Where are all the the discerning women?

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  I am floored on a daily basis by the amount of women who are following popular female Bible teachers without doing one bit of research before sitting under their teaching. Why are so many women willing to subject themselves to bad teaching and unsound doctrine?!

Let’s take one of the popular female “bible” speakers, Jen hatmaker. I spoke out about her on social media close to five years ago and almost got hung in the gallows for it. Shortly after that she came out as “gay affirming”and also said homosexual relationships could be “holy.” What makes her so popular and so well liked among women? She is very witty. She comes across like she could be your best friend if you met her in person. No doubt she would make you laugh and most definitely not judge you for your mothering skills or your messy house, or how you raised your children. Her humor and openness made her gain a large following fairly quickly. Women were enthralled with her. She was your “home girl.” Ask any of these women what she actually taught or if they had researched her before following her and they would have not had an answer. Or possibly they would bite your head off for questioning someone that was so cool, relevant, and part of their “tribe” as Jen’s favorite term for her fan girls goes.

Or how about Lysa TerKeurst? Best known as president of Proverbs 31 Ministries and the New York Times best-selling author of The Best Yes, Unglued, Made to Crave. She is a popular speaker around the country at women’s conferences and churches. She has multiple areas of concern for instance teaching contemplative prayer or mystic prayer practices, teaching men, partnering with numerous other false teachers and promoting their teachings, twisting Scripture and teaching unsound doctrine and also is under the leadership of her pastor, Steven Furtick who is a prosperity gospel preaching, Scripture twister.

Then you have Priscilla Shirer whom most of you know without introduction. She is the daughter of Tony Evans who starred in the Christian film “war room.” She is a popular women’s bible teacher and author multiple books and bible studies. Her unbiblical teachings consist of teaching women to “listen for God’s voice” and other unbiblical practices such as making a circle about yourself and whatever you pray in that prayer circle God will answer. I once drew a circle around myself, but turns out I’m not a good artist so my circle was actually more in the shape of an oval, therefore God failed to answer that prayer. It may sound crazy but these are the types of teachings that permeate Priscilla’s bible studies. I just want to pull her aside and say “Chapter and verse for that Priscilla.” Priscilla has awful hermeneutics and also preaches to men and partners with a large number of false teachers.

And last but not least, Beth Moore. There are so many false women teachers but this one is the most prominent of the four listed and is also the most dangerous. She is leading the masses of women astray with her teachings about extra biblical revelation, her horrible Scripture twisting, her partnering up with false teachers such as Joyce Meyers and Christine Caine and unrepentantly preaching to men. https://youtu.be/MCIRf1S6cr0

Listen, ladies the list of unsound female teachers is about a mile long. The list of sound female teachers I can list on a few fingers. Why in the world is this? I think the answer lies within the growing number of women that are biblically illiterate. How often are you in the Word? How often are you filling your time studying the things of God and watching sermons from godly men or sitting under biblical, expository preaching? Why are so few women following 1 John 4:1? “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. “ We have a duty as Christ followers to examine those teachers out there before we choose to sit under their teachings.

There are many false teachers among our midst who are wolves in sheep’s clothing. You know the old saying that poison is most dangerous when mixed with whole food. Many of these false teachers have fine tuned their message to make it mostly truth with a little bit of falseness sprinkled in to deceive the women they teach. As the Scripture says in Galatians 5:9 “a little leaven leavens the whole lump.”It can’t be blatantly obvious or else no one would listen. It has to be somewhat truthful to lure in those women.We have got to do a much better job of being discerners! It’s unacceptable for so many women who call themselves disciples of Christ to not do a better job of knowing the Scripture so that they may recognize unsound doctrine and Scripture twisting when it comes our way via the many female teachers out there.

Us women are emotional creatures by nature and find these teachers that sweep us away with their touching stories, irresistible sense of humor and charismatic speaking ability just too easy to sit under. They make us feel good. They make us laugh. They are so relatable. And they throw in some Bible so we feel like it’s edifying. We cannot blindly follow these women who do not rightly divide the Word. We must do better. We must study and do our research and hold these women under scrutiny and up to the Word to see if they line up. It breaks my heart to see how many women are being deceived.

Please pray and beseech God and ask Him to give a spirit of discernment and eyes to see His truth. Don’t be like the women mentioned in 2 Timothy 3:6- “some of these are people who creep into houses, and take captive gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts..”Devote yourself daily to the reading, study and memorizing of His Word. Only then will you be able to recognize the wolves and those who are not teaching according to the Bible. I am so burdened by this and long to find some discerning women who will choose to break away from the crowd and what is popular and seek truth and knowledge from the Word of God.

