The Real Source of Our Conflict

At this time, when so much emotion is swirling about, and when each person holds a passionate and immovable position, it is too easy to forget what is taking place. Death is manifesting its presence, and that manifestation is taking many forms. 

There is a spirit called Death. In the Greek language, he is known as Apollyon. In Hebrew, Abaddon. This spirit is defined as “Destroyer” and “the author of apocalypse.” The definition also includes “ruin, “destruction, “the minister of death,” and “the author of havoc on earth.” These definitions are sourced from a root word meaning “perish.”

The manifestation of Death is not always a final blow, shot, or verdict. It works like the proverbial frog in a kettle giving its dark mission time to misguide us leading us down a path of greater forms of deception and decay until, at last, something dies.

 

When peaceful protests for righteous issues are allowed to become riots that lead to anarchy and eventually death, death will have accomplished its goal.

 

Abortion, once a sad solution for an early-stage unwanted pregnancy, moved its demand for death to mid-term pregnancies, and now to the unimagined horror of late-term abortion.

 

Poverty created by disadvantage and dismissal of those living in the decaying inner cities of our nation has created generations who have only known loss and lack. This disadvantage and dismissal have brought the death-producing mindset of hopelessness to an entire family line.

 

A marriage that began in love and commitment ends in divorce. Death has a mission to destroy the oneness of the earthly image of Christ and the Church by removing reconciliation and forgiveness from the relationship.

 

When Jesus rose from the dead, He disempowered Death. The faith of the Church is built upon that victory. Our response to the resurrection of Jesus is to bring life in all its forms to our conversations and actions. Paul repeatedly preached a message about the implications of resurrection life because it is what empowers the Gospel message by disempowering the ministry of Death in all its forms. 

 

Many are praying against the byproducts of this spirit. There are many examples of these byproducts of Death, along with the ones I noted above. Praying against these manifestations is a good thing, but only if we recognize the root that is spawning such issues and giving them a place in our lives. 

Going to the root cause of the brokenness in our world - Death - will keep us from making enemies of those who are manifesting the byproducts of that dark spirit. It will also help us reevaluate our response to what agitates us and allow us an opportunity to define our real enemy.

 

  

Hell's Card Dealer

The Devil loves this time in our history. He and his troop of dark spirits are walking through our culture with decks of cards in their hands. Instead of traditional playing cards, these cards have images of disasters, conspiracies, and dark outcomes that are tailormade for our unresolved fears.

In gambling circles, there is a saying, “the house always wins.” The same is true in spiritual matters. The house we allow to deal our cards will always determine how we interpret life.

Today, check the cards in your hand.  The cards you hold have been given to you based on your faith or the lack of it. That is the hand you will play in your mind, at your family gatherings, and with your friends. It will also be the hand you bet your life resources on. It is a costly bet.

For some, it is time to fold and get a new hand – a hand of hope. That is not a naïve hand that ignores what is taking place in the world. It is a hand that sees Heaven being released on Earth and trusts the supernatural ability of God's love to turn the negative course of human history toward goodness. That is a hand you can go all-in on because it is backed by the heart of God. Nothing else is worth playing. In the end, a hand of hope always wins.

Our Seat of Righteous Dissent

In recent months, discussions have taken place about when the rights of a believer-citizen should be exercised, or not. There are valid points on both sides of the conversation and worth hearing. One camp says a believer should never demand their rights and just take what comes as an example of a submissive and sacrificial love. Others stand immovable in their rights believing they are gifts from God. Which one is right? It is hard to tell sometimes. Maybe it’s a both/and kind of thing. On one occasion, the apostle Paul appealed to Caesar demanding his rights as a Roman citizen. On other occasions, he did nothing and just took what came and praised God in the process.  

One of my personal heroes is Rosa Parks. Rosa was a black seamstress living in Montgomery, Alabama in the 1950s. She was a devout Christian. Rosa would become an iconic symbol in the civil rights movement for not giving up her seat on a city bus to a white person. She was arrested during that event and her arrest was one of the ignition points of the civil rights movement.  In a 1956 interview Parks said of that day on the bus, "I would have to know for once and for all what rights I had as a human being and a citizen.” 

