"New" Levels with God?

[JustaServant]

Saw this quoted on Facebook from one of my Charismatic friends. It’s from a Charismatic preacher:

Don’t expect everyone to follow you into new levels with God… Why? Because some people won’t be able to handle the blessings GOD is going to give you. Therefore, when GOD begins to work in your life… and you feel a little lonely, it’s because GOD is taking you to a place where the crowd cannot follow. Proceed carefully. Your next step is an important one. Make wise choices about who you associate yourself with. Some just cant go where God is taking you!

Are the “health and wealth” preachers preaching this kind of drivel these days?
Thoughts?

 

[Hatikvah]

Are the “health and wealth” preachers preaching this kind of drivel these days?
Thoughts?

It is one thing to say “God will give you anything you ask for,” (prosperity gospel) and another to say “you can go to new levels with Him.” It’s not saying that you will always be prosperous and secure, but there will be challenges:

Proceed carefully. Your next step is an important one. Make wise choices about who you associate yourself with. Some just can’t go where God is taking you!

Essentially, the idea is that we still have to follow God and we must go where He guides us. As Christians, aren’t we supposed to be doing our best and following God’s will wherever it may take us?

Even if you would find something objectionable in this context, the overall message for this one does not seem to be preaching the prosperity gospel. If it was, the “new levels” would be money or an abundance of things. (It is spiritual wealth that Christendom needs to be abundant in, though, not temporal wealth.)

 

[Church_Militant]

I’m not even sure what the guy is trying to tell his people.

If he’s trying to say that because we not of the world the world will hate us then that’s nothing new since Christ Himself tells us that in the Gospels.

However…being a charismatic, if he thinks I might be all mad or envious of what they have then I think he’s silly. Why would anyone be down about someone else having a deep conversion?

.I often consider what (then) Monsignor Fulton Sheen wrote so long ago

There are not over a hundred people in the United States who hate the Catholic Church. There are millions, however, who hate what they wrongly believe to be the Catholic Church - which is, of course, quite a different thing.
…
If I were not a Catholic, and were looking for the true Church in the world today, I would look for the one Church which did not get along well with the world; in other words, I would look for the Church which the world hates. My reason for doing this would be, that if Christ is in any one of the churches of the world today, He must still be hated as He was when He was on earth in the flesh. If you would find Christ today, then find the Church that does not get along with the world. Look for the Church that is hated by the world, as Christ was hated by the world. Look for the Church which is accused of being behind the times, as Our Lord was accused of being ignorant and never having learned. Look for the Church which men sneer at as socially inferior, as they sneered at Our Lord because He came from Nazareth. Look for the Church which is accused of having a devil, as Our Lord was accused of being possessed by Beelzebub, the Prince of Devils. Look for the Church which, in seasons of bigotry, men say must be destroyed in the name of God as men crucified Christ and thought they had done a service to God. Look for the Church which the world rejects because it claims it is infallible, as Pilate rejected Christ because He called Himself the Truth. Look for the Church which is rejected by the world as Our Lord was rejected by men. Look for the Church which amid the confusion of conflicting opinions, its members love as they love Christ, and respect its Voice as the very voice of its Founder, and the suspicion will grow, that if the Church is unpopular with the spirit of the world, then it is unworldly, and if it is unworldly, it is other-worldly. Since it is other-worldly it is infinitely loved and infinitely hated as was Christ Himself. But only that which is Divine can be infinitely hated and infinitely loved. Therefore the Church is Divine

 

[Lenten_ashes]

It does sound sorta like the cotton candy gospel according to Joel Osteen.

I’d have to hear more from him in order to form a decent opinion either way.

If all he is saying is have confidence in God and he will show you things and open doors, then i wouldn’t object to that because it’s true.

 

[Gorgias]

Here’s the part that bothers me: “Proceed carefully. Your next step is an important one. Make wise choices about who you associate yourself with. Some just cant go where God is taking you!”

That’s right out of the pages of brainwashers and cult leaders! “Don’t associate with others! We’re the only ones who understand you! You belong only with us!”

Worse yet, it’s categorically un-Christian! When Jesus was doing his earthly ministry, and his apostles and disciples were surrounding Him, did He tell them, “now, I’m going to go hang out with sinners and tax collectors; but you guys… well, proceed carefully! Make wise choices about who you associate yourself with”…? Of course not! He encouraged them to spend time with the marginalized! He demonstrated to them that they, too, should wash the feet of the poor!

