Witnessing to Principalities and Powers

To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things; in order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places (Ephesians 3:8-9).

How does the church make known the wisdom of God to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places? First, we must understand the boast that Satan maintains before the throne of God.

When the Lord was about to destroy Israel in the wilderness, Moses interceded by reminding the Lord that if He destroyed Israel now the whole world would say that the Lord had the power to bring Israel out of Egypt, but He did not have the power to bring them into the Promised Land (see Numbers 14:13-16). Satan maintains a similar accusation against God concerning the church. He maintains that the Lord can forgive us for our sins, but He does not have the power to deliver us from our sinful nature, which is, of course, the work of Satan. In this way he maintains that his evil power is stronger than the Lord=s because he controls mankind, even redeemed mankind. However, as we are told in Ephesians 5:25-27:

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her; that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless.

Before the end comes there will be a church that is a worthy bride for the Lamb of God. She will be without "spot or wrinkle or any such thing . . . holy and blameless." She will be a testimony to the entire host of heaven for all time that truth is stronger than lies, and the goodness of the Lord will always ultimately triumph over evil.

The bride of the first Adam lived in a perfect world, and yet she chose to sin. Before the end comes the "last Adam," (see I Corinthians 15:45) Christ, will have a bride who lives in the darkest of times, a most imperfect world, and yet chooses to obey God. She will follow the light, and walk in truth, holy and blameless before her Lord. She loves the truth more than she loves this present world, or the acceptance of this present world. Because of this, for all of the ages to come, she will be known as worthy to rule with the King of kings.

Whenever we choose to walk in the light, even when the whole world follows after darkness, we are a testimony to the power of the light. Whenever we do right, even when the whole world does wrong, we are a testimony of the power of right. That power will one day overcome all of the wrong on the earth.

In this age, the greatest testimony of the power of truth and light is that it is willing to suffer and even die rather than compromise truth and light. The testimony of those who know the truth and light will be to live for that which is eternal, not just for the temporary. The willingness to suffer for the sake of righteousness is the ultimate testimony that one has the ultimate devotion to righteousness. This witness is even marveled by the angels, who will one day cause all to bow the knee to truth, righteousness, and the grace of God—He is the Source of all truth and righteousness.

MorningStar Ministries

Truth in Preaching

Yesterday we studied about how there has been a great perversion of the Gospel in our times. The gospel has been changed from "Jesus came to save us from our sins" to "Jesus came to save us from our troubles." There is an eternal difference between the two.

The preaching of a gospel that implies that the Lord came to deliver us from our troubles often compels us to wait until a person is in desperation before we share the good news with them. Jesus did not send circumstances to lead men to Himself; He sent the Holy Spirit to convict the world of sin. If a person must be in desperate personal circumstances before coming to the Lord, then their purpose for coming to the Lord will be their circumstances rather than the conviction of their sin by the Holy Spirit. Just as those who were called by the Lord when He walked the earth were not in desperation because of personal circumstances, neither should a person's circumstances determine whether they are ready for the gospel or not.

The power of the gospel is not external. Its effectiveness is not dependent on the circumstances we are in, but on the Holy Spirit. If the Spirit convicts someone of their sins, they will bow the knee to the cross regardless of how well or poorly they are doing. If He does not convict them of their sin, and their desperate need for the cross, then they are coming to Christ on a wrong pretense, and a wrong foundation.

Whatever is built upon a weak foundation will likewise be weak. Is this not a primary reason for the weakness of Christians today? Is this not why there is such a meltdown of morality and integrity among Christians today—studies reveal that there is no discernable moral difference between Christians and non-Christians? When there is no moral difference between Christians and non-Christians then somehow Christ Himself is not in the Christian's life.

Could this reveal why Peter was sent to the Jews and Paul was sent to the Gentiles? Peter, an unlearned fisherman, was an offense to the Jews he was sent to. On the other hand, Paul, a "Pharisee of Pharisees" was an offense to the Gentiles that he was sent to. The only way that either of them could be successful in reaching those to whom they were called was to depend on the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit did not come, neither would anyone come to the Lord because of the messengers. All true messengers will be but "earthen vessels." It does not matter what the vessel looks like—what does matter is what is inside. When we have to spend too much time dressing up the vessel it is because of the weakness of what is in the vessel.

