Every time I see a video of Canadian Pastor Artur Pawlowski get arrested, it chokes me up a little. He places his hands behind his head and takes to his knees. The cops complain that he is on his knees again instead of obediently coming along, and irreverently call him “Arthur,” as if they were childhood friends, only the tone is a disparaging one. The man stays silent through it all.
Surrounded by a dozen armed officers of the state, he knows his flesh does not stand a chance. He does what his flesh in that moment can do. He refuses to comply. He takes to his knees and refuses to come along. They must at least carry him, for he will not comply with their evil. How many of us are so principled when evil tells us to comply that we not only do not comply, but we refuse to even acknowledge their very words?
But I believe Artur Pawlowski is doing something else.
I believe he is one who bows before no man. I believe at the moment of his arrest, when he takes to his knees, he is bowing down before the true authority and quietly praising the Lord. He is deep in prayer, giving thanks for what a good God he serves; he is reciting psalms; he is thanking God for every day of freedom he has had with his wonderful family; he is focusing on the goodness of God in his life, bolstering his faith and reminding himself that no weapon formed against him will prosper. That is what I believe is taking place in such moments. They can do whatever they wish to that man’s body. That man is somewhere else. He is in the bosom of the Almighty as they lug him around like a 250 pound sack of potatoes.
Perhaps you can imagine why it gets me when I see that man drop to his knees when the police come for him.
On Tuesday, February 8, 2022, Pastor Pawlowski was leaving his home to perform a church service for the truckers. What an opportunity to speak into the lives of brave men and women. What an opportunity to bolster them. The Canadian government realized this. The police were waiting in an unmarked van and piled out to accost and kidnap Pawlowski as the pastor left his home to travel to that church service. Why would they kidnap a man exercising this most fundamental right to travel for the purpose of ministering to another? The stated reason for the kidnapping — “mischief.” He sits in solitary confinement, awaiting trial. His treatment has been even more severe than the January 6 prisoners detained pretrial in the D.C. Gulag.
Pawlowski became known for teaching the world how to command authority over the police and over anyone else claiming unjust authority over another. Officials barged into his church. In response, he did not put on a mask and invite them to persecute him, he did not invite them to police his house of worship, he did not comply. He called them what they were and demanded them out.
How many clergy are so principled when evil tells them to comply that they not only do not comply but they refuse to even acknowledge their very words?
During an Easter service, public health officials and armed police entered his church. His behavior contrasts with some of my closest pastor friends, who obediently closed their churches on Easter. Pastor Pawlowski not only kept his church open, he defended his church and the people within. He did not even let the intruders get a word in edgewise. Excellent technique. Their words had no authority with him, so why even let them speak. He began calmly, then persisted as the intruders stood their ground.
Please get out.
Get out of this property immediately
I don’t want to hear a word.
Out. Out. Out of this property. Immediately.
You come back with a warrant. Out. Out. Out. Out. Out. Out. Out. Out. Immediately out of this property and don’t come back.
Out. I don’t want to talk to you. Immediately. Not a word. I don’t care what you have to say. Out. Out. Out.
Out of this property you Nazis. Out. Out. Out. Gestapo is not allowed here. Immediately. Gestapo is not allowed here.
Do you understand English. Get out of this property. Out. Out. Go. So go. Go. Go. And don’t come back without a warrant.
Out Nazi. Out. You understand. Nazis are not welcome here. Do not come back without a warrant.
Nazis are not welcome here. Gestapo is not welcome here.
Do not come back you Nazi psychopaths.
After some 3 minutes of that, they finally left his church and walked off like dejected dogs, put in their place. This is the proper posture for people who work for the state to take as they interact with the public. They will not take that posture until they encounter more people who talk with them that way, or until they at least learn that you will talk to them that way.
In that moment, Pawlowski taught all who would listen how to claim authority over demonic forces and over illegitimate worldly forces alike.
Twain wrote that it takes only one real man to shout down a lynch mob of 10,000.
Pawlowski showed the world that there is at least one real man on this continent, and he did not just show it once, he showed it with everything he did, and showed it over and over again.
The true problem in the eyes of the authorities, though, was not Pawlowski. It was you. Because courage is contagious.
They could not stand for that risk.
He needed to be silenced.
They still, however, have not figured out how to silence him.
And I suspect no matter what they do, Pawlowski’s ripples cannot be stopped.
When a man stands up, that man ripples.
I write about the importance of not wearing a face mask. Doing so changes you. That is a most important change. But doing so also ripples out to others as well. That courage is contagious.
Even if you do not see it, they are watching. Even if it comes with a jeer, you are being noticed and consequently impacting others. There are only so many times a man can encounter such shows of bravery before he genuinely wants to know “Why is that guy doing that?” and in that moment his heart begins to soften. You change the world as you show courage. You also change the world as you comply. One is a true and just change. The other is not that.
In such moments, in every moment in life, in fact, you get to ask yourself “What do I want remembered about me?” “How do I want to impact the world?”
When you wear that face mask, the answer will inevitably be a negative one. I ask courage of you, my dear lion. These times demand it.
Pawlowski named his ministry the Cave of Adullam. This is a reference to David in the Biblical book of 1 Samuel 22. When the “government” of his day — King Saul — had illogically turned on him, David retreated to the Cave of Adullam, a place of misfits. And out of that band of misfits, God built him an army that would ultimately make David king. A ruddy shepherd boy would become king with a band of misfits for an army. Sometimes God likes to elevate the least likely people so that it is clear who is really in charge. Cave of Adullam — a fitting, brave, obedient name for such a lion as Pawlowski to name his ministry, a ministry which often focuses on the least fortunate in society.
