Rick Joyner's Blog

     The church as we perceive it in the West is about to die. This is not something to rejoice over. Even though it may be far from the church that Jesus will build, it has accomplished much and will die in honor. It is a parallel of the life of Rachel, Jacob’s wife that died when Benjamin was born. Benjamin was the last son born to Israel and represents the last sons of God to be born on the earth. Benjamin means “the son of the right hand,” and the right hand of God is called “the right hand of power.” Like Rachel, the church will give birth to the “son of His right hand,” but it will take her life. So this means she will have been a mother to the last-day ministry, and we honor our fathers and mothers.

     The Reformation helped the church dig its way out of a deep darkness, but even as far as Christianity has advanced over the last 500 years, we have much further to go. This does not mean it will take another 500 years. As we are told in II Peter 3:8, “But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.” This means He could do in one day what we think will take a thousand years.

     It probably will not happen that fast, but everything is speeding up. However, what will happen will not happen through the continued reformation of the present model of the church. There is a new breed of ministry about to be released. It will be a people who walk in radical, revolutionary faith and power. This is such a new wine that the old model cannot contain it. For this reason we should not despair when the old model dies, but rightfully honor the Rachel that carried and given birth to the new breed.

     Likewise, a new breed of radical, revolutionary patriot will arise in America, and not just America—in nations around the world. God established the nations and gave them boundaries. He said anyone who moved the ancient boundaries would be cursed. That’s because He wants the nations preserved. Again, God’s unity is a unity of diversity, not a unity of conformity that earthly men are trying to impose on the world. God’s unity will prevail, and patriotism is going to win around the world. In this way the heritage and inheritances will be preserved, national and cultural identities will be preserved, and the great unity of diversity will be possible.

     Once we see our purpose, we can see how the church in America has deviated from its calling and see how the same thing has happened in our civil government. “We the people” are the ones that are primarily responsible for this because here, the people are the sovereign. The government of the Republic is designed to be subject to us. The primary blame for having our authority usurped lies ultimately with us for allowing it to happen. The people will also be the ones who wake up and recover what has been lost.

     This is a prophecy of what is coming, but it is also a forensic study of what went wrong so that we can correct it and don’t keep making the same mistakes. If we do not understand this, we will fall again because what caused the fall has not been corrected. Just as Spurgeon once said that he could find ten men who would die for The Bible for every one that would read it, we too can find many who would die for the Constitution. Far more may have died for it than have read it.

     As I shared before, our ministry lawyer took Constitutional Law in law school and they never once referred to the Constitution. The entire course was spent studying Supreme Court decisions, obviously under the delusion that the Supreme Court was the supreme law of the land and that anything it would do must be constitutional. Those who claim to be “constitutional lawyers” can be the most ignorant of what is actually in the Constitution. When a politician today says that something is constitutional, you can almost be sure that it is not. When they claim that something is not constitutional, you can almost be sure that it is.

     That is how twisted things have become and why The Lord’s first warning about these times was, “Do not be deceived.” Deception is far more common than truth today. This is why things reported in the media are now more likely to be false, or at least distorted. Why is this? You can also now count on the same from most of the pulpits in the American church. The message of the typical American church today would be unrecognizable to the apostles of the first century.

     The disconnect from truth has come the same way in the media that it has in the church. Of course, this is not true in every church or the entire media. It’s easy to see in the media how there is now a tendency to report what they want to be true rather than what is true. Is that not how we have changed the Gospel, the church, and even our concept of God into what we want them to be rather than how they are?

     One of the basic characteristics of true humility is being teachable and responsive enough to change, or to expand our concepts and beliefs. This too is repentance, and it is coming.

As we began to address last week, much of the responsibility for the increasing darkness in our times belongs to the church and our failing to be the light that we are called to be. While there are many great churches today, overall the church in America may be the weakest it has ever been in important ways. We cannot blame politicians for the failure of the American Republic without also blaming ourselves for failing to be the light we are called to be.

In examining the failures of both the church and our government, we are not trying to find someone to blame; rather, we are seeking to address the problems. We also need to look at how some of the basic failures of each are related to one another, which is why I am including this connection in this study.

We can see the American Republic’s failure to adhere to the Constitution as a reflection of how the church failed to adhere to the supreme authority of The Scriptures. We see the failure of the American Republic to be a nation where all men are treated equally as a reflection of the spiritual bigotry in the church. This is not just racism (though that is a major problem in the church), but religious bigotry. Religious bigotry is believing ourselves to be better than others because we are part of a certain denomination or movement. It is the same evil of judging by externals rather than by the Spirit.