Prophecy and Polemics- The “unwanted” guests

Do you find yourself an outcast? Are you labeled a trouble maker? Not an outcast because of your social skills or a trouble maker because you are a difficult person to get along with, but these labels have been given to you simply because of your strong convictions and your stand on Biblical truth. Welcome to my club. I am an outcast and a trouble maker. I have been given the gift of prophecy. Now to clarify, the gift of prophecy is not the ability to predict future events. The gift of prophecy is more along the lines of being gifted to speak truth and to call out sin when necessary. You are very black and white and do not see any gray and may be unwilling to compromise in any area and have a strong desire for truth. If you have the gift of prophecy you will naturally be involved in the field of polemics because they go hand in hand. Yes, women can have the gift of prophecy. We are however to use that gift wisely and in the guidelines and parameters of Scripture and not exercising any authority over men. The Lord has given spiritual gifts to all of those who are His and we are to use them to the best of our ability in the Body.

Let’s talk about why the gift of Prophecy is for most a hated gift and an unwanted guest. I have often wondered why the Lord gave me this gift. I have often pleaded with Him to take it from me. It has been a difficult road to have this gift and I have been scarred on many occasions by those who have had “good intentions.” The Lord has chosen not to take it from me but has instead as He continues to sanctify me, made my convictions grow stronger and my desire to voice the truth even more than ever before. The Spirit continues to give me a boldness that I know for a fact does not come from my introverted flesh. I often feels as the prophet Jeremiah says in Chapter 20 vs 9- “If I say I will not mention Him or speak anymore in His name, there is in my heart but a burning fire shut up in my bones, I am weary of holding it in and I cannot.” I have been called “harsh,” “brash”, “judgmental,” “narrow minded,” “unmerciful”, “hateful,” and much worse! All of this for just standing for truth. You see, very few actually like the gift of prophecy because it calls attention to sin and compromises. Those of us who possess the gift of prophecy feel as if to observe sin and say nothing is a sin in itself! Other spiritual gifts are very welcomed and accepted by believers and the world. The gift of mercy, the gift of hospitality, the gift of encouragement, all of these are welcomed and appreciated gifts. But when your gift is sounding the alarm in the face of sin or false teachers, you will most likely not be received well. You will most likely not have many friends. I lost more friends than I can count due to my convictions. Following Christ will cost you. The apostle Paul was often referred to as a “trouble maker” so I consider that a compliment. I would rather my name be mud than the gospel of Christ be compromised.

There is another unwelcome guest to speak of here and that is the area of polemics as I mentioned earlier. The definition of polemic is-“a strong verbal attack or written attack on someone or something.” When you have the gift of prophecy you will most certainly find yourself in the field of polemics. That will mean calling out false teachers, calling attention to sin or compromise and exposing evil deeds when you see them. As Ephesians 5:11 says- “have nothing to do with unfruitful world of evil, but instead expose them.” You will not be received well by the majority of people around you. They will view you as someone who lacks compassion. Even your Christian friends will take offense to your stand on truth. I have to remind myself daily that my strongest desire is to be pleasing to Him and not to those around me. (Galatians 1:10) if this means I have no friends, no Facebook followers and a terrible reputation then so be it. I consider my life dung compared to knowing and following Him. ( Phillipians 3:8)

So here is my challenge to you- those of you who do not have the gift of prophecy. The next time you hear some one who is biblically calling out sin or a false teacher, don’t tell them they need to be more “kind” or “less judgmental.” Consider that the Lord has gifted others with different spiritual gifts different than your own and one is not better than the other. These ones that are constantly battered by others for not being “nice” are simply using their spiritual gifts as God has commanded us to do to edify those around us. We have a strong desire to see the Scripture as the authority for everything and are not willing to budge. All of my critiques about teachers stem from my overall love for my fellow Christians and for Christ and my desire to see other believers walking in truth!! It is not a desire to say “Ha you are wrong!” Or to condemn but to expose false teachers in order that believers around me not get swept away by false doctrine.

Please choose to encourage these Christians in your life who do have the gift of prophecy. We get enough flack from unbelievers so to have our fellow members of the body condemn makes it that much harder. And to those who do have the gift of Prophecy, keep standing for truth! And remember that our aim is always to please Him despite the vast majority who do not want to hear what we have to say. “So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.” 2 Corinthians 5:9

Why do we say no more babies?

