New Series: Covering, Accountability & Alignment Session 1 Spiritual Covering (taken from David Cannistraci & Steve Coleman)
A. Introduction In these last days, the devil is targeting your family, your health and your spiritual life as never before. Despite the dangers, God's people can live with an unshakable confidence in the safety of His protection.
Psalm 91:4 reassures us, "He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge" (NKJV). 诗篇 91:4 (CNVS) 4 他必用自己的羽毛遮盖你, 你要投靠在他的翅膀底下 ; 他的信实象盾牌, 像坚垒 When we connect with His covering, we don't have to fear the turmoil of our times. Deuteronomy 33:12 declares: "'The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by Him, who shelters him all the day long.'" 申命记 33:12 (CNVS) 12 论到便雅悯, 他说 : 耶和华所爱的, 必在耶和华身边安然居住 ; 耶和华终日庇护他, 也必住在他的两肩之间
B. How does God define "spiritual covering"? Christ Is Our Covering From the Bible- the moment we receive Christ, a canopy of protection is stretched out over our lives. Picture - description of the Passover (see Ex. 12:21-27).
While the children of Israel were preparing to flee Egypt, a spirit of death was being released against the firstborn of the land. Only protection for Israel- shed blood of a spotless lamb on the doorposts of their dwellings. Today, Christ is our Passover Lamb (see 1 Cor. 5:7). His blood keeps us safe & secure. This is the glorious work of the cross in our lives and the inheritance of every believer.
The covering power of the blood from story of a harlot from Jericho (see Josh. 2). Rahab knew it was inevitable that Israel would prevail against her own lost city. So she requested and received protection during the invasion.
The key to her protection was a red cord hanging from her window, which represents the blood of Christ. Though Jericho was destroyed, her family was spared through the provision of the crimson cord.
Spiritual protection for God's people depends completely upon proper positioning. Even though a promise of safety was given, no one was safe unless he was in the right place. If Israel had left their homes during Passover and Rahab not behind the crimson cord, they would not have been covered. The same is true of Noah and his family during the flood.
Position is important. The psalmist wrote, "He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty" (Ps. 91:1). The best umbrella is useless in a rainstorm unless you are under it!
Today, it's essential for us to know: how and where to come under the full protection of Christ's sacrifice. Our faith in Christ saves us, but our cooperation with His provision is the key to everything else. God is under no obligation to protect us when we resist His direction, but He will guard those who are surrendered and in place.
2. Horizontal - God's Provisions for our Protection Scripture reveals that though God's protection is present and available in Christ, it is carried to us through two delivery systems He has set up.
a. Prayer. Via constant intercession with the shield of faith to quench the attacks of Satan (see Eph. 6:16,18). There is nothing like a prayer shield to provide covering over the life of a believer. All of us should continually pray for one another, our nation and our leaders.
Prayer activates the heavenly host (see Ps. 34:7), erects a hedge of protection around us (see Job 1:5,9-11) and seals the gaps through which our spiritual enemy tries to gain access to our lives (see Ezek. 22:30). With the covering system of prayer in place, we can move forward in our lives without being continually knocked back by the devil.
2. Divinely appointed relationships. Isaiah prophesied of our day: "The Lord will create above every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and above her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night. For over all the glory there will be a covering... for shade in the daytime from the heat, for a place of refuge, and for a shelter from storm and rain" (Is. 4:5-6). 5 然后, 耶和华必在锡安全山之上, 并会众之上, 在日间创造云和烟, 夜间创造有火焰的光亮, 因为在一切荣耀之上, 必有遮盖 6 也必有亭子, 日间可以使人得阴凉 避炎热, 也可以作避难时藏身之所, 或作躲避狂风暴雨之处 ( 以赛亚书 4:5-6 CNVS)
The covering over every home speaks of family relationships. The covering over every assembly speaks of the local church. These are more accountability relationships.
God's protection is released to us when we are rightly connected in our families and churches. Those relationships are the joints that supply us (Eph. 4:16). Right relationships have always been vital to our safety (1 Cor. 11:11-12; Eph. 5:21-25; Heb. 10:24-25; 13:17).
Still, whenever the word "covering" comes up, a lot of us want to run Wrong and hide Ideas under about a pew. Covering When we fail to view all this correctly - tragic abuses of authority and control surface.