The plague of abortion in the land is a reflection of how the church has aborted many of the seeds that God planted in it to bring forth new missions, ministries, and spiritual generations, but the church aborted these seeds. The church usually aborts them for the same reasons that millions of children have their lives snuffed out by their physical mothers—because they come at an inconvenient time, they are expensive, or we are too busy for them. We are just too selfish.

The increasing domination of the culture by the homosexual agenda is a reflection of the church’s spiritual homo-sect-uality, which is having relations with your own kind. We were made different to have interchange and to learn how much we need each other, not to separate from the rest of the body. The Creator loves diversity and His unity is a unity of diversity, not a unity of conformity. So where does this pressure to conform in the church come from?

The rising addiction to drugs in America is a reflection of how the church has exchanged the life of sacrifice and taking up our cross to a “feel good faith” that only teaches and practices what will make the people feel good. Pain is not a bad thing. It is a messenger to tell us that something is wrong. When we seek to avoid the pain without seeking to understand why it is there, we allow something wrong to continue and the problems get worse. When we embrace the cross and take it up daily, we learn to face the pain and remove it by dealing with the cause.

We could go on with this list, but we must not blame the heathen for being heathen—they are only doing what we would be doing if we had not been shown grace. Instead of being quick to condemn our government leaders for departing from the Constitution, let us search our own hearts and ask The Holy Spirit to convict us of our sin where we have departed from the ways He made so clear in His Word. We must humble ourselves and pray, seeking His face and turning from our wicked ways. If we will do this, He has promised to heal our land.

So we must rise up to resist the evil that is destroying us and our land, but we must keep a humble, repentant heart, not thinking of ourselves as superior to those who have fallen lest we have the grace by which we stand removed. We must be quick to show grace to others when they repent, just as we have been shown grace. Pointing out any who have failed to adhere to the Word of God or the Constitution it is not to condemn, but it is so the gate of hell through which the evil has come into the church and our country is shut.

That the church in America is at such a lowly state can ultimately work for our good if it keeps us humble, since God gives His grace to the humble. The Lord had seemingly endless grace for repentant sinners, but He had none for the self-righteous. We need to keep in mind that the church that fell to such a low state happened on our watch.

For this reason let us resolve that this will not be the end of our story. Let us be counted with those who in the darkest of times throughout history turned the hearts of the people back to The Lord and helped deliver them from their oppressors.

Last week we began to discuss the link between the judicial tyranny threatening our Republic and how the church has been a culprit in this. We need to briefly elaborate on how this is so.

In Matthew 16, Jesus asked His disciples who men say that He is. This is the dialogue that followed in Matthew 16:16-19:

Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

And Jesus said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. 

"I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.

"I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”

The “rock” that The Lord is building His church on is not Peter, which means “a little stone,” but rather the rock that is The Father’s revelation about who Jesus is. No one is part of His true church because they had parents that knew The Lord or sit under a pastor that does. We must each have our own revelation from The Father of who Jesus is.

Then Jesus states the authority of this church to prevail over the gates of hell, and what is bound on earth gets bound in heaven and what it loosed on earth gets loosed in heaven. Heaven here is not just the next life—it is a term often used as a reference to the spiritual realm. This is a statement about the remarkable and yet rarely understood and untapped authority given to the church that what it releases on earth is pervasive in the spiritual realm. When we understand the prevalence of the spiritual realm over the earth, we understand its influence over the affairs of mankind.

So how might this apply with regard to our government, Constitution, and the judicial tyranny that our Founding Fathers warned would be the greatest threat to the Republic? In I Corinthians 6, the Apostle Paul lamented that there were no judges among the church in Corinth. They were called to “judge angels,” but it was to their shame that they could not find a single one wise enough to judge the small matters of this life. Now let us consider, is there a church anywhere where such wise judges can be found?

New Testament church government was modeled after the Old Testament government that Moses established for Israel and was carried over into the Promised Land. In this model, elders sat in the gates of cities to judge the people, hearing and deciding disputes and even carrying out judicial duties, such as authenticating deeds. The elders established in the New Testament churches were likewise expected to be the judges of the congregations when needed. Paul lamented to the Corinthian church that their elders were not doing this. When he said that this was “to their shame,” he was likely being far more prophetic than he may have realized, as this lack could be attributed to most of the shame that the body of Christ has suffered to this day.