On Sunday, December 4, 1955, just days after her arrest, plans for the Montgomery bus boycott were prepared. The announcement for the boycott was made in black churches in the city. The boycott brought national attention to the evil of segregation. Some in today’s faith/politics conversation might not approve of what Rosa Parks did because she was asking for her rights to be honored not only as a citizen of the United States but as a human being created in the image of God. 

Today, we are beset with a shaming spirit that has entered our social discourse, sadly, even within the Church. That spirit and its demand for a one-size-fits-all response of social commentary, on either side of an issue, can be easily offended if its ideas are not accepted. History has shown us that there is not always a simplistic one-size-fits-all answer in God’s Kingdom. While we may see the same social issue playing out, we will not always see the same remedy or take a similar course of action. In December of 1955, Rosa Parks exercised her rights as a citizen and human being, and history was changed. 

I wonder where we would be today if four young black men at the Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina had not remained seated at the counter after being told to leave or if Martin Luther King Jr. did not have the courage to walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama because his actions might upset another believer not convinced that King's actions were the right kind of witness for his faith. What if these individuals had allowed a shaming voice or threats to silence their peaceful dissent? Their lives and legacy have become gifts to all of us, modeling how our faith can be expressed in the public arena beyond just silence and submission. 

After all these years, we are still trying to learn how to live with each other in honor and peace. One of the challenges we still face is knowing when we should remain seated or when, under the impulse of God's Spirit, we choose to not give up the seat of our personal commitments before God, no matter who might disagree with that course of action.

When Cultures Collapse

 The world “collapse” came to me this morning. It’s not a very positive word, but it is part of life. One dictionary defines collapse as: “to fall or cave in; crumble suddenly.”

I remember looking out from the roof of our apartment in LA during the Rodney King riots and seeing how quickly social order collapsed in our neighborhood. I watched footage on the current riots taking place in Minneapolis where entire neighborhoods are burning. Life as we know it can collapse in a moment. That reality is unsettling.

I remember how quickly things changed in a divided Germany when the Berlin Wall came down. I recall the rapid fall of the old USSR. These changes appeared to take place suddenly, but the ingredients of their collapse were added to the mix over time, long before the physical collapse took place.

We are in a time when some things we thought immovable and forever secure will begin to collapse because they cannot bear the weight of needed change. Each generation hopes that collapse will take place somewhere in the future, not in their lifetime. While no one wants to experience social collapse, our desire to push needed change forward into another generation could be our contribution to an eventual collapse of a culture. 

What can catch us off guard is the suddenness of a cultural collapse when it does occur. A neighborhood can be a familiar and secure home to generations of a family, and in one night, it all burns to the ground as the sad fruit of a riot. Nations given almost omnipotent status can fall in a day. Only God is unchanging and immovable. Everything else on earth is subject to sudden collapse.

Before any more history unfolds, it would be wise for each of us to take time to reorder our thinking and reaffirm where our hope has been placed. Nothing on earth is immune to change and eventual collapse. Only in Jesus can we have true peace and an immovable hope.

“I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16: 33).

Responding to Disappointment

This morning, I was reading the results from our state and local elections. I am familiar with one of the men who was seeking office. He lost. I prayed a simple prayer, “Lord, help him turn his disappointment into worship.” 

Over the years, like you, I have experienced the sorrow of disappointment. I have come to realize the only safe response to these painful moments is a willingness to worship in the middle of our pain. Only worship has the ability to refocus spiritual eyes that have been blurred by the sorrow of disappointment. 

This kind of worship does not require skilled musicians or a smartphone app filled with the latest worship choruses. It can take place when we have little to offer in the form of traditional worship. This worship might resemble a moment of reflection on God’s past faithfulness or a willingness to utter just the fragment of a sentence that redirects our hearts toward the Lord. The first act of faith is redirected sight.  When we choose to look beyond our sorrow, all things are possible. 

Alarm Bells Are Sounding

Spiritual alarm bells are not always heard by the masses. In the turning of a cultural tide, the glaring clang of alarm will be heard by those whose ears are tuned to the sound of freedom. If culture-wide deafness goes on for too long, a nation can miss a God-given opportunity to turn its developing history away from a negative outcome. 

