I have two questions.
Question number one: It seems that Mrs. Jessie Penn-Lewis said that it was only after a believer had experienced co-death and co-resurrection with the Lord Jesus Christ that he or she was able to begin engaging in real spiritual warfare. Could you elaborate on this point?
I will answer it very briefly, just using the experience of the children of Israel as an example.
We find that after the children of Israel left Egypt, they crossed the Red Sea. In typology, as you find in 1 Corinthians 10, this going through the Red Sea was their being baptized unto Moses.
So, in a sense, to us, after we are redeemed by the precious blood, we are separated from the world by baptism, and we are baptized unto Christ.
But after that, you find that the children of Israel were in the wilderness. As we have already explained, the wilderness is a place where our flesh is revealed, because oftentimes we think that after we are saved, then we are perfect, not knowing that our flesh is still flesh; it has not changed.
That which is of the Spirit is spirit, and that which is of the flesh is flesh. So the Lord has to reveal to us our flesh. He has to test us, to prove us, to humble us, that we may know what our flesh really is.
Even though after we are saved, we are in the war already, because we no longer belong to the power of darkness. Now we have been translated into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love, because we belong to another family.
So the god of this world will begin to attack us. He will hate us, and warfare begins at the very beginning of our Christian life.
But, as we have mentioned, even though there are wars, they are mainly wars against sin, against the world, and against our flesh. So far as strict spiritual warfare is concerned, these are just skirmishes—testing grounds. They are real, but they are not at the very center of spiritual warfare.
Not until the children of Israel crossed the Jordan River and were in the land flowing with milk and honey—that is the real battle again.
Now, we know that the crossing of the Jordan River is also a type of baptism, because baptism really has two meanings. One is that we are baptized unto Christ. Formerly, we belonged to the world; now, we belong to Christ.
But baptism also means that we are dead in Christ, buried with Him, and raised together with Him into newness of life. This is typified by these two crossings.
The crossing of the Red Sea means that we are separated from the world and baptized unto Christ. We belong to Christ now. In that crossing, you find it was by the power of God: Moses lifted up his rod, and the Red Sea was divided.
But crossing the Jordan is entirely different. We find that the ark of God had to enter into the river first, and then the water divided. The children of Israel went through on dry ground.
So it is a going together—the ark together with the children of Israel. It represents co-death, co-burial, and co-resurrection. We are dead with Christ, buried with Christ, and are now raised together with Christ into newness of life.
In doing that, they entered into the promised land. So it is true that unless we really know what is meant by co-death, co-burial, and co-resurrection with our Lord Jesus, we are not really in a position for real spiritual warfare.
So, it is true. What Mrs. Penn-Lewis has said is really scriptural, because unless we are on that resurrection ground, we are not really in a position for real spiritual battle.
Spiritual warfare is not against flesh and blood. Spiritual warfare is against principalities, authorities, the world rulers of this darkness, and the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. So that is where the real warfare begins.
I think that should be enough for the first question, because it is more or less academic, you know.
Now, the second question I feel is a real one.
King David was not allowed to build God’s temple because he was a man of war. It seems that long-time engagement in spiritual warfare deprives him of some spiritual character which would otherwise make him a man of peace, like Solomon. This sometimes makes me hesitate to enter into active spiritual warfare, fearing that it will make me too aggressive, even frightening to others, and cause me to lose the good image of a peaceful lamb that we all desire. Could you comment on this?
I think that is a real question.
David and Solomon, in typology, both represent our Lord Jesus. He is our David; He is our Solomon. So, in a sense, trying to divide David from Solomon and Solomon from David is, I think, a wrong perspective.
If you have the wrong perspective, then you come to the wrong conclusion. We shall see that David and Solomon represent our Lord Jesus—the two faces, the two aspects, in the work of our Lord.
David is a man of war. He shed much blood, and he was not allowed to build the temple. But we must remember that it was by the wars that David fought that he was able to gather the spoil of war.
Then, using these spoils as materials for the building of the temple, you find that the wars David fought were not, in any sense, contrary to the building of the house of God. His work was preparation—to prepare the materials for the house of God.
Then, when the war was over and there was peace all around, they could really begin to build, because you cannot build when there is war going on. But after the war is won, you gather the spoil and use these materials to build the house of God.
So, in a sense, engaging in spiritual warfare will never take away any character of Christ in us.
As a matter of fact, our Lord Jesus overcame the enemy as the Lamb, because He did not fight this spiritual warfare with weapons of the flesh. He fought it with spiritual weapons. It is as a Lamb that He overcomes.
