The Elder Must not be Self-Willed

Chapter 19

We have a lot of unbiblical jargon we throw around today thanks to people like Freud and Jung, but biblical terminology is much more descriptive and direct. I don’t wonder why psychologist and sociologists wish to ignore bible terminology. They would have no jobs if the truth were known. The simple fact is that a multi-million dollar trade has been conjured up from their utterly foolish diagnoses of the condition of man. God’s word, contrary to what psychologists would have us believe, tells us self-will is sin. It is the same thing as being self-centered. Satan, his band of fallen angels, and all of those who are lost are, by nature, self-willed. Being self-centered is the opposite of being God-centered. Scripture does not anywhere say that we are to love ourselves. It does establish that we already do that sufficiently. The command is to love others “as” we love our selves. Some would make that into two commands when it is only one.

Psychologists have spent over a hundred years convincing us that our children need to have better self-esteem, another catch word for being self-centered. As would be expected, such foolishness is diametrically opposed to the commands of God. It is the antithesis. God’s word is a book of antitheses and Satan is the primary source of all doctrine contrary to it. Any and all doctrines (psychological precepts) not directly gleaned from God’s word are the doctrines of demons. Therefore, it is without biblical support to teach our children of their need to have more self-esteem. Doing so is teaching them the doctrine of demons. It is little wonder our schools are so messed up.

God’s word teaches the Elder in His church must not be self-willed. He must be one who desires the welfare of all others before his own; and he must be one who desires God’s will above all. When God’s church is led by such men, it will experience revival as none of us can imagine. I’m quite confident few churches on planet earth since the first century have been led by such men. I am also confident, we are soon entering an age in the history of the church when that is about to change. I believe the church, just before the ushering in of the tribulation (Rev. 11:1ff), will explode into the living body of mighty warriors God has intended it to be from the beginning. It is clear that during the first three years of the tribulation, the real church will have returned to ministering from house to house because the false church will have made a covenant with the anti-Christ (Rev. 13, 17, 18).

When Elders are not self-willed, they are able to hear the Spirit of God when He speaks to them about church matters. When Elders are not self-willed, they are able to discern God’s perfect will for His local body of believers (James 1:5). When the local body knows God’s perfect will, all that is left is for them to decide is whether or not they are going to follow it. When the Elders are not self-willed, the majority does not win (the subject of the last chapter of this book). God is the only majority His church has any obligation to acknowledge. I will deal with the matter thoroughly later, but it is essential to understand no church of God should ever be run by a vote of the congregation. That is a principle that has taken countless congregations down the path to impotence and fruitlessness for centuries. There is absolutely no basis in God’s word for congregational voting on church issues. That is a doctrine of demons.

The antithetical teaching of scripture with regards to the will is that there is Satan’s and there is God’s. When man does not do God’s, he is doing Satan’s.