In Psalm 89:14 we are told that righteousness and justice are the foundations of The Lord’s throne, which is His authority. Righteousness and justice go together—you cannot have one without the other. If we are called to judge angels, how is it possible that we do not have such justice in the church? Why is the world not beating a path to our door seeking our wisdom for justice? It does not do this because the church might be the last place they think of as having the wisdom of just and righteous judges. We have strayed that far.

Now there are many false teachings circulating in the church about God’s judgment, not to mention our calling to have righteous and wise judges in the church. So the result is basically judicial tyranny in the church where those with control spirits dominate. Or we have anarchy in the church where elders are afraid to judge anything. Do we not have the same in our country? We have those presuming and usurping authority that do not legally have to impose their own opinions and prejudices on the land, or we have those who literally let murderers get away with it.

So what is the solution? First, we need sound teaching on the judgment of God, the Judgment Seat of Christ—the authority that leaders in the church such as elders have “to judge those who are in the church,” as Paul asserted that we must. Since judicial tyranny and judicial anarchy are now the greatest threats to our country, the church that is called to be the light of this world should have answers to these ultimate issues with a righteous devotion to justice that even the world would start to desire. 

         Righteousness is doing what is right in the sight of The Lord. Justice is basically about people being treated fairly, and The Lord cares deeply about that as well. Both of these are key factors if we are going to build our houses on the rock and stand against the storms.

Last week we began to discuss the link between the judicial tyranny threatening our Republic and how the church has been a culprit in this. We need to briefly elaborate on how this is so.

In Matthew 16, Jesus asked His disciples who men say that He is. This is the dialogue that followed in Matthew 16:16-19:

Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

And Jesus said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. 

"I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.

"I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”

The “rock” that The Lord is building His church on is not Peter, which means “a little stone,” but rather the rock that is The Father’s revelation about who Jesus is. No one is part of His true church because they had parents that knew The Lord or sit under a pastor that does. We must each have our own revelation from The Father of who Jesus is.

Then Jesus states the authority of this church to prevail over the gates of hell, and what is bound on earth gets bound in heaven and what it loosed on earth gets loosed in heaven. Heaven here is not just the next life—it is a term often used as a reference to the spiritual realm. This is a statement about the remarkable and yet rarely understood and untapped authority given to the church that what it releases on earth is pervasive in the spiritual realm. When we understand the prevalence of the spiritual realm over the earth, we understand its influence over the affairs of mankind.

So how might this apply with regard to our government, Constitution, and the judicial tyranny that our Founding Fathers warned would be the greatest threat to the Republic? In I Corinthians 6, the Apostle Paul lamented that there were no judges among the church in Corinth. They were called to “judge angels,” but it was to their shame that they could not find a single one wise enough to judge the small matters of this life. Now let us consider, is there a church anywhere where such wise judges can be found?

New Testament church government was modeled after the Old Testament government that Moses established for Israel and was carried over into the Promised Land. In this model, elders sat in the gates of cities to judge the people, hearing and deciding disputes and even carrying out judicial duties, such as authenticating deeds. The elders established in the New Testament churches were likewise expected to be the judges of the congregations when needed. Paul lamented to the Corinthian church that their elders were not doing this. When he said that this was “to their shame,” he was likely being far more prophetic than he may have realized, as this lack could be attributed to most of the shame that the body of Christ has suffered to this day.

In Psalm 89:14 we are told that righteousness and justice are the foundations of The Lord’s throne, which is His authority. Righteousness and justice go together—you cannot have one without the other. If we are called to judge angels, how is it possible that we do not have such justice in the church? Why is the world not beating a path to our door seeking our wisdom for justice? It does not do this because the church might be the last place they think of as having the wisdom of just and righteous judges. We have strayed that far.

Now there are many false teachings circulating in the church about God’s judgment, not to mention our calling to have righteous and wise judges in the church. So the result is basically judicial tyranny in the church where those with control spirits dominate. Or we have anarchy in the church where elders are afraid to judge anything. Do we not have the same in our country? We have those presuming and usurping authority that do not legally have to impose their own opinions and prejudices on the land, or we have those who literally let murderers get away with it.

So what is the solution? First, we need sound teaching on the judgment of God, the Judgment Seat of Christ—the authority that leaders in the church such as elders have “to judge those who are in the church,” as Paul asserted that we must. Since judicial tyranny and judicial anarchy are now the greatest threats to our country, the church that is called to be the light of this world should have answers to these ultimate issues with a righteous devotion to justice that even the world would start to desire. 

         Righteousness is doing what is right in the sight of The Lord. Justice is basically about people being treated fairly, and The Lord cares deeply about that as well. Both of these are key factors if we are going to build our houses on the rock and stand against the storms.

