Thoughts following Anthony Hopkins in "The Rite"

I watched Anthony Hopkins star in the 2011 film; "The Rite" last night and have to say I found it quite thought provoking. For those who are unaware of the film - it follows a young atheist who decides to go into the priesthood and ends up conducting a course on exorcism at the Vatican. He is advised to meet "unorthodox" exorcist Father Lucas (Hopkins) and ends up watching a number of exorcisms that (in typical Hollywood fashion) are quite disturbing. Hopkins makes a number of profound statements about the reality of spiritual warfare;

"Does a burglar turn on the lights? No - he prefers you to know that he isn't there. Just so with demons ... Choosing not to believe in the devil won't protect you from him".

But what occurred to me while I was trying to go to sleep was a couple of issues;

1. Why do we not see more exorcisms or demons manifesting in the Western world? I can't believe the demons have left simply because we are more "intelligent". No - as Hopkins says, like a burglar I think they prefer to let us continue believing they're not here.

2. I was reminded of something that C J Mahaney said about the late John Wimber. While I didn't agree with the context Mahaney used the statement - I agree he had a point. Mahaney was addressing the SGM Leadership Conference some years ago just prior to the launch of Jeff Purswell's "Amendment" paper on the Holy Spirit.

Mahaney commented that John Wimber believed the baptism of the Holy Spirit happened simultaneously with conversion - and yet was one of the most powerful men of the Spirit that he knew. He said something like;

"If I needed healing - who would I go to? Mahaney who believes the baptism of the Holy Spirit is distinct from conversion or Wimber?".

The logic of the statement is breathtakingly doubtful but Mahaney had a point that re-occured to me last night. The head bishop leading the exorcism class knew all the "head" knowledge about the forces of evil - Satan's hierarchy and so on. But it was to the Hopkins character that the doubting young judge was sent - the "unorthodox" priest.

The only exorcisms I have seen are by Christians that would probably be also called "unorthodox". I think particularly of Rob Rufus. I remember being amazed (although I shouldn't have) at the "Together on a Mission 2006" conference in Brighton when Rob called out a word of knowledge that there was a man there with a spirit of suicide on him. The man came to the front and manifested a demon instantly which Rob calmly cast out. There was no Hollywood dramatics - in fact I remember Rob told the demon it was not to show off.

What kind of Christian leaders would you go to if you realised you were afflicted by demon possession? Or what kind of Christian leaders would you go to if you were desperately afflicted with cancer and needed a divine miracle of healing? New Testament scholars like D A Carson or Thomas Schriener (if they would even see you?) or Reformed, non-charismatic leaders like C J Mahaney or Mark Dever or Al Mohler (if they would see you too!) or even "cautious" charismatics like Mark Driscoll? Or would you go to men or women that some would consider "unorthodox" - indeed some claimed guilty of telling "urban legends" like Rob or Terry Virgo or David Devenish?

It's an interesting thought.

In my life I so try to "hold the tension" between Word and Spirit - Reformed doctrine and charismatic experience. Am I falling too far on the "Word" side because I want to be well thought of? Is it really possible to be buck the trend and not fall into the error Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones called; "Perfectly orthodox - perfectly useless"?!

But it's interesting thinking who you would go to for help if say a demon was to manifest itself and you needed guidance and help!

Ern Baxter's Dales Bible Week 1977 Session Notes

I think if there was a short-list of historic Bible Weeks that I could attend - the Dales Bible Weeks 1976 and 1977 would be definately on them! Followed closely by Stoneleigh Bible Week 1994 and 1995. So far God hasn't granted me the power to travel back in time and experience these historic Bible Weeks (I'm guessing that the best is yet to come!) - so I mark my time by remembering and not allowing these times to be forgotten.

Tonight I made a historic discovery! I have these eight massive box files of Ern Baxter's sermon notes that I have had for years. They are so large and comprehensive that I've never had the time to sit down and work through the files page by page. As I mentioned in a previous post - I am undertaking a project to scan and upload PDF files of Ern Baxter's notes for universal enjoyment and information.