Now, you remember in Revelation 5, when John saw that vision in heaven: One who sits upon the throne had in His hand a scroll. Then came the proclamation, “Who is worthy to take the scroll and to open the seals?”
In heaven, upon earth, and underneath the earth, there was no answer. No one was worthy. No one was able to defeat the usurper.
You remember John wept because he felt it was a hopeless case. Then he was comforted by the elder, who said, “No, behold, the Lion of Judah. He has overcome.”
But when John looked around, he did not see a lion. He saw the Lamb standing before the throne. Then came the song, “Thou art worthy.”
So, brothers and sisters, you find that our Lord Jesus overcame the enemy as the Lamb. His tactics are not earthly, worldly, or fleshly. No.
On the contrary, you find that He overcame because of His humility, His meekness, His self-denial, His sacrifice of His own life, and His obedience to His Father.
So you find that our Lord really overcame as the Lamb. There is a lion character in Him, but it does not contradict His lamb character.
Eventually, you find the Lamb in the midst of the throne. So, in a very real sense, in engaging in spiritual warfare, you will not lose your lamb character. There is a lamb character in us.
In our thinking, a lion cannot be a lamb, and a lamb cannot be a lion. Yet, in spiritual reality, the Lamb is the Lion, and the Lion is the Lamb. There is the strength of a lion expressed in the life of the lamb.
So He does not fight with fleshly weapons, but with power according to God.
Brothers and sisters, I think it is because in our thinking, when we think of spiritual warfare, immediately we say, “Well, we have to be impressive. We have to be overpowering.” Actually, we then fight with weapons of the flesh. That will indeed be frightening.
You see people who think they are engaged in spiritual warfare, and they go around trying to bind the enemy, saying, “I rebuke you, Satan.” Now Satan would say, “Who are you?”
It is just like the seven sons of the high priest: “In the name of Jesus whom Paul preached, I command you to leave.” And the evil spirit said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?” Then it jumped upon them.
So, brothers and sisters, if you try to fight spiritual warfare with weapons of the flesh, it is terrible. People will be frightened, you know, because you have to put on a kind of attitude, as if you are Superman. You have to shout so loudly, as if you are in real battle—but you are defeated.
I think we need to realize that this spiritual warfare has to be fought with spiritual weapons. The most effective weapon is the character of our Lord Jesus.
The enemy recognizes the Lord. When they see that it is the Lord, they flee—they flee. But if they see it is you, you are not his match.
So do not be afraid that when you are engaging in spiritual warfare, the lamb character will suffer. As a matter of fact, it is actually strengthened.
Evidently, in the last two days I wore down the saints, and there were really no questions for me. However, being the youngest of the three brothers speaking, that means I am on the bottom of the totem pole. There is a question for Ephesians Hiehle, which was passed on to me—I mean, Ernie Hiehle.
First, we need to turn to Ephesians 6. I will try to answer, and then you can check with Ephesians Hiehle and see.
Let us read the first nine verses. Here is the question: In the passage before Ephesians 6:10-20, there is an extensive discussion on family relationships. How important is that in regard to spiritual warfare? Perhaps somebody is having some spiritual warfare in their family, which makes it a good question.
Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.
Honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise;
That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.
And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but nurture them in the chastening and admonition of the Lord.
Servants, be obedient unto them that according to the flesh are your masters, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ;
Not in the way of eyeservice, as men-pleasers; but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart;
With good will doing service, as unto the Lord, and not unto men:
Knowing that whatsoever good thing each one doeth, the same shall he receive again from the Lord, whether he be bond or free.
And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, and forbear threatening: knowing that both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no respect of persons with Him.
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Then this matter of spiritual warfare comes into focus.
I would not say there is a direct relationship here. That is to say, Paul speaks about the family, then remembers the intensity of spiritual conflict. Paul is finishing a section on the outworking of our Christian lives based upon our worthy calling and upon the vision of who Christ is and what He is doing in His church.
We are called upon to live a life through Christ: not lying, working with our hands, edifying one another in speech, not living as children of darkness but as children of light, and so on. Eventually, he comes to these domestic matters and brings them up.
So I would not say there is a direct relationship here, but there is definitely a relationship.
It goes without saying, and all of us know, that probably the primary training ground for spiritual warfare is truly trying to deal with our own families in a godly way.
