# From Intercessory Prayer To NAR Control (Ep 637) > [!question] Lingering Questions > - How much manufactured "anointing" behavior (fainting, trances) is consciously staged vs. genuinely experienced by performers in the moment? > - Is the "lies for the sake of a holy end" ethic a genuinely portable diagnostic across unrelated high-control movements, or does tracing it (Gnostics → Latter Rain → Berg → NAR) overstate a real lineage? > [!tip] Article Ideas > - "Lies for a holy end" as a portable red-flag test for evaluating any mission-driven organization's internal ethics, not just religious movements — cross-domain with the vault's existing DevRel/community-governance thinking on accountability. > [!link] Cross Reference > - [[3. Resources/Permanent Notes/Impact-Over-Truth Is the Self-Justifying Engine of Platform-Centered Church Abuse]] — the existing Permanent this episode's central mechanism extends > - [[3. Resources/Literature Notes/Hidden Political Roots of Modern Revivalism (Church of God Deep Dive)]] — the historical authority-architecture lineage this episode's first-person account illustrates from the inside > [!quote] Vocabulary > - *armor bearer* — a subordinate role in the intercessory-prayer subculture, tasked with personal service/protection of a "anointed" leader > - *"lies for the sake of a holy end"* — Peter Wagner's ends-justify-the-means maxim, identified as the seed ethic of the control system described ## Metadata - Source: [[3. Resources/Readwise/Full Document Contents/Articles/From Intercessory Prayer to NAR Control Podcast Episode 637]] - Channel: Leaving the Message (William Branham Historical Research Podcast circle) - Format: YouTube interview, second/deeper conversation with named former NAR insiders ## Author's thesis Judith Desjardins traces her decades-long path through the intercessory-prayer and "spiritual warfare" movement — Peter Wagner's teachings, Brian Simmons's "apostolic center" church, Generals International, the "Divorcing Baal" campaign — describing how these practices functioned as mechanisms of control rather than devotion. The throughline is "lies for the sake of a holy end": an ends-justify-the-means ethic that escalates ordinary prayer into a dominion-theology control system of commanding God, decreeing over cities/nations, ranking people by "anointing," and binding members through fear of leaving. ## Key arguments (≤3) 1. **The control system's seed is an explicit ethic**: Peter Wagner taught "the ends justify the means... whatever means you use, it doesn't matter" as applied to intercessory prayer practice. 2. **The same "lies for a holy end" pattern recurs across unrelated extremist religious groups** — traced by the guest from Irenaeus's Gnostics through David Berg to the NAR, functioning as a portable diagnostic. 3. **Manufactured supernatural experience (staged trances, reframed fainting) manufactures spiritual authority** — the mechanism that converts performance into followers' commitment. ## Claim atoms ### "Ends justify the means" seeds religious deception > [!quote] ID:rw_pending > "He said, 'The ends justify the means or else why would anyone do anything?'... whatever means you use does it doesn't matter." Peter Wagner's maxim as taught for intercessory prayer — the ethical root the whole control system grows from; the first dissonance that signaled "something wrong" to the guest. ### Extremist groups share "lies for the sake of a holy end" > [!quote] ID:rw_pending > "Every single group that I have examined that has gone off into extremism have one variation of that or another... the lies for the sake of a holy end." Traced from Irenaeus's Gnostics through David Berg to the NAR — a portable diagnostic meme connecting otherwise unrelated high-control movements. ### Manufactured trance manufactures spiritual authority > [!quote] ID:rw_pending > "She said, 'Oh, no, no, he's in a trance. He fell over. The anointing was so strong. He fell over and he's on the floor.'" Simmons's fainting reframed mid-sentence from "fasting" to "the anointing"; Branham's "1+1=2" trance; prayer-line plants. Staged supernaturalism converts performance into authority and commitment. ### Rejecting authority re-creates the hierarchy it fled > [!quote] ID:rw_pending > "They have formed everything that they stood against whenever they broke away. So, they've really came full circle." Anti-denominational NAR rebuilds a pope-like hierarchy ("you think Peter Wagner is the Pope"); denominations reframed as the lost safety net. ## Permanent candidates - **A group becomes a control system when it exempts itself from truth-telling for its mission** — promoted, see [[3. Resources/Permanent Notes/A Group Becomes a Control System When It Exempts Itself From Truth-Telling for Its Mission]]. ## Processing checklist - [ ] Build a "lies for a holy end" lineage diagram (Gnostics → Latter Rain → Berg → NAR) - [ ] Open question: how much manufactured "anointing" behavior is consciously staged vs. genuinely experienced by performers? - [x] Connect into the relevant MOC — [[3. Resources/MOCs/NAR and Charismatic Authority Critique MOC]] ## Links - [[3. Resources/MOCs/NAR and Charismatic Authority Critique MOC]] — a first-person account of the intercessory-prayer-to-control pipeline central to the NAR critique