Spiritual Warfare Library of PSM

THE MINISTRY OF THE CHRISTIAN AUTHOR: What It Ought To Be! By Pam Sheppard, author of “The Fake Jesus: Fallen Angels Among Us, Faces of the Religious Demon, Come Out of Her, God’s People,” “The New Idolaty” “Recovery in Christ, and To Curse the Root”

One reason why many professing Christians may not be able to survive endtime persecution in this country is a lack of understanding of and a lack of faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Yet, there is another reason that is outlined within the Lord’s warning to the Laodiceans. In my own vernacular, many professing Christians of today are puffed up and self seeking,—blind in their quest for self glorification and an ambitious desire for personal fame and fortune.

Let’s face it. They capitolize off of the name and the work of the Lord in order to “have a ministry of their own”. The point is well made by using the music industry as an example. Consider those who first attempted to “make it big” as a secular singer or rapper and failed, who then became famous by “switching over” to the Christian music industry. In order to clarify this point with another illustration, take a look at the subject matter of an “up and coming” conference: 501C3 application preparation, how to set up your ministry or non-profit organization–Getting your ministry license, Enrolling in Seminary School–Everything you need to know on how to publish your book—Records and gospel Entertainment—How to Handle God’s Money with Care, Making It in the Gospel Music Industry—Ministry FundrasingTips and Ideas For Promoting Your Ministry events—-How to Start a Radio Ministry—Howto Start a TV Ministry–Planning Your First Conference—Managing and applying for grants—How to Work in Full Time Ministry—How to Network Effectively—The Teenager in Ministry—The Men in Ministry AND MORE

I receive several marketing email ads of this kind on a daily basis. I chose this particular ad as an example because I have had personal contact by email and by telephone with the woman who is the founder of the organization that is promoting this conference. About 5 years ago,I promoted women in ministryon a website. This particular woman was just starting out in full time ministry,so she placed an AD that consisted of a photograph and her bio was included on a “women in ministry” page. I stopped offering this service completely about 3 years ago. I reference it now because I know for a fact that this particular woman’s own non-profit organization was established less than 5 years ago.–perhaps more like 3 years.

Even though she is a mega wannabee, my comments are not about her personally but about the subject matter of her conference and why I believe that those who are seeking this sort of ministerial “empowerment” are headed straight for disaster. To be quite honest with you, five years ago, I would have probably both promoted and even attended this conference. Even last year, realizing the dangers of a TV ministry, I was about to start a radio ministry . A date for the first show was set and radio time was about to be purchased when I sensed in my spirit that “it was not in the Lord’s timing and plan for me” so I cancelled it.

Where my 6 books are concerned, with each new revelation that I receive, I review the books that I have published. I actually set aside a portion of each day and I sit down and read each book, page by page, to make sure that they contain no blatant errors. My third book, “Faces of the Religious Demon,” is a good, solid book. Even though there is much that I know now that I didn’t know in 2006,I have found no damaging errors or blatant mistakes. Even so, I have just completed an edit of “Faces” a few weeks agol. Actually, “Faces” served as a prelude to or a springboard for what I have learned in the last year: namely, “THAT THERE IS A FAKE JESUS!”

Once I startedwriting newsletters that required some study, the names of several “religious demons” and there “faces” or “profiles” have now been uncovered—Maitreya, Sananda, Mother Mary, Germaine, Ashtar, and a host of others that I have not yet written about. In fact, Benjamin Creme, Maitreya’s human disciple, has indicated on his website that 14 ascended masters beside Maitreya are now manifesting on earth. So I have written about 5 of them, yet 10 more remain “noteworthy.” I am reviewing my first two books because I realize today that I had not yet been delivered from charismatic influences when I wrote them.

Nevertheless, as I continue the review process, I am surprised to find that in spite of my mixed doctrine, I didn’t really write about those particular subject areas and therefore I am not finding any outstanding errors. For example, when I wrote the first book “To Curse the Root,”in 1995, I certainly believed in a pre-tribulation rapture, tongues as a prayer language, obtaining salvation through the “I make a decision for Christ” method, the prayer of agreement, even falling slain in the spirit. I suspect that the Holy Ghost was guiding my author’s hand because I simply did not address these subjects in the first book.

As to the second book, it is autobiographical and “I told no lies.” I address this point in this particular article primarily because I noted the importance placed upon authorship in the conference ad copied above in red. It seems today that those who seek “a ministry” as a point of contact for personal success are assuming that one MUST be a published author. In truth, most of the errors that I myself picked up came from audio tapes and books published by various Christian authors.

