Wednesday, April 10, 2013

My Response to James B. Richards' Open Letter

Below is my response to James B. Richards' Open letter.

James

Thank you for your response. You are correct that there is much kingdom work to do and my focus is not to belittle you but to evaluate your work on this subject as stated previously!

I too have experience that causes me to respond as I have in seeking to equip and empower the believer to accomplish great kingdom assignments as God empowers them. I have taught on the college level at a Spirit filled Charismatic college, NT Greek, Hermeneutics, Spiritual Warfare, Prayer evangelism-City taking, deliverance, Angels and Demons, the Gospels, The person and Gifts of the Holy Spirit, Spiritual Gifts and personality profiles, Deliverance and Inner healing, Minor prophets, Apologetics...yada yada yada.

I have a passion for revival and the outpouring of the Spirit in our day. I have had students from 27 nations and 18 native American people groups. many have fulfilled their callings in the five fold ministry and have accomplished more in 5 to 7 years then I could have imagined. My blogs are read all over the world. I have spent years crying out against dead religion and the curse of people saying they are Spirit filled and yet watching as those very same leaders continually flee the move of God in the name of not offending some.

All that to say I am not a novice at the things of God, the work of the Spirit both currently and in Church history. God mightily delivered me and has given me the honor of being a part of His wonderful work in the earth. Having said all that I am nothing in and of myself. The prophetic and teaching motivational gifting within me causes me to respond in ways and with a level of passion that is intense and I will not quench His working.

It is oblivious to me that you are a very intelligent and gifted person, I can not argue you into altering your teaching nor should I as you and I both must answer to God alone.

I would however recommend that you research the concepts you teach from the point of view of the new age teachers I have mentioned and the resources quoted on my equippers tool box blog http://equippersnetwork.blogspot.com review of your material on this subject.

I believe this will protect you and enlighten you as to how these concepts are used by those who do not hold Jesus to be the Messiah use and teach these concepts. The end result is that you would be able to avoid communicating in a way that would hinder your stated goals to me and others.

One of the great risk you take when you teach these ideas to those who know nothing about the new age or Gnostic teaching is that they become open to the ideas and may fall prey to New Age teaching that uses the same terminology. Not everyone is as well educated and intelligent as you are or able to discern between what you say your intent is and your content is and a new age writer/teacher who's intent is different and points away from Christ not toward him. Just a few suggestions...

I would also like to conclude this discussion. I still strongly believe what I have said about these teachings based on personal experience and study, I would prefer to agree to disagree and leave the matter at that for now as I do not see us coming to any type of theological agreement concerning your Anatomy of A Miracle teachings.

Wayne

4 comments:

watchman said...

This is great! James Richards is so deceived he doesn't even know it. Wow!

Anonymous said...

Wayne,
Thanks for posting this dialogue. It was very eye-opening. What I took away from it was that Jim is acting defensive, accusatory, and self-centered. His writing seemed to always wrap everything up with what HE has done in ministry, how many people HE has reached, etc. I don't remember Jesus ever proving the Truth of what He did and said by giving the statistics of His ministry. I do know Jesus measured everything from the law and the prophets-- and now WE have the New Covenant to line everything up by as well.

I am not surprised by Jim's responses. After watching his Anatomy of a Miracle seminar, it is easy to see how he justifies his message. And I agree with you, Wayne, that there will be no theological agreement on this one.

I think you did the honest thing by confronting the untruth. And now we are able to judge everything by the Word of God. We judge the THINGS. God judges the people.

Thanks, Wayne,
Jessica

Equipper said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Equipper said...

Dear Reader if you have read the above article you may be wondering why I have taken the time to be critical of a Spirit Filled teacher teaching which seems so appealing.

I was delivered from the bondage and deception of the New Age and the Laws of Cosmic consciousness and the teachings of many from ages past and up through the late 1960's. Since the foundation of the world Lucifer, aka Satan has tried everything he can to deceive the people of God and for that matter all of mankind, so that he(Lucifer)the deceiver, who has come to kill steal and destroy God's plan of an intimate relationship with us as His creation and as His children.

Some things are obvious to me as a result of the experiences I had back then. When I see them in broad day light masquerading as some new truth or some hidden thing newly discovered there is an urgency to protect what is most valuable in life and that is our relationship with the One true God. I do not see Richards as evil; I see him as misled and hope he will turn away from the snare that has entrapped his teachings. For although I totally believe in miracles as a person who has give my life to Christ, I must even as Jesus did allow God to rule and His spirit to empower me. If says believe for a miracle (a supernatural intervention into time and space) then I will and he will accomplish it for His purpose and not mine.