Do Believers Need a “Spiritual COVERING”?

Anyone who takes the initiative to step out in faith and do something in service of God’s kingdom will inevitably hear criticisms like:

“Who’s your covering?”
“Who are you accountable to?”
“You’re not one of us!”

Those who voice such criticisms are curiously upset that someone’s actively doing the work of God. In some cases they’re obviously rivalrous and envious. The diligent apostle Paul was familiar with these types of people in the early days of the Church (Philippians 1:15).

Such a faultfinding spirit can be observed with the disciples when Christ was on Earth:

49“Master,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we tried to stop him, because he is not one of us.”

50“Do not stop him,” Jesus said, “for whoever is not against you is for you.”

Luke 9:49-50

38“Teacher,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.”

39“Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, 40for whoever is not against us is for us.

Mark 9:38-39

The disciples saw someone exorcising demons in the name of Christ, but instead of praising the LORD for people being delivered from satanic oppression and the advancement of God’s kingdom, they tried to stop the man because… he wasn’t one of them.

In other words, he wasn’t part of their group, their sect. Thus they assumed that he didn’t have the authority to do God’s work and thought the Lord would agree with them, but they were wrong. Christ plainly instructed them not to stop the man since he clearly wasn’t working against the kingdom of God, but rather for it.

When someone’s knee-jerk response to your sincere service for the LORD is because you’re “not one of them,” it’s an indication of the infection of sectarianism, which is a work of the flesh and a form of religious legalism. (The list of works of the flesh in Galatians 5:20 includes “factions,” which is hairesis in the Greek, which refers to a religious or philosophical sect and the resulting factionalism or contention).

Those who cop such an attitude are spiritually immature and tend to view people outside their group with a suspicious, rivalrous eye. What’s absurd is that this man was doing an incredibly good work—driving out demons—but it didn’t matter to John & the other disciples because they were blinded by their fleshly factionalist spirit.

Christ put an immediate stop to this nonsense. His response was simple: “Do not stop him, for whoever is not against you is for you.” Obviously it didn’t bother the Lord that the man was operating outside their group. It didn’t irk him in the least that this guy didn’t go to Jesus’ “seminary.” The man was doing a good work in bold faith and he was obviously on their side, so what was the problem? There wasn’t one, but those infected by sectarianism will always create a problem when it concerns someone who operates outside the box with which they’ve put themselves and God.

Now please notice that…

Christ Did NOT Stop the Man on the Grounds That “He Had No Covering”

I point this out because sincere believers who are actively serving the LORD and advancing the Kingdom of God one way or another might occasionally hear the criticism: “Who’s your covering?” The implication, of course, is that they (supposedly) have no covering or perhaps the critic doesn’t approve of their covering.

So what do these rivalrous faultfinders mean by “covering”? The term can be traced to the Shepherding Movement of the 1970s-80s, aka the “Discipleship Movement,” which taught that submission to an elder authority—usually a fivefold minister—provided spiritual ‘covering’ for the believer by being aligned with God’s delegated authority in the Church. Their support texts for this concept include 1 Thessalonians 5:12–13, 1 Corinthians 11:3 and 1 Peter 5:5.

While this principle is good and healthy to a degree in light of Paul being Timothy’s mentor (Acts 16:1-3 & 1 Corinthians 4:17) and Elijah being Elisha’s mentor (2 Kings 2), at some point the mentee should be mentored enough to strike out on his/her own in the field, like Timothy did. (This isn’t to say that every protégé is called to the fivefold ministry, of course). The biggest problem with the Shepherding Movement is that it emphasized total submission to one’s spiritual ‘covering,’ including getting permission for major decisions in life, such as career options and spousal choices, which, needless to say, is unhealthy, not to mention absurd.

There was a large assembly in my area back in the ’80s, that subscribed to heavy shepherding wherein the congregants required permission to purchase major items, even a refrigerator (!). In these types of assemblies, if one family member decides to leave the fellowship, the remaining members are often instructed to cut all ties with him/her. While there may be times in your Christian walk where you might have to cut ties with someone for legitimate reason (like stubborn impenitence), such a strict, family-destroying attitude is Christianity-gone-wrong. In short, it’s toxic religion.

