Lexzie in Christ

You can be in church, and not be saved. And, if that’s you: you need to hear the truth. I’m going to share some things that God allowed me to understand back in 2024 so that I could be saved. And I’ll share things that He’s allowed me process since being saved.

I was under Word of Faith preaching, so I will be speaking from that lens of distortion. You may be currently wrapped up in some other form of heresy. At the end of the day: knowing the truth of the Gospel and knowing the basic essentials of the Christian faith should help you to realize if you’re under blasphemous preaching. And, if you are: leave now and dive into prayer and the Bible.

Nothing – and I mean, nothing – is more important than your salvation.

Sections:

i. The Truth: True Christianity

ii. The Truth About God

ii. The Lies: Word of Faith

iii. The Truth, Again

i.

THE TRUTH

Who is God?

God is the Creator of the heavens and the earth. He created all things. It’s very important to understand who God is, because you can’t afford to be wrong about Him. So I’ll go into this a bit more in a moment.

Hell, Judgment, Wrath… and Salvation:

God is a righteous judge. And He will ultimately hold sinners accountable for their sin. God created Hell (I’m using Hell/Lake of Fire interchangeably, here). God prepared Hell for satan and the fallen angels. God will cast them into it, for all of eternity, and they will receive His wrath; a consequence for all the evil they’ve done.

Though Hell was prepared for the enemy, God will also hold humans accountable for our sin, as well. The thing is – unlike the fallen angels – we have the chance to be forgiven and redeemed. Every sin will either be acknowledged through judgment and eternal separation from God – known as, the second death. Or, our sins will be acknowledged in the form of forgiveness and reconciliation with God – which is, eternal life. Believers are those who are saved from having to experience God’s righteous judgment, wrath and eternal separation.

This was incredibly eye-opening for me to learn, and I couldn’t believe I’d gone my whole faith life unsaved and unaware. My former pastor used to say, “It’s not about what you’re being saved from, it’s what you are being saved for.” So how profound was it for me to learn that, actually: It’s all about what you’re being saved from!

Who are God’s children?

God’s children are those whom He’s redeemed and forgiven. Every human being is God’s creation. Not everyone is a child of God. God’s children are those who are saved by Jesus. They are covered by His blood and are now indwelt by the Holy Spirit. God’s children are those who are Born Again in the Spirit, and they are saved.

Repentance & Sin:

The true Believer is someone who first understands the weight of their sin and the need for forgiveness. This doesn’t mean that they automatically know everything that Jesus commands or that they understand every way that they may have offended God. But it does mean that they acknowledge their separation from God and that they deeply desire forgiveness and reconciliation. This is a point that God has to draw them to. And, once there, they just need to hear the Gospel. Once they hear the truth about Jesus, they’ll accept Him immediately because God has already prepared their heart. Once saved, Scripture and the Holy Spirit will continue to reveal God’s character & convict them of God’s will. Believers are not sinless, but they are forgiven. And they are perpetually being sanctified.

It’s also important to know that we all sin and that we are born with a sin nature. We glean from Scripture that there is an age of accountability for children, before which they are covered (Praise the Lord). But no one is good, perfect or Holy. Only God.

Sanctification:

Upon being saved, we are regenerated. God gives us a new heart and we are now new creations in Christ. And for the rest of our time here on earth, we will be being sanctified. Again, this does not mean that we are perfect. But, with the help of the Holy Spirit and with our will now turned toward God, we will experience spiritual growth as God prepares our souls to one day be with Him.

Purpose:

Our purpose, as Believers, is to give God glory and to spread the Gospel. You do not have to spend your life searching for purpose or meaning. It’s already laid our for us! Now, it’s true that God reserves certain common blessings for both Believers and unbelievers. But, as Children of God, we have a Divine covering, protection and favor. We have a natural desire to shine light on Christ for everything granted to us. And, in our hardship, we have an incredible hope: our Lord, Jesus. So we give Him glory in everything and we share about Him in every way we can. Yes, it’s a boldness that grows over time. It can feel scary at first. But that’s what’s exciting. We can use all of our creativity and our God-given gifts to praise the Lord!

