Spiritual Strongholds Part 3

One of the difficulties around understanding spiritual warfare is that the Bible says so very little about it! If the scriptures have everything we need for salvation and life we can only assume that the Spirit does not require us to know that much about spiritual warfare. What we do need to understand is the victory Christ has won for us and to live in that. However, there are tantalising little insights that scripture gives us that point to certain realities of which we have only a limited understanding. One of those insights is in regard to how spiritual strongholds can affect whole geographical areas.

One of the things scripture hints at is that the demonic powers are structured in some sort of hierarchy. This would make absolute sense because we know that angels seem to have a hierarchy. In Jude v9 we read a reference to Michael as an ‘Archangel’ or ‘chief angel’ and as demons are simply fallen angels it would seem logical that a similar hierarchy would also transfer in their fallen state. When Paul talks about our spiritual battle with ‘principalities and powers’ there is a suggestion that this refers to levels of demonic structure.

There are also intriguing references in Daniel about angels fighting against spirits who appear to have influence of a geographical area (Daniel 10, 12). This has led to a train of thought that there are ‘territorial spirits’ who are able to influence and even control a geographical area. There is a lot that rings true about this idea, we only have to look at certain areas or cities to see that there can be certain values or beliefs that have a spiritual stranglehold on that area. However, despite the fact that many books have been written on this, we have to be really careful about how far we follow this train of thought, as the Bible is not definitive on ‘territorial spirits’ at all. It also has no record of Christians dealing directly with a ‘higher level’ demon who would have influence over an area.

Are there ways of understanding how the demonic influences geographical areas? My next post or two will offer a suggestion.

Spiritual Strongholds Part 2

2 Cor. 10:3 "...On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ"

Paul describes strongholds as arguments and pretensions. As I said in my previous post wrong teaching and damaged emotions can lead to wrong thinking and behaving. Therefore strongholds are areas of our live in which we have been persuaded to believe and follow something contrary to God’s word, they set themselves up against the knowledge of God. How can we demolish these strongholds?

Firstly, remember that Jesus has already won the victory "He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross." (Col 2:13- 15). Jesus has done it all, any and every demonic power has been disarmed. The only weapon they have against you is deception and lies.

Secondly, because we are demolishing wrong thinking we need to demolish it with the truth. Strongholds are such an effective weapon of the enemy because so many people in the west know the Word of God. By reading, learning and meditating on the word of God we allow its truth to shape our thinking. Paul calls us to allow our minds to be renewed (Rom 12:2) . We take every thought captive to Christ when we seek to bring our thoughts and motivations to be in line with the will of Christ. This happens when the truths of God’s word are applied into our lives by the Holy Spirit. David Devenish in his book ‘Demolishing Strongholds’ lists some basic truths of scripture that are foundational for every christian in demolishing a stronghold;

1. We have been born again (1 Peter 1:3)
2. When we are, we are new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17)
3. We are fully accepted by Jesus (Romans 15:7)
4. We are not condemned (Romans 8:1)
5. We are secure in our relationship with Him (Romans 8:38,39)
6. We have been blessed with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3)

Thirdly, we then begin to live by the truth of what we believe. This takes a combination of prayer and action. If you struggle with feelings of rejection learn to live and act according the truth that you are accepted by God. Let that thought be the one that counteracts all the negative thoughts of rejection. Which version of your life will you live by the one you have been persuaded to believe by the enemy, who is the father of lies, or the one that is described by God in scripture, who is the source of all truth. This also takes prayer. Ask the Holy Spirit to help live you by the truth revealed in the Bible. He is the one who walks with us to lead us into all truth (John 15:13). It is the truth that will set you free (John 8:32).

Today, why don’t you take some time out to reflect on the scriptures above and begin to allow them to shape your thinking about who God is, what he is like, who you are and what you are capable of.

Strongholds Part 1

As part of our current sermon series on spiritual warfare this week I will be putting on my blog a few reflections on the area of spiritual strongholds. I touched on this on Sunday (16.10.11) but wanted to have a space to say a few other things that I didn’t have time for within the sermon. I particularly wanted to do this because strongholds are very rarely discussed and yet are such a powerful weapon of the enemy.

