Pergamum: Where Satan Has His Throne
God is warning me to be careful here.
So I’ll only share about twenty of the most serious words from that season in the next three chapters. This is dealing with judgment and God’s holiness and it is not to be repeated or shared carelessly. Please respect the seriousness of this situation. This is also so important to me because this is where I learned what it really meant to be a Prophet.
The Tree of Life Church was cool, trendy, wealthy and fun. Full of young professional expatriots and overseas Chinese, they did a lot of work with refugees and music. They were started by a group of mostly musicians and by the time I showed up they had developed their music ministry into a professional level of entertainment and performance. They called their style of ministry ‘Tree of Life DNA,’ which was modern, used media and had money. The problems facing their ministry were invisible to most people—I certainly didn’t know this was a problem until God graciously showed me—but the spiritual heart of the ministry was being eroded by temptations of pride, control and making money, not serving the Lord but serving their own purposes and goals—preserving ‘Tree of Life DNA’ itself became the goal. And I would have been just like everyone else myself if God didn’t stop me and show me these things. He even told me this. He also told me he was now going to give me what they were all seeking—I suppose it was because I had given it up and sought Him instead, but he was mostly responsible for me doing that as well.
The Flesh’s Last Stand
And at one point I actually felt the church seemed to finally be coming to its senses and they held a sermon series called, ‘The Prophetic Church.’ This was exciting. I wondered if they would ask me to teach. Nope. The first sermon was really good, biblical and a repeat of all the verses we commonly teach about the prophetic ministry, the same things we used to teach back in New Hampshire: Numbers 11:29, Amos 3:7, 1 Corinthians 12 and 14, 2 Chronicles 20:20, etc. I wanted to commend them for a great message and maybe I did. But it went downhill quickly after there. It was a multiple-week sermon series, not three or four but eight weeks! And I guess they ran out of things to say especially for people who are not in the prophetic ministry themselves and so it became a lot of reasons why pastors need to be in control of prophets, and that most ‘prophets’ are false especially when they have ‘negative’ words and don’t support their leaders; they are just renegades and there were several things that were directed at me and my wife personally. We just sat there smiling as long as we could.
But it soon did became unbearable and I wondered why no one would interject and stop this obvious tirade against the prophetic ministry when the Lord spoke, “This is the flesh’s last stand against the Spirit.”
And later I saw Jesus as big as a tall building walking over to the church, removing the roof like it was the lid of a box, reaching in and puling out handfuls of snakes from the church!
“My Word for the Tree of Life IS Pergamum,
and I’m SERIOUS.”
Then he gave me the word on Pergamum. This was not the first word God gave me about this church—the Beach Vision was. But this was the biggest and most detailed explanation of a prophetic word, and a biblical prophecy I ever shared as it explains the complex spiritual dynamics in great detail. Sorry if it’s a little ‘academic.’ And I did edit a few points now as over the last 15 years or so Jesus taught me even more on the topic to further explain this situation, and I removed some things that are too pedantic—I just want to help you understand the issue.
So it happened like this. One week we had a guest speaker from Australia and he gave a message on the Church in Pergamum from Revelations, and at first I was shocked that he would do such a thing as give such a serious rebuke to the church so casually! But when he read the passage, HE OMITTED THE REBUKE!, and just said that God was going to give us a white stone (acquittal) and a new name (forgiven). He had a small pouch with white pebbles in it, and every time he said ‘white stone’ he took one out, made a comment about forgiveness for sin, and dropped the pebble onto the floor. Then got another pebble, and another and it was a cute gimmick—a real rehearsed stage performance.
Leaving the meeting entertained but unsatisfied God spoke to me and it stopped me cold in my steps saying, “Oh, My Word for the Tree of Life IS Pergamum, and I’m SERIOUS.”
I read the passage but had no idea what it meant so I did a lot research and discovered something very profound. I wrote this article and published it in our journal HKI without mentioning it was for our church since I didn’t want to embarrass them publicly. But I gave it to a few elders who were also prophetic and would understand.
