by the river bank, and the other was an Assemblies of God with a small building. Everybody goes everywhere by boat. There are no roads in the area. I prayed for several people during the service, including an old man and his wife. They told me nothing, but I came up to him and commanded his back to be healed in Jesus’ name. Later he responded to an invitation to receive Christ. After the meeting, they said his back had been healed and his wife felt relief from pain she had due to a big tumor on the back of her neck. I prayed again, and the rest of the pain from the tumor left. I also commanded her stomach to be healed without her telling me about the condition, and she confirmed she had the condition I prayed for. We are also believing for the tumor to shrivel up and fall off. We stand firm on God’s word, no matter what we see, and sometimes we only find out what happened long after.

On the way back in the airplane, I felt heat flow through my right knee when the stewardesses passed with the food. I asked the Lord which lady was the one with the knee pain and had an impression about who she was. She said both her knees were hurting. I told her “God’s glory is on you right now and Jesus is healing your knees.”

I will continue with another post sharing our experience with religion in Marajó and with the leaders and missionaries of the base we were involved in.

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Is Religiosity Hindering You From Inheriting God’s Promises?

Two Types of Opposition to God’s Word

Satan has always opposed God’s purposes, of course, and it seems like there are two basic kinds of opposition he uses. He has no power to confront God. But because God has chosen to involve people in his purposes on earth, Satan works to deceive people. And because God accomplishes his purposes by sending forth his word, Satan tries to stop people from spreading God’s word and receiving God’s word.

One kind of opposition is external. This involves persecution: inciting wicked people to kill Christians, beat them, burn down their houses, and take their possessions. Many Christians today face such opposition. Satan wants to stop Christians from sharing God’s word by intimidating or killing them. However, this often backfires and causes the church to grow and God’s word to spread even more.

The other kind of opposition is internal. There are different forms of this. Satan tries to sow doubt in people’s hearts like weeds to choke out the seed of God’s word. He attempts to add leaven or mixture to adulterate the gospel message.

The Religious Spirit

The Bible talks about religion that is pure and undefiled in James 1:27. So let’s use the term “religiosity” to talk about how the religious spirit works. Religiosity hardens people’s hearts so that they don’t receive the rain of God’s word.

Isaiah 55:10 (GNT) My word is like the snow and the rain that comes down from the sky to water the earth. They make the crops grow and provide seed for planting and food to eat.

Religiosity kills expectation. It’s like hard ground that the water rolls off of. It’s not moved by the gospel message. It’s not excited by God’s promises. They have become just theology. People caught in religiosity hear God’s word and brush it off. “I know that.” They’ve heard it so many times that they think they know it, but they act like it isn’t true.

I’ve heard of people hearing the gospel for the first time in their lives weeping and wailing when seeing Jesus’ crucifixion depicted in the Jesus film, and jumping and shouting with joy over his resurrection. Does the gospel move your heart like that? If not, why not? Isn’t the gospel “Glad tidings of great joy?” (Luke 2:10) If God’s word no longer moves our hearts, do we still believe it?

The religious spirit embraces religious activity but robs people of the joy, excitement, and expectation that are the responses of those who receive God’s word and believe it. It deceives people into thinking they already know the truth because they subscribe to the doctrine. But you only really know the truth of God’s word when it accomplishes in your life what God sent it for!

People caught in religiosity think as if whatever they have experienced up until now is all there is. They don’t see that there is more! We have all in Christ, but there is much more to lay hold of. There is a Promised Land to be taken! There are giants to slay! There are still promises to inherit by faith and perseverance!

Hebrews 6:12 (NKJV) …do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

People whose hearts have been hardened have a hard time believing that God is good. Here are some of the phrases I often hear when a spirit of religiosity is hindering people from receiving God’s word and I say “I’d like to pray for you. Do you have any specific request or need? Do you have a need of healing?”

“That’s all right. I pray.” They refuse prayer because they pray (in unbelief) and have no expectation of anything other than what they’ve experienced before, which is mostly spiritual barrenness.

