False Expectations: Teaching from Self-Life
The Charismatic Church has created a false reality of what following Jesus is and what it is supposed to be.
This false perception has set up countless believers for false expectations.
Once their expectations have failed, some of these believers fall away from the Faith.
The Church needs to realize that it is possible to effectively join hands with Satan and set believers up for failure through false doctrine that creates false expectations.
When James first received the call to follow Jesus as a disciple, everything was so vivid and exciting.
The multitudes were being Healed and Delivered (Mark 1:16-45), and Revival was exploding. James felt the momentum of a powerful move of God.
Peter, James, and John had been invited into Jesus’ inner circle. They were the only ones to come with Him on the mountain where Jesus was transfigured.
The three were the only ones to come into the room when Jesus raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead.
Finally, Jesus took the three with Him as He prayed to the Father before His suffering (Matthew 26:37-38).
The expectation was that Peter, James, and John would be and remain pillars and leaders of The Church since Jesus invested so much time in them.
After all, the Father protected Jesus and would not allow Him to be killed until it was time for Him to go to The Cross.
The religious leaders would try to stone Jesus, and He would supernaturally pass through their midst by the power of God.
The Father would surely protect Peter, James, and John, right?
The Unexpected
Under The Holy Spirit-empowered leadership of the apostles, The Church was thriving.
“Then The Church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria experienced peace and thus was strengthened. Living in the Fear of The LORD and in the encouragement of The Holy Spirit, The Church increased in numbers.” Acts 9:31 NET.
Suddenly, everything changed.
“About that time King Herod laid hands on some from The Church to harm them. He had James, the brother of John, executed with a sword.” Acts 12:1-2 NET.
James was killed suddenly, and The Church was shocked.
They knew it could happen because they had gone through it with Stephen, but they didn’t think it would happen with one of the eleven, let alone one of the three.
The Father allowed it to happen. The words of Jesus came to pass sooner for James than for the rest.
“Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Him, saying, “Teacher, we want that whatever we may ask, You would do for us.” He said to them, “What do you want Me to do for you?” They said to Him, “Grant us to sit, one at Your right hand and the other at Your left hand, in Your glory.” But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I drink and be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” They said to Him, “We can.” Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink the cup that I drink and be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized. But to sit at My right hand or at My left hand is not Mine to grant. It is for those for whom it has been prepared.”” Mark 10:35-40 MEV
Initially, James had expected that following Jesus would bring him into a place of power, influence, and authority.
He had embraced the false teaching that the Messiah would come and deliver Israel from its earthly enemies, and Israel would once again be the greatest kingdom on earth.
This is much like what many in the modern Charismatic Church teach: that The Church will dominate the seven cultural mountains of societal influence, meaning that, essentially, The Church will be in control of the world’s systems before Jesus returns.
This “Seven Mountain” doctrine is fundamentally against Scripture on many levels.
It shows us how strong the self-life is among leadership in The Church.
They create fantasies of the self-life. These fantasies begin in their own souls, which are controlled by the desire for power, authority, and influence.
Unfortunately, because false teachings can cause the development of strongholds in our souls, sometimes the only way to bring us back to reality is for The LORD to allow those false expectations to fail. Otherwise, if someone tries to speak truth to us and show us that our expectations are based on false doctrine, we shut them down and reject the truth they are attempting to show us.
We effectively shut down our spiritual hearing and embrace a false faith.
The LORD Himself has to utterly decimate our false belief systems in order to set us free.
The enemy uses false teaching to imprison us in a false reality full of false expectations.
The self-life embraces these false expectations. When our life is laid down, we will follow The LORD any way He leads and do whatever He wants.
If He goes to the cross, so do we. But if our will is controlled by self, we attempt to preserve our lives, our reputations, and our ministries.
So many leaders in The Church are full of self-life, and they will do anything to fight for their natural lives and their ministries, specifically when they have been in sin and no longer deserve a ministry or leadership position.
Because Church Leadership is so full of self, they lead believers down the path of self-life and not down the path of the cross-life.
Paul and the Cross-Life
“While we stayed there many days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. When he had arrived, he took Paul’s belt and bound his own hands and feet, saying, “The Holy Spirit says, ‘In this manner the Jews at Jerusalem shall bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’ ” When we heard these things, both we and the residents implored him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be imprisoned, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of The LORD Jesus.” When he would not be persuaded, we kept silent and said, “Let the will of The LORD be done.” Acts 21:10-14 MEV.
