In 1983 I left my career position as an engineer to enter the full-time ministry of helps for a very large church. In my position I served the pastor, his wife and all incoming guest ministers by taking care of menial tasks in order to free them up for the work God called them to do. After four years God released me to be the youth pastor for another large church.

The week I was to leave, a man who was also on staff told my wife that God had given him a word for me. Ever since then that word has resounded in my ear as a warning, offering protection in the shadow of its wisdom and strength. As with any true word of God it has become a rudder for my heart and a foundation to keep me from uncertainty.

This man warned my wife, “if John does not walk in his God-given authority, someone will take it from him and use it against him.” This word had an immediate impact. I recognized it as the wisdom of God, but I did not have the full understanding of how to apply it. That knowledge would come over the next several years.

A Life-changing Experience

At the beginning of 1990 the Lord confirmed that His calling on my life at that time was to travel and minister. After I had been on the road for a short time, I had a life-changing experience through which I finally understood the words of instruction God had given me years before.

We had begun conducting the meetings at a church on a Wednesday evening and were scheduled to continue through Sunday. The Spirit of God moved in a very powerful way, and there were strong deliverances, healings and salvation. The presence of God in the meetings grew each night.

The first week a lady involved in the New Age movement was gloriously delivered. This seemed to be the catalyst that spurred the meetings on. Within a week people were coming from a ninety-mile radius.

The pastor said, “We can’t stop these meetings. God has more in store for us.” I agreed, and we continued for twenty-one services. The Word of God flowed like a swift-running brook, and the gifts of the Spirit manifested in every service.

During the second week of the meetings, one night I turned around as I was preaching and faced the musicians and singers (there were about twenty-five on the platform). Then I declared, “There is sin on this platform. If you do not repent, God will expose it.”

After hearing myself say that, I thought, Wow, where did that come from? I had been preaching long enough to know there are times when God’s anointing on you is so strong that you will make statements that your physical ears will hear only after they’re already said. This is prophetic preaching – when we speak by divine inspiration.

My mind began to question what I said, but I quickly dismissed those thoughts because I knew what I said was from God. I had not premeditated it. The anointing to preach remained heavily upon me.

The crowds grew at each service. During the third week – again, as I preached – I wheeled around, pointed my finger at those on the platform and declared boldly through the unction of the Holy Spirit, “There is sin on this platform. If you do not repent, God will expose it, and you will be removed!” I sensed an increase in authority and assurance. This time I did not question it because I knew God was in the process of purging sin from His house.

Judge or Be Judged

If sin creeps into our lives, the Holy Spirit convicts and instructs us. However, if we do not listen, we will begin to grow cold and dull. This will continue until we are no longer sensitive to Him in our hearts.

Then, in order to reach and protect us or those around us, God will send someone to expose what is wrong. He does not do this for the purpose of embarrassing us but to warn and protect us. If we still refuse to listen, judgment comes. “For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world” (1 Cor. 11:31-32).

God will tolerate sin for a season to give us time to repent in order to spare us His chastening. Even in His chastening it is His desire that we would not be condemned along with the world. The prodigal son came to his senses when he was in the pigpen. Better to come to your senses in a pigpen than to continue in your sin and one day hear the Master say, “Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness” (Matt. 7:23)!

If we do not repent, we suffer even though that is not God’s desire for us. Referring to this, Paul said, “For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep [are dead]” (1 Cor. 11:30). Sin eventually brings forth spiritual and physical death. I felt that the Lord was chastening someone on the platform, trying to bring that person to repentance. But I did not know whom He was convicting of sin.

A Subtle Attack of Intimidation

The next evening as the pastor and I were in his office preparing to go out to the service, an elder came in and reported that the ministers of music and praise seemed moody and negative that night. The pastor thought they were just tired from so many services and said, “Just tell them to go out and praise God and put their feelings aside.”

I looked at the elder and said, “Wait a minute. Is there something wrong?”

The elder answered, “Well, they think you are being too hard on them. They feel that you should address them privately rather than publicly.”

Although I was unaware of it at the time, this was a very crucial moment. My God-given authority to serve and protect was being challenged. The enemy was not pleased with what was happening in these meetings, and he wanted to put a stop to it. I had a choice, although at that time I was not aware of it. I could yield to the intimidation by backing down on what I had said to the ministers of music, thereby forfeiting my position of authority. Or I could stay in my authority, breaking the power of their intimidation by staying strong in what God had said.

Immediately I thought, John, why did you embarrass those people? Why couldn’t you just preach your message without turning around and pointing fingers? Now the people in the church are busy trying to figure out who on the platform is in sin. What if no one is? Or even if there is sin, what if it’s never exposed? People will still be suspicious, and those who are pure will suffer. The church will be hindered. Have I destroyed the good that has been done in this church? If I have, it will give me a bad reputation, and I’ve only just started to travel.

