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

Back in May I was doing a random Google search, the exact topic of which I forget but it was something to do with mediumship. A blog post by a psychic medium named Blair Robertson came up in the search results and it caught my eye so I read it. I link it here in case you want to read it:

The Truth about God and Mediums

Blair has, as of this writing,186 comments under that article. Four of these comments refute what Blair says is the truth about the Bible and mediums and, to his credit he has chosen to publish those comments (important note: he has to approve all blog comments before they are posted).

The rest of the comments - 182 of them - praise Blair for 'speaking the truth' in this article, agree with what he has written, tell him how awesome he is, denigrate 'so called' Christians, call Christians holy rollers, hypocrites and religious zealots, and make various (and unfortunately totally erroneous) statements about what is OK with and who Jesus is. It's quite apparent that Blair's fans are rallying to support his interpretation of scripture.

Now you would think that someone stepping out with such authority on his blog as to what the Word of God is saying about mediumship would welcome a discussion on the topic, especially since he asserts himself with such certainty and confidence in his interpretation.

That just makes sense, right? Why would he shy away from discussion on this topic?

After all he makes some pretty definitive statements about the Bible, Jesus and in characterizing Christians. Here are a few excerpts that I quote directly from his article:

•  "Whenever I'm confronted by misguided religious folks who attempt “Bible-Quote Kung Fu,” I typically remind them of Matt 17 where Jesus spoke to Moses and Elijah. Two very dead guys. This was witnessed by his disciples to boot! Not only that, this was THE MOMENT that God proclaimed that Jesus was his son, to listen to him and that God was pleased. Think about it. It can only mean one thing: Jesus himself was a medium."
  

 

• "If speaking to the dead was okay for Jesus, it is certainly fine for me. The gift comes from the same source: God.
   
  Of course, this is where the bible thumpers lose their minds. They'll come back with dozens of quotes to argue against it.
   
  But they can never dispute that Jesus spoke to dead people. As it is written.
   
  In the Bible.
   
  For all to read and see. Denying it is to deny Jesus. Period."
  

 

• "Leviticus 19:31 is the most used quote mediums (and their followers) get hit with. It forbids talking to mediums.
   
  But when someone quotes it, I always like to ask them how many doves/turtles they have sacrificed when they menstruate. Because, according to Leviticus 15:19-33, women must kill a couple to appease the Lord. (If it is a man, I ask where he sends his wife for 2-weeks so his disgusting wife will not defile him).
   
  As you might imagine, this usually causes a complete melt-down with the Bible slinging hypocrite. In 30-years of me asking this question, not one has given me a number… they tend to be very evasive."
  
  
• "Ah. So, by Jesus dying on the cross, it erases some of the past rules? So, not everything in the Bible can be taken literally.
   
  That makes sense, doesn't it? It does to me.
   
  Just as it makes sense that Jesus demonstrated mediumship. And at no time did Jesus discourage anyone from practicing it.
   
  NOTE: Leviticus 19 is but one quote. There are many other references. They all lead to the same end: Jesus demonstrated mediumship at a pivotal point in his life, witnessed by his disciples."
  

OK I'm back...

There are so many things from a Biblical perspective that are totally wrong with what Blair is saying in the above statements that it would take a very long article to address them all. I'm not going to get into that here.

But please do notice the objective and fair way that he refers to Christians using statements such as "religious folks who attempt 'Bible Quote Kung Fu'",  "bible thumpers lose their minds", and "a complete meltdown with the Bible slinging hypocrite".

Not very respectful way to talk about Christians. Or anyone for that matter. Perhaps it is the case that Blair has only crossed paths with nasty people who identify as Christians. Whatever the case may be Blair has certainly chosen not to take the high road here. At least not from what I read.

Anyone who wants to use the Bible as their source of truth needs to have READ the Bible, have some understanding of it and take GREAT CARE with their exegesis of it. (Exegesis is a fancy word for interpretation). 

It takes many years of study to become anywhere close to speaking with the level of confidence that Blair exudes and asserts in his own exegesis of the scripture he is pointing us to.

