Deception pervades Christiandom. We are warned of false teachings and false teachers repeatedly in scripture:

2 Corinthians 11:13-14 - "13 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. 14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light."

2 Timothy 4:3-4 - "3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables."

2 Timothy 3:13 - "13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived."

Matthew 7:15 - "15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves."

...to quote just a few of the warning verses.

It can be very confusing out there with all of what is available on social media, especially YouTube where there is a tremendous amount of false teaching, some of it being done by highly regarded and very popular, respected and beloved preachers and teachers.

Not a surprise since Satan can AND DOES transform himself into an angel of light. That is precisely the way he rolls.

Which makes it difficult to know what and who to trust.

Your key to discerning your way through all of this is not to put your trust any man. Put your complete and total trust in God's true word, the Bible.

False teachers, however, are very sneaky. Some know exactly what they are doing and others are, sadly, themselves deceived and passing that deception along to the people who follow them.

Either way you need to know what to look out for so you can mark and avoid the false teachings.

Here is how you can tell the difference between FALSE teachings that you should avoid and the one true saving gospel of grace:

Many false teachers will insist that they are teaching the gospel of Grace, but will subtley, slyly and oh so deceptively slip in -  otherwise known as back end - something else that needs to be done by you - a work of some sort - for you to truly be saved, or to stay saved or to sure that you are saved.

DO NOT FALL FOR IT.

False gospels do not save. Only the ONE true gospel of grace saves.

The one and only requirement for salvation is faith. That you believe in Christ's finished work on the cross, that he died for your sins doing everything necessary for your salvation. There is nothing - absolutely nothing - needed from you except your faith (and your sin debt which you were born with):

Acts 16:31 - "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved"

Doesn't get any simpler than that.

The moment that you put your full faith in what Christ did for you on that cross, you are sealed with the Holy Spirit:

Ephesians 1:12-13 - "12 That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. 13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,"

Not a single work from you needed, wanted or necessary because:

Ephesians 2:8-9 - "8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast."

You absolutely cannot boast about something Christ has done FOR YOU. That is sin. And only people who are not saved or who are saved but have been horribly deceived would do this.

1 Corinthians 15:1-4 - "1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; 2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. 3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:"

NOTE: According to the scriptures. Not according to a false teacher who is adding to (or taking away from) the scriptures.

In the moment that you believed on Christ alone for your salvation you were saved. If a person fails to trust on Christ alone for his salvation, he remains in his sin, unregenerate and UN-saved. It is as simple as that.

Romans 10:9 - "9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."

You can toss - repentence, possible loss of your salvation, making Jesus the Lord of your life, doubt about your assurance of salvation, the need for water baptism, tongues as required proof of salvation, which are all anti-Biblical, man-made traditions of man, works based theologies that are anti-Christ (yes you read that correctly) - out the window. In the trash bin.

You are saved by the GIFT of God's GRACE alone, by FAITH alone (believing, trusting, being persuaded something is true) in CHRIST alone.

Now, go out there and share that GOOD News with as many people as you possibly can. According to God's will and the gospel, in Christ's name let's see men and women saved!

God Bless,

Clare

I love the way Paul prays in his epistles.

Paul is not only our pattern as members of the Church, the body of Christ, his prayers are also our pattern for prayer.

I find it beautiful the way Paul both prays for others and also asks others to pray for him.

We can deepen and strengthen our own prayer lives by praying through his Holy Spirit inspired prayers.

On a personal note praying daily through Ephesians 1:15-23 and 3:14-21 has quite literally changed my life and my experience in scripture.

Here is a list of the scripture verses that contain Paul's prayers. If you find any others that I have missed please let me know!

ROMANS:

Romans 1:8-10:

"8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.
9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers;
10 Making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you."

Romans 10:1:

"10 Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved."

Romans 12:12:

"12 Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;"

Romans 15:5-6:

"5 Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus:
6 That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Romans 15:30-33:

"30 Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me;31 That I may be delivered from them that do not believe in Judaea; and that my service which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted of the saints;
32 That I may come unto you with joy by the will of God, and may with you be refreshed.
33 Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen."

CORINTHIANS:

1 Corinthians 1:4-8:

"4 I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ;
5 That in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge;
6 Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you:
7 So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ:
8 Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ."

1 Corinthians 16:23:

"23 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you."

2 Corinthians 1:3-7

"3 Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;
4 Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
5 For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.
6 And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.
7 And our hope of you is stedfast, knowing, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation."

2 Corinthians 2:14-16

"14 Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.
15 For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish:
16 To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?"


2 Corinthians 9:12-15

"12 For the administration of this service not only supplieth the want of the saints, but is abundant also by many thanksgivings unto God;
13 Whiles by the experiment of this ministration they glorify God for your professed subjection unto the gospel of Christ, and for your liberal distribution unto them, and unto all men;
14 And by their prayer for you, which long after you for the exceeding grace of God in you.
15 Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift."


2 Corinthians 12:7-9

"7 And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.
8 For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.
9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me."


2 Corinthians 13:7-9

"7 Now I pray to God that ye do no evil; not that we should appear approved, but that ye should do that which is honest, though we be as reprobates.
8 For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.
9 For we are glad, when we are weak, and ye are strong: and this also we wish, even your perfection."

GALATIANS:

Galatians 6:18

"18 Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen."

EPHESIANS:

Ephesians 1:3

"3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:"

Ephesians 1:15-23

"15 Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints,
16 Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;
17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,
20 Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,
21 Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:
22 And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,
23 Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all."


Ephesians 3:14-21

"14 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
15 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;
17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,
21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen."


Ephesians 6:19-20

"19 And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel,
20 For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak."

PHILIPPIANS:


Philippians 1:3-6

"3 I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,
4 Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy,
5 For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now;
6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:"


Philippians 1:9-11

"9 And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment;
10 That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ.
11 Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God."


Philippians 4:6-7

"6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."


Philippians 4:23

"23 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen."


COLOSSIANS:


Colossians 1:3-14

3 We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,
4 Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints,
5 For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel;
6 Which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth:
7 As ye also learned of Epaphras our dear fellowservant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ;
8 Who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit.
9 For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
10 That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
11 Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;
12 Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:
13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:"


Colossians 4:2-4

"2 Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving;
3 Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds:
4 That I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak."


THESSALONIANS:


1 Thessalonians 1:2-3

"2 We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers;
3 Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father;"


1 Thessalonians 2:13-16

"13 For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.
14 For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews:
15 Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men:
16 Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost."


1 Thessalonians 3:9-13

"9 For what thanks can we render to God again for you, for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before our God;
10 Night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith?
11 Now God himself and our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way unto you.
12 And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you:
13 To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints."


1 Thessalonians 5:23-25

"23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
24 Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.
25 Brethren, pray for us."


1 Thessalonians 5:28

"28 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen."

2 Thessalonians 1:3

"3 We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth;"


2 Thessalonians 1:11-12

"11 Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power:
12 That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ."


2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

"16 Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace,
17 Comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work."


2 Thessalonians 3:2-5

"1 Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you:2 And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith.
3 But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil.
4 And we have confidence in the Lord touching you, that ye both do and will do the things which we command you.
5 And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ."


2 Thessalonians 3:16

"16 Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means. The Lord be with you all."


TIMOTHY:


1 Timothy 1:12

"12 And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry;"


1 Timothy 2:1-2

"1 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;
2 For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty"


2 Timothy 1:3-7

"3 I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day;
4 Greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy;
5 When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also.
6 Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.
7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."


2 Timothy 1:16-18

"16 The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus; for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain:17 But, when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found me.
18 The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day: and in how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus, thou knowest very well."


2 Timothy 4:22

"22 The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit. Grace be with you. Amen."


TITUS:


Titus 3:15

"15 All that are with me salute thee. Greet them that love us in the faith. Grace be with you all. Amen."

Daily prayer is absolutely essential in the life of every Christian.

But why?

Here are five reasons:

1. Prayer is how we communicate with God:

We need to pray daily because we need to communicate with God.

God is a person. As a saved Christian you have been given the precious gift of a personal relationship with God the Father through our Lord Jesus Christ. This is an unbelievably amazing gift!

Communication is vital in order to grow and deepen a relationship. Your spouse is precious to you, right? What would happen if you did not talk with your spouse on a daily basis? Your relationship would wither and probably die.

If you don't pray your relationship with God will wither.

And... you will wither spiritually.

To be in fellowship with God is why he created us. Communication with Him is what he made us for.

Prayer is the way that we communicate with God.

When we pray we are talking to our creator, the God of the universe who, through his free gift of grace has saved us from sin and death and given us the gift of eternal life with him in heaven.

