Using God as a weapon. Ever been affected or impacted? Have you ever heard someone say to you:
“The Lord told me to tell you…”
“The Lord said to me that [this] is his will…”
“So, God told me that [what I’m saying] is gospel…”
“… so, God told me that [what you did or said] is rubbish…”
“You’re going to hell for that… [and/or] what you did is unforgiveable…”
“Don’t you remember what you said? You can’t fool God you know…”
“The Lord has called me to pray for you [when you know that that’s not good—when they’re using their ‘prayer’ to somehow control you]…”
When that happened, what did you think? Did you automatically rebuff them, or did what was said set you back where you began to unknowingly doubt yourself before your Creator?
The impact of what might seem a little thing said nonchalantly is usually bigger than we think it is. Just about every time we’re either too floored to respond or we may believe at least subconsciously that we’re out of step with God. Pangs of guilt rise instantly, and the person abusing God’s Word walks off having done Satan’s work, many times absolutely fooled that they’re an agent for God.
The pangs rise because, God-believer, there is a conscience for the things of God in you. It’s the one abusing the holy text, who walks away feeling powerful having ground you into dust, who is against the purposes of God, as they wreak havoc everywhere their tongue runs riot against the Kingdom prerogative.
The damage drives deep.
Abusive, so-called prophetic words linger in the soul. Our spirit languishes upon a word spoken and it penetrates deeply, and once that wound is formed, like a spur it drills into the abyss of our being. Once a word like this has gone in, it’s almost like an exorcism is needed to extract the toxin. These are like spoken curses and done in God’s name!
Even worse if it comes from someone in spiritual authority or the one in spiritual authority allows it to happen unchecked. A congregant who will spew this vile will almost certainly set themselves up against a people-pleasing pastor. The challenge will be set, for they thrive on the audacity of challenging for conquest. Or, they are cunning enough to ensure the pastor and other leaders are not in earshot. Again, that’s audacity.
The prophetic gifts need to be properly identified in a person by more than one spiritual leader, and these gifts need to be used with prayerful restraint for the building up of the body of believers.
Behaviour like spiritual abuse is very commonly minimised, where good people will most commonly doubt their right to question even an obvious abuse.
And what of the spiritual assassin? They reside in every church, I’m sure. Ultra-confident that they have the inside running on God’s exact desire, they have no idea or probably don’t care that they not only damage God’s name, but they execute their own judgement.
We need sentinels in the church who will quietly, respectfully though firmly and promptly call this verbal form of spiritual abuse for what it is. Yes, there are those, too, in every fellowship who will have an ear for spiritual rubbish.
It’s incumbent on every pastor to identify who within the fellowship bears these gifts, and to empower their use, equipping these people with the trust they need to begin to act.
Photo by fotografierende on Unsplash
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