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The War for the Soul of the Church
Every war among nations brings some measure of destruction among the warring factions. And it is the same in spiritual warfare. Today, the world finds itself in a great spiritual war, and God has birthed His people into the midst of it. And while godly spiritual warfare must be about redemption, destruction is a necessary element in His strategy. Indeed, He has targeted for annihilation the eternally destructive sinful motives of the human heart. To succeed in this war we must recognize what God intends to destroy and then follow Him by taking the necessary action. Consider the church at Corinth.
Some of the believers, influenced by false ministry that had gained inroads there, had concluded that Paul’s tactics were of the flesh. His response was clear.
I beg you that when I come I may not have to be as bold as I expect to be toward some people who think that we live by the standards of this world. For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.
(2 Corinthians 10:2-3 NIV)
Indeed, spiritual conflict was well underway among the Corinthians. In the above verse Paul used the words “wage war” which mean to serve in a military campaign. God intended to conduct a military campaign and invade His own house. Using both Paul’s writings and personal visits among them, the Lord purposed to bring some destruction.
But to be clear, the great spiritual authority that God had given to Paul was not for the destruction of His people but of their wrong thought patterns. The Lord wanted to edify the disciples, to spiritually build them up, not destroy them (2 Corinthians 10:8). In fact, Heaven’s strategy was that as the Lord put into effect His building program among them, the ideas, plans, and strategies of men would be exposed for what they were and be abolished.
First, something had to go. On the top of God’s list were the strongholds that had been erected in the minds of the people.
For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
The word “stronghold” refers to a fortified place like a castle. False ministers had drawn God’s people into building fortifications in their minds to protect certain erroneous ways of thinking. As a result, they had constructed arguments and well thought out reasons in order to reject the apostle’s perspective. But what Paul perceived and intended to convey to the Corinthians was the mind of Christ–the presence, power, and wisdom of God himself. The strongholds that opposed him were lofty, high, rooted in arrogance, and raised up against the peoples’ intimate knowledge of God. The way some believers were thinking was hindering them from knowing accurately the heart and priorities of the Lord.
And knowing God is eternal life (John 17:3). Indeed, the Lord wanted His people to live. So He intended to reveal himself among them through Paul by the power of the Holy Spirit. Here was why the apostle’s weaponry was so potent for destroying strongholds.
Indeed, many captives would be taken in the coming battles. But the ones being led into captivity would not be the people but their thoughts. Erroneous ways of thinking were going to be literally destroyed and godly perspectives restored. The people’s thoughts were going to be taken captive to the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ who dwelt within them.
The apostle’s emphasis was not that their thoughts would be brought into obedience to him. Obeying Paul was not the point; unveiling Christ was. Since Jesus walked in perfect obedience to His Father while on Earth, having no strongholds in His mind; and since He was now alive in His people by the power of the Holy Spirit, God’s intent was to simply unveil His Son through the words and deeds of Paul.
In seeing the Lord Jesus with greater clarity, the people’s hearts would be stirred and they would see the disconnect between how they had been thinking in contrast with the beauty and holiness of Christ now being reconfirmed before them. The freedom to know and joyfully obey God would now be released among them and the enemy put to flight. But they would have to repent for their misguided thinking.
Here is where many fail in the war. They simply do not want to embrace the cross and change their way of thinking.
Today there are many high and lofty thought patterns along with the practices that accompany them hindering the knowledge of God in His house. These “high things” are similar to the high places in Old Testament times. Just as the Israelis worshiped God in the high places, so also do God’s people today. But the Lord had said that His Old Testament people were not to worship Him in just any place, but specifically where He chose for them to do so (Deuteronomy 12). Over the years, and after God had revealed himself in various places (Shiloh, Mount Zion, Mount Moriah), the Lord indicated His final choice; it was to be Mount Zion.
For the LORD has chosen Zion; He has desired it for His dwelling place: “This is My resting place forever; Here I will dwell, for I have desired it.”
The early Church recognized that Mount Zion was more than simply a geographical locale; it was a place of spiritual intimacy and worship as revealed in the life of David. In fact, as local churches gathered in one another’s homes around the presence of the Lord with Davidic hearts of worship, they experienced what Mount Zion had always been about–God’s dwelling place.
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn.
The Church today is rediscovering the Davidic heart for intimacy and worship and we are finding our way back to God’s dwelling place–Mount Zion. And we are leaving some high places in the process.
Though David saw the Lord’s heart in this matter, his son Solomon sought out the Lord in Gibeon, the great high place (2 Chronicles 1:3-4). But God mercifully met him there anyway and granted his desire for wisdom to govern Israel.
The fact that God loves His people and meets with us where we are does not mean that where we are is where we are supposed to be. Or that He intends to leave us there.
In the times of George Whitefield and John Wesley, the general practice of the Church was to meet with the Lord within the perspective and practice that corporate worship should only be done in church buildings. And the Lord graciously met with His people there. But He wanted to break out of this confining viewpoint. He wanted His people to leave this particular high place because it hindered them in knowing Him. So He anointed George Whitefield and the Wesley brothers to preach in open fields and in simple homes.
But many resisted. Spiritual warfare had broken out. The Lord was invading His own house and godly people were on both sides of various issues. Those whose thoughts were taken captive to the obedience of Christ were victorious; those who just closed their hearts to His work became prisoners of war. And those who responded to each other in the Spirit of Christ journeyed on, sometimes for a season on opposite sides of certain questions, and were used by the Lord to extend His kingdom.
And what of our present spiritual landscape? What are some of today’s high places among us? Are there certain practices and activities of worship that need to be fine–tuned or changed altogether even though the Lord is meeting with us in them? I believe that this question must be answered in the affirmative.
And if I am correct on this issue, then great change is indeed coming to the Church of Jesus Christ. Some may want to talk about spiritual warfare, yet not even consider the corporate change among us that God intends to bring. But I fear that such an attitude is really a refusal to face what the war is even all about. At the end of the day, God’s military campaigns stem from the fact that it is His house that we are in and that His values and priorities are the key to defeating the influence of darkness in our generation.
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