It's really good for us to be reminded of this truth and this gift.

Prayer - done properly - reminds us of who God is and what he has done for us. When we pray we need to let him know that we are thankful for what he has done for us and that we love him for having gifted us in such an  unspeakable way.

As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 9:15 - "Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift."

An unspeakable gift, indeed, that has made us complete in him - 

Colossians 2:10 - "And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power"

Wow.

2. Prayer helps us grow up:

We need to pray daily because, quite simply we need to grow up as Christians. Daily prayer is an outward manifestation of our maturation process. The bottom line is you will not grow spiritually if you do not pray.

Contrary to what many Christians seem to believe, prayer is meant to change you not to change God.

God is not our personal genie or a magic wand. We don't pray in an attempt to get God to bend to our will.

God has his will and his will is far greater than our will. His will rules over all of his creation - and that means, well... everything.

When we pray, regardless of what we ask for or pray about it will always be God's will that will be done. It is always God's prerogative to answer or to not answer our prayer.

Remember Jesus Christ praying to God in the garden of Getsemane for what awaited him to pass him by? Did that cup pass him by? No, it did not. God's will was done.

Remembering this grows and strengthen us. Praying knowing this helps us to become stronger so we are better able to do the things that are righteous in the eyes of God.

Praying about our cares, troubles and concerns helps us to become stronger in facing them. Rather than asking for our situation to change we ask God to change us so we can better meet the situations we are dealing with in our lives. We stop praying for "fleshly stuff" or for things in our lives to change and instead pray with the knowledge of God's will in our hearts and our minds. Remembering that His will is always greater than our needs not only brings us closer to God (because knowing his will is knowing his truth and it is what God wants from us -

1 Timothy 2:3-4 - "For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth."

...it also helps grow us up into mature Christians.

3. Prayer strengthens our inner man

We need to pray daily because we need to strengthen our spirit.

Ephesians 3:16-19 says this best:

"16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;
17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God."

Praying to know God more deeply, to be given the gift of wisdom and revelation in Christ Jesus and to know the love of Christ absolutely strengthens our inner man, when done with the right heart and with the genuine desire for that to happen. Christ's spirit within us is strengthened and makes us better able to do his will, walk in the spirit more and more (even though we live in the flesh) and grow to love God more than we love ourselves and our lives.

We should all strive for this.

4. Prayer exercises our faith

We need to pray daily because we need to stretch and grow our faith.

When you pray you are talking to the Lord that saved you.

He is real.

He is omnipresent.

He sees into our heart.

He hears us.

Praying believing that we are talking to God and that he hears us is an exercise of faith.  2 Corinthians 5:7 - "For we walk by faith, not by sight"

Every time you exercise your faith it grows. Every time your faith grows your inner man is strengthened, your fellowship with God gets deeper and stronger and your love for God grows.

1 Corinthians 2:9-11 -
9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.

5. Prayer reinforces our love for God

We need to pray daily because... we love God.

When we pray in the knowledge that we are praying to the God that loves us so much he sacrificed his Son on the cross to pay our sin debt we cannot help but love him.

2 Cor 5:21- "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."

And through God's absolutely free gift of grace - nothing whatsoever needed from us - he has given us everything we could ever hope for or want: a glorious inheritance, an everlasting life with him in heaven.

Titus 2:13 - "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;"

Praying daily with this in our minds and hearts reinforces what God has done for us and our love for God and for our precious Lord and Savior Christ Jesus, who died for our sin, was buried and resurrected, so that we could live forever.

2 Timothy 4:8 - "Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing."

God has given you riches beyond all measure. He has given it to you as a free gift. Nothing you could do or say could get you what God has freely given to you.

He deserves to hear from us every day, don't you think?

Prayer is the breath of the Christian life and the breath of the Christian.

That, blessed friends, is why, as Christians we need to pray.

Every day.

Clare

Today I chat with former psychic medium, reiki practitioner and witch Daniella Mora.

Daniella’s family of origin brought several different influences into her early childhood. Her father was a Christian who read her the Bible and taught her to pray. Daniella’s mother introduced her to Wicca and several other New Age practices later on.

A truth seeker who wanted to connect with God, Daniella explored Roman Catholicism, Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses and attended several types of Pentacostal churches.  Led  into the world of the occult in her first serious relationship, Daniella eventually landed in the New Age as a psychic reader and became involved in a Twin Flame relationship.

Still not finding what she is seeking and enduring intense spiritual attacks along the way Daniella finally cries out one night asking God to show her the truth.  What follows is her salvational encounter with Jesus Christ, repentance for her sins and the walk of faith she is on as a Christian woman today having had the fires of twin flames and the occult extinguished with the Living Waters of Jesus Christ.

I hope you enjoy my conversation with Daniella Mora

Tara is a former New Age seeker who found salvation in Christ after researching and discovering the deceptive and evil Occultism rooted in the practice of Yoga.

The peace and well-being that Tara initially experienced in her Yoga and meditation practice eventually gave rise to multiple alarming experiences including sleep paralysis, astral projection, demonic visions, being taken over by an invisible presence and a full blow Kundalini awakening.

Thankfully this all lead her into praying to Jesus and a deep desire to know who God was.

In desperation Tara asks Jesus to reveal his truth to her which leads to her encounter with him, her born again experience and her release from the  bondage Yoga occultism.

However, Tara’s frightening journey was not over just yet.

Returning to the NAR church she had been attending for some time while on her Yoga journey, Tara finds herself trapped in the cycle of seeking mystical experiences through encounters with the false Holy Spirit, and ends up enduring more of the same kind of experiences she’d prior to her salvation. She even finds herself striving to attain the gift of tongues.

Tara has written a book called: The Narrow Path: Escaping the Grips of Deception While Discovering His Way, Life and Truth, in which she recounts her journey and her experiences, her research into Yoga, the New Apostolic Reformation movement and much more and shares how she made her way out of the deception, on to the narrow path and back to the peace of Jesus Christ.  

I hope you enjoy my conversation with Tara!

God Bless,

Clare

In the middle of the night on March 18, 2019, after years practicing in the New Age I had a profound and personal encounter with Jesus Christ. My life was instantly transformed. I was saved by grace through my salvational faith in Christ and I surrendered my life to Jesus.

As an ex-New Ager who gave up my entire career as a psychic-medium, mentor and blogger I had some “Woah, wait a minute, what NOW?” moments after I was born again. I was used to daily doing, working, teaching and blogging in the New Age.

Now I found myself wondering: What is God’s plan for me? What job does God want me to be ‘doing’ now?

I was so ready to take on whatever God wanted me to do. I was newly saved and believed that I had to begin doing whatever I could to help other New Agers come to Christ. I had lots of newly opened up space that I was in ‘hurry up’ mode to fill in working for God.

I soon discovered that God had a different plan. He knew best how that space in my life was to be filled. He showed me that surrendering everything to God - my future, my provision and my livelihood was my only ‘job’.

Which took me into, what one of my dearest Christian sisters calls a “healthy isolation”.

Does this sound like you? Are you an ex-New Ager saved by Christ wondering… what now? What does God want you to do? What is His plan for you? What calling does God have for you?

Seeing things through God’s eyes instead of our own:

Being a Christian means that you are walking ever more each day in the Spirit while still being in the flesh. This is the process of sanctification. And because Satan calls the shots in this world this is not an easy task. We undertake a daily process of making the shift from living a carnal, worldly life to a life guided by the Holy Spirit the way Jesus did.

To do this we need to transition into a place of seeing the things going on in our lives through God’s eyes instead of through our fleshly, worldly eyes.

This means that there will be many times when we think we are supposed to ‘go’ but God call us to ‘stop’ and when we think we’re supposed to stop, and instead God calls us to go. We may want to run before we have even learned to walk. Yes, indeed, God has a plan for each and every one of us, but we need to start at the beginning first. We are babies in need of guidance and our Father in Heaven has given us what we need to access this guidance. We can’t just run ahead without instruction and integration of what happened for us when we were born again.

Without the proper foundation in place we risk being, as Ephesians 4:14 says: “tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes…”

2 John 1:10 tells us: “Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.”

How does God call us to lay the correct foundation for our journey walking with Christ? He calls us to begin our journey doing these five things:

1.  Renew Our Minds

Romans 12:2 tells us - “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Though it is imperative that every new Christian begins the process of renewing her mind right from the get go, as someone who has been in the New Age and has become particularly attuned to the world spirit, (albeit the wrong one), renewing your mind to learn and then be able to conform with what God’s will is for you is of the utmost importance and to be undertaken without delay.

