Archive | authoritarian abuse RSS feed for this section

Endtime Ministers and Spiritual Covering

7 Jan

 

Spiritual covering! Have you heard about it? Do you need it ?  What is spiritual covering? Are you one of those who were sent…or are you one of those who just went, minus a spiritual covering? Whose your spiritual daddy? Whose your spiritual Mama? What about an apostolic covering, do you have one of those? Please don’t answer, because there’s no such thing as a spiritual covering.

The Spiritual Covering Fallacy

Charismatic churches, and churches in general, seemed to have latched on to yet another fallacy, yet another  unscriptural doctrine of demons. The laying on of hands is not something to be toyed with. Didn’t the apostle Paul say we are to touch no man suddenly? So why is the organized church, scampering about, in a hurry to lay hands on those they say they are about to launch into ministry? Why would a spiritual Papa or a spiritual Mama need to lauch you out to tell people about Jesus? Jesus said to spread the Gospel to the nations. Jesus never said we were to wait on a spiritual father or mother for permission.

Since when do we need a permission slip to share our testimony, or share the Gospel? The notion that ones needs a spiritual covering, sounds like demonic controls to me. Sounds like manipulations akin to witchcraft to me. What about you? So then the Gospel that calls us by our faith, to share the message of Christ has been twisted yet again.

All of a sudden, you have to wait for approval, for something Christ already said we should do. You better not go, unless you were sent. Sent by who? Sent by someone who wishes you to submit to them, rather than submit to God. The spiritual covering doctrine is responsible for a myriad of criminal behaviors in church. Wasn’t it a spiritual Daddy who was accused of some heinous acts? Do you know the story? Even if you don’t, our father is God.

We don’t want to go the other extreme into lone rangerhood either. We don’t want to be off in a corner by ourselves, refusing authority and teachings which are God sent. Spiritual coverings are unscriptural, but so is being a lone ranger  who refuses correction. Were there any lone disciples in the New Testament? Did God ever say that a time would come when disciples would stand alone to be taught, solely by him?
Some people, are sure that the organized church is the ” Her” spoken of in Revelations 18:4. Some people agree with the Sheppard’s Publishing stance. Sheppard’s Publishing views the organized church as the harlot we must all exodus from. Unfortunately, those who agree, agree only to a point. They  fall into error, by believing that God will now speak directly to them. The lone ranger pastor has lost his way, and is headed for deep deception.
I am  an independent endtime minister yet I am no lone ranger. In fact,  I am guided, supported, mentored, equipped and trained  by Pam Sheppard Ministries.  I submit to this ministry in love because a relationship of trust has been established.  No one tries to “rule” over me, nor am I required to give tithes and offerings to be a disciple. In fact, I am sent monthly donations for any service I render. I have the power to question PSM in doctrine and in practice. Yes,  I am free to come and go as the Lord leads ME without anyone’s “permission”, knowing that Pam Sheppard Ministries has  my back. Pam Sheppard, an ordained minister for 30 years— treats her ministerial associates as equals, regardless of age, spiritual maturity or background.  No authoritarian abuse with her. I provide accountability without being asked or required.
A back-up of love is a precious pearl in the Body of Christ.. An affiliation with Pam Sheppard Ministries has broken my bondage  of trying to serve the Lord under abusive authoritarian leaders. If the Lord has called you to a ministry outside of church walls, you will not be able to find a more understanding yet powerful ministry for this season. Call 518-477-5759 for more info or visit www.pamsheppard.com

Tags: , , , ,

SPIRITUAL COVERING IS ANOTHER NOT SO TENDER DEMONIC TRAP

24 Oct

Spiritual covering is yet another doctrine of demons that puts God’s people in bondage by taking one scripture out of its natural context and forming a teaching that brainwashes and hoodwinks those who submit to it.

When people try to control you, you are going to react in one of a few ways. You are either going to give in and acquiesce, give up and pretend that “all is well, ” when deep down, you are really seething inside.  This is a dangerous reaction because your inner rage will eat away at your health.

Now if you are like me, you are going to resist. The bible says that rebellion is like the sin of witchcraft. True—-if it is God that you are rebelling against. However, if religious pretenders and hypocrites try to throw what they call a spiritual covering over you, rebellion is good, but running is even better!.

As a minister in an authoritarian bureaucracy ruled globally by just 12 bishops, I watched and experienced how the traditions of men made the word of God of none effect. In certain denominations and even in the charismatic movement, bishops rule the pastors under their authority like holier than thou puppet masters. In the denominations, the power and control of the Bishops lie in their ability to appoint pastors and fill pulpits. Any pastor in full time ministry is totally dependent upon whether or not the Bishop chooses to favor them with an appointment to a church  that will be lucrative enough to financially provide for himself and his family. In the non-denominations, What you have is a clique based upon popularity.  If the bishop is a mega preacher of 25,000 members or so, then the money must first flow to the bishop—the man or woman of God FIRST, with a slow trickle effect of money rolling down to the most obedient, the most compliant, those who suck up and kiss “royal behinds.”