The same thing applies to the masters-and-slaves section. Since we do not have slavery per se, we understand it in terms of how we deal with our employees, or how we work in our jobs as employees. This has very much to do with training that carries over into spiritual warfare.
I went to a Baptist college, and in that Baptist college certain kids were marked out from the very beginning. They were called PKs—preachers’ kids—or MKs—missionary kids. They were always the wildest.
They were the ones who struggled with the faith. They were the ones who struggled with staying out late, being generally rebellious, and all this kind of thing. It was my first beginning insight while I was in college and had just been saved.
I was reading the Bible for the first time, and here were all these kids who had grown up as preachers’ kids, living a life that was far away from the Lord’s purpose. I did not understand at that time something I understand now: when somebody steps up to serve the Lord, the enemy goes after his kids.
If you have a merciful heart, would you please pray for the brothers who are responsible where you meet? Their children are especially assaulted. If in some way the enemy can embarrass or disqualify a dear brother or sister, they may feel that they cannot possibly serve God.
We see right at the very start how much spiritual warfare is involved with raising a child. But it is not just with those who are responsible or those who serve the Lord. It is with every brother and sister. If your heart is set on really serving the Lord, you know the enemy is going to go after our kids.
There is spiritual warfare, and the old saying goes, “We get too soon old and too late smart.” Many times, as young parents, we do not realize all the spiritual flak in the atmosphere in which our children are being raised.
Sometimes Christians are the most naïve, I suppose, because we are trying to live in a godly way and are unaware of what our children are facing as they go out into the world, go to school, and encounter all of this.
I have been recently re-sensitized a little bit about this. I have some grandchildren now, and one of my grandchildren is a borderline autistic child. She cannot communicate verbally yet, even though she is five years old, but she is relatively smart.
The thing I have noticed about her, because she has not had the usual training and communication skills, is her tremendous sensitivity to traumatic things on television.
She picks up immediately when one of those stupid, and sometimes even demonic, cartoon shows is on Saturday morning. Her brothers and sisters are sitting there watching some great Cyclops enemy monster with big teeth, looking like a jack-o’-lantern, with loud music playing as the monster strides on the scene.
All my grandchildren are sitting there just watching it, but this girl is traumatized, because there is something evil behind the music, the tempo, and the image.
We become so inured to this that we do not even realize the traumatic nature of this kind of thing. No wonder our children’s souls sometimes become calloused to what the enemy can do.
May the Lord help us and open our eyes to see that it is only by His mercy that our children will be kept.
A parent cannot, in the end, keep a child from the world’s influence. Some parents almost try to smother their child just to keep them from these things, but you cannot.
Even though you try to send them to a better school, and you may do these kinds of things—I have no problem with your conviction and leadership, I trust—even with all of that, we really need to pray for our children.
If parents can learn to pray for their children and take hold of the unseen things that are swirling around them, and bring them through, I tell you, they have learned much in the area of spiritual warfare.
The same thing happens on a larger scale in our assemblies. The young people are always getting shot at in our assemblies, are they not? Teenagers are pulled away from the fellowship, finding reasons to be offended, or this and that.
So much of that is not flesh and blood. There are spiritual things underneath. There is ground being undermined. But we learn that at home, do we not?
There is spiritual warfare at home. Sometimes the godly woman has to pray for her husband because he is under some kind of influence. Sometimes the godly husband has to pray for his wife because she has fallen under some kind of spiritual influence.
Sometimes you find yourself, as it were, as a child and servant of the kingdom, standing against your very beloved own because they are not doing something that is really in the will of God.
Now, you do not stand against flesh and blood. You do not throw your wife out and say, “When you stop this, you can come back home.” No, you cannot do that.
With your children, this passage is very clear: you cannot exasperate your children by holding them down, holding them down, holding them down all the time. They become exasperated with that.
We have to trust the hands of God to preserve and help them. After a while, I mean, it is God’s mercy that gets us through.
I cannot believe what children are going through these days. I speak occasionally with teenagers and hear what they experience every day in the halls of junior high. It is unbelievable.
So, is there a connection here? Yes. The same thing applies about work. Those of you who go into an ungodly workplace know that it can almost be a torment.
There are temptations and pressures to curse like everybody else, to adopt the attitude everybody else has about bosses, and all these things. But you have to do your own spiritual warfare there.
Be sure, when you come home at night, that you ask Jesus to cleanse you in His precious blood and wash your feet from the filth of the day.
Those of you who have small businesses also go through spiritual warfare. There are times when you realize that circumstances are more than economic or circumstantial—behind the sudden rebellion of employees, or behind the sudden unreasonable demands of a boss.