In many schools of evangelism there is a philosophy imparted that we must try to identify with those to which we are called to preach the gospel. This has caused many evangelists and missionaries to become neutralized in their work, and I have witnessed this to be the case with many who are in the field. However, if we are to be truly effective we should understand that the Lord will probably send us to those whom we cannot identify with, and who will not identify with us, just as He did with Peter and Paul. Therefore, they will not come to Jesus because of us, but because of Him! They will come because the Holy Spirit touched their lives, not us.

There is a place for studying customs and cultures for the sake of not being unnecessarily offensive to people, but if many of the missionaries I have met spent as much time studying the Lord, the truth of His Word, and seeking the anointing of the Holy Spirit, as they did studying cultures, they would certainly be reaching far more people with the true gospel.

I thank the Lord for all who are in the field devoting their lives to reaching people for the Lord. I have also met many who are doing what I consider to be true apostolic works. Even so, the very fabric of Christianity is being weakened by many, here and abroad, who are preaching a gospel of easy problem solving, or a pseudo philosophy of identificational sensitivity (This should not be confused with identificational repentance for national and cultural sins). If people do not come to Jesus because of the desperation of one thing—their sinfulness and desperate need for the forgiveness that can come from the cross of Jesus alone—then they have come by way of "different gospel" (see Galatians 1:6) and they have come to another god who is not the real Jesus.

But I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ (II Corinthians 11:3).

When Jesus is lifted up, on the cross, He will draw all men to Himself. If we lift up any other message for the sake of leading people to salvation, we are preaching another gospel.

True Discipleship

As Steve Thompson related in one of our leadership team meetings, there have been scientific studies made which indicate that the way that we are born can affect our whole lives. One example that was given is a procedure developed called "drug them and tug them," which was to drug the mother and tug the baby out. That generation became the one that turned to drug use in mass. Drugs are used as an escape from the pains of life.

It seems that there has also been a parallel to this in the church. When the gospel of an "easy salvation," or an easy new birth, began to be preached, Christians in mass seemed to become easily addicted to spiritual drugs, or doctrines that make you feel good while escaping reality. This message of an easy salvation was basically "come to Jesus and He will save you from all of your problems," rather than the biblical gospel that we come to Him to be saved from our sin, and to enter a life of radical discipleship and self-sacrifice.

I was given a prophetic word over twenty years ago that "the saved needed to get saved." This word continues to ring in my ears as I have watched a veritable meltdown of morality and integrity in the Western church. The weakness of Christians to stand against temptation and deception continues to grow rapidly. There is something fundamentally wrong with what is generally happening in Christianity today. When something starts going fundamentally wrong, it is the result of a problem with the foundation. We need to reexamine the very foundations of our gospel message, and the method, or lack of one, that is being used to disciple those who are coming into the church.

Because of excesses in the past with shepherding and discipleship, many believers now have a knee jerk reaction just to these words. As I have studied those movements, trying to understand what went wrong, I do believe that the methods that were devised by them promoted weakness and immaturity in believers rather than maturity. I am certainly not proposing a return to them, but there is a true discipleship, and there is a desperate need for true shepherds who will lay down their lives for the sheep, and not just try to use them for their own selfish gain. The

Apostle Paul described the gospel that he preached in I Corinthians 2:1-5:

And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God.For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,that your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.

A question that we must ask is: Are people today really being converted by the cross at all? Are we merely converting them to our denominations, to our doctrines, and to us? Are we even converting them to shallow promises of an easier life and deliverance from their problems? Following Jesus will not deliver us from all our problems— it will even give us some of the biggest ones, possibly even calling for our lives! He did not come to deliver us from our problems, but from ourselves. He did not come to change our circumstances—He came to change us! Jesus is not coming cap in hand begging men to "accept Him." He still calls men to come to Him the same way He called them when He walked this earth.