Godly Advice: Don't allow anyone to control you or make you fearful by twisting Scriptures that relate to covering. Beware of top-heavy leadership structures that overemphasize tithing, authority and headship. Think twice when you hear legalistic messages about submission that rob you of your freedom in Christ.
Be cautious when you see an overuse of titles and holy hierarchies that keep you dependent on spiritual "big shots." Don't play into the unhealthy control of those who desperately seek importance in your life. These imbalanced arrangements grieve the Holy Spirit and hurt people.
The accountability and care one enjoys by being part of a believing family, praying local church, and dedicated network of friends and ministries has been an indispensable part of any Christian s growth and success.
Allow the Lord to guide you into the blessing of divinely appointed relationships at home and in the local church. Position yourself to both offer and receive continual prayer. Let Christ s precious blood anoint the doorposts of your life and the crimson cords of His love protect you in the day of battle.
The natural and spiritual threats out there are real, but we should never be afraid of what they can do to us. When we're positioned in Him and connected to His provision, the canopy of His protection rises high and strong over us.
C. Spiritual Covering Teaching Popularised in Shepherding Movement (1970s) Question - "Does a person / ministry need a spiritual covering?" 1. Term Spiritual Covering when it originated The term spiritual covering is usually used in the context of the Shepherding movement (1970s), though it can have other meanings.
In its primary context, having a spiritual covering means being submitted the authority of another Christian believer. Meaning-for a person s spiritual life and/or ministry to be valid in the eyes of God, the person or ministry must be under direct submission to a specific person. - an elder or pastor of a church - an older or more mature Christian - some other authority figure
According to the teaching of spiritual covering, Christians are - accountable to God - but also to their leaders and elders. In practice, this makes an earthly authority figure an intercessor or a substitute for God in the life of the person or ministry that has the covering.
This has led some Christians to consult their designated shepherd prior to making career or family decisions. In some cases, professing Christians have claimed that, given a choice of obeying God or their shepherd, they would obey their earthly shepherd.
2. Who can become a Christian s Covering? The shepherding movement was an attempt to solve some of the church's shortcomings, the most important being that many Christians were not properly "discipled," or taught how to grow in the faith. In the traditional church many new believers had been left on their own to study the Bible, learn how to pray, and learn how to have a lifestyle that is pleasing to the Lord. The shepherding movement believed many new converts became "casualties," and soon dropped out of the church.
The shepherding movement attempted to correct this situationeach Christian should have a shepherd over them to guide their everyday lives. This shepherd became the person's spiritual leader, counseling him and even making decisions for him. It was taught that the shepherd was "God's delegated authority" and therefore his advice was always to be followed.
The shepherd was like "God's ambassador" who communicated God's messages to us. To disobey God's messages would be to disobey God, and therefore we were to trust in the shepherd's judgment rather than our own.
Christians were taught to seek God to find the shepherd the Lord wanted for them. When we find the right shepherd, he becomes our covering, or protection. Because of our "divine relationship" with this shepherd, we are supposed to be protected from making wrong decisions that affect us. From Satan, since by obeying our shepherd the devil cannot come in and cause us to make foolish decisions.
D. Is this Teaching of Spiritual Covering Biblical? Covering is an Old Testament concept. To discover its meaning we must study the various Hebrew words translated as "covering" in their proper contexts.
a. 1 st Hebrew word - sakak: "to cover or hedge in" (Young, p. 209). Figuratively, means "to protect, "to cover, defend, hedge in, join together, set, or shut up" (James Strong, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, p. 82). In other words, men can protect themselves by joining together, shutting themselves up or fortifying their positions, or hedging themselves in so that the enemy cannot see or reach them.
The Bible says the Lord is our covering in the sakak sense (and not a man). Psalm 91:3 says the Lord does the following things: He rescues you from the snares of fowlers hoping to destroy you; he covers you with his feathers, and you find shelter underneath his wings. (Jerusalem Bible). 诗篇 91:3 (CNVS) 3 他必救你脱离捕鸟的人的网罗 脱离致命的瘟疫
b. 2nd Hebrew word - kasah: The primary meaning of kasah is "to cover for clothing or secrecy" (Strong, p. 56). It also means "to cover over, conceal" (Brown, Driver, and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, p. 491). Proverbs 10:12 says that "love covers all offences" (Jerusalem Bible). 箴言 10:12 (CNVS) 12 恨能挑起纷争, 爱能遮掩一切过失 The sin thus is not removed, but merely concealed.
c. 3 rd Hebrew word - kaphar. The King James Bible translates this word as "to make atonement," and from the same root comes Yom Kippur, or "Day of Atonement." This root also means: "cover over, pacify, make propitiation" (Brown, Driver, and Briggs, p. 497).
