An LCG source sent me a link to an article on Frank Viola's Beyond Evangelical blog, The Danger of God's Power.
Where Power Is Safe
God never gives His power to you or me to wield as individuals. He gives His power to the bride of Christ, the ekklesia.
Whenever I see men wielding God’s power as isolated individuals, I immediately see imminent destruction. The power of God on an individual will destroy him. It’s safe only when that person remains properly connected to other members of the body.
In every case I can think of when an individual abused God’s power, that person was disconnected from the body of Christ. Yes, they may have attended church services. In fact, they may have even regularly preached in them.
But that’s not the same as having a living experience of the body of Christ, where close-knit relationships are forged and members temper one another.
I’m also impressed that Jesus didn’t try to gain fame through His signs and wonders. Have you ever noticed that the Lord never made a production out of healing the sick?
When Jesus performed a healing, He virtually always told that person not to tell anyone.[iii] We see a certain modesty in Christ whenever He exercised His power.
God’s power is available to accomplish His will, but it’s so easy to corrupt, pervert, and make cheap and common.
But wait, it gets even worse.
Malignant Narcissism
Spiritual power causes some people, perhaps many, to believe they can handle everything on their own. These befuddled souls are marked by titanic arrogance mixed with paranoia. They are erratic narcissists and serial liars who have an unwarranted confidence in their own sagacity.
They are rude, crude, insensitive, judgmental, and as crooked as a dog’s hind leg.
They are also prone to violate Proverbs 27:2, regularly lathering themselves up with praise.
In some twisted way, they believe they have a right to such self-indulgence because they carry God’s anointing.
The same thing happens when individuals acquire political power. Many of them turn into insufferable human beings. Privilege has a toxic influence on most humans.
How ironic that those gifted with God’s power slip into the same temptations. Unfortunately, malignant narcissism abounds in both the political and religious worlds.
But a major fall awaits such people. They will move from a powerful place to a place of deep weakness. This is God’s generous grace, because power is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9), and only the weak and poor in spirit can heal the broken and needy.
It was said of Jesus that He would not break a bruised reed nor snuff out a smoldering wick (Matthew 12:20). In the ancient world, smoldering wicks signaled that they should be extinguished and replaced with new ones.
Bruised reeds couldn’t measure accurately, so they too had to be discarded and replaced.
Strikingly, Jesus didn’t discard or replace the damaged, the weak, and the broken.
He healed them.
As the One gentle and lowly in heart (Matthew 11:29), our Lord consistently helped the least, the lost, and the lowest.
By contrast, those who take God’s power for granted not only discard the broken; they run over them.
With weakness comes the power to heal the weak. Without weakness, God’s power becomes a dangerous thing. So be careful.
Read the complete article here: The Danger of God’s Power by Frank Viola
14 comments:
Amen!
All four of these men do absolutely NOTHING to heal people. All they do is seek to control and damage members' lives. The story is always about them, foremost. All we ever hear is the continual greatness and double blessings but nothing about Jesus.
UCG is filled with narcissistic people especially the high ranking ministers.
In my experience Pack & Flurry are the worst.
Cue Santana with the Tower of Power horns! Time for you four narcissists to all get down!
"God never gives His power to you or me to wield as individuals......... Whenever I see men wielding God’s power as isolated individual".........
++++++++++++++++
The waving of the arms. See me! See me! But I just can't come to grips with the article. Too discombobulated. Seems to be a contradiction. But I just thought this: wouldn't the term discombobulated apply to Bob?
Anon 3:37 in my experience UCG are the worst ones.
Why do the craziest men in the COG love to flounce their arms
UCG has the most toxic influence since it has the most members.
UCG needs to become more got for the truth.
All these one liner attacks on UCG on this blog. Which direction is it coming from? I doubt it's the UCG membership. Has weird apostacy been knocked back ? one wonders.
Personally, I wish all of the Armstromg cults would go out of business, 6:37 and 8:16! Do you have any information about UCG that we do not know that you could share to help make that happen, or are you just typing your little drive by blurbs to tease or annoy? How about some real contributions?
"God never gives His power to you or me..."
You and I, and anyone else with the Holy Spirit who are changing their lives to become more like Christ, ARE the ekklesia! The Christian's body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, which makes you the priest in charge of your own temple. There is NO man, group of men, or organization between you and our High Priest!
Frank Viola wrote:
"...I’m also impressed that Jesus didn’t try to gain fame through His signs and wonders. Have you ever noticed that the Lord never made a production out of healing the sick?
When Jesus performed a healing, He virtually always told that person not to tell anyone.[iii] We see a certain modesty in Christ whenever He exercised His power.
God’s power is available to accomplish His will, but it’s so easy to corrupt, pervert, and make cheap and common..."
******
Jesus Christ would have been aware of the following: "...This [is] the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts."
I doubt that God would allow His power, might or Spirit to become "...easy to corrupt, pervert, and make cheap and common," but why be impressed that Jesus didn't seek fame and often told people to not mention the works accomplished through Him; He pointed people to His Father.
For example: Jesus expressed the following thought:
"Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself..." John 5:19
If that is true, then how could Jesus seek fame and/or take credit for anything? Again,
"I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me." John 5:30
"Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am [he], and [that] I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things." John 8:28
Jesus elsewhere admitted His Father did the works in Him (). Was Jesus Christ a perfect Pawn of the Father? Now, a Doug Winnail, former WCG hirelings, take lots of credit to Self, kind of like being full of self-righteousness, and give very little credit to Jesus Christ or His Father. It appears they may be driven by another spirit to preach another Jesus and another gospel, while they continue to look for their Mickey Mouse Millennium, thinking their Jesus will very soon return to reign on earth with a bunch of "little helpers."
Many works were done through Jesus Christ, and great multitudes knew it:
Matthew 15:30 "And great multitudes came unto him, having with them [those that were] lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus’ feet; and he healed them:"
And to whom did the great multitudes give glory, honor and credit to? Was it Jesus Christ, or may them multitudes have known something the former WCG hirelings still do not admit?
:31 "Insomuch that the multitude wondered, when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see: and they glorified the God of Israel."
They did not give any credit to Jesus Christ, and rightly so.
When will the former WCG hirelings give God the Father (Acts 3:13) the glory only He deserves, and stop taking it to SELF, and stop burdening people to think they can magically repent/change and magically make themselves like Jesus Christ?
Time will tell...
John
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