Most of us want to be hopeful people, but there is a problem in our understanding of hope. The majority of our definitions of hope were developed in times of stability, not jeopardy. This kind of hope is not a challenged hope and, thus, remains an untested and unproven hope.

I remember when Jan and I lived in Berlin, Germany. I can recall the times I would ride my bicycle by the childhood home of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer was a German pastor who saw what was taking place in his homeland and would later feel called to confront the emerging influence of Hitler and the Nazi Party. His opposition to Hitler eventually caused him to be hung on the gallows within the walls of the concentration camp of Flossenbürgon on April 9, 1945, just two weeks before the U.S. military arrived to liberate the camp. Bonhoeffer was hung for sounding an alarm while the sheep-like obedience of the German people, and sadly many in the clergy, walked in lockstep to the unrighteous mandates of the government.

An alarm is currently sounding in the streets of our nation. If we cannot hear that sound, we may have succumbed to the very thing Bonhoeffer felt called to challenge. Going along with every government mandate is not wisdom; it is a weak and unbiblical submission of our will to servitude. 

At this point in the conversation, someone will always point to Romans 13 and say we must submit to the governing authority. While that is true most of the time, it is not true all the time, especially when the destiny of a nation is being derailed. A simple rereading of the biblical text can be a needed refresher where we see the earliest disciples saying to those in positions of power, “We must obey God rather than any human authority” (Acts 5:29). 

The courageous response of Peter and the apostles when they were told to remain silent is what we need in this hour of our national history - obedience to God, not to the dictates of a religious organization or the mandates of a government who might be abusing its authority. That kind of raw and courageous obedience can get your credibility hung on the gallows of public opinion, or worse. 

The Final Gear Check

Every life-assignment requires some form of gear. Gear is that equipment you make sure is ready and functional in case the stuff of life hits the fan. Before an operation, a special forces operator does a final check of their gear to make sure everything is in place and ready to go. It can save their life, the lives of their team members, and ensure the overall success of a mission. An empty magazine, neglecting to bring along a breaching tool, or a malfunctioning communication system is a recipe for death and disaster.

Gear is not always tangible. It can be a mindset. It's having the right personnel on the right team.  Gear can be a mission statement in place and operable. The idea of doing a final gear check applies to a business venture, a government initiative, maintaining an emotionally healthy family unit, or anywhere people are on a mission.

When Paul wrote to the Ephesians, he listed the full armament of a soldier of God. Before he inventoried the gear of a spiritual soldier, he made this statement, “Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm” (Ephesians 6:13). The part of the verse that stuck out to me was “and having done everything.” In other words, it is wise to do a final spiritual gear check before battle to make sure the right gear was on board and ready to use. Paul then went on to list the spiritual gear needed to engage spiritual battle – truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, and the Word.

Before your next spiritual engagement, do a final gear check. Is truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, and God’s Word on you and ready to use? You will need all of this gear to come out alive. Every spiritual conflict will use all of this gear. Having done everything - a final gear check, you will then be able to stand and survive the coming days of spiritual warfare no matter what comes against you or your spiritual team.

New Credentials for a New Season

The Lord is issuing new credentials of authority during this time of social isolation.  They will be used once we exit the current season and enter a new season soon to be revealed.  The new credentials will be issued to those who have not wasted this time huddled in worry or merely holding their emotional breath until this time of isolation passes. These credentials will not be initially recognized by those paralyzed in fear.  This is the same kind of fear that held captive the will of the older brothers of David and all of Israel while Goliath pranced back and forth, mocking God. 

While all believers have authority, few are exercising what they possess. As a result, our culture is being steered by a godless agenda with an assignment to hijack our Kingdom potential. 

The new credentials will come after we perform courageous acts of obedience that confront the lies and deception holding our culture in bondage. When David brought down the giant and cut off his head (the symbol of his authority), God gave David his kingly credentials to lead the nation. At that point, he was recognized as someone credentialed by God.  Some of you reading these words will act and speak like David as our culture lives in fear. What you do and say will make room for God to credential your life.