The list is endless. As I burned occult books in 1981, I realize now that I also need to begin burning from my collection of so called Christian books written by several charismatic, pentecostal and word of faith authors. The flames will rise high once I start the fire! On April 24th and 25th, I watched Judge Lynn Toler of Divorce Court interview well known Christian author Juanita Bynum who no longer uses the title “Prophetess” but who now uses the title of “Dr.” Here is a word for word excerpt of the interview: Judge Lynn: Dr. Bynum, there are those who say that as a person in the ministry, as a person of God, to have the personal wealth that you have obtained is not consistent with your walk with God and your service to the people.

Dr. Bynum: What the people don’t know is that one of my biggest problems is that I give too much. I am in the predicament that I am in now for that reason. I gave too much. (What a contradictory statement!!! As one of the most well-known, prolific preachers of the prosperity gospel, Bynum has consistently preached that NO ONE CAN GIVE TOO MUCH!) Judge Lynn: Do you see how people look at the wealth that you have, what you drive, the house that you live in and that you are accepting tithes and offerings from people who may be making $20,000, $30,000 a year and how they find that troubling, as quite frankly, I do?”

Dr. Bynum: What I have accumulated I didn’t accumulate through tithes and offerings. My books have sold very well. I never wanted to live off of the people in the church. I wanted to OWN MY OWN! (This is probably a true statement, considering the huge royalties that Bynum has received from her best selling Christian books. However,the point here is that if it were not for the tithes and offerings that she DID “live on” over the years, she would not have been in a position to be a best selling author of Christian books, or to even be invited to DIVORCE COURT to function in the capacity of a professional counselor without having been trained in any counseling profession.)

Out of the abundance of the heart, Jesus declared “the mouth speaks.” Bynum never said more truer words. SHE WANTED TO OWN HER OWN. This is the case of all mega wannabees, both famous and unknown. They perceive “ministry” as a career steppingstone and not as a calling. I don’t know about Dr. Bynum’s books , but most high profile ministers are too busy travelling to write books and so they are staffed with ghost writers who are the actual, “behind the scene” authors of their bestsellers.

Since I am an author of 6 books, before I receive accusatory commentaries, let me share a few personal facts. I have had a professional secular career all of my adult life which began BEFORE I entered ministry. All publication fees for my books are paid for by funds accumulated and derived from my secular career. Since I do NOT pursue tithes and offerings, any royalties that I receive from Christian books are applied to ministerial costs and rarely for my own personal needs. Since I have not applied for tax exempt status, I pay taxes on all income derived from royalties. In truth, the reason why I am able to function and survive in full time ministry is due to long years of secular employment. I am “beholden” to NO ONE!

Consequently , a conference with subject matter such as “everything you need to know on how to publish your book”, literally turns my stomach. I kid you not. I could actually VOMIT! Perhaps it is the Lord’s distaste that I feel when He insulted the lukewarm Laodiceans with, “I could spit you out of my mouth.” With their eyes and hearts filled with ambition for personal success, countless mega wannabees are writing books, going on radio and TV and promoting themselves in sickening marketing ads that are “full of self.” Most of these people are simply too ill informed, yet they are misrepresenting themselves with unearned academic credentials and most importantly, they have not been seasoned Christians for any length of time.

Therefore, they do not read the signs of the times and they have no discernment. They don’t perceive that the Christian church in this country may be headed for persecution. They are making of themselves “sitting ducks.” Actually, the wise approach in times of peace is to limit self promotion and attention seeking. For a day may be coming when we may ALL have to assemble in secret. As for me–while I have the opportunity, I am preparing myself for widescale persecution of Christians in my lifetime. Taking every conceivable precaution, my local assembly has changed our ministerial name primarily because “Healing Waters” is associated with the ascended master known as Maitreya.

Consequently, as I continue in ministry until my own “end,” unless the Lord chooses to bring me into a public arena, I myself plan to maintain “a very low profile.” Believe me. I have no fear of dying for what I believe. However, I do not plan to be foolish and be the primary provider of specific information about myself to potential enemies. I believe that to be wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove, it is best not to place too much personal information into the hands of enemies who will strategize and use it as weapons to plot, pursue and persecute you. Almost equally as important, I perceive the major problem in the Christian world today is an exagerated emphasis on self promotion to Christian celebrity status. There are just too many Jesus Christ Superstars whom the enemy has successfully used to defile the work of Jesus Christ. So our assembly operates very much like AA, with an emphasis on “the anonymous.”