So the Lord said this was His word to the Tree of Life, “And I’m serious,” He added. It took me six months to get this interpretation ready and I finally told an elder and he said he did not have to listen to my word because I am not an elder. Only an elder can give an elder a prophetic word he said, which was not our doctrine but he also added defiantly, “So I will disregard this word.” Funny, because that is the exact manifestation of “Pergamum!”
Later we needed two more elders, since Eunice the intercessor and he himself both quit, and the leadership chose a businessman who was a casual attender and a young investment banker whose brother was a youth leader to fill those roles. According to their by-laws a vote of the members was required to approve this change in eldership. So they hand-chose these two replacements and then announced to everyone, ‘Come Wednesday to vote for these two people to be elders.’ Again, that is Pergamum. The church of many hundreds of people were being asked to vote not for new elders from the pool of church members, and not to vote to choose two out of five or six candidates, but to come and vote ‘yes’ to two candidates handpicked by the current leaders to fill two positions. Not until a few days before the vote did Eunice say it was funny to tell people to come to vote them in, shouldn’t they have written ‘Come and vote them in or not.’ I said, that’s not even half the problem, and explained my view.
[Now here I’ll cut a section on the idea of government separation of powers, since it really is not prophetic but political science. But if you are familiar with either US Constitutional Law or political science in general, you will understand the basic ideas of a free government and safeguards against tyranny, famously first written by Alexis de Tocqueville. To have to evoke a discussion of concepts of secular government to teach ‘professionals’ in church leadership what corruption looks like, well … they needed the insight so I shared it impartially. People need to know what’s what without judgment or condemnation sometimes so they can be more free to make the right choices.]
Thinking this over it became more evident to me that the real goal of the ‘Nicolaitan’ spirit in Pergamum is to divide the leadership from God’s counsel in the Body, to remove any checks or balances on their power. It is the creation of two classes of people, the rulers (clergy) and the common people (laity), whereas while God has ordained leaders, we are an equal brotherhood of priests, people who all submit one to another. There is no such thing in God’s Kingdom as a ‘clergy class’ who have power over the ‘laity class’ and are unapproachable or unstoppable by them. This is heresy! Although sadly it is also very common. This strategy is to lead the leadership away from God’s will and destroy them, driving them over a cliff, into God’s wrath, whatever. This problem in our midst had been confirmed several times, but left unchecked for years and now was bearing it’s evil fruit. Here is an in-depth look I published in our journal and shared with key leaders.
Pergamum: to Exalt Man / Be Joined to the World
The seven church prophecies in Revelations describe real churches in the first century, as well as an age of the church’s overall development over the last 2,000 years, as well as the spiritual condition of specific churches or congregations that could exist at any time during any age.
The section of Revelations that deals with Pergamum is Revelations 2:12-17. This was a real Greek city now in modern day Turkey.
The recognized “Era of Pergamum” is generally held to be from the start of the reign of Constantine for about 300 years. During this time there were several developments in general Christendom, some good others bad.
“Pergamum” can literally mean two general things: First, it means “to exalt and put something on a pedestal,” since Pergamum was a city built high on a promontory, a cliff on three sides, so this word came to be used to mean “to exalt” and to worship something, and it even was used to refer to the idol pedestals themselves used to display idols of pagan deities in the home.
And since Pergamum as a city was known as the first and most prominent place Ceasar was exalted and worshipped as Divine—it carries a sense of it being the church where men in leadership are exalted and ‘worshipped’ which leads to obvious forms of abuse.
Oddly enough it was also during this Age of Pergamum when we first saw the clear separation of “clergy” from “laity” which was the end of the real operation of the priesthood of all believers.
So while in Pergamum the City we saw the establishment of a kind of pagan hero worship of leaders, in the Church Age of Pergamum we saw the creation of a clear leadership hierarchy of rulership over the “common” saints, an artificial creation of a leadership class separate from the regular people.
The second meaning of this word Pergamum, comes from the Greek word itself which seems to be derived from the word “to marry.” The “marriage” suggestion of this condition is equally disturbing because it refers to an open mixture of the sacred with the profane (mixing Biblical doctrines with the world, or worldly ways, especially in this case with regard to leadership issues, control and authority).
