Assemblies of God “CEO” George Wood recently addressed Mormon students and faculty.   After reading the article about his speech I am convinced that he did more to validate Mormonism than he did to identify it as outside of Christianity.  One of the most chilling statements in the article (Assembly of God CEO addresses BYU students) is, “Wood showed that God is playing a role in all religions and that Christians are more united than they sometimes think.”  It is as if Wood doesn’t recognize Mormonism as a cult.  But surely he must know the truth.  How long will it be before Mormon evangelists are preaching in A0G churches?   How can the AoG stop that from occurring since Wood has set a precedent?  The part about “God playing a role” in all religions reveals his ecumenical agenda.  It is the same agenda as the heretical and diabolical Emergent Church Movement, i.e., the merger of all religions into one under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Church.  What about the next time men in white shirts and black pants, riding bicycles two by two, knock on an AoG adherent’s door?  Wood had better hope and pray a weak soul does not answer, especially one who knows that Wood has cast his favor on Mormonism.  He will be held accountable for their lives on the Day of Judgment.

It is time for AoG ministers and members to accept the fact that their movement has been infiltrated and seized by emergent heretics that are intent on converting it into the largest New Age denomination in the world.  George Wood is obviously a Rick-Warren-style heretic, the friendly face of evil, a beguiling most effective tactic of Satan.  Some people may protest my calling George Wood a heretic.  I do not do so pejoratively, but as a logical conclusion of his actions and words.  I defend my remark by pointing to the fact that we should not be swayed by outward appearances, clever words, or people’s positions.  It is tempting to become enamored by the sheep’s clothing, and fail to recognize the evil within.  We should also be careful not to be desensitized by the last day’s wickedness that is suffocating our world today.  It is obvious to any Spirit-filled believer that Wood is not acting under the auspices of the Holy Spirit.  If he is not being led by God, there is only one other entity that could be leading him.

“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.  Romans 8:14 NKVJ)

 When will AoG ministers and members take a bold stand?  It costs something to stand, and the price can be very heavy.  Ministers could be charged by the hierarchy for insurrection and excommunicated.  Members might lose their membership.  However, those are small prices compared to what the persecuted church is paying in other parts of the world.  Complaining about the issue on forums and blogs will not solve the problem.  I know people stuck in the apostate Episcopal Church that have been complaining about the degradation for decades, but have done nothing about it.  They will complain until the day they die and evil will march onward unmolested, gobbling up souls as it goes.  If professing Christians cannot even stop one man from perverting their Movement, how are they going to fare in the really dark days of unprecedented evil dominion?  If they compromise now, how far will they compromise then to avoid discomfort and inconveniences?   

God must be dealing with many individuals about this, but they are ignoring Him.  They would never willingly attend a satanic meeting, but they would allow heretics speak at their meetings, to invade their organization, to dominate them, and to represent them.  They did not act when Wood invited heretical Rick Warren to speak at the General Council.  Therefore, Wood was not hindered from inviting a pagan to speak at the most recent General Council.  Again, there was no measurable resistance.  Therefore, he is emboldened to speak favorably at a Mormon meeting.  When the next outrage occurs, will they express shock and voice complaints until the shock wears off?  Will they then mumble until the next outrage occurs only to react in the same way?   Everyone appears to be whistling past the graveyard, hoping it will all blow over and things will return to normal.  That is not going to happen.  It is a spiritual cancer that cannot be wished or ignored away. 

Lack of organized resistance allows and in fact emboldens evil people to commit more evil as they grow in power.  Whether it is a nation, organization, or a small group, lack of action is the fodder that evil grows in.  Cattle may complain about the treatment they are receiving, but will do little of nothing about it.  They outnumber their handlers, but allow themselves to be controlled and harvested.  Imagine the same number of lions being herded by a few people into a pen for slaughter.  I am reminded of an old adage.  “The only thing needed for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”.  Another one that is equally relevant is, “No one could make a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.”  I do not know the source of these quotes, but I recognize the heart. 

