Hello, My Name Is Amanda, and I Was a False Teacher

[billiefan2000]

Hello, My Name Is Amanda, and I Was a False Teacher
Article by Amanda Bowers (Hears His Voice blog)

(I’ve shared in another note my repentance over being a false teacher. You can read about it here.)


A Note Of Repentance To All Whom I Have Taught Or Endorsed Henry Blackaby or Beth Moore | My Sheep Hear My Voice



I’m no perfect one. I’ve been taught error and I have taught error.


Hi, I am Amanda Bowers and I was a False Teacher.


I took lightly the grave responsibility that comes with feeding sheep. I let my emotions and my own deceitful heart lead me, rather than the Word of God.


Now, I thought I was letting the Word of God lead me, but I wasn’t. Honestly, there were even times when the Holy Spirit was bringing conviction that I wasn’t preparing and studying enough…but being a natural with words and feeling sure I was understanding these things given the strong experiences I was having…I barreled right past those warning signs.


I even had well meaning friends trying to warn me about Beth Moore, but I dismissed it. I found blogs online telling me she was not properly exegeting the Scripture, but I thought, “Nah. These people are kind of hateful. They are mean. I won’t listen to them.”





Many of you may be thinking the same about me now or others who are trying to sound the alarm that the American church is headed toward apostasy.


Please, dear brothers and sisters. Don’t worry about rejecting me.



But please, don’t reject Christ! I love you too much for that. Please examine the teachings of every beloved teacher against the sound Word, no matter who they are.


Finally, the Lord just had to plunge me into the deep end of Universalism and Spiritual Formation at a Charlotte Mason homeschool conference to wake me up (you can read about that here).


Spiritual Formation Rude Awakening | My Sheep Hear My Voice



When I was a child, false teaching kept me awake at night. I had grievous sins as a child and young adult. Too dark to share in a public fashion, but regardless, as the Word says, we all have sinned greatly before the Lord. Growing up in a church telling me that I had to be perfect or I could lose my salvation and that I needed the “second blessing” was detrimental to me. Crying and fearful, I went to the altar thousands of times. By my mid twenties, I was exhausted trying to keep myself saved and I had given up. You would still be told I was a Christian if you asked, but I was living for myself and not God!



In 2001, at a desperate point in life when my own ability to control my life and circumstances had reached an all time low, when 9-11 occurred and the world seemed to be falling apart, I had that fear come back to me.



What if He returns? Will I be ready?

One day after weeks of praying and searching for truth and not understanding the Word, I cried out the most blasphemous prayer.


It was no sinner's prayer. I said, “God, if you are real you need to show me the truth or get out of my life and leave me alone, I can not live this way any longer.”



Knowing the sovereignty and severity of God, it is only a testimony to His long suffering and mercy toward me that He answered my prayer in the way that was best for my soul, and not in the way I deserved.




Showing me Hebrews 10:12:

“But this man, after he had offered ONE sacrifice for sins FOREVER, sat down on the right hand of God;” (my emphasis)


For the first time in all my life, the Holy Spirit illuminated this truth to me, that Christ had finished his work, and that I was merely to repent and believe on this to be saved.

This is no martyrdom statement. It is just a fact! I committed serious and grave sins against my God, and sadly, I often still do; however, with His help I press toward the goal of that upward call.


With my brother, Paul, I can say I am the chief of sinners, but like Paul, I will no longer live for myself. I will live for the Lord Jesus Christ and His Word.




I firmly believe it is the duty of every Christian who understands the free grace of God to fight tooth and nail to preserve it.


It is a most hateful thing to cover sin and and to cover the truth in the name of unity. For it torments the children of God and it damns men’s souls to hell.

My conscience is held captive to the Word of God! Here I stand! I can do no other!


