I don’t usually endorse celebrities or “all the teachings out of one church” because these days there are, ALAS, several pastors who have 99.99 per cent correct and Biblical stuff… 

…and then they teach that “By His Stripes we are healed!” (Isaiah 53) to mean physically and always. 

(Which both goes against the thorn in the flesh thing but also screams “prosperity gospel” and that whole “abundance” thing, aka

 “God Loves me and Is For me and cares abt what I want and when I want it!” 

Aka “if He don’t go Santa mode, BYE, GOD!” 

And every time He appears to Come through its “BUT, GOD!” Aka cotton-candy Christian. 

“You just didn’t believe hard enough.” :( 

 (BUT also…when would we die? If He Is Obligated To Heal it ALL then we’re just gonna stay here forever? Not sure abt you but if that’s the case then I’d think I was in HeLL lol.) 

Anyway! So then I saw this post featuring Kirk Cameron and liked the five questions he shares to ask oneself about any Bible teacher (pastor or no); note that the stuff directly after each question (in parentheses, which you know I love heh) is what I wrote, not Kirk C. 

So here we go with his five questions to test a ministry:

Is the teaching consistent with Scripture? 

(There ain’t a thing about “drawing a bloodline around someone” In The Bible, but it DOTH appear in many a “New Thought as Christian via Word of Faith” teaching sometimes attributed to people as varying as Don Gossett, Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland, Kathryn Kuhlman, all the way back to Mr. Phineas Quimby. Note that none of these preaches The unadulterated Bible. Now, some argue that Rahab’s scarlet cord was an early incarnation but that’s not really what happened in the story, y’all.) 

Who becomes greater, Christ or the personality?

(If your ministry is named after you, then there is a problem, friend. “Leading the Way with Michael Youssef” or “Love Worth Finding with Adrian Rodgers” are fine because they’re just telling you the name of the pastor who be preaching. If they kept the name like that after the pastor be gone, then That’s both weird and inaccurate.) 

Is the biblical Gospel central? 

(Yes and amen. If they are preaching that a certain sin is ok —saucy relationships out of wedlock (or any orientation) then they are not Bible. If they are teaching “feel good stuff” —even stuff that isn’t anti-Bible, but is NOT preaching about the afterlife and sin, it’s a motivational speaker. Which is fine, just make sure to hear juicy Bible-Filled sermons that preach ALL The Word.) 

What kind of fruit does the ministry produce over time? 

(OK, if there’s no fruit at all, that could be seen as bad. That said, you have to remember the fruit looks different based on what we’re talking about. 

If you don’t have any new baptisms or salvations it could be that your ministry is just supposed to equip current believers. Some sow seeds, and others harvest. (And as TONS of modern churches demonstrate, a pastor CAN preach heresy and still get 24k baptisms in a year, and a pastor who himself is NOT saved can still be used By God to bring about salvations. (It was an unsaved friend of mine who got me to examine my faith and my life enough to realize I had TONS of pride and was taking ALL the credit for what I thought was brilliance, “from the great brain God Gave me to help others with!” But it turned out to be a spiritual gifting that had zero to do with me. Lol. Oooh that was quite a day! Lol. Praise God!)

BUT! What if there’s no fruit at all? Aka no fruit at ALL in the life of someone who claims to have given their life to Jesus; well… if after one year, they’re still embroiled in sinful things, and not really showing any of the fruit of the Holy Spirit, then you have to wonder if the salvation – and by that I mean the submission To GOD of the dear soul in question — Was actually genuine.) 

And are followers encouraged to test everything against Scripture? 

(Ooh you’d not believe how frequently I have people tell me “but my pastor said this, not that!” And I’m like please lovey, you have to read The Word yourself. You have to pray on the other six days of the week. You have to spend time With Jesus if you want to know Him and know what He Said. You can’t trust humans to get it right. Coz they do often want to do WRONG. Coz it seems more fun. Until you have to pay the piper. 

Of COURSE it would be cool to invest Aka sow $30 and get $3000 in 48.5 hours. 

But that’s not how it works. We can NOT decree and declare something and make it so, or send angels to do our own bidding—or even God’s Work. 

God Is their boss. I am not. I don’t even know what He Wants for MY life much less anyone else’s! 

I don’t even know if I will have a salad or a pizza or nothing at all for lunch—or if I will even be alive to eat it. 

Tossing out random verses that seem to fit what they’re saying but end up having zero place in the mouth of the believer, well… that is usually a sign that something is awry. 

• If it’s all about the pastor? Question it. 
• If they (or anyone around them) are like “touch not My anointed,” (if someone else says it and the pastor doesn’t publicly correct it, BUH BYE.). 
• If they place their church (their branch or their institution) above Jesus Himself, baby BYE!!
• If they instruct you to drink gasoline or eat grass? UM. (Note I said UM and not YUM. Lol.) 

Let’s pray: 

Father God, I ask You to OPEN my eyes to the various motivations and teachings around me. Never let me fall for the tricks of the enemy. Help me to resist him and his loza demons so they will flee from me and I can get back to serving You and blessing others in the way You Designed and Made me to. 

We love, thank, praise, worship, AND glorify You, o MATCHLESS, MIGHTY King, our PRECIOUS LORD Jesus, In Whose Holy Name we do pray, 

Amiiiin! 

♥️✝️🙏