Years ago the pastor of my current church taught on three\npopular trends in today\u2019s churches: the seeker friendly movement; the so-called\n\u201crevivals\u201d in which people lose control, roll in the aisles, laugh\nuncontrollably and make animal noises; and the health and wealth teaching. I\nhave researched these trends as well, but he said something that was\nbrilliantly insightful and which, because of my research, I recognized as true\nas soon as he said it. He said, \u201cThe people who fall for these deceptions tend\nto get carried away into further and further deception.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How true.\nSome of the health and wealth teachers also teach that we become little \u201cgods\u201d\nwhen we are born again and\/or that Jesus ceased to be God when the Father laid\nour sins on him at the cross. And Bill Johnson, the pastor of Bethel Church in\nRedding, California, started off as a health and wealth teacher but got sucked\ninto the Toronto \u201cRevival,\u201d a full blown example of a revival in which the\npeople lose control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For me, the\nbest example of a person who fell for one of these deceptions and then was\ncarried away into further deception was the head elder of the last church I\nattended. He was also the worship leader of the church. He taught that it is\nGod\u2019s will for all of us to be healed and if we had enough faith, we would be\nhealed. He would often declare from the platform during worship time that there\nwould be no more sickness in his home. He even encouraged the rest of us to\nmake the same declaration. He would continue to make these declarations even\nthough his wife was mentally ill and taking several prescriptions to combat it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This\noccurred while the so-called Lakeland \u201cRevival\u201d in Florida, led by Todd\nBentley, in which hundreds of people were supposedly healed, was happening, and\nthis elder just had to go see it. He came home sick. He went to work the day\nafter he came back but was so sick his boss sent him home. So, yes, there was\nsickness in his home despite his declarations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After I\nleft that church, this elder experienced chest pains and drove himself 25 miles\nto the nearest emergency room. The doctor there told him he had pneumonia, gave\nhim some antibiotics, and sent him home. He died in his sleep that night from\ncongestive heart failure. The evidence that God kept giving him never did\nconvince him that his teaching on healing was a deception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the\ndeception did not stop there. While I was still at this church, this elder\nspent an entire sermon teaching us why we should pray to the Holy Spirit every\nday, asking him to teach us and guide us and give us strength to do God\u2019s will.\nWhen I asked him, one on one, after the service, to show me the Scriptures that\ntell us that we should pray to the Holy Spirit, he said, \u201cBrother, you need to\nread the Scriptures from the beginning and ask the Holy Spirit to show you\nwhere they are.\u201d I did not say anything more to him because his answer told me\nthat he was not ready to talk rationally about this subject, but my thought\nwas, \u201cIs not that the issue here? Why would I pray to the Holy Spirit if I do\nnot know if I am supposed to pray to the Holy Spirit in the first place?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His answer\nsounded like something a cultist would tell me. \u201cHow do I know if the burning\nin the bosom is the way God confirms if something is true?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBecause the Book of Mormon says so.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHow do I know that the Book of\nMormon is true?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAsk God if it is true and he will\ntell you that it is by giving you a burning in your bosom.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nScriptures do not forbid praying to the Holy Spirit, but they do not teach us\nto pray to the Holy Spirit. Whenever they do teach us to pray to someone, it is\nalways to the Father. When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray,\nhe said, \u201cWhen you pray, say: Our Father…\u201d (Luke 11:1-2). Jesus even told the\ndisciples, \u201cAnd in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to\nyou, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you\u201d (John 16:23). So\nJesus told them that prayer was not directed even to him, but to the Father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\ndisciples understood this. The prayers that are recorded in Acts (1:24-25,\n4:24-30) are directed to the Father, not Jesus or the Holy Spirit. Paul\u2019s\nprayers (Eph. 1:15-23, 3:14-19) are directed to the Father. After Jesus ascends\nto heaven, no one addresses him unless they see him in a vision. All the\nprayers are directed to the Father. No one prays to the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is true\nthat in the Old Testament, God was rarely addressed as \u201cFather,\u201d but David knew\nthat he was not praying to the Holy Spirit because he once prayed, \u201cDo not take\nYour Holy Spirit from me\u201d (Ps. 51:11). So even in the Old Testament, prayer was\nnot directed to the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the\nfirst three centuries of Church history, very few prayers were directed to the\nHoly Spirit (one study found only four clear examples) and only Origen encouraged\nanyone to pray to the Holy Spirit. The vast majority of Christians in the first\nthree centuries understood the teaching of Jesus: prayer should be directed to\nthe Father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some people\ntry to justify praying to the Holy Spirit by saying, \u201cWe pray to the Father,\nwho is God, so why cannot we pray to the Holy Spirit, who is also God?\u201d That is\nhuman reasoning, which ignores what the Scriptures actually teach. Human\nreasoning ignores the fact that each person in the Trinity is a distinct\nperson. Human reasoning says that because the Father is God and the Son is God\nand the Holy Spirit is God, then blaspheming the Father and blaspheming the Son\nand blaspheming the Holy Spirit should be equally unforgivable. But that is not\nwhat the Scriptures teach. Only the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is\nunforgivable (Matt. 12:31-32). Human reasoning ignores the fact that each\nperson in the Trinity has a distinct level of authority. Human reasoning says\nthat because the Father is God and the Son is God and the Holy Spirit is God,\nthey should all have the same authority. But that is not what the Scriptures\nteach. The Son is subject to the Father (1 Cor. 11:3, 15:28) and the Holy Spirit\nis subject to both (John 15:26). Human reasoning ignores the fact that each\nperson in the Trinity has a distinct role. The Father is God and the Son is God\nand the Holy Spirit is God but only the Son actually hung on the cross and died\nfor our sins. Yes, the Father is God, and yes, the Holy Spirit is God, but we\npray only to the Father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But even if\nwe do not offer petitionary prayer to the Holy Spirit, is it wrong to thank\nhim? We can thank the Father for sending the Holy Spirit and for what the Holy\nSpirit has done, but praying to the Holy Spirit at all starts us down the path\nof deception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In my\nresearch, the people who advocate praying to the Holy Spirit are inevitably\ncaught up in some other deception. The elder is only one example. The Catholics\nhave developed several prayers to the Holy Spirit and, of course, Catholicism\nis just another deception. It seems to me that the three trends above are not\nthe only paths to further deception. It seems that once you fall for any<\/em> deception, you tend to get carried\naway into further deception. This is why we must always subject our human\nreasoning to the Scriptures and not the Scriptures to our human reasoning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You therefore, beloved, since you\nknow this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness,\nbeing led away with the error of the wicked; but grow in the grace and\nknowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and\nforever. Amen (2 Peter 3:17-18).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Years ago the pastor of my current church taught on three popular trends in today\u2019s churches: the seeker friendly movement; the so-called \u201crevivals\u201d in which people lose control, roll in the aisles, laugh uncontrollably and make animal noises; and the … Continue reading