RESTORING FALLEN MINISTERS - The Process (Part 2)

 In Part 1, we looked at what Jesus said in Matthew 5 about seeking reconciliation with someone you have offended BEFORE you present an offering at the Temple.  Of course, Jesus was speaking to Jews under the Mosaic law, but the principles still apply.  No true restoration without reconciliation.  No reconciliation without confession and repentance.

But what about when the offender doesn't seek reconciliation first?  Did Jesus say anything about that.  He definitely did!  That is what we will look at here in Part 2.

Matthew 18: 1 - 17 NAS95

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me; but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea."

"Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks! For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes!"

“If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame, than to have two hands or two feet and be cast into the eternal fire. If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than to have two eyes and be cast into the fiery hell."

"See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven continually see the face of My Father who is in heaven. For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.

“What do you think? If any man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and search for the one that is straying? If it turns out that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray."

“So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish."

"If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother.

“But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector."

Now, Jesus is talking to His disciples. The directions He gives here applied not only to them, but to us as well, because we also consider ourselves to be His followers.

I have heard of the final verses being used against the victims of fallen ministers, saying they should have privately confronted their offender and not come out publicly. However, many of the victims were children at the time of the offense, and they experienced trauma that would effect even an adult. They had to grow and heal, often with help, until they had the strength to face their offender.

In the case of ministers, they have built reputations that enable them to continue in their ministry activities. If they admit to harming anyone, they will lose their reputations, their positions, their influence, their money. So, most of them refuse to admit anything until they have been backed into a corner. Some times, even if they admit to some wrongdoing, their associates and followers will call for their restoration. And some have been restored to ministry activities, but they continue their abuse.

Obviously, this should not be. But some people cannot or refuse to see the obvious. Thus, I am examining from a Biblical standpoint what the restoration process should be.

How does this passage relate to the restoration of fallen ministers? Let's go step by step through the context.

First, the disciples ask which one of them is the greatest in the Kingdom. To understand this question, we must consider the first century century Jewish culture. Rabbis would not just teach the people in general, they would gather disciples to follow them full time so each rabbi would train that group of disciples to become rabbis too. With this in mind, we can see how each one of Jesus' disciples would wonder about how valuable he would be in the ministry. In other words, who would be their leader?

But Jesus had to show them their need for humility and who really is important in His Father's eyes. So, he takes a child and places him in the middle of their group. The wording in the Greek indicates this boy was young, but able to stand on his own. He could have been a toddler, but I believe he was older than that, one able able to converse with adults on a very basic level. I think he was at least 5, but no more than 12. Jesus uses him as an example of humility.

Think about that for a moment. These were grown men, who had careers, families, houses, and more, that they had left behind to follow Jesus for several years. They too had preached, cast out demons, and ministered healing. Peter, James, and John had seen the Transfiguration. Now, Jesus compared them to a child??? If they had not known that Jesus loved them, they would have felt that He had insulted them.

But they knew. They continued to listen, because they knew Jesus would teach them more about the Kingdom that they needed to know.

Jesus goes on to say that children need to be protected from offenses - both from being offended and from being made to offend. Then He continues, but talks about sheep. However, He is still talking about the Kingdom. Sheep and children are quite similar. When Jesus talked about the one sheep that strayed, the one the shepherd would leave the rest of the flock to go look for and rejoice over when found, He was still talking about who was great in the Kingdom. He equated an offended child to a straying sheep. Both need to be sought out and restored.

Then Jesus says something that sounds harsh. If part of your body causes you to sin, to offend, CUT IT OFF! Is Jesus promoting self-mutilation? Of course not! How could someone who healed people, including those with missing body parts, recommend removal of those parts? What was He really saying? He was talking about the desires of our bodies. We should not let them control us if they cause us to offend. He just used extreme language to show how much we need to do this.

Then, He talks about offenders. Notice His words. "If your brother sins,..." Not, "If your brother sins against you." As long as you know someone has sinned, you should go confront them, and not just to recover them for the Body of Christ, but so that others will not be offended against or to offend.

How should we approach the offenders? In humility before God and love for the offender, remembering that you are doing this for their sake as well for the offended and the entire Body of Christ.

So, to sum up this passage: No one in the Body of Christ is more important than anyone else. We are often to eager too believe otherwise, and we need to stop that. Consider the teachings of Jesus and James about avoiding partiality, and Paul's teaching about the Body of Christ.