Last week we covered how the reversing of what our Constitution said about the relationship between church and state led to increased stifling of our religious liberty. This led to the erosion of morality and integrity, as well as our other liberties and the Constitution’s authority itself. Using the courts to do this was a main strategy of the enemies of liberty. They have accomplished this to a great degree and are now close to being able to almost completely nullify the power of our Constitution.

Judges are human; we cannot expect them to be perfect. An assault on America’s religious liberty may not have been the intent of the judges issuing the judgments that led to this, but it was the effect. That’s why the Founders in the Constitution gave Congress, not the judicial branch, the authority to keep the government moored to the Constitution. When Congress allowed their authority in this to be usurped by the judicial, everything the Founders foresaw as the greatest threat to our Republic—judicial tyranny—came upon us.

As shocking as this thought may be to most Americans, the judicial branch was not given the authority to determine what was constitutional or unconstitutional, and for a very good reason. Federal Judges, and even Supreme Court Justices, are not elected and therefore do not answer to the people for their decisions. This authority was given to the Congress because it was believed that in Congress, free and open debate would be required for congressional action. Therefore, Congress would be more likely to come to the right interpretation of the Constitution, the supreme law of the land. This was more likely than putting such weighty decisions in the hands of a single judge, or even small groups of them such as the Supreme Court.

We really need to get this: the Supreme Court does not have the authority to interpret any law as being constitutional or unconstitutional unless this is asked of them by Congress. It was asked of them early in our history on an issue Congress considered itself too busy to research and address at the time, and the Supreme Court has assumed this authority since. That this was allowed has proven catastrophic by leading to increasing judicial tyranny. It has also led to the increasing and unnecessarily vicious conflicts among the people over issues that were designated as authority reserved to the states and the people, and for a good reason. No small body of unelected judges or justices were to be allowed to impose their will, or their interpretation of major issues, on the whole country.

You can have the best form of government and still have bad government if you do not have good people in it. Our Republic has not failed, but we have failed the Republic. The present growing crisis could have been avoided if we had honored our national fathers by heeding their warnings, especially about the threat of judicial tyranny. Because judges are now so politicized, making decisions based more on political prejudices or expediency rather than the merits of each case or its adherence to the Constitution, increasingly desperate political maneuvering now dominates the judicial branch. For there to be true justice, no politics should be allowed in the judicial, and we have drifted far from that now.

A strong, just, independent judiciary is necessary for true justice. This can only be recovered and maintained by strong, just, independent judges who are committed to staying in their lane as established by the Constitution. For any judge to legislate from the bench, or make law, is unconstitutional. Congress alone was given the authority to make laws, not the judiciary or executive branches.

Weak, inept leadership in Congress has allowed its authority to be usurped by both the judicial and executive branches. Every time this is allowed and goes uncontested by Congress the Constitution’s authority as the supreme law of the land is weakened, and we continue spiraling down toward a terrible chaos. Later we will address specific examples of when and how this happened and the damage it has done, but there is another culprit in this we must address first—the church.

Again, whenever we see major destructive strongholds growing in our land we need to look at the church first because what we release or bind in heaven gets released, or bound, on the earth. Or, our salt has lost its ability to preserve and our light has not been shining. Next week we will examine the connection between the failure of church leadership and the release of judicial tyranny in our land.

         It is basic military doctrine that you cannot defeat an enemy you do not see. Seeing the enemy implies understanding him. Just as the most effective military leaders are those who learn the ways of their adversaries so they can counter them, we are commanded not to be ignorant of the enemy’s schemes.

         After studying our nation’s founding and being convinced that the hand of God was in it and that our founding documents were inspired by wisdom from above, it was easy to see how the enemy would seek to destroy us and thereby destroy God’s purpose for our nation. In my dream, I saw one word in large caps that summed up our purpose: LIBERTY. This was followed by “and justice for all.” We cannot have true liberty if it is not for all, and we cannot have true justice unless it is for all.  

One of the primary linchpins holding our Constitution together has been under relentless assault by the enemies of our freedom. This assault has come primarily through the courts by activist judges. Their ultimate target has been our religious liberty, and a main strategy has been to set us adrift by a false interpretation of the relationship between the church and the state established in the Constitution.

It is very possible that none of these judges really knew the impact of their decisions and how they were an assault on our Constitution and therefore our Republic. Just as Jesus prayed for those who crucified Him to be forgiven because they did not know what they were doing, this is often the case by those used by the devil. This is why we are told that we do not war against flesh and blood, but against the principalities and powers using people to do their work. Even so, we must see the strategy to counter it.