Furthermore  a person who is trying to interpret a Bible passage would do well to use a little wisdom and seek guidance from someone who really knows the Bible to see how his or her interpretation (in this case Blair's) stands up rather than making assumptions and stretching and pulling the scripture to fit what he or she wants it to mean with a 'case closed, discussion over, that's what it means' attitude.

Blair is so confident that he makes a definitive statement: (and I quote him) "It can only mean one thing: Jesus himself was a medium." while criticizing those who disagree with him and try to point him to other places in the Bible that refute his interpretation (and I quote him) "Of course, this is where the bible thumpers lose their minds. They'll come back with dozens of quotes to argue against it.".

I wonder if Blair's confidence arises from many years reading and studying the Bible?

If it does then he would surely know this verse in Psalm 34:13

"Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from telling lies."

And this one from Psalm 4:24:

"Keep your mouth free of perversity; keep corrupt talk far from your lips."

I disagree with how Blair has handled the Matthew 17 scripture so I decided to respond to his blog post.  And, because I'm not a nasty, horrible Christian I respectfully expressed my disagreement.

This is what I wrote:
________

Hi Blair,

I stumbled upon this post through a random Google search and it caught my eye. I thought I’d pop in to add some more context for that Bible verse that you are working with here and to add a few comments of my own.

In referring to Matthew 17 you say "Think about it. It can only mean one thing: Jesus himself was a medium.”

First let me quote that verse here so people reading this can see what it says. It’s important to always quote what the Bible is saying rather than paraphrasing the things we have read. That way we have the accurate words of the Bible which speak for themselves.

But first let me share that I am a Christian and I read and study the Bible on a daily basis, which is imperative for anyone who wants to know what’s actually in there and use it to prove things to others. Paraphrasing verses out of the bigger context of the Bible doesn’t provide the deeper truth that lies therein. Taking a few words here and there then drawing grand conclusions, especially when we are attempting to guide, teach or convince others in some way, is not a good thing to do.

So here goes: This is from the New International Version. And I’m going to give you more of the verses so that we can see the broader context:

“After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John, the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as the light. Just then appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.

Peter said to Jesus, ‘Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters - one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.

While he was speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!’ “ Matthew 17:1-5

The one very important thing that this event is revealing is that Jesus is the Son of God. We are seeing Jesus in all his glory here. That ‘one thing’ as you say is not that Jesus is a medium. See the difference? Out of context or paraphrased that most amazing revelation to Peter, James and John on that mountain, that Jesus is the SON of God, would be missed. Or misinterpreted or misunderstood. Notice, too, that Jesus is joined by two very important men of the Bible in Moses and Elijah. This, too, is very significant.

I highly doubt that those three apostles descended the mountain after that saying “Wow… God is revealing to us that Jesus is a medium!”

You are absolutely correct when you say that this is a ‘massive Bible moment’. It is indeed. Jesus did this most amazing event exactly ONCE. It was a unique event in the gospels and is also recorded in the gospels of Mark and Luke. Jesus did not announce it to anyone and it was never repeated. So when you note that it is a massive Bible moment, I am in full agreement with you on that! Which makes it a very very special event, indeed. It may seem OK to take it out of context and use it as confirmation that Jesus is a medium and so mediumship is being blessed in the Bible. But that would be, well, just wrong.

You’d need to find other clear and direct verses in the Bible where Jesus performs mediumship in front of his disciples the way he demonstrated miracles to large groups of people who were following him, showing them that mediumship is, indeed, OK to practice. That it was, indeed, something that Jesus actually did. Then you'd have a solid argument for your position.

This, however, doesn’t happen in the Bible. Jesus does not do this. You don’t have to believe me, you can simply read the Bible to see if you can find these events for yourself. And if you did find them you could then quote directly from the Bible, chapter and verse, to support your claims about mediumship. That is the right and respectful way to use the Bible. Especially if you are wanting to share the truth about mediumship in the Bible, which is what you are claiming that you want to do.

So I just wanted to add this to the discussion, because it is very important. Especially if you want to use the truth of the Bible to demonstrate that mediumship is ok to practice.

