The Church: The Restrainer of Evil

In the Prayer Closet, the Pulpit, and the Public Square

Part One

Ricci Johnson-Wilson

 

Saturday morning, after our GOE, as I awoke, I felt as though I was stepping into an open vision. I saw the Church before me. It had rust, debris, even dark clumps of mold upon the sides. Each clump dimmed its light before men. I could feel the weakness within and apathy toward sin increasing in its walls.

Suddenly, it began to shake. It shook so intensely; it looked as though it was vibrating not shaking, but it went back and forth, back and forth in front of me. The more it shook, the more debris fell away. The mold was cast off and the rust flaked off and blew away in the wind.

As the shaking slowed, I saw the result. The Church was refined, it emerged white, it was glowing like a bride on her wedding day, the Church was a brilliant white and came forth ready to fight the evil surrounding it.

What was interesting, however, was the impact of this refined Church coming forth! It was pursuing holiness and righteousness over compromise and sin. The Church moved about and the evil surrounding it began to shrink back, afraid to even come near. As the Church moved forward, there was a victorious spirit emanating from it, the rising warrior from the vision I shared in July (Fractured Body; Rising Warrior) it was truly rising!

As I moved into my day, this refined Church continued to appear before me, there was something different about its appearance. It was not just external glow; the LIGHT emanated from it and drew people toward it like a moth to a flame!

Each day I would see the Church again, it looked stronger, stable, renewed! I prayed and prayed to find out what I was witnessing before me, I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a profound change before. And the way evil shrunk back; it was remarkable. As though touching the walls would bring instant destruction upon that evil.

Wherever the Church moved, evil was restrained!

There are three questions I presented to the Lord over the course of the last several days and I’m going to share them with you and bring forth a Biblical response to these questions.

  • What evil are we supposed to be restraining?
  • Why isn’t the Church in a place today where it can effectively restrain evil?
  • How do we get to that place where our presence restrains evil?

 

  • What evil are we talking about?

Lawlessness:

Two days ago, I was speaking to a principal about a few things. This principal is a true advocate for the kids, he greets every one of them, shakes hands, fist bumps, high fives… he knows over 500 children by name. That’s impressive. In our conversation, he shared with me the chaos he’s witnessing with the children. The disrespect, the intentionally destructive behavior, the struggle the staff experience trying to bring the children under control and so on. We are talking about elementary school children and the schools everywhere are experiencing unprecedented chaos among even the lowest grade levels.

As I pondered what he shared, I kept thinking this is the impact of lawlessness in the land. We can look at the immediate crisis, such as a lack of proper discipline in the home, kids have too much screen time, they aren’t using enough energy… Yep, all of this is true. However, lawlessness is felt in the nation. You cannot have the chaos we have today and not experience or understand the spirit of lawlessness raging across the land. Children, while born into sin, have not yet had their consciousness seared, and they are still sensitive to things whether they understand them fully or not. I believe their unruly behavior is connected to the lawlessness they are feeling.

I’m not going to address the crime we are witnessing flooding our nation, I believe that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Today, I want to hit the iceberg itself and address three of the main issues in that iceberg that I believe we as the Church could directly impact if we would allow God to complete the work within us so we can arise the refined restrainer of evil! This would, in turn, impact other arenas.

  1. Abortion:

I’ve shared many times the visions I’ve had about the impact of abortion on this generation. They feel the loss of their brothers and sisters. It’s a spiritual thing that translates into the natural. It’s felt by our youth like a twin whose sibling died in utero. This is not one child however, this is a generation who, in some states, have lost 40-45% of their generation. In a spiritual sense, they are feeling the vacuum of this even though they do not understand why.

  1. Human Trafficking:

This crime against humanity is beyond description. What is occurring at our border, under this administration, has not only given rise to tremendous mafia style trafficking rings, cartel human smuggling rings, it’s paved the way for unprecedented and undocumented loss of life among the youth. When a DHS/HHS whistleblower discovered the sophisticated trafficking network of human trafficking bringing children into America for slave labor and reported on it, the current administration did nothing to stop the hemorrhaging. In fact, Biden avoided it, Mayorkas denied it, and Harris laughed it off as reprehensible but did nothing to determine what was happening at the border she was tasked with managing. In addition to the 1000s of children coming through the border, we have those undocumented who are being shipped throughout the country, 1000s upon 1000s brought in and according to a border patrol agent, shipped in the dead of night into sex trafficking rings around the nation and ultimately lost in the tangled strands of the interwebs. Who is fighting this? Where are the advocates? Why are those who do speak up being targeted and even silenced? This atrocity against children opens the door to the enemy, and as children are often the most sensitive, I believe they are experiencing the impact of this bloodletting, chaos, and lawlessness and it’s produced an unrest they do not understand.

