The Unstable Foundations of Hyper-Grace and "Finished Work" Doctrines

Over the past 3 years, I became aware (and deceived) by the “hyper-grace” teachings while seeking God for healing. I truly believe the only thing that kept me from fully embracing hyper-grace is the fact that I am sick and have a real need. I've had chronic illness for over 14 years and doctors cannot help me. I need to see the reality of what Jesus did on the cross in my life, so catch phrases, slogans and simply believing things differently will not cut it for me. I need the real supernatural power of God to hit my body.

The hyper-grace message became very popular because many people live with a lot of condemnation and do not have a basic understanding of the true message of God's grace.

Since I've been sick most of my adolescent and adult life, I used to struggle with a lot of condemnation. I've never been able to meet up to anyone's expectations in life.

In the church, most of the condemnation that people feel, stems from the fact that ministries are driven by teaching people a method instead of getting people to know Jesus Christ in a personal way. When we try to sell Jesus as a 10 step method, it only makes a person feel condemned and feel as if they are never doing enough. You will always find someone who prays more, reads the bible more, prays in tongues more (or maybe you don't pray in tongues at all!?), sees more people healed or does more street ministry. It's an easy place for people to self-condemn themselves. These checklists and methods also turn into weapons used against people too.

I think it's important to recognize that the main theme of the hyper-grace movement is their disgust and rejection of all methods that have been created in the church. Many of them have been hurt in an abusive church situation. I am not faulting them for wanting to move away from controlling types and it's one of the reasons why I gravitated towards their message too. The problem though is instead of simply rejecting the bad they have indeed over-corrected into error.

They believe that once Jesus died on the cross, that doing anything at all for God is considered works. They believe if you try to obey the teachings of Jesus, then you are pushing “works salvation”. Sadly if you teach on things like service and obedience of any kind that you are “legalistic” and “religious”. Some of them say praying is a work. Some of them say reading the bible is a work. Some of them say turning from sin is a work. Some of them say fasting is a work.

There are variations of exaggerations in these groups. Not all of them believe in the same exaggerations and it makes it difficult to succinctly point out all of the errors. A person is basically forced to use minister names because otherwise you might be using a broad brush on another group who doesn't believe in what the other group within hyper-grace believes.

They have gone from one extreme which is a long list of things “to do” to the other extreme where they say, “there's nothing left to do. Jesus did everything. Just rest”. They have confused the free gift of salvation with the costs of serving the God who gave us that free gift. 

First, it's important to understand that from what I've seen, no one on either side is preaching the idea of doing works in order to be justified (saved). Of course salvation is only found in believing in what Jesus did on the cross, but we should also obey God's will for our life.

But this is where the conflicts and disagreements begin.

Many will say that grace cannot be exaggerated. They say that God's grace is too good and I agree that God's grace is too good. The fact that God sent us His Son Jesus, to die for us, to redeem us even while we were still enemies of God, is amazing! But once we come to believe in Jesus, our life and actions do in fact need to change and this is where hyper-grace disagrees. They say, “It's already done in Christ”. “you are already holy and sanctified”. And yet there is a renewing that God must take us through in our lives to begin to react as Jesus would not as our flesh would. Unfortunately many in the hyper-grace groups do not believe that God can do a work in each of our lives. They do not believe in wilderness seasons. They do not believe that trials can be used to conform a person into the image of His son.

I suspect many people who come across the hyper-grace teachings are in fact temporarily set free! This happens because they realize that the man-made methods that they put themselves under were not of God. I myself had this realization in 2013. I stopped trying to fulfill some man made healing method and started to look directly towards Jesus. But this is where I differ from the hyper-grace camp... Looking directly towards Jesus and pursuing Him involves having to pay a price of some sort. We will have to pray and read the bible. It involves spending time with God. It involves having to turn your back to the things you once did and learn to live the life that he wants for you. It involves sacrifice at times. It's not an effortless journey. It actually is quite painful to die to oneself.

