Perfecting The Saints Part 2: Correcting The Errors by Apostle Joshua Selman: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

God's desire for every believer is maturity and growth, to a point where they can serve the program of God. He gave the five-fold ministry, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, to work in synergy and mature the body of Christ.

Saints are perfected through the accurate communication of kingdom truths that reflect intimacy with God, such as character, victory and dominion, the great commission, purpose, and life beyond now.

Believers in any territory, including America, are a reflection of the kind and quality of mentorship and spiritual information they are exposed to. The gaps in a believer's training become the loophole Satan uses against them.

God builds his body through the four-fold profit of scripture: doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness.

When there is spiritual decline in a territory, God restores it through commendation, then correction, the pattern seen with the seven churches in Revelation 2 and Revelation 3, and with Paul writing to the church in Philippi.

In the last session, at least twelve ways America has contributed to the advancement of the gospel globally, including sending missionaries, building schools, sending aid, and training programs, media and television. The greatest of these is protecting the liberty of worship and religious freedom across many nations.

The current decline of the American church reflects a carefully designed attack that has lasted decades, largely due to three errors that proceed from the pulpit

1. False or apostate teachings, deviations from the known patterns of God
2. Corrupted teachings, wrong applications of correct kingdom principles
3. Imbalanced or incomplete teachings, truths that are accurate but not wholesome

Sound of Revival and similar apostolic programs are an answer to years of prayer, fasting and intercession, to bridge that gap and stop the American church from total collapse

Isaiah 58:12

We come to mend that which was broken, by the spirit of God

Correcting the errors

This advocacy for perfection is not from a standpoint of self-righteousness or hatred. Correction is offered as a brother in the faith, with responsibility and humility, because everything that happens to the American church spiritually will eventually spill over to every other territory

Ephesians 4:15 (NIV)

Instead of criticism, instead of hatred, instead of ill-wishing, there is a more excellent way

Acts 18:24-28

There is a knowing-only syndrome. A believer can be zealous, passionate, gifted and anointed, and still be knowing only

Abundance of knowledge in one area does not cover for deficiency of light in another

Aquila and Priscilla, sitting quietly in the congregation, took Apollos aside afterward and helped chisel and put in order what was still not yet in place

The sequence of spiritual decline in a territory

1. Satan attacks priesthood first

   • Not membership, not the social economy - the shepherds
   • Strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter
   • The first line of attack is consecration, causing compromise on the ordinances of intimacy: prayer, the word, and fellowship with the Holy Ghost
   • This was Satan's strategy in Acts 6, distracting the apostles from prayer and the word
   • The second line of attack is the purity of the message - a sincere, consecrated man of God can still communicate the doctrine of demons
   • Witchcraft means to cause to err through the tool of deception
   • The vessel can be dying while the office still looks intact, like a broken plate that can still hold food
   • Success can be a raw material for failure

2. Satan attacks the church

   • Sows seeds of discord and division among believers
   • The spirit of offense can interrupt revivals and the move of God
   • Even John the Baptist, who identified Jesus as the Messiah, was later shaken by offense and sent his disciples to ask if Jesus was truly the one to come
   • Like an autoimmune disease, the body of Christ begins to fight itself

3. Satan attacks institutions

   • Sells antichrist ideas into the social economy of a territory, enacted and enforced until they bring decline

10 errors to correct

1. A limited understanding of the real purpose of faith

   Hebrews 11:1

   • Faith has been taught only as a force to obtain things
   • Its higher assignment is to help a man establish a testimonial of trust before God
   • Not all the elders received the promise, but all received a good report
   • A woman who believed God for her sick child, and the child still died, looked at the body and said, "Lord, I still love you" - that is a woman of faith
   • Faith is anchored in the revelation of who God is and his love, not in results - a job is too small a factor to determine God's love

2. The balance between the gospel of comfort and sacrificial living

   Galatians 2:20

   Philippians 3:10

   • God desires our comfort, but the call to follow Jesus can demand carrying the cross
   • Many believers can live for Jesus, but they cannot die for Jesus
   • Paul prayed not only to know the power of Christ's resurrection but also the fellowship of his suffering

3. Using money and material possessions as the ultimate proof of spiritual growth

   1 Timothy 6:5

   • Godliness can bring gain, but gain is not always godliness
   • Solomon had everything and still declined
   • The Bible describes a "rich fool" - wealthy, yet a fool for trusting in possessions rather than God

4. An incomplete and inaccurate revelation of giving and seed sowing

   • The principle is accurate, but the application has become manipulative
   • Teaching seed sowing as the ultimate and only way to financial increase is not correct
   • The harvest of a seed is not always money - it can be wisdom, creativity and witty inventions
   • Isolating this one principle, leaning on offerings and tithes without an investment mentality, left many churches bankrupt after COVID

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5. The misuse and abuse of influence among Christian leaders

   • Leaders must tame excess - modesty is a cardinal principle of transformational leadership
   • The purpose of greatness is service
   • There is a fine line between honor and idolatry
   • An excessive, lavish lifestyle exposes leaders to lawsuits and demonic attack

6. The pressure to have numerical growth of church members by all means

   • Largely a matter of status and ego, not passion for souls
   • Faithfulness with five members is what qualifies a shepherd for more
   • Paul can plant, Apollos can water, but only God gives the increase
   • Manipulate people into a church and you must keep manipulating them to remain; when God brings them, they stay

7. Trivializing the ordinances of consecration and intimacy with God

   Leviticus 6:12-13

   • The ordinances of intimacy are the health of your prayer life, your passion for the word, and your time of worship
   • It is better to lose your church than to lose your relationship with Jesus
   • When God is taken for granted, the result is rituals and mechanics without life or power

8. Careless use of words and irrational expression of opinions over sensitive matters

   John 8

   • A man of God's influence is an aggregate of the trust of many people
   • When the woman caught in adultery was brought before Jesus and he was asked what he had to say, his answer was nothing
   • There are times the right answer is silence

9. Downplaying the place of spiritual warfare in sustaining personal and corporate victory

   1 Corinthians 16:9

   • Satan attacks health, children, reputation and integrity
   • It takes warfare, holding the horns of the altar, to remain relevant and to stand

10. Exalting prophetic experiences above the supremacy of the word of God

    Jeremiah 29:11

    • It is written is greater than I saw. It is written is greater than I heard
    • "It is written" has been tested; "I saw" and "I heard" have not
    • Not everyone who claims to have seen Jesus, Satan, or heaven has actually done so
    • God speaks, but he is not always speaking - don't feel pressured to always have a word

Closing charge

It takes vision to start. It takes discipline to continue. But it takes mercy to finish.