Nowhere in the Constitution is there mention of the separation of the church and state. This is a major fallacy and deception by which the enemies of the truth have worked to destroy a linchpin of our Republic—the freedom of religion. Most Americans, and even many conservatives who promote adherence to the Constitution, believe this lie. What is actually stated is that “congress will establish no religion, or prohibit the free exercise thereof.” This was intended to keep the federal government out of the church, not the other way around. The Founders even argued that the Republic could not last without the influence of the church.

Again, the term “separation of church and state” is not found in the Constitution or any other founding documents. Those who say that it is are only revealing their ignorance of the Constitution. This term was coined by Thomas Jefferson in his letters to the Danbury Baptists. That term, and his letters, were intended to ensure them that the church would be protected from the intrusion of the state, not the other way around. This false interpretation of the Constitution and its wrong application has resulted in the attempt to use the government, especially the courts, to inhibit the freedom of religion in America. This is itself a serious violation of the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

We can see that in the year this began to be wrongly applied by the Supreme Court to remove prayer from public schools, America began its present meltdown in morality, righteousness, and justice. By this decision, the Supreme Court allowed a tiny fraction of the population that were atheists and agnostics to sever one of the most basic and important provisions of the Constitution and violate the religious liberty of the  rest of the country.

For this to be allowed to stand—and the way that it was done through the Supreme Court without even being contested—has led to the eroding of many other basic liberties, and now has our continued existence as a Republic in jeopardy. It did this by allowing the judicial tyranny to go to a new level of intrusion on the authority of the other branches of government, the states, and the people.

As application of Supreme Court decisions have become even more intrusive into these domains, it has brought us to the crisis point where it will be determined if we live or die as a Republic. To be the salt and light that Christians are called to be, we must resolve to stand against evil, injustice, and tyranny. We are called to be “freedom fighters” and it should be fundamental to all Christians to fight for “liberty and justice for all.”

Stewardship is one of the basic ways we will be judged as faithful or unfaithful to The Lord, as Jesus explained in the Parable of the Talents. This is not just about stewarding our money or stuff, but also stewarding all that God has entrusted to us. As Americans we must be good stewards of the freedoms that have been entrusted to us.  

The only commandment that God gave with a promise attached is to honor our fathers and mothers. The promise given for doing this is that it would “go well” with us and that our days would be prolonged. What could be more dishonoring of our national fathers and mothers than to lose what was entrusted to us on our watch, that which was paid for by such a dear price? America has been called “the home of the brave,” and we have been preserved by the courage and sacrifice of many. Now it is our turn.

Courage is the greatest need we have today in our Christian and national leadership. When the first apostles were threatened by the Sanhedrin they did not pray for more wisdom, protection, or even more power; they prayed for boldness. Boldness is the fruit of courage. We are about to see a bold new breed of leader arise.

         It is basic military doctrine that you cannot defeat an enemy you do not see. Seeing the enemy implies understanding him. Just as the most effective military leaders are those who learn the ways of their adversaries so they can counter them, we are commanded not to be ignorant of the enemy’s schemes.

         After studying our nation’s founding and being convinced that the hand of God was in it and that our founding documents were inspired by wisdom from above, it was easy to see how the enemy would seek to destroy us and thereby destroy God’s purpose for our nation. In my dream, I saw one word in large caps that summed up our purpose: LIBERTY. This was followed by “and justice for all.” We cannot have true liberty if it is not for all, and we cannot have true justice unless it is for all.  

One of the primary linchpins holding our Constitution together has been under relentless assault by the enemies of our freedom. This assault has come primarily through the courts by activist judges. Their ultimate target has been our religious liberty, and a main strategy has been to set us adrift by a false interpretation of the relationship between the church and the state established in the Constitution.

It is very possible that none of these judges really knew the impact of their decisions and how they were an assault on our Constitution and therefore our Republic. Just as Jesus prayed for those who crucified Him to be forgiven because they did not know what they were doing, this is often the case by those used by the devil. This is why we are told that we do not war against flesh and blood, but against the principalities and powers using people to do their work. Even so, we must see the strategy to counter it.

Nowhere in the Constitution is there mention of the separation of the church and state. This is a major fallacy and deception by which the enemies of the truth have worked to destroy a linchpin of our Republic—the freedom of religion. Most Americans, and even many conservatives who promote adherence to the Constitution, believe this lie. What is actually stated is that “congress will establish no religion, or prohibit the free exercise thereof.” This was intended to keep the federal government out of the church, not the other way around. The Founders even argued that the Republic could not last without the influence of the church.

