The Ballestero Blog

When The Bishop Withdrew the Prayer Request

There is in some a need to impress others with their knowledge. They try to find “Deep Things” to talk about and say things they deem profound. If they are invited to preach, they want to dazzle us all with their depth of understanding.

Long ago a Bishop was guest speaker at Convention in Indianapolis. This Bishop, my family knew. He was a well-known Bible teacher from the Midwest. While teaching one afternoon said, “Brethren, I am over the hill. I see the lights of home. Some of you have been requesting prayer for me. Save your prayers. My race is run. Pray for these younger men coming up. They need your prayers more than I do.”

This man was a great teacher. He felt the pressure to teach deep and profound things. Things never heard before. He left the preaching of the basics to those who weren’t as deep as he.  He was expected to be “DEEP.”

It was after the withdrawal of the prayer request, that he later got a “new revelation.” He became one of the early exponents of the “Adam Doctrine.” Teaching in essence, that Jesus Christ was actually the 1st man Adam, reincarnated. And that he had to die on Calvary for the sins he had committed in the Garden. He taught that, until Jesus was baptized in the River of Jordan, He was no better than a bum on the street. He died in his error. The Bishop died while still in his error. His church split several ways over that doctrine.

The Spirit of Error is real. Delusion is real. Don’t play with the Book. Stick to the Simple Act 2:38 Message. Don’t add to it, or take away. Don’t wrest it to your own destruction. We don’t have to look for new, for deep, or for profound. The simplicity of the Gospel still works. We know we can be saved doing what we’re doing, preaching what we’re preaching. Why gamble?

Ladies and Gentlemen, the things most surely believed among us, is what binds us together. I have spent nearly 50 years of ministry keeping it so simple, a 1st grader on the front row could understand what I was saying. I’m not deep.

The “You get what you preach” rule, still works. I preached a revival not too long ago in a church with about 140 people and felt impressed to teach on water baptism on Sunday night. I happened to see a tract on Baptism in Jesus Name. It showed 9 places where people were baptized or inferred that they had been baptized in Jesus name. I taught from the verses in the tract. I added very little. We baptized 7 that night and 15 came back Monday (our off night) to get baptized. This old message still works.

We don’t get a lot of people saved trying to appear “Deep” in the eyes of others. Preach the Word. “Simple” still works. Looking for the Masterpiece, thinking that you need to come up with something “NEW”, may curse you. It may load you up with some wild ideas. Guard your mind, watch your direction, be sensitive to the fact that if Paul didn’t preach it and you do, your ministry is accursed.

Gal. 1:8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.

Gal. 1:9 As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.

I have read Prophecy for example, till I couldn’t focus. But I have no desire to argue about what horn goes on whose head. I just plan on being rapture ready, and understanding it better by and by. Some things we only see now, in part. We can be saved with what we already know. Don’t look for more revelations. Don’t get sidetracked on things that could lead you into delusion.

I had over 7000 books in my library when I was a pastor. (I gave them ALL away.) When I read an author with weird ideas or doctrines, I would throw the book in the trash lest I be influenced with error. I suggest you do the same. Gentlemen, protect the purity of this Message. Guard your mind and your heart. We know too much to mess up now.

And by the way, don’t forget to keep praying for me.  I may be over the hill and see the lights of home… but I still need your prayers!