(How Not To Become A False Minister)
– Pastor Bimbo Animashaun
Not all false ministers are UNCALLED. Some carry GENUINE CALLINGS but Satan took advantage of them along the way?
How? By not submitting their callings under the influence and Lordship of the Holy Spirit.
For instance, a person can be genuinely called of God to stand in the office of a prophet but ends up eventually becoming a false prophet by not getting born again, not being grounded in the Word and lack of yieldedness to the Holy Spirit.
And the same thing is applicable to every other ministry gift, namely apostle, evangelist, pastor or teacher. In a way, it boils down to TRAINING or LACK OF TRAINING.
You see, CALLINGS CANNOT FUNCTION WITHOUT SPIRITUAL ADMINISTRATION because THE CALLING ITSELF IS SPIRITUAL, and it is also ETERNAL.
So, if someone who should be a ministry gift by divine destiny is not born again and Satan takes advantage of him by influencing his thought processess and behavioural patterns, he will end up to become a false minister should he pursue the “spiritual drive” in him.
The call of God upon a man is like a driving force. It takes hold of his being and it consumes everything in him.
If someone is not born again or submitted to the ministry of the Holy Spirit yet engages “spiritual activities”, he then becomes a false minister.
Also, a person who carries the calling can become born again but if he’s not trained, doesn’t go through the process of discipleship or is not under tutelage, he may eventually become a false minister by reason of his ministerial activities.
There’ll always be A CLEAR-CUT DIFFERENCE between A TRAINED MINISTER and AN UNTRAINED MINISTER, take for instance A PROPHET.
A trained prophet will not be telling people about the colour of their bras or their pants. Some people do this but that doesn’t mean that they do not originally carry the prophetic calling.
Sometimes, what happens is that they have allowed familiar spirits to hijack their callings.
Now this is very important. Not everyone who talks rubbish like playing football will take you to hell or that saying “HELLO” is a demonic way of greeting because when you remove the alphabet O from HELLO, what you have left is HELL.
Now people who talk like that and pull large crowds or command great followership most likely carry A CALLING FROM GOD but Satan takes advantage of them because of LACK OF TRAINING.
I have a feeling that if you ever see a man or woman who commands magnetism within the social space through some pseudo spiritual activities and people follow such, then most likely it may actually be a case of A GENUINE CALLING FROM GOD not discovered through the ministry of the Holy Spirit and thereby HIJACKED by the devil.
That is why it’s important to get people SAVED and born again early in life. Equally important is to get people TRAINED before releasing them into the field.
Today, there are great apostles in prison cells; great prophets in mediumistic camps; great evangelists who have become drug addicts; great pastors who have become humanists and great teachers who are locked up in philosophical enclaves.
When they get born again and yielded to the Holy Spirit, they will break forth into their callings and become great assets to the Body of Christ.
But if they don’t encounter the Gospel of Christ, then Satan will take advantage of them.
Imagine the man by the name of Simon, who had such a strong influence over an entire city yet it’s by demonic influence, for he bewitched the entire city of Samaria by sorcery – Acts 8:9-11.
But then he encountered the true Gospel of Christ through the ministry of Philip – Acts 8:12-13 and later on straightened out by Peter – Acts 8:18-24 and the rest is history.
Most likely his could have been a case of perverted calling, and the same thing might be applicable to the girl who was “prophesying” under the influence of the spirit of divination in the Book of Acts – Acts 16:16-18.
There are many cases like that in the Bible and let me quickly establish the fact that I never said that ALL OF THEM HAD GENUINE CALLINGS FROM GOD. No, I never said so.
What is clear however is that mostly some could have had. Take for instance, the Apostle Paul; before he became born again, he was a icon in Judaism – an excellent expositor of the Mosaic Law who was far above his colleagues – Gal.1:14 yet there was A DIVINE CALLING hiding inside him.
Also, from the New Testament, we realize that seven deacons were ordained in Acts Chapter 6, three of whom were Stephen, Philip and Nicolas – Acts 6:5.
We later saw the “signs” of an apostle and evangelist in Stephen before his martyrdom – Acts 6:8; Philip later became an evangelist – Acts 21:8 while Nicolas, according to some schools of thought in Church history became a false teacher.
While we can safely say that Stephen manifested “the signs” peculiar to the office of an apostle and evangelist according to Acts 8:5-7 and 2 Cor.12:12, Philip became an evangelist according to Acts 21:8 but Nicolas, who obviously could have functioned properly in the office of a teacher, got his calling hijacked through wrong influence.
Church history tells us that Nicolas was the proponent of THE DOCTRINE OF THE NICOLAITANS which our Lord Jesus Christ spoke strongly against in the Book of Revelation – Rev. 2:6,15.
Nicolas became a false teacher, although he started out well character wise based on Acts 6:3 but he later exhibited divisive tendencies by teaching false doctrine and creating a sect called The Nicolaitans.
We see the same pattern play out in the life of Diotrephes, who later became a false minister by overrating himself above the brethren and propounding false doctrines.
John warned the Church against him:
3 JOHN 9-10
9 I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not.
10 Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words: and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church.
11 Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God.
Also, we have in the New Testament the likes of Hymenaeus, Alexander and Philetus become false ministers, although they must have carried a genuine calling from God.
The Apostle Paul spoke about them in 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy while charging Timothy to beware of them.
1 TIMOTHY 1:18-20
18 This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare;
19 Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:
20 Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.
2 TIMOTHY 2:16-18
16 But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.
17 And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus;
18 Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.
From the foregoing, we therefore realize that a person can become a false minister for the following reasons:
(1) Not getting born again.
(2) Not submitted to the Lordship of the Holy Spirit thereby giving the enemy a foothold.
(3) Not rightly discerning the Body of Christ.
Whichever way it is, the plain truth is that THERE ARE GENUINE CALLINGS ON EARTH TODAY and many of them are undiscovered, many are wrongly channelled while many others have come under the wrong influence.
When the Church promotes GIFTEDNESS above TRAINING and DISCIPLESHIP, the resultant effect will be a massive showcasing of perverted callings.
Today, the Body of Christ through her various local churches is duty bound to discover various callings embedded in the saints of God and provide a formidable platform for TRAINING, thereby resulting in the DISCOVERY, DEVELOPMENT and DEPLOYMENT of callings.
The preponderance of perverted callings or wrong expressions of individual callings with the landscape of the Church is really a challenge to the Body of Christ to up her game, raise the bar and set the standard.
The more we shy away from this fact, the more we will have charlatans parading themselves as Gospel ministers.
However, there will always be some within the ranks of the saints who have chosen their own way despite all efforts to call them to order.
To this set of people, the Apostle Paul charges us to:
ROMANS 16:17
Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.
Dear minister, it is your responsibility to submit your calling under the influence of the Holy Spirit for purity of expression, sanctity of administration and greatness of manifestation, for no calling can function optimally without proper spiritual administration.
Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church, is coming back again, and in this hour, He’s bringing callings in the Body into their fullest expression.
May the Lord count us faithful at this momentus time in the history of the Church on earth.
Amen!
I trust this is a blessing Sirs and Mas?
Jesus Makes All Things Beautiful!!!
Maranatha!!!
Aphorism CITY 