Watchout For WOLVES: Keys To Discerning Authentic Ministries & Evaluating Doctrinal Trends

The Discipleship Movement

While this movement caused a lot of confusion, it also brought a focus on the importance of spiritual authority, the need for believers to go on to maturity and the development of strong Christian character. Its failure had to do primarily with methodology and the application of the truth. The word “shepherding” became a negative word and equated to “controlling” and abusive leadership. The fact that those leading this movement did not have a clear understanding of the importance of the local church also contributed to the problems that would ensue. This movement like so many others came with problems. I refer back to Jack Hayford’s comment when he said moves of the Spirit are like the waves that break onto a beach. Each wave that comes in brings with it two things — it brings in life (the positive) and it brings in debris (the negative). The Dominion Movement was flawed in terms of its biblical hermeneutic. Many who preached this doctrine did so out of scripture passages that were taken out of context. It also went to such an extreme that it almost left one to believe that God’s plan of evangelism had more to do with the “ballot box” than preaching of the Gospel. What it did bring in more of a positive way was an understanding that the Church of Jesus Christ is not going to be defeated. In fact, the church is to be the head and not the tail. The church need not be intimidated by the world. The church has a mission to touch every aspect of society and be salt and light to the world. It emphasized that Christianity is not just something that is practiced on Sunday morning, but we are to take the principles of the Kingdom into every sphere of life including the marketplace. It emphasized that every believer extends the kingdom by bringing believers to Christ and promoting God’s agend a in the earth (Gen. 1:26-28). The Dominion Movement

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