Tonight I discovered ERN BAXTER'S SERMON NOTES FROM THE DALES BIBLE WEEK 1977!

Regular readers will forgive me excitement knowing my fan membership of Ern Baxter! So I am thrilled to be able to make them available here thanks to Google Reader. It is really interesting to see the notes that Ern made for this Bible Week. You may note from the small annotations at the bottom of some pages that Ern re-preached this series at other Bible Weeks - some in the UK and some in the USA:

Dales Bible Week - 1977 - Binding the Strongman

More notes to follow!

Signs of an Unwell Christian?

I got a email this morning in response to my post of yesterday entitled; "Don't you know there's a war on?". In SGM-speak you could call it an "observational" email. In short the emailer was suggesting that I am proud for appearing unsatisfied and unhappy with the Christian life and my current experience of God and should "calm down" and "grow up". I'm rather used to this so-called "mature" advice - I was told that by an elder in Dunstable just after I was baptised in the Holy Spirit in 1997 and kindly rejected that advice also.

But I was walking home thinking about how Christians strike the balance between bitterness and disappointment at the silence of God - compared to a holy and righteous persistance in the throne room of God. Dr Lloyd-Jones was fonding of quoting Thomas Goodwin - a great Puritan - who would say;

"Sue Him for it! Sue Him for it! Do not let Him go until He give the Spirit to you!".

This was speaking of praying for the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

My mind then went to my nursing career. I have been a critical care paediatric nurse for almost 9 years now so venture to say I know a little about child health. One of the most basic things that a child does is to cry. Children cry instinctively. And their tears speak of a need - it is usually either food or care or a nappy change. But their tears presuppose a need - that someone will come and meet that need if they cry.

One of the MOST worrying things for any health care professional - doctor, nurse or other - is a child who doesn't cry and has stopped crying. A child who is sickly and pale and malnourished and mistreated and is deathly silent. That child needs instant medical attention. The child has stopped crying possibly because their needs were consistently never met by a loving parent or possibly no longer have the strength to show their need anymore.

It struck me that empassioned prayer is somewhat like a crying child. We are telling a loving Father of our need and of our most basic desires. I wonder - does a Christian who is sickly and pale and disappointed and disillusioned somewhat resemble that desperately ill child? Surely we must never, ever give up crying to God and pleading with Him for our deepest hearts desire.

Don't You Know There's a War On?

I got angry today! Really angry! My day started off with me waking up crying and shaking because I had a very vivid nightmare that I was back working at Acorn's Children's Hospice and being bullied by the staff that drove me out earlier this year. It was one of "those" dreams that was so real that I just woke up feeling upset and depressed and hopeless. I went out to work - my mood not improved by the rain and the cold - and just felt like I wanted to end it all. I have experienced depression earlier this year and knew the cold tentacles of it creeping back. But then rather than sucuumbing to it, "something" just made me get MAD!

I don't know what it was but I am so grateful for it! I started speaking to the powers of darkness and said something like this;

"Do you think I am stupid? I have seen your schemes and you are neither clever nor subtle. You don't care whether I am rich or poor, in a relationship or single, with child or without child, in a job or jobless. Your sole ambition is to remove my faith in a good and abundant God and you will try and do this WHATEVER the cost and however long it takes. As long as I have faith burning in me that God loves me and is for me - then you are losing.

And at times this year - I give you credit - you have won some battles. I ended up taking anti-depressants and considering committing suicide because life seemed hopeless and I despised myself. But you haven't and never will win the war. God is STILL for me and He STILL loves me. I admit - I can't feel His manifest Presence right now. I admit I can't hear His voice speaking to me right now. But I declare to you - principalities and powers - that does NOT mean that He isn't here and He isn't speaking!

I may feel like I am holding on to my faith and my vision with a fingernail - but the Word of God tells me; "Underneath are the Everlasting Arms!". So even if I let go and give up - even if I have no fight within me - He is still there and He will never give up on me! He is for me! So you lose! And may I remind you of your ultimate future? The Word of God tells me that your destiny is a firey pit that will never go out. But the Word of God tells me that the future of the people of God is a glorious one - the nations will come because it is so glorious!".