I hear you on the ‘bible thumpers’ quoting verses out of context. That can be very annoying and frustrating. That is why it behooves those of us who want to use the Bible to support our claims to read the whole thing in order to see the story unfold from start to finish so we can gain deeper understanding what it is that God does want for us and why there are many things that he does not want us doing or engaging in.

In closing I want to say that this is what I have been doing. I used to practice mediumship. Through gaining a deeper understanding of the Bible by continuing to read and study it, I have walked away from mediumship, because I now know that it is not OK with God. And that did not come by taking a Bible verse here or there out of context. It came from reading the whole darn thing! Oh and I don’t belong to any religion, either. I am spiritual, not religious. Just like you. :)

With love,

Clare

_____

Blair has chosen to moderate all comments that are on his blog, a practice I wholeheartedly agree with, as I do it myself. Moderation allows blog owners to choose not to post disrespectful comments, comments that use profane or foul language, comments that are way off topic, inflammatory or spam.

I wrote and posted my comment sometime in May. A couple of weeks later I checked back in with the blog post to see if Blair had, perhaps responded to my comment. I discovered that he had not yet posted my comment.

So I waited a couple of days then checked back in again. I saw that a couple of new comments had been posted since my last check in. This was a good sign because it meant that Blair was reading and approving comments for this post.

I checked in again, now about six weeks later. My comment still had not been approved for publication. So on June 29th I followed up with another blog comment asking him why.

Here is what I wrote:
_____

Hi Blair,

I posted a comment on this post “The Truth About God and Mediums" sometime back in May 2019 providing more context for the Bible verses that you are using in order to defend and validate your position on mediumship.

I've noticed that you have posted other comments since that time. You seem to have have chosen, thus far, not to post mine.

I find that interesting. Why would that be? Was my comment disrespectful to you or anyone else or inflammatory in any way?

If I am jumping the gun here and it really is your intention to post my comment but you've not had time in your busy schedule to do so please forgive me. I'll just keep checking in to see if it gets posted at a later date.

Please feel free to email me directly with a few words as to why you chose not to post my comment and where, perhaps, I have breached your comment guidelines or was offensive in any way in expressing my thoughts and take on those verses re: mediumship. I would welcome that. Clarity on your guidelines and what you allow and don't allow in blog comments would be helpful and appreciated.

I notice that you sign off your blog posts with "love and light". I'd 'love' if you could bring some 'light' to why you have not included my comment on your blog. :)

I can be reached at (my personal email was inserted here)

With love,

Clare

_______

Subsequent visits to his website after sending this second comment to Blair have revealed that neither of my comments has been posted to this blog article as of October 2019.

I am left wondering why Blair has chosen not to post my original comment?

Perhaps he's not as Biblically confident as he tries to appear and is afraid to try to defend his position with scripture?

Perhaps he knows that he is not actually able to defend his assertion about mediumship Biblically and is unwilling to engage in a conversation that would reveal  his ignorance to his reading audience.

Or worse, maybe he knows that he is wrong and is intentionally misleading and deceiving people. (Goodness I hope not... I actually don't believe that he would intentionally do this.)

Maybe he just doesn't like talking with level headed Christians.

Perhaps it is simply that once the TRUTH is revealed there is nothing more to say as in when Jack Nicholson's character in A Few Good Men says "You can't handle the truth."

Or, more importantly, as God says in the Bible:

“How many times shall I make you swear that you speak to me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord?” 1 Kings 22:16

"...that your words may be tested, whether there is truth in you." Genesis 42:16

But Blair uses the Bible to prove the truth so he would know those verses, too. He says so in his blog post title.

After posting this blog - my own here - I sent Blair another comment on that blog. This is it:

Hi Blair,

Clare here again. I have written a blog post about my experience of commenting twice on your blog and you're choosing not to post my response to your "The Truth About God and Mediums" blog post.

You can find both the blog post and the podcast at:

https://www.claremcnaul.com/blog/clare-responds-to-a-psychic-mediums-blog-post-entitled-the-truth-about-god-and-mediums

You are very confident in your interpretation of the Bible with regards to mediums and mediumship.

