This week I’m attending a ministers conference in Louisiana. Given the conference’s schedule, I won’t have time to continue the Jesus Descent posts this week, but I thought that I could give you some sound bites from the conference.
“God didn’t act as a seeker in the book of Acts. Instead, His demonstrations caused others to become seekers.”
“Wealth is not going to change the world. His Spirit will change the world.” (This is speaking of the popular doctrine that people will seek out the Lord based upon the wealth of Christians.)
“If I die a rich man, I have been a traitor to the cause.” Penciled in on the first page of Lester Sumrall’s Bible.
“If Paul were alive today, most ministers would consider him to be a failure.” (Speaking in the context of church attendance and ministerial credentials)
“Today it is hard to find strong local churches that are Full Gospel.”
“The Church didn’t start out as confrontational only to finish out without a backbone.”
“The apostles weren’t libraries of scripture at the time of the book of Acts.”
“‘How to’ books do not give you the mind of God.” (I especially liked that one.)
This is the first day of the conference and the speakers all seem to be saying that the day of the megachurch with its coffee and thirty-minute sermonettes may be coming to a close, at least as far as the move of God is concerned. One of the speakers made a point of Acts 9:31 in that the Early Church’s growth was founded on the fear of the Lord and the “comfort” of the Holy Ghost, two things that megachurches appear to abhor.
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Thanks for posting those quotes, Peter. I especially liked this one:
“Wealth is not going to change the world. His Spirit will change the world.” (This is speaking of the popular doctrine that people will seek out the Lord based upon the wealth of Christians.)
For years, a whole sect of Spirit-filled people have been seeking to accumulate material things under the premise that their “stuff” will attract unbelievers to Jesus - a teaching rooted in OT theology and supported with OT scriptures. No where in Acts is there an account of people coming to God because they saw that the apostles had great wealth - it was the power of God in operation that drew people. Paul said it is the goodness of God that draws men to make a life change, and His goodness is demonstrated as His love is made known and His power manifests.
For the record, I believe the Bible is quite clear: God wants His kids fully-supplied (Paul says “an abundance for every good work).
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Suzie, thanks for the comment.
The rest of the quote went something like this: “Stuff won’t bring people into the kingdom. You know what it will bring? Hate. They will hate you for having the stuff.”
I believe that Kenyon nailed the point in one of his books. In the Old Testament, God materially blessed the people because it showed His blessing to others and the Old Testament saints weren’t born-again. In the New Testament, He promised to provide for our needs, i.e., “abundance for every good work,” so what more are we to ask for?
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