And I went on in that vein all the way into work. And then I remembered from my history the famous motto; "Don't you know there is a war on?". The people of God seem to get so easily battered around by the powers of darkness and life in general. We get so easily depressed! At least I do. Finances - or lack of - are the key in getting me down. But work has got me down this year. The lack of spiritual life and power that I enjoyed in 2006/07 has got me down. But does that mean God has changed?

The devil would seek to use this to say He has and His love is not as great as it was! But Jesus Christ Himself called the devil; "The father of lies". Are we really so stupid that we will believe his lies that God does not love us and is not for us? The louder the shouts in our head tell us that God has given up on us or God does not really love us - the greater the suggestion that the devil is launching a campaign.

We are at war! Let's not forget it! The war is not for territory or for geography ... yet. Because the devil doesn't need to fight for geography or territory! The war is for our faith and our hearts and our vision. When he has got a defeated, miserable and negative church - then the geography and territory is his anyway! We need to "stir up the gift that is within us"! We need to set our hearts ablaze! We need to fight and NEVER surrender!

Get Thee Up into the High Mountain!!

Well once again God shows His wonderful grace through some awesome friends I've got. I'm being taken away tomorrow for a week's surprise holiday for my birthday! (It's on the 8th December). It was felt that I would benefit from some winter sun. I can tell I'm a workaholic when I don't want to go away because I will miss the chance to work! But I am going because I think it will be a good break - and hopefully a chance to re-boot, rest and make some major decision choices.

But most importantly of all - I pray again its a chance to just do "nothing" and encounter God in powerful ways. I love this clip where Rob was speaking to the Mobilise thousands last Brighton conference when we were there and he urges that getting away with God is so important.



I love the way that Rob's example is so grace-filled. My life has been full of great men and women of God who have testified to an awesome relationship with Him. But somehow I have always felt condemned and guilty because I couldn't quite match up to their walk with God. Yet Rob Rufus is a different story and I am not quite sure how he does it. He testifies to encounters with God that I can only dream of - yet this motivates me rather than condemns me! I think because his teaching is so undergirded with New Covenant grace - no one can be left with the impression that it's thanks to great scholar-ship or great study or great prayer and fasting but GRACE!!

So I've got great hopes for this week - I hope to return refreshed and full of revelation and new vision for the end of this difficult year and a new year full of hope and promise! Loadsa love to everyone - hope you have a great week. I will try and get to an internet cafe if I can but if not - see you when I get back!

According to Your Faith ... So Be It!!

The last month or so has been quite rough for myself and many Christian friends I'm in contact with. Pete's been struggling with health issues. Both Julie and Lydia have lost loved ones. And I've given short accounts of what's been going on up here in Birmingham. I should add it's coming close to a wonderful conclusion here - God is opening up awesome new doors for me (the dreaded Christian metaphor I know!) that may lead to me being far more mobile across the country which is really great. However one of the things I noticed was the discussion about "warfare" and about the "enemy" and about "attacks".

While no one would deny the presence of spiritual warfare and attack, Rob Rufus brought an important counter-balance to the discussion about warfare and attacks in the most recent sermon of his that I am transcribing - "The Struggle For The Authentic Part 4 - "The Parable of the Sower" - it's certainly made me stop and think!

Here's what he said;

"How many believe that God hasn't called us to be fighting all the time? It's wrong to be in the frontline all the time. Sometimes you have to have a rest and there is a place of peace and certain teaching will lead a Christian to think they are always fighting all the time. I think the devil wants us to believe that too. I don't believe Jesus was always fighting against the demonic. It says the enemy came and then left Him for a "more opportune season". But he left Him and retreated from Jesus after the wilderness temptation.

Jesus said over and over again; "According to your faith - so be it". So according to what you believe - so be it in your life! If you build a theology where every day you believe you are toe-toe and eyeball-eyeball in a fight with the devil, then that is according to your faith and he will be very happy for you to believe that. But I actually feel that according to my faith I dwell in the secret place of the Most High and dwell under the shadow of the Almighty and will not fear the arrow that flies by night or the fowlers snare because the Lord is my dwelling place".