  • LGTBQ+:

The Lord told me in July of 2020, under a Biden administration we would see such gross expansion of “pride” that it would surpass Obama’s agenda in this arena. On Biden’s first day in office, he signed the most comprehensive Executive Order in history protecting the LGTBQ+ community from anyone who would condemn their behavior. Even the Church is vulnerable to attacks when preaching against this lifestyle. Since 2021, we’ve seen a great expansion into schools, penetrating the hearts and minds of our youth with comprehensive gender-confusion filled curriculum and anyone who speaks against it is silenced, penalized, and even criminalized as domestic terrorists.

The degradation in the nation continues. In June of 2024, during June Pride Celebration at the White House, while Biden stood on the balcony watching, the scantily clad LGTBQ+ community danced on the White House lawn flashing the cameras. Biden declared those men who’d become women and visa versa, “the bravest individuals he’d ever met.” Forget the soldiers who fought in wars he voted for while in Congress, transgendered individuals are now the marker of bravery according to Biden. And, just as the Lord said in that same 2020 visit, pedophilia has been relabeled as “MAPS” (Minor Attracted Persons) by the CDC and HHS to avoid discrimination and offense to those who fall into this category. In the 50s, they would have been institutionalized and efforts would be made to rehabilitate them, today they are a protected class.

Lawlessness, chaos, bloodletting, gender confusion, this evil has all penetrated our nation and we see the by-product of this in the actions of our young people. Their hearts, their minds, their emotions were not created for such corruption, and what we are witnessing among children is the by-product.

This is all pretty evil, qualifies as evil, and impacts us, the youth, and our nation.

Next question:

  • Why isn’t the Church in a place today where we can restrain this evil?

2 Thessalonians 2:7

6 And now you know what is restraining him [from being revealed at this time]; it is so that he may be manifested (revealed) in his own [appointed] time.

7 For the mystery of lawlessness (that hidden principle of rebellion against constituted authority) is already at work in the world, [but it is] restrained only until [c]he who restrains is taken out of the way.

According to this passage of Scripture, who restrains evil? How do we restrain evil? What does this even mean?

The Who- the Church. To be more specific, it’s the Spirit of God through the Church—the Light of the Living God within the child of God—restrains the evil in the earth. If the Church were taken out of the picture, the earth would be utterly consumed by the darkness.

Imagine for a moment every apocalyptic film you’ve ever seen, stack them on top of each other and merge them into one single film, reduce the lighting so you can hardly see it, and you have what this world would be like without the presence of the Church.

Even in our weakened state, we are still restraining the severity of evil that would otherwise rampage across the land.

Websters defines restrain as a verb. Why is this important? Because it requires intentionality on behalf of the one doing the restraining. Restrain:

  • to hold back from action; keep in check or under control; repress
  • to deprive of liberty, as by arrest or the like.

The Greek word for Restrainer is Katecho. Bible depicts the restrainer as one who can “hold fast or hold down.” It is translated “restraineth” in 2Th 2:6, 7.

What is it holding down? In 2 Thessalonians 2:6 we learn that Paul is referring to “lawlessness” being “restrained” in its development.  

In other words, we, the Spirit-filled Church is supposed to be restraining lawlessness in the earth. Again, we are the restraining ones, we are to limit, to hold down, to keep in check or under control, even to deprive of liberty the growth and the effect of lawlessness. We are. The church.

Consider the vision I shared at the beginning of this message. Evil shrunk back as the refined Church moved! Imagine that?!? It’s like turning on the lights and watching the cockroaches flee from the light!!

Thirty-four years ago, Mom went to Hawaii for a 6-week ministry trip. She took Tiffany and I with her.  One of the churches she ministered in put their missionaries up in a small apartment on the campus. The first night, I walked into the kitchen and saw a cockroach the size of my thumb! I should’ve known, they had raid in every room. Let me tell you, I was pretty sure those roaches just opened their mouths to drink in the raid like spritzer! It didn’t affect them one bit! We stayed there a week; I didn’t sleep a wink because I didn’t want those roaches climbing across my baby girl.

Why doesn’t the Church stay on the wall and guard our children? Why don’t we restrain lawlessness? Why don’t we limit and hamper the growth of darkness? Lawlessness? Why don’t we rise up to a place in God where, when we walk in a room, the light of the living GOD emanates from us and scatters the roaches? Why don’t we disperse the evil lurking in the wings waiting to steal, kill and devour them?

I believe there’s a few reasons:

  1. Revelation of God the Father, Jesus His Son, and Holy Spirit: The Gospel has been so watered down, the message of Truth so dulled, many have simply not had the true revelation of God in terms of Who resides in us today.

In Matt 16:15-20 Peter had a life changing revelation. Jesus was asking the disciples who people said He was. Then, Jesus addressed Simon (Peter) asking him who he-Peter- said He was. Simon’s eyes were opened, and he cried out “You are the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed, the Son of the living God!” Boom! The revelation of Who Jesus was pierced Simon’s heart and he became known as Peter, the Rock! (Up until this time, he was referred to as Simon bar Jonah, son of Jonah.)

It was on this revelation of Who Christ is, that the Church is built. Anything that departs from this revelation weakens the effectiveness of the vessel. Peter, THE rock, becomes so effective against the evil, against sickness and disease, people are laid in pathways where he was known to walk so that his shadow would pass over them and they would be healed. When Peter moved, evil—such as sickness and disease—fled! (Acts 5:12-16)

  1. We don’t know the power of WHO resides in us. I mean really know Who resides, in us as children of God. We are the Restrainer of evil! Even in this watered-down state we restrain lawlessness to a certain degree! Imagine if we walked in the fullness of that knowledge. Hosea 4:6 says “My people perish (are destroyed) for lack of knowledge.” We don’t know Who resides within us and as such, we don’t know or understand the power of the One we serve. Our children are perishing because we don’t know and understand the fullness of how to walk with the One Who resides in us! In John 18, when they came up to capture Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, and asked if He was Jesus, He replied, “I AM” and the band of soldiers (which is typically defined as 500 armed men) flew backward onto the ground! That’s the power of the I AM! He resides in the children of God who are faithfully serving Him. We don’t walk in that power and authority because we do not know Him Who resides within us. We need to be in the Word and in prayer to expand and increase this revelation within, and then walk in it especially in these dark times. A couple years ago I had a dream that I thrust many who were coming into my neighborhood back with the power of the Word. That was the power of the I AM. This is Who resides in us, it’s time we embrace that truth!

 

  1. Liberal theology and the watered-down Gospel– This is probably the linchpin here. This grew out of the Enlightenment movement in the 18th and 19th In the early 19th century, liberal Christianity also referred to as Liberal theology- crept into our seminaries and churches and spread out from there. Liberal Theology is a movement that emphasizes reason and experience over Biblical Truths. Liberal theology interprets the Bible through modern knowledge, science, and ethics. It works to keep Christianity relevant to the modern day individual. So, rather than insuring Christians view world events, scientific discoveries, and academia through the lens of the Bible, we water down the Word to make it align with whatever world events, scientific discoveries, and academia presents to us. In turbulent times, are we know supposed to bring people to the unshakable Word of God so they can find their salvation and eternal hope in turbulent times?

Remember, the Bible was written by 40 people, over the course of 1500 years yet has one common thread, God created the heavens and the earth, placed man here to engage in fellowship with Him, and restrain the evil in the earth! We blew it so He set in motion a plan of Redemption to return us to relationship with Him through His very own Son, Jesus is intentionally revealed and depicted in every single one of the 66 books of the Bible. Yet, liberal scholars teach that the Bible is a collection of ideological “tales” not actual events but “tales” by which you can learn about God.

In the midst of this, Darwin published his “theory” of evolution in “On the Origin of  Species” and that rocked the Christian community.  We didn’t know how to address it from a Biblical world view and were crushed under it instead. Leaders should have been ready to address this head on with the wonder of Creation! Life in the Womb, the revelation of these amazing events through Moses, Job, David and Solomon! The Bible does not catch up to science or archeology. Science and archeology catch up to the Bible. We are supposed to maintain a Biblical worldview so we can influence the earth, restrain the evil that comes our way, and bring people to their Savior. You cannot do this if you view Biblical events through the lens of the world. The world is wretchedly sinful and liberal theology wants you to fit the Bible into that box. It is impossible to be effective restrainers of evil when you are embracing the evil the world presents.  

Blessings & love,

Ricci Johnson-Wilson