We are going to be tested a lot by the world and its ways especially as the enemy ramps up his attempts to thwart and deceive all new Christians and, because of our backgrounds and the way that we received guidance through invisible sources, we as former New Agers are particularly vulnerable to being deceived by false spirits posing as the Holy Spirit.  

Your old ways must be worked out of you. And for this to happen you must immerse yourself into God’s word. You must allow the Bible to inform your journey at every turn as a Christian. And the only way that you can do that is to read God’s word.

I have come across many former New Agers who are born again and believe that doing the will of God is simply a matter of switching who they are ‘listening’ to from the false spirits they once heard to ‘listening’ to the Holy Spirit. And listening to the Holy Spirit happens exactly the same way it did in the New Age.

Absolutely not.

What these people don’t understand is that the primary way Christians ‘hear’ the Holy Spirit is through reading scripture. And if we think we are ‘hearing’ the Holy Spirit through our old ways - for instance through our clairs - we need to search the scriptures measuring what we think we’ve heard against the God’s word for the truth of it. Every single time. Anything you think you have heard from the Holy Spirit cannot go against the word of God. Otherwise it is not from God.

New Agers are accustomed to seeking and having supernatural experiences which can be quite exciting and dramatic.

That is not the way that it works with the Holy Spirit. If you are lead to believe that it is you are being led down the wrong path.  “Charismania” is an example of this. You can learn some more about Charismania in this brief YouTube video HERE.

A Christians primary access to the Holy Spirit is through their Bibles.

Galatians 5:22-23 tells us what the fruits of the Holy Spirit are: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

And that includes the passions and desires for supernatural exciting experiences.  

John 14:26 - “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”

All that Jesus said to us is in the Bible.

A new Christian receives boundless growth, gifts and blessings through reading the word of God. Commit and set aside time each and every day to read the Bible. It may feel like a chore at first, but it is totally worth it, so stick with it. As you continue to read the Holy Spirit will begin working with you illuminating the scriptures. This is how the Holy Spirit works. Verses that once were difficult to understand will all of a sudden mean so much to you, so much so that you’ll wonder why you didn’t see it that way before.

The enemy wants nothing more than to try to keep you out of scripture where he knows that your heart and mind will be renewed in truth as God speaks to you and the Holy Spirit illuminates God’s word for you. Therefore, the enemy will present you with all kinds of reasons why you cannot find the time and place all sorts of distractions in your way to keep you away from scripture. This can include the enemy trying to make you believe that you can learn the Bible by listening to YouTube teachers, watching videos, reading books by popular “Christian” authors about the Bible (false teacher Beth Moore for example - yes she is a false teacher and you need to know that right off the top) and by listening to sermons instead of reading the Bible for yourself.

One word: RESIST. James 4:7 says - “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

Resist the enemy’s deceptions, lures and distractions, dump the “no time” excuses, and keep on reading the Bible. This is spiritual warfare at work. Take up the armor of God (Ephesians 6:12). “Take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

You will come to know God the Father and Jesus Christ as you “hear” their voices in the scripture because the Bible is God speaking to directly to you. On those awesome pages God’s will and plan for you will be also revealed.

Eventually you’ll find yourself craving time reading the Bible. So pick up your Bible and commit to the daily practice of reading God’s word in order to renew your mind so you can “discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

2.  Pray

Philippians 4:6 - “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”

Daily prayer is one of the most important things that all Christians can do and must make time for. You have been given the gift of a personal, one to one relationship, through your savior Jesus Christ, with God the Father. Talk to him!

Praying according to God’s will is a remarkable and amazing journey.

One of the greatest joys of a new Christian is starting to see your prayers answered when you do this. Renewing your mind by reading the Bible clearly reveals God’s will to you so that you can then start to pray according to God’s will. God promises to answer prayers that are prayed in accordance with his will and plan. And that might not always look like what we think it should look like. But God’s will be done.  Matthew 6:10 - “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

1 John 5:14 - “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.”

Matthew 6:6 - “But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

Luke 11:9 - “And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”

1 Timothy 2:1-4 - “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

Colossians 4:2 - “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.”

Make time with God in prayer THE priority in your life.

3.  Get Baptized

Acts 22:16 - “…Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.”

Getting Baptized is a very important step in the life of a new Christian. Not only was it the public declaration of my new life in Christ, after I was Baptized my experience of the Holy Spirit working in my life and illuminating scripture literally increased exponentially.

In Matthew 3:16  we see that even Jesus, himself, was baptized:

“And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him.”

After being born again some people get baptized right away. Being without a church when I was saved, I prayed for God to guide me to the church where he wanted me to be baptized. Seven months later I walked into that church and was fully immersed into water by my new pastor with the congregation and my husband bearing witness.

1 John 5:7-8 speaks to the threefold testimony of the precious gift of salvation through the Son of God:

“For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree.”

Salvation involves these three: being saved by the blood that Christ shed for us on the cross in bearing our sin, being in-dwelled by the Holy Spirit and being baptized in water. As that scripture says: these three agree. This scripture demonstrates why baptism is so important.

If you are already involved with a church go ahead, talk to your pastor and arrange to be baptized as soon as you can. If you are not connected with a church family or it is not immediately obvious where and when is the right time for you to get baptized, pray to God for his guidance and leading. Don’t leave getting baptized out of your salvation experience. Trust in God. He’ll get you there. And he will bless you for following his guidance.

4. Seek church fellowship with other Christians

Having supportive Christian brothers and sisters in your life is very important for all Christians, and most especially for the new Christian. It is other born again Christians who truly understand what happened for you when you were saved by Jesus.

Hebrews 10:24-25 - “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. “

Christians gather together in church to pray, worship, learn, teach, edify one another, bear each other’s burdens, support one another and share the Lord’s supper as a group of God’s children coming together in remembrance of what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross.  

You need to have other believers in your life and the best way to do this is to find a biblically and doctrinally sound church where you can fellowship each week with other Christians. Coming together in fellowship is not just a passing suggestion from God, it is a command. The churches all together make up the body of Christ:

1 Corinthians 12:12  - “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.”

Pray asking God to guide you to the right church for you and he will. This will most likely involve visiting several different churches to see how they each do things. Be faithful in prayer on this matter and the way you’ll know when God has brought you to the church where he wants you to be is that that church is totally Christ centered.

It is very important to keep in mind that no church is perfect so there will very likely be some things about the church you eventually become a part of around which you will need to extend patience, love and grace. Perhaps your pastor doesn't have perfect grammar when he preaches or the worship music might be a bit wobbly compared to another church’s music. You are not choosing a church for the music or the grammar. That your church is Biblically sound is the most important thing you need in a church so as long as that is in place, you’ll learn to extend grace with regards to the other less important things that don’t quite fit together with your view of a perfect church.  

God may not give you the perfect church but he will give you the church that you need to help you grow as a Christian. Yes… he does this! Trust that God knows just what you need in a church. The men and women in your church are your brothers and sisters, your family in Christ. Treat them as you would with all the love, patience and kindness you show your own family. Love them warts and all.

First and foremost what you need to look for in a potential church is that it is Jesus Christ centered and the preacher, a demonstrably Godly man, teaches the Bible from the Bible, therefore basing all of his teachings squarely where they need to be: in the scriptures.

Two things that should give you cause for pause and keep you on the search for the right church are: first, if the church allows women to preach to the congregation - both men and women -  which is in direct contradiction with scripture (1 Timothy 2:12). Women are allowed to teach other women so Bible study led by a woman is totally fine. The second is if the church’s focus, rather than being on Jesus Christ, is on something else, such as attracting prosperity into your life, or a flashy stage show worship band taking centre stage for just a couple of the many possible examples.

A good Christian church eats, breathes and sleeps Jesus Christ, immersing you into the Bible each and every week, getting you to read right along while the pastor in the bible you bring to church with you, stirring your passion for the word and deepening your faith in God.

Pray that God connects you with a good church.

5. Share your testimony of salvation

The bible tells us over and over again that we are to share what God has done for us by saving us.

1 Peter 3:15 - “But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.”

Psalm 107:2 - “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.”

Mark 5:19 - “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.”

2 Timothy 1:8 - “Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord.”

1 John 5:11 - “And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.”

Every born again Christian has a testimony of how he and she came to be saved by Jesus Christ. And every new Christian can and absolutely should share her testimony with others, both Christians and non-believers. Your testimony is the one thing that you know intimately and can share and by doing so edify others by spreading the good news of what Christ came to do for the world.

As soon as you can, I encourage you to organize and put your story of salvation into words and be ready to share it on the spot with others!

