Why Should We Ever Teach A Baby To Walk? It Is So Dangerous! How We Practic​e This In Our Churches! Part I

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Hebrews 5:13: For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.

Why should I teach my baby to walk or even to eat solid foods, IT IS JUST TOO DARN DANGEROUS!  They could fall or choke to death.  I prefer they just crawl their entire life and drink milk from bottles, it just so much safer for them!  What if they learn to walk and then they fall or he/she climbs the monkey bars and then breaks his/her neck?  What if I teach them to eat solid food and they choke to death or they end up with digestion issues?  

We would want to lock up parents who thought like that.  Put them in a mental institution or take their children from them!  These parents would be completely illogical!  But we take this very same mindset and bring it into our churches and we believe we are being logical.  What am I talking about?  Well, let’s dive in and find out.

The Holy Spirit brought this idea to me this recently.  I was sitting in a church which puts a lot of importance into bringing in new people. To be fair, I do understand their stance on this.  This church has lots of babies (new) believers and unchurched people coming into their sanctuary on a regular basis.  I want to say this because I want to be fair to them, I do understand their mindset.  However, there are way too many churches who coddle their congregations with this soft-sell approach who do not regularly have or are not courting new people the majority of the time.  They only want to be seeker-friendly and they also want to play it safe by not offending the people who come or seem to be to spiritually weird.

First: Giving

As I said, If you use my analogy above about parents who will not teach their children to walk and eat solid food because of the dangers, then you would have to list them as unfit parents!  But in the spiritual realm, we have too many leaders who practice such things when it comes to spiritual gifts and leading their people to be mature and strong Christians.  For time sake, I only want to use two examples while expounding this idea.  However, leaders with this over cautious mindset are across the board when it comes to spirituality in the church.

While sitting in church recently, the Holy Spirit brought this idea to my mind when the pastor said;  “… we have boxes on the wall and if you would like to give they are there.”  He went on to say; “we do not talk about money because it is too offensive for some.”  So “give” if you are moved.

When we read in the New Testament about giving money, we do not read about giving a 10% tithe as in the Old Testament Malachi 3.  Rather, I believe the Apostle Paul, while writing in the New Testament in 2 Cor. 9:7, wants us to be good and cheerful givers. I believe they teach giving in the same vein as the sowing of seeds.  There is a lot of teaching on this but for sake of space, I will not go into depth on this.  If we look at our finances from God’s perspective, we can see God looks at the money the same as a farmer looks at seeds.  When a farmer gets seeds, he plants them and they yield a crop.  What if after the crop is harvested, he eats all the food and the seeds from the harvest?  Then the next year, they will not have any seed for a new crop.  They will starve.

The universal principle found in the book of Genesis 8:22 of “seed, time, and harvest” is applied to almost every living thing on this planet.  In the New Testament, it is also used to teach about money issues.  Most people during the Biblical time period were an agriculturally minded society (we, for the most part, are a technology–minded society).  They understood completely when Jesus and the writers of the Bible talked about seeds, time and harvest.

2 Corinthians 9:6-8: But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. As it is written: “He has dispersed abroad, He has given to the poor; His righteousness endures forever.” Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increased the fruits of your righteousness,