Prayer Requests & Problem Solving:

As a Believer, I trust God with all my being and I understand His power. I understand that He can do anything… but that He will only do what is in His will and timing. I trust that He knows what’s best, and I am surrendered to Him, fully!

Scripture encourages us to bring all types of prayers, petitions and requests to God. You can also bring your frustrations and your emotions to Him. But you cannot command God to do anything. Requests are what they are: requests. Urgent requests and frantic requests are still requests. You lay them at the feet of the Father, in Jesus’ name. You trust God with all your heart to protect and lead you. You keep your eyes on Jesus and do the work you’re called to do: stewarding yourself, your home, and your family with integrity and discipline.

Worry and frustration won’t cause you to forfeit your blessing. However, worry and frustration should be a reminder to focus on Jesus.

Throughout Scripture, we see Jesus admonish His disciples for focusing on their issues rather than on Him (“ye of little faith”). Jesus teaches us to focus on Him as He does the heavy lifting. This stands in complete opposition to Word of Faith teachings, which keep you focused on your words and, in turn, focused on your circumstance. (I’ll discuss this more in the next section.)

God will always show you how to navigate your situation. But you will only trust Him if you’re surrendered to Him.

ii.

THE TRUTH ABOUT GOD

Again, who is God?

The Father is God. Jesus is God. The Holy Spirit is God. And they are one.

We serve one God, who exists in three persons: The Father, The Son and the Holy Spirit.

•••

There is no perfect analogy, but here’s my best attempt:

Lexzie’s iCloud Account is one account, existing in three devices: The Mac Book, the iPad and the iPhone. They share a will and an essence. What one knows, so do the others. They’re synced and they are not at odds with each other. But they are also separate and distinct.

Now, imagine that you work for me and I give you the specific task of picking up my iPad from a shop. It has all my data on it and it’s very important that you retrieve the correct device.

• How would you feel if the shop owner tried to convince you that my iPad was just a device, and not attached to any particular account? Because of this, He urges you to leave with a different device. Or…
• How would you feel if the shop owner handed you an iPhone and said that the iPad no longer existed?! The iPad turned into an iPhone! Or…
• How would you feel if he handed you a MacBook and called it a MacBookiPadiPhone because, according to Him, it’s all one device?

That shop owner would be a liar. You would think that he was out of his mind! But this is exactly how heretics handle God.

Heretics typically attack the Trinity by claiming one of the following: 1) Jesus was just a man, and not God. 2) God changed forms. Or, 3) The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit are the same person.

It’s important to understand that they are wrong, why they are wrong, and how we land on the truth of Jesus and of God.

•••

God possesses some key attributes: He is the only one who forgives sin. He is Holy, eternal, immutable, omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent, meaning: He’s always existed, He does not change, He knows everything, He’s always present and He is able to do anything.

The Hypostatic Union is how we describe Jesus’ nature while on earth. On earth, Jesus was truly man and still truly God. Throughout Scripture, Jesus proves His divinity while also showcasing that He is separate from the Father and Holy Spirit.

We see Jesus possess or claim all the attributes of God:

• Jesus claims His eternality – stating that He was with the father in the beginning.
• Jesus forgives sins – We see Jesus forgiving people and subsequently frustrating the Pharisees.
• Though His physical body may have been stationed in one location, Jesus proves His omnipresence and omniscience (ie. He saw Nathaniel under the fig tree; He reads people’s thoughts and hearts; He knew that “in the next town” there would be a donkey tied next to a colt; etc.)
• Jesus showcased (through His miracles) and He claimed (in speech), His ability to do all things.
• Jesus showed that He was distinct from the other members of the Godhead; helping us to know God’s immutability. Jesus prayed to the Father. Jesus spoke about the Holy Spirit as someone He would send, in the same way that the Father sent Jesus. We see all three persons of the Trinity present during Jesus’ baptism.
• Jesus was sinless and the Father was pleased with Him.

