Genre: Spiritual Growth
NOT Recommended.
I want to start by saying that I really like John Bevere. I believe he hears from God and desires to teach in the ways of God. Several of his teachings have been a blessing to me. And so I am deeply saddened that no one prevented him from publicly declaring in this book the blasphemous statement that “we are Christ.” The first time he used this phrase I thought maybe there was a linguistic error, then the statement was repeated (more than once)! How did this happen!?! I find that this kind of theological error is too big to disregard. It causes all the good things he says before and afterward to be irrelevant. We can not be followers of Christ and also believe we are Christ; it does not work!
Indeed, we are not Christ! We are part of his body, yes. We have, through His grace, received inconceivable spiritual gifts and spiritual blessings that we don’t deserve and don’t yet fully understand: it’s amazing! Someone needs to tell the body how much we’ve inherited through Christ and in Christ–and that should have been the outcome of this book. But we are not Christ. He is the head of us (the source of us) and through His power we live. We are His body, and yet, we do not and will never replace Him. We represent Him, but do not become Him. We will do (and should be doing) amazing things through the power of the Holy Spirit–Jesus said even greater things than He did. Yet the power still comes from Him and is ushered in by our weakness. We are not and do not become Christ. We have the grace to carry the divine, while not being divine ourselves.
Since personally being delivered from the power of the occult, I can not emphasize this enough. We (the body) need to learn to walk in full understanding of our identity in Christ with power and confident access to the Holy Spirit. But we can not mistake the source of our power. It is not from within us (though the Spirit does dwell there when we invite Him to), or from other spirits; it comes from Jesus Christ who is our head.
I, honestly, would be very surprised if John Bevere actually believes what it sounds like he is saying (or maybe he does?). But certainly there has been a confusion, and I do believe that this is a big mistake. I hope that all involved in the realm of Christian writing and publishing will be careful in prayer and discernment with future publications.
I received a complimentary ARC of this book from WaterBrook Multnomah.
That is what I noticed also and condeming 98% of christains are wrong making only 2 percent right in his eyes
Also he claims prosperity and everything thorugh grace isnot right either. the power of God and grace are 2 seperate things the bible tells us to call elders together and lay hands on sick.
Dear Theresa,
Thank you for saving me from wasting my money on a book that would have disappointed me. I appreciate your thoughtful and respectful treatment of the error in “Relentless”. I, too, was delivered from the occult, and one thing God has done for me is to give me a deep reverence for Him, a sense of His holiness that I cannot express except as holy, holy, holy. I guard my mind closely.
God id good… all the time
Lillith Leonard
Thanks, Lillith. Amen!! I always love meeting people with a similar background to myself. I praise God for your testimony. He is so good!!