A Prophetic Word for 2013: Make A Decision and Commitment for Christ

 

This is the year to make a decision and commitment! The decision brings us to commitment so we can commit our entire life this year. Then we will serve God and obey the written Word and the Holy Spirit in the way He directs our lives. When we make this commitment to God we will see the faithfulness of Isaiah 11:5. 

"And righteousness shall be the girdle of His waist and faithfulness the girdle of His loins." (Is. 11:5)

Through obedience to the written Word we learn righteousness; right standing with God. By developing relationship with God, we take on the divine nature of Christ and sanctify the imagination (thoughts). When we surrender our soul to our spirit we allow the spirit within us to rule over the soul. 

"And having been set free from sin, you have become the servants of righteousness (of conformity to the divine will in thought, purpose, and action)." (Rom. 6:18 AMP)

In this way our thoughts, purpose and action will be committed to God's will. And being led by the Holy Spirit of Truth, who leads us into all truth; we walk the highway of holiness. Then our entire bodily members will be in complete obedience to the Holy Spirit because we are obedient to the law of Love. (see Rom. 13:10)It's from the place of mature love the greater works flow. Then what is seen in our sanctified imagination we speak according to the will of the Father, bringing "on earth as it is in Heaven" into the natural realm. 

Christ was obedient unto His death on the Cross. Christ yielded all His bodily members to the Father so we could become the righteousness of God through His Son. Jesus lived His earthly life totally committed to the Father's will. Therefore the Father's will was being done on earth as it was in Heaven. "For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son..." (John 3:16). This was the Father's greatest act of love, giving His Son to mankind.

It is in the DNA of every Christian to hear the voice of God and be led by His Holy Spirit. John 10:4 says His sheep hear His voice and follow after Him. His sheep commit to follow Him because they know the voice of the Good Shepherd. We must follow His voice and be totally obedient to what He tells us to do. Obedience leads to righteousness and righteousness leads to sanctification. Sanctification is the beginning of holiness and holiness is the beginning of the greater works. The greater works begin with unconditional love toward one another.

And He replied, "You must love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." (Luke 10:27)

God is calling for us to conform to His way with all of our natural being; heart, soul, strength and mind. We are being called to walk the straight and narrow way, the road less traveled, or perhaps better known as the highway of holiness. We must surrender to Him the dictates of our own heart in order to walk according to His will.

"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways," says the Lord. (Is. 55:8)

Make A Decision for Christ

When we make the decision to walk the way of righteousness and arm ourselves in commitment, we begin to walk in sanctification. Sanctification is the belt of truth we put around our waist and commit our mind, will and emotions to God in thought, purpose and action.

Stand therefore [hold your ground], having tightened the belt of truth around your loins and having put on the breastplate of integrity and of moral rectitude and right standing with God," (Eph. 6:14 AMP)

You shall know the truth and it will set you free. The truth we gird our mind with is His Word. His Word will always tell us what to do. The real thing that we commit ourselves to is love. 

"Love does no wrong to one's neighbor [it never hurts anybody]. Therefore love meets all the requirements and is the fulfilling of the Law." (Rom. 13:10)

This is the word for 2013: make a decision for Christ that you're going to walk in righteousness. And make for yourself a commitment to obey the works of righteousness, which is our thought, purpose and action.

We live with the consequences of decisions we make, whether good or bad. Let's choose to make God the master of our life and let Christ ride in the saddle of our mind. Let us commit ourselves completely to Him this year! That which we have committed to God He is faithful to commit to us. Once we have made the decision to commit our whole being unto God and come into His righteousness, we must not stray from it.

"For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day." (2 Tim. 1:12 NKJV)

Bob and Bonnie Jones: Bob Jones is known as a contemporary prophet with a great love for the Lord Jesus and His truth. His prophecies have spanned over four decades as the Lord has enabled him to foretell earthquakes, tidal waves, comets, and weather patterns. Like Daniel who functioned at an incredible level, Bob has often told leaders their dreams and experiences, as well as the interpretation. After his death experience in 1975, God sent him back to minister to Church leadership and reach the multitudes with His love, truth and equipping the saints with understanding of the spiritual gifts. God promised Bob that he would see the beginning of one billion souls coming into the Kingdom in one great wave of the end time harvest. Bonnie has a great love for the Lord, the Word and the Cross of Jesus. She loves children and enjoys blessing them with a gift of joy, truth, love and encouragement. Bonnie moves in a seer prophetic gifting as well as healing and miracles. Her passion is to see women set free from the fear of man and step into their gifts and calling. She is a great advocate of women stepping forth into their rightful place beside their husband.

Spiritual Abuse, Christian Cults and Controlling Ministries

It’s irresponsible to loosely toss around emotionally charged accusations like “spiritual abuse,” “Christian cults” and “controlling ministries.” I wouldn’t want to stand before Jesus and give account for misspoken words that carry the potential to tear down what He is building.

On the other hand, it’s also irresponsible to turn a blind eye to spiritual abuse, Christian cults and controlling ministries. I wouldn’t want to stand before Jesus and give account for supporting ministries that are tearing down what He is building.

