September 7, 1992
Most
desert saints, for all their awareness of false human
control through others, are not aware of the depth of
false personal control they exercise over their own
lives. Their vision of Jezebel in the church has stirred
their willpower to escape and keep pure. Yet that very
willpower by which they escape and maintain self-control
carries the same strain of jezebellic stronghold as that
from which they have escaped.
Desert
saints are blind to this internal stronghold because it
hides as a tare behind the wheat of Spirit-motivation
that leads them to resist evil. Yet it is this same
force of willpower by which these saints come under the
legalism of executing their own prophetic vision of the
Church, and the fear, condemnation, and self-judgment of
failing to fulfil their vision—a judgment that leads to
inhibition of personality, family control and
"protectionism," deadness of fellowship together, and
chronic joylessness.
This
hidden self-control sets up a force field around the
lives of desert saints that makes them seem
unapproachable. This force field actually contributes to
the reaction against them in a church when they obey the
Spirit to take a stand against false human control in
church leadership. That they are moved by God's Spirit
is not in doubt. But because their confrontation is
tainted with self-control through willpower, it leaves
them open to victimization
by the jezebellic force they are resisting. The
resulting excommunication is partly due to that
willpower.
God
uses excommunication to help
purge prophetic saints of the self-control
tied to their vision. As they learn
to yield up that
control and become vulnerable
to their enemies, the Spirit of God actually
becomes their shield
when the Father leads
them to submit afresh to church structures still
tainted with false control.
What
their vision was unable
to accomplish through
the taint of willpower
leading to attack and
excommunication, God now accomplishes
through a quiet meekness. Their vision is no less,
but now the Presence of God replaces
their willpower as their force field.
That
force not only repels
jezebellic attacks, but stops the mouths of men and
lions. It silences those who would oppose them in the
church. Where need be, it actually removes men from
power who would seek to remove them. The force of God
surrounding a vulnerable will-broken "David" is what
dethrones the "Sauls" who retain their grips over the
churches.
The
innumerable Sauls who have excommunicated the Davids of
God will bear their punishment. But the focus for Davids
is not the judgment of the Sauls, but submission to the
dealing of God for the exposure and purging of
self-protection and control over their own souls.
As
prophets learn to stay centred on their own need
for deliverance rather than on the false control in
others which God calls them to expose and flee, they
will see great victory as God moves men and mountains to
establish their place in the congregation of the saints.
[ to Part
3 ]