And He was saying to them all, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me (Luke 9:23).

When Jesus called His disciples, it was for total commitment. They had to be willing to leave everything to follow Him, and so do we. If He is not the Lord of all, then He is not our Lord at all. As Paul also wrote:

For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died;and He died for all, that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf (II Corinthians 5:14-15).

Nothing less than this is true discipleship, as the Lord Jesus Himself made clear:

"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven."Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?'"And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness'" (Matthew 7:21-23).

When we modify the message of the cross in order to make it acceptable, we destroy the power of that message to truly save. There are many "gospels" that are being preached today that have made multitudes feel safe in a spiritual condition in which their eternal lives were in jeopardy. Those who preach such a diluted gospel, and who promote such an easy Christian life, may be the biggest stumbling blocks living today. As Paul said, "For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, that the cross of Christ should not be made void" (I Corinthians 1:17-18).

Before we can preach the true message of the cross, we must be delivered from the fear of man, the compulsion to be accepted by men, or the motive of wanting to receive anything from them. As Paul declared in Galatians 1:10: "If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ."

If we are to walk with Christ we cannot be controlled by the fear of man, or the compulsion to be accepted by men. If we are controlled by these fears and desires, we will not be bond-servants of Christ. We do not preach in order to please men, but to please God. Our goal must not be to get people to respond to our message, but to the undiluted gospel of Jesus Christ. Only when we walk in this way are we truly walking under His Lordship, and only then will our message be true.

MorningStar Ministries

Possessing the Promises

And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end,that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises (Hebrews 6:11-12).

I am thankful for the great emphasis that many ministries have put on faith over the last few decades. However, as the text above declares, it will take faith and patience to inherit the promises. Isn't it strange that we have this huge "faith movement," but have never heard of a "patience movement?"

It takes two wings for an eagle to fly. If an eagle were to try to fly with just one wing he would only spin around in circles on the ground. The same is true of many people who are trying to soar spiritually on their faith, but have not added patience. These just keep going around in circles, getting more and more frustrated and kicking up a lot of dust. Any truth that we teach without the counter-balancing truth will lead us to frustration, not fulfillment. As we read of Abraham, who is called the "father of faith":

In hope against hope he believed, in order that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, "So shall your descendants be."And without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb;yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief, but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God,and being fully assured that what He had promised, He was able also to perform.Therefore also it was reckoned to him as righteousness (Romans 4:18-22).

True faith does not waver over time, but becomes stronger. Therefore, patience is the proof of whether one's faith is real or not.

I meet many discouraged Christians who feel that God gave them promises that have not been fulfilled. If any promise of God is not fulfilled, we can be sure that the entire fault is on our side, not His. He is always true to His word.

So what is it that we could be doing wrong? In most cases it seems that we are confusing faith with an emotion, and not joining it with patience. There are conditions with every promise of God. If we are not seeing His promises fulfilled it is because we are not meeting the conditions. Having faith is one condition—having patience is another. If we get discouraged with the passage of time while waiting for a promise to come to pass, then we do not have the true faith of God. True faith always gets stronger with the passage of time, not weaker.

Between the place where the children of Israel were given the promise of a Promised Land, and the Promised Land itself, there was a wilderness that was the exact opposite of what they were promised. The wilderness proved whether they would trust God, or doubt Him. The same is almost always true when we are given a promise. There is often a wilderness to go through to get to the fulfillment of the promise that is the opposite of what we have been promised. It is in this place that we must choose either to believe God, or give in to discouragement and self-pity.

Self-pity is one of the primary destroyers assigned to keep God's people from walking in their purposes. If we allow self-pity or discouragement into our lives, we will wander in useless circles just as the first generation of Israelites did who left Egypt. If we believe God, we will in due time attain the promise. If we believe God we will even rejoice in the wilderness, being thankful to have been called by God.

But thanks be to God, who always leads us in His triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place (II Corinthians 2:14).

MorningStar Ministries

The Path to Fulfillment

As we studied yesterday, the "Great Commission is not just making converts, but making disciples. The word disciple means "student." It also means "disciplined one." Both apply to our lives in Christ.

