Why are you using a demon in your congregation? CONTROL IS A DEMON, not your friend. Christians, going through deliverance/counseling one time in your life doesn't necessarily mean you're good to go forever. Let's get well so we are not toxic and chasing everyone away from us.
- Telling your members that they are not allowed to talk to people who switch memberships to another church or quit going to your church is CONTROL.
- Making fun of people from the pulpit who are privately eating healthy to try to get them to come down to your level so you don't feel bad about your habits is CONTROL.
- Telling your congregation not to listen to The Lord when He talks to them but only to obey you is CONTROL.
- Pastors regularly telling your members that you don't like their hair style is CONTROL.
- Telling your members that you don't want them praying for anyone without your permission is CONTROL, and we have no record of Jesus doing such, as a matter of fact, He rebuked his disciples for trying to stop someone who was casting out demons in His name. (Mark 9:38-40)
- Locking your doors to keep people in the sanctuary until the tithes/offerings are enough for your satisfaction is CONTROL.
- Telling your congregation that if they want a position in your church, they have to start in the nursery is CONTROL. Not everyone should be in the nursery, only people who are called there. That is not the least position but it's actually one of the most important. Read what Jesus said about children.
- Scanning everyone in your congregation's facebook page to make sure they don't say anything that you disapprove of is CONTROL.
- Telling people who they have to marry is CONTROL.
- Telling people that they have to hug or shake hands is CONTROL. (One church even went so far as to tell people in their church that they couldn't hug anyone of the opposite sex because they didn't want any perversion issues going on. I guess they didn't take into consideration the huge amount of homosexual activity going on these days. And, daughters, forget getting hugs from Daddy at church. shakingmyblessedhead. ;D)
I have either witnessed these or have heard of these happening locally. I am learning a lot about CONTROL as The Lord has been setting me free from it and the people who have been using this spirit on me. It needs to be addressed. We need to learn to have self-control and let The Lord show us how to deal with other people. We need to learn how to be led by The Lord so that we can stop giving in to "fleshly" people trying to take over our lives.
Prayer: Lord, please open our eyes to any spirit of CONTROL that we are feeding by using it on others or allowing others to use it on us and our families. Please give us wisdom to deal with this spirit and power over it to defeat it in our lives and our generational lines.
Good reading material on the spirit of Control is in the book Restoring the Foundations by the Kilstras. http://www.restoringthefoundations.org
That sounds awful. I would quickly walk away from any church like that.
That's great!! And this is just a small sampling!
I was talking to my husband this morning about this post. The thing is some of these places we were members of and were confident that The Lord wanted us there at the time. We were disappointed of the stuff that went on and weren't into inviting people to go to church with us when we realized how much nutso stuff was going on. We would discuss these crazy things and say, "Well, we know what not to do." We took these things as lessons because we learned lots of things from them. I told my husband that if we hadn't of experienced these things, we wouldn't have probably spoke out about them so much but now we are serious about helping people see that Jesus didn't obey people when they tried to get Him to reject His Father's will. Lots of these pastors tell people who question them that they are disobedient to The Lord's established authority and that they are unteachable. My husband made the good point that The Lord showed us what His church wasn't more before He has been showing us what His church truly is and should be. Kind of like how bankers learn to recognize the counterfeit bills before handling money on the job. The Lord is so smart!! One thing is for sure, I got lots of practice using my gift of discerning of spirits. :D
God is always true, but people should always be listened to with caution. They will take God's word and twist it to benefit them. We would be wise to question everything people, even pastors, say to us. Only the Bible is truth.
I am so glad He's smarter than us! 😊