When spiritual leaders are caught in sex abuse scandals, the secular and Christian media alike pen stories that offer the detestable details and dogged denials. But spiritual abuse, cultish churches and controlling ministries are less often exposed than pastors who coerce teenaged boys and unsuspecting church secretaries to have sexual relations.

Victims of abusive church authority structures may not even realize what they are enduring until they escape its grip. Spiritual abuse is often subtle. Christian cult leaders don’t always operate like Jim Jones. Controlling ministries tend to hide behind the guise of spiritual coverings. And far too many outsiders are not willing to even question the messages and practices of such churches. It takes lovers of truth with spiritual discernment to recognize the sometimes-subtle signs of abusive churches. And it takes courage to confront it.

What exactly is spiritual abuse? Jeff VanVonderen, co-author of the classic book The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse, explains it this way: “Spiritual abuse occurs when someone in a position of spiritual authority … misuses that authority placing themselves over God’s people to control, coerce or manipulate them for seemingly godly purposes which are really their own.”

Spiritual abuse is hardly a new phenomenon. You can find instances in the Bible of spiritual leaders exploiting people to build their kingdoms. In Jeremiah 8, the Lord called out the abuse of prophets and priests, saying, “They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious” (v. 11 NIV).

The root problems of people in the “church” were treated superficially. In other words, the pastor put a Band-Aid on the problem so things looked good from the outside but the wound was festering on the inside. The pastor’s prominence was more important than the legitimate needs of the congregation.

Today, this manifests as spiritual leaders recruiting volunteers to build their ministries while neglecting to minister to the real needs of hurting people. In such cases, churches become like businesses. The pastor is more like a CEO than a spiritual leader. Staff meetings center on marketing initiatives that will bring more people—who will bring more tithes and offerings—into the sanctuary. Church services becomes about external appearances, but the white washed tombs are full of dead men’s bones.

Jesus addressed spiritual abuse in His day. Beyond His warnings about the Pharisees, Jesus also pointed out ravenous wolves. These ravenous wolves look much like anointed prophets, but their motives are dastardly. Today, the spiritually abusive Pharisaical pastor has a long list of rules and demands and little grace for those who don’t rise to the occasion.

Entire books have been written on spiritual abuse. Those books will help you see spiritual abuse for what it is, how you got sucked into the cycle, how to break free from spiritual abuse, and how to recover from spiritual abuse once you’ve escaped its clutches. But for now, I want to leave you with some nuggets from Dave Johnson and VanVonderen’s book, The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse.

Power-posturing is a telltale sign of spiritual abuse. Power-posturing leaders spend a lot of time focused on their own authority and reminding others of it. Johnson and VanVonderen say this is necessary because their spiritual authority isn’t real—based on genuine godly character—it is postured.

In practical terms, this might manifest as a leader who likes to remind the congregation that he can excommunicate people or that any anointing you are flowing in comes from the head (him). This leader can never be questioned, and is usually not accountable to anyone. Those around him are usually mere "yes men" who do his bidding in exchange for delegated authority to lord over others.

Performance preoccupation is a sign of spiritual abuse. Johnson and VanVonderen note that obedience and submission are two important words often used in abusive church structures.

Don’t get me wrong. Obedience and submission are important. But spiritual abuse often shames or scares people into obedience and submission. True obedience is a matter of the heart. Spiritual abusers apply undue pressure that is not from God. That pressure is usually applied to get you to do the leader’s will, not God’s will.

Unspoken rules are common in instances of spiritual abuse. In abusive spiritual systems, Johnson and VanVonderen offer, people’s lives are controlled from the outside in by rules, spoken and unspoken.

“Unspoken rules are those that govern unhealthy churches of families but are not said out loud. Because they are not said out loud, you don’t find out that they’re there until you break them,” Johnson and VanVonderen write. It often seems these “rules” hold more power than scripture.

The “Can’t Talk” rule is seen where spiritual abuse is present. Johnson and VanVonderen explain that the “can’t talk” rule blames the person who talks, and the ensuing punishments pressure questioners into silence.

If you voice a problem you become the problem. If you question why the church no longer picks up the poor kids in the ministry van but has shifted its focus to more affluent neighborhoods, you are removed from your role as a volunteer driver. Others see your fate and decide they'd better not rock the boat. It's a form of intimidation.

Lack of balance and extremism is often present where spiritual abuse lives. This manifests as an unbalanced approach to living out the truth of the Christian life. Johnson and VanVonderen explain that in these systems it is more important to act according to the word of a leader who has “a word” for you than to act according to what you know to be true from Scripture, or simply from your spiritual-growth history.

The truth is prophetic words don’t carry the same weight as Scripture, and you can hear from God for yourself. When you rely on other people to tell you what God is saying, you open the door to control and manipulation.

It’s not possible to fully expose the inner workings of spiritual abuse, Christian cults and controlling churches in a single article. My goal is to raise awareness of a troubling issue and get you thinking—not to send you on a witch hunt for spiritual abusers.

If you think you are part of a spiritually abusive cult-like or controlling church, ask the Lord to break any deception off your mind and show you the truth. The truth could be that you are in a healthy church and you just need to die to self. But it could be that you are in an abusive system and you need to break free. If your heart is purely seeking the truth, the Holy Spirit will surely guide you there (John 16:13).

Jennifer LeClaire

http://www.jenniferleclaire.org