So how do you know that you're teaching false doctrine? It's very easy. Do you repeat something that you've heard someone else taught that sounded spiritual but lacked substance and verification of Scripture?
We all love to be popular in front of people and show that we're "knowledgeable" in the Scriptures to impress people but Paul said in 1 Corinthians 8:1 (NKJV) "Now concerning things offered to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies."
Hence, the Lord sent a messenger of satan to buffet him lest he be exalted with pride in his heart regarding the abundance of the revelation of Christ he received (see 2 Corinthians 12:1-10).
Remember. Proverbs 16:18. "Pride comes before destruction and a haughty spirit before the fall."
All you have to do is compare what they've said with the Word of God and then do a thorough objective study of the subject.
WHAT'S A THOROUGH OBJECTIVE STUDY?
It's an unbiased unadulterated investigation of what you've heard.
In other words, you take no sides. To be unbiased means just that. You take no sides like a judge. Justice is supposed to be blind but the ears are uncovered. One side presents its case and the other side presents its case.
People do get mad when their false teaching is completely debunked and exposed.
You weigh the evidence and come to a conclusion.
If it lacks evidence, then you conclude that it's not real.
If there's undeniable evidence, beyond a reasonable doubt, then you reach a conclusion.
Prove what you've been taught in difficult places.
Go to the slums, streets, ghettos, hospitals, morgues, hospices, homeless shelters, and nursing homes. What about amputees? What about missing eye balls? If what you're teaching works 100% of the time, the whole purpose is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to them so they would repent and place faith in Christ alone.
Covid 19 was a good place to see signs, wonders, and miracles. Right? Let's be honest.
Let's use faith as an example.
FAITH
Many will say "I don't receive this teaching on teachers teaching false doctrine."
Ok. That's fine. But what if the Lord allows it anyway? What are you going to do?
Faith doesn't mean that you throw away searching for the evidence. In other words, using your faith to block what God allowed.
Since you have "faith," you don't need to have common sense. Right?
Don't be foolish.
Objective questions must be asked.
We must never be afraid to ask objective questions.
Does God heal everybody?
The answer to this question is no.
John chapter 5 reveals that the Lord only healed one person among many that were sick at the pool of Bethesda.
Can He heal everybody?
The answer to this question is yes.
God is omnipotent, meaning all powerful.
If I ask Him in faith and if I believe I receive, He's "obligated" in His Word to heal me.
No. He's not obligated to heal you.
He can heal you when He chooses to heal you but what if He sovereignly chooses not to heal you? What would you do?
A smart person will still ask the Lord in faith to heal, but a smart person will also say "Not my will but Your will be done."
Do you know His complete 100% will? The answer is no.
1 John 5:14-15 is clear that "...if we ask anything according to His will He hears us, and if we know that He hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desire of Him."
We forget that "according to His will" there's something else attached to His will.
The Sovereign will of God.
No one knows His complete will because Isaiah 40:28 tells us that "...there's no searching of His understanding."
We all get disappointed when we pray in faith for someone to be healed and when they don't get healed, we all ask "What happened? Why didn't God answer my prayer?"
We all say to Him,
"But Lord, You've said in Your Word 'Ask and receive that your joy might be full.' You've said in Your Word, 'Ask and I will answer.'
You've said in Your Word, 'Ask the Father in My name and He will give it to you.'
You've said in Your Word, 'Ask and it will be given you, seek and you shall find, knock and the door will be opened to you.'"
When the Lord says 'NO,' you can't say that He didn't answer you. It's just that He chose not to answer the way you wanted Him to answer.
But Lord, Your Word says "All the promises of God in Him are Yes and Amen."
What happened, Lord?
The Lord sees everything and we don't. The Lord knows everything and we don't.
Does it mean that we don't ask Him anymore when He didn't answer the way that we've wanted Him to answer the first time?
Absolutely not. We continue to ask in His name dispite past results.
James 4:1-10 is there too.
You see, the false teachers will blame you for your "lack of faith" but you did exactly what they've taught you, being that you're "full of faith."
False teachers will also say that it's because of sin in their lives that they didn't receive. Or that there must be sin in your life. But they're being disingenuous or not candid or sincere about it. Any excuse will do, so long as they don't take the blame for their failure.
False teachers want to get the spot light off of them and turn the spot light on to your supposed failure.
False teachers that teach healing want so bad to be the one that heal a person so that they can promote themselves and not God. Additionally, if someone gets healed, you know that the offering plate will be passed.
It was all about money, not about helping a person.
And when no one gets healed, with a good musician, you could easily mask the error and false teachers will still take up a good offering (see 2 Peter 2:1-3).
Then there's denial. You know nothing happened, but you stay in "faith."
It's a refusal to accept the fact that nothing happened.
