Chapter One               –                                              Am I Really Saved?

Acts 16:18 (NASB 2020) She followed Paul and us and cried out repeatedly, saying, “These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you a way of salvation.” 

 

There are huge life-changing revelations all through Scripture that require us to slow down and digest, carefully pray, study, and slowly consume the passage, like a fella would a perfectly aged, seasoned, and medium rare steak. And I recently found one of these nuggets in the latest NASB translation.

 

Ezekiel 3:1-3 (NASB) Then He said to me, “Son of man, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.” ² So I opened my mouth, and He fed me this scroll. ³ And He said to me, “Son of man, feed your stomach and fill your body with this scroll which I am giving you.” Then I ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth.

 

The deliverance crowd is full of folks looking for secret prayers, the names of demons, the 5 steps to breaking generational curses, and so on. And I’m not saying there isn’t some relevance to these teachings, but if our desire isn’t solely built on the knowledge of Jesus “THE” Christ, intimately knowing Him, our ministries and our efforts will crumble.

Knowing anyone intimately requires time and effort. It requires conversations. It requires an unapologetic look deep within your most dark place, opening up and discussing the very root of why we are the way we are. Like a surgeon carefully cutting out cancer from an organ, you have to cut yourself, exposing all the hurt and shame, admitting all the failures, and then leaning on the person whom you desire intimacy with.

Have you ever dug a ditch? We had a Boxxane, Great Dane, and Boxer mix named Kujo, who died at 12 years old last year. The Saturday he passed away, we had moved the pews out of the church and replaced them with some chairs. Kujo had been sick for a few months, and we knew his time was limited. That morning, as Maliq and I were getting ready to head to the church to get to work, I told Maliq that if Kujo survived the day when I got home, I was going to put him down.

Kujo, in his prime, weighed 150 lbs. or so. He was a large, intimidating dog known for fighting and breaking the backs of large raccoons and possums who would get in the garbage. Man, I miss that dog. When we got home that afternoon, Kujo was gone. All that was left was a large carcass that needed to be buried.

Maliq is an 11 Bravo infantryman in the National Guard and is very familiar with digging foxholes with small shovels. So, we grabbed Kujo’s lifeless body, took him to a nice, shaded place in the yard, and started digging. It was 95 – 100 degrees, and we were both exhausted, but we had to dig a grave deep enough to keep wild animals from digging up Kujo. It was work, hard work, but it had to be done.

I tried to tell myself that this was just a soulless animal and that I wasn’t going to get emotional. Now, I am a fella who will weep at the altar with the folks God has blessed me to pastor. But this was “Just a Dog,” I kept telling myself. Then, for some reason, I started remembering all the overdose funerals I had done, and man, I broke down. But the grave still had to be dug.

Intimacy is built in the valley. It is built as we expose our deepest hurts to the people we love. Developing intimacy with the Father only happens through Christ, and it requires work, digging, and the opening of the wounds we thought were healed; it requires us to be honest and vulnerable. But, the American Church has taught us to hide, to conceal, to wear our church face on Sunday mornings, and to go back to the turmoil in our souls on Monday. We are told to pretend that it never happened, to get over it, suck it up, to move on because if you tell them your church family, they will judge you, condemn you, isolate you, and look down on you. What a sad, sad, sad state the American Church is in.

We opened the chapter with Acts 16:18, specifically the NASB 2020 translation. There is a word that is mistranslated in all other relevant translations that exposes the goal of the spirit of divination: “These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you a way of salvation.” Do you see it? “A” way of Salvation! Jesus “THE” Christ is not “A” Way; He is THE Way, the only way to reconcile to the Lord God Almighty. He is the only way our sins can be forgiven. He is the only way we can live eternally with Abba Father. And if you haven’t confessed Him as the Only Way, you simply are not saved. And many in the American Church do not believe He is “The Way.” They have been taught through this watered-down gospel that He is just one of many ways.

We are going to spend some time scripturally showing that a truly Saved, Blood Bought Believer can emphatically be influenced by demons and be in need of having demons cast out of them. But, before we do, we are going to look at a much more pressing issue: false conversions – folks who think they are saved, and they aren’t. Folks who have been preached a different gospel, a gospel of compromise, mixing, a pagan anti-Christ gospel that leads a fella away from the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

I believe a huge issue we have with folks being tormented by demons is that they have been taught that after a 10-second prayer and then being baptized, they are saved and eternally secure. Then pastors who believe that a Christian cannot be demonically influenced convince the folks struggling with tormenting demonic spirits that they just need to read their Bible more, pray harder and more frequently, that they are just struggling with their flesh and possibly need some depression medicine, mood stabilizers, or even maybe a nerve pill occasionally to deal with their continual tormenting thoughts.

