Part 2 – Manipulation
In Part 1 of this article, we focused on the Mentorship aspect of this issue. In Part 2, let us look at the matter of Manipulation.
Manipulation is about wielding power and control. Manipulation directs a person to a path through exploitation, deception and control in order to maintain or access power. It comes in many ways and in different arenas.
Manipulation exists in politics, religion, media, business, education, our social lives and even in marriage! It is the greatest hindrance right now regarding good governance and advancing a nation’s growth. If, for example, an individual believes that they are academically superior to you, then they will make efforts to manipulate you in order to maintain or wield power over you. That is why there is no great effort to reduce effort properly.
Manipulation In The Church
Within the Church, the level of manipulation is so high that the ‘regular’ Christian does not truly know what it is to be a real Christian. There are 2 basic types of manipulation happening in the Church:
The Charismatic/Pentecostal Manipulation
The Traditional Church Manipulation
The Charismatic/Pentecostal Manipulation occurs where people utilize their gifts to manipulate people and ultimately shift them out of their purpose, because they want to maintain control and dominion over them. They pull the believer from Christ and pull them to themselves; teaching them about a Crown without the Cross! They utilize the Scriptures such as II Chronicles 20: 20 or Amos 3: 7, for example, and they manipulate the meaning of that Scripture to influence people to listen to them only and shift from the true meaning of that Word. However, if we examine those Scriptures, we will see the word ‘His’ before the words ‘prophets’ and ‘servants’. What if the prophet is not of God?
The Traditional Church Manipulation employs the use of Theology and Philosophy to keep the people in a state of spiritual blindness and ignorance, as well as spiritual passivity! They often engage in heresy, promising progressive Christianity where Christ is demoted and the basic tenets of Christianity are negated or ignored. They choose to ignore the Holy Spirit and His work especially in present time, and confine His existence only to the time of Scriptures. They focus on the Law/Legalism instead of Grace as principles for daily living (Colossians 2: 8); they promise enlightenment and liberation when in fact, by virtue of ignoring and belittling the work of the Holy Spirit in present time, they bring people deeper in bondage spiritually and mentally and keep the people dependent on them, much like the Pharisees of Biblical times. Instead they invite magicians and New Age principles and activities (such as Yoga) into the House of the Lord.
Manipulation In Business And Politicians
In business, especially in Sales and Market Research, they will withhold information from you, ask you what you are looking for and try to find out how knowledgeable you are of their inner workings. Then they steer you in a particular direction and lock you into a deal. By the time the true picture is revealed, you have already signed.
Many lawyers use our ignorance/lack of knowledge of the law, and manipulate the meanings or words and terminologies to manipulate and rob us with our eyes wide open! Many of those in that profession who are called brilliant and genius, are in fact some of the greatest manipulators.
The politicians use eloquence in oration (pretty speeches) to manipulate, and many listening use it as an indication of the speaker’s intelligence, knowledge and academic achievement; they also assume that it means they are good and care deeply about their listeners, and those politicians know that! A person’s eloquence does not indicate whether they will be good leaders or not.
Individual Manipulation
At the individual level, manipulators cause you to feel guilty should you disagree with or try to pull away from them. They always remind you of what they did for you in the past. They will invite you to lunch, for example, and ask you probing questions. They want to carry out a SWOT Analysis of sorts on you before they make their move on you. In other words, they want to know your strengths and weaknesses to determine if you are a threat to them and see what opportunities exist with you. They want to know where you stand, so they will ask you: ‘What do you think about X leader/person?’
For change to come, we need Mentorship, not Manipulation.