Again, the term “separation of church and state” is not found in the Constitution or any other founding documents. Those who say that it is are only revealing their ignorance of the Constitution. This term was coined by Thomas Jefferson in his letters to the Danbury Baptists. That term, and his letters, were intended to ensure them that the church would be protected from the intrusion of the state, not the other way around. This false interpretation of the Constitution and its wrong application has resulted in the attempt to use the government, especially the courts, to inhibit the freedom of religion in America. This is itself a serious violation of the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

We can see that in the year this began to be wrongly applied by the Supreme Court to remove prayer from public schools, America began its present meltdown in morality, righteousness, and justice. By this decision, the Supreme Court allowed a tiny fraction of the population that were atheists and agnostics to sever one of the most basic and important provisions of the Constitution and violate the religious liberty of the  rest of the country.

For this to be allowed to stand—and the way that it was done through the Supreme Court without even being contested—has led to the eroding of many other basic liberties, and now has our continued existence as a Republic in jeopardy. It did this by allowing the judicial tyranny to go to a new level of intrusion on the authority of the other branches of government, the states, and the people.

As application of Supreme Court decisions have become even more intrusive into these domains, it has brought us to the crisis point where it will be determined if we live or die as a Republic. To be the salt and light that Christians are called to be, we must resolve to stand against evil, injustice, and tyranny. We are called to be “freedom fighters” and it should be fundamental to all Christians to fight for “liberty and justice for all.”

Stewardship is one of the basic ways we will be judged as faithful or unfaithful to The Lord, as Jesus explained in the Parable of the Talents. This is not just about stewarding our money or stuff, but also stewarding all that God has entrusted to us. As Americans we must be good stewards of the freedoms that have been entrusted to us.  

The only commandment that God gave with a promise attached is to honor our fathers and mothers. The promise given for doing this is that it would “go well” with us and that our days would be prolonged. What could be more dishonoring of our national fathers and mothers than to lose what was entrusted to us on our watch, that which was paid for by such a dear price? America has been called “the home of the brave,” and we have been preserved by the courage and sacrifice of many. Now it is our turn.

Courage is the greatest need we have today in our Christian and national leadership. When the first apostles were threatened by the Sanhedrin they did not pray for more wisdom, protection, or even more power; they prayed for boldness. Boldness is the fruit of courage. We are about to see a bold new breed of leader arise.

As we began to cover last week, one of the biggest evil strongholds now growing in the U.S. is causing people to be offended by just about anything. The penalty for causing someone to be offended is getting increasingly severe and has even been proposed to be a criminal offense. This has led to people being increasingly controlled by the fear of offending someone to the point of almost completely shackling free expression. This is a basic assault on one of the two linchpin freedoms that all of our other freedoms stand on—the freedom of speech.

This has led to another growing bondage in our land—the “tyranny of the minority.” This is how a tiny percentage of people can claim to be offended by something and by this take away the rights of everyone else. This is how prayer was taken out of our public schools, which fueled the assault on just about every other religious expression, a very basic violation of the Constitution. Led by the increasingly dominant thought police, lawmakers and judges have sided with this basic and final assault on our freedom. They are now even proposing that almost anything that is contrary to liberal political correctness is “hate speech” deserving of criminal prosecution.

A law was proposed in the European Union recently that would make it a crime to criticize E.U. immigration policy. There have been even more onerous laws proposed in the United Nations that would have been binding on all member nations. It hasn’t happened yet, but that is just one step away from making it a crime to criticize any policy, which is just one step away from the release of a worldwide Gestapo.

We may think that America would never fall that far, but we have tended to only be a few steps behind such trends in Europe. However, the American Republic is not going to fall that far, not because we are so much smarter or stronger, but because of the grace of God. A major pushback is coming against all of the PC madness that has sought to bind and micro-manage people until they are compliant automatons.  

In II Corinthians 3:17, we are told that “where the Spirit of The Lord is, there is liberty.” The subjugation of the people is always an attempt to hinder the moving of The Spirit of The Lord, and the spirit behind the PC madness and the subsequent laws is an attempt to inhibit the coming greatest move of God that there has ever been.

It is now easy to see the factors that are causing the internal social pressures to increase until they explode. A major factor that we need to see and address is how the church is responsible for this. What we release in heaven, or from our high position, gets released on the earth. What we bind in the high position we’ve been called to will get bound on the earth. Is this basic intolerance of freedom of speech or freedom of thought not dominate in most of the church?