"We do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." 2 Cor. 10:3

I described strongholds as patterns of wrong thinking, and therefore wrong behaving, that have become deeply engrained within us. They are recurring or repeating thoughts that are not in line with the truth that God has given us in scripture. Wrong thinking can dramatically and negatively affect the course and quality of our lives. Strongholds have the power to influence individuals, churches, communities, cities and nations.

They are created by wrong teaching, consistently giving in to temptation, others people’s wrong attitudes and behaviour towards us, the pressure of the culture around us and a variety of other ways. Through these the enemy seeks to create sustained ways of thinking that are detrimental to our relationship with God or to the quality of our lives. Wherever the enemy gains ground in your life he will seek to make it permanent by establishing a stronghold around that area.

For instance, a simple example would be someone hurts you and you feel bitterness towards them. You decide not to work through the process of forgiving them and so the bitterness grows. It would be really easy for the enemy to capitalise on that bitterness and so the enemy says ‘You can’t let anyone else get close to you, they may hurt you as well’ or ‘Why should you forgive them, don’t let them off the hook’ or ‘Why is it always you that gets hurt?’ From a point of giving in to temptation (choosing not to forgive) strongholds of isolation, anger or self-pity can develop and become thoughts that start to shape how we live, relate to people and even how we feel about God.

The good news is that we can find freedom from strongholds, as Pauls says we have weapons that ‘have divine power to demolish strongholds’. Over the next few days I will be sharing some thoughts about strongholds, both personal and cultural, and looking for clues in scripture that point to the weapons we have to tear them down.

New Wineskins

In my last post I talked a bit about George Whitefield and his ability as a preacher. As a contemporary of Wesley he is one of the key figuresin the birth of Methodism. However, without John Wesley Methodism would have never existed. It was Wesley's organisational ability that allowed the move of the Spirit to flourish. Placing people into small accountability groups that encouraged purity and witness enabled those who came to salvation to continue in their relationship with Jesus. Whitefield's preaching may, arguably, have been more effective but his effectiveness as a revivalist was hindered by the fact that once he had left a town or city new converts were left to themselves. Wesley drew new converts into accountability groups and so allowed the missional effects of the revival to continue way after he had left.

Every move of God should change the Church. It is unrealistic to expect the church structures to remain unchanged when the Holy Spirit visits! Jesus says in Matthew 9 "Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved."

We at St Andrew's have at different times experienced the power of the Holy Spirit at work amongst us that has changed much of the nature of who we are as a church. We also need to continue reshaping the structures of the church. Our move to Missional Communities is a way of establishing new wineskins in response to what God is doing amongst us and, to some extent, in preparation for what he is going to do in the future. As with Wesley's groups they need to have the same focus on discipleship and mission. In that sense what we are doing is not new, we are part of a history of pioneers who want to work with what the Lord is doing.

What is sad about reading through God's General's is to see how quickly those within methodism began to lose their focus on purity and proclamation and reduced themselves to political squabbles about church order. We cannot lose sight of the call of Jesus to 'GO and MAKE disciples", the moment we do that we become less than we ought to be.

When Preaching was Rock and Roll

Currently, I am reflecting on a book of biographies I am just about to finish reading. It is 'God's Generals - The Revivalists' and it details the amazing lives and ministries of some key men of God from the early 1700's onwards. One chapter is about George Whitefield, who was a remarkable man and preached in the UK and America at the same time as the Wesley's.

Whitefield was, by all accounts, a remarkable preacher and a pioneer in evangelism. He was the first in his time to preach in the fields, something which the Wesleys and others then went on to copy. He had been ordained at 22 and quickly became known across Londan as the 'boy preacher'. However, it was not long before pulpits were closed to him because of his affiliations with 'methodism'. His passion for the lost would not deter him from preaching so he preached wherever he could. He began travelling up and down the country finding suitable feilds to preach in. As his fame grew the crowds gathered to hear him would be vast, the most conservative estimate of some crowds was 10,000, while other claimed it was 30,000.