Part 2 of Restoring Fallen Ministers is a fallback for when Part 1 does not happen. It is the confrontation in love and humility.

Part 3 to come...

RESTORING FALLEN MINISTERS - THE PROCESS (Part 1)

Matthew 5:6-9 NASB1995

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.  Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.  Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.  Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God."

Matthew 5:21-24 NASB1995

“You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not commit murder’ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.’  But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.  Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering."

I included that second passage in a previous article, RESTORING FALLEN MINISTERS.  In this article, I add the first passage to enlarge the context.

Jesus began the Sermon on the Mount with the Beatitudes, a pronouncement of blessings upon those who hold certain attitudes, or possess certain characteristics.  This is in contrast to the Torah, the Law of Moses, which contains blessings and curses.  Blessings for those that kept the Law, curses for those who didn't.

Jesus was not overturning the Law.  In the verses that immediately follow, He says as much.  He also adds that our righteousness must exceed that of those who were the experts in the Law, the Pharisees.  Their righteousness was based on their actions and not their attitudes.

I point this out, because in the circles that seem to produce the most fallen ministers not only emphasize healing, miracles, signs, and wonders, they also focus on blessings.  Most of the blessings they talk about are material, carnal, and earthly.  The blessings Jesus spoke of tend to be spiritual.

We do see fallen ministers in all kinds of Christian groups, not just those that emphasize supernatural experiences.  This shows us that experience based, or experience driven religion is not the only factor that causes ministers to fall.  It could be one of the strongest.

The experience oriented groups do seem to be the ones that most often call for their fallen ministers to be restored.  They often claim that the fallen minister had produced so many healings, prophecies, etc. and they assume the world, or the body of Christ, needs that to continue.

Really?

Jesus never pronounced a blessing on those who seek after miracles, signs, wonders, healings, prophecies.  He did say promise satisfaction to those who seek righteousness.  And those who seek signs, He called wicked and adulterous.

We could say that the theme of the Sermon on the Mount is righteousness, not "blessings."  Look at two other passages, the ends of Matthew chapters 6 and 7.  "Seek first the kingdom of God," and, "Depart from me, you workers of iniquity..."

So when Jesus was talking about the Torah, He was speaking of righteousness, not just in action, but it heart.  This becomes obvious when He equates hate with murder.

But then, He seems to say something contradictory.  You would think that He would immediately tell us to forgive those we hate.  As well, we should.

Instead, He says if your brother has something against YOU, YOU go to him and seek reconciliation.  You are not the hater, but the hated.  Why should YOU be the one who seeks reconciliation first?

For righteousness sake.

If someone has something against you, then YOU are the offender.  YOU might not feel like it, but you are.  This is the major problem I see with the majority of these fallen ministers.  They never admit to their offense.  Some might even feel entitled or justified to do what they did.

But until the offender admits to what they did, no reconciliation is possible.  This is not to say the offended one is justified in not forgiving the offender.  The offended one must forgive to maintain a right relationship with God, even if the offender never admits anything.  And the offended one does not have to wait, and should not wait until the offender confesses.

So, the biblical process to restoring a false minister begins with reconciliation, but reconciliation is not possible unless the offender seeks it by admitting the offense and expressing remorse to the offended party.

The goal should not be to place a person into a position, or to allow them to resume an activity that seems desirable, but to establish righteousness where it is lacking.

ONE LAST THING ABOUT THAT FIVE-FOLD THING

I believe that major problem with the Five-Fold Ministry term is with the word 'fold.'  It implies layers.

People assume the five ministries listed in Ephesians represent layers created by folding, and each later added to the first is created by one fold. So, the second layer is created by the first fold, the third layer is created by the second layer, etc.  Well, this works if you are creating pleats or a fanfold, but if you are folding a flat item in half with each fold.  In that case, you cannot create five layers, because each fold doubles the number of layers.

Try it yourself.  Take a flat item, such as a sheet of paper, or a washcloth, or a bandana, and fold it in half three times.  You have created six layers.

Now, if you used a cloth item, you can flatten it out and use it again.  Take one side and fold it over one third of the way to the other side.  Then take the unfolded side and fold it over to align with the first fold.  You now have three layers.