There you have it. Five things that God absolutely calls  you to do as a new Christian.

A big caution: Though in today’s social media saturated world you might think you're God given calling is to start your own YouTube ministry right after you’ve been saved, especially when you have been actively teaching and guiding others in the New Age, resist that temptation, because that leading is not coming from God.

I have witnessed ministries started too soon by ex-New Agers go off the rails very quickly because they fall into the trap of teaching false and unsound doctrine. This is disastrous for both the teacher and the those who follow such a teacher who are being mislead.

When you are ready to rely on the Bible as your one and ONLY source of guidance and wisdom, then you are ready to start working with other people to help them know more about Jesus Christ because you will be sharing the Gospel - the word of Christ - with them.

Dedicating yourself to doing these five things God calls you to as a new Christian will put the correct biblical foundation squarely in place right at the beginning of your beautiful walk with Jesus Christ. It will also help you to gradually grow your ability to discern God's truth from the deception of the enemy.

So... dear new sister in Christ... I welcome you on your glorious walk with Jesus. If I can support you in any way don’t hesitate to reach out to me at clare@claremcnaul.com.

God Bless,

Clare

There are many false teachers holding themselves out a Christians today spreading their false doctrines online via websites, Facebook or Twitter pages and / or a YouTube teaching ministry.

False teachers are not only a probability, they are a certainty in the church today. So much so that chances are high that you will be exposed to one or more of them. If you are listening to Christian teachers and have not yet identified any of them as false it is less likely that’s because you have not come across one and much more likely that you are falling for what they are teaching without even realizing that it is false.

We are not only told in the Bible by Jesus and the Apostles about false teachers, their emergence in the church is a promise, as we read in Mark 13:22-23:

“For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform signs and wonders, to lead astray, if possible, the elect. But be on guard; I have told you all things beforehand.”

I came into the sphere of influence of a false teacher two months after my conversion. This is not an uncommon for new converts. It’s natural for those newly saved to seek support, want to learn more about God, listen to sermons and fellowship with other Christians online. With the availability of what is online these days, and how virtually anyone can and will hold himself out as a Christian teacher, discernment is not a luxury, it is an imperative.

False teachers can be difficult to recognize in the moment, however, time, scrutiny of their teachings and discernment will reveal whether or not someone is a false teacher. As the Bible says they will be known by their fruit. Not the fruit of large followings or ministry quantity but by the fruits of the quality of what they teach.

Here are five marks that reveal a false teacher:

1.  False teachers teach from their own wisdom instead of the Word of God

And with their own wisdom they lead people away from the Gospel. Even when they do use the word of God they twist its interpretation to suit their own needs.

Here is the Gospel in a nutshell as spoken in 1 Corinthians 14:1-2 -

“Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures…”

Notice the “in accordance with the Scriptures” here. The apostles always taught in accordance with the Scriptures.

What should every teacher be teaching if they claim to be teaching in the name of Jesus Christ?  Simple: Christ died for me.

False teachers mix their own foolishness into their message contradicting the essence of the Gospel and reducing their doctrine to deception.

The bible also says this about those people who seek out and listen to false teachers:

2 Timothy 4:3-4 -

“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”

This scripture points out that people will search out false teachers because they don’t want to hear what the word of God has to say. People love their sin and do not want to be convicted of it. The Bible puts your sin straight in your face and convicts you of it. This is a turn off for many people hence why they are drawn to teachers who tickle their ears by telling them what they would rather hear than what the Bible actually says.

False teachers - one of the most famous examples of which is Joel Osteen - cater to those who do not want to here the Gospel straight up, but would rather hear a watered down version that suits their fancies and desires while thinking and even maintaining that they are good Christians.

Acts 20:28-30

“Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.”

Here Paul is warning that false teachers will invade the body of Christ - wolves, as he calls them - who will teach twisted things - doctrines that contradict the Word of God - in order to take disciples away from Christ.

Here the apostle John tells us how we are to discern if a teacher is a true or false one:

1 John 4:1-3

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.”

The apostle John warns us not to believe everything that we hear, but, instead to test the spirits to make sure what we hear is coming  from God.

The spirit that guides a true Christian teacher is God’s Holy Spirit, therefore everything that teacher says can be measured “by the book”, which means it will be substantiated as true through scripture in the Bible. It won’t be even a “little bit off” and if it is then it as a false teaching.

Galatians 5:9 says

“A little leaven leavens the whole lump”.

Leaven is a metaphor for sin.

False teachers are skillful at weaving lies  - lies are sin - together with truth. In fact a false teacher tells as much truth as he can which is why he is so deceptive and discerning him can be so difficult. The Bible warns us, however, that even the smallest lie - a little leaven - in a teaching means that whole teaching must be thrown out because it leavens the whole lump - invalidates the entire teaching. One lie mixed into a teaching turns that teaching into deception which contradicts the word of God.

Yes, teachers can and do make mistakes and may unwittingly mix an untruth into their teaching every now and then. A true teacher, however, will correct her lie making sure that everyone knows that she understands what she has done and will have no qualms admitting and correcting her mistake. A false teacher rejects correction holding fast to her claim that her teaching is without error and will usually fall back on emphasizing the truth she has used in her teaching ignoring or diverting away from the lies she’s included and will not repent.

How are we to “test the spirits” as John warns us above?

Is the source the Word of God:  Is the teacher quoting scripture straight from the Bible to support and back up her teachings? Or is she pitching wordy, eloquent arguments to press her point? Is she clearly laying out her teaching and supporting each and every aspect of it with God’s word? If not she is not teaching from the guidance of the Holy Spirit, but rather a false spirit. If she actually is a Christian but doesn’t know how to support her teaching with ample scripture then she is not ready to be teaching and therefore should not be leading others.

Does the teaching hold up to scripture?  True teachers use scripture as their source, include that scripture in their teachings and allow the word itself to interpret the word, not their opinions.  Not so with false teachers, which means we will need to test it for ourselves.

Rather than the word of God is the teacher using his own wisdom, arguments and opinions? A true teacher in Christ does not do this. Run the other way.  

Is the teacher claiming to have received “personal” or “special” revelations directly from God? These “revelations” must be able to be completely substantiated by scripture. No “revelation” can stand on its own and if a teacher does not back up a personal revelation with the necessary scripture that validates it, then he is a false teacher.

The Bible tells us what will happen to those who try to add to or take away from the Word of God:

Revelation 22:18-19

”I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.”

#2: False teachers seek gain.

And that gain is not just monetary. They are also eager to gain followers, loyalty, fame, influence, power and / or authority over people.

Rather than putting Jesus Christ first, a false teacher puts herself, her ambitions and her desires to win people over to keep them coming back for more first. This is where the ‘passion’ of the teacher and the appearance that she is teaching in the name of Jesus Christ can make it very difficult to discern her as false just by watching and listening to her.  A well known example of this is Joyce Meyer. The demon influencing and leading false teachers is very savvy and subtly deceptive. That is precisely why everything they say must be measured against the word of God.

Gaining a loyal following that she could influence quickly quickly revealed as the primary motivation for the false teacher I was involved with for four months. She fostered a dependency upon her in her followers rather than urging them to seek God’s word of truth as their sole source of guidance and wisdom. She consistently demonstrated a need to be the centre of attention, to be seen as the wide leader and was put on a pedestal by many of the people in the group.  Though she denied this was what she wanted (the devil doth protest to much?), her actions belied her words.

Carefully consider the teachers you are listening to see if they show signs of teaching or speaking for the sake of some sort of gain, be it monetary, a following, influence, etc. Jesus, himself, warns us to count the cost of following him and makes it very clear that to take his word out into the world - to be one of his disciples - means to give up gain of any kind, personal or otherwise.

Luke 14:27 

“Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”

and Luke 14:33

“So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.”

False teachers steer clear of scriptures such as the two above. Christ means what he says. If gain of any kind is your game you are not a disciple of Jesus Christ. Plain, clear and simple.

Titus 1:10 tells us -

“They (false teachers) must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach.”

Teachers who fail to put the Gospel of Jesus Christ first and instead act out of self interest deny Jesus’ teachings. No one who is genuinely discipling and sharing the Gopsel according to Jesus Christ is in it for gain. In fact it is quite the opposite. They are willing to lose everything for Jesus Christ.

Matthew 16:24

“Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

Beware, discern and leave those self-seeking false teachers behind to find true teachers in the name of Jesus Christ.

3.  False teachers mask their deception with personality.

Personality, charisma, dramatic flare, many words, big talk and eloquence are all indicators of a false teacher who is using these devices to try to capture your attention and entertain you. Passion may certainly be displayed by a true teacher, however, the word of God is squarely at the centre and is the foundation of his teachings and he will be supporting his teachings with lots of scripture.

