I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me… Isa 45:5
January 14, 2021
This is Part Two of my last article and I believe it will give more clarity to the events we are now experiencing. I am writing because the church is living far beneath its privileges, spiritual leaders are failing to stand up for Christ and we are all suffering as a result. It took me years to understand the long awaited answer to the question I had asked God shortly after joining the church in 1982. After reading about the miraculous power of God in the bible, I asked: “Lord, where is your church?” I believe now I can explain the answer after many years of religious experience. The spirit of the Lord had led me when I was unsaved and living in D.C. to go back home and I obeyed. Within two years, I had joined the church, was spirit-filled and determined to obey the Lord. A lot of people may be trying to reach that point, but that is the place where the Lord began to truly save me. Thirty some years later I am so glad He did not leave me at that same spot. Many people, even Christians, do not understand what it is to be saved and that is the reason why the church is in such a dire condition. The work of salvation is a continuing process and is a deep work in the soul of the believer. It is a lot more than just trying to resist sin. You have to meet Jesus and walk with Him to get truly saved. The early Christian patriarchs understood it was more than just going to church or professing Christ. God offers real power and real change.
The answer to my question about seeing the Lord’s church took me places and through things that eventually revealed the real church and the mystery of a life in Christ. In I Corinthians 1:10, Paul rebuked the believers for their many church leaders, divisions in the body and differences in doctrine. I previously wrote about this issue, but the Lord showed me how fractured the church was and how it was supposed to operate. In the early 80’s, there were other people like myself who wanted a deeper relationship with God. I visited and was exposed to many popular churches and their doctrine while the Spirit guided me concerning their practice of faith. There came a time after about a decade in the faith when I realized God was leading many seekers of the Lord who had left their denominational roots to return and strengthen the brethen (Lk 22:32). I went back and tried to do so, but as you might imagine the effort was not well received. Fortunately, I had the blessing of having obeyed and the Spirit continued to lead me. I observed that some of those that did not go back in obedience continued to go forward but went out into the fringes.
We have seen over the past several decades, people operating from the fringes who went on to lead and teach. Many of these ministries failed to line up with scripture and could not easily be corrected. New churches sprang up and a fire was lit (Mk 4:5). Many of those groups are now recognized as evangelicals and the rest is history. A real journey with the Lord may lead into strange waters and only those that stay obedient and close to Him will survive and come out in maturity. I recommend reading the popular book, Pilgrim’s Progress for a better understanding. This journey with the Lord will kill off fleshly pride, arrogance, greed, selfishness, and a striving for fleshly desires. Many people who did not finish the journey are those we see falling from the high places. They may be rich, well known and have multitudes of people following them and yet God is either absent from their ministry or standing at a distance. This is flawed leadership where people suffer from false teaching. Evangelicals have developed multi-million dollar church organizations and many recently endorsed an unlikely choice for president that they believed God ordained. The evidence has been questionable as we are now seeing. They also claimed God gave them a prophecy on how to take kingdom control before Jesus comes. People of lesser knowledge have followed faithfully but in error. Read here (How self-proclaimed ‘prophets’ from a growing Christian movement provided religious motivation for the Jan. 6 events at the US Capitol) an article to get more information about this group. They call it the seven mountain mandate where they have taken control of certain areas of authority to possess the kingdom of God. Here are the seven mountains they set out to control: 1) Education; 2) Religion; 3) Family; 4) Business; 5) Government/Military; 6) Arts/Entertainment; and 7) Media. They believed in placing representatives in each of these areas that gave them a lot of control. You can read more about their beliefs on this website: (https://www.gotquestions.org/seven-mountain-mandate.htmlWhat is the seven mountain mandate, and is it biblical?). The list of people involved in this nationwide movement is a who’s who of top American religious leaders. I watched them from afar because I know that Jesus is Lord over the church and He leads and guides His own followers to places of authority and unity by the Holy Spirit. A few weeks ago the Spirit dropped a revelation on me while I was walking through my home. I had been studying end time prophecies in the bible and was in constant shock as the truth unfolded before me. I heard the following words in my spirit: “The anti-Christ spirit is organized evil.” I immediately saw and understood it in my spirit. Later I saw a video on YouTube of someone struggling to explain the seven mountain prophecy and I immediately thought: “They believe this is a revelation from God.” I was horrified that professing Christians were falling into this error. They were ensnared in their own prophecy (2Co 10:12).
