Spiritual Covering: The Deception Pt.1
1 Corinthians 11:1-7 ESV (1) Be
imitators of me, as I am of Christ.
(2) Now I commend you because you
remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them
to you. (3) But I want you to understand that the head of
every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ
is God. (4) Every man who prays or prophesies with his
head covered dishonors his head,
(5) but every wife who prays or
prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, since it is the same as
if her head were shaven. (6) For if a wife will not cover her head, then
she should cut her hair short. But since it is disgraceful for a wife to cut
off her hair or shave her head, let her cover her head. (7)
For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory
of God, but woman is the glory of man.
Paul not only preached such doctrine as they ought to believe, but led
such a life as they ought to imitate. “Be ye followers of me,” that is, “Be
imitators of me; live as you see me live.” Note, Ministers are likely to preach
most to the purpose when they can press their hearers to follow their example. Yet
would not Paul be followed blindly neither. He encourages neither implicit
faith nor obedience. He would be followed himself no further than he followed
Christ. We should follow no leader further than he follows Christ. Apostles
should be left by us when they deviate from the example of their Master.
First of all, we as believers have to understand something. The word of
God is written so that we all can comprehend it. When Paul is talking about
covering, he is talking about the spiritual covering put in place by God, not
man. There is a chain of spiritual command that we must follow. Break this
chain and we will find ourselves in a virtual spiritual dead zone, where the
spirit cannot communicate with us because our heads are covered by someone
other than who God commanded. Let's start at verse 1. Paul would have the
Corinthians follow him in, as he did Christ: both in private and public, and
more especially in his ministerial service, to do all things to the glory of
God, and not for his own popular applause, in which he imitated Christ, who
sought not his own glory. If your leaders are seeking to make a name for
themselves, they are not imitating Christ. Therefore we should neither imitate
or follow such a person. Christ never sought to control the actions of his
disciples, so why do we follow weak, insecure leaders that seek to be covered
by influential ministers to make themselves look important to their members.
Whatever that covering leader does, your leader is going to do and so will you.
And if a person leaves the ministry, they are considered an outcast and the
members are discouraged from maintaining friendships with those who leave.
So what is the spiritual chain of command? Not too many people have an
argument about the top of the chain, first there is God and under God there is
Christ. That one is easy. It is the next one that the proponents of spiritual
coverings and spiritual fathers have a problem with. Verse 3 But I want you to
understand that the head of every man is Christ. FYI-When Paul talks about the head being
covered, he is not talking about hats and doilies, he is talking about
spiritually. There is only one covering for the man and his name is Jesus. This
is precisely why Paul states in (4)
Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his
head. When a man allows another man to cover him, he has robbed Christ of his
rightful position. I Timothy 2:5 “For there is one God and one mediator between
God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.” Christ alone is worthy to cover us. He
earned this right by his willing sacrifice on the cross for our sins. It is a
dishonor to Christ to pray or prophesy when your head is covered by a man. When
Christ is your covering, he leads you to a closer relationship with the Father.
When man is your covering, he wants to control you and lead you away from the
Father. This type of covering is rooted in Catholicism and its purpose is to
place you under authority of the person above you. This helps to keep you in
your place in their ministry. This type of ministry can be labeled as
codependent relationship church. But this is not one-sided, the leader of this
type of church is insecure, and needs to be needed but he can not be successful
unless there are members that do not want to take responsibility to hear God
for themselves.
Why is this spiritual covering deception so important? As the leader of
a ministry, it is a ego boost to know that other ministries are willing to
allow you to cover them. If the pastor will submit, then his members will
follow. Whatever I ask for, the pastor will make sure the members will provide.
Think about it men, if your pastor is covering you, who is covering your
family? Not you. Your family is suppose to follow you as you follow Christ, but
if you are not following Christ, they will follow who you follow. Therefore,
when we slip up and our wife is looking for guidance, who is she going to? Your
spiritual covering, the pastor and not Jesus. Our daughters need to run to us
for spiritual guidance, if not us then Christ. Another man has no business
knowing more about what is going on in our house than us. We have relinquished so much authority to our leaders
that our wives and children will go to them before coming to us. And in many
cases, will ask the pastor's permission to share that information with us. In
this type of ministry you are what your leader says you are. If your pastor
says you are backsliding, the wife says you are backsliding. If he says you are
not growing in God, the wife says you are not growing. The spiritual covering
doctrine is wrong simply because it is based in fear. This doctrine says that
your life is not spiritually protected, ie, that you are open for demonic
influence and attack in your life if you are not submitted to someone over you
in the religious pecking order or if you leave the ministry.
Steve Hill wrote - Command and
control structures are focused upon position, place, hierarchies and call that
“proper order”. When loyalty to the structure, institution or a man takes a
higher place than loyalty to the truth we have entered into the ethics of the
mafia. Loyalty has a higher value than truth. This is the basic characteristic
of a cult. All cults are ultimately concerned with power, money and sex.
Graham Cook says, “I have seen many eunuchs in the house of the Lord and
very few fruitful sons” (A Divine Confrontation, page 99). Yes, amen! Men who
are faithful to the meetings and to the programs! Men who are submitted. But
men who have no faith to do anything for God! Some of the most faithful people
have the least faith! I have seen men who are totally loyal to a certain
“spiritual house” to the point of disloyalty to the house which Jesus is
building. The dogma of spiritual covering is part of the spiritual technology
used to create such deception and to create eunuchs. Read entire article
Final note: The man has a great
responsibility in the home. He is not only called to be the provider, but more
importantly he is to be the spiritual leader. His leadership will not be
perfect, but he is still the leader nonetheless. This responsibility should not
be delegated to another man. Seeking advice from a godly man is strongly
encouraged. But when this advice does not line up with the word of God, reject
it, regardless of the consequences. Remember, if Christ is covering you, he
will never attempt to manipulate, intimidate or control you.
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