The seeds of intolerance now expanding in the world were sown by the Pharisaical spirit in much of the church. Even with the great movements that were born out of a revelation that recovered and restored biblical truth to the church, almost all quickly became intolerant of any who did not agree with them, or presumed to go even further in the pursuit of the truth. That is the spirit that operated in the Pharisees, not Jesus.

This is not to imply that we should let anyone teach anything in the church. We must have a devotion to adhering to sound biblical teaching, but we must do this because we love the truth, not because we are threatened by those who see some things differently. The spirit of intolerance is evil regardless of where it is found. The counter to this spirit is not tolerance of anything, but rather a love for the truth that defends and protects the truth in the Spirit of Christ.

The church is responsible for allowing many evils to be released into these times by what we have tolerated, but the church will also be the source of what breaks the power of this evil. A new revolution is coming to the church, and then through it. The result of this will be the release of great champions of the truth that will be some of the most powerful messengers to walk the earth.

As we see in Revelation 12, when Satan is cast out of heaven, or the high positions he controls, he will come to the earth with great wrath. Because Satan dwells in darkness, just his exposure by the light begins to break his power, and he will react to the coming light with all of the violence he can muster. There are now many conditioned reactionaries who will come in great violence who must not be confused with the righteous revolutionaries. 

Presently, most of our divisions have been cast in political terms, either liberal or conservative. There are other alternatives to these two. There is a transcendent truth, a transcendent cause that is beyond politics, and it will ultimately prevail. Just as a basic military strategy is to take the high ground and fight from it, we must do the same. We must not get pulled down into the low ground of smaller issues.

As we began to cover last week, one of the biggest evil strongholds now growing in the U.S. is causing people to be offended by just about anything. The penalty for causing someone to be offended is getting increasingly severe and has even been proposed to be a criminal offense. This has led to people being increasingly controlled by the fear of offending someone to the point of almost completely shackling free expression. This is a basic assault on one of the two linchpin freedoms that all of our other freedoms stand on—the freedom of speech.

This has led to another growing bondage in our land—the “tyranny of the minority.” This is how a tiny percentage of people can claim to be offended by something and by this take away the rights of everyone else. This is how prayer was taken out of our public schools, which fueled the assault on just about every other religious expression, a very basic violation of the Constitution. Led by the increasingly dominant thought police, lawmakers and judges have sided with this basic and final assault on our freedom. They are now even proposing that almost anything that is contrary to liberal political correctness is “hate speech” deserving of criminal prosecution.

A law was proposed in the European Union recently that would make it a crime to criticize E.U. immigration policy. There have been even more onerous laws proposed in the United Nations that would have been binding on all member nations. It hasn’t happened yet, but that is just one step away from making it a crime to criticize any policy, which is just one step away from the release of a worldwide Gestapo.

We may think that America would never fall that far, but we have tended to only be a few steps behind such trends in Europe. However, the American Republic is not going to fall that far, not because we are so much smarter or stronger, but because of the grace of God. A major pushback is coming against all of the PC madness that has sought to bind and micro-manage people until they are compliant automatons.  

In II Corinthians 3:17, we are told that “where the Spirit of The Lord is, there is liberty.” The subjugation of the people is always an attempt to hinder the moving of The Spirit of The Lord, and the spirit behind the PC madness and the subsequent laws is an attempt to inhibit the coming greatest move of God that there has ever been.

It is now easy to see the factors that are causing the internal social pressures to increase until they explode. A major factor that we need to see and address is how the church is responsible for this. What we release in heaven, or from our high position, gets released on the earth. What we bind in the high position we’ve been called to will get bound on the earth. Is this basic intolerance of freedom of speech or freedom of thought not dominate in most of the church?

The seeds of intolerance now expanding in the world were sown by the Pharisaical spirit in much of the church. Even with the great movements that were born out of a revelation that recovered and restored biblical truth to the church, almost all quickly became intolerant of any who did not agree with them, or presumed to go even further in the pursuit of the truth. That is the spirit that operated in the Pharisees, not Jesus.

This is not to imply that we should let anyone teach anything in the church. We must have a devotion to adhering to sound biblical teaching, but we must do this because we love the truth, not because we are threatened by those who see some things differently. The spirit of intolerance is evil regardless of where it is found. The counter to this spirit is not tolerance of anything, but rather a love for the truth that defends and protects the truth in the Spirit of Christ.

The church is responsible for allowing many evils to be released into these times by what we have tolerated, but the church will also be the source of what breaks the power of this evil. A new revolution is coming to the church, and then through it. The result of this will be the release of great champions of the truth that will be some of the most powerful messengers to walk the earth.