When a person does not have this real connection to God and trials come, many who believe in the hyper-grace, finished-work teachings walk away from the faith. I've seen at least 3 "leaders" in this movement shut down their blogs and FB pages. When the trials and struggles of life come, many of them are not built on the rock that is Jesus. While they reject the "methods of men", they have also done away with any personal relationship and intimacy with God too. When a group of people considers turning from sin and obeying the Lord as works, then how as a church can we restore such people back to the true gospel message? When a group of people think God is no longer doing works in His children, then how will they ever be prepared when storms come?

In my few years, I have seen more walk away from God in these groups than in any other group. I have a few Cessationist friends who are sick and do not believe in healing, but trust God no matter what. They are on stable grounds. I have hyper-grace friends who are sick and were believing God for healing, but when it did not come; They left the faith. The general attitude and mindset of those in hyper-grace is this. "Either God is good and He heals me now or God is not real” There is no room for long term struggles in their walks with God. There was no trust built in God, but simply they trusted in their doctrines and catchphrases. Underneath the catchphrases and slogans, when their life spoke louder than them, they had nothing at all to lean back on.

If those who have accepted hyper-grace were honest with themselves I believe they would see there's a lot of healing that needs to take place within their hearts. They are insecure of God's love and therefore have had to then say that God is always loving and there is no wrath. They are insecure about their salvation and therefore have had to say that you cannot fall away from the faith. They need black and white answers to legalistic questions about God and it has forced them to have to rewrite scriptures like Ananias and Sapphira. For example, some are now saying that Peter in his great power received from God, murdered them. They cannot accept that God may have judged them, but they will gladly turn Peter into a murderer. Wow!

Unfortunately sometimes we need to examine ourselves to see why we are believing the things we are believing. God put me in a situation that forced me to do it. It came down to humbling myself and realizing that what I had believed about God was not true.

The bottom line is that those believing hyper-grace have been deceived into thinking that service, obedience, prayer and reading the bible is works. They have been deceived that trials and struggles in life are strange things we should never experience. If you type in trial, struggles or wilderness into the hyper-grace blogs and you get almost no keyword hits. They have absolutely nothing at all for those in hard times. It is a teaching that attracts people with generally good lives, but gives them zero tools to endure when the wind begins to blow. It's not supposed to be that way! The gospel is supposed to get us through the good times and the bad times.

If we have lost our hunger for God, then more than ever we need to be alone with God and seek him! Unfortunately though, it is nearly impossible to talk to many in the hyper-grace/exaggerated Finished work groups. For having such an amazing revelation of God's grace, I do not see this same love and grace extended towards those who want to have simple discussions with them. They see the inconsistencies with everyone else, but are totally blind when they do it themselves. We can all get our feathers ruffled at times, so I understand and can relate. However I don't see the great revelation of righteousness, grace and forgiveness they all claim to have. If I don't see it in their life, then what and why are they even talking about this as if it's having any transformative effect? Do as I say, not as I do? Isn't this exactly what they were against in the first place? The hypocrisy that's in the Church and the pastor or church that hurt them? Have they simply become what they preached against? In many ways, yes I do believe so and they don't even see it.

We rest in knowing what Jesus did for us, but that doesn't mean we don't pray, read the word or turn from sin. It does not mean we do not commit our lives to God and serve Him in whatever capacity He wants for us. In fact because of what Jesus did, we have a hunger to do all of those things even more so because we see what He took for us. We should not arrogantly look at the cross and then think we are owed something from God.... Jesus gave us more than enough and we should have a joy in our hearts while following Him. No matter what life brings and sometimes it will bring tough situations.

A Necessary Cost

Recently God has been talking to me a lot about cost and sacrifice. He has been giving me various dreams about the cost that we've had to pay in this season as we were seeking Him for healing.

Prophetically we were told that what my husband and I have been walking through was part of a necessary cost. We've had other words that basically confirmed we had been walking in a wilderness season and a training program as well. 2 years ago I could not have handled this, but God has changed my heart on many matters relating to this and I choose to trust God.