Carol & I experienced this a dozen years ago after we decided to leave a certain assembly that we seriously considered joining for two months. We didn’t do anything wrong, of course (in fact, we did everything right), but the pastor was evidently so offended by our decision that he instructed the congregants to shun us if they ran into us in public (!).

So the Shepherding Movement was marked by cult-ish authoritarianism and the corresponding abuses—excessive oversight, absolute obedience, manipulation and intimidation—which explains why the movement justly fell into disrepute. Leaders of the coalition, like Derek Prince and Bob Mumford, publicly apologized for the harm it caused.

We shouldn’t be surprised when abuses like this occasionally rear their ugly head in the Church today since the New Testament plainly warns of slick authoritarians in the ministry who are obsessed with “drawing away disciples after them” (Acts 20:29-30, Galatians 1:7, Galatians 2:4 & 2 Corinthians 11:3-4). Abuse, by the way, is the misuse of power.

To Whom/What Is Each Believer Accountable?

New Covenant believers are accountable in three ways:

1. Accountable to the LORD

All believers are ultimately accountable to God and will thus stand before Christ at the Judgment Seat to give an account of what we did in the body, whether good or bad (2 Corinthians 5:10-11). We’ll even have to give an account for our words (Matthew 12:36). Unbelievers are also accountable to their Creator and will thus undergo the Great White Throne Judgment (Revelation 20:11-15).

It is the Mighty Christ who is the worthy infallible Head of the worldwide Church (Colossians 1:18, 2:10 & 2:19), as well as its Foundation (Acts 4:11-12 & 1 Corinthians 3:11). Thus the LORD is the “Chief Shepherd” while fivefold ministers—e.g. pastors and teachers—are under-shepherds who are to lead in a servant-like fashion, not as pompous authoritarians (1 Peter 5:1-5, Galatians 2:1-14, Ephesians 2:19-20 & 4:11-15). Yeshua spoke against authoritarian-styled leadership in the Church in no uncertain terms (Matthew 20:25-28).

Hence we are to seek the Lord’s approval above human approval (2 Timothy 2:15). Remember, there’s only one mediator between God and people and that’s Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 2:5). While fivefold ministers, like pastors and teachers, are strategic to the spiritual growth of believers, they do not share this position with the Lord. We should certainly respect diligent, fruit-bearing ministers (1 Thessalonians 5:12–13), but we need to be careful about giving them too much weight—as if they’re God Jr.—since doing so is foolish and will create strife or division in the Church, as observed in 1 Corinthians 3:3-9.

2. Accountable to Fellow Believers

In the worldwide Church—regardless of sectarian label—all genuine believers are to be submitted to one another (Ephesians 5:21), which means we’re accountable to each other—young and old, male and female, spiritually mature and immature, minister and congregant. Holding each other accountable is relevant to (1) how we’re living and (2) the accuracy of the doctrines (teachings) we spread (James 3:1). The effectiveness of this corrective principle is explained in the book of Proverbs, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another” (Proverbs 27:17).

While believers are accountable to those over them in the Lord, accountability naturally works both ways (1 Thessalonians 5:12–13). For instance, if your pastor or worship leader is committing adultery or sneaking finances from the ministry fund, should you remain silent? Obviously not. Anyone who thinks these types of things never happen is naïve; I know pastors who have done both (but thankfully repented).

Speaking of pastors, it should be emphasized: The true ministerial spirit that fivefold ministers (should) have is for building believers up and not tearing them down (2 Corinthians 10:8 & 13:10). Paul also stressed this in Ephesians 4:11-13 wherein he detailed the purpose of all ministers: “to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.”

3. Accountable to God’s Word

Believers are accountable to the LORD and each other based on what? Obviously God’s Word, which informs us (1) how to live and (2) what to believe. All Christians—whatever sectarian tag they choose to go by (or not go by)—are to honestly meet at the blueprint for Christianity, the Word of God, regarding all matters of morality, practice and doctrine (2 Timothy 3:16-17 & 1 Corinthians 4:6). We all must be humbly willing to concede to the authority of the God-breathed Scriptures and what they clearly & consistently teach from a New Covenant perspective based on sound hermeneutics, such as “Scripture interprets Scripture” and “Context is King.”