I heard a false teacher recently tell his audience that he had so much to say on the topic he was teaching about that it could fill eight to ten books. What??? Sounds rather lofty to me. There are already sixty-six amazing books at his disposal. What else could this teacher possibly add?

False teachers are incapable of bringing a consistent and true interpretation of scripture and instead hide their false doctrines behind charisma and clever arguments. Their arguments might sound clever, however, they do not help people or deepen the Biblical understanding of those who listen to them, instead they are designed to win the listener over to the false teachers opinions and false doctrine.

We don’t need charismatic, clever men and women telling us clever things. We need scripture. We don’t need a clever teacher’s eight or ten books filled with clever arguments that lead us away from the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. God has given us everything that we need in the Bible.

1 Corinthians 2:1-5

“And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

Here apostle Paul speaks straight to that fact that there is no need for lofty speech or wisdom. The message is simple and he sticks to it even through his fear and trembling. That is the hallmark of a true teacher.

The Bible also tells us in Titus 1:10

“For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers… They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach.”

True teachers, even when they are passionate for the word of God exhibit a humility when they teach that shines through. Their focus is on the word of God, not on their personality or sense of humor or telling stories that have little to do with scripture or are inserted to tickle your ears.

True teachers are not know-it-alls that teach from their own thoughts and ideas, they rely totally on the message of the word of God  - Christ’s truth in its purity and simplicity - in their teachings, not on big words, showmanship, or attempts to evoke some kind of emotional response from their audience.

Your discernment radar should jump right up when you encounter a teacher who uses these tactics.

4. False teachers criticize the faithful.

When faced with correction from concerned Christians within the body of Christ false teachers rebel, cry persecution and belittle the Christians who try to correct their teaching, often resorting to accusing them of being “legalists” and condemning them for being overly attached to the word of God.

Problem with this is false teachers don’t know what true legalism is and most false teachers, themselves are legalists because they bend and twist scripture to fit their own needs. I will be addressing the topic of legalism in a separate post / podcast very soon.

Correcting false teaching using the power and authority of God’s word is not legalism, folks. False teachers are being deceptive when they accuse the faithful of being legalists. No surprise there.

Paul says of those people teaching in the name of Christ in Titus 1:9

“He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.”

Christians are instructed to hold firm to the word of God in their teachings and to rebuke those who don’t.

The mark of a true teacher: accepting rebuke coming from within the body of Christ, considering why she is receiving it, turning to the word of God for the truth and repenting, thus acknowledging her mistake and changing her ways.

False teachers hate to be rebuked. They rebel. They don’t repent.

5. False Teachers exploit their followers

False teachers take advantage of their followers weaknesses, ignorance, immaturity, greed, even their lust. They play on their followers need for a leader who will give them what they want instead of need. The less their followers know, the less motivated to seek out the truth they are, the more they want their ears tickled or to be entertained instead of given the truth, the better it is for the false teacher.

2 Timothy 4:3-4   

“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”

Having said that there are, unfortunately, people who really do want to know Christ’s truth who are also being mislead by false teachers. Christians need to step up and pray to God to be granted the wisdom, faith and knowledge necessary to suss out the truth from the lies. Discernment is not an option, it is an imperative. Satan wants nothing more than to take the whole body of Christ down and drag as many people as he can to hell with him and he uses false teachers to help him do that.

The quality of the teaching that you avail yourself of is your responsibility. Ask God to guide you to true Christian teachers. Listen and watch teachers carefully. Measure what teachers say against the word of God. Research the teacher as thoroughly as you can to see what other information you can find out about them. Are others, like me for example, questioning the validity of that teacher in blog articles, YouTube videos. etc? There is probably a very good reason for that. Take note and find out why so you can make an informed decision.

False teachers have always been in the church and they will be until Christ returns. Knowing their marks and their methods and measuring what they teach at all times will always expose them for who they are. Our responsibility as Christians is clear: hold fast to what is true, and reject and deny what is false.

Discern. Leave behind all false teachers. Seek those who teach Christ’s truth sharing the Gospel just as Christ spoke it to us. We need nothing more or nothing less as Christians.

In Him,

Clare

The whole world has been affected by the COVID-19 virus and the reactions to it run the gamut from rampant fear to complete denial.

I used try to discern the deeper truths in dramatic world events such as this one. From the AIDS epidemic first reported in 1981, to September 11, 2001 and the horrific events 911, and all the smaller national and international events in between, I watched and analyzed noting how the world was transformed by changes impressed deeply into the fabric of the way things are done, at many levels especially at the governmental levels. I reacted in the same ways that those around me did, becoming baffled, confused, afraid.

I think most baby-boomers and those born in the years after can safely say that nothing on a scale such as this COVID-19 pandemic has ever been seen before in our lifetime. The measures taken have virtually paralyzed the globe.

This time for me, however, my experience of it is completely different.

Because I surrendered my life to Christ in March 2019.

I have a history of embracing the things that I explore in my life full on with passion and intensity.

Yup... I did the same thing after my encounter with Christ. Though my conversion took me by surprise in so many ways, I embraced Him fully, completely, passionately and surrendered everything into His hands.

I'm crazy (in a good way turns out) that way.

Nothing has been the same for me since. Even when things around me are in upheavel or I am dealing with difficulty or uncertainty I have the underlying peace and joy of knowing Christ is with me through it all firmly in my heart.

Philippians 4:6-7 - "...do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

I don't need to try to make sense of things or figure out what the long term effects are going to be. I have a personal relationship with God the Father and creator of the Universe. I am never alone. There is nothing that I need to do to fix anything. I place everything into God's hands.

For real folks...

Luke 12:22-30 - “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. 23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. 24 Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! 25 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 26 If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? 27 Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 28 But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! 29 And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. 30 For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you."

Things for me now are a far cry from how they were when I was in the New Age movement.

At this point on my journey I cannot even imagine what it would be like to be facing this pandemic without Jesus Christ or to be fielding the concerns of people who are living in fear at this pivotal time - or any time for that matter. Depending on guidance from unseen forces to provide answers to questions for which there are no answers. Bringing through a good word from a dead relative. Looking to 'source' and 'universal' energies. And other stuff like that...

Frankly looking back, it is all so futile. The cycle always begins again, more fear, more need, more things to do, more psychic sessions, more crystals and more seeking for the right answers, the way to happiness and to achieve contentment.

Around and around it goes.

I know for many of you this will not make any sense and it may very well annoy you if you've made it this far and that is OK. I am not trying to twist anyone's arm or come down hard on my readers who are not interested in what a gift it is to walk fully with Christ as a born again Christian.

It would be remiss of me, however, not to let you know how life transforms for those who receive Jesus Christ into their life through God's gift of grace.

Faith in God replaces despair, hope replaces confusion, God's grace and blessings great and small replace endless seeking, striving, doing and trying to be better. There is no need for advice from psychics or mediums, no need for meditations, ritual ceremonies, no need to follow the law of attraction, no need to try to look into a future you cannot control to see what might be ahead.

No need for any of that when you have a direct and personal relationship with the one true omniscient, omnipotent God who created everything and is in sovereign control over all.

You can relax and simply place it all into His hands. Even the Coronavirus.

Because.... God's got this.

Psalm 27:1 - "The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?"

When you're a born again Christian you are adopted into God's family. You've got God. A direct line to the sovereign God of the Universe awaits you through Jesus Christ.

John 3:16 - “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."

The world will be forever changed by this COVID-19 pandemic and things at all levels are not going to get any easier. They'll, in fact, get much more difficult.

Nothing going on here on earth is random. God is shaking up the world so that those He is drawing near to him will (hopefully!) wake up and heed the calling of His children home to Him through his Son, Jesus Christ.

Romans 8:28 - "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."

My urging to you at this crazy time: Get to know the real Jesus Christ and get to know Him now. 

God bless.

In prayer,

Clare

PS:
If you want to know more about Jesus please feel free reach out to me. It would be my joy to connect with you, show you where and how to start and answer any questions that you might have.

You can email me at clare@claremcnaul.com

 I never thought that I would have to do a blog post like this, and frankly It grieves me to have to speak publicly on this matter.

Furthermore, I have done everything that I am instructed to do biblically in Matthew 18:15-22, in order to avoid bringing this matter out into the public forum, to no avail.

Christians are Biblically instructed to call out false teachers and false teaching when we see it. A person who is in ministry and is claiming to be so in the name of Christ and is teaching falsely in contradiction to the Bible, is in sin. When the Bible tells us not to do something and a person does it anyway, this is sin.