This summer marks 15 years of suffering with Postural Tachycardia Syndrome. In 2005, I had to quit college and work altogether because I was too sick to function any more. That was only a year after I had gotten married. Pretty much my whole marriage has been riddled with trials, struggles, sickness, pain, frustration and confusion. Then in 2009 my husband got sick with chronic fatigue syndrome. He was hospitalized for a week and then became bedridden for an entire year. During this time, he was no longer able to run his own business. We went from being financially well off to being in total poverty. I gave my life to Jesus in June 2012. By 2013, we had no money left and God told us to start selling off everything we owned and to go on food stamps. We obeyed and once we ran out of things to sell, we had to start trusting God for ALL of our bills and God provided! We have been completely dependent upon God ever since and both of us are still too sick to work. We have had to cautiously navigate this season and yet God said it was a necessary cost. Looking back on all of this, it is only by the grace of God that we have made it through it all.

If God is asking us to sacrifice things in our life or asking us to bear a load, we must know that it is not for the remission of our sins. We are not paying to be saved, to be loved by God nor are we trying to lessen our eternal punishments by offering up a sacrifice. The shedding of Jesus' blood on the cross was enough to pay the penalty for our sins. We are only saved by grace through faith in Jesus, so suffering in this life has nothing to do with making payment to God for our sins. I just wanted to make sure that was clear before I continue on here because many seem to get confused about that.

When Jesus died on the cross and rose, for me as a Gentile believer, it was only the beginning. We see this in Ephesians 2:11-13.

“Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth...remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”

It is only because of what Jesus did on the cross that we can now be reconciled to God through faith in His son. Now that we are in a relationship with God, He may call us into a place that requires us to sacrifice. He may call us out of our comfort zones. He may call us into a season where we are bearing a load. All of these things are for His purposes and often times are related to the calling that God has placed on our lives. He has to get us ready for the work He has ordained for us to do (Ephesians 2:10). We see this in the life of Elijah, David, Jesus, John the Baptist, Paul and even Peter. They all went through some stuff.

There's a popular message today that says you can't earn God's favor or blessings. Many of them are actively attacking service and sacrifice saying you are trying to “buy” God. They say if you sacrifice things for God you are cheapening what Jesus did. They will say that if you try to “please” God with your sacrifices that you are “doing works” and “adding to the Finished Work of Christ”. These teachings actually show what is in these minister's hearts. It is true that I can't earn God's favor when it comes to salvation and why would I? That was paid for by Jesus' sacrifice, but what these groups fail to recognize is that Jesus was also an example of obedience for us to follow. Everyone wants to “be like Jesus” in power and miracles, but I see very little talk about “being like Jesus” in devotion, holiness, obedience and in service to the Father.

When Jesus was about to be betrayed and suffer a horrible death, He called out to God.

“Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”

His obedience to God was to His own death! We should remember these words from Jesus when God calls us to sacrifice or walk a certain way that is difficult. We should remember that Jesus chose to die for us willingly and we should be willing to give our lives for Him too.

Having said that, in this season God was calling my husband and I to stand into a difficult place. He called us to bear a load that seemed impossible to bear at times, but it was in these times that we had to dig in and really begin to trust God. We had to dig into His word and start searching for living water to live off of! 

On my worst days, it was God who gave me the strength to stand and now I can say that our faith has been tested by fire. God did something inside of me that I cannot describe to you today. I feel something inside of me that I cannot describe, but it was born in me through this difficult time. I finally understand how the apostles could do what they did day after day after day, knowing they were going to be physically assaulted at times. I cannot even imagine the physical pain they must have been in after getting stoned, beaten and whipped and yet the hope that was in them through Jesus, that brought them to their feet to continue proclaiming the gospel.

If God calls us into or if we have found ourselves in an impossible situation (like my husband and I), God may call us to continue to stand in this difficult place for a season. We may be called to places we didn't think God would ask us to stand. I know that was certainly the case for me. I never knew that God would ask so much of me.