When crowds came to see Whitefield what they saw was a small, round faced, cross eyed man but what they heard was one who 'preached like a lion'. Whitefield grew up wityh a love of the theatre. he read plays as a teenager, learning the lines and practising his delivery. he learned how to project hs voice so that he could be heard over vast distances. His sermons where dramatic, entertaining but always convicted people of their need of the free grace of God. Someone once said that they would give £100 to just be able to say 'oh' like Whitefield! As Whitefield preached the power of God would fall on those who were searching for Christ and hundred's would be saved. People would be crying out, falling to the floor and weeping hysterically as the presence of God filled their lives.

His journals and the journals of others of his day tell of how crowds would gather hours before Whiteield was to preach. One writer tells of how he was going to hear Whitefield and as he approached the twon all he could see what what looked like fog over the town. As he got nearer he realised it was dust from the countless feet and horses hooves of those gathering to hear Whitefield.

We live in an age when the spoken word seems to have become overlooked. I was reading a column in the Independant the other week that looked at our current politicians and asked where are the great orators. Were are the people who can capture our imagination by the power of speech. Have we become so tied to soundbites and Twittering that we have forgotten how to use the spoken word. Some people say that preaching is coming to an end, that new media will overtake preaching. Yet even now as people become immersed in new forms of communication what I see are people who are also desperate to hear a real person speak (aren't you tired of automated telephone answering systems!!). The Church mustn't give up on preaching as some would have us do. Of course we need to adapt our style to the current age and the current need, pretty much as Whitefiled did, but we need to preach boldly, courageously and in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Praying for Revival

I've been reading a great book recently by Roberts Liardon. It's called 'God's Generals - The Revivalists' and is a history of just some of the key people in revivals between mid 18th century to the present day (check out www.godsgenerals.com). It is a fascinating and hugely faith building read. So I thought I would spend a number of posts just refelecting on some of the events I have read about in the book.

The one things that stands out above all others as I read this book is that prayer is so central to seeing revival come. The book starts with just a brief story of the Moravians who had such a major influence on John and Charles Wesley. These were followers of the teaching of John Hus (left), who was burned at the stake for preaching against the doctrines of the Catholic Church in July 1415. They had spent many years simply looking for a place to worship until they settled in Herrnhut, Germany. In the August of 1727 they began to experience an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on their churches. This in turn led to a growing passion and conviction to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth and a desire for the power to make it happen. This led to them agreeing together to pray round the clock for the gospel to be spread and revival to come. This they did 24/7 for 100 years. Those 100 years saw them send out more missionaries than any other church at that time. It was also a time of tremendous revivals in the UK and America.

That same emphasis on prayer is then seen in the life of every revivalist that Liardon looks at. It is particularly evident in the life of Charles Finney who would send a colleague, Daniel Nash, ahead of him by 3 or 4 weeks into whatever city or town he was visiting to gather people to pray. Nash would pray with power and faith, Finney would preach and the Lord would do the rest.

What is evident as you read of the lives of these saints is that they prayed because they desperately wanted to see unchurched people saved and knew how desperately they needed the Spirit's power if that were to happen.

It is really easy to read these stories of the great men and women of God and feel guilty that our prayer lives look so weak by comparison. I know that much of my lack of prayer is because I know I can 'get by' in my own strength. I know that in my own strength and with what I know I can share my faith, preach a half decent sermon, lead and pastor, but the thing is I will never see the same results that Wesley or Whitefield or Finney saw. I look at my own prayer life and I know that I have ever reached the same level of desperation for God's power for salvation that these saints did. So that is now my prayer for myself 'Lord give that same desperation for your power' and maybe when I'm desperate enough I'll start praying like these revivalists.