Therefore in this post I will be exposing false teacher, Michelle Manders.

In mid October 2019 I approached Michelle Manders privately, and standing on Scripture to substantiate my serious concerns about her false teachings.  She angrily rejected it and instead accused me of being in sin.

Though I did not mention her by name, I did address her accusation publicly in my last podcast “Should a Born Again Wife Leave her Non-Christian Husband?”

After approaching her privately and being shut down, the biblical next step is to bring in two or three witnesses, which I did. She again completely refused to listen to what I had to say. If a fruitful conversation and the resultant change of mind, that is to say repentance does not happen at this stage then the Bible instructs me to bring the issue into the public forum.

Unfortunately, Michelle Manders is doing her false teaching in public and public sin requires public repentance.

1 Timothy 5:20:
“As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear.”

Furthermore, because of the public nature of her work I actually did not need to stand on Matthew 18:15-22 and could have gone public with my concerns immediately.  But I did so out of respect for her and in hopes that this could be dealt with in private and not have to go public.

Michelle Manders is located in South Africa and has an online ministry that she promotes through her website, an Instagram account, two Facebook pages, a Twitter account and a YouTube account which boasts thirty three videos as of this expose. She persistently urges and requests that her material - her videos, blog posts, teachings, etc. - be spread far and wide as she pushes to grow her ministry.

She has called herself a teacher, leader and a shepherd and also refers to herself as deliverance and prayer warrior, a spiritual coach and mentor and a Christian inspirer expanding God’s kingdom. It is interesting to note that after I confronted her privately she replaced the word ‘teacher’ and with the words ‘Christian Inspirer’ on her Instagram account.

Michelle’s current offerings include teaching a Bible Foundations course, and also promoting what she refers to as Bondage Breakthrough Bloodline Curse Removal (in the name of Jesus Christ) packages. She also has a number of what she calls “Spiritually Sweet 2020” workshops available for sale on her website. Ironically she has entitled one of the video offerings soon to come alongside these workshops: “Love and Light Trap: How False Teachers and False Prophets Trap People.”

Michelle’s web bio notes that she became involved in the New Age as a career channel to ascended masters in 1996. She claims to have seen through the New Age deception in recent years and is now and I quote from her bio: “Standing in the truth of the Lord due to His disclosure to me…”

Her bio also states and again I quote: “I am a Prayer and Deliverance Warrior fulfilling our Sovereign Good God's Divine Plan for my life through Jesus Christ of Nazareth and in the process of registering Warriors for Jesus Christ Ministry (W4JC) as an NPO.”

And her bio states that she’s taking “our newly saved brothers and sisters leaving the new age, through deliverance and baptism under the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth and the Holy Spirit of God.”

There are so many problems with what is said here it’s difficult to know where to start. Her written bio alone raises concerns around Michelle believing that she is receiving personal revelation from the Lord, potentially confusing salvation with the act of leaving the New Age and claiming that what she does is done on the authority of Jesus Christ.

Michelle also does not clarify whether or not she teaches only women as per Biblical instructions. I am not going to go into that point anymore in this expose, other than to briefly mention it here, because there are other very serious and much more harmful issues that need to be addressed.

(Update as of Nov 24/19: Michelle has changed her Bio subsequent to the publishing of this blog post / podcast, removing the statements that I noted were of concern and shut down her W4JC online group. She has also informed her followers that she is going to shut down her YouTube account and take her website behind a membership wall. Interesting. I will keep readers posted.)

I first learned about Michelle Manders during an online search in early June 2019. I reached out to her because I thought I might be interested in interviewing her for my Clairvoyance to Christ podcast because she represented herself as a convert to Christ from the New Age, which resonates with my own story.

Happy that I had reached out she promptly added me to her Warriors for Jesus Christ online chat group of about thirty five members - which, by the way, includes men - and plugged me into her nine month Spiritual Warfare 101 class that she was in the midst of teaching. This class was conducted as a weekly live online class via Zoom conferencing and a recording of each class and any other materials Michelle used were subsequently made available to the attendees for future study via email.  

As I waded through the material on her website, her blog, her YouTube channel and listened to her Spiritual Warfare classes my discernment was kicked into high gear as serious red flags were being raised for me. Michelle’s teachings were revealing to be a mix of regurgitated extra-biblical material from other online sources peppered with some scripture verses, and to contain both bad hermeneutics - which is a fancy word for Biblical interpretation - and outright untruth in direct contradiction to the Bible.

Furthermore when teaching - or speaking on or about anything for that matter - Michelle is excessively verbose and weaves and spins very complicated metaphors and stories. Michelle does not express herself in simple sentences or even in paragraphs. She talks in pages and pages and pages.

About a month into my association with Michelle I decided to reach out to her with a couple of my initial concerns.

After a brief back and forth private conversation with Michelle, which was not fruitful, she promptly made a statement to the online Warriors for Jesus Christ group that she was withdrawing from group and leadership work and that the Spiritual Warfare 101 class she was teaching would continue but only as a recorded class.

It took mere days before Michelle postured herself as the leader of the online group once again.

Here are my nine major concerns about Michelle’s ministry:

1)  Michelle fosters a dependency of her followers on her, rather than on the Word of God.

2)  Michelle consistently claims to receive personal revelations from ‘the Lord’ that are in contradiction to Bible scripture. She shares these revelations with her online group, in her YouTube videos, on her blog and on her other social media.

3)  In her recordings and videos Michelle consistently recites long, drawn out, repetitive prayers, some of which I have timed at over 30 minutes in length. Jesus taught us how to pray. Michelle does not follow Jesus’ guidance in any way regarding prayer. In fact she embodies exactly what is instructed against in Matthew 6:7-8: “And when you pray do not heap empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your father knows what you need before you ask him.”

4)  Michelle mixes both lies and some truth into her teachings. Once deception has been woven into something a teacher says then everything that teacher has said needs to be completely discounted. Partial truth is not truth.

5)  Michelle consistently asserts and perpetuates in her followers a belief that people in the New Age have different and special needs in coming out of the New Age to Christ than those who have been saved out of other life circumstances. This is a huge deception that is a belief straight out of the New Age. Everyone, in God’s eyes, is on the same level regardless of what types of sin that they have engaged in and been saved from. Sin is sin in God’s eyes and no one has needs that are more special than anyone else.

6)  Michelle uses, and teaches others to use what I refer to as the “Bible 8 ball” method for consulting Scripture. She says repeatedly in her teachings that she asks God a question then randomly opens her Bible to see the answer that God has provided to her. This method, usually used by newly saved teenagers, is disgraceful in a teacher. At the very least it is an ignorant practice, and at its worst it is a New Age practice which treats the Bible as an oracle.

7)  Michelle’s hermeneutics  - that is to say her interpretation of scripture - is consistently just plain wrong. She takes scripture out of context and does not understand how to interpret it or, as it is commonly referred to in Christian Apologetics, to rightly divide the word.

8)  Michelle practices what is known as Narcissistic Eisegesis which means forcing the Bible to mean something you already want it to mean by superimposing yourself into the meaning of the passage, rather than interpreting Scripture for what it means and says about God, and letting the Scripture simply speak for itself. In other words Michelle reads herself into the Bible. She did this to defend herself against my concerns, reading herself into the story of Jesus during his 40 days in the desert and comparing herself to Job in the Book of Job. This treatment of the Word dishonors God in the extreme.

9)  And finally I see potential evidence of false conversion to Christ in Michelle’s presumed testimony of salvation. In several private conversations with Michelle, the dates that she was seemingly claiming to be born again, changed. She first offered a date in August 2017 then a second date in October 2018, then a date in February of 2019. A person genuinely born again in Christ is easily able to pinpoint at the very least the month and the year (usually the day as well) that this happened and this date does not shift and change. Michelle’s date of salvation is a moving target. There are several videos that she has up on YouTube that she calls testimonies but none of these points to a genuine born again experience with Jesus Christ. I have come to wonder, from listening to Michelle for a number of months if she is confusing being born again with her having given up her New Age practice. Which she actually clearly hasn’t done completely based on her behaviors and the way she is approaching things. This is very dangerous, indeed, because she might not be saved, yet she is claiming Christ in her ‘ministry' and is potentially misleading others into believing that she is a born again Christian.

All of these concerns can be substantiated as being wrong Biblically. I have included all of the Scripture that I use to substantiate my position on Michelle below this post.

After a particularly disturbing Spiritual Warfare 101 class that Michelle released to her followers on October 4, 2019, I knew that I had to approach her and deal directly and Scripturally with my grave concerns about her teaching and leading others.