If you wanted five layers, you would have to measure one fifth of the way from one side to the other to make the first fold. From there, you can go one of two ways.  You can alternate folding under and over for each fold, working from the first side across the cloth.

No matter what manner of folding you use, it is a poor analogy for the ministries listed in Ephesians 4.  The passage does not mention any folding, layers, or structure of any kind.  And the larger context doesn't imply any of those either.  Nowhere does the Bible state that those ministries are offices either.

From what I see in that passage is that Jesus equipped men for those ministries according to what they would need to serve His people.

This is the easiest way to determine true ministers from the false.  True ministers will serve you by bringing you truth.  False ministers will decieve you into serving them by twisting the Bible.

CESSATIONISM / CONTUATIONISM, OR SOMETHING ELSE.

I guess I am now something else.  That is not to brag, just stating that my view has changed.

I was once a cessationist.  Back in junior high, I had joined a Southern Baptist congregation, and the pastor there taught us from the old Scofield Study Bible that speaking in tongues was not for today, that it had passed away, so if anyone is speaking in tongues today, they are doing so by the power of the devil!

Then I got involved in a coffeehouse ministry.  I was now in high school.  I loved Jesus, and I was happy to find a place where I could hang out with other kids who loved Jesus, and we wanted to tell other kids about Him.  One of those kids said something that made me take another at tongues.  After some study, I discovered a connection between tongues and Jesus!  So, I became a Charismatic and started speaking in tongues.

Back in those days, the pro-tongues position was called "restorationism," that is, that God was restoring tongues and the other gifts of the Holy Spirit.  But, non-Pentcostals / Charismatics also believed in a form of restorationism that started with the Protestant Reformation. In recent years, the term "continuationsm" has taken over, as Pentecostals and Charismatics now say the gifts have always been available.

One factor that confounds the issue is the use of the phrase, "move of God" to refer to a new push or surge of activity in Pentecostal / Charismatic circles.  Are they truly moves of God, or something else?

I can't say for sure about this, I can only give my view based on what I have learned.  And I like to look at things from different angles than everyone else.

A while back, I began to wonder about reform movements before Luther.  I knew his was not the first, just the first to have a major impact that lasted.

I learned of the Waldensians, the Lollards, and the Hussites.  These were definite precursors to Luther because they sought to bring understanding of the Bible directly to the people.

Were they moves of God?  That is, did He start those movements?  Or, did a hunger for God spark them?

I believe that people had seen that Christianity had changed from a vibrant faith in it's earliest centuries into an institution that was riddled with superstition, ritualism, and corruption.  They wanted to recover what was lost.

Considering those movements along with those that followed, I would now call myself a recoverist.  That is, I believe the Body of Christ has been trying to recover what has been lost since it's early days.

Of course, Satan does not like this.  When God's people seek Him, Satan wants to derail those efforts.  He tries to draw our attention away from God and His Word to our own emotions, our own experiences, to his lies, to 'hidden knowledge,' all under the guise of spiritual growth.  Men without honorable intentions will also seek to exploit the good intentions of believers for their own greed.  That is why we see so much false doctrine, so many false prophetic words and faked healings and miracles, ministers falling into sin, and their followers trapped in abusive cults.

But all is not lost.  The posers are being exposed.  People are escaping cults, and recovering from the emotional damage.

RESTORING FALLEN MINISTERS

Quite a bit has been said recently about ministers that have fallen into sin.  The worst have been exposed for sexual sin, with some even facing jail or prison time and lifetime registration as an offender.  Others have used their media channels and meetings to raise large amounts of money, then used the tax free funds to buy luxurious homes for themselves.  Some have data-mined information from phone books, mailing lists, or social media to use that information to deliver false words of knowledge that they present as divinely supplied.

After the exposure, the fake preacher will move away from ministry.  Then some will come out calling for the person to be restored.

Now, we see some discussion on who can be restored, and how the restoration process should go.  I see something lacking in most of the proposals, something that Jesus spoke about.

Most have spoken about the need for forgiveness.  Of course, the victims and the Body of Christ need to forgive the offender.  But, in this call for forgiveness, I don't see anyone bringing up this passage:

Matthew 5:21-26 NASB1995

“You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not commit murder’ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.’  But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.  Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you,  leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.  Make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way, so that your opponent may not hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison.  Truly I say to you, you will not come out of there until you have paid up the last cent.

