Leaving Beyond – Grounded In Scripture

Written by: April J. Buchanan

There’s something about romanticizing and spiritualizing one’s testimony. It almost becomes this thing that sets you apart as more spiritual because you’ve been through more “stuff” than others so now where you are is because of what you’ve been through and you have been granted something greater for which you paid the price.

Many today super-spiritualize a testimony and leave the hearer feeling as though without a powerful testimony they cannot attain to a higher level, a greater anointing. Women seem most susceptible to this next level, testimony driven work that one must endure to get the greater and better that is said to be on the other side. So then, what does this teach women?

The message is if you want to get to a perceived next level then you are going to have to go through some stuff because without a testimony you have nothing to say. You need to have gone through some testing to prove your value, your worth, so you can get or “release” a greater anointing. The testing is meant to release what is said to be in you but unable to break through until you have gone through some hard things that will breakthrough and release the anointing within. You will only then be able to go to the next level.

Messages then are formed around this greater blessing, the need for a testimony, the need for your breakthrough, what one must do to get what they desire, and anyone who stands in the way of that is said to be used of the devil, attacking them, or some other slanderous claim. Now these women are not only looking for an attack, for anything that will give them their testimony, but even the very people that love them and they love may just be the obstacle in their path.

Said no Bible verse!

Worse, this leads them away from the Gospel, the sufficiency of God’s Word, true fellowship with the saints, sound doctrine and after those who affirm what they want to hear concerning their next level, their testimony, their breakthrough, what God has planned for them and how they are going to do big things for God. But first, they must overcome and they must pray harder, worship more fervently, serve more, give more, do more. It has to cost them or they won’t get what they desire. When they’ve done all they have been told to do and they feel they have nothing left to give they are told that they are close to their breakthrough, and they cannot give up now, they must endure because it will be worth it and they don’t want to miss it.

It’s not about you. The message is not your “testimony.”

Many women idolize their testimony. They believe it proves their worth. It proves their value. It gives them greater access to God. They have paid the price to get where they are. They have earned that next level. And if you want it you better be willing to pay for it.

They have forsaken Christ. They have forsaken the Gospel. They have forsaken grace.

What they wanted was whatever they saw at that next level. Their heart was fully devoted to it. They wanted to pay the price because if suffering or hardship meant something greater, whatever that meant to them, then the cost was worth it.

They love messages and stories that tell them to keep enduring, not to give up, because their breakthrough is coming. It is not merely that they love shallow messages. These messages speak exactly to their hearts true desire. What appears (and is) shallow and unbiblical to those with sound doctrine, is for them the messages validating their sinful desires in pursuit of something they believe is greater. They don’t mind when it is exposed as shallow because they interpret that as an attack and that just means they are paying the price and it will add to their testimony, what they must pay, to get what they desire.

Suffering for them was never about the faithfulness of God in that their faith, saving faith, may not fail. When they think of the faithfulness of God it is about perceived blessings, breakthroughs, a next level. They do not mind suffering because it’s what they are taught they must endure in order to get to the next level. They don’t mind when their beliefs are exposed as false because they interpret that as an attack. They are taught not to say anything and to only speak positive and encouraging words. This gets them even closer to their breakthrough.

It’s not about Christ. It’s not about the sufficiency of scripture. It’s not about the sufficiency of the Gospel.

They will affirm all those things as being good and true. And yet they are not satisfied in Him. He is not enough.

They want more!

He is merely the means to their desire for their own next level.

They love testimonies. They love stories that are dreadful and painfully self-absorbed and that make no sense biblically. To them, it does. Every story, every testimony is spiritualized and their hearts are set against sound doctrine. Their ears are being tickled. This is what they love to hear. They are inspired to hear how those women claim to have made it and where they are now, how they claim God is using them mightily and blessing them. They want that.

They boast in what they say God is doing. They worship with intensity. They pray with more fervor than many. They are fierce in their devotion. It’s not for nothing. It’s not for Him. It’s for what they have been promised on the other side of whatever perceived obstacle is in their way of their next level.

They will do whatever it takes to get it. They even appear more faithful and more devoted to God, but such beautiful means of grace have been corrupted for their own desire for more, for something else, something on the other side and these are the means to get it.

They will go hoarse in prayer. They will sacrifice what is truly good for that which they believe is better. They will serve faithfully and especially under those who have what they desire, believing that by serving them they will have greater access to God, to their breakthrough, to their next level. They want to be near those with that special “anointing.” They will sacrifice their dignity to get it. They will do whatever it takes. It is what they desire. He is the means to their desires.

They sound spiritual. They appear faithful. They speak only positive and encouraging words. They are taught that they cannot speak what is considered negative (often what accords with sound doctrine) because their words have power and they will speak against their own blessing. It’s not God-honoring. It’s selfish. It’s prideful. Their hearts betray them. They are fiercely devoted but not to Him. They use Him to get what they truly love and they do it in His name. They worship Him, pray with His name on their lips but their words are not with Him as their object.

He is not enough for them. He is not the object of their love. He is not the object of their faith. He is the means to their desires. Their faith is in their own words. And if it cost them everything they will have it. And they convince themselves He wants them to have it.

When they overcome whatever their real or perceived obstacle was, and even better, if they had some euphoric experience or real experience that they spiritualize and claim was from God, they now have their testimony and perhaps, an encounter that really sets them apart.

They paid the price for it. They surrendered all for it. They now are on the other side with their testimony and their experience that has granted them privileges, power, authority, secret knowledge, an anointing so that they may attain to the next level where only few make it. They have made it.

They will go on to share their stories, their testimonies, their experiences, and they will draw many to themselves. They are now at another level. They are now more anointed, have greater access to God, and their words must be heard because they speak with greater authority because of what they went through to get there.

Christ was never enough. The Gospel was never enough. His Word was never enough. His means of grace was never enough.

They needed to earn it. They needed their own testimony. They needed to draw many to themselves. They made it. And the cost was more than they realize.

Because He is enough. His Word is enough. The Gospel is enough. His means of grace is enough.

It is a gospel of suffering, a gospel of self. It is about what it cost them to get what they desire. It was never the Gospel of Christ, the grace of God that saved them, resulting in genuine faith and repentance, whereby suffering proved the tested genuineness of their faith: saving faith. It was about a faith that grants them greater, more, something better. And it was never Him.