Be careful of those who say "Be careful"

Be careful of those who tell you to be careful!

First of all, I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. And to friends who don't celebrate Christmas, well have a happy day and we'll argue about it later.

Frequently, I when it comes to the supernatural gifts of the spirit, I hear people say "BE CAREFUL". In fact I was just recently having a chat with a friend of mine who is an evangelist, and he told me the same thing regarding believing for raising the dead. He told me this "make sure you're doing it relying on God".

He had good intentions. First of all, my problem is with the way he was looking at it. If Satan had empowered me to raise the dead, and people thank Jesus for it, then what good is it doing? I have a relationship with Jesus. I have authority over Satan, and quite frankly, Satan doesn't like me one bit. Satan would have no reason to empower me, because people are praising Jesus if I do these things anyway.

No, most often, the "be careful" thing stems from this:

Matthew 7:21 – 23
"“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’"

My friends, there are people out there who are preforming miracles in his name who have no relationship with Christ. But what has happened with this verse, I think, is that an assumption has been made by the religious that if someone is doing miracles, prophesying, etc, you should assume that they don't have relationship with God.

This is definitely not the case, as Jesus commanded his people to go into the world, heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons, etc.

What's the difference between these two? The ones who are doing miracles and God says "depart from me" to have no relationship. They lack the intimacy with God.

The religious of today have made the assumption that anyone who works in the supernatural is of this category of people that God will say to depart from him. Many of them have had good intentions, but they're wrong. And even those who do believe in the supernatural today, will often times with good intentions, but wrongly, tell people to BE CAREFUL.

How can we judge this? By the fruit! And the meetings or whatever is going on may even look crazy and offend people. But if there's fruit of the spirit, it's definitely of God. If there's joy, peace, righteousness, etc coming out of it, I have no problem with it. And that's not to say these people won't mess up. We need to be careful not to put men of God on a pedastal, because they will fall.

I had no problem with the Lakeland revival or Todd Bentley as a person. I supported him through the revival and I support him through his restoration. However, the revival in Lakeland was not about Todd, it was about Jesus. God could have used any person there. I think we make a mistake when we put people on a pedastal, and when they fall we tend to attack the person and say that the revival was not of God.

And people think "BE CAREFUL" even more so.

I say "BE CAREFUL of those who say 'BE CAREFUL.'" There's potential for them to not have grace. When someone falls, are they empowering the person who fell to come back into right standing? Or are they putting the person down and not allowing them to come back to God?

I say "BE CAREFUL of those who say 'BE CAREFUL.'" Some of these peolpe limit God anyway, and put limits on God where the Word doesn't put limits on him, and use fallen teachers (who were probably good otherwise, but they were human and just as likely to mess up as any of us) as an example of why something isn't of God.

I say "BE CAREFUL of those who say 'BE CAREFUL.'" Some people tell you "All things must be done in decency and in order" as yes, the Bible says, however they don't realize that all things must be done first befor you can have the order. Order, when given the wrong priority, will limit God.

I also say "HONOR THOSE who say 'BE CAREFUL.'" Many of them have a pastor's heart to protect the flock and they have very good intentions. They are just deceived about some things. They may have more faith in Satan's power to deceive you than God's power to keep you. For their heart and wanting to do the right thing, even if they're ultimately wrong about something, honor them.

We all need to learn to hear from the Holy Spirit ourselves on these matters. The Holy Spirit is our teacher. Yes, he uses man to teach us too, but ultimately, Holy Spirit is our teacher.

Here's a standard I use to "BE CAREFUL". It's not the only standard, but it's a big one for me, and very biblical:

2 Corinthians 3:17 (New International Version)
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

When you hear someone teach a message, give a word, etc, do you experience freedom? Are you free to grow? Are you free to move in the power that Jesus said you would move in? Are you free to do the impossible? Are you free from things that hendered you? Do you sense that in the message they gave?

Or are you in bondage to rules? In bondage to things holding you back?

And I say "BE CAREFUL of false freedoms". A false teacher might teach these. Let's use this example: A teacher might say that it's ok to go out and have sex with as many people as you want.

To a carnal mind, it might sound like freedom. But to those who are spiritual, you know it's not because you know it brings about emotional soul-ties that are painful to break. On top of that, if you're not married, you end up losing the trophy of virginity that God has given you.

So that's an example of what I call a false freedom.

I think I've given you some keys on how to truly be careful. And be careful of those who say to be careful, because even with good intentions, they can cause you to limit how God works.

False teachers are the ones who will put you in bondage. And a false teacher is not necessarily someone like Todd Bentley, I think, who by the way admitted what he did was wrong, and I know he would never teach people to do what he did. He is being restored, and I really don't like having to bring this up, because he is forgiven and God remembers it no longer.

Real teachers might be wrong sometiems, but they are the ones who will bring you into freedom.