As I've read the various messages recently warning of corrupt ministers and corrupt doctrines taught by them, I've been reminded of hearing messages like this from Joan, an apostle and prophet, in the 1980s but not dealing correctly with the messages. Instead of turning to God and asking Him to show me truth about the church group I was attending at the time, I just reasoned this with my mind. God had previously brought me out of the Catholic church with all the abominations there, and the church group I attended in the early 1980s was nothing like that, and didn't seem dead like other churches I had visited. So I thought it must be ok (but it wasn't).
Then one day while sitting in a church service the Holy Spirit spoke to me saying "What are you doing here? I have told you to get out. Now get out!" I left that day. Later when I asked God when HE had previously told me to leave, I was reminded of the messages spoken by Joan.
There was terrible corruption at that church. Ministers at the church performed marriage ceremonies where divorced women were remarrying, having no regard for the scriptures telling us this is adultery (such as Matthew 5:32). There was also an effort to raise money for some project with the message that we would fit together as the church if we gave money to this effort, perverting that God sets us in the church as HE wills (1 Corinthians 12). However, thinking in my own wisdom that this church was ok, I overlooked this corruption. But it was greatly affecting me, deadening me, just as in the poison gas dream which Joan was given in approximately 1980, and I continued to sit in that church group being gassed until the Holy Spirit spoke so strongly to me.
The poison gas dream Joan was given: There was a room filled with people and a man was speaking to these people. I went in and sat down and began listening. Then another man rushed into the room and said, "Stop ... can't you see. It's too late. It's already begun." The first man resumed speaking. But I looked out the window to see what was happening. I was shocked in what I saw. There was a civil defense warning system on top of a tall pole. A type of poison gas was coming out of the speaker. The shocking thing was this: The system that was set up to warn us was being used to gas us to death. In the dream, I looked at the man sitting next to me. His eyes were open. He had a big smile on his face. But he was already dead! He was a corpse though he was looking directly at the speaker and seemed to be paying attention. Then I looked at the other people in the room and they were all dead though they looked alive. And as I sat there listening to the speaker, I felt myself falling asleep (dying). I knew it would kill me too if I sat there among them.
Joan was shown this is what is happening in church gatherings
today. Instead of being warned, people are being gassed to death with
the doctrines.
Concerning this church group not seeming to be dead like other churches I had visited, there was lots of lively music and singing during the services, exciting the flesh. But I recall very little said in the church services, showing what was spoken was not of the Holy Spirit. There were also lots of activities going on, and there was a school for children, a theology school, and a counseling center with new buildings being built to house these. But I don't recall ever hearing of God leading in these works. There was spiritual deadness, even though this church group was so active, for these works were of the flesh.
There was also a singles group. At first a minister leading the group exhorted in ways of God, and only a few of us attended. Then another minister started leading the group, bringing in music and many fleshly teachings and activities. The group quickly became very large and active. But I was shunned from this group when I went to a divorced woman, the man she planned to marry, and the woman she had asked to be the maid of honor, sharing scriptures showing that this man and woman would commit adultery by marrying, trying to stop the marriage.
Approximately two years after I left this church group I heard there had been a lot of turmoil there. When I looked on the internet recently, I saw that the group defaulted on loans and creditors filed lawsuits to try to collect their money, and the pastor had left after admitting to having an affair. More evidence of corruption.
It doesn't work for us to try to reason with our own minds a message from God. But if we have the Holy Spirit we can turn to God and allow HIM to open our eyes to truth by the Holy Spirit, seeking to do HIS will in the matter, even if we are shown corruption and need to flee.