More on Exposure!

The Lord is exposing what is truly inside us. Of course, He already knows what is there, but often we don’t. When God exposes something, it is not because He wants to shame us, punish us, or cause us to suffer. He exposes things because He wants to heal them.

It is easy to look at the current climate in the church—where well-known leaders and large ministries are being exposed—and assume that the issue belongs only to them. It is tempting to point fingers and think the problem lies somewhere “out there.”

But this climate of exposure is not simply about a few individuals with large platforms. It is about the condition of the church itself. When God begins to address these things, each of us is given a choice. We can ignore the voice of the Holy Spirit and continue as we always have, or we can yield and surrender to His work in us.

Scripture exhorts us to crucify the flesh daily. If we refuse to do so, we eventually become ruled by the very flesh we were unwilling to confront - we are witnessing tragic examples of this all over the place! The accusations and failures that have been (are being) revealed are deeply grievous.

My prayer for myself (and for you!) is that our own exposure will not be as public as some of the situations we have witnessed.

The truth is there is always a process before things ever reach that point. God first speaks quietly and privately to each of us. In the hidden place of our hearts, the Holy Spirit begins to convict us. He gently places His finger on areas that are not right—things that are not healthy, things that are not serving us well. He invites us to acknowledge them, to repent, and to allow Him to heal them.

If we refuse to listen in that place, sometimes others are sent to speak into our lives.

Where we are wounded, it is not always our fault. Many of the wounds we carry—especially those formed in childhood—were not caused by us. Yet even when something is not our fault, it remains our responsibility to address it.

Hurt people hurt people. This is true!

The Lord desires a healed body. He desires a church that is whole.

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Leadership in the church was never meant to be about control, manipulation, or personal gain. Leaders are called to serve the sheep not fleece them (if you’ll pardon the pun!)

God addresses this powerfully in Ezekiel 34. In this passage, God rebukes the shepherds of Israel who fed themselves instead of caring for the sheep.

They ate the fat and clothed themselves with the wool, but they did not feed the flock. They did not strengthen the weak, heal the sick, bind up the injured, bring back the straying, or search for the lost. Instead, they ruled with force and harshness.

Later in the chapter, the Lord declares that He Himself is against these shepherds. He will rescue His sheep from their mouths and put an end to their exploitation.

I believe we are living in a time when the Lord is doing exactly that.

He is rescuing His sheep.

He is saying, “Enough.” Enough of abuse. Enough of manipulation. Enough of the fleecing of the flock.

As I was considering this, the Lord reminded me of the account in Luke 13 where Jesus encounters a woman who had been bent over for eighteen years. She was unable to stand up straight. Jesus heals her on the Sabbath, and the religious leaders respond with outrage. They criticize Him for healing on the wrong day. Jesus responds by calling them hypocrites! If they would untie their animals on the Sabbath to give them water, how much more should this woman—a daughter of Abraham—be set free from the bondage that had held her for eighteen long years?

The posture of this woman is deeply symbolic. She was physically bent over by a spirit, unable to stand upright. In many ways, the church today mirrors this image. Many believers are spiritually bent over—crippled by fear, shame, wounds, or addiction.

Sometimes the sheep cannot stand because the shepherds have not helped them stand. In many cases those shepherds have actually benefited from keeping the flock dependent and subdued.

The writer and inner-healing pioneer Leanne Payne described this as the “bent-over position.” It is a state where we become turned inward toward created things rather than oriented toward God. Fear, shame, and addictive patterns often characterize this posture.

Most of us have been there at one time or another.

But the Lord is calling His people to stand.

God spoke to Ezekiel, “Son of man, stand up on your feet, and I will speak to you,” - it was here when Ezekiel stood to his feet that God commissioned him and He is saying the same thing to me and the same thing to you!

He is calling the church to STAND up into her true identity.

A few weeks ago the Lord revealed an abandonment wound in my life and at the same time in one of the most profound encounters with the Father that I have experienced, He began to reveal the antidote to that abandonment - attachment - being known, held, embraced and deeply deeply loved!

Since then, I’ve been in deep dialogue with the Lord, where He has been speaking directly with me and through others.

During this time, a friend prayed for me and brought a word that they could see (in the spirit) that I had a fractured spine - not necessarily the kind of word you print out and put on the wall, however it instantly resonated with me and I knew that although I had been trying to stand up into my identity in Christ, something within me still felt broken.

A few days later, while wrestling with questions about my calling, I asked the Lord a simple question:

“Lord, what important thing do you want to say to me right now?”

He answered with a single word: katartismos. I did not recognise the word, so I looked it up.

It appears only once in the New Testament - in Ephesians 4 …

‘and He gave some to BE apostles, prophets, teachers, shepherds and evangelists’ (why?)

For the EQUIPPING of the saints for works of service.

Katartismos is equipping!

But the word carries a deeper meaning. The literal meaning is actually a Greek medical term - it means to set a broken or fractured bone so that it can function properly again.

How amazing is God! The Lord was not only affirming my calling; He was showing me that He was healing the fracture within me.

And I know that this word - this prophetic picture, is not only for me. The Lord is doing this very same thing in his church! When our “spines” are fractured, we cannot stand upright in who God created us to be. But the Lord is setting those fractures. He is restoring the backbone of His people. He does not want a bent-over church. He cannot govern through a bent-over church! He wants sons and daughters who know who they are and who stand confidently in their purpose and mission.

As false shepherds are exposed and removed, God is simultaneously raising up true ones - leaders with servant hearts—people who lay down their lives to nourish and strengthen the flock, not to control but to EQUIP!

This brings us back to Ephesians 4, and the ministry gifts Jesus gave to the church: apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers.

These are not merely organizational roles. They are expressions of Christ Himself. Jesus embodies all five of these ministries, and He distributes aspects of His own nature among His people.

We often try to turn this into a rigid system—a leadership chart with neatly assigned positions. But God’s kingdom does not function like a corporate structure.

He raises leaders organically, within the living ecosystem of the true Ecclesia, and their purpose is clear: to equip the saints for the work of ministry.

Equipping means training, restoring, maturing, and preparing.

The church cannot remain a gathering of spectators—people who attend services yet remain unchanged. Even faithful churchgoers sometimes fail to realise that their own maturity and identity in Christ matter deeply.

The church has been called to govern with Christ. That calling cannot be fulfilled by a handful of leaders alone and most definitely not self-serving leaders! It requires the whole body growing into unity and maturity together.

God is raising up leaders whose task is to equip the saints—not to control them. Encouragement plays a role, but ultimately each person must choose to stand.

Standing requires courage.

The spine is the backbone of the body. Spiritually speaking, we will need backbone in the days ahead. Stepping out of fear, shame, and addiction requires courage. Saying yes to God often means stepping into the unknown.

That is what faith looks like. Faith always involves risk—but it is not reckless risk. It is the confident trust that God is good and that His purposes are good.

When God liberates people into their purpose, He simultaneously builds His church in the earth. He governs through a people who are living in their true identity in Christ.

Not through domination, not through control, but through sons and daughters who have come out of their false selves and into the freedom of their true selves.

Every one of us was created with purpose.

The Lord is revealing our spiritual DNA—who we truly are in Him.

So yes, the Lord is exposing false leaders. And yes, He is removing them. But at the same time, He is raising up servant-hearted shepherds who will equip the people of God.

Because God will have an equipped church! He will have a people who stand up into their calling, their commission, and their mission.

These are remarkable days to be alive. The Lord’s eyes are upon His people. He sees what you carry. He sees the purpose He placed within you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJtiSqE5Ro8