The denominational  “spiritual covering” net entrapped me for 25 years. Since spiritual covering is really about money,  those who “cover,” desire to be paid by YOUR hard earned cash for their “blessing” that trickles down to you in slow, tediously slow  drops.  In my particular situation, I was not well liked by bishops because I had a full time secular career. As such, I could not be placed under any Bishop’s thumb in order to survive financially. So my punishment was that I was appointed to those churches  that could not afford to pay a full time pastor’s salary—churches that no pastor without a secular job could survive serving. In most cases in such a system, the pastors’ primary objective is to protect his own power base and therefore, their interactions with the Bishops are usually characterized by subservience, flattery, subtle manipulation and “out and out” lies.

The irony is that in the denominational set up,  the Bishops are dependent on the ministers they rule to advise them since the Bishops don’t usually live in the communities that they oversee. So a bishop  needs his ministers to tell him the truth. However, a Bishop’s ministerial advisors are so threatened by him financially speaking,  that one lie begets yet another lie and the entire leadership system operates on a foundation of lies, cover-ups and pretenses. With Satan being the father of lies, no wonder the devil has a seat in such a religious/political system.

Within a complex bureaucratic hierarchy as I have described, sin spreads like leaven from top leadership in a circular, downward fall, then in an upward spiral. As the root of such a system is rotten, the deception within charismatic, non-denominational systems spreads far beyond just a few pastors or a handful of ministries. Ministers and laypersons within a charismatic system alarmingly and systematically mimic the same key people. Leaders watch and imitate well-known leaders as they pass on the same false teachings.I personally have moved beyond correcting either system by any attempt on my part to fix it.

In my ministry, I work with associates.  My associates are my equals. Everyone of my associates is valued because  they are valuable.   They work with me and help me because the Holy Spirit has revealed to them that I am both a lover of truth and of freedom.  If somebody RULES over you in ministry, you need to know tha you are not serving the One who died to set the captives free, but rather you are serving false gods And, if you cannot recognize and admit to yourself that your beloved church or ministry, or pastor  is practicing, unbiblical and ungodly doctrines and practices, then you are definitely brainwashed and under the spell of “deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons” and these demonic lies are “seared in your own conscience as with a branding iron” (1 Tim. 4:1,2). And, that means you need deliverance to be set free from Satan’s bondage and deception. It also means you are deceived about who you are serving. You are not serving the true Jesus, but the Fake One, who is the master of idols — which is idolatry, which means you are an “idolater,” and idolaters do not inherit eternal life or have an inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and God (Gal. 5:20,21; Eph. 5:5)!

So RUN from your captors and RUSH out of the arms of the Fake Jesus Sananda Immanuel into the arms of the True Jesus Christ of Nazareth, who died and was raised from the dead to set the captives FREE! “He whom the Son sets FREE is FREE INDEED!

Here is the deal. The bottom line. Anytime you come away from a corporate experience with demons attacking you, you need to “book.” To “book” is to hit the road Jack, and don’t cha come back no mo, no mo and no mo!  Sing along with the late Ray Charles and “hit the road, Jack, and don’t cha come back no mo, no mo, no mo, no mo!!. Hit the road Jack, and don’t cha come back no mo!!!!!.” What you say?”Yeh! Now sing it again before you submit yourself to their demons.

Sheppard’s Counseling Center provides training to ministers who have left the organized church, from 3 months, to 6 months, to a year in a unique deliverance mentoring model called Spiritual Empowerment Workshop or the SEW Program. Training is oral and by telephone  for those who are in full-time jobs. For others, training modules are written and  with video lessons, assignments, on the job training, OJT with pay, done on-line. Some remain with SCC and become affiliates and associates. Others go and do their own thing.  We don’t try to control or rule over anybody.  If you are interested, call 518-477-5759 or send an email to pamsheppard911@yahoo.com .

Tags: ,

ARE YOU A VICTIM OF SPIRITUAL ABUSE?

19 Oct

Truth Brings Healing. I Am Fully Healed!

The term “spiritual abuse,” is a relatively recent expression  coined to describe the damage inflicted upon the sheep by and in the organized church. Simply put, spiritual abuse results when a spiritual leader or system that controls, manipulates or dominates a person with its traditions, doctrines and practices. The key to this kind of abuse is that it is authoritarian in nature.  In other words, the perpetrator of spiritual abuse has either legal, spiritual or pastoral authority over the victim.   In such cases, several demons conjoin together to seriously damage a human spirit.