Wow! This is what happens when the Holy Spirit and His Gifts are excluded from your doctrine.

Let me say this: I know many Baptist Pastors and Churches where the Holy Spirit is allowed to reign, many Pentecostal churches where the work of the Holy Spirit is quelched by legalism, and there are many wackadoodle Charismatic churches so caught up in prophetic words, miracles, materialism that the Rock, the Revelation of the Body of Christ’s authority is hardly mentioned. Some are even directed by a false Holy Spirit, the Kundalini Spirit.         

Now, I definitely affirm and sincerely believe that a person can only be saved once. I also see clearly that true salvation can be rejected and walked away from, and the folks who walk away are eternally dammed with no hope of repentance. Aren’t we called to rightfully divide the Word 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.

 

I like to share a quote from Pastor Greg Locke: “The greatest commentary on the Bible is the Bible because all commentators are just like you and me, common taters!” So, building your entire Doctrine of Salvation on one passage seems a little foolish, well, completely and blatantly idiotic.

When we base our eternity, or even worse, someone else’s eternity, on Romans 10:8-10 alone, by having them repeat this passage that simply in no way was ever intended to stand alone as our entire understanding of Salvation, that is exactly what we are doing. And it is not a prayer; the “Sinner’s Prayer,” standing alone, is unbiblical.    

 

Romans 10:8-10 (NASB) But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, ⁹ that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; ¹⁰ for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

 

The greatest enemy of the Truth is not a blatant lie; it is scripture taken out of context. Even the person who is a new believer, a babe “In Christ,” knows not to build an altar to Satan in their home. They know that certain sinful behaviors need to stop. So darkness comes at them with clever and very subtle ideas that sound good and correct, but they aren’t. When Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tempted by the devil, the devil used scripture out of context to tempt Him. This is how darkness has deceived many into thinking that they are saved when they are in no way truly saved.

How did we get from the Gospel that requires repentance to “Just accept Jesus in your heart” as the totality of the Salvation message?

How did we get from the Gospel that says we are to identify with the Death, the Burial, and the Resurrection of Jesus “THE” Christ to “Just acknowledge Jesus,” and you will go to heaven?

How did we get from Jesus as the Way, the Truth, and the Life to Jesus is “A” way?

Well, let’s look at a passage in Colossians and get real about our so-called Christian Nation, The United States of America.

 

Colossians 3:1-4 (NASB) Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. ² Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth. ³ For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. ⁴ When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.

 

The American church as a whole is in no way focused on the heavenly, eternal, and spiritual. It is focused on politics, materialism, status in this life, power, and greed and not on truly advancing the Kingdom of God. All this stems from what our nation was truly founded on: Deism. And this is the very root of false conversions.

• Deism—Belief in the existence of a supreme being, specifically of a creator who does not intervene in the universe. The term is used chiefly to describe an intellectual movement of the 17th and 18th centuries that accepted the existence of a creator on the basis of reason but rejected belief in a supernatural deity who interacts with humankind.
• Many of the founding fathers—Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Madison, and Monroe—practiced a faith called Deism. Deism is a philosophical belief in human reason as a reliable means of solving social and political problems.

 

Human Reasoning is a reliable means of solving social and political problems! Really?

 

Jeremiah 17:9 (NASB) The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?

 Matthew 15:19 (NASB) For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, acts of adultery, other immoral sexual acts, thefts, false testimonies, and slanderous statements.

 

The very root of the doctrine of cessationism is the belief that the Holy Spirit no longer speaks, and it was born from the idea of deism. That a God who indwells us no longer has anything to say outside of the text of scripture, leaving us to navigate this life with scripture alone and our very broken, limited ability to reason rightly.

As I write this on May 8, 2024, I think any fella with any amount of common sense can see the mess the world, especially this nation, is in because of human reasoning. But it is the same human reasoning that has infiltrated the American Church and watered down the Gospel, thinking that they are making it palatable for folks seeking the Lord. These seeker-friendly mega-churches have started preaching an apostate Gospel that proclaims an idea of universal salvation, excluding the very basic tenets of true salvation.

I know at this point some folks are thinking, what does this have to do with the demonization of believers and unbelievers? Well, a lot. I don’t think anyone with solid biblical doctrine would argue with the fact that unsaved folks can be demonized (influenced by demons to the point that they needed them cast out).

Today’s Christian faith in the Western world has taken a sharp turn to an ideology of Moral Therapeutic Deism. A new faith, a new religion, has emerged from all that is anti-true Christianity.

