Community, Demons, and Zion

I wrote a comment last night on someone's blog who was asking for a definition and discussion of community. This is what I wrote, which I would like to take the time to expand a bit more in this post:

Community is solely based upon the bearing of the image of God in our faces, and beholding that glory to be moved from glory to glory. It is found when the saints gather, whether for prayer, for Bible study, for worship, or for fun ;)
Community is the stepping out from this world and into the eternal together with other believers. It is the dividing of oneself away from the systems of the world, and the principalities behind those systems, in order to be taken by something much more organic and beautiful: Zion. Zion is the City of God. Zion is the Mount upon which the Temple sits. Zion is twofold – a heavenly dwelling with an earthly counterpart. Zion is the place of freedom. Zion is the beauty of holiness, it is the unadulterated splendor of where God’s people are in unity with Him, and it is where we shine with the radiance of Christ. This is community. It is where we love one another with the love of Christ Himself, and from that love, we pursue absolute perfection in that love together. Community, to put it plainly, is heaven manifest upon earth through the children of God. Though we know that when two or three gather in His name that He is in our midst, we also know there is a time for this literal manifestation, when Zion will come down from heaven, when the earthly Zion and the heavenly Zion will be one. That is community. It is born out of the travail for that reality in our midst, whatever means it might take through the Spirit of God to get there.
Grace and peace, dear brother. May Christ’s love overflow in you to be brought unto that eternal radiant glory.

First, lets start with that first statement. It comes directly from 2 Corinthians 3:17-18. For a little bit of context, know that Paul is expressing the immense glory of the New Covenant in comparison to the Old Covenant. He references Moses' veil when he hid his shining face from the Israelites, and he says that this veil is still over the hearts of all they who are not in Christ whenever Moses is read. This needs a bit of explaining. Isaiah 25:7 speaks of a "veil" that covers the nations. This veil is the principalities and powers of the air. It is the demonic strongholds that rule and influence all nations and peoples. That veil was upon the hearts of the Israelites when the came out of Egypt, for it takes more than just receiving the Law to be saved. There is an inward heart conversion that must take place - that did take place for some, hopefully even many, in that first generation. This veil is the Law, which is the power of sin. Now, Law in Paul's mouth is not the same as what we think. Law does not merely mean the words on the page, but the idea that we can have righteousness apart from faith. If we simply uphold "the law", then we are obedient and righteous. That is a false righteousness, one based upon our ability and pride rather than our humility and brokenness. It utilizes the wisdom of those principalities and powers in order to consider ourselves right before God, simply because we have a form of godliness.

Yet, when the heart turns, that veil is taken away. When the individual will come to Christ, and be regenerated, the veil is broken off. This is why Paul says, "Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord." 

Because we are beholding God's glory in one another's face, instead of that veil upon the heart, we are brought into a place of ever increasing glory.

You can see with this how we go from my first statement directly into the next. We step out from the influence of the principalities and power through living a life of reflecting the glory of God in our face unto all others. Freedom from the principalities and powers can only be attained when we come out and be separate unto the Lord. We no longer have our identity within the systems of the world - not even our father's house, our kindred (Irish, German, African, etc), or our national identity. That kind of separation is painful if it is only for the sake of separating. That is the beauty, though. It is not only for the sake of separation. There is a process unto which we must be taken, and sometimes that process is long and difficult, but we are indeed coming unto Zion, and you have indeed come unto Zion if you are in Christ.

Because we are no longer under the oppression of the devil, we are now at liberty to conduct our lives through the freedom of the Spirit. To live out of that Spirit is to wage war against the enemy. Our lives, everything we do, is a battle.

Ephesians 3:8-12 reads, "To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him."

This is the purpose of the church. We are to display the wisdom of God to the principalities and powers. What does that even mean? How do we do that?

The wisdom of God is displayed through the cross. It is that through sacrifice, and not selfishness, that we obtain exultation. It is through submission unto death, even the laying down of our lives for our brothers and sisters, that we obtain life. This is utterly paradoxical in our rational world. The reason this seems to be completely opposite of what we would think is because we are influenced all too much by the wisdom of Satan. It is his wisdom that tells us "It is a dog-eat-dog world out there! You have to look out for number one! If you don't, then who will? You have to take care of yourself before you can care for others, right?" It is the wisdom of God that says, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell all your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven." There is an utter contrast.

What is community? It is the place where the saints have come together utterly separated from the world, untarnished by the principalities and their wisdom, in order to serve the Lord their God in whatever way He might command. It is when we do not rely upon the wisdom of the kingdom of darkness - pride, self, manipulation, intimidation, greed, lust, etc - but rely solely upon God that we have entered into community. Our daily life is to go from house to house breaking bread. If we don't meet with all of the saints, and we don't receive from them the impartation of life, then how shall we survive the day? The enemy of my soul is too strong for me alone.

