The Better Thing

One of the main premises of the Apostolic-Prophetic movement is that Christians should be seeking spiritual growth and be ascending to new and higher levels (an occult term by the way). Those who are actively developing the "ascension gifts" are considered the top guns, while those who focus merely on soul winning are regarded as spiritually undeveloped and fairly pathetic specimens of Christianity.

Those on the front lines of the Prophetic-Apostlolic movement have demonstrated a zero tolerance policy in regards to those who won't let go of "old religious traditions." The "old religious traditions" they are referring to are nothing more than holding to the authority of scripture over their prophetic utterances--"present restored truth" they call it--and focusing on obedience to the scriptures and soul winning rather than growing in the "ascension gifts."

Jesus had something very different to say along these lines. When he gave his disciples (not just the 12 he called apostles--but the seventy others as well) power over all the power of the enemy (fairly spiritually developed group I'd say--just from hanging around Jesus and being obedient to him), he told them having all that power wasn't the most important thing.

What was the better thing?

Soul winning. They were told to rejoice because their souls were saved.

Most people agree that a person's last words before leaving this world are usually about the things they consider most important. Well, Jesus' last words had nothing whatever to do with developing the "ascension gifts," they had to do with...

You guessed it...

Soul-winning.

So whose words are going to carry the most weight with us--those of Bill Hamon, Peter Wagner, Rick Joyner (who pooh-pooh, ridicule and viciously stereotype dedicated soul winners)...

Or the words of Jesus?