“Moral Therapeutic Deism” is defined as a form of Christianity masquerading as beliefs in the existence of God, the importance of being kind to others, our ultimate goal of personal happiness, that God is seldom personally involved in individual lives, and that good people go to heaven when they die.

 

1 John 4:1-3 (NLT) Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. ² This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God. ³ But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and, indeed, is already here.

 

1 Timothy 4:1 (NASB) But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons…

 

The spirit of the antichrist has so watered down the “True Gospel” that we have buildings full of folks who have been taught enough of the Bible for them to believe the lie that they are ready to meet the Lord, and there has been no repentance, no death, no burial, no true teaching on the relevance of the horrific nature of the cross, and they are believing the lie of the antichrist, that Jesus is simply “A” way of salvation.

We have a young man who, at the time I’m writing this, is in leadership at the church I pastor. I was praying for his wife; he was in the front row holding their baby. I received a Word of Knowledge that she was dealing with a generational iniquity of control, where the wife dominates the man.

 

Genesis 3:16 (NLT) Then he said to the woman, “I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy, and in pain you will give birth. And you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you.

 

Later in the book, we are going to devote a few chapters to the root of all Generational Iniquities. And how generational iniquities can become the next generation’s curses.

This young lady had come into agreement with the iniquity, opening a door and giving the enemy a legal right to come in. She was demonized and needed deliverance. Some refer to this spirit as the spirit of Jezebel, and I can definitely see the correlation. Whatever you want to call it, just call it out in the Mighty Name of Jesus “THE” Christ. And we did; she got freedom and asked if I would pray for her husband.

As I began to pray, the Fire of the Holy Spirit fell, and the young man began to shake. Someone grabbed their son, and he stood straight up and fell flat on his face in violent convulsions. We prayed over him, and his deliverance journey started. Later, he was downstairs weeping with his face in his hands, saying, “I didn’t know, I didn’t know!”  

I gave the young man an oppression and inner healing form; he filled it out, and Maliq Barnes and I met with him and went through it. The first part of the form really digs deep into a person’s salvation experience. It was clear that the young man, like many little “c” christians today, identified as a Christian but not as truly born again.

As a finance guy in the secular world, I am always drawn to stats and polls that show trends and give us a glimpse at why folks think the way they think. One of my favorite and very useful pastimes in Federal Prison was listening to the stories of some of the most incredible characters a fella could meet. I wanted to know what led them to Federal Prison and how they would go from being someone’s newborn, innocent, precious baby to the outlaw they were. And man, I met some interesting characters and learned a lot about this life, the god of this world, and his subtle and crafty tactics. I’ve applied the same ideas to look at how the American church has found itself in the state that it is in today.

The Pew Research Center and the Barna Group have been tracking a downward trend, well, really a complete departure from what the Gospel actually is.

The Pew Research Center reported a study titled “About Three-in-Ten U.S. Adults Are Now Religiously Unaffiliated” on December 14, 2021. The report has some very eye-opening statistics concerning the effects of this watered-down Americanized Gospel, which is not the Gospel of Jesus “THE” Christ.

Currently, only 60% of Protestants say “yes” when asked whether they consider themselves a “born-again or evangelical Christian,” while 40% say “no” or decline to answer the question.

4 Out of 10 Professing Christians potentially believe that they are going to heaven without being Born Again!

 

The Barna Group Poll Concerning a “Biblical Worldview” also exposes the departure from solid Gospel Teaching and Preaching.

What is a Biblical Worldview?

1. Do absolute moral truths exist?
2. Is absolute truth defined by the Bible?
3. Did Jesus Christ live a sinless life?
4. Is God the all-powerful and all-knowing Creator of the universe, and does He still rule it today?
5. Is salvation a gift from God that cannot be earned?
6. Is Satan real?
7. Does a Christian have a responsibility to share his or her faith in Christ with other people?
8. Is the Bible accurate in all of its teachings?

 

Now, for a fella raised in Sunday School, these seem really obvious, but it appears a lot of folks in churches today aren’t being taught the simple tenets of Christianity. Or the church they attend has done away with Sunday School for small groups that value hanging out and eating more than they do learning the “Entire Bible.”

 

• Only 4% of Americans now hold to a Biblical Worldview.
• Only 9% of those who say they are Christian hold to a Biblical Worldview.
• A new nationwide survey of America’s Christian pastors shows that a majority of pastors lack a biblical worldview. In fact, just slightly more than a third (37%) possess a biblical worldview, and the majority — (62%) — hold a hybrid worldview known as Syncretism.
• As veteran researcher and CRC Director of Research George Barna explains, “It’s just further evidence that the culture is influencing the American church much more than Christian churches are influencing the culture.”