I thought I was getting used to the poverty here in Haiti (which of course isn't a good thing). The this afternoon we went out to the mountains to the north east of Port au Prince. There we saw poverty on a completely different level to what we have seen so far.
In a small town in the moutains is Pastor Nahum who oversees a church and a small school of about 100 children. He and a guy called Timothy run the 'Back to Life' project in this small town. Here, as well as educating the children of the school, they also feed hundreds of malnourished children in the area and provide a home for 18 orphans. The home is actually the Pastors house, where he lives with his wife and six children. the building they live in is tiny for the 26 of them, but the Pastor and his wife do this without any regret. Instead we saw just the joy of being able to serve the Lord in this way. He didn't ask us for money to help build the new orphange he and Timothy are planning. He didn't ask us to provide food for the children. He just asked that we remember them in prayer.
Each day has been more shocking than the one before for Andreas and I. Tomorrow we fly out to the largest island around Haiti. It is called Lagonave and we will visit an orphange and the site where Compassion and others are looking to rebuild a hospital. We expect to see even greater poverty than we have seen so far.
The question going through my mind is that with so much need and poverty what can I do. That is where I think Compassion's idea of changing the world one child at a time comes into it's own. There are so many needs out here that it could be so hard to know what to do that paralysis sets in and nothing get's done at all. But something needs to be done and sponsoring a child is, at the very least, a great way of changing just one life. What I have seen so far tells me that sponsoring a child transforms the life of the whole family.
"All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do." Gal. 2:10.

It's Wednesday morning here in Haiti. Yesterday was such a full on day that I didn't have time to do a blog and was too exhausted by the the time we got in the room to go to bed. We travelled out of the city to a place call Leogane which had been badly affected by the earthquake. As we drove through the city and then out through some of the country we really got a chance to see both the devestating effects of the earthquake but, more shockingly, the devestating effects of poverty here in this country.
Whereever we go here there are people living in the worst possible conditions you can imagine. Hundreds of thousands of people still living in makeshift tents, either in large groups our simply dotted throughout devasted buildings. Many of the people still fortunate enough to still have a home that is standing are living in just the smallest, dirties buildings. Unemployment here is ridiculously high. Everywhere we go there are either groups of men gathered with nothing to do or people trying to make a living by setting up stalls inbetween the rubble on the pavements selling anything they can.
Yet the Haitian people have such tremendous heart and courage. We spent the day with Pastor Menard and the school he runs which caters for 800 children of all ages. All around the school there is nothing but tents and makeshift homes. Compassion pays for the most disadvantaged (it's all relative isn't it!!) children to attend his school. The other parents pay $120 a year for their children to go. Its is the most highly respected school in the area. These children are living in such abject poverty but sang songs to us about the goodness of God with huge smiles on their faces. They, and their teachers, meant every word. Pastor Menard is anothe extraordinary church leader. He told us about the day his church fell down in the quake and about how he felt when he couldn't reach church members stuck under the rubble of buildings they were living in. He told us that in the days after the quake he wore a baseball cap with the word's 'Jesus is my Boss' on it to remind everyone he met that there was someone greater than any earthquake. He told us that his passion to reach the lost and the broken is greater than ever. His church too has grown, more than doubled in the last year. And as we stood in the large makeshift tent that now functions as his church he told us ablout his hopes for the future. Jesus said "blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God". I've seen that today.

Blogging doesn't come naturally for me, but for the next week I have a reason to do so. Andrea and I are in Haiti with an organisation called Compassion who are showing us around some of the projects they have set up in partnership with local churches. It is our first time into one of the poorest countries in the world. Each day I will give a brief idea of what we've been up to.

Today was surprising. We met Pastor Ivan (I don't know how his name is spelt!) who leads a church in an area called Delmas in Port-au-Prince. An amazing pioneer who has grown a huge church that is seeking to radically transform its community through child sponsorship. They work with 500 children as part of their child development program all chosen from the poorest families in their area. Their main building was intact after the earthquake but some of the others they had collapsed. They have temporary 'buildings' (walls with tarpaulin sheets for the roof) that double as classrooms during the week and a worship space on sunday.

Every sunday they have three services, at each service they have some people meeting for worship on the ground floor, some on the second and others on the third floor. Each service is three hours long. the pastor said his church loves to worship! All together there are 8000 people in his church. At every service they will see 50-70 people come to Jesus and the church has grown by 3000 since the earthquake. Pastor Ivan said that when the earthquake came people thought it was jesus coming back and that has made them reconsider what they think about Jesus. This humble, visionary Pastor is looking to raise $3million to build a worship space for 25,000 people and he has already bought some of the land around his current church to enable growth to happen.

Today was surprising because I thought I would be talking about kids and poverty and despair. Instead I'm talking about hope and vision. Amidst the rubble and dire poverty God is moving powerfully. That really shouldn't be a surpise should it!