A “Rubber Meets the Road” Belief Audit

By Brother Michel Lankford

We NEED a Wake-Up Call, and a Faith Audit

Has it ever happened to you? You are in a deep and peaceful summer slumber. You are dreaming a vivid dream. You are in bed. It’s around midnight. You are warm, content and comfortable. Suddenly in a split second, you are violently awakened with a loud thunder crash that booms so fiercely that it rattles your windows, you bounce slightly off the bed; your heart skips a beat, your breath skips of breath; and you are so completely startled awake, that you almost start peeing, before you become fully conscious that you are still in bed. You quite literally feel like you just went from 0 to 60 mph, in 1.5 seconds, or less. It’s happened to me quite a few times. When it does, I’m usually up the rest of the night.

Has it ever happened to you? Has the Holy Spirit ever grabbed you by the shirt collar so to speak, and so radically stopped you short of what you were doing so suddenly; that it noticeably startled you, and so profoundly shocked you that it fundamentally changed the course of your life? That’s happened to me also, but not as often as that summer storm. The spiritual and emotional effect was about the same as that summer storm, and the spiritual impact is eternal.

Even when I was a traditional Christian, I was a committed and devout one. I was extremely active and dedicated. At the time, I had been a believer in Christ for 20 years. I had been highly active in ministry in various capacities for more than 15 years. I was a voracious reader and student of Scripture, and I thoroughly believed that one should be, and I earnestly tried to be a, “Doer of the Word,” as I understood the meaning of that concept. I had been in Bible schools and seminars. I was so committed in fact, that for a while, I even worked as an R. A. for some seminary students. I said all that, not to brag, but just to illustrate the fact that I was a truly dedicated ACTIVE Christian, and NOT merely an inactive, passive, and discontented Christian with a personal ax to grind. I was committed to what I believed, both then, and now. And then it happened. The thunder CLAP came. The Holy Spirit stopped me cold, and I was radically awakened.

I was in my regular morning devotions one day, and the Holy Spirit stopped me cold. He alerted me to something that I had been doing for a month or two, and it was so subtle that I was not even aware that I had been doing it, until the Holy Spirit awakened me and sharply ALERTED me to what I was doing.

I noticed this for the first time; that as I was reading Scripture, I was actually hearing my Church’s pastor’s voice in my head. This wasn't typical for me. I was truly not accustomed to hearing another man’s voice as I was reading Scripture, but what scared me even more; when the Holy Spirit alerted me to this, is the reality that this drastic change had happened in my internal audio system, and I had not even been paying attention that the change had taken place. I had not even been paying attention to the fact that my pastor’s voice was in my head as I was reading Scripture. Oh, but wait. I didn't realize it, but what I was doing gets even much worse than that.

Once the Holy Spirit alerted me to the fact that I was actually hearing my pastor’s voice in my head as I was reading Scripture, He also directed me to go back, and review what I had been reading recently. As I was reviewing it, the Holy Spirit alerted me to another bad habit I had somehow fallen into, and then I was really shocked by this. The Holy Spirit suddenly made me aware that as I had been reading Scripture, (and hearing my pastor’s voice in my head while I was reading), I was also MENTALLY EDITING Scripture, and ignoring parts of Scripture that did not fit or that did not agree with what my pastor had been preaching. OOPS! Oh My Word!

When the Holy Spirit radically awakened me to what I had been doing without paying attention, I was horrified. I was scared. I was also embarrassed.

I mean, I was a dedicated and devoted Bible student and minister. I wasn’t the smartest or the greatest Christian minister by any stretch of the imagination, but even I knew enough to understand that when one is reading Scripture, the only voice they should be hearing, is the leading of the Holy Spirit, the voice of YHWH Almighty, and the Words and the Voice of the Great Shepherd, (John 10:27), and no other human voice. I knew beyond a shadow of doubt, that I should NOT be hearing my pastor’s voice in my head while I’m reading Scripture.