Did you answer Yes to these? Only 9 percent of so-called “born-again” believers did, people who profess Jesus as their Savior.

What do the other 91% of folks in the American Church believe? Syncretism

Syncretism (sing·kruh·ti·zm) involves the merging or assimilation of several originally separate traditions, especially in the theology and mythology of religion, thus asserting an underlying unity and allowing for an inclusive approach to other faiths.

 

2 Corinthians 11:3-4 (NASB) But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his trickery, your minds will be led astray from sincere and pure devotion to Christ. ⁴ For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, this you tolerate very well!

 

• The Catholic Doctrine is a doctrine of Salvation by Works that affirms that all Abrahamic Faiths, Islam, and Judaism will make it to heaven through their religious practices without acknowledging, believing, and submitting to Christ’s Lordship.
  • Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium 16, November 21, 1964
  • Second Vatican Council, Nostra Aetate 3, October 28, 1965
• Billy Graham, who had a strong relationship with the Catholic Church and the Pope, also affirmed this counterfeit apostate gospel of universal salvation.

One of the most prominent signs of the Last Days is that there will be MANY false christs and MANY false prophets.

What has this got to do with folks being demonically influenced? A lot of the folks I’ve encountered who needed demons cast out of them were not really saved because they never heard “The Gospel.”  They had an emotional experience, were manipulated by guilt and shame to an altar, led in an unbiblical “Sinner’s Prayer,” baptized and pronounced eternally secure. After this, they were taught behavior modification as a new way of life and either became rigid and legalistic or threw their hands up and embraced depravity as a way of life.

Back to the Fella’s Deliverance, and I’ll pull all this together at the end of the chapter.

After Maliq and I spent about an hour going through the Deliverance and Inner Healing Form, we uncovered multiple doorways the young man had allowed the enemy to come in and torment him. As I began my prayer of authority, letting the enemy know that he wasn’t our friend, rebuking him and demanding that any and all unclean spirits reveal themselves, the young went into violent convulsions, flipped over multiple tables, and fell on his face, growling, and shaking.

As we got on the floor with him, anointing and binding the demon, he would come through weeping and say, “Please help me!” Looking back on this young man’s deliverance and others similar to his, I’m confident that he was not truly saved. Maybe he had said the unbiblical “Sinner’s Prayer” and got baptized, but he was not truly Born Again.

 

John 3:3-5 (NASB) Jesus responded and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” ⁴ Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a person be born when he is old? He cannot enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born, can he?” ⁵ Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

 

2 Corinthians 5:17 (NASB) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

Many in the American Church call Billy Graham the Greatest Evangelist of the 20^th Century. And yes, he was a powerful speaker, charismatic, compelling, and a great leader, but he was not a preacher of the Gospel of Jesus “THE” Christ.

Let’s look at the transcript of his interview with Robert Schuller.

Here is the content of the transcript:

Dr. Schuller: “Tell me, what is the future of Christianity?”

Dr. Graham: “Well, Christianity and being a true believer, you know, I think there’s the body of Christ which comes from all the Christian groups around the world, or outside the Christian groups. I think that everybody that loves Christ or knows Christ, whether they’re conscious of it or not, they’re members of the body of Christ. And I don’t think that we’re going to see a great sweeping revival that will turn the whole world to Christ at any time. What God is doing today is calling people out of the world for His name. Whether they come from the Muslim world, or the Buddhist world, or the Christian world, or the non-believing world, they are members of the body of Christ because they’ve been called by God. They may not even know the name of Jesus, but they know in their hearts they need something that they don’t have, and they turn to the only light they have, and I think they’re saved, and they’re going to be with us in heaven.”

Dr. Schuller: “What I hear you saying is that it’s possible for Jesus Christ to come into a human heart and soul and life even if they’ve been born in darkness and have never had exposure to the Bible. Is that a correct interpretation of what you’re saying?”

Dr. Graham: “Yes it is because I believe that. I’ve met people in various parts of the world in tribal situations that they have never seen a Bible or heard about a Bible, have never heard of Jesus but they’ve believed in their hearts that there is a God and they tried to live a life that was quite apart from the surrounding community in which they lived.”

Dr. Schuller: “This is fantastic. I’m so thrilled to hear you say that. There’s a wideness in God’s mercy.”

Dr. Graham: “There is. There definitely is.”

 

Matthew 7:13-14 (NASB) Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. ¹⁴ For the gate is narrow and the way is constricted that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

 

Billy Graham denied the True Gospel when Robert Schuller interviewed him on the Hour of Power show. He said that people can get to Heaven without hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ and then repenting and believing it.