In a nutshell, a Christian author has an apostolic and a prophetic calling to send forth nuggets of truth that provide connection and correlation to the world of God. For example, the world of God tells us to “try the spirits” but it does not lay out the process line by line or step by step. Jessie Penn Lewis’s book “War on the Saints,” written more than a century ago, was used by God to teach me how to try the spirits. Her authorship has inspired my own, pariticularly my third book “Faces of the Religious Demon.” So a Christian author is not just an apostle and a prophet, but also a teacher and a counselor.

To address this question, I MUST consider the times and the season. Actually, I suspect that we are in the last season of God’s timetable before the Lord’s soon return to take up dominion and rule down here. From this perspective, I believe that the preaching of the gospel has already been done. Today I received a phone call from a man living on the west coast who was calling about his 93 year old Catholic mother, a recent stroke victim hospitalized on the east coast. The son requested if someone from my church would make a hospital visit, in order to “lead her to salvation.” The son proudly let me know that he is a pentecostal and that he doesn’t believe that his Catholic mother is saved.

As I listened, questions came into my mind regarding his own salvation. The mother has not lost her mental faculties, but the stroke has left her without speech. I said to the son, “I don’t lead anybody into salvation for I don’t have the power to save anyone, and salvation is according to election by the sovereign will of God. If your mother is called to salvation, then the Lord will find a way to save her. My concern is that your mother has heard and believes on “another gospel.” The son was so churched, that it never crossed his mind that I myself was willing to visit his mother. Yet I just felt unsure as to how to proceed. Going to her hospital bed and informing this aged Catholic that she has been worshipping the fake Jesus and a demon called Mother Mary might actually send her over the edge.

Without the wisdom to proceed, I rested assured that if this mother is one of God’s elect, He will certainly save her. I have learned that one of the primary principles of ministry today is to be aware of your own limitations and not “rush in” on false faith. For two millennium, the word of God has been preached from one end of the world to the other since the Day of Pentecost. The gospel is a very simple message: Jesus coming out of heaven to earth, born of a virgin, crucified for our sins, died and was raised from the dead, was seen of many, ascended and, praise God, He is coming back. Therefore, part one of the Great Commission is practically accomplished. This is the gospel in a nutshell, a word that is published every Christmas and every Easter, in spite of Santa Claus and the Bunny.

I am a clear example of an atheist who had never heard the word preached from a pulpit or from a TV evangelist, never even handed a tract nor had I ever opened a bible. If an atheist could be drawn to Jesus just based upon the word that was preached through the holidays of Christmas and Easter, ANYONE CAN BE!!! This is the reason why the enemy is taking a strong stand against keeping Jesus as the reason for both seasons. Unfortunately, it is not surprising that the church is in the pitiful condition that it is in today because of a gross neglect of part two of the Great Commission which is “go forth and cast out demons!” Therefore, I write to the faithful of the church at Philadelphia, and exhort you to remember the words of Paul to Timothy: “In the last days, some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils.” (I Timothy 4:1)

As the word of God has foreshadowed in various scriptures, seducing spirits are thriving in the organizational church today in the form of the religious demon. So beware, oh, precious ones! Beware of demons that will come in your midst and try to hide in your sheepfolds, whose mission is to bring down the true Body of Christ. To be successful, Satan must be very deceptive. In one of His parables, the Lord announced that in the midst of His planting wheat in His field, an enemy came along and planted imitation wheat called “tares” or weeds.

Consequently, the Lord declared that toward the end of the age, there would come a point in time when the imitation wheat and the true wheat would look identical. (Matthew 13:37-43) I believe that the objective of ministry during endtimes is connected to the Lord’s coming again. As John the Baptist preached repentance and “prepare ye the way of the Lord” to unveil His first coming, I believe that ministry in the endtimes is about preparing the people for the Lord’s second coming. So, how do we do that? I don’t think I can state any better what I have already written in “The Making of a Prophet.” I have found that the demonstration of power begins at the cross. The cross of Jesus Christ is the place where we must submit our human nature. Not just the bad but the good also.

The ones who demonstrate the most power are the ones who have suffered the most—the ones who have sinned the most—the ones who have been forgiven of the most. They tend to be most humble. However, people who have always had it good, been the most acceptable to the world, people pleasers who have adapted to a success model based upon the world’s standards—these are the people who are the most difficult to demonstrate God’s power. They are too filled up with their own power. Their own thoughts. Their own ways. Their own abilities. What I hope my testimony speaks to is that it is not just the bad things that must go to the cross. It is also the things that are considered good about ourselves that are the most dangerous. Like Paul, we’ve got to cry out, “I don’t get mixed up in nothin except Jesus Christ and Him crucified!” (pg 202) Once a Christian has been dealt with—broken by God at the cross—and has emerged a servant, then he or she is ready to participate in ministry.