I know for a fact that Rob wouldn't be promoting a triumphalistic sort of life where we drift through happily until heaven - that just isn't real life! And again and again in his sermons, you get the sense that Rob and Glenda (like other Christian leaders) go through trials that we can only dream of. But this perspective is really important. These last few months I have begun to find myself dropping my head lower and lower and wishing for this day of struggle to end. But am I falling into the trap of "according to my (low) faith - so be it?!". The devil isn't going to have a problem in me thinking the day of warfare will never end!

Rob goes on:

"Though a thousand fall by my left hand and 10, 000 by my right hand it will not come near me because I am in the shelter of the Most High. His shield of favour is around me and there are firewalls of protection and He has sent angels, seraphim, cherubim - mighty ministering spirits to me - an heir of salvation! There are times He lets me go through the valley of the shadow of death and His rod and His staff will comfort me. It says though I WALK through the valley of the shadow of death. He leads me through it and I am going to get out! And it's really only a shadow - it's not the substance and the shadow of a dog can't hurt you!

We have got to believe that God has called us to walk in peace and rest. I want to talk to you about that. I am not against psychiatrists and have many good friends who are psychiatrists but many Christians do not have mental health and they are not happy. They are not joyful and are always fighting devils.

They are more concious of the devil than of the grace and love and goodness of God and the favour of God".

And that is the challenge - are we more concious of the devil's work and actions than we are the love and goodness and favour of God? I am persuaded that rather than investing my time in reading psycho-therapy books and going to therapeutic counselling meetings, I would be far better suited to reading, immersing and saturating myself in the grace and favour and goodness of God. Once again I am reminded of why Rob is so determined never to move on from preaching New Covenant grace! Because it's not just a crazy motif to weep over with pseudo-tears and build an icon to outside your church. It's a life-changing historical moment when the curtain was ripped in two!

Faith!! I Can Move a Mountain!!

The line of this blog comes from a wonderful Hillsongs songs that I have loved for years. The concept of faith is something I am only recently getting my head round. Here's the song by the way!



I think I always used to get rather depressed at Jesus' words; "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed ...". My conclusion? My faith is smaller than a mustard seed! But Rob Rufus's wonderful Kingdom teaching has opened my eyes to the glorious realisation that faith is something imparted to us from on high! I'm in the middle of helping transcribe one of Rob's more recent sermons; "The Struggle For The Authentic Part 3 - "Qualification for the Blessing - Faith or Works?" - and Rob brought this powerful definition of faith;

"Faith is a supernatural ability to connect with a living God with confidence. Faith is the substancein your heart of the things that you are hoping for and it is the evidence of what you cannot see. Faith has evidence - faith is not a blind leap into the dark. Faith is a leap into the light based on supernatural substance and evidence inside your spirit given to you by the Spirit of faith - the Holy Spirit.

When faith rises up in your spirit you have the substance to manifest your hope and what you are hoping for starts happening and the goodness of God starts happening around you - but you need faith for that ... Today we will pray that the spirit of faith will rise in everyone of our hearts to believe the good news of the message of grace and that what the enemy intended for evil over the last 2 weeks is going to be turned around so powerfully for our good - that we will come into a more delighting place of confidence in the grace of God than ever before".

I love that last particular phrase. That's faith! I've hinted at the last month or two of hell that I feel I've been going through - ending up with me currently being on anti-depressants. I always grew up with a deep suspicion of anti-depressants. Such was the deposit of legalism in my church history that my gut feeling was if I resorted to anti-depressants then I didn't have much faith in God. John Piper was quite helpful in getting me to agree to my G.P's request. But all that aside - the question that I'm sure anyone and everyone who goes through times of trial must ask is "Why?". As I mentioned before - God doesn't seem to want to talk to us about our circumstances but our destiny.