False teachers will never tell you the truth about why the Lord didn't heal because it ruins their ability to control the situation and if they tell the truth that God is Sovereign, it ends their ability to control the narrative.
Then they claim, never pray...."If it be Your will."
Well, if you read Matthew 26:39, the Lord prayed "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me, nevertheless, not My will but Your will be done."
The objective question to ask is, If the Lord prayed this way, why is it bad for me to pray this way?
Plus, false teachers always say "We need to keep an atmosphere of faith and refuse to doubt."
And why did Paul leave Trophimus sick in Miletus (see 2 Timothy 4:20) and told Timothy to no longer drink water but drink a little wine for the stomach sake for his "frequent infirmities" (see 1 Timothy 5:23)?
We also forget that good honest doctors with rightly used medicine are used by the Lord to help people too.
Why do we go to the hospital or use common medicines, fully vetted vaccines, or homemade anecdotes like chicken noodle soup?
Paul had Luke, the beloved physician, administering medicine and wrapping up Paul’s wounds after persecution.
Yet, the Lord used Paul to heal others?
Now false teachers will use Mark 11:22-24 and other Scriptures as their basis of God healing 100% of the time.
Yet many of them have undisclosed illness.
Or you don't see them in public. Or they've mysteriously died of an illness. Or some of them died of natural causes.
And this is where a further explanation is needed when you do exactly what Mark 11:22-24 teaches and we don't receive. Did the Lord lie when we don't receive as this Scripture told us to believe that we receive them and I shall have them? Are we fooling ourselves?
It's easy to say that this is "mysterious." And it's easy to say that "God is Sovereign."
But He is Sovereign.
We try to force God to heal.
I'm not saying that God never heals today.
Every day is a miracle to be alive. When we're alive, it's a blessing. We also miss the fact that one day, we'll be given new bodies in the resurrection. Our death doomed mortal bodies will be raised to life like Christ was raised from the dead (see 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and Thessalonians 4:13-18).
UNDERSTANDING THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD
A good example of understanding the sovereignty of God is Job.
Throughout his whole ordeal, Job requested to talk with the Lord. When you get to chapter 32, the back story unfolds. You need to spend a little time reading the story of Job to appreciate the Sovereign will of God in the life of Job.
Now most people will say that Job is the OT and we're in the NT. The book of Job is considered the oldest book in the Bible. Which means that the book of Job is pre-Moses or pre law dispensation. While we're NT believers in Christ, the Sovereignty to God didn't change just because Job's story is an OT book.
The book of Job reveals how the Lord deals with us even when we don't understand it all.
Remember what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10. They were written for our "example."
Job's three friends blamed the calamity on Job because they've presummed that Job sinned against the Lord. In the end, Job's three friends were wrong and it took the 4th friend, the youngest out of them all, to set the record straight.
The Lord even said that what Job's three friends said was wrong and that Job was to pray for them (see Job 42:7-9).
Job went through destruction, death, and sickness even after he sacrificed to the Lord for his family, including his children. We can worship God in spirit and in truth but the hand of God's protection and prosperity is lifted when He sees fit.
What happens when the overflow stops?
What does someone do when you've walked in your integrity and the hand of God's protection and provision is lifted? Of course, no one ever wants God's protection and provision lifted. But it does happens.
While it was satan that committed these acts, the purpose of God allowing these things is to show satan that the heart of Job would never walk out on God, even after a series of disasters. Even when you've done nothing to trigger it.
In all fairness, Job didn't know that satan was working against God and Job to get Job to curse God. This story also shows the protection and provision of God for His saints that walk in truth.
But God was 100% confident that Job would never curse God.
God didn't have to do it, but He did it anyway. God has nothing to prove. However, in it all, even when Job didn't understand it all, the Lord was faithful.
Job's integrity and faith in God remained intact, but there's still one thing that Job had that must be dealt with.
Job was self righteous (see Job chapter 35).
You see. In all our dealings with the Lord, if we're honest with ourselves, we would never leave things covered and make assumptions that we're 100% honest with God. We would never boast about our "sinless life."
Or because I’m the “righteousness of God in Christ Jesus,” godliness is the reason why I have great possessions.
1 Timothy 6:5-6 (NKJV)
“…useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself. Now godliness with contentment is great gain.”
But in the end, Job recognized the Sovereignty of God and that He knows all things (see Job 42:1-6).
The lesson is clear that the Lord deals with us individually as He see's fit, whether we're in Christ and in faith or not.
In the end, Job received double for his trouble (see Job 42:10-17).
What's the lesson?
God is Sovereign, no matter what happens in our lives.
Do a thorough objective study before you fly off the handle with "popular" teachings that fails to have the whole counsel of God.
2 Timothy 2:15 (NKJV)
"Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."
1 Thessalonians 5:21. "Test all things. Hold fast to that which is good."
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