There are a few things that make me extremely angry. The first is Christian leaders who don't teach their people to pray. The second is leaders who defame and dishonor the name of God.
Bill Gothard did both, because where you find one you will almost always find the other. Leaders who defame the name of God cannot be praying leaders. It's impossible.
Many think of prayer as a rote initiation of words before a sermon. A blessing. A recitation. But that's not what I'm referring to here. I'm referring to prayer as abiding; the kind of constant connection with God Jesus described when he said, ‘Abide in me, and you will bear much fruit.’ To abide is to remain with, to stay connected to, and dwell with someone. In this case that someone is Christ.
So when a leader replaces connection to Christ with connection to self, or a system, or the tidy list of rules, the natural next step is the defamation of God's name. Never all at once, of course. That would be too obvious. But if the connection, trust, and “abiding” aren't happening with God, they have to happen somewhere because people are made for worship. Bill Gothard used God as the pathway for people to connect with himself. God was the “endorser”, so to speak, of the system. But the system was Gothard's, not God's. So it is with every prayerless system. People must connect with something and if they are not being taught how to walk in connection with God, they will adhere to whatever is provided to replace Him. Gothard was a prayerless leader providing a system that made God obsolete even while it operated under His name. Why bother with God Himself? You have the rules!
There's a lot more that could be said about this episode in terms of handling abuse - the need to make churches mandatory reporters, the victim blaming and demonic glorification of sexual abuse, the lack of institutional checks and balances. These are huge issues and they need to be addressed. But I want to focus on the front end of things – how to become people who can discern these trends in a person or ministry very, very early. And it begins with prayer.
Praying people are discerning people. You can read the Bible all day long but without the Spirit of God you will not have the wisdom to recognize false teachers and liars when they appear. It is the Spirit of Christ who best reveals the spirit of antichrist. We recognize the real thing, not by training in the fake, but in memorizing what is real. How do we know what is truly of Christ? By spending time with Him. By abiding in Him. By being connected to Him…. through prayer.
Prayer is the vehicle of intimacy with God, and only through intimacy with God are we able to overcome sin! This is why the lists of rules and behaviors only work for so long. You are indeed as safe from sin as you are close to Christ - because the closer you are to Christ, the more quickly you recognize sin in yourself and others.
Bill Gothard taught people not to abide in Christ, but to abide in Bill Gothard. This is in turn blinded them to his abuse. I am not blaming his followers for their own spiritual immaturity; I am blaming the leader for teaching a framework that is not only unbiblical, but blasphemous. Any system that replaces intimacy with Christ with dependence on a man has upended the heart of Christianity. And one of the markers of such a system is a lack of Holy Spirit-led prayer.
Intimacy with Christ is the motivator to holiness. Not rules. Not approval. Not power. And intimacy with Christ leads to a discerning spirit that is able to sift and question. Legalism, as I said in past emails, creates undiscerning Christians who fear questioning the system. But abiding in Christ creates strong and free Christians who hold everything to the Light – including their leaders.
Cut people off from prayer, teach them to rely on a system or person instead of on God Himself through Christ, and you can create people who must use human wisdom as their own personal “Holy Spirit”. It is in the worst interest of false prophets and teachers to teach their people how to walk by the Spirit, so they never do it. Because if individuals walk by the Spirit, they will be equipped to walk away from a false teacher - to be free from his power.
So for all of us seeking to prevent dependency on a teacher, to teach people how to recognize spiritual manipulation, to teach Christians how to be strong and free, teach them first to know the Spirit and His voice! Teach them to pray. Teach them to abide. Teach them to be so close to Christ they recognize the fake. The best part? People who are close to Christ are empowered to true justice. They expose every false word to the Light, they work for the freedom of those in bondage, and they partner with God in binding up the brokenhearted.
This is why I always be “for the Awakening” - the next great revival of Holy Spirit-led believers, the ones who understand intimacy with God and walk in it. These are Christians who set people free.
So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Gal. 5:16