I believe that in this hour, the primary work of service is to undeceive those who believe that “they already know.” Once those who have been deluded and confused have been enlightened by truth, a deliverance may still be necessary and so the casting out of demons is a very important ministry in these times. Actually, I perceive ministry today as giving out nuggets of truth. Sometimes the scope of what can be confronted with captives to deception is very limited. In my deliverance counseling practice as outlined in my third book, “Faces of the Religious Demon,” I have found that the Lord is allowing some of His people to be tormented so that they can be shaken from the deep spiritual sleep in which they so proudly and boastfully rest. Unfortunately, the spiritual arrogance and pride of those who are seeking prominence and a name for themselves in Christiandom are in serious trouble because their spiritual arrogance and pride has become deeply entrenched in their hearts and minds.

Therefore, I am prepared that scores of people shall refuse to hear God’s warnings coming from an author whom they may consider “a nobody.” Armed with this knowledge, I am no longer distressed or stressed when I am rejected by them. I realize that namedroppers and wannabees have to be broken because in their proud state, many are unable to humble themselves enough to even discern the signs of the times, as they think that they are going to build a personal Christian kingdom that they can pass on to their children and grandchildren as many notable mega preachers have already done. So other than for those who enter into counseling or mentoring with me, my approach to ministry as an author is to focus on at least one nugget of truth, either by telephone or by email and then “move on” and let the Holy Ghost lead that person into the essentials of a deeper truth. For various reasons, I have found that the resistance to the truth by various captives is the result of their religious development overtime. Like a spider forms a web, religious demons on assignment have weaved an intricate, subliminal spiritual web—a longstanding strategy that has progressively hindered a captive’s ability to face this or her own Laodicean blindness “head on.”

So for me, ministry is to drop a nugget of truth, or “plant a truth seed” and then leave the plowing, the weeding, the watering and even the harvesting up to God, and I keep on steppin. Sometimes you will find that the captive does not like the style or manner of the messenger even more than the content of the message. In such cases, when I find people who will not acknowledge my words because they do not like either my style or my tone, I strategically plan my exit. As they stubbornly cling to their own ideas of how they believe that God should teach them through the organized church where they have been a member of longstanding, I “cut to the chase.” I have learned to focus my energy and go right to the heart of the matter. I will certainly avoid throwing scripture back and forth as in a contest, but I will pointedly ask a few salient questions like, “If you are really saved, then why is the devil having his way with you? Why don’t you have any joy or peace in the Holy Ghost? Why are you not assured of your salvation? Why so much condemnation, shame and guilt” Are you confused? Is confusion of God or is it of the devil? Then I sit back, wait on a response, and refuse to take either a defensive or an offensive position. In other words, I present a nugget of truth, and I don’t stick around to see whether or not that nugget was received. I just “keep it movin.” Sometimes the Lord will let me know that “the seed got planted in good ground.” Sometimes, He does not. This is the key. Ministry is the Lord’s thing. Some plant, some water, but it is the Holy Ghost Who gives the increase. www.pamsheppard.com

CHURCH IS NOT WORKING!

Christian television would work if it repeated the same message of salvation over and over again. People would be able to be saved in their living room. Then if they went to church, at least their salvation would be assured, in spite of any error they might be taught. However, preaching a salvation message every day would not work “in the world’s system of media communciation” because ratings are based upon diversity. This is why the mega TV preachers are prone to add to or take away from the pure and simple gospel. Jesus crucified, buried and raised doesn’t play well for either television or radio. All babes in Christ need someone to feed them the word of God. They need to be able to ask personalized questions and receive answers relevant and specific to their needs.

Even a Christian talk show can be deceiving because people who are untrained and unskilled in the word of God will take the advice they hear sent to a particular caller, and improperly apply it to their own particular situation. After I was saved and still a babe in Christ, I fed myself off of the tapes of Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Hagin, Fred Price and several others. I pumped one tape after another into my head. I misapplied the scriptures on faith to some real life situations where if I had had a personal teacher, I could have learned a lot quicker and avoided the pitfalls. Instead, I took what these preachers taught out of context, and wrongfully applied their teaching to my own life.

Every one needs an elder who can answer questions. As clear as I myself try to make things when I bring forth the word, invariably, someone misreads or misinterprets my teachings, even now. To counteract this problem, anyone who wants to contact me by email or by phone to ask me a question about something that I taught can do so. I answer each and every question. Christian churches of today would work if they took the advice that Jesus gave to the 7 churches of 2000 years ago. It was one word. REPENT!!!! The problem is that they won’t. Sardis didn’t heed the warning. Nor Ephesus or any of the rest of them.