Paul was controlled by The Holy Spirit, and he fully embraced the cross-life.
If he had been controlled by his self-life, he may have reasoned, “It’s not the will of The LORD for me to go to Jerusalem because I could suffer, be put in jail, or die. I’m going to go back to Ephesus because they need a stable leader there. I need to finish out a long and fruitful ministry there, and those inexperienced elders need my guidance.”
Those who are controlled by their self-life will always reason away the direction and truth of The Holy Spirit in favor of the fantasy of their own souls.
The self-life will embrace any reasoning that avoids suffering or discomfort.
Pastor’s Daughter
Where I live in Northern Alabama, a pastor’s daughter was killed in an ATV accident last spring.
She was fourteen years old. The pastor oversees a Charismatic Church.
- How could The LORD allow this to happen to this family?
- Why didn’t The LORD spare her life and save the family from the devastating death of their daughter?
- Why did The LORD allow James, the brother of John, to be killed and removed from church leadership when The Church wasn’t fully mature yet?
These are questions that we will probably not have fully answered in this life.
Will we continue to trust The LORD when there are things happening around us that we cannot explain?
When the false expectations of our self-life are crushed, will we continue to follow The LORD, or will we turn back?
The Cross of Christ is the answer.
If we pick up our crosses and follow Jesus, empowered by the Spirit, we will lose our self-life and live by Christ’s life.
If we do not pick up the cross of sufferings and follow after Jesus in drinking the cup of His sufferings, we will seek to save our self-life.
When we save our self-life, we lose Christ’s Life, Will and Kingdom that He desires to bring through us. We will lose the life Himself being manifested in us and through us.
We are not going to have the answers for why certain things are allowed to happen and why some things don’t happen.
Everything is a test. The LORD is testing the measure of His Son in us.
Will we abide in the faith of the Son of God, or will we draw back?
Will we allow Christ’s faith to come forth in us, or simply try to make it on our own faith?
This natural life in our fleshly bodies is a test.
We have to focus on the eternal and fix our spiritual eyes on Him who is invisible.
We have to live for eternity and not for this temporal life or world.
“For you need patience, so that after you have done the will of God, you will receive the promise. For, “In yet a little while, He who is to come will come, and will not wait. Now the just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, My soul shall have no pleasure in him.” But we are not of those who draw back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the saving of the soul.” Hebrews 10:36-39 MEV.
Christ is our promise!
Having Him is everything and the greatest reward we could ever receive. In a worldly Church System that focuses on so many activities, programs, and gifts, we have to focus on doing the will of God.
After we have picked up our crosses and followed Christ into the will of the Father, we will receive the promise of Christ: the inward revealing and transfiguration into Christ’s image.
We will come to the measure of the stature of His fullness, and we will know Him inwardly.
Though it seems He is tarrying, He will surely come forth in His remnant.
The just shall live by His faith that is being manifested in and through them.
“And The LORD answered me and said, Write the vision, and that plainly on a tablet, that he that reads it may run. For the vision is yet for a time, and it shall shoot forth at the end, and not in vain: though he should tarry, wait for him; for he will surely come, and will not tarry. If he should draw back, my soul has no pleasure in him: but the just shall live by my faith.” Habakkuk 2:2-4 Brenton.
~Ty Unruh
Ty Unruh is a messenger of The LORD. He is longing is to walk with The LORD inwardly, and to be in the secret place of His presence. He desires to impart an inward burning for Jesus to others. Ty’s burden from The LORD is to see the bride made ready, disciples raised up, and to release a revelation of Jesus as the coming King and Judge. He also carries a call to see The Church restored to The LORD’s original design found in the scriptures. Ty founded Generation Chosen in 2015.
Ty also runs Burning Point Ministries where all his articles and teachings may be found, and which will eventually be multilingual, as well a TickTok outreach ministry.
Ty, I really love how you break it all down, for in fact we are not going to know why certain things happened, but continue with our eyes focused on our True and Living God.
Thank you, blessings.
Here, finally, is someone who speaks the uncomfortable truth. Many believers today focus on themselves and their material prosperity, denying the cross of Christ.