Jesus said quite a mouthful with just a few sentences!  On the surface, He doesn't seem to said that much.  But, let's look at the bigger picture, and let's start by considering who he was speaking to - Jews living in Galilee under the Roman Empire.  The Law of Moses was their primary guide, and it dominated the thinking of many.

First, Jesus reminds them of the commandment against murder.  Then, He amplifies the command to include insults.  He gives two examples of insults that will place the speaker under judgment.

The first example questions the target's character.  The second questions the target's mental capabilities.  Insults like these attack a person instead of any facts that might support their position.  Academics and attornies call them ad hominem attacks.  They regard such arguments invalid.

What Jesus did was expand murder to include the condition of the heart that would make someone murder.

Then, Jesus says something that doesn't seem to fit, a non sequitur, if you will.  He says, "...your brother has something against you," not that you have something against your brother.  Why would He say THAT?

I can understand understand why.  I have watched all of the Perry Mason series.  I have noticed that quite a few times, the murder victims were dispicable.  If I were a fictional character in those episodes, I might have killed them too.  But quite a few times, the victim was mostly inoffensive.  The motive isn't always apparent, and it becomes the biggest part of the mystery.  Most times, more than one person who knew the victim had a motive, and Perry had to eliminate each one.  So, even the nicest people could become murder victims.

Jesus, by telling a potential murder victim to seek reconciliation, He saves two lives!  God does not want anyone to murder or get murdered.

Then Jesus moves into civil affairs - lawsuits.  He favors reconciliation there too.  In those days, debtors could be imprisoned.  God doesn't want people imprisoned by debt, or to lose money over unpaid loans.

Now, how does this apply to fallen preachers?

Reconciliation between victim and defender is paramount.  Without it, the relationship will be destroyed.  This leaves an open door for other relationships to be destroyed.

The offender should be the first one to seek reconciliation.  Period.  I mean PERIOD!  Why? To prevent more offenses.

This is how the offender should seek reconciliation:

First, admit to the victim that you were wrong.  Don't be like Fonzi, go ahead and say, "I was wrong," not, "I was wr-uhhhh." You will probably feel better after you say it out loud.  God certainly will.  So will the victim.

Second, say you that are sorry, that you regret doing what you did, and you want to do better.

Finally, ask for forgiveness.  Forgiveness from the victim frees you from the worry that they might seek revenge.

Now, I do not want to forget the victim's part in the process.  The victim needs to forgive for their own spiritual health.

Without forgiveness by both, no reconciliation happens.

Without reconciliation, worship becomes meaningless.  Fallen ministers who have not reconciled with their victims remain false.  If they do get restored to ministry, then the public needs to be informed that their ministry is false also.

Smile! You never know who's watching!

Been a while since I posted any jokes, so here's a few to help you smile...

What did the Geometry teacher say when he found out his parrot escaped?

Polly gone!

What is Irish, and sits out on the porch All the time?

Patty O'Furniture

The world's shortest Irish joke:

An Irishman walks out of a bar... Hey!  It could happen!

A guy found out his blonde girlfriend had never been to a football game despite loving sports.  So, he took her to one.

They arrived at their seats just in time for the coin toss.  He was immediately concerned about her comfort, so he made sure she was settled in for the game.

She really enjoyed the experience, and he answered her questions as simply as he could.

On the way home, he asked her what she thought.  She said, "That seems to be quite a fuss over 25 cents."

He asked why she said that, and she replied, "Every time one team had the ball and they started a play, the fans for the other team would start yelling, 'Get the quarter back!  Get the quarter back!' "

A beautiful blonde takes a flight from New York to L.A.  Half an hour after takeoff, she gets out of her seat in coach and goes to first class, finds an empty seat, and sits down.

A flight attendant checks the roster, sees that the blonde is supposed to be in coach, and she tries to get her to go back to coach.  But the blonde does not accept her explanation that she hasn't paid for first class.  The blonde refuses to budge.

Every other crew member tries to get her to move, including the co-pilot.  No one succeeds. She kept saying over and over, "I'm blonde, I'm beautiful, I'm on my way to Hollywood, and I'm not moving from this seat!"

Finally, the pilot says he will get her to move, that he is married to a blonde and he knows how to talk to them.  He goes over to her, says hi, then bends over to whisper in her ear.