Kaphar means to completely "wipe it out, annul it, and make it non-existent." (John Walvoord, Daniel: The Key to Prophetic Revelation, pp.221, 222). The word kaphar is used in context with the blood offering of the Old Testament. Aaron, the first high priest of Israel, was commanded to slaughter the goat of the sin offering for the people, bring its blood inside the veil, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat. This was to make atonement for the holy place, because of the sins of Israel (Lev 16:15, 16).
The Implications of This Teaching on Covering If this is true, we could do something that is normally considered sin, i.e. something that is out of God's will, We do not have to worry because we are "covered" by our shepherd. In other words, for us this action would not be sin, because we are being judged for our submission rather than for our action.
In the Old Testament, sin was blotted out through covering. Shepherding teaches the same concept through its system of submission: We obey our shepherd, but our action is not according to the Bible and is against God's will (it is sin) We are "covered" through our submission to a shepherd. Result - Because of our "submission" the action of sin becomes an act of righteousness and obedience
D. What should we Believe? Our Stand? Christians (whether they are "submitted" to someone or not) need to take personal responsibility for their actions. 1. Christ is Our True Covering Christians should recognize Jesus Christ as the true covering as it is described in the Bible. God did not set up shepherds or anyone else to be a covering instead of Christ. The misunderstanding of this truth is one of the gravest errors of the shepherding movement.
We have a role in kasah covering. God wants us to cover the sins of others through love. We acknowledge that a person has sinned, but we forgive that person just as God has forgiven us. For the concept of sakak covering, shepherding starts to get into dangerous ground. Shepherding teaches that our submission to a shepherd will protect us from evil.
The Bible says: "The Lord is my strength and my shield; My heart trusts in Him, and I am helped..." (Psalm 28:7). In contrast to this, the Word says: "Do not trust in princes, In mortal man, in whom there is no salvation" (Psalm 146:3). 诗篇 28:7 (CNVS) 7 耶和华是我的力量, 是我的盾牌 ; 我的心倚靠他, 我就得到帮助 ; 所以我的心欢乐 我要用诗歌颂赞他 诗篇 146:3 (CNVS) 3 你们不要倚靠权贵, 不要倚靠世人, 他们一点都不能救助你们
The shepherding movement puts fear in people by saying: Efforts to by-pass or side-step a shepherd and "go it alone" will end in frustration, deception, and spiritual ruin. Editorial, New Wine, May 1974, p.3
However, in I Corinthians 2, Paul instructs the church about how Christ speaks to us. The Lord does this through His Spirit (v. 12) "that we might know the things freely given to us by God." If we are spiritual, then, we can appraise all things (v. 15). To top it all off, Paul says that "we have the mind of Christ" (v. 16). All Christians have the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:9), and thus have the capacity to know the mind of Christ.
Moreover, we know that Christ speaks to us (Rev. 3:20), and that He has promised to be with us to the end of the age (Matt. 28:20). Our relationship with Christ, then, is a personal one, not just an indirect one that comes through submission to the shepherds.
It is legitimate for Christian churches to have elders, or shepherds. They are to teach the word of God, to guide us, disciple us.. It is totally wrong, however, to say that our protection comes through our submission. The words covering, atonement, and propitiation have the same meaning.
Our propitiation comes in the blood of Jesus through faith. Our atonement comes in the blood of Jesus through faith.
Our covering comes in the blood of Jesus through faith.
2. Accountable relationships for our Growth & Protection Over the years the shepherding movement in its original form has largely died out, and some of its "extremes" have been exposed. But similar types of teachings about shepherding, discipleship, and spiritual authority exist today, and Christians should not fall under them.
Instead, we should trust in the Lord as our covering, engaged in Discipleship & Mentoring to grow into a strong Christian. Next week, we look at the subject of Accountability.
3. In the Apostolic movement, the concept of Alignment brings synergy as we move forward with Apostolic leaders and Apostolic company whom we are in alignment with.