God reveals Himself and His traits throughout the Bible. He repeatedly declares that there is only one God, and yet, we see the shared attributes, the blatant claims and the undeniable synchronicity between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is how we derive the Trinity: one God, three persons.

It is important to know that Jesus is God. If Jesus was anything less than Holy, His sacrifice would not be a sufficient covering for our sins. Knowing that He is God also helps us to view Scripture as authoritative, because Jesus is the Word. Knowing this will keep you from following your own will or from falling for some alternate Jesus. If you want to know what God says, study the Bible! (I recommend NIV.)

•••

And so, you have a “decision.” (Stated in quotes, because I believe that God is the one who enables our understanding.) Do you believe what Jesus says about Himself and what His followers wrote of Him? Do you believe what we read about the Father and the Holy Spirit?

You have to settle within yourself whether Jesus is telling the truth about who He is: That He has the power to save, the power to judge, the power to give His life and raise it up, that He was with God in the beginning, that He is God and that He created all things. Including you.

Jesus is not a created being who just showed up on the scene halfway through the Bible. No, He always was and He always will be. He is currently sitting at the right hand of the Father, in Heaven. You either believe in that Jesus or you don’t.

I understand that it may take some time to wrestle with or grasp the concept of the Trinity. But again: you are either surrendered to Jesus or not. That surrender must include believing what Jesus says about Himself.

iii.

THE LIES

Word of Faith:

Word of Faith (WOF) teachings mix Biblical truths, half-truths and distortions. They rely on plausible deniability, which is manipulation at its finest. This is to say that: If a hardcore Born Again Believer heard a portion of a WOF sermon in isolation, even they could argue that the pastor simply misspoke. Even they wouldn’t necessarily understand the depth of the deception. But, take it from me – someone who did not know the Gospel and who remained under these teachings for 10 years: WOF teachings form a warped understanding of the faith.

Here are some of the ways that WOF pastors present, distort or omit key aspects of the Christian faith. Let’s start with what my former pastor omitted:

Hell:

In my decade spent attending a WOF church: My former pastor did not preach about Hell. The congregation was likely a mixed bag when it came to their knowledge about eternity. So while some people may have had an accurate understanding, I was involved enough to know that many did not.

My understanding of hell was largely formed through media and entertainment. I truly believed that hell was a place that the devil resided over. I thought it was a place where people who didn’t believe in God would go when they died, and that the devil would have his way with them. I thought of it as terrifying and reeking of debauchery. But I just knew I wasn’t going there, so I never gave it much thought. It was quite a non-factor for me. (And yes, this is a cringe admission.)

Believers, Unbelievers and God’s Children:

This topic was also never discussed. In fact, there was a persistent conflation of the words “created” and “chosen,” from the pulpit. So while, I eventually came to understand that you had to accept Jesus to be saved. I did not actually understand why. If we were all already God’s children, how did Jesus fit into the equation?

I know, for a fact, that most of my friends were in the same boat. We did not fully understand Jesus. We simply knew how to recite the “call to salvation.”

Therefore, I 100% took people at their word when they claimed to be Christian. And, I truly believed that everyone was God’s child. I considered atheists to be the only real unbelievers. I thought that as long as you believed in something, the truth would be revealed to you eventually. I figured that we would all have the chance to choose Jesus at Judgment Day! (Like… be so for real. But this was my theology.)

When basic truths aren’t exposited, truth-seekers will form their own ideology.

I thought I was saved, when I wasn’t. And, I always tried to find common ground when it came to faith conversations.

I was so empathetic and nuanced. And even though I was convicted about plenty of things, I believed that it wasn’t my place to speak on other people’s journeys. I figured that God would reach them in time, which was very much in line with what my former church taught. There were also things that I cosigned, not realizing that they were sins. I spent much of my life speaking a lot of life into sin; other people’s sins, as well as my own. (I had to later repent for all of it.)

When I was under WOF teachings, I was the type of Christian this world craves: Unproblematic.

