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Decoding Rick Joyner’s “THE FINAL QUEST”
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Summary of Chapter 11


10) RICK JOYNER’S OWN COMMENTS, (QUOTES), ABOUT HIMSELF:

In this section the Holy Spirit led me to use Rick Joyner’s own quotes; those that he has made about himself in “The Final Quest,” to throw further light on his walk with God over the years.

10 i) Joyner has listened to Branham’s deceptive teachings since childhood: Joyner claims that as “a child” he had “read about... and listened to... recorded messages,” of an “evangelist” whose “teachings had gone seriously awry,” (p. 144). In Chapter 7 of these notes we discovered that this evangelist was none other than William Branham, who most people now recognise as one of the most deceived ministers of the modern era. Not surprisingly Joyner doesn’t actually name Branham but from the description and dates mentioned there really can be no one else he is describing. It appears that this has had a significant influence on Joyner’s spiritual beliefs and outlook ever since. Although Joyner now recognises that some of the teaching he had listened to had been false, (it is impossible not to), he clearly hasn’t realised the full extent of the deception that Branham had been caught up in and has continued to adhere to many of these errors ever since. Joyner claims “I became a Christians in 1972,” (p. 9); he did not, therefore, find faith until several years after listening to these false teachings. Being an unbeliever and a child at that time Joyner is unlikely to have weighed Branham’s teachings against scripture and would not have been able to test them with any discernment from the Holy Spirit. These teachings appear to have remained at the heart of Joyner’s beliefs even after he found faith, right up until the present time in 2012. In “The Final Quest” Joyner calls the church back to this deceived evangelists message, claiming that in the past “the church could not hear him” but “his message ... must be recovered,” (p. 145). A large, loose knit, cult like, group of “Christians” who follow Branham’s teachings still exists today. They are known as the “Brahamite’s” or “The Messengers.” They believe that they will become Gods chosen, empowered prophetic elite in the end times. In the featured video on Joyner’s Morning Star website, in Oct 10th 2012, Joyner claims that one of the first things he believes that the Lord showed him after his conversion, when he started getting visions, was “A main calling that I’ve had is to find and identify some of these Messengers of Power and help them along their way.” Joyner would have been well aware that the term “Messengers” was used to describe the Branhamite’s. Joyner’s visions have therefore been sending him off course from the very beginning of his Christian walk. From the very start the enemy has been steering Joyner towards joining with other followers of Branham. In that same Oct 2012 video Joyner claims that all the “Messenger’s” that he has met so far “are a mess that is one characteristic of every one.” These must surely include Paul Cain, who was once a close associate of Joyner and the leading Kansas City Prophet until 2006. Cain has claimed that he ministered with William Branham whilst he was still alive and that Branham had been the greatest prophet since bible times. A few years prior to 2006 it was discovered that Cain was an alcoholic living a drunken, illicit drug using and homosexual lifestyle. Another “Messenger” is surely Todd Bentley who Joyner helped fast track back into ministry after Bentley was discovered to have been having an affair during his “Florida Outpouring” “revival” in 2008. Bentley had also lied about the miraculous power present during those three months of meetings. He claimed that over thirty people had been raised from the dead as coffins were placed in front of T.V sets screening his televised meetings live on the “God Channel.” No evidence has ever been offered to back this up. Bentley also harks back to Branham’s teachings and spiritual methods in ministry. See this video, (link), in which Bentley claims that “an angel comes to me about seven days before I’m commissioned into full time ministry, fourteen foot tall angel. William Branham in 1946 has the angel of the Lord visit him. The winds of change, the angel of the winds of change.” Cain, Bentley and Joyner are therefore “Branhamite’s.” Joyner believes they,* and others like them, are the “Messengers,” an elite group of set apart believers who will move in phenomenal prophecy and power in the end times, “the dreaded champions” “the Lords army,” and future “judges” who will rule the church, as depicted in Joyner’s first dream in “The Final Quest.”

*Unlike Todd Bentley Paul Cain appears to have fallen out of favour with Joyner after rejecting Joyner’s offer to oversee his restoration process in 2006. Not much has been seen or heard of Cain since.

10 ii) An excessive desire for mystical, visionary experiences: Joyner writes “I have prayed for twenty-five years to be caught up into the third heaven like the apostle Paul,” (p.45). Surely such a longing is not healthy or the right emphasis for the Christian life? It appears that Joyner has been seeking, and longing, for the same type of mystical spiritual experiences that Branham had been getting when he was alive. Branham’s visions were far more frequent and nothing like those received by the Apostle Paul. Joyner’s visions mirror Branham’s not St Pauls. These however are what led Branham into deception. Such an attitude and wrong emphasis can open a person up to deceptive spiritual experiences and another spirit altogether.