This is community, and this is what we are to display unto even the cosmic realities. May the Lord make you incredibly hungry for such expression of His kingdom in your midst, and may you be unwilling to settle for anything less. Blessings in Jesus' name!

Leviticus Podcasts

I have spent the last week recording audio messages going through the book of Leviticus available for download here:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/setdtm4l4rk3u5h/AAA4toqOaVvpOJpDVnfeV1SKa?dl=0

OR

Watch on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3zdMKwnvH8GGQa0qiX62pwF5xgZC0L3r

Feel free to download and listen. Be edified, dear brethren. =)

Satan Destroys Nations

A man from Uganda had given a message that changed my life in regard to the way I perceive spiritual warfare. It has to do with fighting for our nation. Right off the bat, I almost feel the need to stress that this is not about patriotism, but about entering into the ultimate intention of God for our nation. We've prayed for revival for so long, and we've been pouring out our tears, and we've been hearing for so long that persecution is coming to America. So many seem to speak messages of revival, restoration, enduring hardships and suffering, and the coming persecution upon Christians.

Ignore all of it. They know almost nothing of God's purposes.

What people are sensing is from the enemy, and not from God. They are hearing the taunts of Satan, and are then crying because of his jeers. Let me explain this as clearly and concisely as I possibly can.

There are two ways that the enemy destroys nations. The first is only temporary to lead into the second. The principalities and powers will lull to sleep the strong, so that the net comes around them, and when they finally wake up, they have no strength, no authority, no voice, and no hope. Though they know their strength and have desire to fight (and will fight), they simply have handed over all strength to the enemy - like Samson gave his strength over to Delilah.

The second way that Satan destroys nations is to use violence and terror. He will come in like a flood to oppress anyone who stands in his way. Women are oppressed. Men live in fear. Children are taken from their homes and forced to serve in the military. Anyone who opposes the powers that be is annihilated. Absolute oppression is poured out upon all - even they who are being used as puppets at the top. For an example of this, look in the Middle East. See the work of ISIS for what it really is: the tactic of the enemy to destroy entire nations. (Another example in modern times would be Nazi Germany.)

Here is the problem: When we pray about issues regarding the Middle East, or regarding homosexual activism, or regarding abortion, or regarding the political agendas and the government that rules over us, we often are praying in regard to the issues that we see. There are deeper issues than that.

When we examine America's history, what is one of the issues that comes up over and over again? Racism. I saw somewhere that 150,000 people were killed in the trail of tears - the utter destruction of the Native Americans. Slavery has been something that has left a tarnish upon this nation, not just from 1700's, but even from the Civil War through the Civil Right's movement of the 1960's. When we see the racism issue being displayed every day on the media, it is not because we still struggle with racism. Whether that is true or not is a non-issue.

There is a principality over our nation that is driving the racism thing. It is an Assyrian spirit, one that would claim itself to be the "master race" (it was the Assyrians who coined this term), and their leaders were called “Khatti-sars”. From this we have words like Caesar, Tzar, Czar, Kaiser, etc. The Assyrians used symbols like the double-headed eagle, the iron cross, and the swastika as their representations. Yes, the eagle on the dollar bill comes from the Assyrian symbol. They are recorded by Philo and Josephus as being people with blonde hair and blue eyes, and white skin. The Indians (country) called them "white demons". This is what has infiltrated Germany, thus the rise of Nazism, and what has come across the sea into America, thus the racism and elitism.

The roots need to be noted and understood. We are fighting principalities and powers, not racism and abortion. The problem stems unto a spirit that presides over our nation, that until it be cast down by the Church that has come out from all influence of the principalities and powers, we will continue to find these problems. They won't stop here. The goal is to oppress the people of God, to numb them and to deceive them, until  eventually they have no power at all. To use their wisdom at all is to surrender your authority to them (see here and here for more information on their wisdom). To harness patriotism, which I do love what American is supposed to stand for (freedom), is to play directly into their power.

God has called us out of father, kindred, and nation - just as He called Abraham out - so that we might come into a different Kingdom entirely. It is from that heavenly kingdom, with the authority invested in us through freedom from demonic influence and manipulation, and freedom from sin, that we are able to war against those powers over our nation.

Ultimately, the casting down of principalities from a national level requires the command over even the elements of nature (see my blog here on the two witnesses). The replacement of government is not anarchy, but theocracy. The establishment of theocracy would require that we seek the heart of God, to understand what His purposes are for our nation, and to live from the reality of what He has called us to be. As Americans, God has called us to be that nation of freedom. But, what exactly does that mean? What precisely does God demand that we as a nation would do? This is something that we need to prayerfully wrestle with in community, for without the intuition and discernment of the saints in corporeity we cannot possibly come to solid conclusions of what God has called our great nation to be in this time. Whatever it is that He would call us to be and to do, it will relate to the Jew in our midst, and to Israel in the last days. What exactly that means is more than I can express at this moment, but for those interested, I would suggest reading this to start.