These things become so real at times that a person has to leave a job as a godly Christian, because you know that the world system wants your soul. If it can get you day and night, working eighty hours a week, it will do it, holding out a carrot of more money or something else.
There comes a place where you need to realize that there is something behind unceasing demands. It is not merely a season of extra work. They are laying off somebody and making you do two men’s work for the same money.
We have to watch that bondage which can come upon us even in the workplace. There is a connection here. If you work in the regular world, even that is not neutral.
Here in the United States, it used to be thought that if you did a good job, they would keep you forever, promote you, and realize your value. Now, if you do not compromise somehow, they may kick you out, push you aside, harass you, or do something else.
There is conflict involved. Surely the things we learn in our regular life open our eyes to the fact that there is no regular life. Even in our jobs and in our families, there is spiritual conflict.
God bless the husband and wife who can learn to stand together and raise their children through all the spiritual attacks they will experience. Remember to pray for one another in this matter.
Now, the second question I have is relevant to our present situation, although it was not really touched on in the messages this weekend: As a nation, what would be a biblical way to deal with terrorism?
This is where sometimes the redneck Christians flush out of the woods. We could get into a real debate on this. Down through the centuries, this has been one of the great ethical debates of the Christian church: warfare, retaliation, revenge, and turning the other cheek.
As a nation, what would be a biblical way to deal with terrorism? I am going to suggest that the first thing we do is find a biblical way of defining the nation.
All of us must feel a little reticence about the United States being called a Christian nation. I do not think we can really say that.
However, I would like to look at the nation in terms of three things: first, the nation as seen under the judgment of God; second, the nation as a minister unto us; and third, ourselves as the nation and our response to terrorism.
Turn to Deuteronomy 32. I want to show a verse and say something about the nation under God.
The United States is a visible political entity. It has geographical boundaries; it is a nation. But every nation is actually a vessel of God. By the sovereign hand of God, He builds up nations, and by the sovereign hand of God, He destroys nations according to their probationary response to God’s will.
When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance,
When He separated the children of men,
He set the bounds of the peoples
According to the number of the children of Israel.— Deuteronomy 32:8
What this is saying in this song and revelation of Moses is that when God set the boundaries of the United States, it was in terms of how they would relate to Israel—its size, boundaries, and blessings.
The boundaries of all the nations of the world are set according to His purpose in Israel. I am not trying to be Zionist here, but there is a spiritual principle: God has a purpose and a plan for this whole world, and behind the scenes He is fulfilling that plan.
According to how nations respond toward God’s plan, they are either abased or exalted.
In Matthew 25, Jesus speaks of the last days and gives the parable of the sheep and goats. The King comes to His throne, sits down, and the nations come to Him.
He judges the nations according to what they did with the cup of cold water and what they did for prisoners. Many interpret that parable as referring not to individuals but to the nations of the world during the Messianic reign.
The nations will be judged according to their morality, their treatment of Israel, and their treatment of the poor, the neglected, and those in prison. There is some kind of righteous judgment that will be meted out based on the nation’s response during this present time.
Every nation is on probation, although most nations do not see this. We think we are entities within ourselves, with our own plans and purposes. The United States has its own goals and so forth. But the Lord says, “Whatever your goals are, if they do not fit in with Mine, you are out.”
I am thankful that the United States has found itself, for whatever reason, entangled with Israel. We are not standing with Israel for spiritual reasons as a nation, but because there are Christians in the nation who care for Israel.
A nation is more than its boundaries. It is a vessel for the service of God and for His purpose.
Now turn to Romans 13. Let us read the first five verses. I do not want to go into verse 6 because it has to do with taxes.
Let every soul be in subjection to the higher powers:
For there is no power but of God;
And the powers that be are ordained of God.
Therefore he that resisteth the power, withstandeth the ordinance of God:
And they that withstand shall receive to themselves judgment.
For rulers are not a terror to the good work, but to the evil.
And wouldest thou have no fear of the power?
Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise from the same:
For he is a minister of God to thee for good.
But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid;
For he beareth not the sword in vain:
For he is a minister of God, an avenger for wrath to him that doeth evil.— Romans 13:1-4
Here is the definition of the nation: it is a minister of God to you for good. It is a government, and it is a minister of God to you for good.
Paul is writing this and telling the Romans to be subject to their government, which was the fourth beast. Yet within the context of the world, the Roman government administered justice. It was a minister of justice.