10 iii) Spiritual experiences that exalt the self: Joyner tells us that during one of his experiences of heaven “the entire host of heaven seemed to stand at attention, and I knew I was the centre of their attention” (p.110). There are numerous other examples of this type of self centred spiritual experience, with Joyner always appearing to be the centre of everyone’s attention throughout ”The Final Quest,” with the Lord, angels and deceased saints constantly praising him instead of God being given the glory. Joyner writes, “As I began to walk through the room, all the angels bowed in salute,” one even tells Joyner “We are your servants”, (p.68). However angels are the Lord servants, not any mans. We see from scripture that angels bow to God alone and no one else. These experiences appeal to the flesh and parallel the spirituality of the New Age not that of the Holy Spirit or the ways of the Kingdom of God as described in scripture.

10 iv) Unable to hear God clearly: Joyner writes “I have never been able to trust my own heart... It is subject to so many conflicts. I am too subject to delusions, deceptions, and selfish ambitions. It is hard for me to even hear the Lord speaking to me above its clamor,” (p. 74). As Joyner admits this then surely he should not be promoting his visions to the rest of the body of Christ until he has gained some discernment? His call for others to follow his example and “open our own hearts and minds to realms we do not now even know exist. This is what Satan is attempting to counterfeit through the New Age Movement,” (p.127), is particularly dangerous in the light of this.

10 v) Bored when worshipping Christ: Joyner tells us that “I had struggled so much with boredom during worship services... when I had allowed my mind to wander, or had occupied myself with other things,” (p. 41). However, true worship is never boring as this is the time we take our eyes off ourselves, give glory to God and experience His presence the most. Joyner will have also been around during the charismatic renewal on the 1970’s and 80’s when there was a stronger move of Gods Spirit in the western world and when times of worship were often phenomenal. One has to die to the self to experience the Lord in worship though and as we have seen Joyner’s spiritual experiences are self centred throughout “The Final Quest.” The fact that Joyner found worshiping God boring suggests to me that there must have been something very wrong with his attitude and walk with God. Joyner says “I remembered how I had once thought it must have been boring for those angels who did nothing but worship Him continually before the throne,” (p. 41).

10 vi) Self centeredness, delusions and falseness: After believing he had just met several great Christian leaders from the past in heaven, who had confessed to Joyner the some pretty awful secret sins concerning their bad attitudes whilst they had been alive, (with no evidence of these having ever having occurred in the real world), Joyner then appears to be lulled into a false sense of security himself and confesses to “delusions and self centeredness that have so perverted my life,” (p. 120). Joyner also claimed that as an older Christian and leader, “I began to see how much of my own life was built on facades of a projected image that belied who I really was,” (p. 100), “I had used people for my own purposes, or even used the name of Jesus to further my own ambitions or to make myself look better,” (p. 102).

10 vii) Self delusion: Joyner, ”What you see with the eyes of your heart is more real than what you see with your physical eyes” I had myself made this statement many times,” (p. 42), “I was gripped both with wonder and a terrible fear that I might wake up at any moment and find it was all just a dream,” (p. 44).

10 viii) Rejected by other leaders in the past: Whilst in “heaven” Joyner tells us that he saw several deceased Christian leader who he had “esteemed a great man of God.” Joyner claims that in the past he had “wanted to be disciple,” of this man but that “Like a number of others I had tried to get close enough to learn from, I was an irritation to him and he had finally asked me to leave,”(p. 92). It is quite an extreme response for a leader to actually ask a believer to leave like this. It appears that he did not just reject Joyner as a disciple but wanted no further fellowship with him, effectively banning Joyner from his church. In reality there must have been a very serious reasons for this, more than just Joyner being an irritation to him. Something weighty must have been causing the irritation. Could it have been Joyner’s self centred and New Age attitude towards spirituality, or some of the false doctrines and spiritual practices that Joyner adhered to? According to Joyner this leaders decision had clearly not been a hasty one because he had “finally" asked Joyner to leave, indicating that he would have had time to have become well acquainted with Joyner’s attitude and beliefs. Joyner claims that this particular leader told Joyner that he “would one day embarrass me and my ministry,” (p. 93), so it must have been more than just an irritation with Joyner. Joyner claims that a “number” of leaders had responded to him like this. Perhaps Joyner only ever really found a spiritual home and place where he could fit in amongst the extreme and wayward Kansas City Prophets Movement later on in life? Today Joyner is the head of his own organisation “Morning Star Ministries,” (a strange choice of name since it is one of the descriptions of Satan before his fall).

10 ix) Lacking a teachable spirit: Joyner told the same supposed “apparition” of the “great man of God,” (p. 92), that “I was so arrogant that I deserved the rejection. I know that my rebellion and pride has kept me from having a real spiritual father,” (p. 93). Joyner still doesn’t have such a spiritual father today but nonetheless claims, on the basis of his visions and dreams, that he will become our spiritual father as a great judge over the global church in the future.