Moving on to what we were actively taught:

Purpose:

My former pastor would always let us know that “God saved us for a reason” and that our purpose was something that God would reveal over time. And he constantly posited that if you did not know your purpose, hang in there because you were still being prepared by God. Life was then a constant search for purpose and understanding. And, naturally, it was somewhat of a guessing game. If you didn’t feel purposed, you had to keep searching and seeking. Many of us found our purpose in our families, our passions, community service, helping others and inviting people to church. Our purpose depended on us; and that’s a breeding ground for pride.

Prayer Requests & Problem Solving:

I’ve mentioned it on this site before, but Word of Faith prayers are just what the name implies: It places emphasis on your words to God. It places the burden on you to have faith in your words to God. If your prayer request doesn’t come to pass, it’s either because: it’s not time yet or you are doubting your requests and don’t have enough faith.

Now: doubt and negativity can absolutely be crippling. But, when you’re being taught to place your faith in your words and then to guard your subsequent speech… it easily turns into positive speak and positive think. Positivity is great. But it is not the same as having true faith in God.

Similar to prayer requests, a lot of our problem solving centered around “believing harder” rather than true surrender and obedience.

Gratitude Practice & Intention Setting:

The more I learn about New Age, the more I understand the root of the practices that were introduced into our congregation. Don’t get me wrong: Gratitude is important. Our God deserves all the praise! And, intentionality is imperative. God is an intentional God.

But, again, our faith should not be in these practices. And these practices should never become rituals. If you want to journal, let that be an outpouring of your worship. It shouldn’t be the thing that dictates your worship.

Your intention should align with Scripture’s call to give God glory, spread the Gospel and steward your home. Goals can follow. But, ultimately, you shouldn’t be dictating the intention for your life. God already has.

As you can see, WOF teachings placed much of the focus on our minds, our words and on how we were showing up in the world. Our spiritual health was absolutely neglected:

Sin:

WOF teachings properly define sin as “missing the mark” and they do teach that God cannot be connected to sin, hence why we need the forgiveness offered by Jesus. However, they do not elaborate on what constitutes as sin. They don’t dive into Old Testament law (which helps to expose sin), nor do they elaborate on Jesus’ teachings (such as the Sermon on the Mount) so that we may understand the root and severity of sin.

Forgiveness:

Because the pastor isn’t teaching about the weight of sin or about the eternal consequence of sin, we don’t understand the need for forgiveness. We may have had a desire for God to walk alongside us to help us with our daily lives. But that is not the same as knowing why we need to ultimately be forgiven.

Repentance & Atonement:

Because they don’t dive into the severity of sin or the need for forgiveness, they never make it to repentance. I can recall my former pastor mentioning repentance twice in 10 years. And, once saved, I reviewed his definition and realized how off it was, which I’ll share later. But, because they don’t teach repentance, they also never make it to atonement.

Sacrifice:

Because they never make it to atonement, they never make it to sacrifice. They don’t elaborate on the method that God laid out so that we may be reconciled to Him. They don’t talk about Old Testament sacrifice. They don’t draw the line between who God is, what He commands, the significance of prophecy and how it all points to Jesus: His deity + personhood and His sacrifice.

Salvation:

Because they don’t preach about hell, sin, repentance and sacrifice:

THEY DO NOT SINCERELY PREACH ABOUT SALVATION.

As I noted earlier, my former pastor would constantly say, “It’s not about what you are being saved from. It’s what you are being saved for.” I lived by this quote for so long.

These pastors keep you so busy praying for relief and trying to faithfully wait for God to fix your life. The whole time, you’re not even saved. You don’t even really know that you need to be saved. It’s sad, really.

Sanctification:

We did not learn about sanctification. Why would we? The reality is: sanctification comes after salvation. And if much of your congregation is unsaved… it makes this conversation null in void.

For those of us who really did love the Lord, there was absolutely shedding of old behaviors. While this is not true sanctification, it can be mistaken for it.

Perhaps this is why my former pastor preferred to preach about transformation. In his distorted view, he’d teach that you need to: “Remember who God created you to be and return to that version of yourself.”

Instead of teaching that we are born with a sin nature… Instead of teaching that we need to be forgiven and covered by the Blood of Jesus… Instead of teaching that saved souls are new creations in Christ, who are called to die to ourselves…

…my former pastor urged us to “remember and return.” That is dangerous. (More on that later.)

