Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.
Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints. Ephesians 6:10–18.
While we are in the midst of this spiritual warfare our intercession will continue, as this passage above directs us, but we can make one move which will bypass a great deal of inch-by-inch struggle. During World War II when the United States began to march across the Pacific, many little islands stood in the path. Instead of fighting it out, island by island, the military took an atomic bomb directly to the main island and dropped it on one of the major cities. Shortly after that, they bombed another city. There was a big question about the morality of that, but it did one thing: it probably saved hundreds of thousands of lives. Many lives were lost, but consider the number of lives that were saved. There are many families who rejoiced because something came decisively which bypassed that day-by-day struggle; it got to the heart of the thing and ended it. The lifelines to those other strongholds and islands had been cut off. We can approach our spiritual battles in the same way.
This message will tell you, not what we are facing right at the moment, but instead it will tell you what our battle strategy is to be. Let’s proclaim our liberty and our victory. Let’s see where we are going, and what we are to do, and how we are to do it. First, reject the thinking, thoroughly and completely, that “business as usual” will go on any longer in the church world. It will not. We have found churches locked into a position that was never in the vision or the Word for them. These churches are not functioning according to the vision that God originally gave for them. Each of the local churches has prophecies that we need to constantly review, and we are reaching to walk in what God has spoken. When we examine a church, we know that God said certain things are to be fulfilled there; and we are concerned that they reach into those things. But in service after service, a church may come up against a wall. They are not making the thing happen that God first spoke over them.
God has begun to stir hearts deeply and to put a violence in our spirits to see this change. The Word over a church may be, for example, that the church is to be like an oasis in the desert. Such prophecies and revelation about a church’s ministry may have come to several prophets independently of one another; they are confirmed Words from the Lord.
The Lord has often spoken that we are to make a spiritual assault on the impasses. We could hit and hit again with prayer and faith at the impasses until the things that are wrong in that church give way to a whole new breakthrough. We could break the elemental spirits in that locality which are causing the church to succumb to a deadness; for there will be nothing there but apathy—bleached bones unless we hit it, and then we hit it again, until we break it through. Beware of anyone getting hold of you by means of a theosophy which is specious make-believe, on the lines of human tradition, corresponding to the Elemental spirits of the world and not to Christ. Colossians 2:8 (Moffatt).
When we are trying to break an impasse, we are not going to come to a church and speak critically of the pastor.
Neither will we say that the impasse is the people’s fault. Instead, we recognize that an impasse comes very easily, and often the only way it can be changed is by shaking things up a little bit. And this expression, “Yet once more,” denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, in order that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe. Hebrews 12:27–28.
We can get so organized that we reach an impasse. We are not looking for “organized” churches. We are looking for “Sherman tanks” that will shell the works of the devil! We are looking for something that will be effective in bringing forth the Kingdom! How long did you think it should take to bring forth the Kingdom? At the present rate you could be as old as Methuselah before you get to the next level! How will we break loose? How long have you been walking with God? How long have you had prophecies over you? How long have there been prophecies over your church? What about breaking that impasse? Let’s break it, in the name of the Lord!
A brother can study for so long at being such a kind person that he forgets to be an Elijah. I have observed this carefully, and I see many brothers doing that. Maybe you do it. In trying to become a nice, sophisticated ministry with proper restraint, are you bottling up the volcano that God wants to erupt? Everything in our walk with God is pointing toward the fact that in the days of the Kingdom, the Kingdom of God suffereth violence! It is the violent who take it by force! “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force.” Matthew 11:12. Somewhere there must be something more than a tranquilized “kingdom” of God. The need is for people to feel things deeply; to not hide them, to come and pray together and seek the Word of God. I predict a stirring in the churches. It is far better that these churches experience troubled waters than that they sit without moving on in God. By the Word that God has given I have stirred you before; let me do it again. The Word of God has created a violence in my spirit. It has created a kindness and a peacefulness in me, but now that Word is going to erupt with the force of a volcano. Why has He given such Words to us? God would bring us into a sanctified position where we are to be like our God. We are to be like Him because it is His nature that is coming forth within us. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. II Peter 1:4.