And guess what!? Those original churches no longer exist. I would have to search out what happened to the church that the Lord commended called Philadelphia. But all of the rest of those churches are nothing but rubble and broken peices of stone, toppled by earthquakes. NO MORE “CHUCH AS USUAL AT OUR LOCAL ASSEMBLY I pastored 2 Denominational Churches, one in Norwich New York and the other in Saratoga New York. I also served for several years as an associate minister in my home church in Albany New York. From my 25 years of ministry within a denomination, I must attest to the fact that the damage had been done many years by generations before my time.

Therefore, sin is now so intrinsic that it is almost impossible for denominational churches to repent. I may not have had the kind of revelation that I have now, but for the most part, I did not preach error and I was walking in the righteousness that I knew at the time. Overall, I preached a message of repentance and power. It didn’t matter. The people, both minister and laity refused to hear. So I started Healing Waters in 1996 while still in the denomination.. A year and a half ago, I realized that the “church” model was not working at Healing Waters either. So I revamped it.. For example, no more do I do a passive bible study where I do all the work and lecturing and the people just sit there in front of me.

I used to do four bible studies a week, two in the morning and two at night. No more. Everyone who wants bible study must do an independent study based upon the message that they heard on Sunday. They prepare what they have learned for me, either in writing or by telephone, rather than the other way around. They also prepare questions based upon what they did not understand in the teaching. I hold these bible studies in conference calls over the telephone. Individual counseling sessions are available for all those who need it. The service itself is also “different.” It is more like an AA meeting than a traditional church worship service. However, the emphasis is the word—at least an hour. After the word is a question and answer period, a time of testimony and prayer. I rarely do public deliverances but if the spirit leads, demons could get cast out after the children have left the service. We don’t over emphasize singing anymore. We may or may not sing a song or two. We leave it up to people to listen to worship music in their private devotions. Little emphasis on the offering. We leave it up to the member to send their offering over the web. No one leaves our gathering or “meeting” with their problem unless they want to.

Sometimes after the word has gone forth, all of our attention will go toward getting one person delivered in a particular area. We do not insist that people come to our gathering every time the doors are open. We direct them to the website. If the unsaved come in looking for truth, they leave “saved.”No more “dress up” for Sunday. I wear jogging suits, fashionable of course, lol. No more churchy clothes unless a person wants to. Everyone is “comfortable” in whatever they want to wear. I will not tolerate people coming to church out of form and fashion. I asked one young man who has been coming to church because of his girlfriend, “why are you here.” He said “I don’t know.” I said “well, til you know, don’t come back.” One of my other regular visitors thought “Oh, that is awful. How can a pastor tell someone NOT to come to church” She herself has not been back since I said that. My motive was this. If visitors do not know that those who come to church are searching for Jesus, then they will just sit in my congregation , and become more and more confused.

Visitors who do not understand who Jesus is will be in even a worst state than they were in BEFORE they came to church. They may even pick up a religious demon due to becoming habituated to church attendance, a form of godliness that denies the power thereof. As I write this, it is January 1, 2007. These changes in the way we assemble at Healing Waters were made on Sept 11, 2005. The Lord revealed in 2006—- just a few months ago in fact— that Healing Waters was not really built upon a clean foundation in 1996 because I was with a secret sin at the time, with the man who became my 3rd husband shortly after Healing Waters was founded. Even though I got married, the ministry was still “unclean.”

In fact, the Lord revealed that Richard was sent by the devil to infiltrate my ministry from the ground up. It was Satan’s intention to spoil Healing Waters before it even got started. It almost worked because I was deceived into believing that the Lord was in this. He wasn’t. Cool. No problem. Better to know now than never. Don’t get me wrong. God was in control and knew that I needed to ” go through” -so that I could help others similarily deceived. The goal was to know the truth. Now that I know the truth, I thank God everyday for not allowing me to become a successful pastor of a large church or a mega preacher. I thank the Lord that He would not grow my ministry Himself while I was unclean and He would not allow the devil to grow it either. Now that the devil is out of my local assembly, I will see where the Lord takes me and my ministry in 2007. July 8, 2007 I was shown that those who assemble with us have been living two lives: a Christian face before me when we assemble and a worldly face at home, on the job and in the local community. I have shut it down as of July 8th. TODAY!

9/22/2011:

I did the right thing by closing down my church in 2007.

All churches have become a dwelling place of demons.

God has already judged Her.