In the second sense, a nation has a government that is supposed to be a minister of justice. How does this government deal with terrorism? A nation cannot exist for more than six months unless it preserves its borders and administers justice.
We do not have a Christian government. Geneva tried to be a Christian government under John Calvin, but the problem is that power corrupts. Even Christian elders can become corrupted if they are running a country.
We should pray for wisdom for our government leaders. We thank God that some of them seem to be godly and God-fearing. They need wisdom, because the enemy is very shrewd.
The world was completely blindsided by the use of planes as weapons. Nobody was ready for that. The enemy is always one step ahead of worldly wisdom.
Therefore, it is good that we pray for wisdom and pray that the measure of justice administered by this government will be balanced and not merely terrible. We need to pray that the government will maintain a wise and measured course in the present act of terrorism.
How can we, as people, deal with terrorism in a biblical way? As soon as this happened, Luke 13 came to my mind, and it is still on my mind.
Now there were some present at that very season who told Him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
And He answered and said unto them, Think ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they have suffered these things?
I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all in like manner perish.
Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and killed them, think ye that they were offenders above all the men that dwell in Jerusalem?
I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.— Luke 13:1-5
As a nation, as Christians, as the people of the nation, how do we respond to this terrorist moment? I think the word is: repent.
Jesus is saying there is no time to begin doling out judgment. We find comfort in saying how evil Bin Laden is, or some Christian ministers find comfort in saying that we deserved it because we are such an evil nation.
Jesus said that is not even the point. When a tragedy happens, it is a wake-up call to all of us concerning the shortness of our life and the need for us to be serving in the kingdom of God.
This tragedy should do at least two things for us, and both have to do with spiritual warfare.
It has opened for us, in the New York area, a sovereign season in which people are so shaken that they are open to the gospel. If we have our heads in the sand and do not realize it, and miss the opportunity, we really need to repent.
This is an amazing time. Brothers and sisters from Huntington, where I live, had a booth at the annual fair in our town. They handed out tracts, spoke the gospel, and had a sign inviting anyone touched by the tragedy to receive prayer.
Many people stopped. A fourteen-year-old passed by the booth whose father had died in the tragedy. He came in and prayed. There is such openness.
People are shaken because unbelievers have no foundation. They do not know what is going on. There are still people wandering around the tragedy site in New York. They are just wandering; they do not know what to do.
It is a time for us to wake up and use this time to bring people to the comfort of Christ and salvation. Thank God for brothers and sisters who are preaching the gospel, helping people, serving coffee, and doing everything they can.
When we see a tragedy like this, we have to say, “What time is it, Lord? What time is it?”
Our brother Christian Chen spoke a message last week to brothers and sisters in New York City. He said, “We need to repent. We are the only people who understand that there are spiritual forces opposed to New York.”
As God’s people, we should be binding the strong man from terrorizing our city. But we were asleep. The enemy came in and hit us. We should repent.
Those who live in Washington, or in New York, have a particular responsibility, just as we have responsibility in spiritual warfare for our children. This is our authority; this is our family. We can pray for them.
If I live in New York, especially, I have something to do with the testimony over that city and with the need for spiritual protection. The fact that the enemy just came in like this should awaken us.
Governments can set up air marshals, block roads for inspection, and take various security measures, but they cannot do anything about spiritual warfare. This is the one realm in which the church has something very important to do in our area.
By God’s mercy, may we be awakened. We have fallen down on our job. Spiritual warfare is almost an unknown commodity in the church today. May it be that we start taking this seriously.
In the place where we live, we have a measure of authority. As we come corporately before the Lord, we should be praying for the Lord’s protection over these places and standing for the Lord.
Except the Lord build the house,
They labor in vain that build it:
Except the Lord keep the city,
The watchman waketh but in vain.— Psalm 127:1
The Lord wants to guard the city, of course. But who is willing to stand with Him with those keys? Lord, help us.
I must confess to you, brothers and sisters, that these times of questions and answers are a time when I do not feel comfortable at all.
I was in Singapore a few years ago, and at the end of their conferences they also had a question-and-answer time. They put a big table up on the platform and set you there as experts. I asked them the last time I was there, “Please do not ever do that to me again. I would rather you put me in a barrel of tar and send me back to the United States.”
I have been thinking about why I feel that way. I feel like the Lord said to me, “You are afraid. You are afraid your ignorance will show.”
So I come with fear and trembling to try even to think in terms of answering the questions that you brothers and sisters have presented.
