We’ve all had influences in our Christian walks.
Some good, some bad, and some have been so influential they shape the rest of our lives in how we operate in ministry and the paths we take in life.
No one is immune front outside influence, not even the biggest of the mega-preachers or the smallest of the home church leaders.
We will all be accountable for our actions before the Lord, but that doesn’t mean we can’t learn lessons along the way and correct the course on which our ships sail.
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Benny Hinn has described the ministry shaping influences and pressures in his life that set him on the path he is still navigating today, and his experiences would certainly resonate with many young preachers who have endured similar situations.
“When I started in ministry it was simple,” recalls Hinn. “Then the ministry grew. I was invited to go to what they call ‘praise-a-thons’ and I think that’s when my troubles began.”
When someone mentions the name Benny Hinn, the first thing that comes to the minds of many is the prosperity gospel and wealth. This is one of the two areas Hinn has admitted to making mistakes in over his years of ministry, and which he says he regrets.
“I don’t blame anyone, but sadly you get in a place [where] it becomes difficult,” Hinn shares. “You don’t know what to do and how to get out of it. So I came to the conclusion in 2019 that I did not want to be part of the gimmickry of it, and I still stand by that.”
Hinn has addressed the path of prosperity and supernatural healings in Christianity before, and the pressure he has felt in ministry as a big-name preacher.
“There is pressure to produce when you’re up there on that platform—especially in healing ministry. People don’t come just to hear you preach; they want to see something. And that can be distracting,” Hinn said in the early 1990’s.
“Things like throwing my coat sometimes get out of hand, and people get their eyes on that rather than on Jesus. Now I want to be more careful that Jesus gets all the attention. Remember what He said: ‘I will not share My glory with another,'” Hinn adds.
Thankfully, even when pressure sometimes gets the better of all of us, we have the inerrant Word of God to help guide us back onto the straight and narrow. It also comes with instructions on how to strengthen ourselves against improper teachings and pressure to perform rather than live out an inauthentic Christian life with passages such as Romans 12:2: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
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James Lasher is Staff Writer for Charisma Media.
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