The War We Made
"a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace." Ecclesiastes 3:8
The other day, I was wandering through my Spotify list of songs when I noticed one of my old lists of Christian rock songs (Something I hardly touch much anymore ), and I saw a song from the band Red called “The Evening Hate.” Of what I remember from the music video, it was a song inspired by trench warfare in World War I.
A nasty war that destroyed vast parts of Europe, in which countless numbers were killed, and no real progress was made, as disease and infections in the trenches also killed many. It was a miserable time that turned many good men into animals.
Exposing the Rot: A Long-Standing Battle
In a strange way, a shift is taking place within the Body of the Lord, and I believe it is exposing people’s real nature and whether their lives are being guided by the Holy Spirit or not. Many of us now clearly see the spiritual rot and how extensive it is in the Body right now. It’s vast, affecting many senior-level leaders. As I watch and observe, I have noticed a couple of things as we progress.
#1, it has now become a popular thing to point out the rot.
#2, from people’s reactions, it’s like they assume it’s a new thing. It’s not.
When Jim Bakker fell (1987) the rot was already present. In fact, there are stories that I heard that Jim was involved with way more bad stuff than people knew. From the stories I heard when I was back east, various senior leaders of other ministries introduced him to a lot of sexual perversion when he was a young leader. When Swaggart fell, it was no different; the rot was present, and other leaders knew. Fallwell is the same as the others.
The only real difference is that when Bentley fell, cover-up culture had time to evolve from the and learn from those who fell before, to perfect their actions. So when the clean-up crew, Doctor Brown, arrived, many fell for his “wisdom.” Even though several of us knew for a fact that he had all the information about Todd Bentley a year before from a reporter. Brown pretended all this was new to him. Then Covid came, and all the leaders sighed in big relief as everyone followed the programmed fear and hid in their houses.
That reporter tried to fight, got lied to and deceived, tried to talk to Bill Johnson about Todd and Rick concerning the evidence he found, and was gaslighted by Bethel. Last I heard, sounds like he was having mental issues and eventually just seemed to wander off.
But, eventually, the “Bickel Pickel” unfolded, and the IHOP people would not be silent. Since then, a flood of names have come forth ( short list ): Joyner, Yarnes, Lamb, Hartley, Johnson, Ché Ahn, Prosch, etc. This flood will, before the end, take out many more names, as it should. It’s a war, and currently, the axis of pretenders in the pulpits is taking a beating. Some are retreating, some are not.
Hating What God Hates—But With Caution
The momentum is currently strong at this moment, on the local level here in North Idaho, pastors of smaller movements are now getting exposed. Here is a local example from the Real Life Ministries network of Churches, concerning the sexual sins of the senior pastor. Click to watch.
The reality is, it is good to hate the things the Lord hates. Look at this example. “But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.” Revelation 2:6. For general reference, the Nicolaitians were a group of people who encouraged sexual immorality and eating food sacrificed to idols, twisting Christian freedom into permission to do whatever you wanted. Which is very, very similar to many Polly Anna/Hypergrace teachers today. The only real difference today is that they have gotten better at renaming the idols so that they can hide better.
But there is a flip side to all of this. When things go “viral,” and public momentum gets behind things like this, the kingdom of darkness now pushes things to go faster so that mistakes can be made. Unfortunately, many who had little to do with the crime get washed out to sea with the rest of the trash.
God approves that you hate the things that he hates. He loves that you have the desire to have nothing to do with this evil that has infiltrated the family. But in the quest for justice. In the Zeal to purify the Lord’s body, our desires can get out of hand, and suddenly we who hold the stone just might find our selves one the wrong side.
“There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to Him: Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that run rapidly to evil, A false witness who declares lies, and one who spreads strife among brothers.” Proverbs 6:16-19,
Have you pondered this? Is there, at any point in this war to purify the body of the pretenders, that we have “gone too far?” Is there any point at which we might migrate away from the command, “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them “ Ephesians 5:11. Do we risk transitioning all this into becoming a war that WE made?
Is there any point that someone would be willing to lie about what they saw or heard to take a person down, just because they “knew” in their spirit the person was evil? Or how about someone so desperate to keep thier you tube channel working that they were willing to keep everyone “stirred up” and ready to fight for their own private gain?
One of the things I thought about today, when I took the dog for a walk up the hill in the snow, is just how much everyone is quietly trying to control things. We all do it, we have all done it in the Body of Christ, and even though we all justify it for various reasons under the category of “good.” I wonder how much of this would fall under, “…A heart that devises wicked plans…”
Not many. You and I are called to fight the battles the Lord points us to, not the battles we think we need to fight. The wars we make are not the wars he makes.
The Danger of Polarization and Spiritual Trench Warfare.
I was reading some comments from people like Wanda Alger on the current state of things. I hear her frustration as people on social media just to jump in and yell and scream with so little wisdom or knowledge of what’s really going on. It seems to me that there is an extreme form of polarization moving across the body right now. And this polarization is in danger of taking out the very people who have been faithful in exposing the predators. Basically, people seem to be attacking others if they don’t agree with their brand of anger filled christianity against the rest of the body.
Symbolically, they are turning this moment in time into trench warfare. Soon, all could be laid waste, and beauty would be churned into the mud under the boots of the soldiers. Tell me, when this happens, do you think the world will see? “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:35 or do you think they will stand farther away?
Now, for those of you who have subscribed to this blog for a while, I imagine what I am saying might be a bit confusing, considering that I have spent a fair amount of effort exposing Rick Joyner. So let me explain what I am saying. The pretenders must be exposed; it’s right, it’s even biblical. And the final issues are still not done concerning Rick. There are things some of us are aware of that we hope will get exposed, but speaking of them without evidence might land us in court, and Rick has waved the “I will sue you” flag really hard before at people. Rick knows how to be underhanded. I know of at least one person who got “Swatted,” and others who have had resources dry up around them. So we/I move with wisdom.
In my opinion, I am sure there are many people in similar positions concerning other ministries. These people are qualified to do what they are doing because they were either on staff, a victim, or where some how connected to the overall issue.
But there are many with no connection whatsoever who just like to scream and protest. They need, they desire, an issue to fight for because something within themselves needs it. These people seem to have no spiritual rudder in their lives; they thrive on chaos. Are they actually born again by the Holy Spirit, or are they just cultural Christain who identify with the crowd? Regardless, they are starting to control things, and not in a good way.
You see, it’s wisdom to fight the correct battle; it’s folly to get tricked into fighting the wrong war. It’s the spiritual forces that have corrupted people and turned them into walking strongholds. By exposing the forces, many around these leaders will wake up. It’s already been happening. But if this new momentum is not tempered with the Holy Spirit, then many who are innocent will be condemned. Don’t believe me, here is a great example, a person I know shared with me concerning the Vietnam War.
When the nation lost the war, how did the American public treat the returning servicemen? Well, they treated them horribly.
It seems right now on social media that there are many willing to condemn people for not having any form of virtue when they themselves exhibit no signs of the fruit of the Spirit as well.
So…
Let’s work wisely, led by the Spirit. Yes their will be anger as new information comes up, but would you rather be controlled by emotion and the online crowds, or the Holy Spirit? But if we stay away from the Wars we make, and fight The War He makes. Then we honor Him, and we can move forward with a clean conscience and not our brothers blood on our sword.
This is so hard because I just want to hang them all! I want justice and I want it now - not later. But I realize everything is in God’s timing, and there needs to be time to have the other evildoers behind the scenes exposed. So I sit back and wait.
Looking forward to it!