That aside, I've been searching my heart as to why on earth I have spent the last year of my life working somewhere that has ended so sourly. Why has the chance to spend time with those vulnerable and needy children come to an end and it's become nigh-on impossible for my health to be in such a place of negativity? I don't have any answers ... yet! But I love what Rob Rufus said;

"That what the enemy intended for evil over the last 2 weeks is going to be turned around so powerfully for our good - that we will come into a more delighting place of confidence in the grace of God than ever before".

That's destiny. That's something that I can feel my faith stirring towards and for! I know I am not the only one who is struggling in life so I hope this is a post of encouragement. We know that all things work together for those who love God. That's not just one of those rosy verses that look nice on your mother's fridge. That's reality!

Seminar 5 - John Hosier on Spiritual Warfare - Part 1 at TOAM 07!

There were a number of key seminars that were set apart from the Training Track sessions at Together on a Mission - Rob Rufus's seminar being one of them of course. John Hosier - the wonderful pastor/teacher at Church of Christ the King in Brighton spoke at two seminars on the subject of spiritual warfare. I have just listened to Part 1 of that and found it very insightful, practical and deeply theological. It will of course be more helpful for church leaders which is why I present the notes below in the hope that it proves of some encouragement maybe.

I am aware that Newfrontiers view of spiritual warfare differed slightly from that of Dr Ern Baxter's - having read Dave Devenish's "Demolishing Spiritual Strongholds". Clearly John Hosier takes the same line as Dave Devenish but didn't engage that view enough to totally persuade me yet. That is a comment by the way - the bulk of the seminar is still excellent.

John Hosier – “Spiritual Warfare and the Local Church” – Part 1 -Seminar TOAM 07

"I believe the most intense form of spiritual warfare is engaged when we are building the local church".

Two popular views regarding spiritual warfare. “To cleanse a town or a city” - “ … those that seek to engage in spiritual warfare in order to precede evangelism” – Peter Wagner (Territorial Spirits). That view tends to take people to high places in order to cleanse the city or the town. Also to hidden places to do the warfare to bind the devil. The first of those two is difficult to judge. The second can be judged by the success of the evangelism but may say more about the effectiveness in prayer rather than spiritual warfare itself.

(Matthew 12:16-18). “Gates of Hades will not overcome it”. Two truths emerge – one is that Jesus will build His church and the other is that there will be conflict as the church is built. Confusion can come in – even at the point of understanding this verse. Popular view is based on first part of the verse; “You are Peter and on this rock I will build”. Roman Catholic view looks at this. Protestant view reacts to that and says that the church is built on the kind of faith expressed by Peter – expressing Jesus as Christ. It may be simply an issue of chronology that may be the correct interpretation. Peter was the first one in to confess Jesus as Christ and the church was built from that point. But that debate overshadows what Jesus was saying about building the local church. Jesus speaks about the “Gates of Hell” or more accurately in the NIV – “The Gates of Hades”. The use of the word “Hades” is a metaphor for the forces of evil and destruction. It could appear as though the church will be attacked but not overcome.

The more accurate interpretation of that verse is that the church will advance and the powers of evil will give way!

“The Gates of Hades will not be strong against it”. If Jesus promised here to build the church then that is His passion and that should be our passion also. We also need to take this promise for our own local church. There is a promise of conflict and of victory so we must understand something of the nature of the conflict we are involved in. There is preliminary question – why are we involved in conflict at all? (Colossians 2:15) “Triumphing over them by the Cross” – but in practice it doesn’t always seem as though the powers and authorities are disarmed. We must understand that although Satan is defeated at the Cross he will not be destroyed till the end of the ages when Jesus returns. At that point; “The devil was thrown into the lake of sulphur”. Between the defeat and destruction of Satan – he is fighting very hard against us.

Sometimes it is suggested that the reason he still fights, is that perversely he still thinks he can win and have the victory. That isn’t a biblical position. (Revelation 12:12). “He is filled with fury because he knows his time is short”. That is why we have conflict because Satan knows he can’t win and with mad spitting fury he is against the church.

1. The conflict that arises with church planting.
2. The conflict that arises with established churches.

Satan uses different tactics for church plants and established churches so we need to examine both and see how we can win.