1. “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb; a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them. He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies at the gate.” Psalm 127:3-5                                                                                All throughout Scripture you can look and see one common theme about children, they are a reward and a blessing from God. This passage in Psalms mentioned above gives us a view into how we as Christians are to view children and child bearing. We would never tell the Lord “please, stop you are blessing me with way too much money!” Or “please Lord, do not give me one more friend, I’ve just got too many!” We never tell the Lord to stop blessing us except for in the area of our womb! So that beckons the question, do you really view children as a reward and blessing? If we do, we would want as many blessings as He would give us. Why would anyone choose to cut off blessings that are straight from the hand of God? The reward of the womb? We have to be willing to look at this from a biblical perspective. There are three main reasons I see that are causing women to say no more babies-                                                        1) It represents a total denial of self. “I just want to travel more.” ” I want more sleep,” “I just want 5 minutes in the bathroom alone.” Children will ultimately consume all our time. We will have to die to our self and the things we want to do in order to raise godly children. It is no longer about us. We sacrifice hours of being up at night, nursing babies, bandaging boo boo’s, cooking meals and preparing snacks, changing their diapers and wiping runny noses. There will be little or no time to indulge ourselves or let our flesh do what it wants to do. But this is the ultimate picture of Christianity. We must take up our crosses and daily die to ourselves and follow Him. (Matthew 16:24) We must die to ourselves. Our purpose is now to raise up godly children that love Him and His Word. We are a picture to the outside world of what that looks like through bearing children. Raising children will be the hardest thing you will ever do, but as the Scripture says, they are that most rewarding thing and they are a gift of God. Now most upon hearing the term “die to self” will cringe. It is in our flesh to not want to die. That represents something we do not want. But if we are going to follow Christ we must be willing to do so in every area, including his plan of how many children we have.                                                         2) The second reason is because it represents putting all your trust and faith in Him in every area. This is a difficult thing to do. But what does the Scripture say? “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding;in ALL your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6 How many of us really trust Him in the area of childbearing? How about this statement -“I just can’t afford to have anymore” How much trust in the Lord is in that statement? Are you really saying that you don’t trust the Lord to take care of you if he chooses to sovereignly open your womb? Or what about those who say “I just can’t handle anymore.” Why not? Maybe your flesh feels overwhelmed at times but do you really think the Lord will not give you the strength to raise anymore children? Can not the sovereign God of the universe, the maker of heaven and earth, sustain you and give you everything you need to raise the children He decides to bless you with? Or what about those who say “my health is just too bad to go through another pregnancy. I have really tough pregnancies.” Well how do you know that it’s not God’s will for you to suffer in that way? Maybe God wants to bring glory to Himself by showing you and others that He can do the impossible and safely bring you through another pregnancy, despite how miserable they make you feel. You could choose to be a living testimony and say “yes, I have awful pregnancies but I trust the Lord and if he chooses to open my womb then He will take care of it and use it for His glory whatever the outcome. You see, it requires putting full trust in Him and entrusting our very body and womb to Him. We might say “Lord I feel overwhelmed, but I trust you if you decide to open my womb and I trust you to physically give me the strength I need to be a mother.”                                                                         3) It represents many hardships and trials. The more children you have, the more worry will be present. As a parent we all worry about our children. Will they grow up to know and love the Lord? Will they choose a godly spouse? Or when they reach the driving years our main concerm will be “are they safe? ” There are many things we could sit and worry about. There will be many discipline issues along the way as they become independent and their flesh will desire to have its own way. There are the teenage years to think about, the dating, the rebellious middle schooler,  the tenascious three’s, etc.  It is no easy task raising children. There will be blood, sweat and many tears. But the more you sacrifice the more become like Christ. You will learn to lean on Him through every situation. You will literally learn that you cannot parent without Him. You will need that time in the Word or you can’t make it through the day. You need that time in prayer to ask Him to give you patience and to help you to be a godly example. You will rely on Him more fully to give you the strength to be both a wife and a mother. You learn to go to Him for for everything you struggle with in parenting and He becomes your greatest peace and strength throughout your parenting journey. So all of these things that parenting brings to you- denial of self, sacrifice, absolute trust, dependency on Him, those are all godly qualities. The more children you have the more you will possess these qualities. Please seek the Scripture about all these things! Let the Lord have control of every area in your life including your childbearing and you will find riches and  rewards that cannot be described!