Thanks Bill for your thoughtful, humble and honest letter. I pray for this woman. I too saw close friends and brothers and sisters in Christ get pulled into this in the early ‘80’s. I grew up in AoG, as a pentecostal preacher’s kid, seeing the power and holiness of the Holy Spirit, never doubting the real thing. But I also saw those wanting to a. profit from it, b. glory-seek, or c. fall to the same pride as Lucifer himself and what he said to Eve “ye shall be as gods” with the “Name it/Claim it” positive confession preachers.
It always rang false with me, as I had men of God around me as well as those who had gone before, e.g., Peter and John in the book of Acts, and Paul, who all lived and breathed and had their being in the power of the Holy Spirit but attributed NOTHING to themselves - they were humble servants. The same attitude of my father on his death bed.
It grieves me to see Christans get caught up in this, the oldest lures of Man, the same ones Satan tried to tempt Jesus with in the wilderness.
But, He alone is worthy of all praise, honor and glory.
It also pains me to see believers who fail to recall the Word of God sufficiently to understand how some language taken in the proper context does reflect sound doctrine, while the same language taken out of context might be parlayed into false doctrine.
If we were studying the doctrine of the Hypostatic Union, we could see where believers in the mystery Church Age, through faith in Christ, can also defeat Satan and the mystery of lawlessness.
We are not able to make the Perfect Sacrifice Christ made on thee Cross, nor is any other man, but Christ did provide us the perfect example of how we should walk through faith and how all our works, when performed in the proper fashion are always only performed when we remain in fellowship with Him, obedient to His Will and His Plan. When we take on the mind of Christ, it is only through faith in Him.