Trust
"And now, Sovereign Lord, you are God; you always keep your promises, and you have made this wonderful promise to me” (2 Samuel 7:28 GNT).
Trust is based on reliability and truthfulness. It is of course a very difficult thing to trust certain people, and rightfully so. In my understanding, we use trust to be secure of something. In the Bible trust was always one of the key elements that governed relations among people. Let us have a look how the people established trust among one other.
Important Notice!
As a ministry, and in order to clear confusion, we have responded in part to Pastor Christine’s ‘False Prophets’ article - see last section of this article. We have done so to preserve the truth we are sent to proclaim to you. As you may have noticed, we examined the “baptizing holy fire” teachings and we did so in sharp comparison with the Scriptures (Acts 17:11). We have noted the doubt and confusion that Pastor Christine is trying to sow in her “False prophets” article and we have collated a response based on Scripture. Also, it must be told: we are not driven by any wicked motives, but by a conscience and conviction from the Holy Spirit to correct and rebuke error in the Body of Christ. We owe our allegiance to the TRUTH (God’s Word), and we are called upon to defend it (Philippians 1:7; 2 Corinthians 10:5). Our motive therefore is love for God and His truth.
How Trust Was Established in the Bible
Abimelech sought security when he approached Abraham and said he should swear to him that he would not deal falsely with him. As it is, in order to enforce their treaty, Abraham gave Abimelech sheep and cattle to serve as a witness that this was an establishment of trust (Genesis 21:22:32).
Furthermore, when Abraham needed something done the correct way, he did not rely on a person’s word only, but he made them fulfill their words and promise through an oath (Genesis 24:1-9). Likewise, Jacob since he could not trust his brother Esau, he made him swear an oath to him when he sold his birth right (Genesis 25:29-34). In addition, Laban made a covenant of trust and peace with Jacob in Gilead so that each one of them should fulfill their respective promises (Genesis 31:44-55).
The above Scripture, and many such examples, point us to the fact trust must be followed by respect for God and one another. This warrior of faith, Jacob, and in his zeal for God made promises to God in a vow to serve the Lord all his life and to be faithful (Genesis 28:16-22). This was common practice in the Old Testament for people to give some collateral to fulfill their words (Genesis 38:16-20).
In most relationship between people, like some of the above examples, we always seek ways to trust so that we feel secure about a decision we made. While it might not be practical to employ the methods used in the Bible, we can, however, learn that trusting in man is futile (Jeremiah 17:5).
How Can We Trust Others?
Often, we develop trust on others based on things they say and promise. We also trust when we learn from our past experiences with a particular person. It is easy to trust people close to us, because justice is easily attainable. But those not known in our immediate circle are hard to trust and rightly so because we know nothing or little about them.
Let me relate an incident I had in 1990. A few months before I gave my life to the Lord I went to a night club with a friend and his girlfriend. He and his girlfriend had a quarrel and she left saying she would be back soon. After waiting for a long time, he decided to go look for her while I had to wait and watch over our things. Due to the long wait, and having no money left to buy any drinks, I decided to go look for them, and not knowing where to start I went outside the night club looking. When I couldn't find them, I tried going back in but they restricted me because I had gained entry the first time when it was still free before a certain hour.
After I failed to gain entry back into the club, I decided to go home, but this plan was interrupted by a man who was standing outside the night club. He invited me upstairs to his apartment with the promise of giving me something. I obliged and went with him. Little did I know he had wicked plans! The man grabbed me violently by my neck and started choking me. He had such a firm grip on my neck that I could not scream for help. I was powerless to loosen his grip on me, and I felt that I was losing consciousness. As an only option, I yelled with all I had: “Lord Jesus, help me!” This is the soul truth my brethren – the man released me almost immediately. Upon my release from his firm grasp, I ran home without looking back. This was my folly for trusting a stranger who uses bait as a promise in order to kill me for a motive that I still don’t know.
In another incident, I once ministered to a young man who was living in the streets. He often asked me for money whenever he saw me passing. One particular Sunday I decided to go to him and invite him over to my apartment. He reluctantly accepted my invitation and accompanied me home because he trusted me being a Christian as I previously witnessed to him. In a nutshell, we prayed together after I ministered to his physical needs. I accompanied him back to his ‘place’, his little space in the street. I promised to speak to my boss for him for a temporary employment. Within a week my boss was happy to offer him a temporary job and based on his performance he would get a full time contract. The young man accepted the Lord and walked faithfully in his faith. I introduced him to brothers who willingly took him in.