There is a uniqueness in God’s dealings with us. The Scriptures tell how He treats a son whom He loves. Does He spoil him by praising him and not allowing anything to oppose him? Because He loves a son, does God spare him? That certainly is not what happens! What really does happen? It is not pleasant to hear it, but very likely you know it already: “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him; for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives.” It is for discipline that you endure. You are holding still, enduring, so that you can be disciplined. No one is worth anything until his life is disciplined. A man is worthless, for he will be constantly giving way to the lawlessness of the old nature, if he is without discipline. God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. (This version dresses it up a little bit; the King James Version says, “you are bastards.”)
Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, and make straight paths for your feet. Hebrews 12:5b–13a.
Do you understand that behind all of this is the fact that God is the only One who can turn loose on you both His anger and His love at the same time? He “scourges every son whom He receives.” It is a difficult thing for us to understand the love of God for us, because we do not understand love! We do not understand the duality of God’s dealings, incorporated within one dealing on us, that shows that He is one integrated Person. God is not divided; He is not a dual personality, although there are the extremes of His nature. He comes at you; and He loves you.
We get a glimpse of that sometimes when we see a good father, one who does not spare his children (Proverbs 13:24). He shows them a lot of love and he spanks them, and that discipline comes through in their spirits. As a result, each child comes forth as a whole person. There is such a thing as spoiling a child; but there is also such a thing as being angry at him without love. Blessed are the father and mother who can love their children with that strength which disciplines, and at the same time loves them and convinces them of that love, and ministers it to them. For whom the Lord loves He reproves, even as a father, the son in whom he delights. Proverbs 3:12.
What is this saying to us? We will have to be like He is. “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Matthew 5:48. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren. Romans 8:29. We are to have the righteousness of God with all of the hunger after it in our spirits. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” Matthew 5:6. We have to be lovers of righteousness; and at the same time, be lovers of the grace of God.
I can see change coming, in the churches and in the ministries. You must storm heaven! I do not know how our services are going to change, but we must have this worship that adores Him as well as this aggressive faith. We must have the persistence, “Lord, You are going to answer us.” On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen; all day and all night they will never keep silent. You who remind the Lord, take no rest for yourselves; and give Him no rest until He establishes and makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth. Isaiah 62:6–7. How could Jacob love God so much and hang on to Him, saying, “I won’t let You go until You bless me!” Crippled, he walked away with a blessing from God upon him. God called him a prince. Perhaps God turned to the warring archangel Michael and said, “See that boy down there, Michael? You could learn something about warfare from him. I just gave him a name: Israel, prince of God.” Of course the Scriptures do not say all of that, but it could have happened (Genesis 32:24–31; compare Genesis 28:11–16).
Do you know what the churches need now? The answer is in this Word. I prophesy that the churches will change because they will be bombarded by the Word, by love, by persistent ministry, by Timothys. There will be the laying on of hands and impartation, but there will be the strong exhortations and discipline of the Lord as well. We must move on from the place we are in, but we are not going to do it with criticism or with bitterness. We are going to move in love and persistent faith until these churches become the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.” Revelation 11:15b. Let’s break through. If a church has reached the place where it is being demonically assaulted, let’s call our dedicated intercessors in there and pray until that impasse is broken.
Let’s be mobile. Our communications could be very much like a wartime situation. In a battle, an army always has a place where the generals find out what is going on, study the maps, and then send their soldiers in. We too have some objectives to take. What are our goals? Read again the prophecies that came over the churches. Review what God said. The Lord’s churches are going to change. They will be changed! They are not going to fail in fulfilling the will of the Lord. By faith we are going to do the will of God together!
Nearly all of us know who the principal ministries are among us, those who are the pastors and elders in charge of the churches. The term “second string” may not be really appropriate, but at least it is descriptive. We have too many who never get to “carry the ball.” They will not grow until they are thrown into the midst of hard situations and they have to be faithful. May the Holy Spirit commission these to the work. Over and over brothers have asked, “Give me a commission. Tell me what to do.” And more and more the Lord speaks to our hearts that we must give them a commission, give them a Word, and tell them what to do. And this we do, and will continue to do.