God does not have a Plan B. He only works from a Plan A. This is a Plan A moment in our history. Each of us can become recipients of new credentials if we allow God’s Spirit, not the spirit of the age to reform our worldview, and give us our marching orders. 

Clearing the Lungs of Our Nation

For the last several days, an intense spiritual conflict took place in the heavens over the United States. Last night, a victory in that battle occurred because of the prayers of God's people. The Lord has arranged the timing of this victory to coincide with our celebration of the death, resurrection, and enthronement of Jesus Christ. 

The unusual emotions you may have experienced were byproducts of this conflict. It is not unusual for someone to be sensitive to what is happening in the spiritual realm and misinterpret what they are feeling. If your response was wrong-spirited or insensitive, confess your mistake and repent to those you affected and move on. 

This battle has cleared the lungs of our nation, allowing us to exhale and take in a new breath. That new breath will invigorate the plans of God in our lives and culture. Follow the hope that fresh breath brings. Hope will be the evidence that our spiritual lungs are clear of the congestion of fear, and in some cases, deception. 

Voices of Reason

The masked and unresolved fears people carried with them during the last season of life before COVID-19 paid a visit have now attached themselves to this virus.  Unreason is ramping up and gaining more control with each passing day. While this constriction increases, new voices of reason are speaking up,  revealing that this fear has now become predatory. These voices of reason will not tolerate skewed statistics, unreasonable options, or political posturing.  The virus of fear has clamped down on both sides of our divided political spectrum. None are immune.  Love is getting ready to expose, call out, and cut the strands of this strangulating fear.

A Beautiful Passage

There is an interesting shift that takes place in our thinking as we grow older, and our remaining days are less than what has already been lived. A lessening of stress from the demands of life slowly arrives and sets up camp in our mind. The need to always strive, push, or do something profound seems to walk off the platform of our life. We then experience a shift in our focus and begin looking at life’s finish line welcoming its release. The demands that once pulled on our peace vanish and are replaced with a strangely beautiful abiding. None of this is a compromise of excellence or abandoning of purpose. It is the power and beauty of rest being expressed in preparation for the final passage.

The Most Dangerous Virus

Dread has become the most dangerous virus now stalking our nation. Psalm 91:6 addressed the issue of dread, “Do not dread the disease that stalks in darkness, nor the disaster that strikes at midday.”

The Cambridge Dictionary defines dread as “to feel extremely worried or frightened about something that is going to happen or that might happen.” Dread is the constant fearful expectation that something terrible is happening or will happen. It is the result of a shift in our focus from hope to hopelessness. As a result of that shift, dread enters our thinking.  

This current global pandemic will pass, but dread will remain to return again if we do not challenge its presence.  It will return if we did not learn to live in the truth of the opening verses of Psalm 91, “Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. This I declare about the Lord: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I trust him.” 

Rest and trust are the only known antidote against the virus of dread. We need to repeatedly inject our thoughts with rest and trust and declare that God alone is our only refuge and our place of ultimate safety. That injection of truth will destroy the virus of dread and return to us a proper perspective on how to live in a challenging moment of history.

The Wave Has Broken

Something has broken overnight in the spiritual realm regarding the deadly Coronavirus. It is like the wave of this virus had mounted up to its full height and finally crashed its intensity upon the beach of our culture. The remnants of the wave are beginning to flow off the beach back into the sea. The presence of this virus still requires continued wisdom and diligence until the beach is finally clear, but the wave has broken, and so has its authority. Expect to see God reveal His power and love in unusual ways as we approach Passover and Easter. 

Practicing Peace

We have entered a domino moment in history with the fear of a deadly virus spreading around the globe. If another significant domino falls, like the outbreak of a major war, a global financial collapse, or a natural disaster of national significance, our sense of cultural stability will vanish. What seemed so secure and lasting in one moment will fall in the next.

