Manipulative, Controlling Leadership

 It hurts when you see Christians in leadership and they use the same dishonest political tactics as unbelievers. I've often felt like I was being manipulated by Christian leaders, and I wasn't wrong to feel that way.

It hurts to be pressured into supporting Christian leaders who promote themselves and their party, faction or ministry more than justice and mercy.

Every time an election comes up, I feel stressed about the twisting and manipulation that goes on around me.

When I asked God about this, I believe the Holy Spirit gave me a very clear answer.
Politics is mostly about manipulation. It is what it is.

What does the Bible say about that?

There are leaders who want to hide their mistakes, or the sins of their colleagues.

For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to light. Mk 4:22 NKJV

There are leaders who demand unconditional submission.

The apostle Paul was a true and faithful leader. Paul himself condemned the practice of dictatorial leadership.

In fact, you even put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or puts on airs or slaps you in the face. 2 Cor 11:20 NIV

Paul defines the basis for true Christian fellowship.

Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Eph 5:21 NIV

Some Christians might argue that this mutual submission should only apply to Christians of the same rank. But how did Jesus understand this truth?

The first Christian woman chosen by God to witness the resurrection was not an apostle, but Mary Magdalene. When she and other women told the fearful apostles that they had seen Jesus, they did not believe. How did Jesus react?

Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen. Mk 16:14 NIV

When a leader goes wrong, some Christians claim he was not chosen by God, but King Saul was chosen by God.

There are Christians who claim that you should never publicly criticise a chosen leader, but David openly accused Saul.

Suppose you have been abused, bullied and shunned by Christian leaders, pastors or politicians.

What does Jesus think about this?

In John 9, Jesus healed a blind man. When the man testified that Jesus had healed him, he was excommunicated by the religious leaders.

Jesus didn't just heal the man. He sought him out to help him when he had become a persecuted outcast.

Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

“Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.”

Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”

Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshipped him. Jn 9:35–38 NIV

Are you being bullied or ostracised by religious leaders? Please don't blame Jesus. He wants to help you personally. The same religious leaders crucified Jesus, but he returned from the grave.

As a young Christian, I was excommunicated, but I learned that the cruel leaders were not the source of my salvation, but Jesus Himself.

The LORD builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the exiles of Israel.
He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. Ps 147:2–3 NIV

Jesus gathered the outcasts of Israel and he also gathers the Christian outcasts today.

Jesus Heals Damaged People

Your thoughts change your brain. Are you psychologically damaged? Where can you find help? Jesus was and still is the healer, therapist and guide.

Our experiences shape our thoughts. Traumatised concentration camp survivors are permanently changed people. A wife and mother can never think like a virgin again. She can't.

Your experiences and thoughts also change the biology and architecture of your brain.
Scientists have dissected the brains of deceased people.

Bilingual people had more complex neuronal structures.

Learning changes the brain, either positively or negatively. That's why sexual abuse and pornography addiction are very dangerous.

Torture and brainwashing can permanently change the victim's way of thinking and also damage their brain.

Corrupting and cruel experiences can wreak havoc on your mind and brain, but there is an almighty good God who can restore your soul and brain.

Mary Magdalene was a holy woman. God chose her to be the first witness of the resurrected Jesus Christ.

We also read that she had a traumatic and perhaps shameful past.

When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons. Mk 16:9 NIV

We don't know how Mary was demonised. Was she psychotic? Was she a witch? Was she a prostitute? Was she sexually abused? We do not know.

No matter how she was corrupted, her mind was mentally poisoned. Her brain was not functioning properly. She needed forgiveness and cleansing, but also healing.

Through God's word, we can learn to think very differently.

The Bible is pure and holy. God's word is the heavenly light. Light casts out darkness.

God's word is also a holy water bath that cleanses our defiled souls.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her
to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, Eph 5:25–26 NIV

When God's Holy Spirit has cleansed your soul, God wants to help you to think in a completely new way, so that your world of thoughts becomes better every day.

The devil does not give up. He keeps trying to lead you astray with evil thoughts, but when you have given your life to Jesus, God wants to encourage you with good and beautiful thoughts.

Expect the Unexpected from God

 When something strange and unprecedented happens, many Christians are sure that it cannot be from God, but in the Bible, God has repeatedly intervened in unprecedented ways.

Hosea was a prophet in the Old Testament.

When the LORD first began speaking to Israel through Hosea, he said to him, “Go and marry a prostitute, so that some of her children will be conceived in prostitution. This will illustrate how Israel has acted like a prostitute by turning against the LORD and worshipping other gods.” Hos 1:2 NLT

Jonah was another prophet. He was swallowed by a huge fish and still escaped alive three days later.