Constantine himself is one of the clearest examples of this pollution. Constantine was a pagan general who adopted Christianity without a spiritual conversion experience of becoming ‘born again’ or repenting of his sins. He adopted Christianity as one may adopt a patron benefactor, or become a fan of a winning sports team, and he did this when he supposedly saw a vision or a dream of a kind of crooked cross before a victorious and decisive battle in Rome.
It is noteworthy that he did not see a vision of Christ causing him to repent of his sins, or meet Jesus and experience conviction and a need for salvation, nor did he confess or repent of his sins, and never gave up his pagan practices, but in fact openly embraced and promoted paganism alongside Christianity until his death.
Some accounts of his vision are devoid of seeing anything other than a slanted X. Others include the phrase “In Hoc Signo Vinces,” meaning “In this sign you shall conquer.” The most spiritual account of his revelation was seeing Christ who told him to paint a certain kind of cross symbol on his army’s shields. The vision he claims was of Christ was at best lacking in any real spiritual significance and at worst was totally fabricated, as his previous vision of Apollo certainly was, which he used to justify shifting the basis of his allegiance and his legitimacy as a ruler within the turbulent Roman empire. He swapped teams basically and said Apollo told him to do it.
Constantine was tolerant of Christians during the Great Persecution under Diocletian and when he came to power after a civil war he did establish the Edict of Milan granting general religious freedom to everyone, not just Christians.
Even later in life Constantine still was never exclusively a Christian but continued to offer oblation to several pagan deities, even holding the title of Pontifex Maximus, meaning Head of the Pagan Priesthood, his entire life—a term that very much later became a title of the Catholic popes, but at his time only had a pagan meaning.
So while religious tolerance was a mark of his government, it was at the expense of allowing pagan mixture into the church, and even by having a secular government leader become de facto head of the Church, involving himself in all major church decisions.
So we first can read “Pergamum” as exalting men in leadership, and also as allowing a mixture of holy and carnal or worldly ways, especially regarding earthly leadership and control. This sets the tone for much of the other prophetic symbolism in this prophecy.
The other spiritual indicators of this church which make this picture more detailed are the presence of Satan’s throne, the martyrdom of Antipas, and the presence of the Nicolaitans and of Balaam.
Where Satan has his ‘Throne’
A throne is a reference to a seat of authority. In Revelations 2:13 Pergamum is referred to as the place where Satan has his throne. This throne was first a physical shrine, which was probably the monument known as the Pergamon Altar removed to Berlin in the early 1900’s where it still rests at the Pergamon Museum today. [Modern prophets have seen the coming Man of Sin given global power by world leaders in the aftermath of the chaos caused by the rapture, and this meeting will be held in Berlin where they will all give him their political power and authority, and he will then ascend and seat himself on this actual throne in Berlin. That is just a note and has nothing to do with this interpretation but bears a brief mention I think –EJ.]
However the idea of a ‘seat of authority’ surely has a secondary, spiritual or prophetic meaning as well … in this we hear the echo of Ezekiel 34:4 (NIV)
4“You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally.”
So ‘Pergamum’ is the place where Satan’s style or spirit of authority is exercised within the church. This I think defines the overall nature of the spiritual condition that this prophecy stands for. People mistakenly think the gospel doesn’t include such ‘tangents’ as leadership methods and styles, but this is wrong. HOW we lead, doing so as servants, as brothers, as those who have to give an account is mentioned well over a dozen times in the gospels. Can the Gospel be spread using the sword using violence and murder as tools as was often done under the old Spanish Empire? They built dungeons and jails and committed torture inside their churches. That may seem like an extreme example, but you can clearly see the WAY we obey God is also a crucial part of the Gospel we preach. WHAT we preach is integral to HOW we preach it. We simply cannot spread the Gospel employing a worldly style or spirit of leadership. That’s what this reference boils down to. And the other prophetic symbols in this word clearly support this main idea, which are:
Antipas, who Opposes the Regime
“Antipas” can probably be correctly read as the “one who opposes the pope”—or generally the one who opposes a supreme human leadership figure in the church who is a Man but who is treated as Divine, or at least as divinely infallible and certainly unquestionable. More in a few pages.
