I hear them today, deep in my spirit. It began in a time of prayer with some friends yesterday. I heard thousands of voices, crying out to God, “How long, O Lord?” It was a cry of anguish from those who have been abused, deceived, and exploited by the powerful, the deceitful, and the abusers.
It tears at my heart. I’ve had occasion these last four years to sit with many people in such pain, who, through no fault of their own, have been taken advantage of for someone else’s gain or temporary amusement.
And I’m not just talking about the world. Have you heard the revelations in the last few weeks of the years of silence from Bethel’s leadership when the sheep were being deceived and abused? Did they learn nothing from the exposures at IHOP in Kansas City? I’m not surprised anymore at the lengths people will go to defraud or abuse the sheep, or what others will do to cover it up in the name of loyalty. Dozens of so-called prophetic and apostolic “leaders” knew of the prophetic fraud and the sexual abuse and said nothing. They apologize now, with excuses as to why they didn’t protect the sheep, but those who held it in silence are as guilty as the one doing the deeds.
If you can follow Jesus even for a dozen years and not find this behavior unthinkable, then you really have to question who you’ve been following. John couldn’t have written it more clearly: “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” If you can stay silent when people are being exploited and abused, you have no idea who God is. Those who know God well love the broken well.
And if you’re still supporting ministries like this, you are part of the abuse as well. It seems the entire prophetic movement has covered up for those who are not God’s voices at all. The money, sense of power, and notoriety were too tempting to feel, in their own being, the damage being done to others. So while they claim great discernment on behalf of the nation and the world, they completely miss what God wants to do right around them.
Make no mistake, in these situations, God aligns his heart with the wounded. Truth be told, he always has. When Jesus went to the cross, it was not in anger at those who did evil, but in love for those being crushed by it. I am convinced that the injustice he wants me to hold is on behalf of the victims, not anger at the perpetrators. When I live in the anguish of those who have suffered at the hands of the powerful, whether they be in Ukraine, Gaza, Kenya, former 2x2s, or Bethel, I am closer to Father’s heart than all my rantings about false ministries.
And while most can only see the problem where sexual sin is involved, that is not their greater error. The greater sin of the prophetic movement has been that it has taken people’s innate desire to know God and profited from it. They wanted to tell others what God was thinking and for them to believe it, unquestioningly, as they basked in the adulation of the crowd, fighting for visibility and its related income. They made people dependent on themselves, rather than teaching them to find their fullness in Jesus and no other. The idols in God’s house today are human, who wittingly or unwittingly set themselves up as Christ substitutes. They manipulate people’s fears for political power and market share when they should have been calming their fears with the love of Jesus.
Does Jesus love those who perpetuate the false prophecies, opulent lifestyles, and sexual abuse of his children? He does, deeply, and offers them a path of redemption as well. And we will know they are responding to him when they cease their destructive ways, own their failures, and think first of protecting the sheep instead of their reputations.
Today, Jesus is standing with those who have been defrauded, deceived, and victimized by wolves pretending to be sheep. If you want to be near him, enter into the pain of those who have been hurt, not the ones doing the hurting. That’s where I want to stand, offering a caring heart and a listening ear as they sort through the damage done to them and seek connection with the God who can heal their hearts.
Will you join me? There, we will find his compassion and wisdom to bind up the broken-hearted and set the oppressed free, because that lies at the heart of his Gospel.
I’m with you, Wayne. Thank you for walking ahead on this — I truly believe you’re breaking new ground.
So much of our anger toward perpetrators is also a sign of an ancient pattern: scapegoating. When pain feels unbearable, we need a reason for it, a target for it. We pour out our wrath on someone, and for a moment it gives the illusion that we’ve done something with the pain. It can even make us feel better. But it doesn’t actually touch the pain carried by the victims.
When I look at Jesus on the cross, I’m struck by something different. He doesn’t assign blame. He doesn’t turn suffering into a case to be won. He simply takes the pain of the victims into himself — and in doing so reveals a love that doesn’t depend on merit, deserving, or explanation.
“No greater love than this exists, than to give one’s life for one’s friends.”
May this be the next step in our human evolution toward irrational love.
I love this. Thanks, Stephan, for your comment.
Thanks, Wayne, for shining light on those who have been deeply wounded and scarred by the choices of leaders who victimize the sheep through spiritualized power. As a therapist who has walked with many who have lived with the long-term impact of abuse, as your own dear Sarah has, my heart breaks that so often to protect the institution, or even the name of Christianity in the world, so much is covered up and not dealt with for fear of what it will do to the ministry if it should be found out. God is and has always been so much bigger than our failings… that’s why He sent Jesus! He knew we couldn’t save ourselves! Owning their failings by exposing the wrongs, apologizing to the victims, providing support through financial aid when needed for therapy, and loving them by holding their deep pain and brokenness with them without our excuses, should be the response of both the victimizers and the Church. That is called sorrow and repentance! In sorrow and repentance there is the opportunity for healing over time, because it demonstrates a humility to the wounded and the world that Christians do make grave mistakes, but exhibits a sorrow over them. It displays God’s love for those who have been deeply impacted by wrongs done to them, rather then trying to defend the ministry’s choices to hide the sin in the name of Jesus. Otherwise, it is one of those apologies that sounds like, “I’m sorry, but…”, and is disingenuous at best! Victims of abuse more than anything want to be believed… believed without judgment that what happened to them was horrific and life changing, because it was! Justifications regarding why something was hidden only confirms that they were not valuable enough to save or rescue, which is completely contrary to the Gospel of Jesus Christ!
Thanks for your comment, Colleen. So true. I pray the tide will turn here, even though I know people’s affinity for those on the stage blinds them to the victim they can’t see or know.
Thank you for this, my heart needed it today. My ex husband did this to me and it really broke me for many years. God has healed me and now I get to help people who are hurting. There is another avenue that many families and women and their children are being utterly destroyed and that is through our countries CPS system. I have unfortunately witnessed the devastation that they are inflicting on mother’s who absolutely do not in anyway deserve to have their children ripped from them. The lies and manipulation from CPS completely take away every right the parent has and there isn’t much hope. I am hoping more awareness to this issue will reach Christians and they will start praying for justice.
Thanks
Wayne, thank you for teaching us how Jesus’ example reveals Father’s heart. Your empathy for the ones “left in the ditch” is balm to the broken, your gentle mentorship is helping us see through “the Jesus lens” rather than “the 2×2 lens”, and your sincere humility and honesty are as refreshing as morning dew.. You truly have demonstrated a “caring heart and listening ear”.
-An ex2x2