Sola Sisters: Hello, My Name Is Amanda, and I Was a False Teacher

[mikhen7]

Interesting. I am glad she finally was saved by realizing it is all Christ and Christ once and for all. We are indeed His work (Eph. 2:10). However I went to her website to read more and concerning Beth Moore, (I am speaking from a point of ignorance about BM because I have read nothing by her and have never been led to by the Lord) she bases her opinion on her support of Richard Foster. Ok I can deal with that. His book has Astral Projection-undeniable. But her critique of Blackaby has me scratching my head. She was once in pursuit of trying to hear God prior to salvation, from what I read, and in pursuit of spiritual gifts, then realized she couldn't hear Him and did not get what she pursued (prophetic gifts and visions, forgetting that not all people got these gifts) so she sided with the cessationists. ???? One extreme to the other is what I see. I disagree with her interpretation of Blackaby. God does still speak today through the Holy Spirit. He doesn't just reveal or bring to remembrance the things Christ taught, John 14:26 He also teaches us 1 John 2:20, 27, witnesses to us Rom. 8:16, Testifies of future things Acts 20:23, and I could go on. Here is an excerpt from her cite posted in OP:

Concerning Blackaby she quotes him here:

"He readily reveals it to those who show themselves obedient to do it. If you do not hear God’s voice, could it be your heart is not ready to respond to what he says?”

This is her assessment:

This is pretty typical of Blackaby’s teaching. Indicating that if you don’t “hear God speaking to you” it is a problem with you and probably because you are sinning or unwilling to obey. Well, what if you have searched and confessed every sin you know to do so, and still don’t “hear” God? Who of us is ever completely free from sin? Why do we continue to seek to “hear God” when He has already given us a written revelation for our lives.
It was this teaching that tormented my soul, kept me paralyzed as to how to serve God many times, and caused a class system in thinking that some Christians are just more “holy” than others. Friends, this is simply NOT TRUE. Your heavenly Father loves You dearly and He has given you a closed cannon of Scripture to study and obey. We pray to God using words as He instructed in the Lord’s Prayer, then by the Holy Spirit, does answer our prayers and providentially does guide us, but He uses the Word to do so and He never instructs us that if we aren’t “hearing Him speak” it is because we aren’t righteous enough or haven’t learned the proper techniques to sit in silence and “hear Him”.

Here is mine:
First off, he never says it is because of sin; that has to be inferred by the reader. He questions, "could it be your heart is not ready to respond to what he says?”" This does not mean it is because you have hidden un-confessed sin, but rather, it is a state of willingness to lay down all for Christ and a preparation to go where He calls. Let me explain, It is Christ who builds the church, Ps. 127:1, Mt. 16:18, John 6:29. It is Christ then that teaches and leads the true believer through the Holy Spirit of whom He is equal.

¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, ¹⁷ even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. ¹⁸ “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. John 14:16-18 (ESV)

Do you see in the verse above how Christ (the Second Person of Trinity) equates Himself with the Holy Spirit (the Third Person of the Trinity) who the Father (the first Person of the Trinity) sends to us after Jesus' resurrection?

Going further, Eph. 2:10 states, "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." Ephesians 2:10 (ESV) We all agree that God has a plan for our lives and a we have a created purpose to fulfill after being re-born, which would include some gifts He gives us as helps. He is the Provisioner. But in many instances we want to help God do His work. If that is the case then we are not letting Him build the house. Blackaby is just re-stating, in this instance, what he taught elsewhere with other words, that until we are willing to give all to Christ, and say "Yes" when He would or would want to call us, we may never hear Him because we are too attuned to our goals not His. Of course, being in fellowship with God and ready to fulfill His work means being of a humble and contrite permeable spirit. It does not mean we will never sin even when attuned to God. Paul sinned and described himself as a "chief of sinners" but who can say that God did not still speak to him?

Yes, I believe she was under False teaching but I think there were others to whom she was listing too then Blackaby and Moore. I simply believe this is a case of wanting all the gifts she could get as she confesses but never receiving as she was told, so being disillusioned.

I agree that we have to point out false teaching but if one is not a false teacher then we are in danger of slander.

God Bless

P. S. She had it right when she said, "

When I was a child, ... Growing up in a church telling me that I had to be perfect or I could lose my salvation and that I needed the “second blessing” was detrimental to me. Crying and fearful, I went to the altar thousands of times. By my mid twenties, I was exhausted trying to keep myself saved and I had given up. You would still be told I was a Christian if you asked, but I was living for myself and not God!