In 2002 my wife and I walked into a room full of pretty people. They had a vision to change the world. They were beginning a new movement that would reach every nation. This fit in with the vision of the church I was attending that was going to single handedly reach the gulf coast region. This was all presented in such a way that the feeling it left you with was that surely no one else was making the kind of impact our movement was making. Surely we were the only ones that God could use to reach this generation. Looking back on it now, all I can see is arrogance. Often this arrogance would get in the way of ministry. The vision seemed to take precedence over loving and serving people. People were to love and serve the vision and make it happen at all costs. As I sit writing this I am perplexed and troubled. We worked a lot. As a matter of fact, we worked all the time. Our lives were consumed by what we were calling ministry. This “ministry” was so inward focused it made little impact on the community in which we lived. Don’t get me wrong we did lots of great stuff for Christians. We had ballets, retreats, conferences, human videos (still not sure why they call it a human video). In other words we had lots of great stuff that today makes me want to vomit (sorry, but $50,000.00 ballets in churches make me want to vomit). I have struggled recently with my ministry bag of tricks. My ability to have a dynamic personality, to be pretty, to be a great speaker, to put on a great production, it all seems so useless.  How arrogant are we to think we have all the answers? How arrogant is it to think that all of our productions can take the place of the person of Jesus and the office of the Holy Spirit. I recently visited the web site of a Pastor I have known for about 18 years. He started a new church in Dallas. The about section of the website declares “The Vision of <insert church name here> is to be a church of influence. A church that cannot be ignored by its community.” Is it just me or does this seem incredibly arrogant? I am sure they will do great “Christian” things, and look really pretty, while they exhaust various marketing campaigns in their attempt be a “church of influence”. Sadly while their goal is to be a church that is not ignored by its community, its community will likely go unnoticed. The problem is that we think the community exists to enrich and serve the church, when in reality the church exists
to serve and enrich the community. I guess what I am trying to say is get over yourself and your over paid rock star pastor. World change is not going to happen through transfer growth and moving asses from one church to another. World change is going to happen when we get our agendas and egos out of the way and make ourselves available to be Jesus to the world around us.

Let's all say it together "Judge not, lest ye be judged! “We have all heard this one. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard this since I started blogging. This comes from Matthew chapter 7, and is probably the most quoted, and misquoted Bible verse today. Most people have made up their own belief as to what this verse actually means. To most it means that we cannot say that someone's actions are wrong. If that were the true meaning, it would be circular reasoning to tell someone not to judge, because you would be making the assertion that they are judging. By doing so, you would be guilty of judging another's actions yourself. You have essentially done wrong by accusing someone else of doing wrong. Jesus did not outlaw judging. Verse 6 makes this clear "6 “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces." Apparently we must discern whether someone is a dog or a swine. How could we do this without making a moral judgment? Jesus was concerned with us judging others in a way that we would not want to be judged ourselves. Jesus tells us several times in scripture to beware of judging others according to outward appearance. We all want to be judged for our intentions, but not our actions, yet we judge others by their actions without fail. The problem lies in the way and the spirit in which we judge others. If our judgment is from a place of condemnation rather than a place of concern and humility, we should probably be more concerned with judging ourselves, and our own selfish motives. We are actually encouraged many times in scripture to judge moral and doctrinal  matters with an humble attitude, for the purpose of being helpful. In 1 Corinthians 5:1-6 Paul "Judges" the man that was guilty of the sexual misconduct. This sets a scriptural precedent that illustrates that we are to make judgments concerning the actions of others. To believe that we should not judge means that no one could ever declare that anyone else is in the world is wrong. Clearly, we are to judge, however, we must be careful that our judgment starts with us, and that we never judge anyone else in a way that we ourselves would not want to be judged. Matthew chapter 7 does not give us a pass to be cowards and cast off our responsibility to make moral and doctrinal judgments.