A common way God calls us to stand is when there are delays. Delays in the promises of God creates the atmosphere for sacrifices and loads to bear. It was the delay in our healing that caused us to have to stand in this difficult place and instead of giving up, I said, “Ok Lord, not my will, but yours” and what that involved was a lot of changing, stretching, tearing down, rebuilding and growing in Christ.

The “Finished work” groups would say I am preaching “mixed-grace” because the words sacrifice and service are bad words to them. They would say that I am preaching works based salvation. However my post has nothing to do with salvation and everything to do with being obedient to God's will for our individual lives. There's a big big difference there. Paul was never trying to obtain God's love or his salvation through the beatings and sufferings he went through for Christ's sake. Yet enduring this was part of the cost for his calling from God. He was called to suffer these things for Christ. It was very clear in his writings that he understood the costs involved and he knew it would ultimately lead to his death. This was also the same with Peter. After Jesus was resurrected, He told Peter in John 21:18-19, the kind of death that would be pleasing to God for following Him.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” 19 (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”

I bolded things here because God through His son Jesus called Peter to die a certain way and Jesus said, “Follow me”. It was part of Peter's calling that he would suffer and die in this way!

They knew the cost and willingly accepted it. Everything that Peter and Paul went through was part of a necessary cost of the calling on their lives. I believe we each have a role to play today. Are we willing to pay the price though? Are we willing to accept our cost for following God? Are we willing to say, “Father not my will, but yours be done”?

Some people may go through a season where they have to get angry with God because of the cost God is asking of them. Some people may go through a season of rebellion because they made an idea for themselves who God is that was not based on scripture. Some people may never willingly accept the cost and I believe those calls may be forfeited.

The sacrifices God asks from us will be different for each person. He may ask us to let go of things that we cherish and hold dear to us. He may ask us to leave a job. He may ask us to take a certain job. It may be things that we never thought God would ask us to let go of.

I'd like to share a dream I had several weeks ago. In this dream, I found out that I was given free stays at a $400/night hotel. It was a beautiful place and I was already imagining myself in the room. I was so amazed that someone would give me this! I asked the lady at the counter if there would be any other costs and she repeatedly told me no. Except I found that she lied to me. If I wanted to use internet, drink the bottled water and eat breakfast, then I'd have to pay for those amenities. When I found out there was a cost, I was angry! This lady at the counter in charge of putting people into their rooms flat out lied to me!

Even though the $400/night room was given to me for free, I was angry about the costs I had to bear. Because that lady lied to me, I started making a scene in the place. I was so mad that I walked away from that freely given $400/night hotel and went to the cheap $50 hotel because the amenities were included.

When I woke up I had to look up to see if this was a real thing with more expensive hotels and I found out that it was! But God wasn't talking about real hotel rooms. I believe these rooms represented the callings God is asking His Church to step into. The lady at the counter who lied to me represented teachers and ministers who are not being upfront with God's children. These ministers are lying about the costs and are not properly preparing people for their calls!

Remember the room itself was given for free. The same goes for our callings which are given to us freely through faith in Jesus Christ, but in order to walk in those callings and fulfill those callings, there may be costs to us. In the cheap hotel, the internet, breakfast and bottled water were all "included", but the room was cheap. It was dirty. It wasn't anything special whatsoever.

In my dream God also showed me the lines of others in the Church who have settled for the cheap hotel when He is calling them into the $400/night room. They settled because they had been lied to by ministers! And because of that lie, they were not willing to bear the price He is asking of us to bear. 

In this dream I very clearly heard the word, cheapskates.

We have become cheapskates in the things of God.

Many hyper-grace and Finished Work teachings today are actually teaching believers there is NO price to pay. They are perfect representations of the lady in the counter of my dream. They have twisted up so many believers and have put in the hearts of believers the false idea that if you give of yourself to God, that you are trying to earn the blessings of God. Whether they realize it or not, but they are not giving people freedom but becoming gatekeepers, keeping people from receiving what God has for them in their life. They would likely accuse me of the same thing.

