Why do some of the greatest victories and moves of God come after great setbacks and failures? Because “God resists the proud, but gives His grace to the humble” (James 4:6, I Peter 5:5). There is no treasure on earth as valuable as the grace and favor of the Lord. Therefore, we should be devoted to seeking and embracing every opportunity to humble ourselves. If not, the Lord can humble us, but it will be much easier for us to “judge ourselves lest we be judged.” What MorningStar and I are going through now, we have been through before. As the leader of the ministry, I am responsible for this every time. It is my failure and lack of discernment, which was caused by my pride. Will this be the last time? I don’t know. I may have been deceived this time in an even more profound way, but I know that I must not let disappointments with people harden my heart. I must be inclined to believe rather than doubt, or a more terrible failure will result—the cutting off of my purpose in the Lord to help raise up a new breed of leader. But this is on me. Along with seeking to believe rather than doubt and thinking the best of people rather than the worst, as we are commanded in I Corinthians 13, we must also have discernment. I’ve demonstrated a lack of this, and I let someone in—even gave them my place as the leader—without seeing them as I should have. That should not have happened. I can’t blame anyone but myself for this. So, what am I going to do? I’m going to press on. We have seen this movie before and know that great advances and moves of God have always followed. We must be ready for this. Many times lately, I have told our congregations that we needed a pruning, and now we have it. But as the Lord said, pruning comes so that we can bear more fruit. Through this, the Lord has shown me levels of pride in my heart deeper than I have ever seen before. I trust it will compel me to lean on Him more than ever and stay more closely yoked to Him. That is the desire of my heart, but we’ll see. As the Lord has said to me, and as it is written, “The righteous fall seven times, but rise again” (Proverbs 24:16). My intent is to get up and keep going with even more resolve, but I don’t want to forget these lessons either. I certainly don’t want to make this mistake again, but I can’t guarantee that I won’t. If I do fall again, I pray to do what they teach in football—when you fall, fall forward and gain more ground. Then get back up and do it again. That’s what I intend to do. Someone once said that following me is like being handcuffed to a hurricane. I know that where I’m going sometimes includes storms and rough seas, and it’s not for the faint of heart. I cannot guarantee anything, but if we don’t quit, it will be worth it.

Posted by Rick Joyner at 2024-09-05 13:47:24 UTC