Peter Mmangisa Chonga-Author

Some preachers have made people believe it is sinful to doubt their actions and messages. They continue to shrewdly convinced church folk that its indeed wrong before the eyes of God to do so. They claim that if you doubt what they are asking of you, it exemplifies disobedience and lack of faith. Today, we are witnessing a proliferation of preachers displaying detestable and deplorable acts in the name of the Christ probably than any other time in the history of the gospel.

However, the biggest tragedy is that believers lack the audacity to stand up and question these acts. One would argue that believers do fear reprisal, condemnation and ostracization. Or the truth could also be that majority of the believers either lack knowledge or are just as hypocritical as their self-acclaimed spiritual leaders. They would rather live in fear and pretend to understand what is going on and loudly shout amen other than to be portrayed as lacking in faith. This is ironic because it is silence that denotes real lack of faith not being outspoken.

The truth is that people who question do so because they have faith. Faith thus brought forth by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. (Romans 10:17) You have faith because you have heard the true gospel of Jesus Christ. It is only when you have faith that you will dare to challenge spirits to verify if they are truly of God. You see, it is the other way around.

Believers have been made to believe that questioning a pastor or a preacher is tantamount to wrestling with God himself. The truth is when you doubt because you want to re-affirm scriptures, God does not condemn you, he instead takes it as a challenge. Is God highly pleased with faith? You bet he is; however, he does not condemn you either if you doubt things that are proclaimed in his name because it’s an act of faith to do so. In fact, God encourages believers to test spirits “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world.”
??1 John? ?4:1? ?ASV??

Jesus did not condemn Thomas when he refused to believe without proof that he had risen. Of course, Jesus would have loved Thomas believed without seeing. Jesus understood that Thomas needed affirmation in order to believe the resurrection story, so he challenged him to touch his scars to verify that it was indeed Jesus himself in the flesh. What happened afterwards is one of the highest levels of worship ever recorded in the scriptures. Doubt if coming from a right place brings forth noble and honorable worship to God.

There is totally nothing wrong with questioning dubious acts in the church for the good of the gospel. In the book of Judges Gideon doubted the signs and God manifested himself to Gideon three times to prove that it was indeed him. Gideon wanted clear cut proof that it was surely God calling him. Again, God did not condemn him, but he instead took it as a challenge. Judges 6:37-39

The Bereans did not believe Paul’s teachings outright but they instead cross checked the scriptures to verify if what they had heard was true. Again, there is nothing sinful and wrong about being doubtful, in fact the scriptures say it is noble to do so. “Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, examining the scriptures daily, whether these things were so.” Acts? ?17:11? ?ASV??

The book of Hosea 4:6 the scriptures have never been much clearer “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I also will forget thy children.” How do we acquire knowledge? We search the scriptures and also question what is being preached to us, more particularly when it sounds and looks asymmetrical to the scriptures.
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So if a Pastor is doing something out of the ordinary, ask him or her to explain the premise of authority of such demonstrations. It is not only acceptable to question or challenge Faith Leaders messages and acts, it is biblical too. If it is not scripturally supported, there is high probability that it is not from God. Your salvation is so precious a gift to be perverted. Create time to spend personal time with God through prayer and examination of the scriptures every single day so that you are not misled.? May the year 2020 bring with it increased God’s knowledge, and unmerited favor to the body of Christ in the name of ???????????????????????????????Jesus, Amen.????????