“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-6).

Love overcomes fear. A man of God wrote: "Let's not allow fear to defeat us. Fear destroys hope. Hopelessness leads to self-centeredness. Self-centeredness leads to powerlessness. And powerlessness people don't change the world."

Basically, it was the fear from two Churches that our existence threatens their domain to be No 1 Church in Malacca and they have a loose unity for the short moment to influence the rest and as a result they regard us a controversial ministry.

This is understandable if we read the article below about what a man of God has written about the occupational hazard of prophets.

“It is the occupational hazard of prophets to face rejection. In addition, the greater the gifting, the greater the rejection would be. It is not the people but the religious leaders who first rejected the prophets.”

Why do religious leaders refuse the ministry of a true prophet?

It is basically because the prophets pose a threat to them. God sends prophets to challenge the erroneous traditions and to declare new priorities for His people. Leaders of fossilized traditions care more about protecting their positions rather than listening to the voice of God. Of course, they would claim they do not think in that manner. They think they are defending the doctrines of the Bible against the challenges of a radical outsider. You can recognize them by their battle cry: “That’s not Presbyterian!” or, “That’s not Baptist!” or, “That’s not Vineyard!” They act as though God were actually a member of their denomination and would not dream of violating their orthodoxy until they had first found out the truth. If a prophet functions at a lower level of anointing, the leadership would easily disregard the prophet’s role. However, if the Spirit of God rests strongly on the prophet, they will escalate their criticism from rejection to persecution. Leaders will accuse the teachings of the prophet of being unbiblical, divisive, and even demonic. Through history, there are no records where servants of God have ever carried a great anointing without having to bear these kinds of accusations.

The place of greatest anointing is also the place of greatest controversy. Just reflect for a moment the controversy that swirled around Jesus and later around the apostles. After that, controversy arises at every major move of God in history. Characteristically by tracing the moves of God, the leaders of the reigning orthodoxy have survived for so long by exercising their human political skills in churches. They are being blinded by their spiritual insensibilities to an extent that they do not recognize the danger of persecuting the moves of God’s prophetic anointing.

This persecution is predictable, Jesus told his disciples that enemies would “falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me” (Matt 5:11). Too often, sadly, I have seen this prophecy fulfilled. I have listened to Bible-believing leaders spread gross lies and rumours about anointed prophets because they felt some of their constituency might defect to the prophets’ ministry.

If we are persecuted like this, we are supposed to rejoice. Why?

For one, it is a sign of the Spirit resting on us in power (Matt. 5:11-12)

He further wrote:-

“Other great temptation of religious people was to serve God through merely human intellect, discipline, and tradition. This offended the Lord so much that He offended their understanding. He used a hard saying to conceal the key to life from the Jewish leaders.”

The Lord hides His wisdom in the Holy Spirit so that the intellectually and religiously proud cannot find it with their natural talents. The ones who are committed to living by the power of their own intellects could not live with that offence in their minds.

According to the Bible, as far as human responsibility is concerned, the key to interpreting all forms of divine revelation is found in the heart, not in the mind. The intellectual pride which is frequently found in biblical scholars makes the mind a key element of hindrance in our efforts to draw close to God.”