In John Bevere’s book Undercover he advocates a system that is biblically and theologically abusive. His points are more often founded in what God “tells” him personally than they are backed up with scripture or sound doctrine. Of course if you subscribe to this absurd teaching you do not have the right to question Bevere’s claims because after all, he is a “spiritual authority”. This teaching undermines the gospel and breeds spiritual infancy, as it makes believers dependent upon an “authority” to tell them God’s will for their lives. You need someone more popular with God than yourself to be a mediator, and commune with Him to make certain you are under cover. In reality this book and it’s vile framework is nothing more than an undercover manual for manipulation.

An example of Bevere placing himself on the same level as an Old Testament prophet can be seen on page 147. He states “Later the Lord spoke to my heart, John, if I intended for every believer to get all his information, wisdom, and direction only from prayer and communion with me, then I’d never instituted authority in the church. I placed authorities in the church with the full intent that my children could not get all they needed just from their prayer life. They would have to learn to recognize and hear My voice through their leaders as well.” Seriously!? We cannot get everything we need from our relationship with God? We need a man to fill in the areas in which God is not enough? I am literally sickened that Bevere would even suggest such an idea. He is asserting that because God “spoke to his heart” that this should be taken as gospel and that it is authoritative. Jesus tells us that His sheep know His voice and another they will not follow. You do not need a man’s voice to be a counterfeit for the Holy Spirit in your life, but this is what Bevere is teaching.

Bevere tells us that under our covering there is safety and God’s blessings. To be outside of our covering “places us under the judgment of God, and grants legal access to demonic powers. If we want to remain obedient to God and blessed, we have but one choice when it comes to delegated spiritual authority – submission and obedience.” Do I even need to elaborate about how ridiculous this is?

Jesus himself talks about spiritual authority, but this spiritual authority is something that we use and exercise over evil spirits. Jesus gives us many examples of this in scripture. Spiritual Authority is not something we use on fellow believers. There is no mention of this in scripture and it is a complete fabrication, or as I like to call it, a lie. It is a lie that has brought great harm to many.

In Isaiah we see how God feels about His children taking counsel and accepting covering from others:

Isaiah 30:1-3

1 Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin: 2 That walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt! 3 Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.

The word covering appears 45 times in the entire King James version of the Bible. Never once is it used to tell us that we need another individual to be a buffer between us and God.

On page 101 we read:

Servants [employees, church members, civilians, etc.] respectfully obey your earthly masters [employers, church leaders, civil authorities, etc.].... (Eph. 6:5-8) The italics were conveniently added by Bevere. He asserts that church members are servants and church leaders are their masters or lords. This is completely unscriptural.

The concept of church covering is not found one time in scripture and Jesus, in fact, told His disciples NOT to serve His body as "authorities" who were over them, bearing titles and having men address them as such (Luke 22:25-27; Matthew 23:8-12).

Bevere suggests that people should live by the principle of obedience rather than reason. On page 145 he states:

“These men and women thought their insubordination was against Moses and not in any way connect to God. They thought they had successfully separated the two. They lived by reasoning instead of by the principle of obedience. Those who walk by the limited reasoning produced by sight and circumstances find themselves on the path of folly.”

God does not ask us to give up our ability to reason. As a matter of fact Jesus tells us “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37) God expects you to use the mind He gave you. Paul praises the Bereans and calls them Noble because they used their reasoning and researched scripture to validate the things they were being taught. (Acts 17:1-10)

Bevere also suggests that God does not judge people on the fruit of their life but on how faithfully they followed authority:

“Our judgment will be relative to our submission, for authority if of God. To resist delegated authority is to resist God’s authority. We should not take upon ourselves the pressure to discern beforehand whether leaders are right nor not. Nor should we judge after the fact. This is not our burden, but God’s He alone knows and can change hearts as he so desires (Bevere 147)” .

This is perhaps one of the most dangerous statements in the book. The idea that you should not worry about whether your leader is right or wrong is outright scary and anti-scriptural. There is not a single shred of scripture anywhere to support such an idea! As a matter of fact scripture states that each man will give account to God for his actions. You had better be certain your actions are right.

