John Bevere - Why Leaders Are Falling in the Church?

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I started thinking about this, and I don't know if it was the Holy Spirit or me. How many pastors began their ministry so excited, so in love with Jesus, yet did not endure forever? Paul the Apostle makes this statement in 2 Thessalonians 2:3: the day of Jesus's return will not come unless the apostasy comes first, unless the predicted great falling away of those who have professed to be Christians has occurred. Why? I studied between 2000 and 2020, one of the biggest studies he conducted, spanning 20 years. You know what he discovered? Over 20 million American practicing Christians in those 20 years are now non-Christians, many of them professing to be agnostics and atheists. Twenty million—more than five percent of America's population—that means one out of every 20 people between 2000 and 2020 walked away from the faith. Paul said it had to happen. Why is it happening? Because of the lack of holy fear. Paul the Apostle makes the statement in Philippians 2:12-13: he says, "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, not loving kindness."

I will never forget 1994. I didn't really understand the fear of the Lord; I was just starting to study it. I thought, "You know what? This occurs too much in the Bible to ignore. It's all over the New Testament." In 1994, my assistant received a call from Jim Bakker, who was at that time probably one of the most famous men on the planet, but for the wrong reasons. He was on CNN for mail fraud, had the largest ministry in the world, and was sentenced to 45 years, which was later reduced to five years.

In the fourth year of his sentence, he called his assistant, read the first book I wrote called "Victory in the Wilderness," and asked her to see if I would come to visit him. I agreed, so I went. I remember being in the penitentiary when Jim came in, wearing his prison garb. He looked at me, grabbed my shoulder, and said, "Young man, did you write this book?" I said, "Yes, sir, I did." He asked, "Not a ghostwriter?" and I replied, "No, not a ghostwriter." He said, "We have so much to talk about, and we only have 90 minutes." He sat down, looked at me, and you know what the first thing he said was? "John, this prison wasn't God's judgment on my life; it was His mercy."

I was taken aback. He continued, "John, if I had kept living the way I was living, I would have ended up in Hell forever and ever. I'm so grateful to God." Then he told me how he was delivered. During the first year, he said they had a church in the prison, and that they went through the Gospel of Jesus; they went through five words, three words, one word, three words, five words. I was just going through this whole thing, thinking, "Well, you're leading this church in the prison, right?" He replied, "Oh no, I'm a master manipulator; I'm not touching it. Somebody else is leading it. John, if I ever go back to living the way I was living, I'm done forever." I was sitting there going, "Whoa."

Twenty minutes into our conversation, I asked Jim, "When did you fall out of love with Jesus? At what point did you stop loving Him?" He looked at me and said, "I didn't." He was so serious. Then, getting frustrated, I said, "Not now. I'm mad because I don't know this man. I just met him for the first time today, and now I'm mad at him again because I thought, 'Well, anyway,' and now he's saying he loves this man so much." I reminded Jim, "In 1983, you were arrested and prosecuted in 1990. You tell me those seven years you didn't love Jesus!" He said, "I loved Him all the way through it, John." He could see the confusion on my face and added, "I didn't fear God. I love Jesus, but I didn't fear God." He said, "There are millions of American Christians just like me. They love Jesus; they don't fear God."

So what is the fear of the Lord? First of all, it is not being scared of God. How can you have a relationship of intimacy with someone you're scared of? When Moses delivers Israel out of Egypt, where does he bring them? Not to the promised land; he brings them to the place where he met with God, where the burning bush was. It's called Sinai. Remember, he said to Pharaoh like five times, "Thus saith the Lord, 'Let My people go that they may worship Me in the desert.'" Why does he want to bring them to a promised land before he first brings them to the Promiser? When he brings them to that mountain, he has a private meeting with God, who says to Moses in Exodus 19:2-3, "Hey Moses, you just go down and tell all those people the whole reason I delivered them from Egypt was to bring them to Myself. I can't count them; they're My kids."

Three days later, God comes down on the mountain, and when He does, they all scream and run away because they have too much of the world in them. They scream and run away and say, "Moses, Moses, you talk with God; tell us whatever He says, and we will do it. We can't handle Him." Moses makes a statement to them in Exodus 20:20 that I believe is a 20/20 vision. Look what Moses said: "Do not fear, for God has come to test you." What's the test? To see if His fear may be before you so that you may not sin.

Wait a minute, look up at me: do not fear because God has come to test you. What's the test? To see if His fear is in you. Is he talking out of both sides of his mouth? Is he contradicting himself? No, he is differentiating between being scared of God and the fear of the Lord. There's a difference. The person who is scared of God has something to hide. What does Adam do as soon as he disobeys God? He hides from the presence of the Lord. The person who fears God has nothing to hide; he or she is terrified of being away from God. So if you want your first definition of the fear of the Lord, you ready? Write it down: it is not being scared; it is being terrified of being away from God. That was a really good place to say, "Amen!" It's being terrified of being away from Him.