Romans 10
17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
💥💥💥
Abraham heard a word from God. Abraham believed it was God speaking to him. Then Abraham did what that Word from God said to do.
As a newly born again Christian in 1975, I attended 3 churches in the early years: Believers Chapel, a church pastored by professors from Dallas Theological Seminary, who spoke against "tongues" of the Bible.
When I saw what Paul said about "tongues" in I Corinthians 14:39, Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues, I left that church, "Believers Chapel" ... the pastor not only didn't believe what Paul wrote in the Bible, he taught that tongues were of the devil.
Then I followed a woman from our prayer group to a church in Dallas called "Beverly Hills Baptist." I can't recall why I left that church group. My friend and her husband changed from that church to another church and I probably followed them.
By this time, God had taught me many things directly from the Bible.
The third church I attended after I was born again, was a church called, "Word of Faith," Robert Tilton, pastor.
I was at Word of Faith from approximately 1977 to 1982, when God brought me out by a dream. In this dream, a man was speaking to a room filled with people. I went in and sat down and began listening to this speaker. A second man rushed in and said, "STOP ... Wait...Can't you see ... it's too late ... It's already begun." (The first man resumed speaking.)
No one seemed interested in what had already begun ... but I was!
I looked out the windows and saw a tall pole with a yellow-civil-defense warning speaker on top of this pole.
I saw a gas coming out of the speaker that was supposed to warn us.
The gas was white and it was coming directly toward us who were sitting in that room.
And I knew the gas was poison and it would kill us!
I looked at the man who was sitting next to me. He had a very attentive look on his face as he listened to the first man who had been speaking. This man had a very big smile on his face.
Then I saw it! This man was a corpse. He was dead.
I looked around the room and all the other people were also corpses, dead ... though they looked alive.
And as I sat there among them, I began to feel a little drowsy ... I knew as I sat there with them the gas coming from the speaker was killing me too.
On a Wednesday night, Robert Tilton was speaking to the congregation at Word of Faith. I went in and sat down. Then I glanced at the man who was sitting next to me. I was terribly shocked!
This man was the dead man in my dream.
I looked around the room and the people seemed to be the people in the room where the gas from the speaker had killed all the people.
I got up immediately and went to the ladies room at Word of Faith and began praying: "God", I said, "I think YOU are showing me to leave this church. I'm going to get into my car and drive away. But if YOU want me to come back, I will." God didn't want me to come back. God began showing me errors in doctrine spoken by Robert Tilton.
That was in 1982. In about 10 years there was a huge scandal at Word of Faith. (You can read about it if you care to do so. See Wikipedia: Robert Tilton)
The Bible teacher at Word of Faith told me, "You're very different from people at this church. We talk about faith. But you live faith."
I was shocked! I had no idea I was different from the others.
Then God showed me the difference. God taught me to do the scriptures called to my attention by the Holy Spirit. They were hunting a scripture to justify what they wanted and claiming that scripture as their "right" to get that which they wanted.
Bob taught us this: If you want a red pickup, find a picture of one and put it on your refrigerator where you will see it often. Eventually you will figure out how to get a red pickup."
Bob was asking people to send him their prayer requests. Letters came to the church at Farmer's Branch, Texas. They were forwarded unopened to a bank in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where cashiers were assigned to open the envelopes, throw the "prayer requests" into the garbage, and deposit any money sent along with the prayer requests. ABC news investigated on Prime Time Live. In a single year, over 80-million dollars came in from prayer request solicitations made by Bob Tilton.
Bob said he laid his hands on unopened letters and prayed over them.
Bob's house was destroyed at this time. I know it was because he "killed a prophet."
He invited a prophet from Word of Faith to be a guest on his TV show. She called me after the show and was crying. Just before they went on the air, Bob said to her, "Just one thing Ava ... don't say anything about being a prophet because it's not popular."
(I was furious! And I knew Bob killed a prophet by keeping her from freely speaking.)
God showed me a scripture in Matthew 23 (Jesus said)... Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city:
35 That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.
36 Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.
37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!
38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
35 That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.
36 Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.
37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!
38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
I told Robert Tilton that because he did this to Ava, his own house would be left to him desolate.
A woman from Tilton's office said Bob and Marte and others from office staff heard the tape I sent and they began cutting the tape into small pieces and they danced around the waste basket and claimed scripture.
I asked if they heard the message before they destroyed the tape. She said, "Yes ... they heard it."
I said: "That's all that matters. They will never escape the message."
💥💥💥
In the subsequent years, ABC aired the TV expose where Tilton had the prayer requests forwarded to his bank in Oklahoma. (I had been gone from Tilton's church for about 10 years at that time.)
The fruits: Bob and his first wife divorced. He married a second wife, adultery. (Mt. 5:32/Mk. 10:11-12) She was a lawyer & preacher. She sued Tilton and they divorced. He married third wife.
A man changed Tilton with extortion.
Tilton moved from Texas. He tried to start another TV show. He finally sold that and bought a hotel in Culver City, California.
The church building in Farmers Branch, Texas, was torn down and a youth hockey building was built on that location where the church building had been.
There is no evidence today that any church ever existed at that location.
💥💥💥💥💥