The question says: For us to be effective in prayer, to bind and to loose, do we need spiritual wisdom and understanding? Is this related to the prophetic gift or ministry? How can we be specific in our prayers in anticipation of God’s interests? How do we have spiritual intelligence in prayer?
First of all, how are we to be effective in binding and loosing? As our brother mentioned in his response this morning, there may be a great deal of misunderstanding in this area.
The two passages in Matthew 16 and Matthew 18 where we find references to binding and loosing are, to my knowledge, the only two places in which we find them. They were both spoken by our Lord Jesus, and they both have to do with the church.
In Matthew 16, the Lord Jesus says, “Upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. I give unto thee the keys of the kingdom.” Then He speaks of binding and loosing.
In Matthew 18, the issue concerns a brother who has sinned. We are seeking to bring reconciliation, to deal with the sin that has been committed, and to bring in full restoration.
There is a procedure: first, go to the person in private and seek reconciliation. If he refuses, take a couple of other people with you. If he persists in not being willing to be reconciled, take it to the church. In that context, Jesus speaks about binding and loosing.
Brothers and sisters, there is a very important role that the church has to play in this period of human history. Somehow, the reality of what the church is gets hidden behind so many other things.
Most of us, even those who ought to know better, fall into a way of thinking that allows us to think that the church is for us—for our benefit, for our good. We even call it “our fellowship” or “my fellowship.”
But the Lord Jesus did not say, “I will build your church.” He said, “I will build My church.” When He is speaking about His church, He is speaking about His own interests.
His ultimate intention is to bring the whole created order back into perfect harmony with its Creator. That is not what we usually have in mind. Sometimes we do what we call navel-gazing; our world is only as big as ourselves.
But the Lord is involved in this mighty work of bringing the whole universe back into perfect harmony with the will of His heavenly Father. With that in view, He said, “I will build My church.”
When He talks about binding and loosing, it is in that context. We are not given this authority to go around doing things that benefit us. Our interests are to be focused on the fulfillment of God’s heart and His interests.
It is unfortunate that some of God’s dear people have taken these verses in Matthew 16 and Matthew 18 and reduced them to having authority merely to do things the way they think they ought to be done.
There is a poison that has gotten into us as a human race. We all want to be authoritative. We want to be in charge. We want things to go the way we think they ought to go.
Just as Lucifer was a rebel, that rebellion has come into us, and we are rebels. Yet the Lord has decided that the way He is going to bring His purpose about is by having, on this rebellious planet, a people who have a direct link to Him at the right hand of Majesty on high.
The primary reason they are here is so that He will have a people who represent and can execute His will. In that context, He gives this authority to bind and to loose—to permit and not to permit, to prevent things from happening, and to see that things happen.
As a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, every one of us has a measure of authority. There are spheres of authority.
Our brother Gary once said, “Every cub sits on its own bottom.” That means we are all responsible for our own life.
When we believe in the Lord Jesus, we have a measure of authority over our own life. Even though we bow our knee to the Lord Jesus Christ, there is a sense in which I have to make decisions regarding my own life that nobody else can make.
If the enemy comes and attacks me personally, I can take the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and resist him. I can bind him regarding my own life.
Then there is the sphere of the family unit. If the family unit can be undone, weakened, or dissipated, it has to have an impact on the larger sphere of the church.
In the family unit, there is husband and wife. Ultimately, the husband has responsibility for that sphere of influence. If there is a situation in the family life, he can legitimately take the words of our Lord Jesus and, with the authority in the name of the Lord Jesus, take charge.
He can resist the enemy, stand against him, bind up what is not of the Lord, and loose the things that have been bound by the enemy, so that the Lord is free to come into that family unit and establish the reality of His kingdom there.
Then we have the issue of the church, and this is the bigger issue. In the sphere of the church, there is a realm of responsibility bigger than the individual and bigger than the family unit.
The church is the agency here on the earth that our Lord Jesus has chosen to use as a way of bringing His influence into the world.
As assemblies, we have been asleep regarding some of these issues. It ought to be a time for us to change. That is what repentance really means. It does not mean merely feeling sorry for what went wrong, though certainly we need that.
That sorrow needs to result in a change in the way we do things. Repentance is an inward attitudinal adjustment that results in an outward manifestation. If something changes on the outside, it begins on the inside, but it has its effect on the outside.
I would first caution that we learn how to function in our own sphere, and that we learn to deal with the things we need to deal with in our own lives in an authoritative way—both as a lion and a lamb.