As we see in Revelation 12, when Satan is cast out of heaven, or the high positions he controls, he will come to the earth with great wrath. Because Satan dwells in darkness, just his exposure by the light begins to break his power, and he will react to the coming light with all of the violence he can muster. There are now many conditioned reactionaries who will come in great violence who must not be confused with the righteous revolutionaries. 

Presently, most of our divisions have been cast in political terms, either liberal or conservative. There are other alternatives to these two. There is a transcendent truth, a transcendent cause that is beyond politics, and it will ultimately prevail. Just as a basic military strategy is to take the high ground and fight from it, we must do the same. We must not get pulled down into the low ground of smaller issues.

The Great Commission was to make disciples of all nations, not just individuals. The Lord said that when He returned He would divide the nations into “sheep” or “goats.” The sheep are good and the goats are bad. We have come to a time when nations are determining ultimate issues that will result in them being a sheep or goat nation. In this series, I will continue to unpack the dramatic dream I had about the American Republic that deals with ultimate issues of our purpose from heaven’s perspective. Regardless of what country you are from, there will be a level of civil conflict coming in your nation too. Many will be similar to what is unfolding here. Therefore, even though this is American-centric, in many ways it addresses the same basic issues all nations will be facing, as these are all connected to what The Lord said would come at the end of this age.

As covered previously, the first two Great Awakenings in America each preceded wars, the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. As we study the primary messages that came from those two Great Awakenings, we can see a direct link from the Awakenings to the wars. So did these great spiritual awakenings cause the wars? In some basic ways they did. The light from these Awakenings exposed the darkness, and this required that it be confronted until it was driven from the land.

Could the darkness have been driven from the land by spiritual warfare so that the physical conflicts would not have been necessary? Perhaps. That certainly would have been desirable. However, what I saw in my dream included physical conflict. I saw the nature of this, which I will share later in this study. Even so, it is my conviction that to the degree that  evil strongholds in our land are destroyed spiritually, the degree of the physical conflict will lessen.

As we enter the Third Great Awakening in America, we can expect the same kind of light to expose the great darkness in our time. When powers of darkness are exposed, they rage. When they are cast out of their high positions they come to the earth with great wrath, as we see in Revelation 12. God’s provision is to send us great champions of the truth to face specific evil strongholds in our time. They are being sent to completely destroy these strongholds, not just defeat them and push them back. What is happening in the Spirit will be reflected in the natural with rage and conflict.

It is always a tragedy when our differences degenerate into violence. It has been a great hope of Western Civilization to rise above war, to eradicate it completely from the earth. That is a noble hope, however, as we see up to the end of the Book of Revelation, there will be increasing war right to the end of the age. As we see in Revelation 7, for a brief time the winds of war (winds of the earth) are held back so that The Lord’s bondservants can be sealed, but this is a short time and the winds are released again. To be prepared for the times we must understand that violence has already begun, and it will get worse for a time. Again, this may be reduced by spiritual victories, but there is now a level of violence that we will not be able to avoid and we must be prepared for—spiritually and physically.

A major reason we can expect increasing violence is because of a contingent that not only does not want open debate, but cannot tolerate it. This is the fruit of an education system that no longer educates, but rather indoctrinates. A generation has been conditioned so that if you disagree with them they will be offended, and being offended has been elevated to the level of being considered almost worse than a physical assault. That many are so easily offended is a major cause that will make the physical violence unavoidable. As we are told in Proverbs 18:19, “A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city.”

One of the most important things we can do to prepare for the coming conflict is to refuse to be offended. This is basic Christianity and is called “forgiveness.” Jesus forgave the ones who had Him crucified and even those who nailed Him to the cross. Learning to be quick to forgive is basic discipleship and basic to following Christ. To stay on the right side in what is unfolding, we must not engage in the rage and bitterness that is fueled by unforgiveness. We must learn not to react to personal offense, but take the actions that we do because they are the right thing to do.

To make it through what is coming upon the world will require all Christians to follow Christ more closely and be more like Him than we ever have. We must guard our hearts, especially from the evil stronghold of unforgiveness and offense. The Lord will help us get ready by allowing opportunities to learn to forgive quickly and totally. Don’t waste these trials. Embrace them as the opportunities they are, especially when you are persecuted for doing what is right. The Lord promised a special blessing for this. See these as an opportunity to get closer to The Lord by bearing your cross to identify with Him, and getting closer to Him will be the greatest blessing of all.