Meanwhile, he told others (our colleagues) how he made more money selling drugs than the job I got him. I called him one day and rebuked him gently reminding him how the Lord has delivered him from his past life. As it is, about a month later he stole quite a substantial amount of money from the gentleman who invited him to stay with them, and that same day he came to my apartment while I was at work and ransacked it, stealing quite a few valuable items. The young man was back to his drug habits. My motive was to educate him in the Word of God, but he later became greedy and he longed for his old ways. A few months afterwards I met him again in the streets; he had no place to stay. I felt pity for him and I wanted to help him again, but I did not trust him. Normally, such situations lead us to mistrust all people, and this leads us to judge all people alike. This is wrong; we are admonished in Scripture not to judge things before the time (1 Corinthians 4:5).
Apart from the above incidents, I suffered a great deal of loss due to trusting people, who took advantage of my “soft nature”. They know they could be easily forgiven and get away with wrong without retribution. This is exactly how the devil preys on Christians. Before we put our faith in people, we must first inquire about them like Ananias (Acts 9:13-14). This is to establish trust in their message or truthfulness. This is no easy task, but I have learned that if one is firmly rooted in faith and prays to the Lord, He will warn us of possible threats.
In conclusion, a sister in the Lord and a dear member of this ministry has a lot of male friends on some social networking site. Her motive is to use their friendship to minister the gospel to them; they on the other hand agree with her message, but unfortunately their motives are driven by lust. The Lord gave her a warning in a message this morning saying that she must "watch out for wicked people". Again, how many young ladies and young men are conned by deceitful people who use their inexperience and innocence and lead them to wicked things? The bottom line is this: don’t just trust people you don’t know. I might not be known to you, but at least I have proven myself to you by faithfully and consistently updating the messages the Lord gives on this website. You have a history about us and our message is consistent with the Bible.
Finally, I have seen many marriages ending in bitterness and hatred, because the romantic soap operas teach that people should follow their hearts. This is love built on wrong motive and lust. Trust, however is built over time and that love always trusts (1 Corinthians 13:7). It is based on purity and has no hidden agenda. Our absolute trust should always be in the Lord. We trust in His Holy character to deliver on His promises (Psalm 118:8). Some might say it is hard to trust in God because we cannot see Him; yes you can trust Him. Abraham only heard God speaking and He trusted in Him (Romans 4:3). We have an overwhelming body of truth in the Bible with reliable testimony from those who believed before us. Thus the evidence of their fruitful conduct is testimony that God is TRUE and He alone can be trusted. As for our trust in man, we must test them (1 John 4:1; 1 Thessalonians 5:21; 1 Timothy 3:10). Indeed, the Scriptures call upon us to have pure motives (Ephesians 6:5-8), and this in turn builds trust. Let us therefore love and add trust to establish peaceful relations with others.
Response to Pastor Christine
After we wrote the article "Blazing Holy Fire" Teachings and the Sabbath Question”, Pastor Christine wrote a message about discerning false prophets, and in this message she made some troubling comments.
1: Prediction about the Lord’s second coming:
We don’t know who Pastor Christine was alluding to. But to clear any misunderstandings, let me reiterate that as a ministry, we do not endorse date-setting pertaining to the Lord’s second coming, for the Word of God clearly states that no one knows the day or the hour (Matthew 24:36). The Lord has been gracious to show us visions of the rapture; however, we have not explicitly stated that He will return on such and such a date. In the article “Please Evangelize” we ended with a section called “When will the Lord come?” and alluding to a vision that Charis was shown celebrating her 12th birthday and the rapture happened we clearly stated with a disclaimer that:
"We surely don't know, we asked Him directly since we are allowed to ask questions, but He did not answer this question. We certainly don't want to get involved in date-setting, however we expect the Lord any day, I say so because when we asked Him something that involves an extended time span, He gives no answer. Did He show Charis the Rapture? Yes He did last year April. I send some people her RAPTURE Vision and we surely do not interpret the vision to mean it will be on her 12th birthday as she saw in the vision it could mean the 12th hour as well."
Pastor Christine also posted the same article on her website with this disclaimer, as shown by the screen capture below from her website at the time:
Below is a screenshot of the email communication I had with Pastor Christine about adding the above disclaimer:
Pastor Christine said “The ministry that teaches about people is not the ministry of Jesus. Read the 4 Gospels, there is not a single place where Jesus called names and then preached against them.”