Bevere’s ability to simply make up his own doctrine with little regard to scripture is more than alarming. In my opinion it diminishes his credibility as a teacher of sound doctrine. Until he redacts his allegiance to, and affiliation with this kind of heretical teaching, his teaching should be avoided. If John Bevere comes to your church, this book will be for sale on his book table. I cannot help but seeing this as a stamp of approval from your pastor for this false teaching.



I could write several more pages and discuss the absurd, non-scriptural vomit that Bevere has turned loose on the church in this book. If the above information is not enough I can provide you with many more examples of how Bevere simply fabricates stories and creates fairy tales sprinkled with a scripture here and there.

If your pastor or anyone in your church leadership gives you the book Undercover by John Bevere, God’s Armor Bearer by Terry Nance or Spiritual Authority by Watchman Nee, the best thing you could possibly do is leave. If they ask you to read these books, it is because they believe in the teachings of these men, and to question their beliefs is to question their authority. If you stay, you will endure manipulation and control thinking you are earning God’s favor.

I served under pastors for years that believed in spiritual authority and spiritual covering. The teaching makes you feel that you must obey the “authority” or you will be punished, or that God will not be pleased with you. To move away from, or operate outside of your covering brought severe consequences, and the displeasure of God. There was a serious emphasis on submitting, obeying and serving, and very little emphasis on developing a relationship with the God we were trying to please.



If your pastor or church teaches this anti-scriptural false teaching, you should leave as fast as you can.

Go to the Christian bookstores and you will find a gaggle of books on leadership. I knew a pastor that preached more sermons based on the gospel of John Maxwell than he did the Gospel of Jesus. When your pastor quotes John Maxwell and other church “leaders” more than he does Jesus, it might be a clue that you are in for trouble. For the record, I am over it. I am over trying to be a leader. I am over trying to get people to follow me because I am a pretty man and have a dynamic personality. We have spent so much time making leaders, we have failed to make disciples, even more scary is the possibility that we may have made disciples. We have made little clones of us that walk around vomiting the same old Christian vernacular that we were taught. I do not need to posture myself for you or anyone else. I need to posture myself for Jesus and live for His approval. Jesus never talked about leadership, He did however spend a great deal of time talking about serving. So, if you want to be a leader, start a book club, lead a horse to water, lead the blind, do anything, but please do it somewhere else. If you want to look like Jesus, you are going to have to stop leading and start serving. 

This and many other pretty little sayings can be heard in some Christian sub cultures. To people outside of those sub cultures, phrases like this are scary at best. Let’s take this statement ‘You never know what is waiting on the other side of your obedience’ for example. How much scriptural truth can be found in this statement? This statement was repeated to us for years in order to get us to go with the program. In other words, “just be obedient and God will bless you”. The problem with this is that obedience was always seen as submission to what that person was trying to coerce you to do at the time. I would like to share a little story about a man that did not know what was waiting on the other side of his obedience.

In 1 Kings 13:7-25 we read the story of a young prophet and an old prophet. God clearly spoke to the young prophet and told him what to do. The old prophet interfered and convinced the young prophet to be obedient to him rather than God. It is interesting to me that the Bible clearly calls the older prophet, well, a prophet. Verse 11 states “Now there dwelt an old prophet in Bethel…” Surely this guy was reliable. Surely he would not lead the younger prophet astray. Unfortunately, he did just that. The young prophet listened to the old prophet and verse 24 tells us this: “And when he was gone, a lion met him by the way, and slew him: and his carcass was cast in the way, and the ass stood by it, the lion also stood by the carcass.” His obedience to man cost him his life.

So, you never know what is waiting on the other side of your obedience. I, for one, am not going to get eaten by a lion because I would rather hear from a man than have a relationship with the Holy Spirit. God has been speaking to you. Maybe it is time you started listening.