When we allow our emotions to have their way in times of peace, we will only have emotions to fight with when we engage in a real battle. Paul listed self-control as one of the fruits of the Spirit. It’s in the mix with the other fruit because the rest of them don’t have a chance to emerge if we don’t have control over our emotions. This is not living without emotions. It’s controlling their ability to form our response to the negative issues of life. Self-control is self-training ourselves in times of peace so that when a major conflict or global disaster comes, we will be led by spiritually wise battle tactics, not by crippling fear.

We have been called to practice the presence of Jesus at all times.  We do this so that when a dark and dire moment of human history does unfold, His peace will guide our actions and keep us from joining an unbridled emotional stampede that can lead an entire culture over the cliff edge of social and spiritual disaster. 

Spiritual Crop Dusters

While there are many practical things we can do to minimize our contact with the deadly virus running rampant through our country, we can ignore the deadlier spiritual virus of fear that is also running rampant. The latter has a greater potential for death because it kills the soul of a people.

Jan and I are increasingly aware of the power of intercessory prayer at this time in our nation’s history. One thing we have been doing of late is prayer drives. We drive through our community, praying as the Spirit leads. These prayers are multi-faceted. Some are warfare prayers pulling down the strongholds that hold our region in the grip of things that are not God’s best. We also pray in tongues knowing the Spirit is strategically releasing an interpretation of our prayers into individuals, groups, and institutions.

This weekend on one of our drives, I saw our car turn into a crop duster aircraft. I saw our prayers being sprayed out over our valley like an insecticide would be sprayed over a field by a crop duster to kill an insect infestation. The spray from our prayers was empowered by faith, not fear, and they were having a devastating effect on things not seen with the natural eye. 

The most significant virus now affecting our nation is fear. Our faith has only one vulnerability to an infestation of fear– our will. What we choose to believe and speak has a tremendous impact on the spiritual environment where we live. We cannot place our hope in the discovery of an immunization against the Coronavirus as wonderful as that would be.  By the time we are injected with a new immunization, the virus will have mutated, and fear will come once again. We cannot place our faith in a nervous and overreactive financial market. We should all try to walk in wisdom and do all we can to hold off the expansion of a deadly disease. While those practical measures are being embraced, as believers,  we must also be spraying words of hope and faith across our nation, putting to death the rising infestation of hopelessness and fear.

Virus Insight

When we use history to forecast future events, we can be taken by surprise when something unexpected and catastrophic appears and dramatically changes the course of our personal lives and the broader culture. The most significant challenges to humanity throughout history were not anticipated because of accurate and precise predictions. They just happened unannounced. When those events happen, no one is fully prepared. Trust in God is our only safe option in these situations. While concerns regarding the Coronavirus mount and fear accelerates around the globe, take a moment to seek God in prayer, and ask Him to prepare your heart to respond to what is transpiring with wisdom and faith. Wisdom and faith will help you navigate through what might come regarding this event or something else we have not yet imagined. Trusting in God is our only safe refuge, whether we are experiencing an over-hyped event or an unfolding global tragedy. 

Shared Plunder

As God blesses you and your particular Kingdom assignment,  it will be important to not claim ownership of anything God has done as the result of your faithfulness. These moments are a test of our hearts, especially when those who abandoned us amid a conflict arrive after a battle has been waged to claim a share of the blessing, having shed no spiritual or emotional blood allowing them to make such a claim.

A section of scripture in II Samuel describes the mighty warriors of David, who accomplished unusual feats of heroism. One such warrior was a man named Eleazar. He stood beside David in a battle against the Philistine’s when the entire Israelite army fled in fear. The desertion left David and Eleazar alone to do the fighting. When the battle was finally over, the text says Eleazar had fought so long and so hard he could no longer lift his sword. 

One verse caught my attention, “The rest of the army did not return until it was time to collect the plunder” (II Samuel 23:10). If we have been walking with the Lord for any length of time, we will have sad stories to tell. Some of these are stories are about those who deserted us at the moment of greatest need, and after we fought an intense battle alone, returned to claim a share in the victory. Seeing a deserter return can challenge the depth of character for those who stood and fought and did not run away.

David’s mighty warriors were mighty in battle, but they were also mighty in character. David and Eleazar allowed the deserters to return to claim their portion of plunder. Imagine what it felt like to receive such grace if you were one who ran away? That expression of grace is the evidence of a real warrior heart.

