They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. (John 4:5-6)
Many professing Christians seem to have little or no ability to discern truth from error, or as we might also phrase it, evil from good. And yet the Bible is quite plain that all real Christians are indwelt by the Spirit of Christ who is also known as the Spirit of truth. The Spirit enables the Christian to hear the Shepherd’s voice, to listen to and recognize God’s Word, and to reject all counterfeits.
When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” (John 10:4-5)
Abusers are of the evil one. For all of their amazing deceptions and disguises, ultimately they cannot deceive Christ’s people because the Spirit in us reveals to us who they really are. And yet we are seeing many who profess to know Christ stumble at all this. Evil is exposed. False teachers who abuse others and work to bring them into bondage are rebuked. Scriptures that speak to these very things are taught and preached regularly. Yet, we see many simply fail to “get it.” Why?
Most abuse victims and survivors will tell you that it took a long, long time for the lights to come on so that they finally realized over time just what this thing was that was happening to them. They started to see the real person that their abuser was. They will tell you how the Lord opened their eyes to see it. But they saw it. Eventually, they saw it. They knew.
Why then, we ask once more, are so many people who claim to be Christians not only remaining blind to the evil of abuse right in their own pews, but actively opposing its exposure? Why are they refusing to believe victims, and why are they enabling and protecting the wicked?
Could it just perhaps be that they do not have the capacity to hear the Good Shepherd’s voice? Could it be that they are still of the world, and march to the world’s drum rather than Christ’s?
Nothing exposes the real nature of a church and its members than how they respond to the cries of the downtrodden.
“Nothing exposes the real nature of a church and its members than how they respond to the cries of the downtrodden.”
AMEN! AMEN!! AMEN!!!
Sadly, many times though, it is the ‘world’ that sees the abuse and responds with compassion. In my case it was secular extended family members who recognized and understood the abuse that was taking place and had compassion for the abused, not the abuser. The Christian family members are still loving on the abusers in Jesus’ name, and completely ignoring the suffering, damage, and destruction caused by them, even though they themselves have experienced it as well.
They see the abused react to the abuse with pain, truth and many times anger, and then treat them as uncaring and un-spiritual. It’s a twisted, viscous cycle that causes extreme confusion and loneliness in the abused which can make them start questioning whether they are maybe in the wrong and everyone else in the right. That’s why ministries such as this are so important, they help the abused to keep their armor on, especially when it starts to get extremely heavy and their ability to stand against the enemy becomes more and more difficult.
Praying more and more ‘Christian’ eyes will be opened to the truth.
It **did** take me a very long time to see and come to understand that the turmoil inside of me at the myriad ways and means I was abused, first as a child in my family of origin, and then as a spouse in my marriage, was because the plethora of *christianese* messages I heard and received from those who preached and taught within the “church” were sooo slyly fed to me, that they came to my ears as truth from God. I literally had to come to a point where I refused to accept anything that did not first come through to me from the hours, days, weeks, months, and years that God called me to Himself in daily searching, seeking, learning, praying, and meditating through His written word, and His Living Word.
I came to fully reject the common teaching within churches: God hates divorce, God demands I never leave nor forsake, God requires my sacrifice, etc…
I came to EMBRACE that the turmoil inside of me was the acknowledgement of the presence and tyranny of abuse, and the turmoil was the RIGHTEOUSNESS of God’s will to usher me into justified Peace, Mercy, and everlasting Love. The turmoil was NOT my disobedience to God, but the NORMAL chaffing and rebellion against EVIL that was being perpetrated against me!
ALL Glory to Abba for His FREEDOM!