Her eyes pop wide open, and she rushes back to coach.  The crew watched this from the cockpit.  As the pilot got back there, they asked him what he said to make her move so fast after they all failed.

He said, "I just told her that first class wasn't going to L.A."

TRUE STORY.  One morning I come out the front of a convenience store, and right in front of the door is a vintage Corvette.  A blonde came out right behind me.

We start walking around it, checking it out.  I am a Chevy fan, so that was natural for me.

When I'm standing directly behind the car, the blonde asked what year it was.  I said, "It's a 58."  She asked how I knew that.  I just pointed at the vanity plate that said, ITSA58.

When she saw that, she turned to go on her way, slapped her forehead, and said, "Duh!  I'm a blonde!"

FAITH REVISITED

Much has been said about faith for quite a number of decades now. Back in the Latter Rain revival days, Kenneth Hagin began his teachings on faith. Since then, others have taken his teachings and transformed them into the Word of Faith / prosperity gospel, what I have decided to call the HAWG (Health And Wealth Gospel). Many congregations have used ‘Faith’ in their names. I know of two chains using the name Faith Assembly.

In all this emphasis on faith, I have seen some shortcomings in the understanding of this subject. Some are more than simple mistakes - they have become dangerous threats to life and health.

In this article, I will examine these issues and try to bring some Scriptural clarity.

What is faith?

Many WOF teachers would point to this verse to define ‘faith.’

Hebrews 11:1 NKJV

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 

After reading or quoting this verse, they will say that faith is a substance, or a force. That statement makes faith into something mechanical, something that we can manipulate like a tool to fix broken aspects of our lives.

We see this reflected in the titles given to sermons, books, videos, etc., about using faith:

Four Steps To Answered Prayer.

Six Steps To Healing.

Seven Habits That Bring Prosperity.

Those are titles I made up to illustrate my point. But if you search the websites or watch the television programs of HAWG teachers you will likely find some kind of product with a similar name that they offer as a ‘love gift’ for a donation.

But some take those teachings and turn them into rules. If you don't pray enough, confess enough, fast enough, then that is why you haven't been healed, your bills are unpaid, your car broke down….

Some go even further to say you must achieve ‘rapturing faith’ before Jesus returns, or you will be left to go through the Tribulation. I see this as fearmongering to manipulate people to stay true to a cult leader. This teaching puts undue stress on people that can create mental and physical health issues. Some people under such a burden have ended their own lives.

While I do admit that faith has some mechanical aspects, its nature is not that way.

Hebrews 11:1 NASB1995

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

This is how most of the more recent translations render this verse. No mechanical wording there.

But notice the second clause in both renderings. The words ‘evidence’ and ‘conviction’ are legal terms. In the context of Hebrews, what the author, or authors, intend is that the faith of Old Testament heroes is the evidence that supports the conviction that

…we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience…

Hebrews 10:19-22 NASB1995

At first, the earliest disciples faced persecution only from the Jewish religious authorities. The government had no interest in them at the time. All the disciples were Jews, who still saw themselves as Jews, and except for their belief in Jesus, they still did what Jews did. The practice of Judaism was legal under Roman law, so government officials first saw the disciples as members of a new Jewish sect. As long as the disciples didn't violate other Roman laws the officials had no legal reason to worry about them.

But some of those disciples couldn't handle the persecution. They knew they could avoid it if they gave up their faith in Jesus, and went back to being just Jews…who followed the Mosaic law for salvation. The author, or authors, of Hebrews did not want that, so they wrote the letter to warn the disciples about the consequences of forsaking Jesus. The eleventh chapter points them, and us, to the faith of the heroes as a reason to continue believing in, and following, Jesus.

One last note about Hebrews 11: Many people take the “great cloud of witnesses,” mentioned at the beginning of chapter 12, to be the heroes, and they are now watching us from heaven. This is often extended to include recently deceased relatives. Do you really think anyone in the presence of Jesus is concerned with anything going on in this world? No, they are not witnesses OF us. They are witnesses TO us!

The nature of faith is more than mechanical or legal.

Mark 11:20-26 NASB1995

As they were passing by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots up. Being reminded, Peter *said to Him, “Rabbi, look, the fig tree which You cursed has withered.”

And Jesus *answered saying to them, “Have faith in God. Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him. Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you. Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions.”

This is THE central Scripture passage of faith teaching. When you see faith as a mechanical force, then this passage becomes the handbook of HAWG doctrine.