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In First Timothy Paul writes to Timothy and instructs him to remain in Ephesus in order to charge some that they should not teach false doctrine. Not only does Paul tell Timothy to confront false teaching, but he states that teaching false doctrine is the equivalent of  profanity, murder, fornication, sodomy, kidnapping, lying and perjury. He then continues and actually names people that have done such things. Not only did Paul tell Timothy to confront those who were indicted of teaching false doctrine, he went as far to call them out by name. God then chose to include all of this in scripture. According to this scriptural precedent not only do we have a Biblical foundation for uncovering false doctrine, we also have the right to name those guilty of teaching false doctrine. Paul when talking about elders states in 1 Timothy 5:19-20 that we should rebuke those who are sinning in the presence of all! "19 Do not receive an accusation against an elder except from two or three witnesses. 20 Those who are sinning rebuke in the presence of all, that the rest also may fear." 1 Timothy 1 3: As I urged you when I went into Macedonia—remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, 4 nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith. 5 Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, 6 from which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk, 7 desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm. 8 But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, 9 knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, 10 for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, 11 according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust. 18 This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, 19 having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck, 20 of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. I wonder how many confronted Paul about his church bashing or his exposing Hymenaeus and Alexander? I would rather side with scripture than my desire to be popular and accepted. I hear so many stories about men that are afraid to confront leadership that is in error because they do not want to "church bash", or they do not want to be guilty of sowing discord among the brethren. Sowing discord among the brethren is teaching that is contrary to sound doctrine. Not only does Paul name these people he does it several times and it is included in scripture. 2 Timothy 2:16-17 16 But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness. 17 And their message will spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort.

Part One

This post might be slightly cerebral. You are welcome to take a nap at any point and simply pick up where you left off. Someone asked me yesterday where I was at with everything. The thought flooded my mind that I feel like the church needs a reformation. I have had somewhat of a personal reformation over the past year, but nearly everywhere I turn I am sickened by practices that I see in Christianity. We wonder why people don't want to be Christians. I think it is mostly due to the fact that most Christians look nothing like the Jesus they claim to follow. We wonder why society is rotten and the world is the way it is. I think that we as Christians are the biggest contributing factor to why society is the way it is in America today. We have extracted and segregated ourselves from society and now we have little effect on it whatsoever. The effect we do have is generally not positive.

Recently I have seen many blogs and articles about church bashing. There are many that feel as if somehow practices within church and Christianity should never be questioned. I have seen firsthand how destructive this thinking can be. We have missed it on so many levels and need to seriously step back and examine the areas in which we do not look like Christ and resolutely take the required action to begin looking like the Jesus we read about in scripture. For those of you that feel like pointing out short comings within the church is wrong I would like to help you understand how you are a part of the problem. The fact of the matter is that if it had not been for several men realizing there were serious issues with the way their Christianity represented Jesus, and if they had not been willing to confront these issues, we would all be Catholic today. For those of you that are not familiar with church history I will give you a crash course on the Protestant Reformation.

The Protestant Reformation began as an attempt to reform the Catholic Church, effected by Western European Catholics who opposed what they perceived as false doctrines and ecclesiastic malpractice. They felt as though the church’s hierarchy was corrupt all the way up to the Pope. Some of the false doctrines and ecclesiastic malpractice included the teaching and the sale of indulgences, the selling and buying of clerical offices, imposing licenses on brothels, and special taxes on priests who kept mistresses. Pope Sixtus IV established the practice of selling indulgences to be applied to the dead, thereby establishing a virtually infinite source of revenue. Pope Alexander VI (1492–1503) fathered seven children by two mistresses. Luther having realized how the church was in grave error was prompted to nail a summary of his grievances on the door of a church at Wittenberg in Germany and launch the Protestant Reformation. There is so much more to this story, but the details above are enough to show a precedent that has been established for when the church and its leaders stray too far away from what Jesus intended his bride to look like. If confronting false teaching and reevaluating the current state of the church is offensive to you and is considered church bashing then you should be Catholic. If you are a Christian, but not a Catholic, you are a protestant, a product of the Protestant Reformation. I personally am sickened by men that have sacrificed their convictions on the altar of convenience. Men that want to hide behind pretty little sayings and act like the status quo is OK. Luther posted his grievances on the doors of churches themselves. Many are quick to point to a blog or a person and accuse them of church bashing, yet fully embrace what Luther did, and participate in the product of his actions.

