For several months I have been praying deeply into sexual and spiritual abuse going on in the Church, particularly among leaders. This was mainly triggered by the awful things being revealed daily about IHOPKC — The International House of Prayer in Kansas City. But it doesn’t stop there. We continually see reports of sexual and spiritual abuse going on throughout the Church here in the United States and across the world — again, almost daily. We will see much more in the weeks and months ahead.
As I have been praying into the many facets of the abuse tragedies that are taking place, a major focus has been to plead that the Lord would utterly cleanse His house of all the gangrene in our midst. He gave me this word about what He is doing at this time:
… He [Jesus] shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His threshing floor and gather His wheat into the barn. But He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. — Matthew 3:11, 12
A winnowing fan or basket (some translations call it a fork) is a utensil, often woven, which acts as a sieve to separate the useful grain from the chaff (the inedible husk).
Jesus is in the process of separating the vile from the holy in His Church. And He is doing it furiously in this hour.
Many of us have watched as conservative Christian leaders have scrambled to cover up or minimize the sins of major figures in their particular stream of Christianity. They have scornfully labeled those who have courageously spoken out against wrongs perpetrated against women (and men) within the Church as just being left-wing radicals, rabid feminists, and #MeToo folks.
I am a morally conservative woman, who is not in any way a feminist. I have been of the opinion since Day One that God has been behind the #MeToo movement. Yes, it is a secular movement. Yes, there are extreme people within it. But when the Church drags its feet and refuses to address sin issues, God will often take those same issues to the secular front and sound the alarm there. Such a shame that we, His people, have not been doing the job! I thank God for the awareness that #MeToo has brought to the table.
What a grief this is, that in the Church, no matter what denomination or persuasion, we have looked the other way as sexual assaults have been acted out against women, men, teenage girls and boys, and even younger children, within church walls. Too many refuse to believe it is happening. Too many just want it to go away, because, “Look at all the fruit of Minister So-and-So’s ministry! — the healings, the prophecies, the powerful teaching! He couldn’t have done what they’re saying!” (Yes, he could — and did.) And then the next cry, “Let’s just forgive him and RESTORE him!” (Yes — restore him to Jesus, but not to platform ministry, please, or to any other position where he can do it again. And by the way, report him to the police.)
What about those whose lives have been forever devastated? What about those who have turned away, not only from the church doors, but from Jesus, because they were not believed, and then were accused of being the problem instead of the victim? How did they see Jesus being lived out in His people?
When I was young, I could not fathom what Jesus meant, when He said in Matthew 7:21-23:
Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord” shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father Who is in heaven.
Many will say to Me in that day, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name? And in Your name have cast out demons? And in Your name have done many wonderful works?”
And then I will plainly say to them, “I never knew you. Depart from Me, You who work iniquity.”
I understand it now, for we see it going on all around us.
We must stop making excuses for them. They are being led by their flesh and demons, not by the Spirit of God. They are not “such a good man (or woman).” We also must stop hiding their sins to save the organization or to make our nice, comfortable little world roll on untroubled. Jesus Himself is pulling the covers off. Don’t resist that. Stand with Him and with righteousness, no matter the cost.
And please, please, pray for the victims. Pray for them to be healed. Pray for them to be believed and accepted in Christ’s body. Embrace them and cry with them. Pray for the Good Shepherd to go after those who have left Him behind because of the sins of hireling shepherds. Intercede for them to come back to the fold and to feel safe among us once again.
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Yes and Amen: God’s Promises from Genesis Through Revelation
KJV or Modernized KJV
Out of the Fire 