Well, that is what the book of Genesis says – it says Benjamin is a ravenous wolf. Jacob, the great patriarch is prophesying over his sons on his death bed and he prophesies over Benjamin that he would be a ravenous wolf.
The context is that Benjamin was given 5 times as much food as his brothers, and the Lord spoke this to me in a prophetic word when I was only 20 years old. The Lord told me that He was going to open up His Word to me and show me many things as long as my attitude was always that of a ravenous wolf to His Word. The prophecy was given to me by an old and trusted friend, who was the person who laid hands on me when I was baptized in the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues for the first time.
Many times when I have been tired of the battle, or haven’t felt like reading the Word, I have remembered that prophecy, and like Paul told Timothy to do, I have waged war with the prophecies that I have been given. I have confessed that I am a wolf towards the Word of God: hungry and ravenous for it, and that I feed on it ravenously. I then would pick up my Bible and start to read it, confess it, meditate on it and study it, picking every piece of meat up that I could get. Thinking about wolves for me has always been a positive experience based on a powerful prophetic word that has beat in my heart for many many years.
Imagine my surprise last month to be called a wolf in a negative way by a blogger who I thought was trying to have a debate on healing in the atonement.
I always thought that the point of a debate is to have a healthy discussion of what the Word of God teaches. It amazed me to see Christians put forth their ideas and opinions based on tradition, based on experience, based on what a certain preacher said and not based on the Word of God. I would try and bring the discussion back to what the Word of God teaches which is that Jesus Christ on the cross completely redeemed us from all sickness (Gal. 3.13, Deut. 28.15-68, Isaiah 53.4-5, 1 Peter 2.24), but people wanted to talk about all sorts of things other than the Word of God!
People are quite prepared to call you names, but not deal with the Word of God!
Eventually two of my posts were actually moderated and not put up in the debate. Then someone had posted a genuine question for me, which I wanted to answer, but I could not. But the person running the blog, well she left the question to me up on the blog, but never allowed me to reply, which to me made it look like I wasn’t answering a genuine question or could not answer the genuine question.
I send a post to the lady running the blog saying could she either politely explain publicly that she was moderating my posts and that is why no answer was appearing to the question, or could she at least remove the question and pass on my contact details to the person who asked if she did not feel that she wanted her debate on healing to continue.
Now this is where it gets interesting: she then, directly because I asked her to be honest in the way she moderated her blog – and bear in mind we are talking about someone who is supposed to be a Christian, sent me a post (which is public and I can direct you to it if you are interested!) in which she called me a heretic, a supporter of evil, a mocker and a total disgrace. She then closed her rant with the comment: You are a wolf Ben.
As I read the last 5 words of this rant, which clearly did not come from the Spirit of the living God, I was reminded again of something I haven’t really thought about for a while, probably not since moving to London and starting Tree of Life Church: Benjamin is a ravenous wolf.
Since that moment, I have had such a hunger for the Word of God like I have not had for years – and I have been a Word person for 11 years now, ever since the 1997 International Believer’s Convention in Birmingham, England.
You see people who argue for this, that and the other and don’t talk about the Word – I don’t hate people like that, I feel compassion for them. They have to fight feelings of shame, guilt, and rejection without the Word. They have to fight rejection without the Word. They have to fight sickness without the Word. They have to fight poverty without the Word.
When every wind of doctrine and heresy comes through the church, they cannot stand because they don’t know the Word. And I have committed to God what I committed to Him many, many years ago when He first called me to plant a church: Tree of Life Church will always be a Word based Church. Every doctrine we teach, every practise we indulge in will be based on one question: WHAT SCRIPTURE DO YOU HAVE FOR THAT.
Tree of Life Church is a word of God based, word-faith, charismatic cell-church. I promise I will never forget that. And if you listen to the Word as we preach it and blog it and podcast it, and however we get it out there, then your marriage will be restored, your body will be healed, you will get out of debt. Your life will be changed. You will be able to stand before God without fear of shame or fear of embarrassment.
Jesus is Lord!
Blessings,
Ben
Tree of Life Blog 