You also demonstrate a desire to validate mediumship by using the Bible, the Word of God.

I cannot find anywhere in the Bible where mediumship is validated, in fact quite the contrary, I only see that mediumship is what God calls an 'abomination', and that it is not at all validated in the Bible.

I invite you to prove me wrong using the Bible. Dig into the Word and pull out passages and scriptures in which God and / or Jesus actually validate mediumship.

I'll happily engage in a level headed conversation with you. I'd love to get to the bottom of this, because I don't believe that it is your intention to mislead people.

The good news is that if validation of mediumship is actually not in the Bible it then frees you up to say "Ah to heck with it, I like being a medium anyway. I don't need God's approval."

However you do display a desire to prove mediumship Biblically, to believe and assert that you know the "The Truth about God and Mediums" and a confidence that you can and as I've just said, I have to believe that you would rather get to the truth than intentionally mislead people.

Let's have a discussion.

Love Clare

PS: If I hear from Blair Robertson I will let y'all know!

That's because there is a lot of deception about who Jesus is, propagated by good people who mean well, especially in the New Age.

Jesus Christ IS NOT:

• a soft and cuddly, anything goes kind of nice guy
• an ascended master
• a "Christ consciousness"
• a "divine presence" or "source energy"
• a small 'g' god to whom all paths lead
• a large ‘G’ God to whom all paths lead
• a guy who tried to set a 'good example'
• a guardian angel
• a spirit guide
• or any other nonsense such as the above
  

Jesus Christ is THE ONLY Son of God - THE ONE AND ONLY God of the Universe. The only place you will learn about who Jesus Christ really is and what He did to secure your salvation and give you the gift of eternal life with God is… in the Bible.

Let me repeat: the Bible is the ONLY place you will learn the TRUTH about Jesus Christ.

You won’t learn the truth about Jesus in a book by Deepak Chopra.

Or because of something Oprah said.

...Or something your New Age teacher said.

Or in an elaborately produced, slick movie on Netflix. (wow... look at those sparkly blue eyes and that blond shoulder length hair... how dreamy…)

Or in a YouTube video about Jesus.

Nope. Only the Bible holds the TRUTH about Jesus Christ.

Why? Because the Bible is God telling you directly through His Word everything you need to know about everything in life, including (and most especially) Jesus Christ.

In fact… Jesus Christ is the ENTIRE reason for the Bible. (Little known fact there for you…)

Does it make you feel uncomfortable when you read what I've just said about Jesus?

If so, perhaps it is time to ask yourself why.

Because resistance and discomfort is really, really useful information.

People who want to grow in truth take the time to inquire into a negative, uncomfortable or resistance response when they hear the name ‘Jesus’ to try find out why.

Many people want to read the Bible.

But... they don't know where to start.

Because it seems like such daunting task. There's a lot of pages in that there Bible. And that is rather intimidating.

I know.

I've been there.

And that's why I'm here for you.

Even if you’ve had only one brief fleeting thought that has said “Read the Bible” … that, my friend is God speaking to you. 

Yes, that ONE and ONLY God of the Universe.

I am now offering a 30 (or 60) day day journey through the Bible with me as your 1:1 mentor, reading buddy, Bible reading friend.

We’re going to crack open that book with the uppercase words “HOLY BIBLE” stamped on the front.

We will walk together through the New Testament in an easy to read translation. You’ll complete a manageable and brief reading assignment each day (or every second day if you choose the 60 day program).

We'll share our thoughts and insights about what we've read with each other.
​
I’ll be right there with you every step of the way.

Reading the word of God is the only way to learn about the word of God.

Discovering Jesus in the Bible is one of the most amazing journeys you will ever take. It’s a journey that could very well change your life. And your afterlife. 

Let's crack that Bible and discover our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ... together.

There is no charge for this program. No hidden agenda. No strings attached.
​
All you need to do is show up. 

Time's ticking, folks. It's time to meet the REAL Jesus Christ.