We deal on the basis of the finished work of Calvary. When our Lord Jesus died on that cross, He did a work, and He released a life that enables you and me to be victors and overcomers. We overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.
Only you can do that for yourself. Then we can include the family unit and husbands and wives. It is interesting that Scripture tells us our prayers are affected when there is not harmony between husband and wife.
The Lord wants to manifest His kingdom in the church. This should be the ultimate place. That is why the Lord Jesus says, “You are the salt of the earth.” We are stationed here as an embassy of heaven.
Our responsibility is to bring an influence of righteousness into the community that restrains evil. If the salt loses its saltiness, it allows the enemy to come in.
Without being judgmental or critical of anybody, we can talk until we are blue in the face about America, but the church in America is a very weak entity. We are hopelessly divided.
Even among those of us who know better and stand for the oneness of the body of Christ, we are having a tremendous struggle. We need to see that behind this it is not merely flesh and blood, human interactions, and conflict. Behind it, there is something spiritual.
Those in places of responsibility among God’s people need to see this and learn to rise up and bind and loose under the direction of the Commander-in-Chief.
We do not need to become enamored with authority. We need to maintain that lamb nature, while at the same time taking the finished work of Calvary and bringing it to bear on the situations we face.
How do we have spiritual intelligence in prayer? We touched on this a little bit last night.
May the Lord, in His great mercy, register something deep within us that we can never forget: our Lord Jesus, at this very moment and for the last two thousand years, is seated at the right hand of Majesty on high, given the name that is above every other name.
He occupies the highest position in the universe, and He is the all-wise One. You and I, as God’s redeemed people living on the earth, have access to Him who has all wisdom.
How does He communicate it to us? By His Spirit. We need to look back to the day of Pentecost and rejoice greatly that the Lord has made Himself available. His fullness is now available to His redeemed people who gather here on the earth.
He is the One who can impart intelligence: what is going on, what are we supposed to do, what is the practical response, and how do we stand in these days?
If we do not find a way for the Holy Spirit consistently to communicate these things to us, then when we are faced with these battles, we only have one other option: to revert to our fleshly activity, putting our fleshly minds together and coming up with conclusions that are wrong.
How can we have this intelligence? First, we must do everything we can, by the grace of God, to keep our own relationship with the Lord living, alive, and real day after day. There is a price to be paid there.
Then, in our assemblies and in our homes, we need to have times when we are certain that there is a clear line of communication.
The enemy is trying to break down communication between us. Where there is no communication, all kinds of crazy things begin to happen. We have imaginations about what other people are thinking, when in reality they are not thinking those things.
When we start to think that way, the enemy comes in with a magnifying glass, and the thing becomes so big that we conclude it is impossible. Yet we have come to those conclusions without consulting our Lord.
Israel got into trouble when Joshua and the armies of God failed to consult the Lord. When they went to Ai, they did not stop and ask the Lord; they simply assumed.
This is a real problem for us. We conclude that we are educated and intelligent people, and we hear it everywhere: “Just use your common sense.” But common sense is a fleshly thing; it is fallen sense.
That is why we have direct access through our living Head, the Lord Jesus, who has absolute wisdom.
The Lord Jesus designed the church in such a way that it cannot function without Him. If it starts to function without relationship with Him, it becomes something other than the church—something earthly, not something heavenly.
Binding and loosing originate with the Lord Jesus Christ, are communicated by the Holy Spirit to the assembly on earth, and He awaits for them to act. When they act, He backs up the action.
But the initiative is never given to us. We are at His mercy.
There are situations in every one of our communities that, in the Lord’s timing, He wants something done about. There are things happening that should move us beyond the callousness that has come upon us.
When we live in the kind of world we live in, an insensitivity settles upon us that does not allow us to respond properly to the suffering humanity around us.
Since September 11, the whole atmosphere in New York has changed. People are responding to one another. They are actually engaging one another as human beings.
When these things happen, we need to be sensitive to the people who have suffered. There are situations in our communities that deeply grieve our Lord, and He wants something to be done about them.
But He has given the keys to His church. If they do not use the keys, He is limited by His own choice, and He is falsely accused of not caring. Yet He has put the responsibility of caring into the lives of His people.
We do not merely respond by doing good and kind things. We seek to get behind the whole thing and bind it. If the enemy has set up a headquarters, we undo it under the direction of the Lord Jesus—not on our own and not as zealous but misguided soldiers.
