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Job Has New Miserable Comforter from the Potter's House


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There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. -- Job: 1:1 (ESV)

https://charismamag.com/video/43784-pastor-job-lived-a-life-out-of-fear-of-loss

You would think that a new idea you have regarding a biblical text that no one else has ever espoused would give you cause for concern. Not so if you are disqualified from preaching to begin with and safely ensconced within the NAR purpose driven industrial complex. How can someone get away with claiming a "sneaky squid spirit" as Jennifer LeClaire once did? Because the complex will defend you and provide cover and credibility when you deserve none. In LeClaire's case, Dr. Michael Brown provided such cover. So we come to the very short article linked above regarding a recent preaching from The Potter's House in Los Angeles. This is not the TD Jakes led church but rather one of the satellite churches operated by his daughter, Sarah Jakes-Roberts. While she "oversees" this church, the Executive Pastor is Stephanie Ike and she has a new twist on an old biblical favorite. Before we get there however, a quick review of their website indicates exactly how deep this NAR church is under delusion. In their faith statement:

"We believe there is no greater demonstration of believing in God than to become and exude tireless and relentless love. Our Faith is that God is bigger than what can be defined in the world's library of books, or on a website's "Our Faith" page. It is our prayer that you establish a personal relationship with the Lord and discover purpose, success, and most importantly, significance." -- Potter's House LA

No greater demonstration of believing in God than some carnal application of sloppy agape love? How about that you become more Christlike and more obedient to His word? The role of having a relationship with Jesus is equally carnal in discovering your purpose, success and significance? It is not to draw closer to His will through His word? It is through this false lens of faith that the Potter's House operates beloved. Whether it is TD Jakes, his daughter, or their lackeys. Now, let's see what they think of Job.

"Pastor Stephanie Ike preaches on the story of Job in the Bible from an uncommon angle, suggesting Job wasn't as intimate with God as he appeared to be. She says he lived out of a fearful, works-based mentality, worrying that if he didn't perform enough righteous deeds, he might lose all he had. So the enemy, Satan, attacked him at his most vulnerable point when he took his earthly treasures away." -- Charisma News

What? Perhaps the problem is that there should never be someone named "Pastor Stephanie." Perhaps in her rush to make herself sound revelatory, she overlooked reading the key verse today; the first verse in the entire Book of Job. For someone God called blameless, Stephanie Ike sure is casting a lot of blame on the shoulders of poor old Job. This is not merely an "uncommon" angle. It is an unbiblical one. Where in the world does she get the notion that Job was living in a works-based mentality? Oh, that's right, Satan:

Then Satan answered the Lord and said, "Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face." -- Job 1:9-11 (ESV)

It is the opinion of Satan that Job was blameless only out of fear of losing everything God had blessed him with. For any so-called preacher to take up the argument of Satan is stunning. That is especially true since after taking everything material he had, including the lives of his children, Job said the Lord had given and the Lord had taken away. Oh, and what was the conclusion of Almighty God? That in all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.

'"The Bible tells us that Job feared the Lord and he shunned evil and all these things, but as I studied the life of Job, I recognized that Job lived a life out of fear of loss, not out of relationship with the loving Father," Ike says at The Potter's House at OneLA in Los Angeles on Dec. 22. "And you see when you study his life, when calamity fell upon him ... the Bible tells us that in all these things Job did not sin with his lips, [but] it emphasized on where sin did not come through. It did not speak anything about his heart.' -- Charisma News

Are you serious? I would say this was eisegesis but that would be an insult to eisegesis. Talk about reading things into the text that are not there! After losing everything, God allows Satan to attack Job's health and after he covers him with sores, Job has this exchange with his wife:

Then his wife said to him, "Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die." But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips. -- Job 2:9-10 (ESV)

You do not need to be a word class theologian to see that God is making a direct comparison to the sin from the lips of his wife to Job's refusal to do the same! His wife says to curse God and die. Job responds she is foolish for shouldn't we take the good and the bad? In all this Job did not sin with his lips. He did not return the verbal sin of his wife with even a sliver of agreement. In the eyes of "Pastor Stephanie" however, this is some secret gnostic code God tucked away into the second chapter of Job that really means Job was harboring his sin towards God in his heart. Uh huh. So it must have been Colonel Mustard in the Conservatory with the candlestick. This is so bad theologically. She took a direct comment from God, read into it something that was not there nor supported elsewhere and weaved an entire sermon premise out of it. Stephanie Ike has become one of Job's heartless and merciless "comforters." Thankfully, this short article finishes:

'" ... What stillness does is that it begins to reveal who we are. After Job was silent for seven days, he wanted to make sure, look, I don't want to say the wrong thing with my mouth. But nothing changes. His condition is still the same. The first thing that comes out of Job's mouth is not 'The Lord is my keeper' in silence. It's not that. "The first thing that comes out of Job's mouth is, 'Cursed be the day I was born.' ... God is not looking for who you're pretending to be. God is looking for what you really feel, because until that comes to the surface, God cannot help you."' -- Charisma News

Pseudo-spiritual gobbledygook. What a merciless comforter! So, because the first words out of Job's mouth were not "the Lord is my keeper" he must secretly be harboring a works mindset. Never mind that "the Lord is my keeper" comes from Psalms and the Book of Job pre-dates that by thousands of years. It seems like Stephanie wanted to preach a feel goody good message about God helping us and one of her points was that we need to be honest about how we feel, a terribly carnal thought. In order to pretend this was somehow biblical she eviscerated the life of Job. She turned him into a sinful man living out a works-based existence instead of being in relationship with God. Ugh. This despite what God Himself says about Job throughout the Book of Job. This is scriptural malpractice and the end result of poor NAR, purpose driven teachings being foisted upon people not qualified to divide the word of truth. Heaven help those who go to the Potter's House, in any location.

Rev. Anthony

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Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to (more...)
 
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