If you are interested in learning more please email me at clare@claremcnaul.com  and I will get back to you with more details.
​
Love, Clare

Here is Part 1 of this two part blog post series if you'd like to start there.

Whenever I share my born again in Christ testimony I am repeatedly asked two questions:

1. How do you know that you encountered the real Jesus / God?

2. Why did you give up mediumship just because you met Jesus?

I actually love getting these questions because they tell me two very important things about the people asking them:

1. That they know that God exists.

2. That they know that there are false gods.

Both are a very very good thing.

When asked these questions I have no need to become defensive around the fact that I know the one true God. Why?

Because it’s not up to me to prove to anyone who the one true God is.

That is the one true God’s job.

I can simply share the story of how I came to know God.

But first let me say that, though I would love nothing more than for all of you who practice mediumship, do channeling or any other kind of deceptive New Age stuff, for every single one of you to come to know the real Jesus, I am not deluded enough to think that will happen for you by listening to one of my podcasts or by reading one of my blog posts.

New Age deception runs very deep and is very difficult to part with. Mediums, psychics, channelers and other New Agers work long and hard to bring themselves to a place of trusting their experiences with the so-called spirit world etc. so they are not willing to let that all go easily.

New Age deception also includes notions and beliefs fabricated and concocted to confuse us about Jesus Christ, presenting Him as, for example, an “anything goes, cuddly, all loving Christ consciousness” and God our Father as a “non-personal, ill-defined love and light, source energy.”

Or worse yet the deception extends as far as to assert that each of us IS god. That we are divinely perfect beings who create our own realities.

Few New Agers ever really question these notions or try to discern where and who they came from and, instead swallow them hook, line and sinker. Mostly because these beliefs make them ‘feel good’ and fill a need for everything to do with Jesus and God to be all-embracing, all-accepting and all-loving of everyone and everything. If it ‘feels good’ it must be true! Why would I question an image of god that gives me carte blanche to do whatever I want, or suggests that I am, myself a god who can create my own reality, thank you very much.

Believe me I know because I bought into these notions and beliefs without questioning them for years.

It was when I began to question that things changed for me.

Maybe you’re reading this because it is time for you to question the New Age false doctrines and what you assume is the source of your guidance, support and protection. Perhaps it's time for a little discernment?

Personally... I’d love for you to see the truth and be set free. Your afterlife depends on it.

Back to my story….

Though I had been feeling a pull, as to were, from God for a couple of years, it was once I began reading the Bible that an acceleration occurred within me. It was then only a matter of months before I had my born again experience (that is what Christians call it when we come to Christ- being born again in Christ) and with that event came a gift of being able to see through the deceptions perpetuated by the New Age movement.

The Bible is the supernatural word of God. It is the infinite and the eternal distilled down into words. God is talking directly to you from infinity. Why do you think that God’s enemy, Satan does everything he can to influence you away from the Bible? To make you question and deny it’s accuracy and authenticity? To shed doubt at every turn on the truth of the word of God?

Because the Bible aligns you with a truth so profound and so powerful that it cannot be denied.

The Bible is the WORD of God. I know, I’m repeating myself but it bears repeating.

How do we know this?

Because the Bible tells us so. On every page, in every book, chapter and verse we are face to face with the truth of God’s existence.

The Bible is rife with of evidence and confirmation of God’s sovereignty, power, omniscience, faithfulness and love.

In addition to which…

It isn’t only the Bible that is a revelation of God.

God has so clearly revealed himself in nature through his supernatural being made both manifest and visible through the things that are made and that knowledge that God reveals is not just out there objectively for all of us to read or misread but so that that message, implanted in nature gets through so that we all will know, in fact, that God exists.

To put it bluntly there is no excuse.

You already know that God exists. That is not your issue. Your issue around the existence of God is a moral one not an intellectual one.

People don’t want to acknowledge the one true God revealed in the Bible because they don’t like what he has to say. It offends them. Like a teenagers who rebels against their loving father’s good advice for their best interests, they rebel against the true God of the Bible and replace Him with a god or gods that let them have it all their way.