We do not preach about a specific person, but we do boldly warn God’s children against false teachers and their false doctrines. That God is a good God, full of love and compassion and out of His goodness, He corrects wrong destructive behavior and sin as a good father does his children(Hebrews 12:5-11; Proverbs 3:12). In the Old Testament, the Lord rebuked people by name (Kings, nations, and prophets) so they could repent, return to Him, and be saved. The prophet Jeremiah rebuked the prophet Hananiah for falsely prophesying (Jeremiah 28:12-17). The Lord rebuked Paul and caused him to be blind for a few days (Acts 9:1-9). Also, Paul rebuked many people by name. He rebuked a false prophet Elymas. The hand of the Lord was against Elymas and he went blind for some time (Acts 13:4-12). He rebuked the apostle Peter in front of everyone (Galatians 2:11-19). Peter rebuked Simon the Sorcerer (Acts 8:18-25). Remember Ananias and Sapphira? They lied to the Holy Spirit and they were not only rebuked publicly but put to death and others took warning (Acts 5:1-11). We are commanded to rebuke elders who are sinning publicly so others may take warning (1 Timothy 5:20).
3: They [false prophets] preach against the fire ministry:
This is a not a Biblical way to discern if a person is a false prophet; Nowhere in the Bible has a special ministry been given to impart holy fire. We know and support the five-fold ministry (Ephesians 4:11), the 9 gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:1-11) and the other smaller but equally important gifts (Romans 12:6-8). There is no such ministry in the Bible to go about imparting holy fire when the Bible says we will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon us (Acts 1:8). Why do we still need holy fire if that power has been imparted in the first place and that power is to preach the gospel, not to exert ‘power’ over demons. Angels fight demons, while we overcome them through our faith and obedience to the Lord (Daniel 10:20-21; Revelation 20:1-3).
4. They [false prophets] teach against the gifts of the Holy Spirit:
As we have shared in the Blazing Holy Fire Teachings and the Sabbath Question article, Holy Fire, Holy Poisonous Thorns, Holy Electricity, are not gifts of the Holy Spirit per God’s Holy Word. The weapons of shouting Jesus' Blood, and shouting out the armor of God (instead of “putting on”) is unbiblical and does not work.
We gave a firsthand account of some of the false blazing holy fire ‘gifts’. The ‘gifts’ we mentioned are not in the Bible and the Bible warns us not to add or take away from God’s word (Deuteronomy 4:2; Deuteronomy 12:32; Proverbs 30:6, Revelation 22:18-19). The Bible is true, pure, and flawless (Psalms 119: 160; Psalm 12:6; Proverbs 30:5-6).
5. Pastor Christine asked: "How can someone who has not been to heaven teach you about it?" Pastor Christine boasts about her heaven and hell experiences, but nowhere in the Bible is it written that going to heaven is a prerequisite in order to teach about it. Sister Christine’s assertion that one needs to have been to heaven to teach about it is faulty and unbiblical. The Bible truth and the power of the Holy Spirit is sufficient enough in order to preach about heaven (Acts 1:8; 2 Timothy 4:2).
Pastor Christine received unbiblical impartations of “fire” and “gifts” from dead saints in “heaven”; what kind of heaven is this that violates the Word of God? Nowhere in the Bible was it permitted for us to receive gifts or oracles from God from the dead; this is demonic (Deuteronomy 18:11; Ecclesiastes 9:5-6; Isaiah 38:18-19). Therefore even the authenticity of Pastor Christine’s heaven and hell experiences is questionable per the Bible’s teaching.
6. Pastor Christine said: 'be careful when you read an article or hear a teaching that tells you “This pastor and that pastor and that one… are going to hell!”'
The Lord Judged Judas' destiny (Matthew 26:24). In the Seven (7) Woe's, the Lord judged the teachers of the Law and Pharisees as children of hell, hypocrites, blind fools, blind men, and blind guides among other things (Matthew 23:13-39). Furthermore, Jesus told some Jewish people who were unable to understand what He was saying "You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me!Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God” (John 8:44-47). On that note, the Lord does not delight in the death of the wicked and He warns us that we may repent, return to Him, and be saved (Ezekiel 18:23). The Lord rather delights in showing us mercy and compassion in forgiving our sin (Micah 7:18-19).
With Blessed Truth,
Brother Glenn.
PS: We have added a new , prophetic vision warning against delaying repentance, titled "Vision of an Unrepentant woman in Hell" on April 7, 2014.
