Hearing God Part 5 - "My Pastor Said"

Good day people. How are you doing?
Thankfully, I'm back with Part 5 of the "Hearing God" series. Please find Parts 1-4 on the blog to catch up, if you're just joining us.
There is this growing trend with believers. I'll like to call it the "My Pastor Said" syndrome. I'll digress from the case studies to address this and by God's grace, we'll be back with the case studies in Part 6.
There is this group of believers who have held on to their father's God and have not known Jehovah for themselves. It starts subtly with "Imitate me AS I IMITATE CHRIST" but it subtly gets to "Imitate me - just assume that I am imitating Christ". Today, in discussions, you hear believers regurgitating what their pastor/leader said without verifying whether it is in line with what God is saying or not. If the (wo)man of God said it, it must be God speaking, right?
Did you know that there was a time when Paul stood up to Peter? Peter was out of line and Paul refused to follow him blindly. Read Paul's account in Galatians 1-2. I'll share Galatians 2: 11- 21 from The Message translation
"Later, when Peter came to Antioch, I had a face-to-face confrontation with him because he was clearly out of line. Here’s the situation. Earlier, before certain persons had come from James, Peter regularly ate with the non-Jews. But when that conservative group came from Jerusalem, he cautiously pulled back and put as much distance as he could manage between himself and his non-Jewish friends. That’s how fearful he was of the conservative Jewish clique that’s been pushing the old system of circumcision. Unfortunately, the rest of the Jews in the Antioch church joined in that hypocrisy so that even Barnabas was swept along in the charade. But when I saw that they were not maintaining a steady, straight course according to the Message, I spoke up to Peter in front of them all: “If you, a Jew, live like a non-Jew when you’re not being observed by the watchdogs from Jerusalem, what right do you have to require non-Jews to conform to Jewish customs just to make a favorable impression on your old Jerusalem cronies?” We Jews know that we have no advantage of birth over “non-Jewish sinners.” We know very well that we are not set right with God by rule-keeping but only through personal faith in Jesus Christ. How do we know? We tried it—and we had the best system of rules the world has ever seen! Convinced that no human being can please God by self-improvement, we believed in Jesus as the Messiah so that we might be set right before God by trusting in the Messiah, not by trying to be good. Have some of you noticed that we are not yet perfect? (No great surprise, right?) And are you ready to make the accusation that since people like me, who go through Christ in order to get things right with God, aren’t perfectly virtuous, Christ must therefore be an accessory to sin? The accusation is frivolous. If I was “trying to be good,” I would be rebuilding the same old barn that I tore down. I would be acting as a charlatan. What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn’t work. So I quit being a “law man” so that I could be God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that."
That's how we got to the "I have been crucified with Christ" bit that we quote as believers. Imagine what would have happened if Paul did not speak up when Peter was out of line? Will the gospel not have been subject to every mood swing that Peter had? We've built empires around men's egos and managed to cage the move of the Spirit. Believers wake up every day to hear from their favorite man of God, not minding what the Holy Spirit is saying to THEM in particular. We are so busy pursuing the man of God's vision, not bothering to confirm if what he is saying is based on the scriptures or if he is talking from his mind or even binding you to the traditions of men.
We are at a point where believers do not talk to God about their issues; they don't know the voice of God. All they know is what their pastors said. We need to retrace our steps. I'm just as guilty as anyone else.
1 Thessalonians 5:21
Test all things; hold fast what is good.
New King James Version (NKJV).
You will not get away with "My pastor said" as your excuse before God...
The second half of this post is directed at those that feed God's people. God has placed His people for whom Jesus shed His blood in your care. Please do not enslave them; Jesus' blood paid for their freedom. Using them for your personal gain is ungodly. You will have to give an account of your stewardship. Please release that man or woman you have enslaved one way or the other (some have even kept others in bondage with threats of cursing them). Release those you have held in financial bondage as a result of your manipulations of Scripture. God is saying to you as He said to Pharaoh, "Let My people go, that they may serve Me". We all know how things ended for Pharaoh when he refused to let go.
I'll like to conclude by saying that this is not an attack on the pastoral office; the office was instituted by God. Pastors are to serve God's people by teaching them the WORD OF GOD, counselling them, demonstrating God's love, praying for them. They are not called to lord it over God's people; Jesus is Lord!
May the Lord help us all and open our eyes to see where we've missed the mark. May He help us to will and to do His good pleasure.