In this article, we will continue to see the importance of keeping watch over our hearts by looking at how we are to watch our hearts and why we are to keep watch over our hearts.

To keep watch over your heart is to actively keep your heart in a right and healthy frame before God. It is to have a sensitive heart before God and not hardened towards Him. It’s to keep your heart set on eternal rather than temporal matters.

There are many movements that exist that claim there are still apostles today. This all comes from 2004 when C. Peter Wagner said that “God told him in 2001 the apostolic era was going to begin again and that there would be apostles once more.” Costi Hinn shares why this is dangerous, and provides biblical insight for this issue.

I still have them. By “them” I mean the slew of copy-and-pasted text messages I sent to several brothers in Christ soon after listening to the first episode of Christianity Today’s “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill” podcast – “Highly recommend☝🏼”. Fast forward, and I am writing this article, and doing so at a decidedly slower pace, and with a decidedly more measured tone. And why? Because while “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill” certainly has many things going for it, the podcast also presents many areas of concern for the biblically-minded and discerning follower of Christ.

One of the most often employed and most convincing arguments marshaled for the charismatic position of a “private prayer language” is 1 Corinthians 14:2. The Apostle Paul says that one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God, supporting the charismatic belief that the gift of tongues is a private prayer language. The fact that “no one understands” seems to support that this language is not a human language at all but rather a heavenly, angelic one.

Wokeness is not surprising. It is normal behavior for a world filled with sin. But when believers begin to cave to the culture and blow over in the wind of deviant doctrine, that can be surprising — mostly, disturbing.

The greatest threat to the church is not the blowing winds of culture from the outside, but false teachers who infiltrate from the inside. Those who look like sheep but are wolves. Those posing as shepherds but are charlatans. These false teachers will most certainly be conduits of cultural ideologies, while at the same time, spewing licentious lies and exploiting people with their greed.

When it comes to analyzing dreams and visions, very few people are short on opinion. Some seek dreams, visions, and other mystical experiences constantly yet don’t even know their Bible. Others dismiss every supernatural claim and prefer rationalism at all costs; unwilling to even accept any possibility that supernatural experiences could either be demonic or that God could providentially use a very normal dream to move someone into realistic action once they wake up.

Prosperity-gospel preachers are notorious for taking Scripture out of context and misapplying it. The passages they twist are primarily used as proof-texts to back up their claim that God’s will for every Christian is that they be rich, rich, rich! They promise that with enough faith (and a big enough offering), you can hit the divine jackpot.

After an immense amount of feedback poured in regarding Bethel Church’s attempt at raising a two-year old little girl from the dead, it became clear that a pastoral response would help provide clarity for many confused people.

Remember the one thing that could strip Superman of his unstoppable powers? If this thing was found in the vicinity of the “Man of Steel,” he’d be as helpless as a baby Giraffe on ice. That thing was Kryptonite.

False teachers and abusive leaders need to maintain their power. Therefore, they use a series of threats to keep people quiet and in line. Get out of line? You might hear one of the seven statements I’ve listed below. You can add, “…or else…” to each one.

It’s not uncommon for me to receive communication from people who God has graciously saved out from extreme charismatic abuses, prosperity gospel exploiters, and cultish movements like the New Apostolic Reformation. I find myself both overjoyed and heart-broken at the same time because on one hand it’s the beginning of the rest of their new life in Christ. Sadly, on the other hand, it’s often the beginning of a very painful journey through loneliness, despair, and confusion.

Lauren Daigle recently made headlines for an interview with Domenick Nati. Right near the end of his clip with her, he said he wanted to ask about her stance, as a Christian, on homosexuality and whether it’s a sin.

Is God still in the miracle business? There is an entire swath of professing Christianity that would answer that question with a resounding and enthusiastic, “Yes.” The Word-Faith and New Apostolic Reformation movements (WF/NAR) are twin movements that, though there be a bit of distinction between them, have far more in common with one another and, in fact, they are today essentially melding into one.

Like all generations throughout church history, one of the primary focuses we need to be pre-occupied with today is taking the gospel to those who have never heard it before. However, as apostasy increases and seemingly faithful men and women go rogue theologically, we’ll need not only “outreach” (to those who’ve never heard the gospel), but great emphasis on “inreach” (to those believing in a false gospel).

Pastoral ministry is a serious work that requires work. When it comes to a pastor’s mandate to proclaim the truth and protect God’s people from error, the task is nothing short of a divine burden. Pastoral ministry can be described as a daily spiritual battle for souls that never seems to end.

The church’s greatest threat has never been from the outside, but rather, from deception within. The Bible is clear. Satan doesn’t show up at the foot of your bed with red horns and a pitch-fork claiming, “Here I am to distract and deceive you!” Neither do his false prophets. They are disguised in light; seeming to be workers of righteousness (2 Corinthians 11:13-15).

Many Christians don’t contend for the faith because they don’t know why they should. Like a football team who hits the gridiron without a rally cry, the church can often be overtaken by naysayers who demand silence in the name of tolerance. This tends to rattle many passionate Christians who insist that we contend for the faith.

Over the past 3 months our latest book, Defining Deception, has ended up in the hands of nearly 3000 people. Reviews are pouring in from people who claim a variety of denominational alliances and most (including Pentecostals and Charismatics) are calling the book a timely work with a balanced argument.