Scientists have found that our minds get programmed over time by repetition. But mere repetition doesn’t mean something is true. How many things do we believe because we’ve heard them often? These can become strongholds that get embedded in our minds and resist the truth.
Such hardened concepts in our minds that distort how we see the world, and God, were also called “veils” in Scripture. A veil obscures people’s vision of us, but it also obscures our vision of other people. That’s why we’re told in 2 Corinthians 3:18, “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” Before we can see the glory of the Lord without distorting Him, our veils must be removed.
In Romans 12:2, we’re told, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” The renewing of our mind that begins when we’re born again is continued by rejecting the world’s way of thinking and then having our minds made new so that we can think as the Lord does, seeing with His eyes, hearing with His ears, and understanding with His heart.
In 1 Timothy 1:5, we’re told, “But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” Is all of our learning causing us to grow in love? Knowing all the truth about Revelation—and all biblical prophecy—will not help us if we’re not changed by it to have renewed minds that see from the Lord’s perspective. As we’re told in 1 Corinthians 13, we can know all prophecy, and it will not mean a thing if it does not cause us to love more and be in God’s will, knowing Him better and getting closer to Him so that we are abiding in Him. If we’re doing this, we will grow in love because He is love.
In Revelation, we must examine some terrible things in church history. These are things that the church is mostly still doing, though not as ruthlessly because the church no longer has power and dominance over the nations. However, what led to some of the worst atrocities in history—ways so contrary to Christ and His teaching—are still being done, even if on a lesser level. We must face and understand some very bad things, but if we see them by the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Truth, we will see the redemptive purpose of God in them and finally get free of them.
Please bear with me as I repeat this truth often. We are going to look at things about the church that will challenge us, and they’re meant to challenge. We must see them from God’s overall perspective and purpose, and our default must be to grow in His love, because He is love. He is the One whose image we’re called to bear. It is the lack of His love and forgiveness, which is perhaps the most basic demonstration of His love, that is at the root of what led the church so far astray as to do these things, and that keeps us even now from being what we’re called to be.
We must, above all else, see and keep seeing the “revelation of Jesus Christ” for which this vision was given. Fallen, unredeemed, and untransformed men are prone to worshiping idols to such a degree that idols have been made out of almost every Christian truth. An idol is anything we esteem or put our trust in more than the Lord. People have been prone to worship almost anything more than Him. We have worshiped faith instead of growing in faith. We have even worshiped worship, letting this even eclipse our devotion to Him. We could go on about how we have tended to worship almost all of the good things He has given us more than Him. Not everyone has, of course, but enough have done this to steer the church astray.
One of the most devastating idols in history has been the devotion to worshiping the temple of the Lord more than the Lord of the temple. If our reaction to seeing this deception is to depart from His temple, His church, we will be even more sure to fall to this ourselves.
This tendency to condemn others when we see their mistakes is what has kept us in this continuing downward spiral. To get free of this, the answer is not to withdraw but to first forgive ourselves and others through the power of the cross. Then, we must repent, which is to turn away from the sin, and restore, which is to get ourselves and everyone else back on the right track.
When Jesus saw what was wrong with the world, He did not condemn us, but He laid down His life for us. Seeing this is what begins to change us. We must learn to do the same when we see flaws in others. The apostle Paul said it well in Galatians 6:1: “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, so that you too will not be tempted.”
Paul used the ultimate words “anyone” and “any trespass.” The first phase of the coming harvest is going to be the recovery of discarded saints who fell and were cast away. We’re going to restore them. That’s more than forgiving them; it’s getting them back to from where they fell. Let us keep in mind when we do this that we are all God’s restoration projects. That is what redemption and salvation are.
© 2026 Rick Joyner. All Rights Reserved.