There are people giving to the legal fees of Pastor Pawlowski. If you are led to help support this man during his time in jail as a political prisoner of the state, I would like to ask you to consider a different donation — one to his family: his wife and children.
Pastors often live life on a shoe string, realizing that God will provide. Many pastors proudly empty the bank account by the end of each month, trying to benefit as many worthy causes as they can with the money God has placed in their hands. Those same pastors, putting their faith in God, month after month, year after year, have watched enough money come in the next month for them to fulfill their callings and to help fund the work of others.
Trusting in God and sowing generously into the work of others is called being a good steward. It is what many pastors are in the habit of doing.
I cannot imagine Pawlowski sitting on a pile of money while there are souls that need saving. I do not imagine the man having much of a nest egg when there are hungry souls in his community. While he, no doubt, has an army of lions around him, losing the family’s bread winner has likely taken a toll on the family in many ways.
To give to the imprisoned lion’s family, see this from his son. It was not sent to me as solicitation, but by my request:
“If you would like to help, you can donate by using e-transfer: art@streetchurch.ca, by using our website: www.streetchurch.ca, PayPal (info on the website) or you can send your support by cheque to the address here: 1740 25 A Street SW Calgary Alberta Canada T3C1J9 Street Church, Artur Pawlowski. Thank you and bless you!”
If you are untrusting of big tech or big banks to properly convey your funds without financial censorship, you will notice the website also has Bitcoin and options for other censorship-proof cryptocurrencies.
Pastor Pawlowski did not begin his ministry in 2020 when the world witnessed his bravery as he declared authority over the Nazi public health officials and their thugs.
No, Pawlowski had long been a thorn in the side of unjust officials. For nearly 2 decades the Polish-born Pawlowski was feeding the homeless on the streets of his adopted Canadian home, preaching to them, and helping to bring them out of their despair and to God.
His local officials made such behavior illegal. That did not stop him. He spent years in and out of jail in the government’s effort to harass this brave man of God until he broke. He does not seem to be breaking.
Instead of giving into evil, he proceeds ever more boldly against it. With the rise of corona communism, one of the greatest evils this continent has ever known, Pawlowski has continued to stand and obey the only authority in his life.
Pawlowski’s bravery helps to illustrate the pinnacle of human potential and helps to illustrate the type of bravery, cussedness, and certainty of values that it took to build the continent, and especially the United States into the example of freedom it once was, and in many regards continues to be. When Pawlowski exhibits that courage, it is so contagious as to be impossible to contain.
Very sinister forces seek to push the world, and especially America, into the abyss so that the sinister may rule. Everywhere one looks, the decline is so palpable. The sinister are hardly troubled by that. It is what they had hoped for all along — give enough power to government, an institution which inevitably attracts men of third rate quality, and you inevitably destroy a country, a culture, a society, and a nation.
In all times, such hyenas exist — looking for the next innocent they can turn into a meal. In all times, the majority of the massive population behaves in a sheeplike fashion — looking for the best leader to follow. These are not the variables. They exist at all points in history. The variable is in the lions. Are the lions standing up and defending their territory, or are they asleep? At all times in history, that has been the variable. Whether the lions be awake or asleep has determined the trajectory of society at all points in history.
Pawlowski is a case study on being that lion and the opportunities for influence that come into your life by simply being obedient to your values.
If we are to turn ourselves, our families, our households, our communities, the world as we know it, back from the abyss, then we are called on to be just such lions.
Hardly does anything matter more than that. Hardly does anything matter more than being able to grow in your ability to 1.) identify your boundaries, 2.) communicate your boundaries, and to 3.) defend your boundaries, which is to say — 1.) to identify your values, 2.) communicate your values, and 3.) defend your values. If you cannot rise to this occasion, all is lost for you.
Currently, there is a minor reprieve from tyranny that the politicians have given us. They have loosened some restrictions that have been fundamental underpinnings of corona communism since its inception during the Ides of Match 2020. In this reprieve, they turned the boiling pot of corona communism down to a medium boil, but make no mistake, this is the pot they mean to keep us in.
This will not end well by playing nice with the demonic and being obedient to evil.
The enemy has come to you looking to kill, steal, and destroy.
You get to comply, or you get to oppose, but you cannot do both.
Take off your mask. Be louder. Be braver. Be more. Speak to those who claim false authority over you, just as they deserve to be spoken to. Be more like Pawlowski. No matter what that takes.
Tip over the pot, no matter how the other frogs moan about that. Jump to the floor of the kitchen, no matter how scary that jump looks. But most importantly, do whatever it takes to stop obeying, to stop complying, to rip that slave mask off and to never go back to it. And then rip the many proverbial slave masks off the many other parts of your life that depend on your compliance to ensure your slavery. You do not need to free the world, but if your eyes are open to the evil in your midst, you are called on to stand up and free yourself. That behavior will ripple, and others will surely follow.
This special moment is yours for the taking.
If you still wear a mask and don’t want to be wearing a mask, you need , these articles , and these videos shared with anyone on this list. If you think face masks are safe for anyone to wear, you need this book — “”, which talks about how face masks harm everyone.