More importantly, I knew unequivocally that it was wrong to hear my pastor’s voice causing me to mentally filter out, or to ignore, and to mentally EDIT parts of what Scripture physically said, in order to force it to fit, or in order to force it to agree with what I had become accustomed to hearing my pastor say.

When the Holy Spirit alerted me to what I had been doing without paying attention, it profoundly shook me up, and I have never been the same since that day. I began to review Scripture more carefully and intentionally. I had been truly committed to Scripture before that point; but I would be even more so from this time forward. I began to wonder what else had I been ignoring on autopilot or what else I had been mentally filtering out or ignoring, or mentally editing from Scripture, simply because it did not match what I had been accustomed to hearing my whole Christian life.

This was my first intentional Faith Audit, almost 6 years ago, but it certainly wouldn’t be my last one. I would later come to realize that doing a regular and consistent Faith Audit, was supposed to be at a minimum, a scheduled ANNUAL event in the life of believers; during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Part of the spiritual aspect of the Feast of Unleavened Bread is that we are supposed to audit our beliefs, and make sure that they truly do match what is written in Scripture.

Does Modern Christianity Teach People NOT to Get Saved?

Does modern Christianity and the Modern Free Grace Doctrine Actually Teach People NOT to get saved; according to New Testament Scripture? Years ago, I would’ve been greatly offended even by the suggestion. But the more I review Scripture, and the more I do a regular annual faith audit, the more I realize that the question is not really out of bounds.

Every once in a while we must carefully examine our beliefs and test them against what Scripture actually SAYS; (1 John 4:1; 1 Thessalonians 5:14-21; 2 Timothy 3:14-17; 2 Corinthians 13:5; James 1:21-23; cf. Proverbs 4:2). Otherwise, we can be seriously deceived, and we won’t realize that we have drifted far away from the Creator’s Standards and Principles. The season of Unleavened Bread, (which is coming up soon), is the perfect time to do those types of faith audits.

Traditional modern Christianity passionately believes and teaches that in order to be under God’s Grace, you supposedly must NOT KEEP the Commandments of God; because allegedly, if you try to keep the Commandments of God then you are not abiding in God’s Grace; you are then supposedly trusting in your own works to save you, instead of trusting Messiah to save you. In any event, that is the most popular understanding of grace today.

The SERIOUS PROBLEM is that even though this belief is extremely popular, throughout modern Christendom, this popular doctrine is also EXCEEDINGLY FALSE, even by New Testament standards. In other words, the belief that one should disregard the Commandments of God because we are now under Grace, is FALSE doctrine, even if you just believe the New Testament. You don’t even have to be Whole Testament observant to see that such a doctrine is abundantly FALSE doctrine.

 

When You Teach against Keeping the Commandments of God:

(Then What are you REALLY Doing; Biblically Speaking)?

> You are teaching people NOT to Love God, and NOT to Love Messiah (1 John 5:3; John 15:10). So you are teaching people to violate the Greatest Commandment, (Deuteronomy 6:5; Matthew 22:36-40).

> You are teaching people NOT to KNOW YHWH, and not to KNOW Messiah, (John 8:31-32; John 14:21; John 17:17; 1 John 2:3-4).

> You are teaching people to walk in a REVERSE manner to what Jesus walked; which is the OPPOSITE of how we are commanded to walk in the New Testament (John 15:10; 1 John 2:6).

> You are teaching them AGAINST the Truth, because God’s Law IS Truth; (John 17:17; cf. Psalm 119:89-94,142, 151-152,160).

> You are teaching people not to walk in love, because in order to love, you MUST NOT rejoice in iniquity, but you MUST REJOICE in the Truth, (1 Corinthians 13:6), which means you must also rejoice in the Law of God, because God’s Law Is Truth. So if you do not rejoice in God’s Law, then you are not being loving, because you are not rejoicing in the truth, by biblical definition.

> You are also coming AGAINST what MESSIAH defines to be what Eternal life IS, (John 12:49-50; cf. John 17:3; Matthew 19:17; cf. 1 John 2:3-4).

> You are teaching them how NOT to become perfected in love, (1 John 2:5).