Then then buy into the deception that this small ‘g’ god, (which is known as an idol), is the REAL God.

Oh dear…

The only thing that will cut through this crap is meeting the real Jesus Christ. There is only one way to the one true God the Father and that is through Jesus Christ. “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6

And the only place to meet the real Jesus Christ is the Bible. See a pattern here?

Once you meet Jesus Christ, believe in him, that he died on the cross for your sins and resurrected from the on the third day - just like it tell you to over and over again in the Bible - the veil of deception is lifted from you and you see the New Age for the Satanic garbage that it is. You realize that it is God ONLY that provides, not “the Universe” or “Source” or “the Divine”, or even “You” as god, and that everything the one true God does is for us and our own good, so, therefore, YES, there will be things that we won’t like about that and we’ll feel restrained, like teenagers who want to be able to do anything and everything they damn well please. We’ve been conditioned and deceived into thinking that we have been born into this world to call the shots and do exactly what we like.

Meeting Jesus Christ cuts through that bull-poop and offers you the one and only true awakening.

And there is only one way meet Jesus and that and it is through the Bible.

And your very life, salvation and your afterlife depends on it.

Everything else is nonsense.

Sobering, indeed.

I have no doubt whatsoever that I have met the REAL God. My God is unchanging, eternal, boundless, loving, sovereign, knows the beginning from the end and the end from the beginning. He always was, is and will be. He is the creator of heaven and earth and everything else that you can see. He has written the book that provides me with everything I need to know about Him, here and now at this time. He has shown me the way out of sin, corruption, confusion, despair and deception.

Can your god claim all of that? Can you as ‘god’ do all of that? Would you ever even try to go up against that?

So now to answer this question once and for all: Why did you give up mediumship after meeting Jesus?

Because I came to the one true God through my encounter with his son, Jesus Christ.

And the word of God - which is God himself speaking - tells me not to practice mediumship.

“Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft..”  Deuteronomy 18:10

And for those who prefer their guidance from the New Testament:

“Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife . . . and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” Galatians 5:19-21

That’s pretty clear don’t you think? And, yes, mediumship and all things New Age fall into the both the idolatry and sorcery categories.

God is uncompromising. He doesn’t negotiate. What He says goes.

And that is good enough for me.

And because of my confidence that I know the one true God, I have been accused of being arrogant.

Let’s see now… I am submitting myself to the will of my loving God who created me while…

…most of you in the New Age think that YOU are the creator.  

And I’m arrogant?

“You shall have no other gods before me.” Exodus 20:3

But here’s the good news: You don’t have to take my word for it. In fact, you should not take my word for it.

You can get to know the one true God all on your own. You don’t need anyone else. No priest, no church, no religion, no intermediary, no teacher is needed.

Pick up the Bible. Crack it open and read.

That is all you need.  

xo Clare

I'll be exploring topics such as Spiritual Warfare and delving deeper into the New Age in upcoming posts so stay tuned. Plus I'll have some interviews coming for you soon!

My last blog post “The Supernatural Experience that Surpasses All” raised a lot of questions for a lot of you and I received many emails.

The questions I have been asked the most are:

“Why have you left mediumship?".

And "Why can’t you follow Jesus and be a medium?”

Both fair questions that I am going to give you part one of the answer to here.

But first...

Many of you told me that you love Jesus. That Jesus is very dear to you. Some of you shared that he’s appeared to you in your dreams and meditations and that you’ve seen him during Reiki treatments and healing sessions.

Some of you said that you pray to Jesus asking for his help, protection and blessing in your mediumship and that you know he provides that for you because you are doing mediumship for good, connecting with the spirit world from the highest and best place of light and love and holding the best intentions to bring healing to others. You are doing your mediumship for God.

You made it clear that this is why you can love Jesus and practice mediumship.

I used to see it that way, too.

That is, until I met Jesus Christ.

The most important question that we all must ask ourselves, when we think we have seen or feel or know Jesus is: Which Jesus?

Why?