“Christian life is not like a battle – it is a battle” – Terry Virgo.

1. The conflict that arises with church planting.

In church planting we are in spiritual warfare – there will be conflict and battle and it is a real battle. We know the devil has schemes for a new church plant. These things won’t definitely happen in every case but these have been commonly observed. If we are convinced that Jesus will build His church and the church is God’s plan A then it is inevitable that Satan will want to kill off the local church if possible at source. Satan’s schemes with regards to church plants – largely seen within Newfrontiers church plants. Not everything true for every church plant but seen regularly enough to establish devil’s schemes.

A. Moving Difficulties.
In planting churches people will move. When people seek to move there are whole numbers of people that meet difficult and even irrational problems in moving. Some have even had to concede defeat and give up on the move. There are demonic schemes at work and very often the lead guy has a difficult time moving.

B. Illnesses.
Most people involved in church planting don’t get ill! But some do. Part of it is that you see it more easily in a church planting. In a larger church sickness gets absorbed into normal life. It is another thing to cope with in planting the church and it can sap moral and people get weary.

C. Sexual Immorality.
In Newfrontiers we haven’t lost too many leaders because of sexual immorality but when we have lost them, it is always in connection with a new church plant. The devil is very subtle and rarely exposes that sin immediately. There comes a crucial time when the immorality of that leader comes out. This has happened with enough frequency to realise that this is a demonic and devilish scheme. It amazes me how this kind of sin can get uncovered or discovered. This is a battle and if we are seeking to bring the mission of God to a new area then do not be surprised that Satan is prowling around like a roaring lion to see who he can devour and he wants to bring down leaders. The new plant will feel frail and vulnerable if a leader falls to sexual immorality.

D. Ungodly Ambition.
This comes in two forms – the first is direct and unpleasant but easy to deal with. Sometimes you will get someone joining it who sees it as an opportunity to use and flaunt their ministry. The kind of thing that happens is that they give indications that they are the prophetic voice for this church or they become critical of the initial leadership – also with the suggestion that they should be the leader. Very often it has to be publicly confronted and can be quite bloody but usually soon over. There is another approach – more subtle and harder to see. Someone joins intent on a position and it comes out as a rumble and a grumble. “Why aren’t I on that eldership team?”. “This is why I left my last church because I was not recognised?”. There is biblical encouragement to seek oversight. That is a good thing! It becomes ungodly when we seek to manipulate that position. “This is why I sold up and moved”. This can be a longer term difficulty and usually rumbles along under the surface and will make a number of people uncomfortable. Many may move on quite quickly.

In church plants you must watch out for personal agendas because it can be ungodly ambition and can become a source of conflict in a new plant.

E. Leadership Appointments.
Desire quickly to form a leadership team and move on to eldership as soon as possible. We believe in plurality of elders and we are looking for leadership. The devil is a subtle enemy and wants to bring down – he can disguise himself as an angel of light. In a new church plant you can have the best motivation for an eldership team but the pressure can be to move on too quickly and make disastrous appointments and decisions. The devil loves that because he has led you through a godly desire into mistake and error. Bible says “Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands”. (Ephesians 6:4) “Stand firm therefore”. There are times when you have to stand against the pressure to rush appointments too quickly.

F. Transition.
This is less common but has arisen enough to indicate that we can be dealing here with a demonic scheme. There is a period of transition where you can speak about the church plant becoming an established church. The reality is that some leaders are brilliant pioneers with vision, huge amounts of energy and internal resources to get a church started. Those people may not have the gift to oversee a church long term. What is needed in situations of church planting is discernment about that issue. Sometimes you will have someone who is a brilliantly gifted pioneer but they actually need to move on and do that again. Warfare can be very intense if that discernment is lacking because what was initial success and gain can begin to run into the ground. Certainly there are leaders who have the grace to give their lives to one church and the world’s biggest churches have been planted and pastored their entire lives – Yongi Cho. But we need to be discerning as to whether the person who planted the church is a pioneer or whether they have the gifting to take the church on in the long haul.