This tells me that there is obviously conflict in this environment between the errant leadership and true followers of Christ who will resist their error. What would such leadership do to these dissenters?
The Nicolaitans, whom God Hates
Then we have the “Nicolaitans” which plainly means someone who “rules the people like a tyrant,” and refers to an authoritarian control spirit where the class of leaders hold themselves to be immune to rebuke or correction by the “laity,” and so lead with impunity more as overlords or CEO-type leaders than true servants of Christ. Those in the “laity” class of non-clergy or non-leaders are often intimidated and marginalized. Jesus also told me that in this situation a leadership “inner circle” will always exist; this is a group consisting of the people who are groomed to protect the leaders in exchange for perks and benefits, and sure some may even one day hope to receive the leadership torch themselves, but mostly not, they get the benefits really by being the powers unseen behind the throne, not by being the public figurehead in the spotlight. So the problem is not an individual leader, but a ‘class of leaders’ or even a system that supports him or her to share in the money and power.
This is all clearly sinful and carnal.
This spiritual power is also mentioned in the prophecy to the Church in Ephesus in Revelations 2:6 (NIV):
“But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.”
‘Nicolaitan’ is a universally negative connotation.
(Note: Regarding other ways to interpret “Nicolaitans,” there was an ancient sect of followers of a “Nicolas” who led people into obtuse sinfulness, even during worship services, to celebrate their belief that “grace ended sin.”
I don’t believe this is the reference being conveyed here because such a doctrine is hardly common in any modern church and never was a type of the whole Body during an entire age of its existence. So I don’t think this kind of extreme hedonism is what is alluded to by this reference to the Nicolaitans, but some do, and so I want to mention it. Instead I do think the leadership control problem is much more likely and is confirmed by the other issues raised by the term “Pergamum” itself.)
Balaam, who was Rebuked by a Donkey
And then we come to “Balaam,” which has two sides, both of them bad. This Hebrew name means, “to devour the people,” very similar to the first way to read ‘Nico’-‘lait’-an.
On one side of the possible interpretations of this spiritual demonic power, he helped Israel’s enemies destroy her spiritual covering by luring the men into sexual immorality. Balaam knew this sinfulness would destroy God’s hedge of protection around them and it did! He taught the enemies of God’s people how to break their Divine covering by tempting the men into sexual immortality and this caused the deaths of many of God’s people. So Balaam leads people into immorality, both sexual and spiritual no doubt. (This may support the second meaning of Nicolaitan admittedly!)
But Balaam was also a hireling, who would do anything for money, even witchcraft, and this is less scandalous an explanation, but a more common problem in my opinion. Certainly leaders in Pergamum, like Balaam, are hirelings, and don’t authentically care for the sheep, but serve primarily for money.
Now I know not everyone who serves and gets a salary is “Balaam,” for in fact the ministers of the Gospel are SUPPOSED to be paid for their ministry work.
1 Corinthians 9:14—“Even so the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel.”
But there is a difference between the sincere servant who has bills to pay, and the charlatan who hides his wrong motives behind a veil of propriety. Balaam wears the mask of a true servant, yet is not one at heart, which the Holy Spirit will reveal … and judge.
Balaam therefore can clearly be called both adultery and idolatry in leadership, so this second side of the character of Balaam actually validates the first in a way: He spreads immorality, unfaithfulness and idol worship, leading the people into destruction, and does it for personal benefit. Note: a false teacher has false doctrines, yes, but this is because they operate from a sinful heart, wrong motives and carnal character.