Because, contrary to beliefs that continue to gain ever growing popularity amongst psychics and mediums Jesus Christ doesn’t just randomly pop into your meditations, appear in your dreams to give you a message or show up during healing or Reiki sessions.

And he doesn’t protect you while you are doing mediumship.

Whoever does that is not the real Jesus.

The Jesus that does that is either a Jesus that you assume exists or have drawn your own conclusions about, (because you haven’t taken steps to find out who he really is - more about this in a moment) or a false version that you have learned about through a new age (or some other kind of) teacher, or have possibly seen depicted in a movie or read about in a book, like 'A Course in Miracles’ or books written about ‘Jesus' by Deepak Chopra, for example.

You’ve got to get your Jesus’s straight.

Unfortunately the new age and new thought movements persistently push and perpetuate a false Jesus. Rather than pointing us towards the Bible for the answers about Jesus, these movements lead us away from the Bible and, instead, attempt to mislead us by trying to get us to believe in a false Jesus.

The only place you can find out who the real Jesus Christ is, is in the Bible.

In order to know Jesus Christ you need to know who He really is.

Again, contrary to popular beliefs he is not a good person or an enlightened ascended master who did good deeds and tried to teach us by his example. He's is not a 'cuddly, anything goes’ kind of guy who wants everyone to go to heaven. He is not a love and light energy. And he is definitely not the ever popular hip, cool, updated, new age, new thought notion of a 'Christ consciousness'.

And… he is not so full of love for you that he wants you to take any path you darn well please to God.

Nope. That is not Jesus.

Now, by all means, if you so choose, follow that false Jesus. But please be honest with yourself. Don’t operate under the deception that he IS Jesus Christ.

Because that false Jesus is the exact opposite of the real Jesus.

Jesus Christ himself says:

“Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many" (Matthew 24:4-5)

and...

“Jesus said to them ‘Watch out that no one deceives you. Many will come in my name, claiming. ‘I am he’ and will deceive many.” Mark 13:5-6

Could he have put it in simpler terms?

Ok, so once you are clear who Jesus Christ is NOT you can decide if you’d like to know who he actually IS.

And whether you want to take the gift that he offers.

One day last summer I hit a wall. Like never before I wanted to get to the bottom of some things that had been on my mind and heart. I was deeply questioning the practice of mediumship. I wanted to know if and how God fit into it. Tired of the plethora of ways that Jesus Christ was being presented by new age teachers I wanted to know who Jesus really was.

Plus these notions that God is some sort of ‘divine' impersonal 'universal source light energy’ and Jesus just some awakened dude that came here to set an example for us were, frankly, wearing a little thin. I, myself, had been believing those things and pushing them on others for years. I found myself seriously questioning these notions.

So I turned to the one book that is written all about Jesus Christ. The Bible.

And it was within those pages that I discovered who Jesus really is.

From start to finish the entire point of the Bible is to reveal Jesus Christ to us. And make God known to us through Jesus.

And the awesome supernatural thing about it is that the Bible is God speaking to us. Right now. As we read it. In present time.

I also discovered that...

God doesn’t walk on eggshells or pussy foot around. He gets boldly and directly to the point. He isn’t terribly concerned about hurting our feelings. But he does want to get our attention.

He certainly got mine.

The bible is a tough read.

It’s controversial.

There are truth bombs on every page.

The Bible opens our eyes to evil, sin, salvation, heaven, hell. It puts right before our eyes things that we’d rather NOT know. Or think about, thank you very much.

It talks about the things we ALL deeply dislike to look at and quite naturally rebel against. Things we just don’t want to hear anything about.

Plus it’s offensive.

It offends because it reveals how deeply sinful we ALL are - every single one of us - and that we can do absolutely nothing about that.

It lays out what the relationship with God was always meant to be: us walking with him in an intimate relationship. It shows us where and how that was totally screwed up, how that has affected us, how God has done nothing but try to get us to turn back to walking intimately with him and how we do nothing but constantly turn the other way because… sin.

Sin that we can do nothing to remedy or fix.

We can’t fix it by doing good things or by trying to be better people.

We can’t fix it by seeking counseling or therapy or by trying to solve other people’s problems.

