Nearly everyone that I saw while growing up as a young minister who fell into doctrinal error and claimed a monopoly of knowledge had one challenge or the other with their ministry.
Doctrinal error is CORROSIVE. It’s like CORONA VIRUS and it will eat up the very fabrics of your calling and ministry if not confronted early in ministry.
Most people who are victims of doctrinal error always claim a monopoly of knowledge — they claim “personal revelation” which no other person is privy to, thus they compromise sound Christian practice as ministers.
A minister has to be very careful such that he doesn’t get to a point where he claims that he’s THE ONLY ONE who”s seeing what he’s seeing and that others are not seeing it.
No friend; there’s a PRINCIPLE of Scriptures which states that out of the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be ESTABLISHED (Matt. 18:16, 2Cor.13:1).
In His eternal wisdom and discretion, God through the Holy Spirit has so much structured the Bible such that EVERY SCRIPTURE HAS A PARTNER.
EVERY SCRIPTURE HAS A MATE (a corresponding component) which serves as an authoritative witness to it.
The Word tells us in Isaiah 34:16:
ISAIAH 34:16
Seek ye out of the book of the LORD, and read: no one of these shall fail, NONE SHALL WANT HER MATE: for my mouth it hath commanded, and his spirit it hath gathered them.
Therefore there’s nothing like a “stand-alone” scripture. There’s nothing like AN ISOLATED SCRIPTURE.
Every scripture has a mate or partner or call it twin brother or sister (Read Isaiah 34:16).
Doctrine borders more on PRINCIPLES and not just METHODOLOGY, little wonder we have the PRINCIPLES of the DOCTRINE of Christ (Heb. 6:1).
So, it’s about PRINCIPLES, and there’s the principle of TWO OR THREE WITNESSES (Matt. 18:16, 2 Cor.13:1) and sometimes it can even be MORE.
It’s A PRINCIPLE I believe that God in His infinite wisdom has put in place so that no man will claim a monopoly of knowledge or profess himself as a superstar.
We see this principle set in motion in the build-up to the revelation of the New Testament. For example, the birth of Christ was not just revealed to only one prophet.
Isaiah saw it. Moses saw it. Jeremiah saw it. Micah saw it. David saw it. Abraham saw it. Simeon saw it. And even Elizabeth who was Mary’s cousin saw it and some other people in different generations.
So, dear minister, WHY ARE YOU THE ONLY ONE SEEING IT?
Even in the days of Elijah, while Elisha had access to the prophetic piece of information that God was taking Elijah away, the sons of the prophets also saw it.
Those of us in the Word of Faith Movement always rate Paul far above every other early apostle in terms of Christocentric revelation and New Creation realities but THE SAME PAUL submitted his revelation for scrutiny to those who were of reputation lest he ran in vain (Gal. 2:2).
That’s the attribute of a sound New Testament minister — he crosschecks his “revelations” with matured minds so as not to fall into the danger of egocentric tendencies.
You don’t need to sound CONTROVERSIAL to sound DEEP. Preach and teach the Word with SIMPLICITY, CLARITY and ACCURACY.
Sometimes people get into DOCTRINAL ERROR just because they want to always appear “UNIQUELY DIFFERENT” and cut a niche for themselves.
They want to LOOK DIFFERENT from everyone so that people can begin to say that they are in a class by themselves, but that is a motivation of pride.
Keep it simple, be teachable, harness your personality and stay flexible in the hand of the Holy Spirit.
You don’t need to start attacking everyone to look DIFFERENT. Remember; it is the Grace of God that lifts men.
The propensity for “doctrinal exclusiveness” which tends to lead to “doctrinal error” is a temptation that all of us must avoid in ministry.
Whatever you claim to have RECEIVED from the Holy Spirit must also be witnessed to by people who have THE SAME HOLY SPIRIT in them.
Now that’s heavy. The lesson is that no man can cage the Spirit of God. As He’s speaking to you, He’s also speaking to someone else.
You will be amazed to know that in the remotest parts of the earth, God is raising men and women everywhere.
Whatever you claim to be seeing in SCRIPTURES or in the SPIRIT, someone else is seeing it in some part of the world.
The moment you discover that you’re THE ONLY ONE seeing something, and all fathers, mentors, instructors, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, sons and daughters ARE NOT or CANNOT see it, WATCH OUT for the spirit of error.
When you claim that fathers in the Body of Christ, despite their pedigree and track record of their walk with God are spiritually blind and cannot see what God is showing you, you’re in error my brother or sister.
Sometimes you may have to deliberately stop listening to some people because no matter how sincere you may be, FLOW is stronger than KNOWLEDGE to influence BEHAVIOR.
Sometimes you may have to cut off some people from your life and ministry because of negative influence.
And I’m just being frank. There are people in ministry today whose ministerial struggles could be traced to bad influence, and you keep wondering that this MOG was not like this before.
That’s why one of my leading teachers in ministry today is Dad Hagin.
He might not be perfect and of course he wasn’t, but Dad taught us to SPEAK ILL OF NO MAN, RIGHTLY DISCERN THE BODY OF CHRIST, and CONTRIBUTE TO NO MAN’S DOWNFALL IN MINISTRY among many many other lessons.
He’s Love personified! I prayed early in ministry, just like Dad Hagin did, “Lord, help me to stay balanced in ministry”, and dear friend, the Lord has been faithful.
Although we’re not yet perfect but we’re moving towards perfection.
It is not too late to come out of doctrinal error; you can decide now. Remember; a man on the wrong road, CONSISTENCY is not the message for him; it is CHANGE, and it doesn’t take eternity to make a U-turn.
May the Lord help us all to stay BALANCED in our ministry.