So in Pergamum We Have:
1. The exalting of carnal man as divine, meaning leaders tend to be regarded as infallible, unquestionable, and untouchable, which is usually based on their position or title;
2. A mixture of the sacred and the profane; carnal ways, secular goals, worldly motives and desires infect the community of saints and so are “married” to the spiritual administration of the church and the doctrines of Christ, preventing the operation of one without the other. It is systemic pollution, mixture and corruption;
3. It is noteworthy to recall that this city is first described as the place where Satan has his throne, or seat of authority, which I think specifically refers to this combined environment of perversion in leadership—control and harsh rule over the sheep, meaning not genuinely healing the people but probably in our age entertaining them instead, or ‘healing them but doing so only slightly’;
4. The Nicolaitan control spirit of the clergy over the regular people makes leaders unaccountable as “lords” over the normal “un-ordained” members, who are excluded from meaningful participation in core church functions, especially such things as teaching, decision making, finances, preaching or leadership.
The existence of a leadership ‘inner circle’ of yes-men who defend the leadership class and promote the doctrines that defend their power is practically guaranteed—this is what Jesus told me—it is a group issue, more than an individual acting on his or her own. This strongly reinforces the idea of carnal men with titles acting as being infallible and above common scrutiny;
5. So Hirelings shepherd the people and “Balaam” them, devouring them as they are polluted and deceived and led into immorality, unfaithfulness and idol worship—what idols? First and foremost the idols of worship of the leaders and of the organization ‘brand’;
[Note: Later God told me it was for the sins of Jeroboam that he was upset, which I will share in the coming chapters, and it is this same thing: making idols to secure the loyalty of the people to the organization, and appointing unqualified loyalists to positions of influence and ministry instead of ‘Levites’ who are the real vessels chosen, equipped and anointed by God to teach and serve his people.]
6. We would also expect any real challenge to the growing apostasy of leaders not to be tolerated, and this is how one may read of “Antipas” who struggles against this system and is in fact “martyred” or persecuted in this community by unrepentant leaders.
The goal of this demonic strategy is to separate the decision makers from the protection of God, and the correction or real leading of Christ, which will often intentionally come from God through the humble, regular members of the Body in the ‘laity.’
As the leaders make a power-grab, a hijacking of the community, and insulate themselves from hearing or being accountable to the voice of God telling them to repent, such leaders will often believe their own deception, that they have a divine infallibility since they are the leaders God has chosen and appointed, so they cannot possibly make mistakes—at least they often say such things! The result is that they will shipwreck the community.
Such leaders operating in this deception of legitimacy rule for themselves, by themselves, for their own comfort and privilege, to establish their own dynasty and protect their own heritage … and end up leading the people who follow them over a cliff!
This is why the Bible says the blind lead the blind who follow them and they all fall into a pit! (Matthew 15:14). We have an obligation to see this error, and not follow it.
So likewise the people who discern and correct such errant leaders are often ostracized and “martyred”—remember this was where “Antipas” was in fact actually killed—but martyrdom is not failure! Instead it is a precious sacrifice in the Lord’s eyes of a person’s comfort, opportunities and acceptance in a system for the sake of Truth, in order to help restore the people to walking the Lord’s correct path. “Antipas” will be passed over for promotion, ministry opportunities, financial support and endorsement within this system—which are ways Christ’s true disciples suffer persecution from false leaders in the modern church—but incidents of actual martyrdom are still prevalent and are increasing in most parts of the world as well.
Note: this is also James 5, isn’t it?! That the rich in the last days withheld the wages due to the “workers who mowed their fields”—Jesus told us he’s not talking about farmers here, but the cooperation he intended between members of the Body, some who have jobs ‘in the city’ and others who will go out into the ‘fields’ to ‘mow’ or ‘harvest the crops,’ reaching the souls for salvation. He says the wealthy withheld this support and lived in luxury while ‘condemning and killing’ those who did not oppose them. How so? By withholding crucial support such as prayer, money and manpower!
Yes, so consider this carefully when someone says they are raising money for overseas missions and you instead want to redecorate your living room. Missionaries far too often suffer, are jailed and die simply because they lack basic support in various ways. Unsaved people think they are easy targets who cannot defend themselves because they obviously have no backing, no supporting group behind them and so no one will retaliate if they are harmed. God sees this all of course, but James still says they were condemned and killed because the rich withheld support from them. So ‘Antipas’ suffers in this polluted church environment, just as the Lord’s true servants often do in the global mission field. Please take this to heart.
