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

Are We Fighting the Wrong Enemy?

The Invisible War (5) – ’For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and gainst wicked spirits in the heavenly realms.’ Ephesians 6: 12

There was a preacher in Togo who set up a large camp where he gathered people to teach them what he called ‘dangerous prayers’. According to him, the cause of most of our ills is wicked men who in partnership with demons were set to trouble our lives and we are to stop them. His teachings were based on scriptural injunctions like Exodus 22:18; ‘Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live’, and other similar verses. And he taught the people to pray that these, their human enemies, would be destroyed by the ‘fire of the Holy Spirit’. This is indeed dangerous prayer because it is unbiblical to pray against our human enemy. We are called to pray for them.

This teaching might be new to some of you, but this erroneous interpretation of scripture is rampant in some places. I have heard some argue that David prayed against his enemies in the Psalms so why can’t we? Don’t they realise that that was in Old Testament times? Jesus teaches us explicitly otherwise. Now remember that David not only prayed that his human enemies would die, he also went out and killed them with God’s help! Are we to do that too? No, that was under the law. Grace teaches us differently. Jesus said,

“You have heard that the Law of Moses says, ‘Love your neighbour’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!  In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good and he sends rain on the just and on the unjust, too.  If you love only those who love you, what good is that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much.  If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that.  But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect. Matthew 5:43-48 (NLT)

This false teaching causes a lot of harm. It creates a set of Christians who are suspicious of others for every misfortune they encounter. It does not enhance love and fellowship among people. There are men who have abandoned their elderly mothers because they have ‘discerned’ that  they are the demonic agents troubling them. There are marriages that have been broken because the man has received a revelation that his wife is the witch troubling him.

This teaching feeds our carnal desire for revenge. If there is someone out there who is fighting us then we naturally want him or her to get their just punishment. Like James and John in Luke 9:54 when the crowd was against them, we often would like to ask God to send fire on the heads of our enemies. I recently heard a preacher justify this teaching by saying ‘Jesus told us to pray for our enemies but he didn’t tell us what to pray for them, so let’s pray that they fall and die!’

Now some of us may not have gone that far, but we do bear grudges against those who have hurt us and we wish in our hearts that they would be punished. That wish in itself is like praying against them. It’s ‘dangerous prayer’ too because it will harm us and God’s purposes. We are called to forgive those who hurt us. Please take time and meditate on the Lord’s words above.

What I want to point out now is that ‘we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the heavenly realms’. It is dangerous to be confused about who our enemy is.

Let us pray: Father, forgive us for every unforgiveness in us. We realise that no matter how wicked men may be to us, we are not to war against them but rather pray for your best for them. Lord, we repent of every error we have walked in, and receive from you grace to face our true enemies – the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world. Once again, Lord, we pray – Teach our hands to war and our fingers to fight in Jesus’ Name!

FOR FURTHER MEDITATION: Please go through all the references in the article especially Matthew 5:43-48 and also Romans 12:19-21, Luke 9: 51-56