Unfortunately, when a believer goes off in error or believes a lie, the enemy has ground to lead them astray by their own lust for things outside God. You might remember that the devil tried to deceive Jesus by offering power and grandeur in the wilderness if He would just bow down and serve him. If we wait on God, He will prepare us before the wilderness journey (Mt. 4:1; Ex 12:3) and go with us. God always gives a warning to those that will hear but people have freewill and can choose to obey or not.
And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 2Th 2:11-12
The verse above comes out of the same chapter that discusses the man of lawlessness who would come on the scene. The true church has insight and responsibility to warn the saints of false doctrine (Jud 1:23). Lack of true preaching leaves people vulnerable to false doctrine that promises benefits without suffering. We have seen evangelical ministries aligning with people from all kinds of groups and beliefs to gain power. It has been very strange to see some of these people from secular lifestyles claim Christianity. Though anyone can come to Christ, Christian living requires a life separated from the world and its evil. Cheap grace has lured people into the sanctum without cleansing or commitment and set them up for failure. While preachers have sought for numbers and dollars, they have compromised doctrine and purity for large gatherings.
Churches with conflicting doctrine have united for the purpose of wealth, power and politics. From the early days of the Moral Majority, we saw white Christians unite behind racial hatred, anti-immigration policies, abortion rights, and white nationalism. None of these positions are in line with the word of God so it is out of the will of God and provides vulnerability for the enemy’s snares. White Christians, afraid of losing racial power and majority rule in the nation, have compromised truth and united in error to stay in power over other racial minorities. Their erroneous doctrine is not a secret because there are plenty of books and articles written itemizing their error. My own book (Christianity and Ethnicity: Is Christ Concerned About Race?; 2017) was written to alert the black community of falling susceptible to deceptive doctrine to gain political control. Religious leaders who have not been purged of pride are not easily corrected and are reluctant to receive prophecy but Paul taught all in the church can prophesy. Leaders should receive God’s correction in the privacy of the church or home to prevent public chastening but either way God will not be ignored. Here are just a few pertinent references from my recent reading of public material.
“When a whole community has become immersed in a moral crisis, what’s actually gone wrong becomes difficult to recognize with any clarity. The threat of Donald Trump (even now, one week after the election) and of what now deservedly can be called Trumpism has never been primarily about policies. Democrats and Republicans, Libertarians and independents, have always differed and will always differ about taxes, Iran, immigration, abortion, criminal justice, climate change, trade, minimum wage — you name it. Arguments over issues are the routine work of a functioning political community. But in our current moment, a focus on policies amounts to misdirection. What we are witnessing right now is a crisis of truth and character. – David P. Gushee; November 11, 2020; Why Trump’s Electoral Crisis is Really a Moral Crisis; religionnews.com.