If we are not careful we may walk away from the high calling of God and settle for something lesser because we don't want to pay any price at all. Even if that price is minuscule compared to what God has given us! There may be more asked of us with particular callings. This is seen in the lives of Jesus and the apostles. They walked in power, boldness and authority, but it came with a price.

Have you been duped by false teachers in the Church telling you there is no cost? And I use the word false teacher very seriously. I do not throw that out there lightly.

Are you not willing to pay a price because you were lied to that there was no price to pay?

Are you walking away from what God has called you because it is different than what you had been told?

At various times of our walk I have been guilty of this. I fell for hyper-grace and the exaggerated Finished Work teachings in the beginning of my walk. God in His grace warned me in a dream about it at the end of 2013. I never thought that sickness would ever be part of the cost that God would ask of someone to bear. However in this season as I trust and believe God for healing, He has shown me that He was using this sickness for His purposes. Without the sickness, I never would have had the compassion and desire to see captives set free. Without the poverty, I never would have been on food stamps, without light bulbs, soap and other various things at times. The necessary cost was a major humbling for me because I looked down on people like that. I never would have been able to feel the pain the sick and poor feel. I never would have even cared at all about these people. It was this struggle, this cost, this pain that made me who I am today and now God can use it all for His glory.

Whatever cost you bear for a season, God will use that so you can help others in similar situations. And since I believe in the supernatural power and healing of God, I believe this means God will use you to pray and see others healed, set free and delivered in Jesus' name. But we must be willing to follow Him, no matter what.

How Deception Became a Part of My Walk with God

I was raised Catholic by my family, but truthfully I knew nothing about God. On my mother's side my uncle was a Catholic priest. One of her sisters was a nun and so was her aunt. Yet somehow in this family who was very "devout" and spiritual, I did not understand how Jesus and God fit together in the equation. As I got older, I didn't want anything to do with it. I avoided all things of God and did not talk about Him at all. If someone brought up their faith I was extremely uncomfortable and usually changed the topic.

The first non-Catholic minister I ever saw preach was Dan Mohler in 2012. Some people would be absolutely amazed because they respect this man of God, but for me it meant nothing. We made the journey to this unknown church. We got there and I wasn't used to this kind of service at all. The music was too loud and it sent my body into a sensory overload fit. My heart rate was ridiculously high just sitting there due to my health problems.

Finally he started to preach. He sure was lively and happy, but I had no idea what Pastor Dan was talking about. It was so far above my level of understanding of God that I basically gave up trying to listen to him. Sad but true!! At the end of the meeting I made my way up to the front to get prayer and a woman came up to pray for me. I thanked her. Then my husband came back over to me and he said, "I want to get baptized".

That night I was confused by the message. I knew nothing about Jesus. I did not know what He did for me at all and yet somehow I got baptized. I can blame my husband for that! haha I was baptised at Harvest Chapel on June 16, 2012.

About a month later I had an impression to quit all of the health stuff. It felt forceful and painful to me at the time because all I had ever known was doctors, science, researching supplements, genetic stuff and chronic illness FB groups and forums.

That was when my real journey began. That is when I started watching videos and reading about healing theology. This was the most dangerous time for me because I had no foundation whatsoever and yet I was like a dry sponge ready to soak up anything I could find.

Today plenty of teachers focus solely on the "Finished work" and the Book of Acts. They say healing is always flowing and always right now and they have plenty of scriptures to promote this idea. Well as someone who was sick for 12 years at that point, I fell for it. I wanted healed now. I wanted healed today. I wanted MY life back now. Hook, line and sinker, I wanted it!

Since I came in by way of Dan Mohler and Todd White, I immediately gravitated towards these ministries and those who preached a similar message. I was feeding on their teachings and thought I was growing in faith. I was able to repeat what they said and it all sounded really good! But honestly beneath the surface, I had nothing...

I went down this path for months. I got prayer from anyone who came to the general area. I believed! I wanted healed! I was told by another minister that "God wants you healed more than you do!"... YES Sign me up!