Minimizing Jesus:

I really didn’t understand much about Jesus’ deity until I left my former church. I vividly remember having a conversation with one of my friends after church, years ago. She said, verbatim, “I stand with God… and Jesus is somewhere up in there, too.”

It sounds terrible, but it made total sense to me at the time. We knew that we loved the God of the Bible. And we would read the Bible. We knew that Jesus was the Son of God and that He died for our sins. We’d call on His name and we knew that He was Holy. But, again: We had no idea how He actually fit into the equation. We did not really understand Jesus.

God has allowed me to process and understand where my prior confusion stemmed from.

My former pastor (along with many in the Word of Faith movement), preached the heretical doctrine of Modalism. This doctrine asserts that God manifests in different ways at different times. They teach that God was the Father, then He changed to the Son, and now He’s the Holy Spirit within us. (Think about that for a second. God can only be one thing at a time and right now… He’s in us? Not in Heaven? Word of Faith and New Age are legit best friends.)

Now, these pastors don’t verbalize that they are teaching Modalism. So sometimes they will throw in things that seem more in line with Biblical Christianity. Also, many WOF churches affirm the Trinity in their statement of belief. But when you listen to their sermons carefully and study them over a significant period of time, you’re able to glean their true belief system. Unfortunately, you’d only have reason to do that sort of deep dive once you know the truth and want to compare notes.

My former pastor would sometimes say that Jesus is God. But, he’d also say things like, “Jesus doesn’t even show up in the Bible until the New Testament.” He’d say that Jesus changed forms or other things of that nature. (More on this later.)

Additionally: WOF preaching fails to point Scripture to Jesus and the cross. Instead, it encourages you to find yourself in the text. (This is how I was able to read the Bible and still not understand Jesus.)

Upon leaving my former church, I learned that the Word of Faith movement pushes the “little gods” doctrine, which ultimately minimizes Jesus’ role, while elevating ours. It slyly puts us on Jesus’ level; without ever having to say it. It burdens us with the very responsibility that Jesus told us to lay at His feet. It keeps us in search of deliverance.

iv.

THE TRUTH, AGAIN

You cannot believe in a Jesus who was merely a human, but not God. And, you cannot believe in a Jesus who is sometimes God, and sometimes not. If you do, you are either:

• 1) Ignorant about who Jesus is because you’ve been under false teaching or you haven’t pursued Him in study. Or…
• 2) You are purposefully denying and lying about how Jesus reveals Himself in Scripture. Or…
• 3) You are clinging to Jesus while still denying His deity, therefore making Him a liar.

Those last two points are the most problematic. Relationships require an accurate acknowledgment of what is being presented. They also require a response that comes from a place of integrity. If you claim Jesus and continue to deny His eternal deity… it honestly makes you a manipulator.

It’s one thing to be confused about the Trinity. But we need to be wise about what we confirm and deny when we’re unsure. Wrestle humbly with the Lord so that you can seek understanding, earnestly. We want to do our best to handle the truth of God, properly. And we want to confess when we’ve been reckless with the truth, as many of us have in the past.

Believers serve one God who exists in three persons: The Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus is the uncreated Creator who came to earth, lived a perfect life and presented Himself willingly, as the ultimate, unblemished, final sacrifice… for the forgiveness of our sins. We should never take His sacrifice, nor our sins lightly. Being forgiven is a undeserved gift: We are saved by grace, through faith.

•••

Our faith is in Jesus. Not in our words.

Word of Faith preaching is egregious in the way it misses the mark. Sin means to miss the mark. And, these preachers are stuck in unrepentant sin.

When someone who claims to be a brother or sister in Christ misses the mark and remains unrepentant… do not engage. There is a difference between genuine error and outright deception. When learned pastors fail to properly communicate and exposit the essentials of the faith… and when they are not open to rebuke… run.

For those of you who want to see how my former pastor presents:

Repentance, Transformation and Jesus

It will blow your mind.

But, for now: Love you.

Here’s a…