In this particular class Michelle teaches outrageous and deceptive notions such as that the Holy Spirit wields a sledgehammer and advocating that her followers not seek Biblical counsel when going through a difficult time. She shares a number of personal and special revelations from the Lord. She claims to hear the Lord speaking to her directly then she uses the “8 ball” method - asking God a question then seeking validation by randomly opening her Bible. She talks on and on about what she refers to as “counterfeit conditioning” and "deconditioning processes" and claims that God has taught her these things.

The number of errors in this teaching were way too many to address, however, I prepared and sent a private Scripturally substantiated message to her, and implored her to stop teaching in sin. She in return made an erroneous accusation of sin on my part, and used narcissistic eisegesis (reading herself into the Bible), out of context scriptures, and special revelations from God to defend her position and her anger. She refused to stop teaching and shut the conversation down, emphatically stating that she “follows the Lord”.

God does not ‘speak’ to us through subjective voices, feelings, or experiences, then randomly point us to pages in the Bible where we think we might find his answers to our questions.

God speaks to us and teaches us through careful and purposeful study of his word. We do not base what we believe about God or what he is saying on our subjective “I think I heard him say that” experiences. What we believe about God must come from Scripture alone. Personal experiences can be evidence of the truth of rightly handled and understood Scripture, but not vice versa.

It is also not ok, nor are we instructed Biblically to read ourselves into scripture either, comparing ourselves to Jesus Christ or Job or any other person of the Bible so we can play the victim of a caring Biblical rebuke or rationalize our ways and errors and teach others to do the same by reading ourselves into the Bible. The Bible is a revelation of God not a revelation of us.

The correct method of teaching Scripture is through what is known as exegesis, which means taking scripture verses in context (not completely out of context which Michelle does constantly) and leading out of that scripture, teaching what it means.

Plainly stated Michelle’s ministry is a train wreck that is to be avoided at all costs. Unfortunately Michelle is operating in deception, is in direct contradiction to the Word of God and is still utilizing New Age practices.

Though her internet footprint is currently very tiny, she is on the push to grow her deceptive ministry, which is a big concern. The question of possible false conversion is also a serious one, however, even if Michelle is actually saved (which is a matter between her and God) she is obviously nowhere near ready to be teaching and leading others and she absolutely should not do so until she matures in her Christian faith and in her understanding of the word of God.

When I approached Michelle privately I did so in genuine concern and love urging her rectify this situation and out of love and concern for those who follow her I implored her to stop teaching and leading until she is ready to do so correctly. She flat out refused.

There are interesting indications that Michelle’s conscience may have been stirred regarding what I have addressed with regards to her teaching. She has removed the word teacher from her Instagram account and removed of the word Ministry from her website logo header. This all happened shortly after I confronted her.

However, regardless of the words she uses and the ones she takes away, Michelle is operating a Ministry in the name and under the authority of Jesus Christ. So playing semantics and trying to blithely sweep these issues under the rug will not cut it.

It’s my prayer that Michelle will get out from under the deception she is in, repent of the areas in which she is acting against Scripture, learn biblical hermeneutics so she can correctly handle God’s word, and thus be able to have a tremendous and doctrinally sound impact with her teaching.

I would love nothing more than to be able to highly recommend Michelle to others if she would do these things, clean up her act and start honoring God.

At this time I absolutely cannot do this. I emphatically suggest that as a Christian woman, a new convert or as a woman coming out of the New Age, please do not allow Michelle Manders to teach you anything.

Stay away from all of her offerings, including all current teachings and workshops on her website and her YouTube videos. She is dishonoring God and seriously misleading and deceiving people.

If Michelle Manders ceases to teach, coach and lead until she is ready to honor the God Word and do so correctly, in the name of Jesus Christ, removes all of her false and deceptive teachings from online access and repents publicly, I will happily take down this podcast and blog calling her out as a false teacher.

Until such time they will remain online as a warning to the church, the public and to women seeking Christian teachers.

See you next time.

Love, Clare

1. Michelle fosters a dependency of her followers on her, rather than on the Word of God.

Psalm 121:2 - My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth.

Psalm 130:6 - My soul waits for the Lord More than the watchmen for the morning; Indeed, more than the watchmen for the morning.

Isaiah 26:4 - Trust in the LORD forever, For in GOD the LORD, we have an everlasting Rock.

Isaiah 41:13 - For I am the LORD your God, who upholds your right hand, Who says to you, 'Do not fear, I will help you.'

Philippians 4:6 - Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

Hebrews 13:5-6 - Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, "I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU," so that we confidently say, “The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What will man do to me?”

1 Peter 5:6-7 - Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.

2. Michelle consistently claims to receive personal revelations from ‘the Lord’ that are in contradiction to Bible scripture. She shares these revelations with her online group, in her YouTube videos, on her blog and on her other social media.

2 Timothy 3:16 - All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,  that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

Romans 15:4 - For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

2 Peter 1:20 - Knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation.

Jeremiah 17:7-8 - But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him.  They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.

1 Corinthians 4:6  - I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another.

Matthew 4:1-11 -
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written,“‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and“‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’” Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.

Acts 17:11-12 - Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

1 Timothy 4:13 - Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.

3.  In her recordings and videos Michelle consistently recites long, drawn out, repetitive prayers, some of which I have timed at over 30 minutes in length. Jesus taught us how to pray. Michelle does not follow Jesus’ guidance in any way regarding prayer. In fact she embodies exactly what is instructed against in Matthew 6:7-8: “And when you pray do not heap empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your father knows what you need before you ask him.”

Matthew 6:5-15 - And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.  Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Mark1:35 - And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.

Matthew 14:23 - And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone...

4.  Michelle mixes both lies and some truth into her teachings. Once deception has been woven into something a teacher says then everything that teacher has said needs to be completely discounted. Partial truth is not truth.

Galatians 5:8-9 - This persuasion is not from him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump.

1 Corinthians 5:6 - Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

Jeremiah 23:16 - Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord.

2 Timothy 4:3-4 - For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

Acts 20:30-32 - And from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

2 Peter 2:1-2 - But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed.

Titus 1:9 - He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

5.  Michelle consistently asserts and perpetuates in her followers a belief that people in the New Age have different and special needs in coming out of the New Age to Christ than those who have been saved out of other life circumstances. This is a huge deception that is a belief straight out of the New Age. Everyone, in God’s eyes, is on the same level regardless of what types of sin that they have engaged in and been saved from. Sin is sin in God’s eyes and no one has needs that are more special than anyone else.

Galatians 3:28 - There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Acts 10:34 - So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality”

Colossians 3:9-11 - Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.

Romans 2:11 - For God shows no partiality.

Philippians 2:3 - Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

James 2:1 - My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.

1 Peter:1:17 - And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds

Romans 12:3 - For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

6.  Michelle uses, and teaches others to use what I refer to as the “Bible 8 ball” method for consulting Scripture. She says repeatedly in her teachings that she asks God a question then randomly opens her Bible to see the answer that God has provided to her. This method, usually used by newly saved teenagers, is disgraceful in a teacher. At the very least it is an ignorant practice, and at its worst it is a New Age practice which treats the Bible as an oracle.

Proverbs 2:1-6 -
My son, if you receive my words
    and treasure up my commandments with you,
making your ear attentive to wisdom
    and inclining your heart to understanding;
yes, if you call out for insight
    and raise your voice for understanding,
if you seek it like silver
    and search for it as for hidden treasures,
then you will understand the fear of the Lord
    and find the knowledge of God.
For the Lord gives wisdom;
    from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;

2 Timothy 2:15-16 - Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

1 Timothy 1:6-7 - Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.

1 Timothy 1:8 - Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully...

Joshua 1:8 - This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

7.  Michelle’s hermeneutics  - that is to say her interpretation of scripture - is consistently just plain wrong. She takes scripture out of context and does not understand how to interpret it or, as it is commonly referred to in Christian Apologetics, to rightly divide the word.

2 Timothy 2:15-16 - Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness

1 Timothy 1:6-7 - Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.

1 Timothy 6:3-5 - If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.

1 Timothy 1:5 - The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

1 Timothy 1:8 - Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully,

1 Timothy 6:20-21 - Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called “knowledge,” for by professing it some have swerved from the faith.

2 Ephesians 5:27 - so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

2 Timothy 2:19 - But God's firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.

Proverbs 4:6-7

Get wisdom; get insight;
    do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth.
Do not forsake her, and she will keep you;
    love her, and she will guard you.
 The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom,
    and whatever you get, get insight.