A few weeks ago after I had finished the morning prayer time, I was thinking about the events that had occurred this year in Christianity.  I reminisced about discovering the invasion of paganism into Christianity, about the valiant effort of individuals and groups to expose it, and the absolute rejection of truth by the leaders of major denominations.  I remembered the battles with frustration, attempting to get professing Christians to simply consider the plethora of information much to no avail.  It was deeply discouraging to witness the lack of any change in the heart of deceived individuals.  More discouraging was to realize that pastors and other church leaders were going to continue with the status quo in spite of fact their denomination’s leaders had become apostate.  It only took flashing lights and stirring, great swelling, speeches to disarm their angst.  Instead, of beginning a revolution, they seemed to surge forward, deeper into the morass of Contemplative Spirituality.  The price of battle was too much for their soft and sheltered spirits.

While I was reflecting about the matter the Holy Spirit revealed something very disturbing to me.  He impressed me that because college and NFL football had begun, the interest of many of the professing Christians who were alarmed by the pagan invasion would begin to wane.  As a result, the blogs, websites, and Facebook pages of individuals that are sounding the alarm would become less busy. 

It doesn’t take much to sidetrack people nowadays.  This is the time of great deception and apostasy.  There are doldrums in Christianity.  The darkness is closing in with the certainty of a hostile army that senses the opposition is weak and near defenseless.  People are praying less and at the same time are binging on what the carnal nature is hungry for.  And there are plenty of distractions.  Besides football, there is the NASCAR, PGA and the FedEx Cup, Political news that seems to change daily, the economy, and you get the picture.  When Christ warned us about the cares of this life the world was much less occupied with powerful distractions.  

I find myself in a daily fight for prayer time and meditating on the Word of God.  But the inspiration to fight this great fight of faith must be fed by those two activities.  Further, it is difficult for me to continue fighting to awaken faith in professing Christians that have become apathetic, lethargic, and complacent.  The impetus remains, but the engine driving it sometimes appears to be low on fuel.  One gets the impression that one could fade away into the background and no one would notice or care.  That may have been how Elijah felt after his battle on Mt. Carmel. I’ve learned how to refuel.

I have been on the frontline almost from the day I was delivered from darkness.  The ebb and flow of the battle is nothing new to me.  I’ve experienced the joy of having people say how much they are standing with me, only to feel the crush of despair when I realized they meant “only as long as things are doing well.”  The moment it costs them something to stand, they refused to pay the price.  I have learned through many years of facing the raging winds of diabolical storms that when the going gets rough only a few will weather it with me.  I thank God for my wife who refuses to budge when the rage of our enemy is poured out.  I am grateful beyond words that God allowed me to be her husband and partner in the calling that He placed on our lives.  

I have also learned that God will never forsake his faithful people.  I have lost count of the times that He has miraculously intervened in our lives when our backs were against the wall and trouble looming larger than life threatened to crush us.  Therefore, I do not need to see results in order to obey Him.  I will keep pressing through the doldrums and disinterest with nothing more than the hope that someone will listen or read and respond.  There is too much at stake to get a pity party going.  The attention span for modern Christians is nearly as short as that of a housefly.  We can’t worry about that.  Somewhere in the darkness, or in the suffocating stench of dead religion, there is someone who is searching for light.  We have to keep shining the light of truth if only for that one.  That’s what Christ would do.  I follow Him. 

Prayer is the foundation of spirituality.  If there ever was a time when true Christians need to pray it is now (2 Chronicles 7:14).  However, there is an aggressive attack on prayer today.  That insidious attack is the pagan practice of Contemplative Prayer.  It is a well-documented fact that it originated in paganism.  Just as it has adopted and adapted other paganism, the Roman Catholic Church has appropriated CP.  Contemplative Prayer’s link to paganism is not denied by the RCC.  In spite of this knowledge, many Christian leaders are prompting it with the result of multitudes being lured into a powerful deception with eternal consequences.  How so many Christian leaders do not realize that CP is a diabolical practice is perplexing.  The arch nemesis of prayer is of course Satan.  Thus, individuals that promote and engage in CP are unwittingly or wittingly doing the work of Satan.