On and on these thoughts assaulted my mind. My fears had begun to center on one thought: What is going to happen to me? This is how intimidation will change your focus. The reason: The root of intimidation is fear, and fear causes people to focus on themselves. Perfect love casts out fear because love puts the focus on God and others and denies itself (1 John 4:18).

The pastor said nothing. The three of us grabbed hands and prayed that God’s will would be done in that service. We proceeded out to the platform just as we had each night for the past three weeks. During the praise and worship I noticed the word of the Lord was not filling my heart. I felt no direction, but I thought, God is faithful. I’ll know what to say and do by the time I get to the pulpit.

Praise and worship was over, and as the pastor made announcements, I heard nothing in my heart. I thought, I’ll get up and God will give me direction as I stand on my feet. I am not one who prepares outlines and has sermons ready. I study, pray and then speak from my heart by inspiration. My concern grew as the time passed because I knew I had nothing to say if God did not give me His direction.

Then the pastor introduced me. I came to the pulpit, and because I had no direction, I said, “Let’s pray.” But as we prayed, I still received no direction. I prayed for several minutes. To make matters worse my prayers were lifeless. It was as if my words were coming out of my mouth only to fall at my feet. I thought, What am I going to do? I resolved to deliver a message out of the Psalms that I had preached before.

As I preached, I sensed no life, no anointing on the message. I struggled to keep my thoughts together. God seemed nowhere to be found. I would think, Why did I just say that? Or, Where am I taking this? It was as if I were being led by confusion, not by the Holy Spirit. I kept consoling myself that God would show up and salvage the mess I was in. However, it just got worse. I finally ended the message and the service after about thirty-five minutes.

Baffled, I went back to the place where I was staying. “God, why didn’t You show up?” I asked. “Every service has been wonderful and powerful, yet this service had no life. If I were the people, I wouldn’t come back. As a matter of fact, I don’t want to go back.” That night I went to bed feeling as if I’d swallowed a sack of sand.

The next morning I woke up feeling as if the sack of sand had grown into a pile. I felt so heavy that I didn’t want to get out of bed. Joy eluded me. I went out to pray. I asked God again, “Why didn’t You show up?”

No response.

“Have I sinned? Did I grieve You?”

Still silence. I prayed for an hour, and every minute was a struggle.

I put on a praise tape and began to sing along. I reasoned, God gives the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. I have got to get rid of this. However, I only experienced a half hour of lifeless singing. I became more frustrated. “What have I done? Why won’t You answer me?”

After lunch I went out to a nearby field. I thought, I’ll bind the devil. That will do it. But I was the only one who felt bound. I was out praying and yelling at the devil for three hours and almost lost my voice. I had to go in and get ready for the service. I consoled myself: With all this resistance, tonight God will show up strong. John, just walk by faith.

We went through the praise, worship, announcements and offering that night, and I felt the same foreboding I had the night before. Again I reasoned, God will come through as soon as I get up there. I was introduced and again – nothing. I prayed for direction, and there was silence.

I began to preach another message I had ministered before and was overwhelmed with confusion. There was no life, direction or anointing. After five minutes of this mess I said, “Folks, we need to pray. Something is just not right!” The entire congregation stood up, and we all began to pray fervently.

Intimidation Exposed

All of a sudden I heard the voice of God speak to me for the first time in more than twenty-four hours. He said, `John, you are intimidated by those people on the platform behind you. You’ve been knocked out of your position of authority, and the gift of God in you has been quenched.” With this gentle rebuke a burst of light flooded my spirit. While everyone prayed for the next five minutes, the Spirit of God walked me through the Bible, showing me numerous incidents when men and women were intimidated and how this caused the gift of God in them to go dormant. I saw how they yielded their authority and lost their effectiveness in the Spirit. Then He walked me through the past several years and showed me how I’d done the same.

I immediately began breaking the power of intimidation off myself through prayer. There’s an example of this kind of prayer in the epilogue. For the next seventy-five minutes I preached from the Scriptures God had given me like a man on fire. When I finished, two-thirds of the congregation came forward to receive freedom from intimidation. That was the greatest service of the entire revival.

Less than a week later God started to expose the sin on the platform. It was discovered that the bass player was going out after services and getting drunk. In addition one of the singers was sleeping with a young girl in the congregation. They were both removed from their ministry positions. The bass player left the church, but the singer repented and was restored in his walk with the Lord.

A short time later the praise and worship leader and a few others caused a split in the church. A fourth of the church left with them. As it turned out, the praise and worship leader was involved in adultery, and within a year she divorced her husband. At last report she was living with another man. Out of the families that led the split, only one couple is still married.

These were the people who had complained that I was too hard on them. God was giving them a warning. How much better it would have been if only they had taken that warning to heart.

I have returned to this church twice and discovered more unity and strength there than ever before. The pastor explained, “it was God purging our church, and it has made us stronger. Our praise and worship has never been so free!” He also said a lot of the contention and strife he’d previously dealt with was no longer there. Praise God!

Used with Permission. Bevere, John. Breaking Intidimation. Lake Mary: Charisma House, 1995, p. 13-20.