Glen Hartline

I received a call the other evening and on the other end of the line was someone I have been mentoring for just a couple weeks. They have been going through some very difficult battles and are trying to walk in the authority and power given to them through Jesus. This is a very new concept for them and they are looking for answers everywhere. They had been praying and decided to sit down and watch television. When they turned it on, a channel they never watch was on and they began watching an evangelist and wanted my opinion on what they were hearing. As I listened to the evangelist preaching about faith and favor, the Spirit of God rose up in me and I became extremely disgusted at what I was hearing and the condition of the body of Christ.

Now I understand that this evangelist was trying to raise money, and I have no problem with that. It’s not the raising of money, but how he was going about it. He was telling us that faith moves God, and that we can open the heavens over our lives and the lives of our family if we give a sacrificial gift in faith. That it was the gift that would cause the favor of God or His grace to flow. He then went on to give heartwarming accounts of how giving sacrificially unlocked a miracle in his life and then in lives of others. Then as if on cue the phones began ringing and people began giving.

First of all let me continue by saying this is a complete mockery of the sacrifice of Jesus. It is teachings like this that give an appearance of the gospel but are actually anti-Christ. Anything that diminishes what Jesus did by making you add to it is anti-Christ. God does not move based on our gifts or actions. God moved based on Jesus’ sacrifice alone and nothing else. It is not your faith that moves God, but you receive through faith what He has already freely given. It is no different than salvation. He doesn’t wait to save you when you receive Jesus as savior. He had already saved you, you just had to receive it by faith. His grace and favor was poured out through Jesus and He has already freely given us all things. We just have to receive it. As children of God we give because we love Him and we love others. We should give so that others will hear the gospel and give to those who feed us spiritually, not to get something but because we, like our father, are generous givers. We don’t need to sacrifice or plead to get God to open the heavens over us, because it’s not the sacrifice that makes things happen, it’s the faith in Jesus and the fact that we have the kingdom of God within us, we have the fullness of Jesus in us, why would we need anything else? Unless we as the body of Christ stop acting like babies and start developing our own relationship with our Father and allowing the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth, we will continue to allow people like this to play on our emotions and fleece us for everything we have. We MUST STOP giving to messages like this, because by doing so we are condoning it and encouraging these people to continue in their soulish manipulations. I don’t put the blame entirely on this evangelist, but on the rest of the body for allowing them to spoon feed us this sewage. They are only giving us what most of the body is crying for and paying for. It is time for the sons of God to say enough is enough and start being the body Jesus paid the price for us to become.