There is a good reason that CP evolved as the means for pagans to “communicate” with their god or gods.  That reason is because their gods could not communicate with them.  When they crafted their gods and sat them up for worship, there was of course never a response.  As a result, they had no personal relationship with their gods and vice versa.   Despite that fact, Israel repeatedly succumbed to the lure of paganism.  God sent the prophet Elijah to confront the nation during one of their apostasies.  That confrontation took place on top of Mt. Carmel.  Regardless of all the chanting, cutting themselves, and other bizarre actions, the prophets of Baal got no response. 

So they took the bull which was given them, and they prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even till noon, saying, “O Baal, hear us!” But there was no voice; no one answered. Then they leaped about the altar which they had made.  And so it was, at noon, that Elijah mocked them and said, “Cry aloud, for he is a god; either he is meditating, or he is busy, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened.” So they cried aloud, and cut themselves, as was their custom, with knives and lances, until the blood gushed out on them. And when midday was past, they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice. But there was no voice; no one answered, no one paid attention.  (1Kings 18:26-29 NKJV)

Satan desires communication though voiceless false gods and idols, but he doesn’t want his subjects to think.  If they use cognition they may discover that he is indeed their adversary and the enemy of God and all righteousness.  At some point in history, he beguiled them to develop CP and other diabolical practices as a means of communication with their inanimate gods.  There is no cognition in CP because it is neither contemplative nor prayer.  It is in fact an altered state of consciousness that is not unlike what one might witness today in any African tribe that practices voodoo or witchcraft.  CP makes their gods and idols appear to be alive.  The reason is because CP subjects the soul to possession by demons.  Individuals possessed by demons are susceptible to every means of deception including hallucinations.  Transcendental Meditation and other popular trance initiating practices are also altered states of consciousness.  Like CP they too are quick routes to demon possession.  Individuals that attempt to communicate with a god or idol by means of altered states of consciousness gods will encounter demon spirits.

True to their pagan roots, modern proponents of CP teach as their basic premise the avoidance of words.  Although they may at times use words to pray, they do not and cannot communicate personally with their gods (demons) except by CP.  Professing Christians that have fallen for the heresy declare that traditional Christianity has failed because of too many words when communicating with God.  That is either ignorance or willful denial of God’s word.  Search the Scriptures and one will discover a plethora of verses where individuals verbally communicated with God.  There is not a single implication that one should engage in what is called Contemplative Prayer.

“Yet you do not have because you do not ask.” (James 4:1-3 NKJV) 

Further, there is not the slightest indication that Christ Jesus practiced CP.  On the other hand, there is much evidence that He prayed verbally.  Nearly every miracle that He performed was preceded by a verbal prayer.  When answering His disciples request that He teach them to pray, He taught them to pray verbally.  None of the writers of the New Testament taught or practiced CP.   

It is clearly evident that God throughout history communicated with His people with words.  From the first man, Adam, to this very day, God desires (and honors) His people to communicate with Him verbally.  He divinely breathed words into holy men who wrote the Bible.  It is also obvious that God wants conscious followers; followers that use the mental faculties that He gave them to know and do His will.  They can “hear” God and respond to Him today by means of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and prayer.  

Because they could not communicate with their gods directly, pagans came to the belief that the various events in life, both good and bad, were the means by which their gods showed their pleasure or displeasure.  Conversely, true Christians have the assurance that God loves them.  No idol ever sent its only son to die for mankind.  Idols cannot indwell mankind or deposit in us unspeakable joy and love.  They have no Comforter to offer us when harsh times arrive.  Idols cannot bless us, are not able to deliver us from our enemies, and cannot give us hope and peace that passes all understanding.  They cannot prepare a place for us in eternity where there will be no more sin, sorrow, sickness or death.  Therefore, when it comes to communicating with God who can and does provide all these things, I choose to use the method and means that He desires and provides, which is prayer.  Just as one cannot give a speech without thinking or speaking, prayer without thought or words is worthless.  Except for those rare times when the Holy Spirit prays for me, I intend to avail myself of the privilege to verbally communicate with God.  He is God Almighty, and not a man-created idol.  He must be worshipped and honored as God with true worship and true prayer.

But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. (John 4:23 NKJV)