But if you read it slowly, and with an open mind, one phrase just might stand out, and change how you see faith. To save you some time, I will highlight the phrase here: “…and does not doubt IN HIS HEART…”

Doubt is a heart matter. So is faith.

Another way to say it, faith is not a matter of moving mountains, paying bills, receiving healing, raising the dead, etc. It is not a measure of one's spirituality.

Faith is a relationship word. Faith in your heart is the very core of all your relationships. That includes your relationship with God.

My time as a soldier helped me to see this. I was ruminating on the difference, and the similarity, between the terms ‘believer’ and ‘disciple.’ One well-known HAWG teacher directs his ministry towards believers. In recent years, I have seen a larger emphasis on discipleship. I also noted that in most of the New Testament, Christians were called disciples. Then I thought of the logo of the U. S. Army's Infantry School. It shows a Revolutionary War soldier holding a musket in one hand, and making an overhead gesture with the other. The caption reads, “Follow me!” That got me to thinking of the officers I had that I would follow into combat. (Thank God I never had to!) Then it hit me: You won't follow anyone you don't trust.

Don't get me wrong. I never had a close personal relationship with these officers. But I had seen enough to know that I could trust them to not make mistakes that would get me or another soldier hurt or killed. I know those are possible in combat, but officers who unnecessarily put their troops in harm's way often make things worse on a larger scale. The army takes a dim view of that.

In short, you have to be a believer to be a disciple.

What is the purpose of faith?

One of the key verses on faith is one I have seldom heard a HAWG teacher quote, and I have never heard anyone give a teaching only on this one verse.

Hebrews 11:6 NASB1995

And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

Whenever a HAWG teacher does quote or reference this verse, they tend to focus on the “rewarder” clause. This is just another indication that they are seeing faith as a mechanical phenomenon. Believe God by buying their books and CD's, or giving an offering, and get a reward. Better yet, in their view, become a ‘partner’ of their ministry!

How about using your faith to please your Father? The OT heroes pleased their God by their faith. I see nothing in the NT that indicates anything different about the purpose of faith.

Why is pleasing God by faith so important? Ask any parent who has been hurt when their child did not trust them.

How does faith actually work?

Two passages I know of give us a look at how faith actually works.

Galatians 5:2-6 NASB1995

Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you. And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law. You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.

The Galatian disciples were some of the earliest converts in Paul's apostolic ministry. You can read about this in Acts 13 and 14. Soon after Paul and Barnabas returned from this trip, Judaizers came in and began to teach that Gentiles needed to be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses. Paul wrote this letter to counteract that teaching.

The problem with that doctrine is that it bases salvation on man's works instead of God's. We need to base our faith on God’s love for us, and His faithfulness to us.

In other other words, we trust Him and believe His Word because we know His will, His intention, is to provide for us, and to bless us.

Matthew 17:14-20 NASB1995

When they came to the crowd, a man came up to Jesus, falling on his knees before Him and saying, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic and is very ill; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not cure him.” And Jesus answered and said, “You unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to Me.” And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured at once. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not drive it out?” And He *said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.”

Jesus made a very interesting statement here. On the one hand, He tells His disciples they had little faith. But, on the other hand, He tells them that if their faith is no bigger than a mustard seed, they could not only cast out a demon, they could move a mountain! Was He saying that their faith was smaller than that? How big is a mustard seed anyway?

Matthew 13:31-32 NASB1995

He presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field; and this is smaller than all other seeds, but when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.”

Jesus only states that a single mustard seed is the smallest of seeds. He doesn't specify if He means the seeds in the man's field, or all types of seeds. I looked up ‘mustard seed,’ and found they range from 1 to 2 millimeters, or 3 to 5/64ths. That is very small for seeds.

If Jesus compared the kingdom of God to a single mustard seed, did He also mean that faith works like a seed? Could be…

What did Jesus say the seed did? It grew. It did not stay a seed, it became a plant. Your faith can grow. No matter how big your faith is now, it can grow.

How does faith grow? Here we need to turn away from the metaphoric language, and remember that faith is a relationship term. How do relationships grow? Love?

Yes. But how does love grow? TIME!

Spend as much time as you can with God. Read and study the Bible. Pray. Approach both as if you are spending time with someone who loves you, and you love them.