The Emperor Has No Clothes

A friend of mine was offered some miracle soap recently. Apparently it heals cancer, and only costs £59. They were not offered this at a late night infomercial or by some New Age quack. No – but at their local Pentecostal church, not in the middle of a foreign nation but right here in England.

Another friend of mine described their recent visit to a church as exhausting. The offering was almost three hours long, and if you gave over £1000 then the speaker promised you would receive a special anointing for breakthrough.

It just beggars belief that such manipulative, deceptive practices should still be in place to raise money. It just shows how far the church has fallen from the blueprint found in Scripture. The fivefold ministry is designed to equip the saints, not exploit the saints.

Now I am not against offerings, I am not against raising money, I am not against prosperity teaching or preaching – I believe that if you give, it shall be given to you pressed down, shaken together, running over. But there is a world of difference between raising money to minister, and ministering simply to raise money.

But the problem is worse than exploitative con-men in the pulpit peddling the gospel! The problem is the immaturity among many Christians that they give people like this so much authority in their lives! Because people fail to understand that Jesus has paid the full price for their salvation, their anointing, their freedom, their ministry, their financial freedom, they spend their live going to conference to conference looking for the magic pill that will solve their problems when they already have the power and love of God living inside them because of Jesus.

You do not need to give £1000 to receive an anointing. You already have an anointing inside you. Give £1000 not because of guilt or fear or desperation, give it out of love because you have chosen to. Spend time developing your own relationship with the Lord, so you can be led by the Spirit rather than driven by exploiters.