Mike Winger

02/03/2025

I had a great talk/interview with Wes Huff the other day. Living Waters graciously volunteered their studio to record it.

Here it is!

Special thanks to Living Waters ministry for letting us use their studio to record this conversation. My website https://BibleThinker.org

02/01/2025

Don't be upset if your pastor doesn't talk about a particular topic that is very relevant to the people you interact with online but has little relevance to your local fellowship.

A lot of discontent comes from expecting the pulpit to meet every need you see in the world.

01/31/2025

A biblical (not partisan) analysis of JD Vance's "very Christian concept" that leads to "America First."

The proper title of this video is "Is JD Vance right?"
Facebook just isn't good at updating its thumbnail images and video titles properly.

I do this live stream most Fridays at 1pm Pacific time. You're welcome to join.To ask a question you'll need to follow these instructions.1. Don't post your ...

01/29/2025

Exposing religious frauds and fake prophets is a practice first put into place by the true prophets of Scripture.

It’s good to expose them. It’s healthy. And it protects many future victims from their abuses.

Moses exposed Pharaoh’s magicians.

Jeremiah exposed a bunch of “good news” prophets who pretended to speak for God.

Elijah wasn’t exactly nice and gentle on the top of Mount Carmel.

01/28/2025

Just got to spend some time with my friend Wes Huff.

Everyone knows about him now but I’ve been recommending his content for years. It’s not just a fad. He has lots of great content.

We did a casual interview/chat that I’ll be releasing very soon.

We actually filmed it at the Living Waters studio.

01/25/2025

Over the next month(s) I’ll be making a few videos to candidly shine a spotlight on Shawn Bolz, Bethel (Bill Johnson and Kris Vallotton), Brandon Biggs, and hopefully one on Brian Simmons. All of these are leaders who present unaddressed dangers to people.

I don’t take pleasure in this. But I believe it needs to be done for the health of the body of Christ and the integrity of our witness to the world, who need to hear and see authentic Christian truth.

One of the deceptions that keeps us from dealing with problematic leaders is the idea that Christianity truly rests upon the shoulders of these leaders and that dealing honestly with their flaws and warning others about them is tantamount to attacking Christianity. Or it, as Kris Vallotton has put it, “will do harm to the prophetic movement.” This is a lie. It’s an arrogant lie. It’s a lie that re-victimizes victims by making their calls for justice into an attack on Christ. It further propagates the predatory acts of those bad actors who hide behind the skirts of Christ in their attempt to blind the rest of us to their abusive behaviors.

When local church systems fail to handle such leaders and especially when they are having influence far beyond their local church it’s entirely appropriate for Christians who aren’t part of their local church to openly address the dangers they present. There’s always a danger of entering into the realm of tantalizing gossip or of other carnal motivations. But this doesn’t remove the need to address the issues. Someone needs to do something. I pray I can do this with wisdom and the fear of the Lord. But I don’t intend to be cowardly or to follow the pattern of being silent about the truth of those who abuse prophecy and people. Christianity doesn’t rest on the shoulders of abusers. It needs to be separated from them.

So, I’ll be making some videos. It won’t be fun. But it will be important.

01/23/2025

Stop for one moment and think about the people who will find this picture a threat to their own human rights.

01/21/2025

There’s a very real problem among major charismatic leaders in their continual propping up of fake prophets.

I have come to believe that it is not a bug but a feature of the particular way they control the people. Some call it a “culture of honor.” The unbiblical methods they have developed for creating “revival” have self-destruction built into them.

I believe that it is coming to an end. Social media is removing the gatekeepers’ ability to control the narrative and hush the evidence. The truth keeps coming out. The truth of fake prophets, fake miracles, fake spirituality. Todd White, Todd Bentley, Mike Bickle, James Goll, Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, etc…

This is painful but it’s good. Sadly, these charismatic leaders have not yet realized what lesson they are being taught. Their slowness to take correction on this will be the diminishment of their influence. I can’t say I’m sad about it.

To avoid being overly vague, I am speaking of the likes of Bill Johnson, Kris Vallotton and those who follow their world-influencing model. The charismatic movement of the future will be led by people of integrity who refuse to fake anything and who create methods of accountability for those who mislead the flock or fabricate the works of the Spirit. The charismatics of the past will be known as those who forbid the gift of discernment because so many of the other spiritual things they embraced were fraudulent. It will be known as a movement that lifted up faking leaders who profited off the body and left a trail of doubt, discouragement, and confusion in their wake.

