And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not: for he that is not against us is for us.

I take the business of finding a church to worship in very seriously. It’s like home shopping, you look for a place you can relax and rejuvenate yourself in. The ideal church for me will have members that are following the Lord and walk in the love of Jesus. The pastor will love the flock and most important, they are teaching the word of God.
The Church I choose will be where I get fellowship, teaching, correction and if the Lord sees fit, I’ll serve in his ministry there.
So, picking a Church for me is a serious thing that I do carefully.

The first Church I attended in my search for a Church home taught a watered down doctrine. The worship was really loud, like a concert… It was not for me.
The second was a bible study. Very little word was taught. I don’t say these things lightly because I know I will have to give an account for my words to God. There was a woman there who was leading worship, and it seemed to me she was trying to bring about a move of the Holy Spirit in a fleshly way… meaning she was trying to bring the move of the Holy Spirit with her flesh, by proclamation that the Holy Spirit wanted to move and confirming his moving through people and wanting to do works in people…. I’m simplifying a bit. While this woman was teaching, she kept staring at me when she would say that we needed to be delivered from a religious spirit. She even said that a religious spirit is one who does things to work their way to salvation like attend church, pray and read their bible, but they’re legalistic and don’t have a relationship with Jesus. I tried to ignore that she was making eye contact with me and just listen and enjoy the message. I was uncomfortable and, I had that “watch” check in my spirit. We stood up to pray, and she came over to me and proclaimed through a word of knowledge that God wanted to deliver me from my religious spirit and unforgiveness. Now at first I was going to allow her to say her quick prayer and move on, but my spirit man was not having it. This word of knowledge was false, I don’t have a religious spirit or unforgiveness, in fact I had already been in battle to free myself of both and got the victory over it. My walk with God, especially recently, had been a sweet personal relationship with Jesus with a focus on walking in love and forgiveness. It’s truly a tender time, and because of this time I am healed enough to seek out a church body to join with for worship and service. So here is this woman trying to pray deliverance for something that I have victory over and my spirit man rose up within me and said simply, “You got it wrong” …. she tried again, and again I told her, “You got it wrong.” She said that she was human and got things wrong from time to time. I said, yes, we all do and it’s ok. Shortly after that, she packed up and left. I sought council from 3 people and asked them if I had a religious spirit or was unforgiving. I shared the experience I had with them, without names…besides, these people didn’t know the people I was talking about. They felt I was correct. I still searched my spirit for both of these things… because I want to make sure there was no root of either in me.
The next Church I attended had this wonderful congregation of loving Christians who bent over backwards to welcome me to the service. They were sincere and just being in their mist was refreshing. The worship was good…. I had that new person shyness, but still managed to be touched and reach out to God in the worship service. This church did things differently than any other that I remember going too. Instead of a single pastor, they had a bunch of teachers. It does spark my interest… because I thought this is more like the church in the book of Acts. There were a couple of things that were said from the pulpit by the teachers that caused me to hit the brakes, though. One was that the person speaking said we were equal to God…. and the other was that Jesus had to learn obedience. Both of these caused my spirit to draw back in caution. I do not feel we are equal to God because we received Jesus as our savior…. and I believe that Jesus was perfect and sinless in every single way…. and was obedient his entire life…. full stop. Now this obedience was tested…like in the wilderness after the fast of 40 days for example… and when he was baptized by John the Baptist…. Jesus was our example, so he acted in obedience to lead us.
I decided to check the word for anything that would lead a person to make a claim like they were equal to God. I am a FIRM believer that the word of God is clear, so clear that even a child could understand it. Because I believe this and because such a statement like saved mankind being equal to God would be a huge deal…there should be several places in the word where this doctrine is taught…. that would be a major doctrine… and it would be thoroughly covered and expanded upon if it were in fact true. I searched and came up empty…. leading me to confirm… that the verses used to claim such are used in error. I also have strong feelings about doctrines like this because they are often in the core of the doctrine of churches who believe this, I will have to pass on this Church being my new home church. Truthfully, though, the Lord had already told me as much even before I got there and heard a single word. I can’t override what the Lord has shown me because the fellowship is so wonderful.
But something else happened as a result of looking for the doctrinal foundation for their beliefs…. I came across a website by a woman’s fellowship that names one of the main pastors I do listen too. There are even testimonies from people who have departed the ministry. This woman’s page also listed people who have won MILLIONS to the Lord… like Billy Graham. It occurs to me that since she is in a religion that does not believe in the Baptism of the Holy Spirit or the spiritual gifts, she is going to be against teachers who are in the same way that John MacArthur is. What this website revealed to me was, I had broken one of my rules and not looked into the foundational beliefs of the ministry she mentioned… my heart and spirit doesn’t feel they are in error, but I never checked and now because it is shown to me, I need too so I can learn in confidence. A little leaven , leavens the whole lump…. so there is where I’m at with things.

