Kicking Pharaoh out of the Church

Exodus 5:15-16

¹⁵ “So the Israelite foremen went to Pharaoh and pleaded with him. ‘Please don’t treat your servants like this,’ they begged. ¹⁶ ‘We are given no straw, but the slave drivers still demand, ‘Make bricks!’ We are being beaten, but it isn’t our fault! Your own people are to blame!’” 

The Lord prompted me to open this blog page in 2012 which has led to revelations such as this one for the Body of Christ about what is God’s heart for His people and how leaders and members handle or neglect to apply the principles of His Kingdom. This time and once more, we are dealing with the area of giving to God in tithes and offerings.

The Lord has seen how many of His leaders have become like Pharaoh in the way the deal with the people’s giving to Him. They have built a kingdom of their own at the expense of the people being treated like slaves in this area and others. This is nothing new in the way many have fell prey of the enemy’s agenda throughout church and Bible history that has led them to adopt the mindset of the spirit of this world by which they have brought the tendencies of Pharaoh, King of Egypt to the way they lead the people under their influence and care.

Pharaoh, who orchestrated the oppression of God’s people and demanded that they give their quota even though they did not have the required materials to do so continues to oppress God’s people in the Church. Today, this is translated in the way many of God’s people lack the necessary knowledge or understanding of God and His Son, and the ways of His Kingdom which can help them be successful at giving to Him and applying the principles that align them with His order with Jesus Christ as their head and the influence of His Kingdom in every area of their lives.

This way, they can take what they learn inside the four walls and apply it as they are used of God in their spheres of influence and authority. However, their lack of knowledge and understanding in how they deal with their lives, including in their giving to God, has made them violators of His principles and are now dealing with the consequences of their violations. Their leaders’ lack of knowledge and understanding which in many cases crossed them  over into greed and selfish ambitions (Mammon worship), caused those who follow them to also neglect following His principles for the Word of God will be fulfilled whether there is understanding of it or not.

Hosea 4:6-7 says,

⁶ “My people are being destroyed
    because they don’t know me.
Since you priests refuse to know me,
    I refuse to recognize you as my priests.
Since you have forgotten the laws of your God,
    I will forget to bless your children.
⁷ The more priests there are,
    the more they sin against me.
They have exchanged the glory of God
    for the shame of idols.^”

Galatians 6:7-9 also explains, ⁷” Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. ⁸ Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. ⁹ So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.”

Another example of the oppression God’s people have suffered which caused them to even loath bringing their tithes and offerings to God is seen in 1 Samuel 2:12-17 which says,

¹² “Now the sons of Eli were scoundrels who had no respect for the Lord ¹³ or for their duties as priests. Whenever anyone offered a sacrifice, Eli’s sons would send over a servant with a three-pronged fork. While the meat of the sacrificed animal was still boiling, ¹⁴ the servant would stick the fork into the pot and demand that whatever it brought up be given to Eli’s sons. All the Israelites who came to worship at Shiloh were treated this way. ¹⁵ Sometimes the servant would come even before the animal’s fat had been burned on the altar. He would demand raw meat before it had been boiled so that it could be used for roasting.

¹⁶ The man offering the sacrifice might reply, ‘Take as much as you want, but the fat must be burned first.’ Then the servant would demand, ‘No, give it to me now, or I’ll take it by force.’ ¹⁷ So the sin of these young men was very serious in the Lord’s sight, for they treated the Lord’s offerings with contempt.”

Here we see how the sons of Eli were more concerned with building their own kingdom than building the Kingdom of God in the lives of the people. They demanded that the offerings were given to them in their own way and even took the meat offered by force just as Pharaoh’s slave drivers were forcing the Israelites to produce by any means possible. There are faithful leaders who understand their position on behalf of God’s people and concern themselves with building and empowering these temples of God. But there are many others caught in the whirlwind of greed, selfish ambitions, and following their own agenda and ideologies at the expense of God’s people and their development as mature Christians that become the true bride of Christ.

This has been also true of those called to become part of the foundation of God’s house—His apostles and prophets. Many of them have suffered scorn, persecution, and have been left to suffer on their own whether financially or in their ministries and other areas of their lives for allowing God to make them His mouth piece and pioneers that oversee the moves His Spirit in His house. Numbers 18:30-32 tells us,

³⁰ “Also, give these instructions to the Levites: When you present the best part as your offering, it will be considered as though it came from your own threshing floor or winepress. ³¹ You Levites and your families may eat this food anywhere you wish, for it is your compensation for serving in the Tabernacle. ³² You will not be considered guilty for accepting the Lord’s tithes if you give the best portion to the priests. But be careful not to treat the holy gifts of the people of Israel as though they were common. If you do, you will die.”