10 x) A failure as a Christian? Joyner tells us that “most of my life had been a failure,” (p. 118). However if a Christian has been serving the Lord for years how can this be the case? Surely others will have been helped by the person’s prayers and service even if this wasn’t publically recognised. Jesus Christ taught us that the woman who gave her last two coins had given more than all the others put together and that many who appeared to be last on earth will be first in heaven. Those Christians who think becoming great, well known, popular, or dominant as a leader within the church is the sign of success have the wrong attitude and are being carnal minded about this not spiritually minded.

10 xi) Joyner’s Attitudes towards other believers: Joyner claims that as a young believer “I had never had compassion for filthy street preachers,” (p.153), and said that he had “scorned” other believers who he saw as spiritually inferior to himself, “Many of us had scorned them as we climbed to higher levels” (p.52). However, in 2012, Joyner is still promoting visions that picture any Christian who won’t accept his visions as part of Satan’s “horde from hell,” (p. 16), and is claiming that those who persist in disagreeing with him will be “transformed into the contorted image of the demons themselves,” (p.26). Joyner’s visions pour contempt on ordinary Christian’s today claiming the “demons were urinating and defecating upon the Christians they rode. This slime was their pride,” (p. 21). As we have seen he even claims his arrows of new revelation will “wound many of our own brethren”, (p. 129), wounding the Christians who disagree with him. So, under the surface, concerning his attitude to other Christians, has anything really changed?

10 xii) Attacking other ministries: After Joyner’s visit to “heaven,” in which believes he met several well known and respected deceased Christian leaders from the past, who confess to secret sins, Joyner then reveals more of his own secret sins. Joyner declares, “I recalled how I had allowed disgruntled former members of a church to spread their poison about that church without stopping them. I knew that by just allowing them to do this without correcting them I had encouraged them to continue... I had even repeated many of their stories, justifying it under the guise of enlisting prayers for them,” and that there had been, “a great flood of other such incidents,” (p. 109). Surely this is far worse that what one would expect from a normal leader or your average Christian even? There is no mention of Joyner ever apologising to those he has harmed either. He claims that “I had not seen such ruthlessness and cruelty as I was now seeing in my own heart,” (p. 109). We must remember that this is coming from someone who is still calling for harmful spiritual warfare against other believers as part of a Christian civil war today.

10 xiii) The battlefield park and a warlike attitude: Joyner informs us that as a young man he used to often seek God, and received one of his first visions, in “the middle of a battlefield park near my apartment”, (p.150). This battlefield was probably used during the American Civil War which encompassed the nation in the past, (I checked and found that three of the four National Battlefield Parks preserved in the USA today were used during the American Civil War). As a young man and young Christian Joyner would have been very impressionable back then. Could Joyner’s exaggerated desire for visions, as he sought the Lord on this battlefield, have left him open to warlike spiritual influences and imaginations, leading to him confusing carnal battles and the American Civil War with the battles fought for salvation and Gods Kingdom? Is this not at least a possibility that we should consider? Joyner writes “Just as the American civil war at times looked like it would destroy the entire nation, what is coming upon the church will at times appear as if it will be the end of the church,” (p.37). Could spending time on that battlefield have sown seeds and predisposed Joyner to believe that a “Great Christian Civil War”, (p. 22), was necessary even though this contradicts scripture? It is likely that repeatedly opening up to the spiritual realms on this battlefield, with the wrong attitudes, would have opened Joyner to the wrong spiritual influences. These may have then borne their bad fruit later on in Joyner’s dream and his call for “a great civil war“ in “the church,” (p. 37). Could identifying an earthbound attitude toward spiritual warfare perhaps also help explain why Joyner has more recently chosen the retired Lieutenant General, Jerry Boykin, (former US deputy secretary of defence), as his spiritual strategic adviser when this man doesn’t appear to have any experience beyond the average Christian concerning such issues in Gods Kingdom?

10 xiv) Engaging in spiritual warfare against other Christians: Does this reflect the teachings of Jesus or the fruit and love of the Holy Spirit? Joyner, “I fired off a few arrows, as did some of the others. Almost all of them hit Christians,” (p. 25), “I started to wonder if the next battle would be against our own brothers again” and “We did wound many of our own brethren”, (p. 129).

10 xv) Wrong motives and doubts: Near the very end of the Christian spiritual civil war Joyner states that “Since first coming to the mountain, and fighting in the great battle, I now think that most of the right things I did, I did for the wrong motives,” (p. 63). That means that almost everything Joyner did throughout the entire battle he thinks was either wrong, or done for the wrong motives. Near the end of the battle Joyner is told by one of the great white eagles “What you are feeling now is the true faith,” but Joyner replies “Faith?” “I’m talking about serious doubts!” (p. 63). Then Joyner then claims “I have judged so many people and so many situations wrongly,” (p. 64).

The next section looks at Joyner’s membership of the Catholic Order of the Knights of Malta which has put him under the spiritual authority of the Catholic Pope. It is surprising so few Christians are aware of this.

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Summary of Chapter 11

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