PAUL CAIN follow-up
Posted by: prophetic <prophetic@...>
to you. Also at the end is the first bulletin for those who could not
access it last week:
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Follow-up on PAUL CAIN
-by Rick Joyner. (Oct 25, 2004)
[- http://www.morningstarministries.org ]
First, I would like to thank those of you who emailed us with your
understanding and support for the action that Mike, Jack, and I felt we
had to take in regard to Paul Cain. To my personal surprise the response
was almost totally supportive. Although this has been one of the most
difficult and heart-rending problems that I have personally ever had to
deal with (and I am confident that Mike and Jack would say the same), the
remarkably mature and gracious way that the church seems to be almost
universally handling this matter is cause for great encouragement.
For those who still do not understand why we had to take this before
the church the way we did, it was simply obedience. Because of the lack of
repentance and the departure by Paul from the discipline and restoration
process, combined with the reason to believe that in his present state he
could be a danger to the morality and integrity of believers who were not
aware of his problems, the Scriptures did not leave any room for debate
about our responsibility. I don't think we could have ever called
ourselves shepherds or watchmen if we let such a situation as it now is to
go without sounding the alarm. Because of our long association with Paul,
probably no one stood to lose more from this than we did, but we could not
let that affect our decision.
A great concern was of course how this disclosure might affect the
weak, the immature, or the unstable. However, truth and obedience to the
Word of God is our basic spiritual currency. If we compromise these we
would have to be concerned about the state of everything to which we are
giving ourselves.
I have absolutely no doubt that we did the right thing in publishing
the last bulletin. I cannot help but wonder if there were things we could
have done wrong in the process of trying to help Paul come to repentance
and then restoration so that it would not have had to come to this. I
personally feel this is the worst failure I have ever been involved with.
I have spent many hours wondering what we could have done better or
differently, but at this time I just don't know what else we could have
done. The day after we made this known to the church, I had just been
praying for the Lord to show me anything that we did wrong, when I walked
into Bob Jones' house. Before he even greeted me, he looked at me and
said, "You, Mike, and Jack did all that you could do. Now the rest is up
to the Lord." I felt that those words came straight from the Lord's mouth
in answer to my prayer.
I also believe that having something "in the Lord's hands" is the
very best place that it could be. I am not giving up on Paul, and I pray
that all of you who have said that you would be praying for him in this
will not give up either. This whole matter has greatly expanded my
comprehension of God's grace, and I have no doubt that the Lord is still
reaching out to him.
The scariest thing in the world for us should be if we have sin in
our lives and we are getting away with it. As Hebrews 12 makes clear, the
Lord disciplines His sons, and if we are without discipline we are not His
children. I know the hand of the Lord is heavy upon Paul at this time, and
I know it is because the Lord loves him so much. I sincerely pray to one
day see a free and restored Paul Cain standing in our pulpit again.
However, we cannot compromise the biblical standards of morality and
integrity for anyone. When we start compromising these, we have lost
everything.
After some of the public spiritual tragedies of the past, I can
understand why many would grieve over this issue having to be made so
public. To my great encouragement, the way that the church is handling
this speaks volumes about just how much the church has learned and matured
through the previous mistakes that were illuminated. As discouraging as my
own failure in being able to help Paul has been, my encouragement in the
church has been correspondingly great.
Please also understand that if Paul had been a true member of a
local church, under the true authority of a pastor, we would have simply
taken it there. However, with Paul this was not the case. As Mike, Jack,
and I have talked about considerably, one of our biggest failures in this
matter was to think that because Paul had such special gifts he deserved
special treatment and did not need to be incorporated into the life of the
local church like others. I have little doubt that if Paul had been
required to comply with the disciplines of a normal Christian life, which
without question includes a true church life, these strongholds would have
been exposed long ago. He would be free now and probably far more
productive than he has ever been. This is the first and possibly the most
important lesson that we have learned from this.
Because Mike, Jack, and I felt so inadequate in trying to help Paul
with these issues, we were always open and praying for the Lord to provide
anyone who could do a better job than we were doing. >From the beginning I
think we all saw that this was a much greater problem than any of us had
ever dealt with before, so we were continually in prayer for the Lord to
provide someone else. Brad McClendon did get involved and did help a lot.
I think he could have done more if there had not been such resistance to
him. Even so, we continue to pray for this provision of someone to help
him that can do better than we did. However, because of the extraordinary
and powerful gifts that Paul has and the way that they have been used
recently, there are very serious dangers for anyone who does not
understand these things. Anyone who is presumptuous in this could be in
even more jeopardy.
I am not saying this to hurt Paul, but I am saying this for the sake
of protecting God's people from what has been proven to be a danger. When
the devil gets an inroad into someone with a great anointing he takes full
advantage of it, and the level of deception and seduction that is working
in Paul at this time is greater than anything I have personally ever
witnessed before.
The step to take this issue before the church was first for the
protection of the church, and second it was with the hope that this would
help lead to his repentance and restoration. I believe this is what the
Lord intended when He told us how to handle these matters.
Again, I especially appreciate the continued grace and prayers that
so many have extended toward Paul. We are not giving up on him, and we are
so thankful that you are not either. We do not want to give up on anyone
that has any problem, as we have this exhortation in Galatians 6:1. The
greatest victory of all would be to see Paul Cain finish his course with
his greatest ministry ever and in purity before the Lord. We always have
the encouragement that regardless of how we fail, nothing is impossible
with God. Regardless of how far we fall short of His glory, the power of
the cross of Jesus is enough to redeem and restore us. This is in His
hands now, but what place could be better than that?
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ORIGINAL Bulletin
-by Rick Joyner, Mike Bickle and Jack Deere.
(Oct 19, 2004)
Paul Cain has been used mightily by the Lord to touch many lives in our
times. He is esteemed by many around the world as a major prophetic voice
and as a spiritual father. It would be hard to estimate the number who
have been healed, delivered, or saved through his ministry. We have
especially benefited from his friendship and ministry in too many ways to
count. It is therefore with great sorrow that we publish the following.
In February 2004, we were made aware that Paul had become an alcoholic. In
April 2004, we confronted Paul with evidence that he had recently been
involved in homosexual activity. Paul admitted to these sinful practices
and was placed under discipline, agreeing to a process of restoration
which the three of us would oversee. However, Paul has resisted this
process and has continued in his sin. Therefore, after having exhausted
the first two steps of Matthew 18:15-17, we now have a responsibility to
bring this before the church. Our sincere hope remains to see Paul
restored. We are deeply committed to Galatians 6:1, which states,
"Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are
spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking
to yourself, lest you too be tempted."
We do not believe that Paul has committed anything that places him beyond
the grace of God. We are hopeful that there are those who are more
spiritual and wiser than we have been who can help Paul through a process
of restoration in which we failed. We also remain open and desirous of
helping Paul with his restoration process in any way we can. If restored,
we believe that Paul can once again have an extraordinary ministry and be
a significant blessing to the body of Christ. We apologize to the body of
Christ for our lack of discernment in promoting Paul's ministry while he
had these significant strongholds in his life. We failed to see them until
this year.
It is also a mistake to assume that others who were close to Paul or
worked with him shared these same problems. We also do not feel that this
should in any way negate or reduce the great benefit that Paul's ministry
has been to so many in the past. We hope that Paul can yet be restored and
used again for the glory of God in the wonderful way that so many of us
have been blessed to see in the past.
With our deepest regrets and sincerity,
Rick Joyner, Jack Deere, Mike Bickle.
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[-Source: http://www.morningstarministries.org ]
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