Whiteshift: the turbulent journey from a world of racially homogeneous white majorities to one of racially hybrid majorities. This is the century of whiteshift. As Western societies are becoming increasingly mixed-race, demographic change is transforming politics. Over half of American babies are non-white, and by the end of the century, minorities and those of mixed race are projected to form the majority in the UK and other countries. The early stages of this transformation have led to a populist disruption, tearing a path through the usual politics of left and right. Ethnic transformation will continue, but conservative whites are unlikely to exit quietly; their feelings of alienation are already redrawing political lines and convulsing societies across the West. One of the most crucial challenges of our time is to enable conservatives as well as cosmopolitans to view whiteshift as a positive development. – Eric Kaufmann; Whiteshift; Abrams Books, 2018
Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation will quickly discover, Du Mez is not describing a movement in search of a happy medium. For the past 80 years, she argues, white evangelical speakers, writers, and media figures have been idealizing a form of manliness that is at once all Jesus and all John Wayne, calling their audiences to hyper-masculinity as an orienting center. Men are pushed to be extra-manly, wives to be sexy and supportive, and children to mind authority as they grow into their own designated gender tracks. Along the way, this model of Christian patriarchy seeks to govern the home, the school, the church, and ultimately, the nation.- Kristin Kobes Du Mez; Liveright; 2020; Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation
Most of our nation’s problems stem from improper leadership operating in positions of religion, government, education, media, entertainment, and family. Oppressive control over the minds and wills of people is what Christ warned us about and He protects the church with the Holy Spirit. The fight of our lives from authoritarian control came from the highest office holder in the land where all our lesser leaders all gave over authority to him. The only reason we are prevailing at this hour is because nonreligious, secular people have insisted on telling the truth.
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Joh 8:32
As I stated in Part 1, we have to use the truth to destroy the lie. Telling the truth represents standing with God whereas telling a lie represents standing with Satan, the destroyer. Destruction is in our land today because our nation has been embracing the lie and the liar. Multi-layer authority in the church and government was for our protection. The Holy Spirit’s guidance over a believer is for personal connection and protection with our God. Christians are supposed to know that the devil will mix truth and a lie to deceive the vulnerable just like he fooled Eve in the Garden. If we want to survive Covit-19 and many other issues we are dealing with, we have to start doing what we know is right. Those that know to do right must take the lead and do right like Gideon did (Jdg 6:27). We should remember the fate of Germany when evil was ruling and the white religious and community people stayed silent. Evil triumphs when good men do nothing. The evangelicals believed they are right because they are religious but Jesus rebuked the religious Pharisees and Sadducees of Jerusalem because they were in error. Jesus walked with the laborers and tax collectors instead. When a people have reached their pinnacle, it is either time to be commended or condemned. We have witnessed the climax of this society and its results. The Lord will rise up whoever He wants to use to do His work because this is a time of demotion for some and promotion for others. All the chips are on the table and black Americans and other groups that know the Lord have their opportunity to rise up and be blessed by God in His kingdom.
The year of 2020 was the time for God’s dealing with wickedness and helping His people. The whole bible teaches about God’s judgment and how the people should not be found living in sin. The white community has had the liberty of the last several hundred years of black labor, accumulated wealth, political power and Christian understanding to fulfill their destiny in America; but it has not brought them peace and assurance because of their spirit of oppression. The job of the preacher is to prepare the people to find their peace in Jesus but many got distracted by filthy lucre.
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. 1Ti 6:10
Let me briefly respond to the question about 2020. The other morning I awoke and heard the word “generation”. When I searched it out in my bible, I was led to the scripture of God talking with Israel about 40 years in the wilderness. When I counted back 40 years it came to 1980. That was the year I returned home and it was also an important time for the church. Many of the current popular churches were beginning to catch on fire with the Holy Spirit around that time and churches were springing up and prospering. God works in generations and at the conclusion of a generation, He has expectations of growth but His judgment falls on the third or fourth generation of those that hate Him (Ex 20:5). We are at the end of a generation and dispensation, where God is judging our work. There is so much more to say but I hope I have shared enough to help people see that each of us have it in our own hands to believe God and do what’s right or bring destruction on our own heads by continuing to do evil. Evil has fallen upon us because we individually and collectively let down the standard and the enemy has been sowing seeds of error to prepare for this time to take charge. Ultimately, God says: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places (Eph 6:12). God has shown us what wickedness in the high places look like and how we have to be alert and knowledgeable to withstand evil. We each have been given a personal connection with God through Jesus and we must never let it fall. If we stand with God, we win; but we have to stand against evil. Nations stand or fall because of its people and we are all involved in saving the nation.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. Joh 3:16-17
Truth and Life Ministries of Christ with Apostle Joyce Reba Payne 