The Good News Revolution!

Recently Mike Bickle has attacked what’s being called the ‘hyper-grace’ movement – the main forerunner of which is the anointed Singaporean preacher Joseph Prince -on Charisma News.

As some of you will know by now this year I’ve had a massive revelation of God’s grace through Joseph Prince’s ministry which has set me free in a way I’ve never experienced before. The basic teaching is from Paul’s letter to the Romans:

‘There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ.’ (Romans 8:1)

One person’s response to a comment on the article struck me as capturing the heart of the movement powerfully and eloquently. Thanks Ed Casavant for allowing me to post it here:

“The Apostle Paul was often taken wrongly on this subject (Grace) so I suspect that Joseph Prince might be in good company. If we aren’t being accused of promoting “license”, we probably aren’t preaching the Good News because the diluted “good news” has been preached and taught for so long — centuries actually.

If a revelation of the understanding of unmerited favor causes the breaking of bondage then our Comforter – the Holy Spirit – is definitely involved. If I receive the empowerment to change because I am experiencing no condemnation, then it is because the deepest root of human dysfunction, condemnation, has been identified and uprooted.

Joseph Prince explained this in his first book, Destined to Reign. With the illuminating wisdom of the Holy Spirit, he cracked the “condemnation code” which has plagued believers’ spiritual growth for centuries and kept them like little children only consuming spiritual milk, not meat (I include myself as having once belonged to that group).

Frankly, prior to him, I had never heard anyone say what Joseph Prince is saying — not Dr. Michael Brown, not Mike Bickle, not Leonard Ravenhill, not David Wilkerson: the list goes on and on. I have listened to most of these men of God very carefully for several years (I’m just turning 49) and the message of ‘no condemnation’ has transformed me more thoroughly than all of what they taught combined together.

Furthermore, teaching born-again believers that they can lose their salvation is injurious, harmful and frankly, wretched. That is what this extreme reaction to “hyper-grace” is all about: It is the fear that believers are going to backslide and lose their salvation because sin will abound. Quite the opposite: the focus on “discipline” and progressive sanctification has indirectly produced more sin and transgression than many in the Body of Christ will ever realize.

Progressive sanctification is a myth. When we accept Christ into our hearts, we are 100% sanctified through our brand new new identity in Christ. We died to sin and are alive to God unless misguided but well-meaning preachers successfully convince us that we are still essentially alive to sin.

By continually focusing on and stressing our part in destroying sin, more sinning and missing the mark results. Guess what, we can’t destroy our sin natures. It was already destroyed for us by our induction into Christ’s death, burial and resurrection. Don’t worry about a new denomination taking root: The Good News Revolution is sweeping over the world right now and will affect every church no matter what denomination or persuasion; it will be the Second Reformation. It’s time for the revival of sin and sin consciousness to end. The world is ready to receive the incredibly exciting Good News that was already there right under our noses all the time.”

Thanks Ed for this superb response.

Another response to Mike Bickle’s article can be found on Simon Yap’s brilliant website His Charis is Enough:

There’s Nothing Wrong with Grace.

Grace and Peace to you.

Steve.