Welcome to disciple making:
This series on disciple making is Booklet 1 – Essentials, which is part of the program
Transferable Cross Training (TCT) developed by Dr. Karl Payne. The purpose of TCT is to help equip men and
women to be effective disciple makers. The materials are field tested with various proof verses that can be
memorized, and each lesson is focused on transferability. It is our desire is for those who accept the challenge
of discipleship that, with or without a Bible and notes in hand, each individual who has taken the time to master
the concepts and principles in this series will have confidence to comfortably and biblically respond to common
questions and comments from friends or enemies of Christ. By God’s grace we can make a difference in eternity
by being actively involved in the most important job assignment entrusted to mankind. For more information
about TCT or obtaining the booklet series, see
www.KarlPayne.org
Please remember that the uniqueness of this discipleship series is its simple transferability.
It is the expressed desire of the author that students actually use these materials after completing each
booklet, by sharing them with others in a manner consistent with
2 Timothy 2:2.
Accusation by Satan and his followers often follows the vain regret of a forgiven sin, because the enemy wants
the Christian to think that God's forgiveness of their sin was incomplete or that there was something they failed
to do. Demonic forces do not want a Christian to resolve their vain regrets for several reasons:
If the enemy can't have you, they will attempt to prevent you from serving God.
The enemy will attempt to remind you of your past problems and failures.
The enemy will attempt to get you to focus on yourself - not others.
The enemy will attempt to always remind you that something was left undone.
"I understand the foolishness of allowing vain regrets to dominate my life. But what do I do when I still
feel guilty about my past, even after I have asked forgiveness and put the situation behind me?"
Accusation is a problem with which many sincere Believers struggle. Let's do some evaluating.
If the Holy Spirit has convicted you of sin, and you have confessed it, you are forgiven and
cleansed. Would the Holy Spirit reconvict you of that same sin? No, of course not. That particular
sin is no longer there; it's been forgiven and cleansed! So who would be trying to throw forgiven
sin back in your face and make you feel guilty and unproductive for God and His work?
Ephesians 6:16 clearly states that Satan, or one of his
demonic archers; shoot arrows, tipped with fire, at Christians. Flaming arrows, which are not immediately
extinguished, can burn even a born again, blood bought, pew throwing, praise singing, Scripture quoting
Christian.
"Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in
the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, HAVING GIRDED YOUR LOINS WITH
TRUTH, and HAVING PUT ON THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, and having shod YOUR FEET WITH THE PREPARATION OF
THE GOSPEL OF PEACE; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish
all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take THE HELMET OF SALVATION, and the sword of the Spirit, which
is the word of God." (Ephesians 6:13-17)
Revelation 12:10 says that one of Satan's key attacks
against the brethren is accusation. He is even called "The Accuser".
(I believe that the accusation of
Revelation 12:10 and the flaming arrows of
Ephesians 6:16 are often one and the same thing.)
"And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil
and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with
him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, "Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God
and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses
them before our God day and night." (Revelation 12:9-10)
How does demonic accusation typically play out in the theater of your mind?
ACCUSATIONS: ACT 1 - SCENE 1
ACCUSER: You sinned - you are feeling so bad today, you must have done something wrong.
BELIEVER: Oh no. God, forgive me. I'm sorry. I'm not sure what I did, but it must have been
something bad or why would I be under such conviction?
ACCUSER: You really think God will hear an insincere prayer like that? Confess your sin and
pray again. You forgot to begin, "Our Father" and did not end "in Jesus' name."
BELIEVER: God, please forgive me. I really am sorry for my sin and for praying so insincerely.
ACCUSER: Didn't God hear you the first time? Confess your unbelief as sin.
BELIEVER: Father, forgive me for my unbelief. I'm so sorry I doubted your promises.
ACCUSER: Aren't you supposed to redeem the time? You wasted it. People are going to hell while
you waste time.
BELIEVER: God, forgive me for wasting your time and sending people to hell.
ACCUSER: You're a loser and a terrible Christian. Do God a favor and quit. You are such a
miserable example of being a Christian. Why don't you give up and die?
BELIEVER: God, I feel like a loser. Everything I do goes wrong. Sometimes I think it might be
easier if I could just die.
ACCUSER: Isn't God in control of all things? Why do you go through such mental anguish when
most of your friends seem to enjoy their Christian life? If God really loved you wouldn't He put a stop to this?
Either God does not love you, or you are not really a Christian.
BELIEVER: God why don't You stop this if You are all-powerful? Don't You love me? You are not
fair.
ACCUSER: Do you think a true Christian would attack the only one who loved them enough to die
for them? You are not a Christian. Either you never were or you have fallen from grace.
On and on it goes. The longer it goes the worse you feel. Conviction of unconfessed sin needs to be confessed.
but endless accusations and reminders of previously confessed sin need to be rejected, resisted and finally
ignored (James 4:7,
1 Peter 5:8-9)
True guilt confessed brings cleansing and freedom because of God's total and complete forgiveness. False
guilt (demonic accusations) always brings escalating feelings of frustration, depression and hopelessness,
because the Christian has been led to believe that God's forgiveness is not total and complete.
How do you tell the difference between conviction from God and accusation from demons?
The intent of the Holy Spirit, when it convicts you of a sin, is to change behavior and make
you better for God's service.
The intent of demonic accusation is to produce false guilt and remind you why you are unfit
for God's service.
The following four suggestions can be a great help as you learn to become more discerning at distinguishing
the difference between God's conviction and demonic accusation.
Know Scripture - Voices, thoughts, impressions and ideas that contradict Scripture are not
from God.