01/13/2025

How much should pastors get paid?

10 Qs with Mike Winger (Ep 41)

Do we have any real clarity in the Bible on the question of how MUCH money pastors should make?Here is The Hebrews Series playlist (verse by verse through th...

01/05/2025

It blows me away that Isaiah 53 is so clearly about Jesus that when you read it to people, without telling them that it was written hundreds of years before the New Testament, they tend to just assume that it was written after the fact.

Mind blowing.

“He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.”
Isaiah 53:3-11 ESV

01/05/2025

The TLDR of the Wes Huff vs Billy Carson debate.

01/01/2025

In Jesus’ parable of Lazarus and the rich man, it’s striking that the name of the poor man is known while the name of rich man is ignored.

Such is the quickly passing nature of earthly wealth and fame. Yet those who are right with God will have names known forever, even if they were never known on earth. Even if they lived anonymous, ignored, sick, and destitute. They will shine like the stars.

“And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.”
Daniel 12:3

01/01/2025

The internet.

12/29/2024

Lying is a gateway sin that opens the door to a ton of different sins. Just be honest.

“But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.” Matthew 5:37

12/28/2024

Next time you read through the Bible notice how big of a deal it is to be thankful and not complain. It shows up many times in the Old and New Testament.

I say this as someone who often catches myself complaining and has to intentionally be thankful. But I suspect this is true for most of us.

In Scripture it’s not just an issue of, “Don’t complain and be thankful because you’ll be a happier person and people will like you more.” Though I do think that’s true and actually is affirmed in Scripture.

Still, there is a LOT more. The issue of gratitude versus complaining shows up in God’s judgment of Israel on multiple occasions. It’s part of the general condemnation of mankind in Romans 1. This shows that it is an issue of great consequence and even a sin/righteousness issue.

We often think of gratitude as an unforced attitude that just sort of happens to us. As if it originates in our emotions and we must wait on them to produce it as we are passive participants in being thankful. It would be very disempowering to think that thankfulness works this way. Thankfully (pun intended) this is not the case. While some gratitude rises spontaneously with a thrust of emotion, we are free to simply choose to be thankful at any and all times. This is how the Bible can command us to be thankful, just as it commands us to do all things without complaining.

I still have a long way to go in applying all this to my own life. But I see how important it is and realize that just as it’s a choice to refuse to complain (here I mean complaining in a bad sense because not all complaining is evil) it is a choice to be thankful. And, in Christ, we have more than enough reasons to be thankful no matter what else is going on in our lives.

Thank God for his grace, love, patience, promise of eternal life, sovereign plan to work all things together for good, for the wonderful taste of food, the blessing of friendships, the invention of smiles and laughter, pets, a nice breeze on a hot day, old wise people in our lives, electricity, and every good and perfect gift that we enjoy far too often in the absence of gratitude.

12/27/2024

“I wish there was something I could do to help.”

One of the hardest things we experience in life is our powerlessness in the face of death. We are wounded in the core of our hearts at the fact that we can’t do anything to fix this.

In Christ, the good news is that you don’t have to do anything. He already overcame death and now we simply wait in faith.

12/25/2024

Numerous prophetic passages in the Old Testament show that the Messiah of the Jews will cause the Gentiles to turn and worship the God of Israel.

Consider for a moment how incredibly unlikely this seems historically. A single descendant of Abraham causing a massive change in the Gentile world such that they abandon their paganism and polytheism and turn to acknowledge the God of Israel.

This is just one of the many prophecies Jesus fulfilled. An example of it can be found in Psalm 22, which describes the crucifixion in detail hundreds of years ahead of time, and then goes on to talk about this event causing Gentiles to worship God.

“All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you.”
Psalm 22:27

Christmas is a great example of the success of Jesus. Gentiles around the world are here gathered to acknowledge Jesus, the Messiah of Israel.

12/23/2024

Did you know Charles Spurgeon, John Wesley, and John Calvin all thought Michael the Archangel was likely Jesus?

But they thought this in a way VERY different from the heretical Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Here’s the next study in my Hebrews Series. I’ll cover why I disagree with these wise men and cover a lot of Old Testament prophecy about Jesus in Hebrews 1:4-6

Stop Saying Jesus Is Michael the Archangel: The Hebrews Series pt 4 (Heb 1:4-7)

This is part of an ongoing series of serious Bible studies going through the book of Hebrews verse by verse. You can watch the whole Hebrews Series here (mor...