Who did Jesus choose as his first apostles? Fishermen, a corrupt tax collector, a thief. Only Matthew was perhaps theologically trained, and he was the renegade sinner who extorted money for the Romans.

God's Son became an itinerant preacher who was never ordained by men. Nor was he accompanied by respected people.

After this, Jesus travelled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him,
and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Lk 8:1–2 NIV

Who was chosen by God to be the first witness of his Son's resurrection? It was actually a witness, Mary Magdalene, ‘from whom he had cast out seven demons.’

Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her. Jn 20:18 NIV

But the apostles did not believe.

When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons.

She went and told those who had been with him and who were mourning and weeping.

When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they did not believe it. Mk 16:9–11 NIV

In the Bible, God chose witnesses who were not taken seriously by most believers. The Jewish prophets were often only honoured by the Jews after their death.

In the Welsh revival of 1904, God intervened dramatically.

‘The mules in the mines had to be retrained because the miners no longer used profanity in their orders. The man-made denominational barriers broke down completely as believers and pastors worshipped their majestic Lord together.’

https://sermons.faithlife.com/sermons/36242-welsh-revival-1904 

Not everything that happened in this revival is celebrated by many Christians today.

A few years ago I heard a guest preacher from Wales. She told me about an almost forgotten preacher. She was only 15 years old when she became an anointed preacher. She preached on the street and all sorts of people wanted to hear her, including respectable politicians and despised prostitutes.

When you hear amazing or outrageous stories, please don't be critical. You think you are standing up for biblical truth, but you may be criticising the works of God.

This is the era of the unexpected! This is the era where God will do things that are SO unusual because He wants to reveal His majesty, His glory and His power. We have only just begun to see a ‘drop in the bucket’ of what God will do in this new age.

God is going to demonstrate His power, His glory, His splendour in ways we have never seen before, but it REQUIRES eyes to see and ears to hear.... Lana Vawser. Australia November 2021

MARY MAGDALENE, THE CHOSEN WOMAN

John 20:15 (ESV)   Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 

• Was Mary Magdalene unspiritual to think Jesus was the gardener? 

Jesus was in a garden. He didn’t look like himself. 

• He was not shining with resurrection glory. 
• His beard was plucked out by the Roman soldiers who tormented him. 

Jesus was scarred and battered and perhaps not easily recognisable. 

We must not blame Mary Magdalene for this mistaken identity. She was closer to Jesus than any of the apostles at this time. 

• Mary Magdalene was chosen for the highest possible privilege, to be the first witness of the resurrection. 

According to Josephus, women were not accepted as witnesses in Jewish court cases. 

• I have found no evidence that this disqualification of women’s rights was authorised by God in Scripture but it is clear that the testimony of a woman did not carry the same weight as that of a man in the ancient world and the Jews were no exception.

When Jesus died on the cross, the innocent son of God suffered the ultimate injustice. With his unjust death, Jesus paid the penalty for all our sins. 

The only completely innocent human being in history died a cruel death, so that every guilty man and woman could be set free from the just condemnation of God.

•  When Jesus died a cruel and unjust death, He set about correcting all the curses and injustices that had followed like a plague on humanity after the fall of Adam and Eve in that first garden.

The first injustice was prophesied by God Himself when He declared that women after Eve would desire the love of their husbands but that their husbands would rule over them harshly.

Ge 3:16 (ESV)  To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” 

Not only have billions of husbands ruled like tyrants over their wives but men in general have treated women like second class human beings. 

• The Jews in Bible days were also guilty of this but a quick look at church history and contemporary church life will tell you that men still dominate women in a way that God did not intend.

When Jesus returned from the grave, His first act was to restore full equality and dignity to women.

Mary Magdalene was divinely appointed to be the first witness of the resurrection, not Peter or John and not Mary the mother of Jesus. 

Mary Madgalene thought Jesus was the gardener. The first gardener was Adam and Paul said Jesus was the LAST ADAM. 

1Corinthians 15:45 (NKJV)  And so it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being." The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 

1 Corinthians 15:22 (NKJV)  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. 

• Adam was the first man and the father of all humanity. He was without sin before he yielded to temptation. 

• Jesus came as the second sinless man and He resisted every temptation. 
• Jesus came to restore men, women and children to the glorious innocence and justice of the original creation, to establish a new humanity where women and men would be completely equal and free to fulfil their potential.

When Mary Magdalene and her friends told the Apostles of the new church that Jesus was alive, the men did not believe the women. 

• Then Jesus appeared to them and rebuked them for not believing the women. 

• For two thousand years men have continued to punish women for the disobedience of Eve. 

• Ordained priests and pastors have exalted themselves above church members. 

It is time to repent.