Specific or General - The Holy Spirit convicts Christians of specific sin, seeking to restore
our fellowship with God. Demonic archers accuse in generalities and dredge up forgiven failures from our past,
hoping to destroy our active fellowship with God.
Listen for pronouns - Demons typically accuse Christians using second person singular (you)
or first person plural (we - when there are more), pronouns.
Pray offensively - Most Christians have learned to pray defensively
(Psalm 27). The Bible is replete with examples of offensive
prayer as well (Psalm 35:1-8). Defensive prayers assume we
must just hang on and endure the firestorm. Offensive prayers
ask God to attack the attackers.
REMEMBER
Four suggestions to help distinguish between God's conviction and demonic accusation:
- Know Scripture
- Specific sin or generalities
- Listen for pronouns
- Pray offensively
Karl Payne's personal note: I grew up in a home
that would have been considered moral and ethical, but not religious. Both of my parents were teachers.
Dad was a Mathematics / Science specialist for the Sacramento City School District and my mom taught
grade school. My Dad would occasionally pray for our food, but we did not read the Bible or discuss
religious topics. I decided my first Sunday of seventh grade that I had no real interest in church or
Sunday school and informed my parents that I would no longer attend either. I assumed I was a Christian
because I had been baptized as a child at my mom's request, but my primary interests were baseball,
football and music.
On June 17th, 1970 I became a Christian while attending a youth retreat sponsored by Young Life,
a Christian ministry focused upon reaching high school students. The two biggest hurdles I faced
in that decision both related to honest assumptions. My first assumption related to what I had
understood it meant to be a Christian. I assumed that I was a Christian because I had been baptized.
Christians get baptized, I had been baptized, therefore, I was a Christian. I also thought that
heaven, if it was real, was attained by being a nice person. I reasoned that since on a moral and
ethical scale which had the Pope on one end and Hitler on the other, that my live style was closer
to the Pope's than Hitler's, thus making me a shoe in for heaven if God was fair.
The second assumption I had made related to education. In eighth grade my science teacher told our
class that "religious people were mental cripples who needed a crutch to get through life." I was
very impressed by this teacher and took to heart what he said. In the eleventh grade, my physiology
teacher told our class that "educated people believed in evolution." As I grew older my education
had become more important to me. As a result of several teacher's comments I assumed that it was
not possible to think deeply and still be a Christian. Religion in my mind was therefore something
for nice people who were not too concerned about an academic education. My first assumption was
to confuse churchianity with Christianity. Churchianity represents men and women making their best
efforts to reach up to God and receive His approval, based upon their individual efforts to be found
worthy in His eyes. Biblical Christianity is a message explaining how God has chosen to reach down
to mankind through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, providing salvation by His
grace as a free gift to all who believe, in spite of our unworthiness. Religion is essentially a
message of man reaching up to God. Christianity is a message detailing how God has reached down to
man. Religion exalts man. Christianity exalts God. I had received just enough religious training
to confuse religion with Christianity and had rejected an honest consideration of Christianity in
the process. My second assumption was to confuse naturalism, dialectical materialism and the
suppositional baggage assumed to be true by both philosophical world views, with actual empirical
data and good science, which provides conclusions based upon testing, observation and repetition
rather than wishful thinking and naturalist / atheistic suppositional indoctrination.
On the 17th of June, 1970 at 8:00 P.M., I listened to a gentleman clearly explain that God's plan
is that I have eternal life (John 3:16, John 10:10, Romans 5:1), but that my problem with sin (to miss
the mark in word, thought or deed) had separated me from Him (Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23). This sounded
more like bad news to me than good news. He went on to say that God had provided a remedy for my sin
by sending His only son Jesus Christ to die on a cross as a payment for my penalty (2 Corinthians 5:21,
Philippians 2:4-10, 1 Timothy 2:5, Romans 5:8, John 14:6, Ephesians 2:8-9), but that it was absolutely
necessary for me to respond to His remedy for the remedy to be effective (John 1:12, Romans 10:9-10,
Revelation 3:20). I bowed my head in that room and quietly asked Jesus Christ to become my Savior
and Lord. Jesus came into my life and has made me a new person, from the inside out (2 Corinthians
5:17). That was nearly thirty-one years ago. Knowing Jesus is more than religious activism or academic
curiosity. It is a real relationship. Spiritual maturity is a process (1 John 2:12-14) that should
continue to develop and grow as long as we are alive.
God used a Campus Crusade for Christ high school ministry to teach me that aggressive, reproductive
Christianity (2 Timothy 2:2) should be considered normal Christianity. Sincerity is necessary for
Christian living, but it is not sufficient for impacting our world for Christ (Matthew 28:18-20,
2 Corinthians 5:17-21, 2 Timothy 2:15, 1 Peter 3:15). He has used several godly men, seminary and
nearly twenty-five years of serving in church ministry to teach me that making disciples means far
more than leading people to Christ and asking them to pray and read their Bibles. It is impossible
to give what you do not have or share what you do not know. When people tell me that their Christian
faith is boring, what they are really telling me is that they do not pray, they do not study and they
do not give away what they have been given. The Christian life is an adventure that is exciting to
live and share. To judge Christianity by people who sit on their hands, criticize others and turn a
living faith into dead religion is to misrepresent Biblical Christianity. Christianity was never meant
to be lived as a passive spectator sport.
Dr. Karl Payne, at heart, is an apologist who loves to train and
equip Christians for spiritual service and warfare (Eph.4:11-16). He enjoys preaching, writing and
retreat / conference / seminar speaking. He derives his greatest pleasure tackling the challenge of teaching
Christian workers, interns and budding preachers / teachers at both the Bible College and Seminary levels.
In addition, he has co-authored two books: A just Defense and Cross Training through
Multnomah Press.