> You are teaching people how to be CONDEMNED, and you are risking your own salvation in the process, according to Messiah, (Matthew 7:21-23; Matthew 13:41-42; Matthew 24:12-13); because if you commit lawlessness, and cause others to stumble into lawlessness, then you will be in the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth, That’s NOT heaven.

> When you teach, “Believers,” in Messiah to claim that they know Him as their Lord and Savior, and then turn around and teach them that they should NOT obey the Commandments under grace, you are also then teaching them how to be LIARS, according to the New Testament; (1 John 2:3-4). If they are practicing liars, and they are not repenting from being liars, then they will be CONDEMNED and they will NOT be SAVED, (Revelation 21:8; Revelation 22:15).

> According to Paul, if you teach people NOT to subject themselves to the Law of God; then you are also training them to be carnal minded; you are training them to be hostile against God; you are training them how NOT to please God; and you are training them to walk in DEATH, and NOT Life (Romans 8:5-8; cf. Romans 6:19).

      >  Even according to Paul, if you DO NOT SEPARATE yourself AWAY from Lawlessness; (unless you separate from ANOMIA), then you cannot be holy, and so you will NOT be received by the Almighty Father, (2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1; cf. Hebrews 12:14). Read it carefully. It’s true.

      > Even according to Paul, the Grace of God came in Messiah to set us FREE FROM every Lawless deed. God’s grace came to set us free from every deed of ANOMIA. God’s grace did NOT come to set us free, so that we could continue to commit ANOMIA. So when you preach a lawless grace you are literally preaching AGAINST the Grace that Paul preached; and when you preach a lawless grace you are preaching the OPPOSITE to the Grace that Paul REQUIRED us to teach, (Titus 2:11-15; cf. Romans 6:19).

      > In referring to the ANTICHRIST, Paul refers to him as the, “Son of Lawlessness, (the son of ANOMIA). He does NOT refer to the antichrist as, ‘The son of law-keeping,’ but he calls him the son of LAWLESSNESS. So, when you are promoting a lawless grace that teaches people to walk outside of God’s Laws Commandments and Instructions, you are then literally unwittingly promoting the antichrist, even according to Paul, the apostle of Grace,

Beloved, there is overwhelming Biblical evidence that any, “Grace,” that teaches you to disregard or to walk outside of YHWH’s Laws, Commandments, and Instructions, is clearly NOT the grace of the New Testament. Lawless grace is clearly FALSE grace, even by clear New Testament readings. In my opinion, based on everything that I have seen heard and read, even in the New Testament, continuing to teach a lawless version of Grace is not only risky and dangerous. It’s lying. It’s rebellion. It’s literally spiritual SUICIDE; both for the one who teaches it, and the one foolish enough to follow it.

Beloved, let us instead choose to learn how to KEEP the Commandments of God, AND our faith in the Messiah; because that's how the saints and children of God are going to persevere to the end, (Revelation 14:12). 

May Abba-YAH richly bless you, as you diligently search out and remove both the physical leaven and the spiritual leaven and the sinful influences from your homes in preparation for the Holy Passover; and the Memorial of deliverance from Egypt; our deliverance from sin; and the sacrifice of the Lamb of God who sacrificed even Himself to set us free. Compared to what He offers us, surely our willing obedience to the Father, and to our future Bridegroom, cannot be too much to ask, can it?

As it is written:

Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” (1 Corinthians 5:7–8, NASB95)

As it is written:

I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.” (Romans 6:19, NASB95)

As it is written:

Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, “I WILL DWELL IN THEM AND WALK AMONG THEM; AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE. “Therefore, COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE,” says the Lord. “AND DO NOT TOUCH WHAT IS UNCLEAN; And I will welcome you. “And I will be a father to you, And you shall be sons and daughters to Me,” Says the Lord Almighty. Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” (2 Corinthians 6:14–7:1, NASB95)

As it is written:

Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror;…” (James 1:21–23, NASB95) Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” (James 1:27, NASB95)

R Michel Lankford