Overcoming Pergamum
And so the promises to the overcomers of Pergamum are clear and wonderful: hidden manna—deep revelation others do not have; and a “white stone” with a “new name”—maybe meaning acquittal or forgiveness and a new identity, and I would expect these victories in this environment would somehow reflect their struggle against abusive leadership thinking. They will understand true servanthood better than probably any others since they lived through the opposite regime.
But also, the promise that God WILL AVENGE is very strong!
He WILL attack Pergamum, fighting against unrepentant usurpers “with the sword of His Mouth,” meaning the prophetic word surely, but also the Living Word of God which will DO what God has THREATENED and bring justice and freedom! It is not a harsh tongue-lashing that Pergamum will endure but the living, active proclamation of Divine wrath, energized by the Spirit of Indignation. God’s church WILL BE PURE when He comes for it.
And so “Antipas” will likewise be rewarded.
And the reason why I am explaining this at such length is because this Pergamum church is pretty much the exact opposite picture of how leadership functions in the Holy Spirit in the Kingdom of God.
Jesus later explained to me that the spirit of leadership in the World is a ‘Spirit of No!’ Where the leaders stand on top of the organizational pyramid and look down on the people and say things like, “No! You can’t come up here! You can’t get a raise! You can’t get what YOU want! No!” He said the spirit of leadership in the world (even when it is manifesting within the church) is the ‘Spirit of NO!’
But then Jesus said, in his Kingdom this is not how leadership manifests, and he took the pyramid and turned it up-side down, with the point at the bottom where he was holding it and he said, “In my Kingdom I hold EVERYBODY up! And I say things like, ‘YES! Yes, you can do it! You can achieve your calling! You can achieve your dream … You know what? Let me help you achieve those things. TOGETHER, YES you can do it! Yes!’” He said the spirit of leadership in his Kingdom is the ‘Spirit of Yes!’
So in fact in Pergamum this kind of worldly, oppressive organizational atmosphere or leadership style will literally SHUT or CLOSE the Kingdom, first in people’s hearts, and then in the community. “Church” may very well go on for years unabated I am sure, but the blessings of the Kingdom will be far from them. Man’s ways DO NOT produce God’s blessings!
And notice that much of what we are talking about is NOT doctrines or core beliefs of the Christian faith. The problem is not so much a matter of theology of God’s deity, Christ’s atonement, the validity of the Bible, the major End Times events, doctrinal positions on social issues or general morality, baptisms or spiritual manifestations.
The problem with Pergamum is more subtle than that! And more devious! It is the way the leaders see themselves, see their role, act in leadership, treat others, and the way they operate to administer the ministry they think is Christ’s. It is the hearts of those who claim to shepherd the people on Christ’s behalf. God sees the hearts and it is through the hearts of leaders that the Kingdom manifests in a community.
[END of Original Text]
So that’s the main text of what I shared at that time. But over the next few years God continued to explain this to me, sometimes in great detail and asked me to include Servant Leadership as one of the main Keys of the Kingdom in The Foundations of the Kingdom teaching.
You see, if you want to be great—that’s fine. You can do it, but you must become like a child, like a servant of all to do so. This lesson on who is Great—even who is Greatest in the Kingdom is not only mentioned once in the New Testament. Not mentioned only twice. Most of our doctrines come from only ONE CLEAR VERSE, to find TWO verses is strong confirmation. Do you need a third? Well, this lesson on servant-hearted leadership is in the Gospels over NINE TIMES. In Mark 10 it is in the same chapter TWICE! Yet here we are again having to dissect Greek words and review ancient history to explain to church leaders that it’s wrong to be a tyrant and ‘lord it over the people.’ What is the Greek word for being a ‘goat’? How do you say ‘Unwise Virgins’ in Aramaic?
