Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
In this age, we will always be involved in spiritual warfare. Just as Jesus confronted and cast out demons while on the earth, we fight against invisible powers outside ourselves. If you look at the life of Israel while they wandered in the wilderness they occasionally got involved in warfare, however once they crossed over into the Promised Land they were almost constantly engaged in warfare to remove the trespassers from the land. While it is absolutely true that Christ totally defeated the devil at the cross (Col. 2:15), He chose to leave it up to us to clean up, round up and bind the enemy’s army.
So that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. Ephesians 3:10
It is important to note that these enemies are not in the third heaven (2 Cor. 12:2) where the throne of the Father and Christ are, but are in what has been termed the second heaven. The second heaven is the heavenly place that exists between earth and the third heaven. When Christ died on the cross “the veil of the temple was torn in two” Luke 23:45 indicating the way into the most holy place, the third heaven, was forever opened by His death and never to be closed again. No enemy can ever close the third heaven to those who are in Christ, however they can and do clog up the second heaven and deceive us into thinking the third heaven is brass (Deut. 28:23).
The Lord has given us a simple yet effective strategy for warfare; “overcome evil with good” Roman 12:21. We begin by understanding our boundaries of authority that have been given to us individually, we do not have authority to bring “railing judgments” against the enemy (Jude 9-10). If Michael the archangel would not dare do it, then neither should we revile things that we do not understand. All spiritual warfare must be Holy Spirit led.
Our first sphere of warfare is our own minds. We must overcome the demonic strongholds of thought all of us have and be diligent to resist and capture every thought of fear, doubt, worry, unbelief, lust, etc. that is constantly trying to take up residence in our minds (2 Cor.10: 4-6).
At the same time we must continually receive and walk in the renewed mind of Christ (Rom.12:2 & Eph. 4:23). We do this through humility, faith in the finished work of Christ, and the word of God. As we do this we will experience more of an open heaven in our own life and then we can begin to release this atmosphere and affect the darkness around us. This is the example Christ gave us when He walked on the earth. Becky and I have begun to experience a noticeable increase in heavenly activity in our home as we have continued to press in, submit to the Holy Spirit and allow the mind of Christ to grow in us. Dreams, visions and revelations of the Lord can happen in every believer’s home.
As we learn how to bind and loose in our own lives and homes we can begin to have more impact in other spheres of influence in society. I believe the church is one of the most strategic and hotly contested spheres of influence on the earth. Because of this the enemy has focused much attention and effort in keeping us mired in a religious atmosphere and forms of godliness, and thus we have fallen way short in becoming the beautiful and victorious Bride of Christ. The good news is we are seeing a shift; God is restoring to the church the heart and mindset of the kingdom of heaven.
We are learning how to cultivate this mindset and release a heavenly atmosphere in our church. I believe this is already beginning to reap fruit as we are seeing an increase in our body of genuine love for the Lord and in His compassion for the world.
Many Blessings, BW