G. Battle for the First Fruits.
The plant has to battle to get itself established and initial breakthroughs are very important and we can call this a battle for the first fruits. Here is a real example;

When Joel Virgo took on the leadership of our church 18 months ago – he felt convicted that there should be an appeal for salvation so every meeting we do make an appeal for people to come to Christ. We have hardly had a single Sunday when there hasn’t been a single response. Every single service someone has responded to that call for salvation. So because of this Joel was invited to speak at our Evangelical Leaders Fraternal in Brighton and he went, spoke and imparted faith. Another leader in Brighton went home and began making appeals and week after week there was no response. Would he give way or keep going? He decided he would battle on and four weeks ago on a Sunday morning he made an appeal for salvation and six people responded! There is a battle for the first fruits. You must battle things through to get that first breakthrough. The first convert or the first baptism or the first youth group. It’s not like a battle – it is a battle.

2. The Conflict that arises with Established Churches.

Our enemy has different plans for established churches. Obviously established churches cannot be snuffed out initially but Satan still wants to bring the established church down and he has schemes against us.

a. Irreconcilable Divisions.
The major scheme that Satan has against the church is to create irreconcible division. That is his major attack. Many church leaders have agreed that this is the case. Here is a real example from CCK that occurred 20 years ago – it is not a secret in any sense;

I went to CCK (then called Clarendon) 21 years ago and at that point the church had divided into congregations and I was given the leadership of one. There was a mixture of full time and non-full time elders. We were in 5 congregations and I hadn’t been here very long when Terry asked me to take on chairmanship of the elders. I felt we should look at the multiple congregation idea. I introduced this at a day retreat of the full time elders. We discussed this whole issue through and we became convinced that we bring the 5 congregations together and assemble as one large church. We then gathered together the non-full time elders and shared what God was saying.

The non-full time guys felt that we had jumped them and felt we weren’t making this decision in the right way. We apologised for this and said that hadn’t been our intention. It wasn’t easy and we had further meetings between ourselves and somehow every time we met the situation got worse rather than better. We spoke to the guys individually and it still didn’t get better. These guys who were non-full time elders were very godly men and were really seeking God’s will for the church. That was true of the full time elders also and a real desire to see God’s will done. It just kept getting worse. 3 of the non-full time elders felt it was right to put down their eldership and leave the church. This was a real crisis for us and there was an irreconcilable difference that had taken place. This feeling went on for some time and I began to reflect on this and wonder why this had happened. Surely the issue was simple to resolve?

Suddenly I thought that we were not ignorant of the devil’s schemes but we had forgotten. The devil had got on the back of this and had driven it. I decided that because this was so much in the public domain so decided to speak about it on spiritual warfare. We were victims of spiritual warfare and didn’t realise it. I didn’t think about the fact that this was being taped and some of our members put the tapes through the doors of those who had left us and that broke the issue! Two of the guys came back into CCK and serve in leadership to this day. But we were victims of the devils scheme in irreconcible division.

The issue causing the division is usually not much of an issue. Divide and rule is his plan and we must resist it!

b. An Evil Day.
(Ephesians 6:13). “When the day of evil comes”. This is a season when Satan lines up his big guns – points them at your church and fires at once. After Jesus baptism and Father’s approval Jesus was driven into the wilderness. “Full of the Holy Spirit”. For 40 days He was tempted by the devil! He had known awesome blessing and then suddenly He was in an evil day. Please note that at the end of the 40 days the Gospels say that Satan left Him for another time. The good news is that there is not always an evil day. But it does happen.

Dr Kriengsak was visiting us during Prayer and Fasting – from a multi-thousand number church. A brother who was not part of our number asked a question about whether there had been problems in his church. His answer; “Problems? No I don’t think we have had any at all”. A year later there was an evil day upon them. The police threatened them with imprisonment because of brainwashing the people.