We are failing. If you would rather hide behind the anti-church bashing mindset than confront the areas in which we do not resemble Christ, feel free. Personally, I like to sleep at night. I must draw closer to Jesus than I do to my preconceived ideas of Christianity.

I have been in church most of my life. I have seen and experienced very crazy things over the years. Having dealt with many really bad experiences in church has caused a great deal of struggle in my life. In my early twenties I walked away from church and lived in bars for several years. I could not reconcile the Jesus I saw in scripture with the men that represented Him. Having gone through some rough times over the past couple of years I have to be honest and say I have wanted to walk away from it all again. I can’t tell you exactly what you should do, but I can share with you what has helped me and what has brought me through the last year. First of all, somewhere along the way I really met Jesus and He messed me up. In a good way, of course. I could not deny His kindness even if I tried. Knowing Jesus and having a relationship with Him is what has kept me. Outside of my relationship with Jesus the next best thing I have learned is that I must separate the men that claim to be representing Jesus and their actions, from Jesus Himself and the kindness He has shown me. The ability to separate the men from Jesus brings the right perspective. Men will always fail us and to expect them to live up to the same expectations we would put on Jesus is not fair to them. If you put a man in the place of Jesus, eventually Jesus will have to show you why the man should not be in His place. This could come at the expense of your own grief and heartache. If you have been hurt in church, please remember you have really been hurt by people that are just like you. Imperfect.

 So, my suggestion to you would be to do the following:

1. Remember His kindness toward you.


2. Separate the actions of men from the heart of Jesus toward you.


3. If you have put unfair expectations on men and put them in the place that was meant for Jesus, you should accept your
   responsibility for setting them up for failure, and you should renew your relationship with Jesus and redefine His place in your life.


4. Don’t give up on church. After all, it is filled with people just like you and me.

This is one of the many questions we were asked by church elders when confronting the false teaching of spiritual authority and how it has permeated their church and destroyed lives. I could provide many details about the meeting, but at this point, I will only be posting details that I think will be beneficial to people that have been or are currently in a similar situation. If you have read any of my blogs, then you know that the majority of this teaching comes from the following books: Spiritual Authority by Watchman Nee, God’s Armor Bearer by Terry Nance, and Under Cover by John Bevere. The principles taught produce language similar to the following statements:  “when you find your people you find your purpose”, “we are your spiritual authority”, “to question your spiritual authority is to question God Himself”, “we are your covering”, “to walk away from your covering is to walk away from God.” So , when asked this question I responded and told this elder, “When the only pastors you have ever known have convinced you that they are your covering, and that they are the voice of God for you, and that to walk away from them is to walk away from God’s covering, you will stay and endure hell, all the while thinking you are where God wants you.”  If you have heard these types of statements, chances are that you are in an environment where there is a great possibility of spiritual abuse. My advice to you would be to ask the senior pastor where he stands on the teaching of spiritual authority. If he embraces it and defends it you should leave and find a church that has a pastor who wants to serve people rather than create minions that will be under his authority, serve him, and do his bidding. This, by the way is in stark contrast to the example Jesus set for us.

The statements given above and the books referenced are great indicators that the environment may be unhealthy. The teachings of Bevere, Nance, and Nee related to spiritual authority are non-scriptural and at best diabolical. Jesus Himself is your covering and your authority. Take the time to develop a relationship with Jesus. I promise it is worth it.