2 Corinthians 10:3-7
3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
6 And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.
7 Do ye look on things after the outward appearance? If any man trust to himself that he is Christ's, let him of himself think this again, that, as he is Christ's, even so are we Christ's.
Ephesians 1:19-23
19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,
20 Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,
21 Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:
22 And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,
23 Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.
All of my Christian life I have been told about living in the dominion of Christ or ruling and reigning with him, but the problem is a lot of people talk about it and not to many can tell you how it is achieved. Is there really a place that you as person can maintain your existence as a believer in things spiritual can live in the realm of the overcomer in this life or is that just a place where people live in daydreams?
People might ask you; how can you ask questions like that? It is easy walk with me for a day and hear the echo’s of emptiness when I begin to pour out my heart before God. For the longest as I grew up in what seemed to be a fanatically spiritual home, I could hear the reverberation of my mother’s prayers as she according to the old legend bombarded the gates of heaven and everything between there and the throne.
I once daydreamed about what it must have been like sitting in the throne room when my mother began to pray and could hear the angels start to fly about as they proclaimed to Jesus, oh-oh!! “She’s at it again” I could see the devil run for cover as she begin to use every legal rebuke that carried the name of Jesus between the beginning of Genesis and the end of Revelation.
Mom never knew what the technicalities of prayer were or if there were such things, she just used about every scripture at her command and stayed in confidence that Jesus had to answer because he promised.
In the period of the 40’s through the 60’s people were seldom Biblical technicians but they were practiced in the Word of God. It seemed that they only had one hope and it was God’s Word.
It seemed that their reality was living in the now and their now was only in God’s Word. Today people look in the Word for every avenue they can find to disprove it. In those days people were concerned with it working because too many other things didn’t work.
That lead in verse above from Corinthians says that though we walk in flesh our fight is not in the flesh, but with the carnal existence, a realm where the spirit of this world (Satan) lives.
What is the difference with what life is now and what life was in the days of the mid-twentieth century? In that period it was not considered a reproach to identify with God. Even from the center of the Christian life certain crusaders get on their spiritual chargers and crusade against the Christian observance of Christmas.
Believers wonder why the miracles don’t occur in the American church as they do in abundance in the church in the third world. The USA so to speak for the Philippines, Nigeria, certain portions of India among areas of the third world is a great waste land in need of evangelizing. Missionaries are coming to the US in abundance to rekindle the flame of revival that once spread from here across the world.
It is well known that the heart of the Father is souls but yet in all the reports of revival across the US how many lost do you hear of coming to the Lord. I would venture to say that less than half of the members of every church that has Pentecostal/Charismatic affiliation have lead a soul to the Lord in the last five years. Is it so easy to forget that sheep begat sheep and not shepherds??
In the Charismatic/Pentecostal realm in the late 80’s and early 90”s many of the groups dropped Sunday evening services and they were the ones where many of the lost were brought to the Lord. When the birth rate begins to stop and new life is no longer a factor unless the current body stays alive the life of the body begins to die away and churches go stagnant without the birth of new believers into the kingdom.
We seem to have forgotten that the basic purpose of the church is to be a lighthouse to the lost!! Then the mission of the church goes from there. The church is no longer caught up in the reality of God but many are caught in the quickest way to maintain the appearance of Godliness while finding the best escape route to escape from the requirements of Godliness..
A major protestant group can lay claim to enlightenment in the belief of god; less than 1/3 of their ministry accept the virgin birth of Jesus or the origin of life in the book of Genesis. As a result of that only 20 % of the female membership accept the deity of Jesus and appear in church strictly as a status symbol. This particular church group has become a society center and has no real meaning.
I tell many of the Pastors in the field this and they find it very hard to accept, but the truth is that children (the mission field) of the American church may soon be the support of the American church. WE have got to have a major earth shaking revival here in the states even I would go so far as to a resurrection. Places like Brownsville, FL., Central Tenn. Melbourne, Fl and Toronto Canada may become sights where the judgment of the Holy Spirit takes place instead of sights where the great revivals of the Holy Spirit took place.
We were services in Brownsville in the beginning and they talked of a move of the Spirit that would continue until Jesus came, but an outbreak of flesh has stopped that move and left a church that is in debt and as it is now there in Brownsville with all of the original ministry of the revival period departed. In a church that saw 2500 -3000 gather in from all corners of the country for every time the doors opened it is strange to see more than 300-400 come in for a service. You might well find “ICHABOD” written across the door.
In many places where the Spirit of God once moved freely you might find finger-pointing and blaming for all the faults of the body, and the body blaming the leadership for the problems. Yet at one time when these problems occurred there was a call to prayer and repentance and people stayed in this mode until the Spirit of God was free to move again.
There seems to be such urgency today to distance ourselves from the things of those days in the mid 20th century when being identified as one of those who did spend a quantity of time and quality time in the presence of God because of being labeled with fanaticism.
What difference did being in church make? I wrote once about going across the southeastern part of the country and noticing all the closed church doors on Sunday. I noticed all the people on the streets in the area where the darkened churches were. I then did a little research and found that areas of violence began to come into the darkened areas that were once full of light from the church and their evening service. It seems that the forces of hell and hate will gravitate into areas that become vacuums by the departure of the people of God. Sunday nights were the old fashioned evangelical services and that was the time of many people coming to the altars to find the Lord as Savior. Sunday mornings have a printed program a week ahead of time and it would not proper in many places to interrupt a program so that someone might find the Lord as Savior. Opportunities are not given in that morning service because altar calls are not made.
Many Pastors today don’t even know how to approach the evangelical side of the Gospel and schedule evangelistic meetings each year so that this can be taken care of. You see God is on a schedule now and is given a few minutes each week to come out and perform, while in many neighborhoods the devil rules our streets with violence in places the church once controlled.
There is coming a change because quietly there is a group of people coming that won’t be satisfied with a society church and are desperate for a move of God. They are not afraid to cross a Jordan as Israel did and Take back what has been given to them. They are not afraid to incorporate all of the armor of Ephesians chapter six.
They are ready; through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.
They are determined that God is still on his throne and that the Satanic forces have lost before they even began, all that they have stolen is coming back into the kingdom.
Where are you in this time? Is it really time to take back the ground that the Lord had given you and you allowed to slip away? Are you ready to take down those thoughts of defeat and convert them into the truth of God’s Word in your life? Can you accept that God isn’t dead and hasn’t been fired and is still the reality in this life that counts?
For all the despair and hate that the world offers there is
ONLY HOPE AND LIFE IN JESUS