Dear One,
The Lord bless you!
As I write, it is with profound sadness as I recollect the actions of twenty-five years ago today, September 11th. Do you remember where you were that fateful morning? I had gone out to pray with Toby the prayer dog at John Neal Park on the North Santiam River here in Oregon. As I stood at the water’s edge, a huge mountain lion came down on the other side of the river, drank from the river, walked about thirty feet along the bank then disappeared into the brush. I had never seen one in the wild. He moved with the grace of a house cat but easily outweighed my 95lb chocolate labrador retriever, who didn’t bark at him, but was wrapped around my legs. I went home and RM had the TV on, telling me the north tower of the World Trade Center in NYC had been hit. Then we watched in horror as the south tower was hit. Later I thought about how 9/11 could have been avoided completely if we had people trained in the gifts of the Spirit, for surely God had been speaking that morning to everyone and had been speaking for months prior about the impending catastrophe, but no one in positions of authority knew how to walk by the Spirit and stop it before it started. Lord willing, we will launch the PNEUMA INSTITUTE* to train Christian professionals in the gifts of the Spirit to change outcomes like that…
On a lighter note, yes, I know the title of the article below sounds a little like the title of one of those romance novels you see on the stand when you are checking out of WalMart, but just roll with it anyway, ok? 😉
Love you! KRP
LOVE’S CONQUESTS
And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” Mark 16:15 NKJV
Evangelism is spiritual conquest. In the spiritual realm, which governs the physical realm there are only two kingdoms: the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of the adversary. The Lord God Almighty reigns over all, but in this physical universe which includes and is centered on the earth, there are two ‘doms’ – ‘dom’ meaning ‘the reign of’, meaning the reign of the King, Jesus or the reign of the god of this world, Satan. Two kings extending the power and authority of their reign over all the territory where their influence is felt – one bringing light, life and peace and the other bringing death in all its myriad forms. Evangelism is spiritual conquest in the reality that when someone gets born again, they are released from the authority of the old king and put under the authority of King Jesus. They are WON to the Lord!
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Matt 28:19-20 NKJV
Spiritual conquest also involves the winning of nations – whole people groups, bringing them out of darkness and into the light of the Kingdom of God. So, spiritual conquest involves not only the winning of individuals and nations but replacing the infrastructure of the old kingdom with the culture, society and fruits of the Kingdom of God. This must happen in an individual, but it also must happen in culture, in the forms and structures of our communities and nations. The early Church fell into spiritual ruin because they did not transform the cultures in the countries they spiritually conquered (2 Tim.1:15).
The Lord gave me a vision for what I call THE SEVEN DAY PROJECT*. I was sitting in a coffee shop by myself in a little town outside of Liverpool in the UK a few years back, when the HS spoke to me. He said, “If you had unlimited resources and time to prepare, could you reach a whole nation with the Gospel in seven days?” I had come through Heathrow airport in London a few days before, and my heart was overwhelmed as I saw the crowds – young and old, men, women and children from all walks of life – and I knew the statistics told the story that 98 out of every 100 would die and go to hell unless something dramatic happened in their lives. I said, “You know, Lord!” Then He proceeds to show me in a vision a very specific pop singer sitting on a chair in a meadow with her guitar. She’s looking up, and sings the first stanza of AMAZING GRACE, then looks at the camera and says, ‘Jesus Christ saved my life, and He can save yours!’ The whole scene takes less than a minute.
After the vision, HS says, “The one week of the year when the world thinks about Christianity is Holy Week, Palm Sunday to Easter. If she would blast that video out, with a little follow up info, for a whole week to her hundreds of millions of followers on social media, all in the UK would hear the gospel.” It’s that simple! ALL would hear! Of course, our pop singer friend would have to get saved, and be willing to cooperate, and we would have to prepare for the influx of millions of seekers, but our God is a God of miracles and that is what the ‘unlimited resources and time to prepare’ was for!*
Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights (Grk. PHOSTER: lightbearers) in the world… Phil 2:14-15 NKJV
We are the army of God. What role do you play in spiritual conquest? Your role is as big as your vision. Start with winning one person. Ask the Lord to give you one person to win and to disciple for the Lord. Right after high school, I went out on a one-year mission program with our church that took me to Des Moines, IA with a small team of fellow fanatics. The first day we went out witnessing we went to Drake University. Then, the FIRST guy I talked to was Nolan, a law student from Hawaii. Nolan wound up coming to our house church, giving his heart to the Lord and we have been friends for fifty years. Nolan got his law degree, practiced law in Hawaii for years with his beautiful wife Dorothy, and even served as a lawyer on our church’s staff for a season, bless God forever!