But then nothing was changing and I started to question things. This is when I realized that there was more to this than what these guys were preaching. I started noticing a general disdain for the sick in the Church despite so many ministries focusing on healing.

I finally learned that although Jesus is a healer and "paid the price", that God also wanted to do a work in me. I didn't really know what that meant at the time. However I was told repeatedly in these circles that was not true. Many people will neatly try to separate suffering, tribulation and trials away from sickness. They may agree that a trial can be a car accident or a loss of a job, but could NEVER be sickness. Sickness is MUCH scarier to think of as a trial because it's out of our control. We can't just snap our fingers and make it ok overnight.

At that time, I agreed that sickness was not a trial because I certainly did not want to be sick anymore. Trials are for other people, not for me.

I was repeatedly told that God's work in me was "already done" in Christ and that we no longer have to go through periods like that. I was repeatedly told that we are already perfect and our healing has already happened in the Spirit because of what Jesus has done on the Cross. I was also told that, as far as God is concerned, "you are already healed".

That sounds great and easy, but it made me confused, frustrated and eventually angry as life got harder physically, emotionally and financially. My life is an absolutely disaster. haha

I was repeatedly told "You're already healed" meeting after meeting after meeting. I was tired of hearing it! I was tired of the talk.

Others said that I needed to find someone who could "represent Jesus to me in the way I needed" and once I did that, then I would be healed.

Unknowingly this caused me to chase MEN instead of Jesus Christ.

Looking back now for a long time I was fighting not against the devil, but against God wanting to do something much larger in my heart and in my life.

There is a deception in the church that says everything is already done. Some call it hyper-grace, some call it greasy grace, I personally believe it's an exaggeration of the Finished Work of the Cross. Those who believe in this message claim everything is already completed and done.

Am I saying that Jesus needs to come back and die on the cross again? NO
Am I saying that Jesus did not accomplish what He came to do? NO
Am I saying that I am justified by my works? NO!
Am I saying that there aren't some truths in the "finished work"? NO there are some great truths!!

However what I am saying is that we need to be balanced with what the Finished Work truly accomplished and what we are expected to do now that we are in a relationship with Him.

Deception came into my walk with God because of the unbalanced healing theologies I was following.

Some say you do not need to sacrifice anything for God, Jesus sacrificed it all.
Some say you don't have to go through wilderness seasons, Jesus went through the wilderness.
Some say you have everything now, today. Healing is now, not tomorrow.
Some say if you think God heals in His timing, that is unbelief.
Some say there is no journey.
Some say you are already perfected (mature).
Some say you have all the spiritual gifts now.
Some say everything is now.

And it was these messages which made me nearly walk away from God.

It was these messages that had me walking around in despair because I thought I had missed it. I thought that God was mad at me for not saying my prayers with enough "faith". It was these messages which had me screaming at God in my head for an entire week. It was these messages that almost made me give up and tell God I was done with Him. It was these messages which made me question God's love for me.

And somehow in that pain and in that brokenness, I finally found God and finally found balance. God was finally able to build a strong foundation in me where I had to abandon everything I thought I knew.

In life bad stuff is going to happen and when someone is IN Christ, it does not mean bad things do not happen. In the Finished Work crowd, there tends to be an emphasis that trials won't come or will be immediately overcome to those who really believe "it is finished" or really "know who they are in Christ". This is deception and an imbalanced view of what Jesus accomplished. It leads those who have generally good lives to be exalted as better "sons of God" than those who are struggling with trials, sickness and other things. This is clearly not true.

God will use the trials and the bad things that happen to us for His Good. He will use them to test and purify our faith to make us a more mature Christian. Sometimes these obstacles if they are large enough, they can be used by God as a wilderness season before He decides to fulfill His promises.

But this idea completely goes against what many healing ministers teach.

The diet industry makes something like 60 BILLION dollars a year on diet pills and gimmicky exercise machines. This industry is fueled by people who want to lose weight, but don't want to do it "the hard way" and there is a captive audience too. A 60 billion dollar audience.

