Breaking Unholy Alliances

Recently a good friend of mine shared a revelatory insight that made me stand up and take notice. I thought it was so profound that I’d like to share it with you. It’s about breaking unholy alliances. My friend said the Lord revealed that the first fruit of an unholy alliance is loss of discernment. A key scripture he felt impressed to look at is in the Book of Exodus.

 

           “And you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the discerning…” (Exodus 23:8 NKJV)

 

First, when discussing unholy alliances, what is God talking about? Alliance pertains to the idea of close association or connections based on kinship, marriage, or common interest. It speaks of a bond or tie that unites us with other people, groups, or organizations. It reflects an agreement to align together for what is deemed the best interests of the parties involved.

 

Now, as believers there’s no problem aligning with individuals or organizations that endorse and promote the same Christ-centered values and principles that we embrace. However, a problem does arise when God’s Holy Nation establishes an alliance with the unholy and the unclean. When addressing His priests God instructed them to –

 

           …”teach My people the difference between the holy and the unholy, and cause them

               to discern between the unclean and the clean. (Ezek. 44:23)

 

God’s priests were to teach the people how to discern the difference between the holy and the unholy, to define the difference between the clean and the unclean. God says His people are to be skilled in the word of righteousness, to such a degree that by reason of use their senses are exercised to discern the difference between good and evil (Heb.5: 14).    

  

 For every believer discernment is key to success at evading the devil and his onslaughts. It is an absolute necessity to be victorious in warfare. Without effective discernment the believer can be spiritually blindsided by the enemy. Without operational discernment believers can be drawn into spiritual ambushes or seduced into submitting to spiritual contamination. Ultimately, lack of discernment leads to spiritual apathy, apostasy, and eventually defeat and destruction.

 

 This is one reason Satan works overtime to damage and dismantle the believer’s discernment. One of his chief strategies is to bribe believers in some way. A bribe is when something – money, gifts, favor, status, prestige, position, etc. – is offered for the purpose of influencing your conduct, attitude, beliefs, actions, or allegiance. By accepting the bribe the believer enters into an unholy alliance. The devil is a master at presenting just the right type of bribe to draw God’s people into surrendering their ability to discern the difference between good and evil. 

 

One example is when church leadership allows members of secret societies or occult fraternal orders to remain as members in good standing within their churches, refusing to confront them about their allegiance with unholy organizations. The primary reason church leadership looks the other way is because these individuals are large contributors or prominent political figures in the community. Here the bribe for their silence is financial gain or accessing political clout.

 

Then there are denominations that embrace and ordain homosexuals into the ministry. Here, the payoff is acceptance by an increasingly godless society or avoiding the possibility of being slandered by local liberal media. In most cases it’s about caving in to political correctness.

 

In still another scenario, Christian church leaders join interfaith movements for the sake of religious solidarity, participating with Buddhists, Moslems, and other anti-Christian groups. The payoff for this unholy alliance is acceptance and endorsement by community political leaders. Somehow church leaders believe these connections will gain them the favor they need to be effective. 

 

On a personal level, an individual may have deep insecurities which he believes can only be sedated by gaining a position of prominence and prestige, by gaining platform time and getting to rub elbows with those he deems to be prominent Christian leaders or politicians. However, if those leaders are part of one of the secret societies mentioned above that insecure person enters into an unholy alliance. Here the bribe is the prominence, prestige, and public exposure that temporarily soothe the individual’s psychological need for security.

 

A final example involves believers supporting political parties that advocate, promote, and reinforce attitudes, behaviors, and lifestyles that blatantly violate the principles of God’s word. This kind of political party dishonors God and His word by making the murdering of the innocent or the frail an acceptable practice. In addition, this political group then forces Christians to violate their conscience by using taxpayer dollars to carry out their wicked policy mandates. 

 

The bribe here consists of a particular political party ensuring its supporters get more federally or state funded social programs, perks, and hand-outs at the expense of other taxpayers. In exchange for government favoritism in giving handouts the recipients are more apt to vote for the party that promises to keep the freebees flowing. The discernment of believers that vote for anti-God political parties is blinded to the deceptive and corrupt nature of the political leadership they’ve aligned with.

 

  Jesus said: …”if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the ditch” (Matt. 15:14). If the leader or leaders you’re following are blind and undiscerning, then this means that you are blind too. And both you and your leaders are going to fall into a ditch. 

 

If a believer is involved with any church, organization, political entity, or group that is against or contrary to God, His word, or the kingdom of his Son, then this is an unholy alliance. Coming under this leader’s covering brings the believer into alignment with the leader’s unholy alliance. This relationship will greatly diminish the believer’s ability to discern and set him up for a sure fall and eventual spiritual failure. 

     

God’s word declares: “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? (2 Cor. 6:14)

 

If a person claiming to be a believer continually promotes lawlessness and walks in darkness, then this person has ceased to be a true believer. He is really an unbeliever. Jesus said, “you will know them by their fruits” (Matt. 7:16).

 

Next, God instructs His people to:

 

 …“Come out from among themand be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.”(2 Cor. 6:17)

 

The first step to breaking an unholy alliance is to act upon this revelation by examining all your relationships according to the mandates of God’s word. Second, we need to acknowledge the neediness that led us to accepting the bribe in the first place. This will require asking the Holy Spirit to help us to see the type of bribe that was used to ensnare us, and its connection to our area of lack, or neediness.

 

 Next, we must break off and renounce all relationships that are unholy. This includes turning away from every type of bribe the enemy might use in attempting to ensnare us. Fourth, we must cut all soul ties, emotional ties, and spiritual ties that were established through the unholy alliance (Ps. 129:4). Then we must ask God to wash away all defiling spiritual residue from our lives with the blood of Jesus Christ.

 

Next, we ask God to heal all areas of neediness and to fill our gaps with His grace. Finally, in humility and repentance ask God to restore our ability to discern accurately. To some this may require studying God’s word to sharpen their discernment.

 

God encourages us through Peter to, “be holy, for I am holy” (I Pet. 1:16). In the second chapter God tells us that we are –“a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and His own special people” (I Pet. 2:9). We need to live up to this call by breaking all unholy alliances and setting ourselves apart for our God and His purposes.