God's Irrevocable Gifts
Paul made this landmark statement:
For the gifts and the
calling of God are irrevocable (Rom 11:29).
He wrote this in the context of Israel’s
backslide from God. Although God is not trying to save Israel now, she
will be saved later (11:25,26). The calling and the gifts He had
bestowed on her will not have been wasted in the long run. This is
contrary to how things appear at the moment.
The way God works is often unfathomable
to the human mind! (Rom 11:33.)
The same principle holds true in the way
God works in the Church. If He ‘calls’, He doesn’t withdraw that call
upon your life. The call to repentance and obedience to Him is offered
to you continually from day one. He doesn’t withdraw it. He doesn’t
change His mind (Mal 3:6; Heb 13:8). He is utterly reliable.
He gives gifts to men (Eph 4:8). In that
context Paul means ministry gifts – people who are raised up by God to
serve the people of God, to (hopefully) train them and teach them in
righteousness and truth.
However, people can and do veer away from
the will and purposes of God. Evangelists get puffed up and carried away
by their own ideas and schemes. But because God has given all men free
moral agency, their transgression and diversion does not negate the call
of God upon their lives. He doesn’t remove them. They continue doing
their job, even though they are doing it wrongly. That’s when true
prophets turn false and when true ministers become false ministers.
Jesus warned you to beware of such (Matt 7:15-23).
It seems incongruous to the human mind
that God would leave impostors in place to cause such mayhem and deceive
gullible children, but He does. Only occasionally does He take them
away. He leaves the false where they are (Matt 13:28-30) until judgment
day. Why? One major reason is to test you.
Whom will you follow? Do you know that
many people choose to follow false ministers. They choose error
to truth because it is easier or more appealing. Your motives and
loyalties are tested in a way they could not be, if God had removed
every ‘falsie’ in town.
Equally inexplicable to the simple-minded
is why God would let miraculous powers remain in operation with an
evangelist who was given such giftings at the outset, but who has since
digressed from God’s ideal. But Romans 11:29 is the principle behind it.
Take just one case: evangelist Morris
Cerullo. He was called by God to evangelise, and he has done much. God
bestowed upon him measures of faith and power for the working of
miracles in his meetings. The power of God has drawn many millions to
hear about Jesus. But Morris has got puffed up by the acclaim it has
brought him, and carried away by it. Several dreams from God
reveal the insufficiency of what Morris teaches, such as this one I was
given:
27th July 2003. In this dream about
Morris Cerullo, I saw what he was doing and saying, and it
was so off-beam that I could only shake my head and sigh deeply!
Meaning:
Morris's theology and practice is so wayward, but he still
relentlessly pursues his evangelism thinking he is so important in
God's plan, as if he were the centre of what God is doing, which he
is not. He is proud, obdurate and very misguided.
Likewise, another dream given to Helena
also portrayed the effect upon the churches who think much of him:
21st August 2004. H
Morris Cerullo And
The Dead Churches
I saw some pews in
church. There were human figures sitting down, but they were
lifeless, as if chiselled out of wood. One of the faces had pig
features. I saw a man dressed in a long robe feeding someone from a
bottle of milk.
Meaning:
The churches spiritually are dead, like the pews. People are selfish
and self-orientated – hence the pig features. The man in a long
robe, feeding others from a milk bottle is US evangelist Morris
Cerullo. (This may shock many people who elevate this man as if he
were God.)
The Church has lost its way,
spiritually. She is not aware of what God is doing. Those who are
feeding church people are doing a human work, giving them milk rather
than the solid truth of the fulness of God's Word.
We should not be impressed by a man, even
if the power of God he wields is impressive. God is calling us to
holiness, not idolatry, and that call and His gifts are irrevocable. He
doesn’t withdraw them.
Ministers who have got proud because of
what God has done through them may say, “Look at the signs and wonders
God has done at my hands...” and they use that to justify themselves,
that there is nothing wrong with them or with their teaching. That is a
trap of complacency and a deception.
God does not save, heal and deliver
people because of your (their) righteousness or ‘flawlessness’, but
because of his mercy and grace. So don’t be enamoured by
mega-evangelists, who have reached millions. The size of their operation
is not proof that they have got all their theology right.
One day God said to me, “A preacher’s
success is not rated by the number of people he reaches, but by the
depth of repentance he teaches,” contrary to the fallacy which most
believe. God is more interested in quality, not quantity. Fruits are not
measured in physical terms, but spiritual.
God is waiting for deeper repentance and
change.
Malcolm B Heap
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