You may be thinking our church has never had an evil day – cheer up! It is virtually guaranteed that you will get one. The book of Revelation is key (Rev 12:15-16) “The serpent spewed water like a torrent to overtake the woman”. You must trust me here. The serpent is Satan – no question. The woman here is a metaphor of the Church. We are reading here that the devil spewed water to sweep away the Church but the earth swallowed the river. That is speaking of an evil day. Satan spits against the Church! He spews out venom against the Church. But the good news is that in an evil day – you get help. You must understand that when you have an evil day you will get help.

c. Stagnation.
Stagnation can also be spiritual warfare even though there is no conflict. You can render a church ineffective through division or by putting it to sleep. We may be in as much spiritual warfare if nothing is happening as if there was major division. What to do when that happens – a lot of the answer is based on the ministries in Ephesians 4.

In a time of stagnation, the Ephesians 4 Ministries will be a major weapon of attack against stagnation. You may need to call in apostolic ministry to lay some foundation of grace. You may need prophetic ministry in the church to awaken vision again. In (Haggai 1:13); “The work stagnated” – enter the prophet Haggai. “I am with you declares the Lord … they came and began work on the house of the Lord their God”. The prophet came in and stirred a stagnant people and the work on the temple began.

You may need an evangelist to come in and model something with regard to the Alpha programme. You may need to call in an experienced teacher to thrill people with truth.

When nothing is happening – don’t let nothing happen. Fight! You need Ephesians 4 Ministry that will stir and rally the people.

Be Alert.
We need to be convinced that we are engaged in spiritual warfare. Please do not think that spiritual warfare is some weird thing casting out demons from high places. The warfare is most intense planting churches. The battle rages! (1 Peter 5:8). “Be alert … your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion”.

Be Discerning
There can be a tendency among some to see demons under every bed. Every difficulty is a demonic attack. It may simply be life! However we can face enormous pressures and get cast down about them. (Ephesians 6:12) in a passage on spiritual warfare, Paul says; “Our struggle is against the powers of the dark world and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm”. We forget that because the battle we are involved in does look like flesh and blood.

(Revelation 13:1) – Unfortunately the NIV splits the verse. The Scripture is infallible – NIV headings are not! They have inserted a heading and distorted the text by doing so. Take v1 as a whole. “I saw a dragon coming out of the sea … I saw a Beast coming out of the sea”. The Beast is the Antichrist and he is a man. The point is that behind the Antichrist (and the spirit of Antichrist always has been with us – I believe there will be an Antichrist at the end of history) is the Devil. Behind every Antichrist is the Dragon! Satan pulls the strings. You may see the face but the devil is behind that.

Are we under attack here? Is this an evil day? Discerning that is helpful in the battle because you know what you are up against.

Be Strong.
(Ephesians 6:10) “Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power”. That means declaring the promises of God. God has said He will build His church! The Gates of Hades will not be strong against it! (v14) “Stand firm then”. You have to stand firm. Attacks pass! Even evil days come to an end! The earth swallows up some of the venom of Satan – so stand firm. You will come through!

The opposite of faith is fear.

“Who can be against us?”. The reality is that every demonic force of hell is against us but God is for us. You sometimes simply have to stand firm. Don’t be weird and go up to high places and cast out demons. Stand firm. The evil day will be over.

Be Prayerful.
We would understand as Newfrontiers leaders – the importance of prayer. (Romans 10:1) – There is only one verse dealing with praying for salvation. Paul pleas that people pray for the advance of the Word of God.

Be Flexible.
However difficult life may be and whatever crisis you may face and whatever pressures are coming against you – there is always something to laugh about. Tomorrow: a theology of humour against spiritual warfare!

“Life to the full – when Jesus promised us life in all its fullness I think He really meant it. I want to introduce life in awesome technicolour … awesome highs and devastating lows. This is the real deal. This is the only crack at life I am only going to get … If you love deeply then you are going to get hurt badly … celebrate raucously because celebration is a gift from God. I love local church work – I love the people I do it with – the stakes of it – it’s heaven and hell – it is the highest stake gain in town – I love that” – Bill Hybels.

It isn’t like a battle – it is a battle but Jesus said that He would build His church and the Gates of Hades are not strong enough to resist it.