Human Trafficking in the Church — Part 25
Recognizing the Six Characteristics of the Religious Spirit of Babylon
They said, “Come, let us build a city for ourselves, and a tower whose top will reach into the heavens, and let us make a [famous] name for ourselves, so that we will not be scattered [into separate groups] and be dispersed over the surface of the entire earth [as the Lord instructed].”—Genesis 11:4 (AMP)
6. Not Being Scattered (continued)
When God finds a church focused in on itself, He certainly does not want to leave it like that. We see His mercy in providing a solution for that in Genesis 11:5-9:
“And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. And the Lord said, Behold, they are one people and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do, and now nothing they have imagined they can do will be impossible for them. Come, let Us go down and there confound (mix up, confuse) their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.
“So the Lord scattered them abroad from that place upon the face of the whole earth, and they gave up building the city. Therefore the name of it was called Babel—because there the Lord confounded the language of all the earth; and **from that place the Lord scattered them abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” **(AMP)
The people of this “church” had turned their focus inward and had planned to build an impressive city and a tower in order to prevent them from being scattered. But being scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth was exactly what God wanted for them! From the very beginning, God had commissioned people to “Be fruitful and multiply;** fill the earth** and subdue it…” (Genesis 1:28 NKJV). In this New Testament age, God’s plan has not changed. He still commands us to “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15 NKJV). God never intended for the church to become a dwelling place that simply feeds itself and grows fat.
Be Scattered!
God has a history of causing His people to be scattered abroad whenever He has noticed that they were “settling” too much in one place. In contrast to the religious spirit of Babylon which encourages believers to turn inward and settle into religious traditions, Jesus goes to great lengths to scatter His people.
He gives churches a chance to answer His call to send people out to do the work of evangelists and missionaries, but if churches choose not to do so voluntarily, God has other means of motivating His people. God can even use the devil and the persecution he brings upon the church to accomplish His purposes in sending His people beyond the borders of their comfort zones, as we see in Acts 11:19-21:
“Now those who were scattered after the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word…. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord.” (NKJV)
In the story of Babel, God used the confusion of languages to cause the people to be scattered. The confusion of languages was not God’s goal, it was simply the means that God used in that case to scatter the people into all the world. He could have used many other means to accomplish this goal. If God has to, He will allow severe persecution in order to shake us out of our complacency, get us out of our comfort zones, and send us out to where the people with needs are! He did that in Acts chapter 8. He will do it again if need be!
“And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles. And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison. Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.”—Acts 8:1-4 (KJV)
In our day, God could have stopped the worldwide pandemic, but instead, God used the pandemic to push His people out of their comfort zones and to use new and creative ways to reach out to people. Many believers could not seem to move forward as they mourned the loss of the traditional ways of “doing church” that had brought them such comfort in past years. Many focused their efforts on “returning to normal,” just like Lot’s wife who could not resist looking back longingly at what she had grown so accustomed to. And just like the children of Israel on their way to God’s promised land, they voiced complaints about the current conditions they were forced to live under and expressed a desire to return to the lifestyle they left behind, even as God was delivering them into something even greater, if they were willing to catch the vision for where God was taking them.
But those believers who were open to embrace new things that God might be doing found new doors opening that allowed many of them to connect with people in new ways with exciting possibilities for evangelism and discipleship. Many new ministries were birthed during the pandemic, and many others saw their influence expand significantly!
“The level of new and intensified social outreach and community ministry undertaken by the nation’s churches is monumental.” (Hartford)
As one church reported, “We simply said yes to new things and discontinued tired ministries based on guidance from the Holy Spirit.”
In America, changes to the tax laws have resulted in a reduction in allowances for tax-deductible contributions to churches. Soon, churches may be stripped of their tax-exempt status all together. Spiritual human traffickers will rail against these measures because it will remove incentives that encourage people to give to support huge religious institutions, but this is also a blessing from God as He uses these new laws to cause His church to be scattered and to cause house churches and home discipleship groups to flourish.
“For the shepherds have become dull-hearted, And have not sought the Lord; Therefore they shall not prosper, And all their flocks shall be scattered.”—Jeremiah 10:21 (NKJV)
Why Does God Scatter His People?
God scatters His people in order to motivate them to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth, as He has commanded (Mark 16:15). God even uses the devil’s own persecution of God’s people to accomplish His will in scattering His people.
In addition to this, God scatters His ministers in order to care for His sheep. Many of God’s people—His sheep—are already scattered across the whole earth, but they have inadequate access to the “sincere milk of the Word” and the “meat” of solid teaching that they need to grow up to be healthy, mature believers. Because of this, God scatters His ministers in order to feed His sheep. The sheep are already scattered! If we’re going to feed them, we must scatter!
“So they were scattered because there was no shepherd; and they became food for all the beasts of the field when they were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and on every high hill; yes, My flock was scattered over the whole face of the earth, and no one was seeking or searching for them.”—Ezekiel 34:5-6 (NKJV)
“But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.”—Matthew 9:36 (KJV)
When we reach out beyond the walls of our churches to feed others, we feed Jesus. As we have done to the least of these, we have done to Him (Matthew 25:40)! Jesus asked Peter no less than three times if Peter loved Him. Each time Peter assured Jesus that he did. Jesus responded by saying, “Then feed my sheep.” Feeding His sheep is one way that Jesus wants us to show our love for Him. Loving Jesus involves feeding His sheep.
In order to reach those who are hungry and lost, we must be scattered!
Reference:
Hartford Institute for Religion Research. (2021, December). Congregational Response to the Pandemic: Extraordinary Social Outreach in a Time of Crisis. Retrieved August 7, 2022, from https://www.covidreligionresearch.org/research/national-survey-research/