Acts 20:28-31 – So guard yourselves and God’s people. Feed and shepherd God’s flock—his church, purchased with his own blood—over which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as leaders. I know that false teachers, like vicious wolves, will come in among you after I leave, not sparing the flock. Even some men from your own group will rise up and distort the truth in order to draw a following. Watch out! Remember the three years I was with you—my constant watch and care over you night and day, and my many tears for you.

I have been happy to be a Charismatic/Pentecostal Christian for over the last 50 years. One of the obvious advantages that I have over many Christians is that I have pretty much seen it all over the years. There have been distinct seasons where voices would rise up from within the Christian community, often claiming to be Spirit filled or at least open to the things of the Spirit, and their entire agenda was to destroy any part of the Christian community that embraced the power of God moving in signs and wonders. There was a book called the Seduction of Christianity by Dave Hunt a number of years ago and its entire thrust was to undermine those that moved in the power of the Spirit. Then John MacArthur put out a similar book several years ago called Strange Fire. This book was also a direct attack on ministries moving in the power of the Spirit.

In our present world apparently podcasts have replaced a lot of the space books held for the last several hundred years. Here is where I want you to pay special, very close attention. Podcasters often present themselves in a misleading light. They will imply that they are not secessionists and are fact believe in the present day moving of the Spirit. Upon closer look there is no evidence that they have ever been in a move of the Spirit and any Spirit activity they have observed on video is quickly renounced as being fake. Here is the problem, many of these so called teachers are in serious doctrinal error criticizing or even mocking the things of the Spirit.

So here is the heart of the matter, what is the motive behind these podcasts. One is to undermine and hurt Spirit empowered ministries. The other motive is more obvious; likes, followers, influence and money.

Now all of this is often conducted in the name of having an open discussion. The best place for open discussion in my opinion would be conducted by a seasoned Christian with an audience of the lost. Open discussion is also good among peers but there is a place where open discussion turns from the pursuit of truth to pride, being able to out talk someone easily becomes the goal. There is also room for discussion in classroom settings but at some point there has to be a respect for the teachers and the pastors, in other words you are in a class hopefully because the teacher knows more than you. Paul talked about being teachable – being teachable is critical if you intend to be a man or woman of God. Jesus told us to go into all the world and make disciples, in order for that to happen we have to get beyond discussion into receiving God’s word into our hearts by receiving from men and women that the Lord has placed in our lives.