The above verse is one of many teachings on sowing seed in the Bible, but here Paul is specifically talking about finances.  I know that sowing is also used to teach about our time and resources.
When Church Leaders refuse to teach their congregations these Biblical principles, they instead teach poverty mentality in the kingdom of God.  The scriptures are clear: he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly.  That is what is happening in the kingdom of God here on Earth now.  Unless you adhere to these Biblical principles, you will normally want to sow to the flesh.  And as we know the flesh says; “the more I keep, the more I have!”  So giving is completely unnatural, the Spirit of God living within you is what allows us to sow Biblically, it is a SUPERNATURAL event!
So today, many believers are struggling because they have not been taught Biblical Finances with their money.  Pastors think they are being safe but instead, they cripple their congregations and the ministries within their church.  I know!  My ministry struggles for lack of finances.  Like most of us, I also still struggle with a lot of these principles.  However, because I went to Charis Bible College where I learned sound Biblical financial principles concerning money, I am moving in the proper direction.  But I admit, I am still a work in progress.  I know pastors do not want to take a chance on offending their congregants with Biblical financial giving because even in my early Christian walk I went to many churches who played it safe or only taught giving by the Law.
Second: Praying in Tongues
The second area of playing it safe can be illustrated through the concept of praying in tongues.  Recently, I applied to be a prayer minister at a church.   When I mentioned that I graduated from Charis Bible college, I was asked not to pray in tongues while in the prayer line because it might concern or upset people.  I agreed, but only because after serving many years as a prayer minister with a major ministry, I learned that I can only use my prayer language when the person receiving the prayer requests it or I am waiting and praying to myself to build myself up.  So that was OK by me!  However, this did show me the heart and misunderstanding in many of our churches.  The big question is WHY!
If you have been Baptized in the Spirit,  you will know that all spiritual gifts and power are locked inside the “Baptism of the Holy Spirit” and released through the speaking of tongues.  As I mentioned earlier I was saved in a church that did not believe in the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and the speaking of tongues as a private language, nor in the “Gift of Tongues, which is a gift to the church.
I spent 18 years frustrated having no power to perform my duties as a youth pastor.  Let me prove my point:  If you do not have the “Baptism of the Holy Spirit” have you ever read the Book of Acts or the Gospels and wished you could operate as the Apostles did in the first century?  I know what you are feeling.  I did that for 18 years as a youth pastor, watching children get sick and or die and not being able to do a thing but offer some half-hearted sorry prayer of unbelief.  God’s Will, will be done! (how pathetic I was).
I know the difference today!  I have seen so many moves of the Spirit and healings since I finally believed the Bible rather than the man-made doctrines I was taught.  These are doctrines that go against the very word of God.  In one example; I saw two women who were important in my life receive news that they had stage 3 breast cancer.  I was asked to pray the prayer of faith for them and they were both healed.  I can’t tell you the thrill when I saw them later and asked how their treatment was going.  They both told me they did not need treatment because their cancer disappeared after I prayed for them.  I believe both women would have died if I had not prayed for them.  Both of them were unbelievers at the time and defeated in their sickness.  They are both alive today.
Another instance occurred when I received a call from a friend who had a seriously sick baby.  I was asked to drive them to the doctor due to bad weather.  As I drove them I began praying in tongues.  When we got there I asked the parents if I could lay hands on the baby and pray. As I commanded healing in the baby, we all agreed for healing.  As I finished I had a “Word of Knowledge” but at the moment I did not realize it.  I said: When you see the doctor.  He will say to you; “Why are you bringing a healthy baby to be treated?”   I left them as they went into the doctor’s office and then went to wait at a coffee house.  I was very surprised when I received a call just a few minutes later from the parents to pick them up.  When I got back the parents were overjoyed.  What I said as they left the car came true.  By the time they reached the doctor, the cough and serious congestion I had witnessed on the drive there was gone!  The doctor asked why did you bring me a baby who is not sick!  Who knows the outcome if we did not lay hands on the baby and pray for healing into his body.
One more example, not to glorify me or my ministry in any way but to glorify God and to show you, if you were like me and ignorant of the gifts in the Bible. I can’t begin to tell how frustrating it was for those 18 years when I was powerless.  During those years, I watched my own daughter get sick and other friends some of whom got sick and died.  All I could do was sit there and worry and offer some faithless prayers of “please God if it’s your Will, do something!”
For a final example, I would like to share with you about a time when I was on a prayer line in Kansas City with a major ministry.  As I was praying for people, two women came for prayer.  But before they came to me the Holy Spirit spoke up and asked me: “Do you want to see how Jesus healed the Servant of the Centurion in the Gospels?”  I said yes!  However, I did not have a clue what was coming next!  Then two elderly ladies came to me and asked if I could pray for their sister who was in an ICU unit in a Kansas City Hospital and was expected to die!  I immediately knew what the Holy Spirit was referring to!  My faith skyrocketed because of the question the Holy Spirit asked me!  Before we prayed, I told the ladies what the Holy Spirit asked me!  Then both ladies, who were both women of faith, were immediately built up in faith as I was.  We all prayed for this lady in the hospital and they left.
The next  Monday, when I return to the phone prayer line where I also worked for the ministry, I was asked if I was in Kansas City over the weekend with the ministry?  I said yes!  I was informed by a praise report from a call originating in Kansas City that the lady in the hospital immediately got healed before she even knew she had been prayed for.  She then she sat up and signed herself out of the hospital completely healed and recovered.  Her sister later shared that they went to receive prayer for her at the gospel truth rally.  What a joyous reunion they must have had!

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