When we come to the Lord we become a lifelong student. As we read in I Corinthians 2:10, "... for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God." Because this is the Spirit's nature, if the Holy Spirit is leading us we too will always be searching to know the Lord deeper. We will be compelled to know His ways, not just His acts. True Christianity and shallowness are contradictory to each other.

Because the word "disciple" also means "a disciplined one," II Timothy 1:7 declares, "For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline." Few think of discipline as a fruit or gift of the Spirit, but it is very basic to the nature of the Spirit that we have been given. If we live by the Spirit we will be a disciplined people. This denotes controlling ourselves with focus and purpose. That is why "self-control" is listed as a fruit of the Spirit (see Galatians 5:22-24).

In I Timothy 4:7-8 we are told to "discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come." Nothing of significance has most likely ever been accomplished without discipline. If we will discipline ourselves in Christ we will accomplish things that will bear eternal fruit. If we want to do anything of significance we must seize and apply the great power that is released through discipline.

I have been told a few times by friends who have known me from childhood that they cannot understand how I ever accomplished the things that I have. I understand their perplexity. Many of them are smarter than I am, and much more gifted, yet they languish in jobs they hate while I am doing the kind of things they dream about. Why? Though I was a failure in school, and seemed destined to a life of failure, when I was born again I was given the gift of discipline. Something gripped me so that I knew there was nothing more important or more fulfilling than getting to know the Lord. While others were out having fun, I stayed home and studied for years. To them it looked like I was wasting my life, but now it looks like they are the ones who were wasting their opportunity to do something significant.

It does not matter how old you are, or how many years you may have wasted, it is not too late to change. All discipline will pay off. Our discipline in the Lord will bear eternal fruit. Many would begin to live lives of great fruitfulness and fulfillment if they took just the time they now spend in front of the television and instead spent it in front of the throne of God, seeking to know Him, giving themselves to His service. The following verses can change lives from one of defeat and discouragement into powerful demonstrations of the kingdom of God. Read them. Ponder them. Pray over them. Obey them.

and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him;For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives."It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness.All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness (Hebrews 12:5-11).

Do not waste your trials. They are more precious than gold. As the Lord said in Revelation 3:19: "Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; be zealous therefore, and repent."

The Great Commission

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth."Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:18-20).

We have often confused the good news of our salvation through the cross with the message of the Great Commission. Of course this is included in the gospel, but the gospel is much more than personal salvation. The foundation of The Great Commission is that all authority has been given to Jesus, in both heaven and earth. The Great Commission is not just a proclamation of our salvation, but of His authority.

Of course, our redemption is so wonderful, and the message of the love of God that is established by it is so profound, that it is easy to understand why many have a difficult time seeing beyond it. However, if we are to fulfill The Great Commission we must see beyond it. We were not commanded to go into all of the world with the gospel of salvation, but with the gospel of the kingdom, as we read in Matthew 24:14:

"And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end shall come."

The gospel of the kingdom is the good news that Jesus is the King who sits above all rule and authority and power. He can at anytime reveal to the whole world that He is the King by peeling back the heavens. However, until the time of His return, He is seeking to call those who so love God and His truth that they will live in His kingdom now, even though they are opposed by the whole world that still lies in the power of the evil one.

We first proclaim Him as our own King by submitting our lives to His leadership and dominion. Then we seek to proclaim the good news of how much more wonderful it is to live under His dominion rather than under the domain of this present evil age. However, our message will be hollow and empty unless we are in fact living under His dominion.That is why the Great Commission was not just to make converts, but to make disciples, teaching them to observe "all" that He has commanded. The most important step in any journey is usually the first, but we must acknowledge that the first step is just the beginning. As wonderful as it is to be born again, when one is born again they are as far from their ultimate purpose as an infant is from being the President of the United States. I use this example of the President because a Christian is called to something much higher than that—which is ruling and reigning with Christ.