We must be those who have heard from the Lord and who are acting according to His direction, using His name. Then we begin to see the kind of results He wants.
This is a tremendous need among God’s people: that there be an assembly consistently in a place where the Lord Jesus can communicate His mind and His heart about things, and then lead them to take action that originated from heaven.
Do you think for one moment that our heavenly Father is blind to the things that have happened, or that He does not care? Not even a sparrow falls from the air without His seeing it. Do you think He does not care about thousands of so-called innocent lives snuffed out? He cares very deeply.
He cares about the situations that you and I face in different communities and circumstances. He wants us to learn how, under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, to pray at all times in the Spirit.
We do not know. We have to acknowledge that we do not know. Is there anyone so fully educated that they know everything going on in this world and can give advice about the best way to approach every situation? We do not know.
But there is One who knows. He is the Head of the church. He wants to communicate His heart and mind to us.
The final question is this: We saints are citizens of this world, even as we prepare and train for life everlasting in heaven. When we see how America has slid from the founding principles of “In God We Trust” to secularism and materialism, do we keep to ourselves and nurture our own personal relationship with the Lord, turn to the church and pray corporately for America, or work toward revival in America at the local, regional, and national level?
It is a very important question, because it gives us an opportunity to get our focus clear once again.
One of the saddest things that happens in human history is when religion and politics get all mixed together. Men have done horrible things to human beings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This has resulted, in my estimation, from not maintaining a distinction between that which is spiritual and heavenly and that which is earthly.
We are citizens of this world, yes, but that is not where our primary citizenship is. It is a secondary citizenship.
Our primary citizenship is in heaven. We are here as ambassadors in this world. When you believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, you became a citizen of that heavenly realm. This is your primary citizenship.
When you somehow allow yourself to think that your primary citizenship is here, then you have, in a sense, been disloyal to your primary citizenship.
God has been good to America, and we have come to some false conclusions about America. The founders of this nation had great ideals, and some were godly in the sense that they sought to do what was right. But it is a false statement to say that they were all Christians. Some of them were deists, not believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is wrong for us to take the name of our blessed Lord and put it on something that does not belong to Him. This is not a Christian nation. It has never been a Christian nation in the truest sense of the word.
Matthew 5, Matthew 6, and Matthew 7 are not written into our Constitution. That is the constitution of the kingdom of God, and I do not find it in the Constitution of the United States of America.
I am glad to be an American. I am privileged to live in America. I spent time in the military, and I am patriotic. Sometimes I cry when I hear the national anthem being sung.
But that does not mean I conclude that this nation, or any other nation on the face of the earth, is a Christian nation. It is not. It is good for us to face that.
In Matthew 22, some people were trying to trap our Lord Jesus. They came to Him and asked, “Who are You supposed to be loyal to—Caesar or God?”
He asked for a coin and said, “Whose inscription is on this coin?” They said, “Caesar’s.”
Then the Lord Jesus, with such perception, said:
Render therefore unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s;
And unto God the things that are God’s.— Matthew 22:21
Do not mix the two up.
The issue is not whether America is going to be brought back into revival. That is not the issue for us. The issue is whether we are being a living entity here on the earth as the church—salt, light, and the agent the Lord wants to use in these most difficult times.
Our Lord is very clear: there are going to be wars and rumors of wars. It is never going to end. Why? Because we are the kind of people we are.
If we had not been laid hold of by the mercy of God, we would be part of the problem, not part of the solution. The Lord wants us to be part of the solution, not by becoming better Americans, but by having a clearer, fuller, richer relationship with Him as an assembly of people.
This life is not merely a training ground for heaven in some sentimental sense that we are going to float around on a cloud. The Lord is interested in building real character—the character of our Lord Jesus Christ—firmly and permanently into our lives.
We need to get beyond sentimental ideas about heaven and sentimental ideas about any nation. When God blessed Israel, they became proud. Nations become proud too, and they need to be humbled before the Lord.
We, as God’s redeemed people, need to lead in this way. We need to maintain a living relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ from His heavenly position, so that He is free to live His life through us and able to do what He desires through any given assembly of His people.
Forgive me for preaching. But, brothers and sisters, these are trying days. These are difficult times. More than at any other point that I can remember in my lifetime, we need to get down to the business of being what we are called to be.
May the Lord be merciful to us. Can we pray together?
Lord, again we want to lift our hearts to thank You and bless You for gathering together for these few days. Lord, once again, it just seems to me You go beyond Yourself every time.