Human Trafficking in the Church — Part 2
“The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance [to the full, till it overflows].”—John 10:10 (AMPC)
Jesus came to give you a wonderful life of purpose and fulfillment. When Jesus commanded people to follow Him, it was an invitation with a promise attached to it.
“Then Jesus said to them, ‘Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.’”—Mark 1:17 (NKJV)
The reactions of these men showed that this call and this promise resonated with them. It was exactly what they had been longing for in their lives! I can imagine that their hearts leaped inside of them when they suddenly heard the call that would lead them to become the men they were born to be and to enter into the destinies they were born to fulfill!
“They immediately left their nets and followed Him.”—Mark 1:18
You were born with a unique destiny to fulfill. You will only become the person that you were born to be when you leave your old life behind and follow Jesus with all your heart, as these first disciples did.
A life of purpose and fulfillment is waiting for you!
Spiritual human trafficking in the Church is robbing countless people of that abundant life that Jesus promised them by redirecting them away from God’s purposes for their lives in order to serve the interests of the institutional church.
In this way, countless churches and Christian ministries unwittingly partner with the religious spirit of Babylon the Great, the Mother of Prostitutes, to steal and kill and to destroy God’s purposes in the lives of His people.
In Revelation 17, we see the mature embodiment of this religious spirit literally drunk from swallowing the lives and the potential destinies of so many of God’s people. There we see her sitting comfortably on many waters which we are told represent “masses of people of every nation and language” (Revelation 17:15 NLT).
In Revelation 17, we see this fully mature religious spirit as she “reigns over and dominates and controls the kings and the political leaders of the earth” (Revelation 17:18 AMP), but this “Mother of Prostitutes” did not start out as “Babylon the Great”. The power of this religious system had its beginnings in subtle decisions made by a group of people many, many years ago.
“Babylon the Great” had its beginnings in a group of people who “moved to the east and found a broad valley in Babylon. There they made their home” (Genesis 11:2 NIRV).
After settling into life in Babylon, these people began to build “a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven” (Genesis 11:4 NASB). But they substituted brick for stone and slime for mortar. I explain the significance of this in greater detail in my article The Scattering of Babel and Why Your Church Needs It!, but this is the beginning of every false religious system that has been seen in the world since that time.
These early Babylonians were trying to reach Heaven through human effort. They were not doing things God’s way. They were not following His guidance. They replaced God’s way with a substitute. The narrative in Genesis 11 points out that rather than building with stone, which is provided in nature by the Creator, they used bricks, which are man-made. Building their structure with man-made materials, using man’s methods, and man’s ideas rather than God’s, they redirected people to serve institutional goals that were not God’s will for their lives.
“They traded the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served things that were made by man. But they did not worship and serve the God who made those things. God should be praised forever. Amen.”—Romans 1:25 (ICB)
Today, the same religious spirit that inspired the building of the Tower of Babel is still pulling people away from God’s purposes for their lives and using them in order to serve the goals of religious leaders whose aim is to build a structure, an organization, a church, that will reach Heaven and make a name for themselves.
“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.”—John 10:1 (NKJV)