In addition, Romans 16:1-2 describes an example of what the Church is required to do on behalf of the prophetic voices that not only provide the oracles of God for His people, but also supply protection from the onslaughts of the enemy that the people of God may have opened themselves to due to their idolatry, but have no authority over or because their authority level does not match the level of the demonic attack and God is processing them in the wilderness of testing where they will grow in their spiritual ranks of authority. It says,

¹”Now I introduce and commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deaconess of the church at Cenchreae,

² That you may receive her in the Lord [with a Christian welcome], as saints (God’s people) ought to receive one another. And help her in whatever matter she may require assistance from you, for she has been a helper of many including myself [shielding us from suffering].” AMPC

Because of the treatment and harm God’s anointed prophets have suffered, the Holy Spirit has been quenched to the point that the ministries that mistreated them have been left to deal with the same fate that Eli and his sons suffered as leaders: they were told Ichabod for the glory of God among them has departed. This departure of the glory of God from their lives brought death to Eli and his sons. In the same way, death is manifested in many forms in the lives of those who have chosen to uphold their own agendas and scorned the messages and persecuted His prophets. 

These essential pieces of God’s heart to His body have been left in many cases to sit at the table of the enemy instead of God’s table where they should maintain a steady and meaningful communion with Him. This is crucial for them to be able to obtain the right nutrients for God’s people instead of tainted information because they have been left to find their own means of sustenance for them and their households. For this reason and many others, God has sent His messengers to His house to declare the purifying and washing that cannot be held back any longer beginning with His priests. Malachi 3:1-5 testifies,

¹“’Look! I am sending my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. Then the Lord you are seeking will suddenly come to his Temple. The messenger of the covenant, whom you look for so eagerly, is surely coming,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

² ‘But who will be able to endure it when he comes? Who will be able to stand and face him when he appears? For he will be like a blazing fire that refines metal, or like a strong soap that bleaches clothes. ³ He will sit like a refiner of silver, burning away the dross. He will purify the Levites, refining them like gold and silver, so that they may once again offer acceptable sacrifices to the Lord. ⁴ Then once more the Lord will accept the offerings brought to him by the people of Judah and Jerusalem, as he did in the past.

⁵ ‘At that time I will put you on trial. I am eager to witness against all sorcerers and adulterers and liars. I will speak against those who cheat employees of their wages, who oppress widows and orphans, or who deprive the foreigners living among you of justice, for these people do not fear me,’ says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.”

One important reason why God is doing this in His house first and not outside in the world is because we are called to judge the ways of the world around us but not the people as much as the influence of the enemy in them. The people need healing and the enemy who has oppress them needs to be cast out by those who have the authority to do so for they are not influenced by what has influenced many leaders in the Church. The prophets bring this message from God and what it takes for the people’s deliverance. But we cannot do that if we behave like the world that is actually judging the Church for her hypocrisy in manifesting the same things outlined in verse 5. While the Church, beginning with the leaders is under the influence of the spirit of this age, she cannot cast those things out of the people that come to be washed and cleansed with the water of the Word and where the Spirit of the Lord and its fire can burn those tendencies away from the people.

Because we know that God’s judgment starts in His house, the main objective of this burning and cleansing is so His bride does not present herself before Him at His coming with spots and wrinkles and looking more like the harlot of the world than His beloved bride. Before she can be presented before Him pure and spotless, God is bringing her through the furnace to help her shine like gold and silver. Then the offerings made to Him that will be presented on behalf of His leaders and servants as well as those in need in His house, will be made in a way that is acceptable to Him and will no longer bring a reproach instead of a reverential awe of Him to the world that is lost, just like it happened in the times of the Book of Acts.

During those times the people were brought to the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord and the understanding of His grace for us (2 Peter 1:2). This is one important aspect that led to the massive increase of the Church during those times. They were brought to know and understand God and His Son as our Lord—therefore, maturity of the ways of the Kingdom was made available to the people and as they matured, their authority in the spirit increased and thus, they were made to walk in dominion in their spheres of influence and authority.

This is how the slave mentality was removed from the people and instead they were made to think and behave like sons and daughters of God who learned to receive His grace to walk in their purpose and destiny. The spirit of Pharaoh could no longer rule in God’s house during those times, and the knowledge of God and of His Son helped them co-rule and co-reign with the Sovereign Lord of their lives in every area with boldness and success even in the midst of persecution. To God alone be all the glory. ▪

Scripture taken form the New Living Translation NLT unless otherwise noted

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