Removing Judgments (Part 1)

In late August of 2009, I was experiencing some significant inner turmoil and unrest. On the outside everything in my life and ministry was going great. The church where I had served as pastor for 22 years was growing, finances were good, and each of my children was doing well. However internally I was struggling. 

I felt like there was some type of limit or ceiling on me and my ministry. My wife and I decided to go on a long Labor Day weekend to rest, pray, and seek the Lord. During that time, I asked the Lord if this limitation I was sensing was from Him. Almost immediately He let me know I was sensing this limitation because He had a new assignment for us. 

I did not share this with Janice right away. I wanted to take some time and pray over it to make sure I was hearing from God. Within an hour, a minister friend of ours who had been a prophetic voice to our church for many years called me and said, “Greg, God said to get ready. He has a new assignment for you and Janice that is going to better utilize your gifts and increase your kingdom influence.” 

When I got off the phone with my friend, I told my wife what he said and what the Lord had revealed to me less than an hour prior to his call. She confirmed this direction by telling me she was sensing the same thing. Within the next week, I shared what God had spoken to us with my pastor, Bob Nichols, and with two other close friends in ministry who all confirmed the direction God had spoken to us. Each of them encouraged us to walk the situation out with patience and to refrain from sharing it with many people. 

We heeded their counsel and determined to wait on the Lord for the right timing and clear direction for our new assignment. During this time of waiting on and seeking the Lord, the president of a large Christian ministry called and asked for my assistance in interviewing candidates for his replacement. He said he sensed the Lord leading him to transition the leadership of this ministry so he could spend more time with his family and business. I served on the board of this organization, and I was glad to help. 

I assisted him with the interview process for several weeks. Then one afternoon in March of 2010 he called me and asked if we could meet together at his office. The next day when we met, he said, “Greg, we have interviewed several candidates for my replacement and as I think about each one of them, I keep comparing them to you. Would you consider taking the position of CEO of our ministry?” 

I was honored by this offer, but more importantly I sensed this was the “new assignment” God had spoken to me about six months earlier. After consulting with my wife, my pastor, and a few close friends, I accepted this position. In June of 2010, we shared this new direction with our church family. Because the office of this ministry was located within driving distance of our church, I was able to remain as senior pastor for a period of time. The plan was to transition this role of senior pastor to my executive pastor within a few months once the training and transition process was over. 

For seven months I continued to serve as the lead pastor of my church and CEO of this ministry. In January of 2011, I stepped aside as the senior pastor of the church I had led for 24 years and turned the reins over to a son in the faith who had served as my executive pastor. At that time, I officially became full time at my new position as CEO. 

Seven weeks later, after returning from an overseas trip with the ministry to review our progress, our president called me into his office and terminated me. To my overwhelming shock, I was fired from my “new assignment” exactly seven weeks after turning over a twenty-four-year successful pastorate to a new pastor! The president of this ministry and I had never had an argument or cross word with each other, and we had been friends for several years.  All he could tell me was “this isn’t a right fit.” I didn’t know what to say, except to ask him to give me some example of how this was not a “right fit”. From my perspective it was a great fit. Since I had become CEO, our ministry had grown in new partners and revenue even though it was a recessionary year.

In my mind and heart, I could not resolve this. If I did not miss God, then why was this happening? After sharing these events with my wife, my pastor, and a few close friends, we decided to take some time to pray and keep our hearts free from judgment and offense. I didn’t believe we missed God’s direction to us. I determined the decision the president of this ministry made to terminate me could not stop me from what God had spoken to me. 

I believed God still had a new assignment for us, but obviously “the new assignment” wasn’t the CEO position of this ministry as I had thought. We took a month to seek the Lord and allow Him to deal with our hearts to stay free from judgment toward the man who fired me and toward the other leaders in this ministry who, from our perspective, remained silent through this event.

After a month of submitting ourselves to the Lord and making ourselves accountable to other spiritual leaders, our hearts began to heal and God renewed hope in us that He would yet bring His word to pass in our lives. Just seven weeks after being terminated, Andrew Wommack asked me to come to work for his ministry. Praise God!

I am convinced had my wife and I yielded to anger, unforgiveness, bitterness, and judgment toward the president and board of that ministry we would not have been in a place spiritually to hear God about this “new” new assignment He had prepared for us. From Jesus’ words in the book of Matthew, we understand that judgment toward others is a major strategy of the enemy to stop the life flow from our spirit through our souls to the natural realm: 

Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, you will be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it will be measured to you again. And why be holdest thou the mote (speck) that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, ‘Let me pull out the mote (speck) out of thine eye’; and behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite! First cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then thou shalt see clearly to cast out the mote (speck) out of thy brother’s eye. (Matthew 7:1-5)  

Obviously, Jesus is not referring to a physical eye in these verses because it is not possible to fit an actual log or beam into someone’s physical eye. The eye He is describing, instead, is the same eye He refers to in Matthew 6:22-23:

The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

The eye Jesus is referencing here in this passage as in Matthew chapter 7 is the soul. The light or life of your physical body is according to the light or life in your soul, not your physical eye.  As you can probably see, this just reinforces the message in III John 1:2. The light and life that manifests in your body is directly related to the light and life dominating your soul. The life in your spirit man must pass through your soul to get to your physical body. Likewise, your soul can conceal or cover the light from your spirit man and keep it from getting to the physical realm. Again, we see the key to wholeness, soundness, and the health of your body is related to the wholeness of your soul!

Adapted from Greg Mohr’s book, A Prosperous Soul.