The author of the Book of Hebrews laments that he cannot give his readers solid food, but can only give them milk because of their immaturity. Hebrews is one of the deepest theological books in the Bible, with few Christians even comprehending many of its teachings such as that about the Melchezedek priesthood, yet the author says that this book is only milk! (see Hebrews 5:11-14) Where does this leave us? How do we go on to maturity so that we can partake of solid food spiritually?

The Lord spoke something to me nearly twenty years ago that so jolted me that I have since been on a quest trying to understand it. What the Lord said was that many multi-level marketers understand kingdom principles better than the present leaders of the church. An important insight about this statement came to me recently from a friend of mine, who has been one of the most successful multi-level marketers. I asked him what he considered to be the secret of his success. He replied quickly that it was the fact that when someone entered their business they were immediately shown how far they could go, and that each step toward their goal was clearly defined so that they always knew where they were in relation to their goal, and what they needed to do next to go higher.

How many Christians can say that in relation to their purposes in Christ? How many even know the next step toward pressing on to maturity? In poles I have taken in our conferences it seems that less than 5 percent of Christians even know what their own purpose in Christ is. This must be one of the great and tragic failures of the modern church.

When I had the prophetic experience that I wrote about in The Final Quest, I had to climb a mountain. Each level on that mountain represented a biblical truth. As I climbed higher, I received more authority to defeat the enemies who were attacking us, and I also began to see more of the glory of the Lord. Since that time I have sought the wisdom of the Lord as to how to best implement the climbing of that mountain into our ministry and our message.

It is for the reason of trying to impart this systematic spiritual progression that I am writing this kind of book. Even though it is a daily devotional, I think that you can see a systematic progression in it. I am already writing the next one, which I believe can help show the way to an even higher realm on the mountain of the Lord. As Proverbs 4:18 declares, "But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, that shines brighter and brighter until the full day." The light that we walk in should be getting continually brighter.

MorningStar Ministries

The Place of Miracles

For the kingdom of God does not consist in words, but in power (I Corinthians 4:20).

When the Lord fed the thousands with just a few fish and loaves, what made this miracle so great was that so much was done with so little. The Lord gets more glory when we have less in our hands to do His works with. One of the greatest hindrances to our seeing the miracles of God is when we have too much.

When the Lord calls us to do a task, we must resist looking to our resources for the ability to carry it out, but rather look to God's resources. Having much may actually hinder us from doing great things for Him. When the Lord set about to change the world He did not start accumulating a large treasury for the task. He just looked for twelve men that He could anoint. Even the men that He chose were lacking in the natural gifts and abilities to carry out such a purpose. However, the Lord did not need their abilities. He only needed a few who would be willing vessels for the Holy Spirit.

Years ago the Lord said to me that money was my least valuable resource. It is a resource, and has some value, but it is the least of what we need to carry out His purposes. We need the Holy Spirit. There are a couple of crucial factors about the Holy Spirit that we need to understand if we are going to be used by Him. These are highlighted in the very first mention of the Spirit in Genesis 1:2:

And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.

Here we see that in the first mention of the Holy Spirit, He is moving. In almost every mention of Him in Scripture He is moving. In John 3:8 we are told, "The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit." Those who are born of the Spirit will also be moving. The Christian life is not static—it is always moving, flowing, going somewhere. This is the nature of those who are born of the Spirit.

The second major factor we notice about the Spirit in Genesis is that He brought forth this glorious creation out of that which was formless and void. He still loves to do this. We do not have to be perfect for Him to use us. We can actually be over-organized and over-prepared for Him to be able to use us. The Lord is not against organization, but in our pitiful little human perspectives our organization is often the result of majoring on minors. We want to get things ready, but He wants to get us ready. Our readiness is not dependent on the material realm, but on a heart that loves, trusts, and obeys Him.

It was for this reason that the Lord of the universe was born in a stable, the most humble, unlikely place He could have chosen. The only way that He could be found was by revelation. The same is still true of those things that are truly born of God. The Lord is not waiting until our building is big enough, for us to have enough money in the bank, or even for us to get a certain degree. He is waiting for us to have faith in Him, not in ourselves, and not in our stuff, but in Him.