And God dealing with this situation makes me think of the ending of the parable of the Tares as well, Matthew 13:24-43, the key parts are:
39b … “The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. 40As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 41The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. 42They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.” (NIV)
The other verse that comes to mind when talking about this kind of church is Ezekiel 34, God’s judgment against the false shepherds, and even between the sheep, judging between the ‘fat’ and ‘lean.’ God WILL remove abusive leadership from his faithful sheep, especially now during the fullness of time when the harvest is becoming ripe, which is what the parable of the Wheat and the Tares is all about. Amen! [End of teaching]
The Result? Repentance, Right?
So that’s not a normal prophetic interpretation but more like a scholarly research paper. But good! First, God only told me ‘Pergamum’ was his prophecy for the church and didn’t tell me anything about it. The publicly available research was so clear I felt it was enough to present it like this; these were professionals I was talking to after all—I figured when in Rome, you know, do as the Romans. So I should talk to them in the way a professional wants to be spoken to. What a great lesson to learn, right?!
Later as I became more able to hear God speak to me for long conversations and I got real prophetic interpretations from the Holy Spirit for dreams and such, I would have preferred to sit in the Lord’s presence long enough to hear him explain this word from Revelations himself, but I couldn’t really do that at that early time. But I still think this is a good and understandable exposition of a biblical prophecy and I think by the Holy Spirit that it is correct.
And so what happened? Did it arrest their wayward ambitions in their tracks? Did they repent in sackcloth and ashes, declare a fast and weep bitterly for the sin in their midst?
No, they simply ignored it.
Making the Nazirites Drink Wine
Even worse, I’ll share this … I told you that a few years before this God delivered me from alcohol and he also gave me two dreams back then asking me not to drink anymore: first he said it was a bad example, and second he said I am a king, and drunkenness is not befitting a king. It was my choice, my sacrifice for him and it was easy for me to do. So I didn’t drink alcohol anymore—Oh, wait! That’s not entirely true! There was that one time …
I was helping pastor Mike apply to the government for a disused court building so we could re-purpose it for the Church and Ministry. The application with the best proposed use of the old building would be given it for free. It was a long and very extensive application process but since he worked at a famous architectural and engineering firm, he was able to get people to help with the technical aspects as volunteers. He was team leader and I oversaw the writing, editing and compilation of the submission; it was not easy.
When we finally submitted it he invited everyone in the team, who were mostly unsaved young architects and engineers, to a celebratory meal in the Kowloon Tong Mall where his offices were. He asked me what I wanted to drink, a cocktail or glass of wine for a celebration toast.
I said, “Oh, not any more, thank you.” But then he tried to pressure me by saying I was being religious and just fearful, and I had to decline pointedly several times. I explained I’m not a recovering alcoholic, and I think it’s fine for Christians to drink a little if they want to, but God asked me not to personally. It’s my choice.
Oh come on! And he ordered me a wine and needled me about being afraid and bound by made-up religious legalism. Am I scared of what one glass of house white wine will do to me?
“No, it’s not sin, and I CAN drink, I just choose not to.”
“OK let’s have a toast, pick up your glass.”
I was embarrassed for his sake and didn’t want to make a scene in front of his staff, most, like I said, were unsaved. Knowing my freedom in Christ, and to avoid a faux pas scene in public I sipped for the toast to the team. Cheap white wine? What’s the temptation?
Now I was above any silly moral dilemmas on the issue. This was not a question of sin or disobedience. God never TOLD me not to drink alcohol—he simply said it was wisdom, being a good example, it’s not for a king to get drunk. The Lord never threatened me with punishment. I was obeying this advice out of respect and honor to the Lord, not from fear of a threat of punishment. God’s kindness leads us to repentance. Those who love him obey his commands. I didn’t have guilt or a crisis in my conscience. And I’m certainly not thin-skinned, but as I got home I was feeling, well, slightly disrespected I think, that’s all. I didn’t take the matter to heart, but it seems that someone else did. I just grabbed the Bible casually—I mean it was instant—and it opened to this verse that I wasn’t even familiar with: Amos 2:12, which read, “But you made the Nazirites drink wine, and commanded the prophets, saying, ‘You shall not prophesy.’”
I even shared this with him later. Let him ferment over that a while!