Billy Graham says that ‘good’ and ‘sincere’ people who know nothing about Christ are on their way to Heaven. This is a very false idea of universal salvation that has swept through the American Church, especially in the past 100 years.

 

Romans 10:14-15 (NASB) How then are they to call on Him in whom they have not believed? How are they to believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher? ¹⁵ But how are they to preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!”

 

Vatican Council and Papal Statements on Islam

Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium 16, November 21, 1964

“But the plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place among whom are the Muslims: these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind’s judge on the last day.”

 

Second Vatican Council, Nostra Aetate 3, October 28, 1965

“The Catholic Church rejects nothing of what is true and holy in these religions. She has a high regard for the manner of life and conduct, the precepts and doctrines which, although differing in many ways from her own teaching, nevertheless often reflect a ray of that truth which enlightens all men. Yet she proclaims and is in duty bound to proclaim without fail, Christ who is ‘the way, the truth and the life’ (Jn 1:6). In him, in whom God reconciled all things to himself (cf. 2Co 5:18-19), men find the fullness of their religious life.

“The Church, therefore, urges her sons to enter with prudence and charity into discussion and collaboration with members of other religions. Let Christians, while witnessing to their own faith and way of life, acknowledge, preserve and encourage the spiritual and moral truths found among non-Christians, also their social life and culture.

“The Church has also a high regard for the Muslims. They worship God, who is one, living and subsistent, merciful and almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth (Cf. St. Gregory VII, Letter III, 21 to Anazir [Al-Nasir], King of Mauretania PL, 148.451A.), who has spoken to men. They strive to submit themselves without reserve to the hidden decrees of God, just as Abraham submitted himself to God’s plan, to whose faith Muslims eagerly link their own. Although not acknowledging him as God, they venerate Jesus as a prophet, his Virgin Mother they also honor, and even at times devoutly invoke. Further, they await the day of judgment and the reward of God following the resurrection of the dead. For this reason they highly esteem an upright life and worship God, especially by way of prayer, alms-deeds and fasting.

“Over the centuries many quarrels and dissensions have arisen between Christians and Muslims. The sacred Council now pleads with all to forget the past, and urges that a sincere effort be made to achieve mutual understanding; for the benefit of all men, let them together preserve and promote peace, liberty, social justice and moral values.”

 

Speaking on the April 2 edition of CNN’s Larry King Live program, Dr. Billy Graham said Pope John Paul II was the most influential voice for morality and peace in the world in the last 100 years.

 

I was in sales management for several years. One of the ways we would motivate our sales force is by acknowledging them when they make a sale; as effective as this is, it doesn’t apply to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We would sound alarms, bells, horns, holler over the intercom, and so on every time a salesperson would make a sale. I see the importance of acknowledging someone’s confession, but I think we have come to do this as a way of building clout, especially on social media. And I’m guilty. Are my social media posts centered on bringing glory to the one where all glory is due, or am I trying to emphasize what I have accomplished? Left to myself, I am incapable of anything good, nothing at all.

The reason for making this point is that, as the American Evangelical Church, we lead folks in a prayer that takes less than 20 seconds and pronounce them eternally secure. And don’t get me started on how some ministers use manipulation tactics to get folks up to the altar.

We have a Nation and churches full of folks who think they are saved but have never really had a life-changing encounter with the Holy Spirit that brings New Birth “In Christ.”

In my opinion, the most pressing issue isn’t whether a Christian can be influenced by demons; it is the false gospel that has so many believing they are saved, and they simply are not.

 

Matthew 16:13-20 (NASB) Now, when Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” ¹⁴ And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah, or one of the other prophets.” ¹⁵ He *said to them, “But who do you yourselves say that I am?” ¹⁶ Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” ¹⁷ And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. ¹⁸ And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. ¹⁹ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.” ²⁰ Then He gave the disciples strict orders that they were to tell no one that He was the Christ.

 

As the Body of Christ, we are called to Teach, Train, Equip, and then Send. We have failed at the teaching part; much like the Children of Israel, we have mixed in pagan ideas with “The Truth,” turning “The Truth” into a lie. And because the Training, Equipping, and Sending require so much effort from both parties, the teachers and the disciples, we tap out, never enduring the process. And just like the Parable of the Four Different Types of Ground in Mark 4, only one of four actually go on to produce fruit.

 

John 15:5-6 (NASB) I am the vine, you are the branches; the one who remains in Me, and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. ⁶ If anyone does not remain in Me, he is thrown away like a branch and dries up; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.