We can’t fix it by taking drugs or drinking alcohol.

We can’t fix it by trying to escape it or ignore it.

We can’t fix it through self-empowerment, or by moving from technique to technique, teacher to teacher or guru to guru.

We can’t fix it with money, manifestation or mantras.

We can’t fix it by trying to attain spiritual highs and insights through meditation or by ingesting plants like ayahuasca or peyote.

We can’t fix it by casting oracles or trying to tell the future.

We can’t fix it by owning lots of things or through governmental legislation or by going to war with other countries.

We can’t fix it by listening to spirit guides or bringing messages through from our dead relatives.

We can’t fix it by doing anything.

Our ‘doing' is actually a symptom of our sin. Our doing continually turns us away from the one and only solution.

Every time we try to take life into our own hands and solve our own problems, or someone else’s, or turn to someone else for solutions to our own problems, we fly in the face of God.

God knows this. And he loves us so much he actually offers us the only solution to all our problems and challenges in life.

His Son Jesus Christ.

Who, by dying for us on the cross took care of that sin thing.

The only thing we need to do is accept what God has offered and ask Jesus Christ to be our savior.

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened”  Matthew 7:7

Notice how that last verse quoted says ‘everyone’. Not some, or special people. EVERYONE.

So… I did exactly that. I knocked on that door. I asked.

(If you need a recap or haven’t already heard or read about my Jesus experience you can do that here.)

The door opened. Jesus Christ stepped through.

I met Him. I experienced his power, tender mercy, grace and love first hand.

I felt the weight of sin lifted from me and replaced by joy and peace.

I felt Jesus enter into my heart.

And surrendering to him was a choice-less choice.

No new age Jesus, A Course in Miracles Jesus, Deepak Chopra version of Jesus or any other Jesus can do that. Nor can the Jesus that appears to you in meditations or healing sessions.

Salvation is something that comes only by asking the RIGHT Jesus - the one you meet in the Bible - to be your savior and to come into your life.

Once you surrender your life to Jesus you do not need to turn anywhere else for guidance. And furthermore, you won’t WANT TO turn anywhere else.

This all becomes glaringly obvious in that “how did I miss THAT’ kind of way. As do many other things that you’ve spent your life trying to fix and solve or avoid and push under the carpet.

“Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him and He will do it.” Psalm 37:4-5

I point out a key word in that verse: Commit.

Having experienced what I’ve experienced and knowing what I now know, first hand, about the only place where true loving guidance, peace, grace, comfort, forgiveness and healing lies, why on earth would I continue to lead people down the wrong path with mediumship?

Walking with God is an intimate relationship. God made you in his image, to reflect his glory. You reflect his glory when you obey him.

You obey him by seeking all that you need in life from him and him alone. You obey him by using the gifts that he bestowed upon you for his glory alone.

Turning anywhere else for guidance or wisdom or using your gifts in ways that are not OK with God means that you are literally turning away from God. It is an all or nothing proposition. Be all in with God and he is all in with you and will bless you beyond measure. Turn away and you can expect the same from God.

Practicing mediumship is turning away from God and seeking and trying to pass on to others comfort, guidance and wisdom from ‘spirits’  and ‘spirit guides’ which are sources other than God. This is one of the reasons why God does not bless mediumship or those who practice mediumship.

Contrary to what many mediums vehemently believe and forcefully assert Mediumship is not a gift from God. The gift that it takes to do mediumship is a gift from God, however, using that gift for the purpose of Mediumship is hijacking it and using it in a way that God absolutely does not want you to use it. You’re effectively saying “Thanks but I’m going to do what I want with what you gave me. I don’t give a fig what you want."

There are other reasons, too, why God does not want you to use your gifts to do mediumship and I have much much more to say about this in blog post part two.
 
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.” Proverbs 3:5

"How happy is the man who has put his trust in the Lord and has not turned to the proud or to those who run after lies!”  Psalms 40:4

“When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?" Isaiah 8:19

This, my friends, is why I have given up mediumship.

Part #2 coming soon

xo Clare