Introduction
Jesus spoke through Paul concerning the damnable heresies that would creep into the church as time went on. No doubt entire denominations fall into this category, as they rely on membership rather than relationship. This teaching is about a mindset creeping into evangelical, spirit-filled churches, with opinions and philosophies about the teaching of flowing in the supernatural that are anything but.
The teaching is roughly summarized like this:
1) Ask people what they have wrong with them before you pray for their healing.
2) Use breath mints.
3) Belittle ministries you don’t understand, specifically ministers that flow in signs and wonders.
Scripture correctly gives us these guidelines instead:
1) God already knows what is wrong with the person.
2) To eat with unwashed hands does not defile a person (don’t worry about your breath either).
3) God is going heal them anyway – maybe (depends on the minister’s private life).
4) God can figure it out for himself. Or does he need your verbal help?
5) The arm of Lord is not shortened, that he can’t give a Word of knowledge about a healing. 2 Cor 12:12.
The teaching of formula needs rebuke, correction and eradication from the Body, as it drives people away from not only obeying the letter but also the spirit of the Word; which is, that God wants a personal relationship with you, not a mechanical one as you minister to the lost. Formulas are just that. “We piped for you, yet you did not dance, Lord”. Well no kidding, you aren’t flowing in anything but your own ability to perceive an illness visually. Any medical robot can do that.
Formulas are a form of Godliness, but deny the power thereof (of Him, the Spirit).
They stunt God’s ability to get ALL the credit for bringing people to Christ.
Because the “minister” is relying on what he can see, and not on the Holy Spirit and the anointing, the inner voice which leads to words of knowledge, wisdom, special faith etc.
Here is why using formulas, or putting God in a box, is not scriptural:
John 5:39-41 – Search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life,
And they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye
might have life. I receive not honor from men. Neither shall the minister rely on what he can see.
Luke 9 – Take short trips, and the anointing will follow the preaching of the word.
Romans 8:14 – For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God
John 14:26: – But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name,
he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
John 16:13 – Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall he speak: and He will show you things to come
Matt 16:17 – And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jonah: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
Proverbs 3 – Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding; (or human ability)
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths.
Do not be wise in your own eyes;
Fear the LORD and depart from evil.
Luke 12:11-12- And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say: For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say (Do I wait until my life is on the line before I trust God what to say? – NO! See the next passage)
Hebrews 5:14 – But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
Acts 3 – Peter saw nothing, had nothing, but said “rise and walk”. No interview, no 30 minute prayer.
Matt 11:16-19 – But where unto shall I liken this generation? It is like unto children sitting in the markets, and calling unto their fellows, And saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented. For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a devil.
The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her children.
2 Cor 10:3-4 – For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds)
1 Kings 19:12 – And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. (Who are we trusting? Our eyes or God?)
Matt 12:7 – But if ye had known what this meaneth, I desire mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless. (Sacrifice = the ritual, the method, the cookie cutter list of steps to follow.)
Luke 13:20-21 – And again he said, Where unto shall I liken the kingdom of God?
It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened
(hidden for a reason? Perhaps to ASK GOD WHAT THE PERSON NEEDS prayer for?)
Galatians 4:29 – But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.
Col 3:2-3 – Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
Matt 15:6,9
Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.
But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men
Acts 14:9 – The same heard Paul speak: who stedfastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had faith to be healed
(How did Paul perceive? By asking a verbal question: What’s wrong with you? Not really.)
Gal 3:1-7 (Amp)
O YOU poor and silly and thoughtless and unreflecting and senseless Galatians! Who has fascinated or bewitched or cast a spell over you, unto whom–right before your very eyes–Jesus Christ (the Messiah) was openly and graphically set forth and portrayed as crucified?
Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the [Holy] Spirit as the result of obeying the Law and doing its works, or was it by hearing [the message of the Gospel] and believing [it]? [Was it from observing a law of rituals or from a message of faith?]
Are you so foolish and so senseless and so silly? Having begun [your new life spiritually] with the [Holy] Spirit, are you now reaching perfection [by dependence] on the flesh?
Have you suffered so many things and experienced so much all for nothing (to no purpose)–if it really is to no purpose and in vain?
Then does He Who supplies you with His marvelous [Holy] Spirit and works powerfully and miraculously among you do so on [the grounds of your doing] what the Law demands, or because of your believing in and adhering to and trusting in and relying on the message that you heard?
Thus Abraham believed in and adhered to and trusted in and relied on God, and it was reckoned and placed to his account and credited as righteousness (as conformity to the divine will in purpose, thought, and action).
Know and understand that it is [really] the people [who live] by faith who are [the true] sons of Abraham.
Finally:
John 3
The wind blows (breathes) where it wills; and though you hear its sound, yet you neither know where it comes from nor where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.
So who are you going to follow? The “minister” that tells you how to do it, or God, who tells you how to do it?