Dr, Steven Lambert has coined a similar phrase called “charismatic captivation.”  I like the term, but I don’t use it because I know that spiritual abuse is quite active in traditional denominations and is not just “charismatic” in nature.  However, I like what Lambert writes in his 11/15/08 newsletter entitled “the Myth of Spiritual Covering:

Moreover, in the process of time, it is going to become very apparent that the specter of authoritarian abuse and licentiousness perpetrated by wayward spiritual leaders is far more prevalent than what has ever been recognized before. Likewise, it will become just as manifest that the subject matter of this book — the heretical Discipleship doctrines, which are concerned primarily with false and fallacious concepts of spiritual authority — has been a primary underlying premise for much of the authoritarian abuse that has taken place among Charismatic/Discipleship churches and groups especially.

The root-cause of the Discipleship heresy is the “spirit of error” (1 john 4:6)  which is a spirit of perversion, and the “spirit of error,” unchecked, will eventually lead to a multiplicity of perversions in virtually every facet of the person’s life in which this demon and its cohorts are manifest. In the process of time this spirit will manifest perversion, corruption, and convolution in the inhabitee’s spirituality and every aspect and attitude indigenous to their natural life: their morality, marriage, ministry, message, methods, motives, and monetary matters.

In respect to this type of authoritarian abuse, one thing that needs to be pointed out, however, is that it is not just individuals who have been victimized by this spiritually lethal perverse spirit, but so also has the collective Body of Christ, in that Satan has been sowing these weeds of heresy and tares of heretics in God’s Field, thereby polluting and severely denigrating its produce, which was precisely his objective.

For 25 years, I served in ministry under the authoritarian abuse and licentiousness of  two different bishops and several elders. I  am quite strong but I must admit that I too was once a wounded healer whom the Lord has completely delivered, once He led me out of the organized church. My scars came from the root of bitterness and anger that resulted from constant primarily  rejection.  You see, because I refused to blend in with my peers, I was rejected from childhood that carried over into adulthood, for the mere reason that I am not a people pleaser, and I refuse to back down. 

 Consequently, when I arrived at the organized church in 1979, I was “different.” In the world when I was not saved, I was a retaliator.  People KNEW not to mess with me.  My wrath would be felt by my enemies because it is the nature of my flesh to plot and scheme until I had destroyed them. My pleasure came from getting right in my enemy’s face  and boast, “Gotcha!” Once saved, and having to come to terms with the fact that vengence belongs to the Lord, my soul and spirit did a lot of struggling.  So when I got to the organized church, folk really didn’t know how much restraining I was doing. So I became severely abused by people who profess to be Christian, both  bishops, ministers and the sheep I myself pastored. In fact,  I was more disrespected and humiliated by professing Christians than by any enemy who I was ever in battle with in the world.  The spiritual struggle  I endured by not retaliating against them was quite intense, to say the least. The reason why I was damaged by  was because God had never sent me to the church in the first place, so my spiritual  abuse was actually self inflicted. I was sent by the devil to the organize church to be spiritually abuse, rendered useless, and then destroyed. I have the victory for the enemy was unsuccessful.

Even though the Lord did not send me there, He allowed it to happen because I needed to discover first hands the depth of the Babylonian systems depravity so that I can help others in times like these. So while on “my mission,” God saw to it that I was not accepted by protecting  me from the comfort that leads to compromise. I now understand why  professing Christian churchgoers rejected me as much as they did.  You see,  they felt my inner strength and my fearlessness before I even know how strong I really am and they became anxious and intimidated.  Some label this quality as spiritual fortitude, or simply “courage.” All I know is that people actually feel my inner power and they are often intimidated by it, causing them to reject me. 

I’ve learned not to take it personal because  rejection is a part of the business that I am in.  Like Jesus was about His Father’s business , I am about my Lord and Savior’s business. He was and still is rejected. Therefore,  that is my plight also. When rejected actually DID  HURT me as “spiritual abuse” from religious authority , I accept it as my own fault. To move forward in ministry,  I submitted myself to inferior tyrants,  the denomination’s bishops and elders.  I allowed them to  restrain me  from serving God my own way. As a result,  the unholy authority of the “spiritual covering” false doctine and practice  smothered and oppressed my spirit. The Holy Ghost spoke to  me in a dream and warned me  that if I did not come out of the organized church, He could not use me.

So if you are a victim of spiritual  abuse, you need to know that  God will not heal the damaged so that they can remain under the exact same authority figures that damaged them in the first place. You will have to “come out of Her” to be healed. It will take a little time to heal, and that is what our  SEW Deliverance Mentoring Program is all about.  Our ministers are all wounded healers, those who have come out of the fires of refinement, prepared to rescue others.  If you would like a minister to mentor YOU, call 518-477-5759 or visit www.pamsheppardpublishing.com/deliverance-mentoring

My personal story is in the first few chapters of my book “Come Out of Her, God’s People.” In the book, I explain in detail why the dominational churches are diseased, depraved and dead and why the non-denominational-charismatics are deluded, deceived and headed for destruction. I tell my own story in the first seven chapters, followed my such subjects as Strong Delusion, the Plagues of Idolatry, the Altered State of Consciousness, Satan’s Agenda, God’s Plan and “Free at Last.”  

To preview it, click the cover.

Tags: