What can you do when injustice seems to prevail? What can you do when the systems of this world that should protect victims actually only cause them more harm? Where can you turn when the church has been vastly unaware of the dynamics of narcissistic abuse or the domestic violence epidemic within its midst? Where can you turn when your predator is embraced, protected, and shockingly, sometimes even celebrated by the church, especially if they have a place in the pulpit or a ministry position?
Where can a woman turn when she is legally refused protection from the onslaught of abuse, simply because the bloody internal wounds to her heart, mind, and spirit are not physical or visible? Where can a mother, desperate to protect her children from the demonic venom of covert narcissism and sexual abuse, turn when she is forced to hand over her children time and again to a predator who is hell-bent on destroying her and her children?
If the Bible says that God is a God of justice, then where is the justice for the woman or mother and her children victimized by chronic abuse? How can the human heart bear such incessant heartbreak when the systems of the world, even including the church, meant to protect victims often just re-abuse them?
What Does the Bible Say about Justice?
I refuse to make light of or sugarcoat the horrors victims of abuse experience on a daily basis. The fallout is great, and the devastation is deep. Sadly, these situations mentioned above are not a rare occurrence. This is the reality many women and children face every day. Mothers—even those who are divorced—daily live in their own personal nightmares at the hands of their abuser.
Children are chronically exposed to mind-altering confusion, distorting lies, devastating manipulation, and horrific abuse, sometimes even sexual in nature. You might ask, “But doesn’t the court system protect these victims?” Sadly, no. Most of the time, it does not protect victims of narcissistic or even sexual abuse, even if the father is a known sexual predator or pedophile.
If the systems of this world often fail to protect these women and children, then what recourse do they have? The real solution is found in only one place: the courtroom of heaven!
Before we contend for biblical justice where the King of all Kings is the one who holds the scales of justice, we must first understand what biblical justice is. By definition, the word justice means “to make right.” Merriam-Webster Dictionary says justice is “the maintenance or administration of what is just, especially by the impartial adjustment of conflicting claims or the assignment of merited rewards or punishments.”[1]
Some Examples that Reveal God’s Heart for Justice
- “I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and will execute justice for the needy” (Psalm 140:12, emphasis added).
- “Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute” (Psalm 82:3, emphasis added).
- “Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, and plead the widow’s cause” (Isaiah 1:17, emphasis added).
- “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others” (Luke 11:42, emphasis added).
- “The Lord is righteous, he loves justice” (Psalms 11:7, emphasis added).
- “The Maker of heaven and earth…upholds the cause of the oppressed” (Psalms 146:6–8, emphasis added).
- God’s character includes a zeal for justice that leads him to love tenderly those who are socially powerless. (See Psalms 10:14–18.)
- He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8, emphasis added).
God Is a God of Justice
God is a God of justice. His eye is on the oppressed, and His heart is for their freedom and healing. Reading Scripture, it’s impossible to think otherwise. As such, we cannot afford to separate biblical justice from action. We can’t separate the heart of God from the hand of God. To ignore the things that are close to God’s heart seems unfathomable, but in reality, the church is often more attracted to more glamorous topics, such as signs and wonders, when maybe God wants us to be a sign and wonder to those who desperately need it.
To see something and not be moved to action would almost make someone an accomplice to a crime. However, it’s not our job to enact justice in our own strength. As a matter of fact, if we act presumptuously, in the flesh, or take matters into our own hands, we can actually abort the justice of God in our lives or in the lives of others.
While we shouldn’t attempt to force justice in the flesh, we should partner with God and allow Holy Spirit to lead and guide us. We all have a part to play. I can assure you that God is a God of justice! His justice often does not look like earthly justice, though His ways are always better. He knows the story from the beginning to the end. Spoiler alert: as a child of God, we win! But we cannot win a war we refuse to acknowledge or actively engage in.
“Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord’” (Romans 12:19).
The Cry of Jeremiah
A wound won’t heal by simply pretending it’s not there. Giving pat answers, slapping a Scripture like a Band-Aid over a massive hemorrhaging heart, or worse yet, using a spiritual narcissistic favorite dismissive and belittling line, “You need to take that to God,” is incredibly damaging. A wound can’t heal if it’s not treated properly. We have to be willing to look. We have to be willing to see. We have to be willing to be God’s hands and feet to help those who need it most.
Often, treasure is found in the most hidden places. How much treasure have we missed simply because it seemed easier not to dig or get our hands dirty? I shudder to think of the vast casualties in this war, even if by innocent ignorance. Many victims have left the church but thankfully have a strong relationship with God.
Sadly, others have left the church and faith entirely. We cannot superficially address the wounds of narcissistic abuse! We need real solutions that can only be birthed by a church that God kisses with the cry of Jeremiah:
“For they have treated the brokenness of the daughter of My people superficially, Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ When there is no peace” (Jeremiah 8:11 AMP).[2]
God’s heart is moved by the fierce battle these victims are in for their lives. How could we not be as well? God, break our hearts with the things that break yours!
Abuse and the Church
We can’t afford to be naïve to the fact that pathological people exist. Sociopaths and psychopaths are real. They often hide in our houses of worship. These pathological predators can make themselves at home in the church because it’s historically been a place where they can easily avoid accountability for destructive behavior. Using the church and chronic lies like a shield, they often escape accountability by abusing grace and taking advantage of their victim’s extremely high value for loyalty and commitment. They wear false love as a cloak to deflect responsibility to avoid being confronted for their destructive behavior in any real way.
Cognitive dissonance (a belief that “He’s such a nice guy! He couldn’t be that bad.”) combined with the victim’s great desire to “honor” allows toxicity to fester within the church longer than it ever should.
Intimate assassins know the values and morals of the Christian faith but possess neither themselves. Instead, they often use those very qualities as a silencing noose of captivity around their victims’ necks. These victims, spiritual widows with fatherless children, sit in your congregation every Sunday. They are married to an intimate assassin, a covert narcissist. You would be shocked to know who these predators are, as it’s often the ones you would least expect: the worship leader, kids’ church director, faithful church servant, or even the pastor.
Sadly, these wolves in sheep’s clothing can even be preaching from the pulpit or traveling throughout the body of Christ, multiplying the spread of their destruction and demons through the laying on of hands.
“A father of the fatherless and a judge and protector of the widows, is God in His holy habitation” (Psalms 68:5 AMP, emphasis added).
Abuse and the Legal System
Shockingly, victims of narcissistic abuse have little support or protection available to shield them from this sadistic evil. In fact, they usually experience secondary trauma from the very systems of this world that are meant to protect them but instead often wind up harming them even more. Victims are left without protection or legal recourses while being emotionally, physically, spiritually, and financially exploited and drained, simply because they have no visible proof of blood or bruises, even though they are violently hemorrhaging internally from being bludgeoned to the point of death.
Call to Action
This is a call to action. We have an epidemic of abuse within the church! This call is not just for the Esthers to arise but for the entire church to arise! Church, you are enlisted! We cannot be naïve or look away. This is not just a physical battle; this is a spiritual battle. “We wrestle not with flesh and blood.” How can we let these women battle such demonic darkness alone?
Because of God’s great love and mercy, He is shining a light on what’s been hidden behind the walls of many homes and churches. The bloodbath of injustice and abuse in our midst cannot continue on our watch. We cannot allow our silence, indifference, or refusal to take sides make us an accomplice to the devil!
There is an enlistment in the spirit right now, a holy invitation, a clarion call. If you are one who burns for revival, then I challenge you to accept the assignment being released from heaven. Church, it’s time to wake up to the reality of abuse in our midst. It’s time to pick up the mantle of justice! Administrators of justice, will you accept God’s invitation? Revivalist, will you burn with the mandate of heaven? Reformer, will you release the keys of wisdom you possess to unlock divine solutions?
It’s time to storm the courts of Heaven and contend for justice from the King of all Kings, to the one who holds the scales of justice in His hand. The tide is turning. It’s time for an awakening! It’s time for reformation. It’s time to establish the throne of God and be His agents of change in the Earth!
“Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne” (Psalm 89:14, emphasis added).
Call Forth the Wailing Women
I see an army of Esthers rising out of the shadows of torment and abuse. As they carry the heart of the King and rule with a scepter of purity and power, they overturn death sentences and enact justice in the earth. All of heaven has taken notice and heard their cry as they have captivated the heart of God. Motivated by love and carrying the mantle of justice, they have fashioned their pain to fuel their purpose. The swells of their laboring wails are tipping the bowls of intercession in heaven and overturning them. They are cresting like a tidal wave poised to crash in and over the gallows of injustice and abuse. (See Revelation 5:8.)
“This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Consider now! Call for the wailing women to come; send for the most skillful of them. Let them come quickly and wail over us till our eyes overflow with tears and water streams from our eyelids. The sound of wailing is heard from Zion.’” —Jeremiah 9:17–25
Wailing women know how to travail! Wailing women know how to grab ahold of the horns of the altar and not let go until God answers! Wailing women know how to carry a promise and war until it comes to pass! Wailing women know how to push and birth the things of God. You cannot stifle their intercession. You cannot silence them! You cannot abort what they are birthing.
You will never meet more fierce women than those who have their eyes locked on God. All of heaven backs them, and nothing in hell can stop them. These wailing women are a massive threat to the devil because you can’t kill a dead woman! They are dead to the fear of man and dead to anything that doesn’t have the mark of their King’s signet ring!
Esthers, Arise!
Esthers, Arise! Wailing women, come forth! It’s time to war. It’s time to arise, cloaked in God’s glory and power. If no one cries out for justice—we must. It’s time to use your pain as fuel, bringing it all before the King of Kings, the Holy One who sits on the throne, the God of justice, the defender of the weak. We must seek an audience with the King who established His rule and reign long before the systems of this world were created. We must appeal to the highest court. It’s time to legislate from heaven and shift the scales of justice! It’s time to shift the atmosphere over your heart, over your home, over your children.
Esthers, there is power in your pain-infused prayers! It’s time to shake off every shroud of death that has tried to suffocate you into the grave. Your inheritance—and that of your children!—is life, not death. No matter what the journey holds in this world, the ultimate victory is yours. Nothing is wasted in the hand of the King: not your pain, not your tears, and definitely not the gross injustices you have suffered.
When the wrath of abuse is fierce and justice seems to tarry, we can be assured of this one thing: God is not a man that He should lie! God’s faithfulness is a shield of protection to win the battle against heart sickness. I declare you will reap a harvest of joy for every tear you have sown.
The thorns of my life in the hand of the King are the crowns that I cast down at His feet.
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on Esther Company
Featured Image by Mehrshad Rezaei from Pixabay
