Galatians 1:9
“As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!“
Many Christians do not give this verse the weight it deserves when reading the Bible. As a matter of fact, unlike the Galatians we do not believe that we subscribe to a perverted gospel. Sadly, if the spirit of God does not open our eyes to see our ignorance, we can spend our entire lives doing all sorts of things while thinking that we are right with Him.
We have so many leaders and pastors preaching a perverted gospel these days due to the fact that everything is being performed in the flesh. The reason for this is that our intellect and common sense are all we have available to us. We have pastors by the dozen, just as we have hot bread.
I am a non-threatening individual. It has been told to me. As such people reveal their true selves to me as if I do not matter. I have heard so many different reasons why some people became pastors that it makes me cringe. Regardless of what reason they use, they always manage to make it sound as if it cannot be wrong since you continue to share the gospel. But the Holy Spirit revealed to me that what these individuals do not realize is that they are still outside of His will. He shared with me, a television evangelist out of His will is raking in millions every year by the bucket load. But, the Spirit of God said, He is using this person in spite of him/her. Because I wanted to get out from under His hands to get involved in a Church Planting ministry opportunity, He said, “Woe to you if I have to use you ‘in spite of you‘”
Thus, even though the television evangelist believes that his/her ministry is a gift from God. However, the Spirit told me there would be an account at judgment time. Since I had the opportunity to participate in the leadership of a church planting not too far from my location, He shared this with me. This is based upon the fact that I spent several days in the wilderness giving Him a hard time. I had the impression that my motives were noble. This was an abomination in God’s eyes since it was not His will for me although it appeared otherwise on the surface. As a result of that lesson, he taught me that the key is to ensure that we learn to wait and also communicate with Him. However, many Christians, due to the fact that we lack the ability to discern God as He expects, often play guessing games. They also play Russian Roulets and make lots of assumptions as a result of not hearing Him. Hearing God comes from a life of abandonment to Him and having the simplicity of a child when it comes to God.
The perverted gospel in our day and age is one that has managed to obliterate the essential part of what God calls “the good news”. One of the greatest lies we spread through Satan is that heaven is the prize. Therefore, both salvation and faith in Him are based on mental assent. All that confirms our true salvation and inheritance in Him is of little significance. Because God is not bound by time, we assume that just because He referred to us as the finished product, we are already there. The Holy Spirit we have been sealed with is responsible for applying salvation to us. Sadly, we have no use for Him since we got rid of things like divine repentance, holiness, fear of God, righteousness, a life in spirit, etc. Any true Christian would tell you that in a list of things God had in mind when He saved us, heaven was at the bottom of the list.
Even those God forsaken politicians have taken to it. As a strategy for gaining favor with evangelicals, they peddle hot-button issues using buzzwords in a manner similar to how the Church uses heaven to gain acceptance. Christ, however, is the true value of salvation.
We love it so much that we consume a form of Christianity without depth, a form of Christianity without moral or spiritual guidance. However, we are shocked every time our Church leaders are caught with their pants down, so much so that we cannot stop talking about it. The tendency is to attach ourselves to the fact that this person must be shunned but fail to realize that this is not what is wrong with the Church. Our entire understanding of Christ’s gospel must be reexamined.
While the word of God gives us at least two ways to distinguish false prophets, we are not used to them because our gospel is a Christianity without Christ. We cannot test the spirit when we do not possess Christ for ourselves. If we do not know what the fruit looks like, how can we recognize it? To solve the problem, we must have the spirit of God, which we lack.
Failing to make the proper assessment of what is truly going on with our gospel out there, we will never feel the need to bring ourselves to God to apply 2 Corinthians 6:17 in our lives. “Therefore, “Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”
GALATIANS 1 VERSE 10
Verse 10. “Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.”
We discover that as we come to know God more intimately, there is nothing out of place in the Bible, not even a coma. Years ago, I was still learning and growing spiritually. I used to listen to a pastor who had a radio show in which he explained the Bible verse-by-verse. Then he said something about being a child of God from Romans chapter 8. This pastor argued that one of the words in the Bible should not have been included because it suggests that more must be done. I interpreted that as my justification for telling God that He should let me go and that my life did not need to be any worse. Specifically, I told Him, “Let me out of the wilderness.”. In truth, for a period of time I felt miserable in the wilderness because I didn’t comprehend what God was doing, which meant that He was applying His salvation. It appears that He was trying to give me more than I am interested in. As it turned out, it was just the basics by His standards.
The Spirit of God took time to explain to me the importance of understanding that not everyone with status and a formal education knows Him that well. He took me to a deep lesson where I had to learn to make the distinction between good Christians who simply did not go as far as He would have wanted them to. Because of that, they make mistakes in their preaching and teaching and assume a lot of things. Then, He lovingly said to me, this pastor hardly experiences me. I knew He was not telling me this pastor was not saved. Through more time with Him, He showed me how my time in the wilderness with Him is not wasted. He further showed me how some of us who appeared to be nothing down here on earth, will actually bypass those leaders in heaven. Though those leaders, I learned to see and experience on a spiritual level what God means by being saved by the skin of your teeth.
The point I’m making in verse ten is this: If we do not grasp the implications of verse nine, how deep we must dig and how vital it is to understand the reality of this age, then verse 10 does not apply to us. As I grow spiritually, I realize that while Paul tells us that he was not living to please others, he did not get there on his own. Like everything God does, there is a process. In Christianity and all throughout the Bible we will find that everything that has been imputed must be imparted to us. It is the impartation part we hate because most of the time it is long and painful. As a consequence, before God can remove this part of us that seeks attention, seeks approval from others, and seeks to be loved and accepted, He must first make room to give us Himself. This is a deep work that must be done in our heart and soul. Once it is done, He cannot leave the place bare. If that is the case, Satan will move in and occupy the vacant space.
Apart from Him, we cannot get rid of that inward need that causes most of us to be like a vacuum seeking temporary attention. One more reason why God prepares those He calls. In contrast, nowadays most pastors and leaders are not willing to tell the truth from the pulpits. First, they know they will lose bodies, which means revenues. Then they don’t want to rock the boat, they don’t want people to not like them. But, Paul tells us in this verse that if we are pleasing men, we cannot be His servant.
Although I do not have a platform, I am not a leader, yet He told me the same thing too. He expects the same conduct from me too. He said, if He does not remove that need in us, He can’t use us because we will never be able to make things about Him.
Matt. 7:15-16. “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?”
I am going to stop there for today,
Talk to you later.