In a conflict, whether natural or spiritual, at some point, we have all been cowards in need of grace. True warriors understand human frailty. The next battle the deserters faced with David would allow them to follow the example of a real mighty warrior – a warrior who saw the bigger picture of someone's life than a one-time failure. The measure of true greatness happens when grace is offered to failed people instead of punishment and rejection. 

Sad Battles

There are times when the environment of spiritual conflict is more deadly than the weapons wielded in actual battle. Environments, whether social, familial or work-related carry life and death potential.

In II Samuel 18, David’s army entered a battle in the forest of Ephraim against the army of Absalom. 20,000 soldiers died that day. The text reads, “The battle raged all across the countryside, and more men died because of the forest than were killed by the sword” (II Samuel 18:8 NLT).

The forest of Ephraim was thick with oak and terebinth trees limiting the ability of Absalom's army to retreat. If the trees were not enough, the forest was filled with bogs, thickets, and wild animals. It was a dense, hostile place. Perhaps the saddest part of the battle was the fact that the opposing army was David's own people who had rebelled and came under the command of Absalom, David’s son.  Absalom died in that battle when his hair was caught in the limbs of a tree while retreating on the back of a mule. As he dangled from the tree, he became easy prey.

The battle in the Ephraim forest weakened the kingdom. The conflict resembled a civil war. Civil wars are so negative in their outcome that the Romans would never allow a celebration of triumph for a victory in a civil war. They knew civil war only weakened the empire. 

Civil wars between Christians have a similar weakening impact on our relationship with each other and our testimony to the surrounding culture. This weakening takes place when we put each other in places of conflict where death, not life is the outcome. Our negative thoughts, words, and deeds become relational bogs and thickets that catch people and make them easy prey for a loveless expression of our faith.

Of late, the Lord has impressed upon me more and more the importance of the environment of my heart. Any toxic attitude or desire to punish an opposing opinion must be dealt with immediately, or my relationships with fellow believers will become a place of sorrow resembling the forest of Ephraim.  

The Power of Inquiry

What made King David such an effective leader and a man after God’s own heart was his willingness to inquire of the Lord for direction before he took action. On the few occasions when David did not inquire of the Lord, death, sorrow, and heartache took place. Each of us can be effective in our particular Kingdom assignment if we are willing to inquire of the Lord before we speak or act.  On the other hand, like David, we will sow death, sorrow, and heartache when we rely on our own wisdom or follow our unbridled passions without first inquiring of the Lord.

The Caliber Clock

For the last year or two, I have been waking up and noticing numbers on my illuminated nightstand clock that read like rifle and handgun calibers - 2:23, 2:43, 2:57, 3:00, 3:27, 3:38 and 3:57. At first, I thought I was noticing the caliber numbers simply because of my background. I wondered if the numbers were something I should write about, but I had no unction from the Lord to do so at the time, so I just chalked it up to a fun way to wake up.

This morning, I decided to check a dictionary meaning for the word “caliber.” The dictionary meaning reads “degree of mental capacity or moral quality” and “the internal diameter or bore of a gun barrel.” When I read the definition, a word finally came that prompted me to write something. 

Earlier this week, I wrote a blog article about an increased capacity to do spiritual warfare and used a gun metaphor. The metaphor was drawn from an experience I had as a cop. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to write about another firearm metaphor because we have some sensitive souls out there who view guns as evil and those who enjoy shooting sports as a bit off-kilter. But I knew I had a word, so here it comes.

God is increasing your spiritual capacity to receive words of revelation that will be specifically crafted for release in the new season we have just entered. The bore of your spiritual capacity is being expanded to carry a magnum-sized cartridge of spiritual insight that will be used to fire deep into the heart of the deception that is running rampant through the streets of our nation. The discharge of these words will bring life, not death. 

The increase of your influence is not something you can prepare for apart from keeping your heart and mind pure and focused on God, not on those things that are an enemy to righteousness. When the time comes for you to fire on the lies and deception, you will be amazed at the sound and impact the word will bring when the Lord discharges His truth through your life.