We may be in the midst of problems that we would like to see resolved tomorrow, but we can drop a spiritual “atom bomb” now. Whatever else happens, or whatever we face in the battle, we are going to get to the heart of the matter of building the Kingdom of God and getting each church moving on in the Lord.
The next step for the local churches is not to wait until the Lord sends in a couple of Timothys to help; rather, the action ought to be initiated within the local body. It is wonderful to see a church where the elders, pastors, and deacons are all cooperating, with no real trouble. I seldom hear complaints from pastors about the feisty, aggressive members; it is those who are dragging their feet, those who are not pressing in, who cause the problems for the pastors. Someone may say, “But maybe they stumbled over something.” Anyone can be shaken over almost anything; how is that excuse valid? Tell me of one time that things cannot appear confused and mixed up. You have a commission! Let this be the only kind of problem that we will have: services that can hardly be controlled for the joyful praise; ministries who are so aggressive that you have to quiet them down; and people who are not worried about their ministry, but they are doing it!
We have had enough of this Word confirmed to our hearts, right in this message, that from now on it will be a sin if we do not make a move toward it. There is a way in which we can be filled with love and still be in motion, still be aggressively obedient to the Lord. And this is true not only in the services. Love those people who are out there drifting in the outer eddies of things; pull them back in. Show them some love. Get busy and do something with your life, with the time that you have. Bring the people in. Go pick them up. Find someone who is critical or ready to fall by the wayside and bring him in and help him.
At the beginning there were churches springing up rapidly. Eventually we reached the place where churches are not springing up rapidly anymore. God had given a Word along this line—He said that He would not start new churches, but instead He would build up the churches that He already has. Yet these churches will not go any further until we take the burden for this. We do not want any of the churches to be limited, but if that happens it will be because of their own lack of aggressiveness. Do you say, with a tinge of bitterness, “But we have gone through something very difficult”? Then move in a little more love! Move in a little more faith, a little more intercession, and a little more aggressiveness to be what God has told you to be. Have faith to be that!
“According to our earnest expectation” is the way that the Word tells us we shall receive (Philippians 1:20). It is to be an earnest expectation—not a passive acceptance of prophecies and commissions. With earnest expectation the elders and the deacons should take their office! Move into it! Back up the pastor! Back up the shepherd! Show a little more aggressiveness. If down the road you find them complaining, let it be only because they have sore heels because you have been stepping on them.
You must understand that when you line yourself up with this Word, probably two things will happen. First, as you position yourself to follow this ministry, you immediately position yourself also in a greater area of conflict; so be prepared for it. Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ; so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel; in no way alarmed by your opponents—which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you, and that too, from God. For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me, and now hear to be in me. Philippians 1:27–30.
The second thing that must happen is that there be direction and order in this. We are not going to go out and move independently; we will move as a Body. In the days of the New Testament Paul said, … kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. II Timothy 1:6–7. He was speaking of that disciplined mind. The whole thing in all of the gifts and the ministries and the power of the Kingdom to come forth is that there be no fear. But there is love; there is power; there is a disciplined mind. There is the chastening of the Lord upon us, and we learn to enter into that chastening with love! We do not faint because we are reproved of Him (Hebrews 12:5). We enter into the experience of it with all of our heart.
Some people will say, “I don’t understand all this intensity.” Are you thinking that? If so, then answer this one question: How long do you want to sit without the Word and promises of God working in your life? Do you want to have the faith in that Word in order to be a diligent doer of the Word? But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. James 1:22. If you want the Word to work and become a part of you, then you must act upon it. There must be obedience! There are enough of us that if we would walk in what God has already given us, we would be a hundred times more effective than we are now. Many of us are ready. We are going to get you off the benches and get you into the game!
Let’s ask the Lord to seal this Word to our hearts, and begin to rehearse this in one another’s ears from this time forward, so that we not forget this. This is a Word which God has spoken to all of our hearts. With it, we can bypass all our little problems and the battles of the moment, and reach in to walk in the perfect will of the Lord. We will no longer be content with prophecies and commissions unfulfilled. We will no longer be content even with aggressive intercession, when there is still a passivity in performance. We have been given an ear to hear this Word because God has seen that we have feet that will walk in it.