8.  Michelle practices what is known as Narcissistic Eisegesis which means forcing the Bible to mean something you already want it to mean by superimposing yourself into the meaning of the passage, rather than interpreting Scripture for what it means and says about God, and letting the Scripture simply speak for itself. In other words Michelle reads herself into the Bible. She did this to defend herself against my concerns, reading herself into the story of Jesus during his 40 days in the desert and comparing herself to Job in the Book of Job. This treatment of the Word dishonors God in the extreme.

2 Timothy 2:15 - Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

John 5:39 - You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me

1 John 2:22 - Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.

Luke 17-21
And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,     because he has anointed me     to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives     and recovering of sight to the blind,     to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”
And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

9.  And finally I see potential evidence of false conversion to Christ in Michelle’s presumed testimony of salvation. In several private conversations with Michelle, the dates that she was seemingly claiming to be born again, changed. She first offered a date in August 2017 then a second date in October 2018, then a date in February of 2019. A person genuinely born again in Christ is easily able to pinpoint at the very least the month and the year (usually the day as well) that this happened and this date does not shift and change. Michelle’s date of salvation is a moving target. There are several videos that she has up on YouTube that she calls testimonies but none of these points to a genuine born again experience with Jesus Christ. I have come to wonder, from listening to Michelle for a number of months if she is confusing being born again with her having given up her New Age practice. Which she actually clearly hasn’t done completely based on her behaviors and the way she is approaching things. This is very dangerous, indeed, because she might not be saved, yet she is claiming Christ in her ‘ministry' and is potentially misleading others into believing that she is a born again Christian.

1 Peter 1:13-15 - Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.  As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

2 Timothy 2:19-21 -  But God's firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.” Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.

James 4:10 - Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

1 John 2:5-6 -  But whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

1 John 3:9 - No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.

1 John 5:4-5 - For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

A few weeks ago I was accused of living in sin because I, a born again Christian woman, am married to a man who practices astrology and therefore is practicing what is known in the Bible as idolatry.

The interesting thing about this accusation is that it came from a woman who 1) claims to be a born again Christian and 2) has a ministry through which she leads, teaches and coaches other people in the name of Jesus Christ.

Because of these two facts you’d think that she would know, then, what the Bible - the Word of God - says about this particular situation - when one spouse is a Christian and the other spouse is not.

I would expect this question from a non-Christian or a newly saved Christian but not from a self-professing Christian woman who is leading a ministry.

But, alas it came in the form of an accusation from a self-professing Christian woman who runs a teaching ministry who should know better. Go figure...

Now I want to be clear, I have no problem whatsoever, having a potential area of sin in my life pointed out to me by a fellow Christian. In fact, I welcome it. Done the the correct way - Biblically - it presents a tremendous opportunity for me to examine my life in that area, to reflect on the potential sin issue, to search the word of God for what He has to say about it and to seek Godly counsel from a church elder regarding the potential sin issue, if that is necessary.

A Christian brother or a sister, coming to me in love and concern for my behavior is a beautiful thing.

“Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.” Proverbs 27:17

Christians are expected to support, correct and sharpen one another. We are Biblically instructed to do so.

So, here, I am going to address what the word of God says about this issue of, what is known Biblically as being unequally yoked.

And I am doing this so that any woman listening to this or reading my blog who is either in this situation or expects to be in this situation because she is feeling called to Christ, but her spouse is not, can rest easy in God’s clear and thorough answer on this matter.

Let me lay out my own personal situation for you:

I was born again in Jesus Christ on March 18, 2019. I have been yoked with my husband, who is an astrologer, and therefore is an idolater, since Jan 30, 1993.

For 26 years we were equally yoked, both of us non-Christians and practicing in the New Age. Then I was born again in Jesus Christ this year. Which now means that we are no longer equally yoked.

The woman accusing me of being in sin was using this scripture passage from 2 Corinthians 6:14-15 to substantiate her accusation of sin:

“Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols?”

FYI, Belial is another name for Satan.

Context is very important when using scripture to correct another Christian. Context is ALWAYS important when using scripture, regardless of what you are trying to do with it.

This passage is found in the New Testament. The apostle Paul is talking to the church that he founded in Corinth. Paul has discovered some problems with this church and in this letter he is speaking to people who already are Christians, impressing upon them that, as Christians, they are not to choose to yoke unequally with unbelievers.

However, in my own case, when I yoked with my husband I was not a Christian.

Just after being born again in Christ, however, this unequal yoking was a serious concern for me as a new believer, as I suspect that it would be and is for other new believing wives married to non-believing husbands.

To find out how I was supposed to handle this situation I turned directly to God’s Word for his answer. God is awesome for so many reasons, not the least of which is he covers off and instructs us, in the Bible, on every possible eventuality in our lives. We just have to search the scripture for his answers.

I discovered God’s perfect model for marriage which is found in Gensis 2:24:

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”

Then I discovered the instructions that have been provided in the Bible from God for those who are unequally yoked in 1 Corinthians 7:13-17:

“If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace. For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife? Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches.”

Pretty straightforward don't you think? Even for the Bible.

Not only did I pour over God’s Word for his counsel and truth on this matter I also sought Biblical counsel from three different pastors to make sure that I fully understood the Word and knew what God was saying to me. All three of them pointed out that in the fullness of God’s word, God instructs me not to divorce my unbelieving husband.

They also pointed me to this scripture:

1 Peter 3:1-4:  “Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives when they see your respectful and pure conduct. Do not let your adorning be external - the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing that you wear - but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle heart and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.”

It can be clearly seen from these scriptures that in God’s eyes husband and wife are one flesh. In fact this is God's own design. And this is the case regardless of whether or not they are equally or unequally yoked.

If a Christian chooses to marry a non-believer then he or she will need to be prepared to stay through thick and thin, sickness and in health, for better or worse and forsaking all others in order to obey the Word of God.

It can be very difficult for a Christian to be married to a non-Christian and that is the reason Paul says the things he does about not unequally yoking in 2 Corinthians 6:14-15.

1 Corinthians 7:13-17 clearly instructs me, the believing wife, to not divorce my unbelieving husband.

Christ, himself says this about divorce in Matthew 19:3-6:

“And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, ‘Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?’ He answered, ‘Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are not longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

From Christ's lips to our ears. It's a beautiful thing.

If my husband had chosen to divorce me because I became a Christian then I am instructed to let it be so and be in peace about it. It also states that by virtue of my being a believer my unbelieving husband is sanctified by God. I am to live the life that God has called me to in being one flesh with my husband. We were married twenty six years before I became a Christian. My husband has happily chosen to not divorce me. Therefore, I am not in sin in the eyes of God. I am in obedience to his will.

However, I absolutely would be in sin in God’s eyes if I chose to leave my husband. We are still together, and both very happy that we are.

I have also brought myself into alignment with 1 Peter 3:1-4 and have made myself subject to my husband even though he does not obey the word of God.

I am happy to report that since I have put myself in full submission to both God’s will in my situation and, as God instructs, in submission to my husband, God has been at work in my husband’s life in amazing ways and has been working in my life through my husband as well. My testimony in this regard grows every day.

As 1 Corinthians 7:15-16 states: “God has called you to peace. For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband?”

Confusion and error is the result when an enthusiastic but ill informed Christian takes scripture out of the appropriate context and uses it to try to support an accusation of sin without doing the proper research into the Word of God. If the woman accusing me had done this proper research she would see that 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 (the verse that she uses to substantiate her accusation) is not in contradiction to 1 Corinthians 7:13-17. Quite the opposite. The one scripture informs the other. God’s word does not contradict God’s word. It will never contradict itself. This is the fullness and perfection of God’s word.

I have responded fully to her accusation pointing her to the scripture that I have used in this post, however, she has told me that she is not going to listen to it.

Oh dear...

It is at the very least worrisome that this woman has an online teaching ministry. I wonder how she is counseling women who are new believers that are married to non-believers? I pray that they do not seek counsel from her on this matter. Or any matter until she learns how to understand scripture and rightly divide the word.

My counsel to you ladies is this: God's model for marriage is the foundational model for the entire Bible. Christ is the metaphorical bridegroom and the church - born again Chrisitans - are the bride.

God takes marriage very seriously and wants nothing to pull it apart, even a marriage to a non-believer.

If you are a newly born again Christian God instructs you to remain with your non-believing husband, to love him, to show him Christ through your heart and your actions, to pray for him and to submit to him.

Through your example he may very well come to Christ on his own.

As always God’s will be done in this and every other matter.

If you have any more questions please don’t hesitate to reach out to me.

xo Clare