Enforcing his Lordship among the Nations

The Invisible War (6) – Enforcing his Lordship among the Nations. “Vindicate the weak and fatherless; do justice to the afflicted and destitute. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them out of the hand of the wicked.” Psalm 82:3-4

The ultimate goal of all spiritual warfare is the enforcing of God’s rule. It is true that we are to resist the devil in our individual lives, but we are called to go beyond fighting for our interests into expanding the kingdom of God in our world.

The entire conflict is not over men’s possessions but rather over men’s souls. The chief purpose for which God is teaching us to fight is so that we may be enlisted into the battle for souls. All around us untold millions are bound and unable to respond to the gospel or to change. Look around at your unsaved relatives; remember your rebellious children, and your confused neighbours. Now lift up your eyes and look at the thousands of ethnic groups in the world still unreached because of demonic strongholds that hold them bound. Consider that there are now over one billion Muslims blind to the love of Christ. How are they going to be freed?

It would not do to preach the gospel to them if we do not first of all bind the strong man that holds them captive. Just think, why do very intelligent people find it hard to understand the simple message of the gospel? The bible says the god of this world has veiled their mind. And it is only through our resisting the devil that they will be free to see and choose Christ.

After two years of fruitless missionary work among the Lisu people in Asia, J.O. Fraser realised that only prayer could free these people. So he got his mother (in England) to gather around godly men and women who committed themselves to do spiritual warfare for the souls of the Lisu, and this is what turned the tide. After some years a mighty move of God came among these people that saw thousands of souls swept into the kingdom of God. When we bind the devil he is forced to liberate souls.

Some years ago I was with a church-planting team in one of the dark places of the earth, in the north of Nigeria. It was a place where two years of faithful preaching and praying had borne no fruit. God led us to fast and pray for days against the spiritual strongholds of Satan in that land. We also sent out a call to the people of God to stand with us to push back the darkness, and then things did happen; within less than a year the people’s attitude began changing and a church was able to be planted.

You ask, “why are untold millions still unreached?” The answer is simple – we do not have enough people in our ranks standing in the gap and pulling down strongholds.

Personally, I believe that there is an unprecedented harvest of souls among the millions of Muslims coming  soon, if enough of us will fight for their souls. Even here in our work among the unreached peoples in Africa we feel a great need for those who will join us in this battle for the precious souls of men. Will you be enlisted?

A friend of mine wrote some while ago that every soul that is won to Jesus is the vengeance of God against the enemy. Soul winning is spiritual warfare.

Let us pray: O Lord, teach us how to pray! Open our eyes to the true nature of this warfare. Give us your passion for the lost. Give us a vision for the nations. Teach us to go beyond focusing on ourselves and so vindicate the weak and fatherless. Help us to give ourselves to rescuing the weak and needy, to deliver them out of the hand of the wicked. O Lord, teach us how to pray in Jesus’ Name!

FOR FURTHER MEDITATION: 2 Corinthians 4:3-4; 10:4-6; Eph. 6: 10-18; 1 Thess. 2:18