“Yes, please pray for my son! He is using drugs. || Great, we will pray for your son. And for you? What do you need? || Oh, I’m fine.” The person feels as if God doesn’t have enough to bless them and their loved one, or as if they don’t want to ask too much of God or bother him with their own problem. I often find they have a pressing need of healing. I say “God is rich! God is generous! He has enough for you and your son too!” I pressed one lady who said this about her own need and found she had diabetes. She felt God’s fire come on her pancreas and testified that she was healed of diabetes. Praise God!

Some of the people at the recovery houses only ask for prayer for their families but it’s hard to get them to share their own needs, because they feel unworthy to receive anything from God. That’s another manifestation of a religious spirit. It’s not about what we deserve or don’t deserve. It’s about what Jesus deserves! Read Isaiah 53. Is it right for Jesus to pay such a high price for our redemption and for us to continue in sin? Is it right for Jesus to take the punishment for our peace on himself, and for us to be caught in anxiety and mental torment? Is it right for Jesus’ body to be broken and blood spilled for people to be healed, and for them to continue to be sick and suffer. No!

The religious spirit often asks “why” in the wrong way. “Why did God heal that drug addict of cirrhosis and I am not healed?” (As if God’s goodness were based on our own merit or lack thereof!) On the contrary, the spirit of faith says “God loves me and he is also working in my life! I may not understand everything, but I know there are promises for me to lay hold of!” The spirit of religiosity is downcast when another person is blessed, as if “I’m missing out.” The person who receives God’s word with faith rejoices at the other person’s blessing, and it only heightens their own expectation of God’s goodness.

When I pray and the person initially feels little improvement or partial improvement, I usually say “Let’s pray again.” Many of the people who have been healed initially felt little or no change. But people in religious unbelief often say “Oh, God will heal me” or “I’m healed by Jesus’ stripes,” in order to avoid pressing the matter, pushing in for their healing now, or taking hold of God’s promises! Instead of taking hold of God’s promises so that they become our experience, religiosity treats God’s promises passively.

The religious spirit makes excuses for passivity and unbelief regarding what God has said. It often relegates God’s promises to another time by saying “that was only for the time of the apostles” or “that will happen in the millennium,” instead of seeing God’s promises as available here and now so that we take hold of them!

Don’t Let Your Heart Become Like Hard Ground that the Rain Runs off of

Hebrews 3:17-19 (NKJV) Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says:

“Today, if you will hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
In the day of trial in the wilderness,
Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me,
And saw My works forty years.
Therefore I was angry with that generation,
And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart,
And they have not known My ways.’
So I swore in My wrath,
‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ”

Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said:

“Today, if you will hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

Hebrews 4:1-3 (NKJV) Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. For we who have believed do enter that rest.

Does the good news of the gospel still move your heart? Do God’s promises excite you? Have you become spiritually sluggish, passive towards God’s promises, or are you an imitator of those who by faith and patience inherit the promises and enter the Promised Land? Have you forgotten what God did in the past as the Israelites did because you don’t understand how he will deliver you in your present situation? Will you receive God’s word and benefit from it because you mix it with faith, or will you fail to enter God’s rest?

Hosea 10:12 (NKJV) Sow for yourselves righteousness; Reap in mercy; Break up your fallow ground,
For it is time to seek the Lord, Till He comes and rains righteousness on you.

One of the things plowing does is to soften the ground so that it can receive the rain. When we recognize an area of unbelief in our lives, we can break up the fallow ground, confront that unbelief, and repent for letting our hearts become hardened against the Lord.

Many areas that have become desertified do receive rain, and occasionally even heavy rain! But the water just flows over the hardened ground! It doesn’t sink in! Yet there have been successful projects to reclaim the deserts. They use different techniques, such as digging half-crescents in the earth to catch the water so it soaks in. It is our responsibility to cultivate the ground of our hearts! It is our responsibility to reject complaining and unbelief, leave disappointment in the past, and mix God’s word with faith!

Isaiah 35:1-2 (NKJV) The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them,
And the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose;
It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice,
Even with joy and singing.
The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,
The excellence of Carmel and Sharon.
They shall see the glory of the Lord,
The excellency of our God.

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