Well I fell for the spiritual equivalent of the diet pill. I wanted to be healed now, but I did not want it to be hard. I wanted it to be easy and not cost me anything. There is a very captive, desperate audience who will buy the books, watch the teachings and exalt teachers into leadership positions.

So in the diet industry we see, 
"Just take this pill and you will lose fat fast!".
"Just buy this abs machine and you will be ripped in no time".

In the exaggerated Finished Work healing ministries we see,
"It is finished. It is already done. Just receive what God already did, today".
"God wants you healed more than you do!"
"You have all dominion!"

And just like all of those people who want to lose weight easy, I did not want my spiritual walk with God to be tough. I didn't want to wait and have to walk through the fire to get what He had promised to me in Christ. I completely ignored the Old Testament and tried to somehow separate the God who wrote that with the God who wrote the New Testament.

So I collected for myself teachers who agreed that everything is now and is easy.
I followed the Todd Whites, the Dan Mohlers, the Curry Blakes, the Pete Cabreras, the Andrew Wommacks, the Art Thomases.

I repeated the mantras and chants. 
"I'm a daughter of God, I have all authority given unto me in Christ".
"By His stripes I WAS healed"
"Today is the day of salvation!"

Many of these things by themselves are biblical truths, but in the ways they are used become deception.

Desperation and persistence are bad words to the "Finished work" ministers. Everything is always about today and if you go to sleep sick, then YOU failed today. That is how these ministers preach it. They believe God's hands are tied and it is up to receive what "God has already done", so there is very little room for long term battles without condemnation setting in.

These distorted views of God are absolutely devastating to a person's walk with Him.
 
I was a baby Christian who knew nothing at all. I was a completely blank slate. I was a dry sponge ready to soak up anything I could find and in that was the problem. I did not soak up the pure living water of Jesus, but dirtied water along with the living water.

The underlying deception that I fell for actually prevents and stunts our maturity in Christ.

• It is lifting up immature believers in the Lord who are simply repeating catchphrases from other ministers.
• It is lifting up believers in the Lord who think everyone who is struggling "just don't know who they are in Christ".
• It is lifting up an army of narcissistic people who are in spiritual pride and have no grace whatsoever for people.

If I had been healed at the first meeting at Harvest Chapel, I would have been a horrible person. I would have been a complete arrogant, prideful monster. I would have been a prideful healed person who went around and abused those who were not healed. I would have thought that I "did it right"and that was why I got healed. I would have taken credit for my healing.

And God knew it and so I believe He delayed my healing in order to show me the condition of my heart. He delayed my healing to do a larger work in me that needed to be done, so He could use me later on. Instead of just wanting to be healed to move on with my life, now I want healed to do the work that God has called me to do. I gain my life to lose my life to be a servant of God.

These groups whether they realize it or not, but they have rejected the means that God our Father in heaven prepares us for leadership, for ministry and for a life that bears good fruit. When they say everything is now and today, they deny God's Sovereignty and the specific plans He has for each one of us.  They claim everything that Jesus did is past tense and now we have all authority and all dominion. They continually emphasize that Jesus was "just a man in right relationship with God who knew His identity" and that we are just like Him. They elevate the deity of man and diminish the divinity of Jesus Christ.

Let the Lord mature us in His time as we seek Him for healing, for life and for the promises He has made to all of us in Christ. Yes it does not always feel good, but just like having to lose weight the hard way, it can be a tough journey, one with ups and downs. However thankfully we are putting ourselves in the hands of a good God. We can trust in His ways and in His methods and in His timing.

And this is how I fell into deception and I praise God for His grace that He knew better and that He had a more perfect plan in store for my life.

Today I continue to believe God for a complete healing of everything in my life and now when that day comes, I will truly understand the magnitude of what God did in my life. I will understand the grace that He poured out on me and I will truly give all Glory to Him and not to my faith and not that I finally just believed "right". I will know that I did nothing to deserve healing and it is all God's grace.