This morning my prayer was about all of this… in my head it feels confusing and hard to bear. Jesus made his word so easy to understand, and he gave us the Holy Spirit to lead us. Yet I still get it wrong sometimes. As of late, God is showing me how the errors occur. These come through compromise… through being led by man’s wisdom and not Gods…. by trying to fit the word to our lives and not our lives to the word. It’s by seeking the counsel of men over the counsel of God. AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, it’s by not have the deep roots of the word inside of us….comparing scripture with scripture. We also need to steer clear of the idea that there is some hidden pocket of wisdom in the word that only the elite Christian will find, as if God reserves deeper meaning for some and hides it from others. All the word is open for all the people, we just need to search the word for ourselves. So, any doctrine that a church teaches that isn’t plainly taught in the word, is in error. For example, the doctrine this teacher brought forth about man being equal to God…. and the pretribulation Rapture. God did not vaguely teach anything…. or teach things that can only be arrived at by linking this with that and that to conclude anything…. that is not what comparing scripture with scripture means. When you take a verse like the one “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,-1 Thessalonians 5:9” and line it up with “⁵² in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.-1 Corinthians 15:52″ and then make a determination in your own mind that the 7 years tribulation is all God’s wrath to conclude there is a rapture, you are not being a good Berean… you are mishandling the word to sooth your fear instead of pressing into the faith and valuing truth above comfort. The 7 years is not all wrath, it is the tribulation, meaning trial of your faith… if God is trying the faith of the saints, you will be at the trial.
What comparing scripture with scripture does look like is lining up the events spoken of in Matthew 24 with the events spoken of in Daniel and Revelation and confirming that these are speaking of the same thing… and it also means that you see the lesson that is taught in one book being taught a second time in another book….and comparing both text to get a clearer picture of the lesson. It is NEVER removing verses from one text and comparing it to another text to give it an unintended meaning with the idea that it was a hidden gem you found.
Your relationship with God will be as honest as your study in the word.

Luke 9:50 And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not: for he that is not against us is for us.
This is the heading because while I have said some things about others here in my search, I want to be clear, I know that these folks are my beautiful and beloved siblings in Jesus and I love every single one of them. I would seek council from many of them…I’d have them pray for me and with me… I’d hang out with them and exchange verses and testimony… real fellowship…. and I believe we will share heaven and know one another for eternity. What I have said was not a proclamation or judgment on them in any way. Now the women’s minister that put up that site making these disparaging proclamation about other ministers is standing in judgment. We aren’t really called to pass judgment… there is an air of arrogance to her page that strikes me as one not walking in love. Here is the thing… if any person she is putting out there as being in error and fallen away from truth is in fact a bible believing Christians with more insight than her, she is the one in danger of judgment. We have to know that before we appoint ourselves as judge and jury over the ministry of others. That isn’t to say we shouldn’t confront false teachers… we should, but we need to be completely sure we are correct…. and we should never pass judgment on anyone’s ministy. The difference in what I’ve done in making determinations about the churches I visited was that I did not damn anyone to hell over a belief I don’t agree with…. I’ve been wrong about things before and realize I have no authority what-so-ever to pass judgment on anyone elses servant…and ministers are God’s servants, it’s his job to judge them… it is he who gives rewards and punishments, not me. I also know what that little lady who in error laid hands on me stated… “I’m human, I get it wrong sometimes.” Yes, she is correct… we all do, but God’s grace is sufficient for us… his strength is made perfect in weakness. We must walk in wisdom and GRACE towards one another…considering ourselves and the grace we would want if we were found in error.
Matthew 7:3-5 ³ And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?⁴ Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?⁵ Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.