This is just Inculcation 101 – “stay away from others (so they don’t persuade you we’re wrong)”…

 

[AmbroseSJ]

Saw this quoted on Facebook from one of my Charismatic friends. It’s from a Charismatic preacher:

Are the “health and wealth” preachers preaching this kind of drivel these days?
Thoughts?

Being that this quote is out of context, I would say, that it certainly can be interpreted in a good Catholic light. Your comment is the one I have difficulty following.

 

[Reuben_J]

Without knowing the context of what he said, a short snippet can be totally misleading depending on how you can misunderstand it.

Without the benefit of the context, it is unfair to assume what he was saying. A clarification would be in order for us to make an informed comment.
":

Don’t expect everyone to follow you into new levels with God… Why?

What is meant be the ‘new level’? Is it the next level of spirituality as one become committed to God or is it the level of one’s material wealth (presumably after striking it rich)?

Because some people won’t be able to handle the blessings GOD is going to give you.

What is meant by ‘blessing’? Again, is it material riches, money or is it an increased in faith and a desire to love God more?

Therefore, when GOD begins to work in your life…

Again, is it because you are rich, have more money or because God bless you with a change of heart to love Him and obey His commandments?

and you feel a little lonely, it’s because GOD is taking you to a place where the crowd cannot follow.

Lonely because of what? Because you are rich and now all your former friends are not in the same class as you and desert you or because you have changed your old ways of living in sins and your former friends do not identify with you anymore? They do not want to leave their sinful lives behind to which you do not want to be any part of that anymore.

Proceed carefully. Your next step is an important one. Make wise choices about who you associate yourself with. Some just cant go where God is taking you!

Should you still live your old life as your friends (in the gambling dens, getting drunk, women and wine) or start a new life as the Holy Spirit leads you to holiness and things of God, remembering that they can be very different from what the world wants.

:
Are the “health and wealth” preachers preaching this kind of drivel these days?
Thoughts?

Apparently you think he was talking about health and wealth and not about repentance and new life in God.

I think I need the clarification first.

 

[plainatheart71]

We were part of the Charismatic movement for almost eight years. That is what we left and weren’t in any church for 1 1/2 years until we went to our first mass.
Some things that we were told were that there were different levels of heaven. When someone would be prayed for for healing they were told to reach into the 3rd heaven and pull down that body part. We were told that it is never God’s will for someone to die. Today they are being told that if you have any doubt in your heart God won’t heal that person. I was told this the night before my dad died in June.
The Charismatic movement is all about manifestations of the Holy Spirit, about walking in the Spirit, about speaking things into existence, about “not receiving” something in Jesus name. From what we have ascertained it is much like the Montanist movement that was considered heretical in the past. It is also all about the “supernatural” and living in a supernatural environment. It is dangerous, it is heretical and it defines those that “seek after a sign” which Jesus said a wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign.
I know this probably hasn’t answered your question but it’s all I know. And I can, 2 1/2 years after entering the church, that there is no way on this earth that I would ever go back to the Charismatic movement. It would be like Lot’s wife looking back.

 

[Lenten_ashes]

We were part of the Charismatic movement for almost eight years. That is what we left and weren’t in any church for 1 1/2 years until we went to our first mass.
Some things that we were told were that there were different levels of heaven. When someone would be prayed for for healing they were told to reach into the 3rd heaven and pull down that body part. We were told that it is never God’s will for someone to die. Today they are being told that if you have any doubt in your heart God won’t heal that person. I was told this the night before my dad died in June.
The Charismatic movement is all about manifestations of the Holy Spirit, about walking in the Spirit, about speaking things into existence, about “not receiving” something in Jesus name. From what we have ascertained it is much like the Montanist movement that was considered heretical in the past. It is also all about the “supernatural” and living in a supernatural environment. It is dangerous, it is heretical and it defines those that “seek after a sign” which Jesus said a wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign.
I know this probably hasn’t answered your question but it’s all I know. And I can, 2 1/2 years after entering the church, that there is no way on this earth that I would ever go back to the Charismatic movement. It would be like Lot’s wife looking back.

Hi

Sounds like the Word of Faith movement you refer to.

I’ve experienced it as well.

Now as a Catholic my parish is part of the “charismatic renewal” and they have a much more balanced and healthy approach to things.

 

[plainatheart71]

Hi

Sounds like the Word of Faith movement you refer to.

I’ve experienced it as well.

Now as a Catholic my parish is part of the “charismatic renewal” and they have a much more balanced and healthy approach to things.

Yes, it is the same movement as Word of Faith. We have a new priest who is part of the charismatic renewal as well.