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law…Gal 5:22-23 NKJV
The first phase of spiritual conquest is winning someone. The second phase is discipleship, the establishing of the lordship of Jesus in them. The fruit of the Spirit is what ‘normal’ looks like. If you are chronically without one or more of those essential fruits, you may need deliverance. Deliverance is an essential part of discipleship, which is getting and keeping free of demonic entanglements. I had to get free of religious demons inflicted on me by my Bible college leadership. I used to wear a belt buckle, inscribed with symbols from our BC, years after I had separated myself theologically from that outfit. It was 1999, and a group of us were attending City Bible Temple in Portland for a conference with Peter Wagner. Mary, a dear friend and intercessor approached me and said, “Why are you wearing that belt buckle? I think its demonic!” I touched it. It was hot! I said, “I’m taking this off! It’s hot! Please pray for me.” She took the belt, and prayed for me, commanding the curses to come off of me that had come from the leadership of the college (they had led us through a ceremony of committing allegiance to them…outside of your covenant with Jesus and your marriage covenant, be wary of anyone doing that to you!). If I needed it, you may need it too, and I can almost guarantee your new convert will need it as well.* *
7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear (Grk. DEILIA: timidity or cowardice), but of power and of love and of a sound mind. 2 Tim 1:7 NKJV
With your new convert, work to win your neighborhood to Christ. Do this intentionally. This is spiritual conquest, the conquest of your neighborhood. The gospel is the most appealing message in the world! EVERYONE wants to be loved, to be saved and have eternal life. Look for opportunities to bring the miraculous power of God into people’s lives. You can do this! Just being nice without sharing the gospel is a thin veneer of cowardice. Cowardice is fear rooted in selfishness. Throw off that cursed cowardice and love your neighborhood into the Kingdom!
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations…Matt. 28:19
But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, 16 to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia and returned again to Damascus. Gal 1:15-17 NKJV
And this continued for two years, so that all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks. Acts 19:10 NKJV
Now some of you are called to the nations, to win whole nations, like Paul won Asia Minor, Greece and Italy, to a great extent. Remember, your role is as big as your vision, but you may need to grow into that vision. For some of you, your vision may be much bigger than yourself, family, friends and neighborhood. You may be called to the nations, but it may take time to grow into that calling. Paul had to spend years in Arabia first. It was sixteen years from when God called me to Africa before I made the first trip. But in those sixteen years, I got married, ordained, started a successful family and business, bought a home and ministered to a lot of people. So, the time of preparation was not wasted. If Paul needed preparation time, what about you and I?
You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2 Tim 2:1 NKJV
As we work for spiritual conquest, we must realize it’s all about love and grace. YOU are not saving anyone, nor am I. We are simply inviting our new friends to find the One that we found, and who found us, so that they can know Him and love Him as we do. We may face a lot of rejection, a lot of suspicion and accusation, even from ones closest to us, but that is where our hearts must be full of grace. I believe that some day people will be lined up in front of you to say, THANK YOU for going to the community, or the nations, because I was a life that was changed by your act of love! A life conquered by love. Love’s conquests! Amen? Love you!
Remember dear one, we must be about our Father’s business…
*If you are a minister of liberality and would like more information about THE SEVEN DAY PROJECT or THE PNEUMA INSTITUTE, please text me at 503-302-5381 and we can set up a call, or email me at Kevin@lightbearers-ministries.com.
**If you chronically don’t have the fruit of the Spirit, which is what NORMAL looks like, all nine fruit, you may need deliverance. Don’t make excuses. You don’t necessarily need anyone to pray for you because you have authority over your spirit, soul and body. You can pray for yourself and command your deliverance. But let me take you through it step by step.
First, you must be honest with yourself, the demons and the Lord – gut level, stripped naked, no holds barred, nothing to hide honest. Honesty yields the results.
Second, command evil to leave your life. Say, EVIL, get out of my life! You are no longer welcome here! That may be all it takes. But let’s be thorough anyway.
Confess your sins, especially habitual sins, and the sins of your family, to the Lord. The sins of your family may have gotten you demonized before you were born or as a very young child. The devil is sinister, far beyond what we naively think. Take your time and be thorough about your confession!
Repent of your sins and the sins of your family. Repentance will require you turning away from sinful actions and habits and removing them from you. Addictions are demonic like alcohol, gambling, sexual perversions, and being religious. These addictions and all their paraphernalia must be destroyed. Cancel apps and subscriptions, remove magazines and all perverse reading materials, and cut off all weirdness on social media and the internet. Do it thoroughly, like Hezekiah removing the altars to Baal. Cleanse your land!
Forgive anyone and everyone who ever hurt you. To forgive is to release someone from the penalty of their actions. Ask the HS to help you open your heart to forgive every instance of woundedness even back to your earliest childhood memories. These may include parents, siblings, employers, your pastor, anyone with authority in your life who abused that authority and hurt you. Take each instance, one by one. Say out loud who they are, what they did, say I FORGIVE YOU and say I LOVE YOU out loud like you were talking to them. Let’s say your uncle sexually abused you. To forgive him you would say, “Uncle Joe, you abused me when I was a child. I forgive you and I love you!” There is no true forgiveness without love, so you must declare your love even if you don’t feel like it. Do these four steps – who they are, what they did, I forgive you, I love you – with every painful memory. This is often the most painful part of deliverance, but it is necessary!
Finally, command evil to go. HS may show you specific evil to command to leave. Don’t worry, you don’t have fifty thousand demons. When I run into that scenario, it’s usually a religious spirit influenced by Catholicism. You may cough, sneeze or vomit. Let it out. You may feel something, or not. Don’t trust feelings. Your authority is based on the Word. Trust God’s Word! Give it a week or so to see how you are different, and that the fruit of the Spirit is coming in. You are going to be ok!
Love you! KRP