We can all legitimately claim ignorance now and then—and the LORD deals with us according to the light we currently possess (as elaborated here)—but once scriptural revelation is provided we are obligated to make corrections accordingly.

Examples of Accountability

Not long ago, a minister from America who was working on the other side of the world wrote me in response to one of our extended articles and asked by what authority I’m doing this teaching ministry. Isn’t this reminiscent of the disciples’ criticism in Luke 9:49?

I humbly answered that I gave the article in question (and our other works) by the authority of the rightly-divided Word of God. He then had the opportunity to respond by explaining what he specifically disagreed with and proving his case from the Holy Scriptures, but all I got back was crickets. I’m assuming he investigated the topic further and saw that the article wasn’t in error, as he initially thought.

On another occasion a minister from another state wrote and corrected me on a biblical theory featured in the footnotes of one of my books. I examined his scriptural support and realized that he was correct and so immediately changed the info in the corresponding articles but, unfortunately, couldn’t change the footnote in the book since it was already in print. However, I will fix it if the book is ever rereleased in revised form.

These are examples of two believers meeting at God’s Word to settle a matter.

In light of all this, please be careful about denouncing certain believers because they’re teaching something you might never have heard before, or their calling is different, or they’re not part of your group (Romans 14:4). One minister I know was actively trying to reach ‘gays‘ and was criticized for it—even slandered—by seasoned believers in ministry positions. Wow, God forbid that anyone would try to reach those most lost amongst us! (Obvious sarcasm). Remember what the Messiah said to his judgmental disciples: “Do not stop him, for whoever is not against you is for you.”

Of course you should correct sin or false doctrine, as led of the Spirit, assuming you can scripturally back up your case. Yet there’s a right way to confront & correct and a wrong way, which you can read about here.

‘What About Hebrews 13:17?’

This is an understandable question in light of what the verse says:

Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you.

Hebrews 13:17

Submission to spiritual authority is good assuming the minister in question consistently bears fruit of the spirit (Matthew 7:15-23) and walks blamelessly before the LORD, which is different from being sinless, since no one on earth is sinless (1 John 1:8-9, Ecclesiastes 7:20 & 1 Kings 8:46). In other words, there’s healthy submission and unhealthy submission to a spiritual authority, which is explained in the article Should You “Obey” Your Pastor?

So Do Believers Need a “Covering” or Not?

If having a ‘covering’ means believers need to receive from mentors in order to learn to minister effectively then, yes. After all, a ‘disciple’ is a learner since that’s what the word actually means, as explained here.

Take the man from Luke 9:49 who was driving out demons and thus stirred up the disciples’ envy/rivalry, he obviously heard Christ’s public teachings on the believer’s authority & faith and so took the initiative to go out and minister to people suffering from demonic oppression. As such, the Messiah was his mentor and this shows that you don’t have to know someone personally to be mentored by them. Learn from the person and put what you learn into practice as you have the opportunity, led of the Spirit.

However, if having a ‘covering’ means to submit to a human being in ministry in the absolute sense then, no, the Bible does not support this. To do so wouldn’t just be questionable, it’s unhealthy since it fuels arrogance in the mentor and paves the way for potential abuse. Believers are only to submit to the LORD in the absolute sense (Acts 5:29).

Unhealthy submission to a human mentor can result in overreliance and a dependent spirit, which will actually hinder the disciple’s productivity and prevent him/her from fulfilling their God-given call. For instance, an associate minister in the Midwest informed the senior pastor of his fellowship that he had decided to leave and pursue other ministerial endeavors, led of the Spirit. The pastor sternly told him that it wasn’t God’s will for him to go and, if he did, he’d “come back crawling on his hands and knees!” Can you believe it? No wonder the LORD was calling him out of that shepherd’s ‘covering.’ He followed the Spirit’s leading, rather than this pastor who was obviously infected by arrogance, and ended up producing way more fruit in ministry in the years to come.

The lesson? Don’t allow a flawed human ‘covering’ (mentor) to prevent you from fulfilling your God-given calling and the many fruit-bearing works thereof. Be led of the Spirit. Amen.

This article is available in book form as chapter 16 of…