Mountain of Religion

 The first thing that must be said about this mountain is that the church of Jesus Christ is not occupying the top spot on this mountain. This may come as a shock to you but if you look around you will see plenty of evidence to support my claim.

In this century, more than ever before, the Church of Christ must be awakened to the reality that we are in a life and death battle. Look around you. Does the world you see reflect what Jesus said, "the kingdom of God is at hand". When he said this he then went on to demonstrate what he meant. If you examine the Gospels carefully you will see that wherever Jesus went he displaced demons in the area and set people free. He was overthrowing the kingdom of satan and bringing the kingdom of God. When he sent out his disciples in pairs he empowered them. The gospel of Matthew reads, " Jesus called his twelve disciples together and gave them authority to cast out evil spirits and to heal every kind of disease and illness".

The mountains of influence in our society do not reflect the presence and authority of the kingdom of God. Even the mountain of religion is being saturated with all sorts of religions that cause deception and confusion. There is only one group of people that can do what the disciples of Jesus did, the born-again believers of God. As I've mentioned in other blog posts and articles the church has been doing everything it knows to see its cities transformed. And yet, here we are, years later and things only seem to get worse. Just look at the city of Chicago with its shootings and murders each week. Churches in California being shut down during the pandemic and pastors being arrested if they defy the cities mandate.

In this era the church must revisit the Great Commission, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations". In an attempt to fulfill this commission many Christians have attempted to make "converts" of people in all nations. I propose that the focus needs to be once again on discipleship. 

As a result of the current focus on creating "seeker-friendly" atmospheres in most churches, there isn't much to be found that is actually from the kingdom of God. We can all agree that many in the religious community have a lot of sincerity. As a result when they encounter and see someone who actually practices the purity and power demonstrated on the pages of scripture, it resonates with them and something is stirred within them. As they observe this lifestyle they begin to say to themselves, "it is possible, we can live that way even today". They just lack examples. The church needs to be an example of purity and power. Otherwise the world will not be transformed by it.

Unity is another element that is missing among bible-believing, spirit-filled churches. In order to overcome satan's tactic of creating division and suspicion, pastors and congregations must overcome the fear of "someone will steal my sheep". Each church in a community has a special calling and anointing upon it. One church may be very gifted in the area of "evangelism" while another is very strong in the realm of "deliverance". If only these churches would add to  their plan by becoming committed to another leader's, or church's success, with no personal agenda for gain. This would go a long way towards the successful invasion and occupation of the mountain of religion. 

As I've already mentioned there is an ongoing battle taking place and has been for the souls of people and it has been taking place for centuries. While being holy and congenial is not to be ignored these virtues will not be sufficient if the church will have any success reclaiming the other mountains of influence. Strategic prayer warfare will be required and this means that the need for intercessors is needed now more than ever. The mountain of religion is the first mountain the the church must reclaim as we see the rise of various New Age beliefs and occult practices becoming more influential and acceptable in numerous industries including our schools and government.

So why don't we hear more teaching on this subject of strategic prayer warfare. The answer should be obvious - we have an adversary who is constantly on the prowl looking to see who he may devour. Rest assured he employs all the necessary resources to thwart the church's effort to learn its true identity and the authority it carries. 

Divinely inspired strategies will typically not make sense to the natural mind. And yet divinely inspired strategies is what is required to win these battles - let’s refer to Joshua 6:1-4

“Now the gates of Jericho were tightly shut because the people were afraid of the Israelites. No one was allowed to go out or in. But the Lord said to Joshua, “I have given you Jericho, its king, and all its strong warriors. You and your fighting men should march around the town once a day for six days. Seven priests will walk ahead of the Ark, each carrying a ram’s horn. On the seventh day you are to march around the town seven times, with the priests blowing the horns.”

We must also ask ourselves, “why do so many people in the church not see, accept or understand the reality of spiritual warfare?”. I believe that this is the result of illusions that society is plagued with. I don't have the time to go into too much detail but I will for now mention a few of the illusions that I am aware of but this list is certainly not all-inclusive.  

These Illusions are as follows:

1. War... What war?
2. A "select few" are called by God to do battle
3. My life is just fine, why do I need to engage in battle?
4. Satan is far too powerful for me to mess with, I’ll leave that to the clergy.

We do battle everyday against unseen forces. And yet, among Christians there are too few with the spiritual eyes to see what is taking place around us continually. 

In the world-at-large only those involved with the occult or Satanism will acknowledge that a spirit realm exists. They have learned spiritual laws and how to employ them and that leaves far too many born-again believers blind to the necessary truths.

Our job as believers is to resist the schemes that create illusions and blind the world by doing everything we can to stand firm and expose the lies with truth. 

A person who can see will not easily stumble into a ditch regardless of how small it may be. He’ll simply walk around it. However, a person who is blind or disillusioned will walk right into it simply because he doesn’t know it’s there.

People deep down inside know that there is something wrong but the world at large stands against such people and inflicts them with shame and fear and as a result paralyzes them from taking a public stand and taking action to expose such schemes for what they truly are. The church is all too guilty of this. Over the last few years we have seen colleges and universities bending over backwards to accommodate the muslim faith. If a Christian were to speak up in class however and mention what the Bible says about a particular subject he or she would be shut down and told that they were in a public school and discussing the Bible would be a violation of the separation of church and state.

This is where the knowledge of war tactics comes in. This is also where our lack of knowledge will lead to our destruction as the Lord states in Hosea 4:6.

In my review of war tactics today, I’d like to at least mention Matthew 28:18 , “And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” 

It’s important that we not overlook the fact that Jesus makes reference first to heaven and then earth. All authority originates from heaven. Whatever authority is in the earth has either been delegated from heaven or obtained by less than acceptable means. 

I’ve already stated that the war has already been won by Christ. In order to fully appreciate the war that was waged by Christ we will need to first study warfare in the “natural realm” so we can become enlightened about the war in the “spirit realm”.

Matthew 28:18 takes place after the resurrection of Christ and reveals to us that what just took place was a legal campaign that was waged against the forces of darkness. War had been approved and declared by the council of heaven and had been waged by the King of kings.

Declaration of War

According to Wikipedia, a “declaration of war” is a formal act by which one state nation goes to war against another. The declaration is a performative speech act (or the signing of a document) by an authorized party of a national government, in order to create a state of war between two or more states.” 

We see an example of this in Genesis 3:14-15,

“Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all the other animals, domestic and wild. You will crawl on your belly, groveling in the dust as long as you live. And I will cause hostility between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”

War has been declared, and what was first initiated in the heavens, through Lucifer’s rebellion, has now be spread out to the earth realm.

Let’s refer back to Matthew 28, let’s continue to read in verse 19, “therefore, go and make disciples of all nations”.

Making disciples of Christ was in direct violation of the plans and schemes of Satan. 

It was God’s intent to liberate and restore mankind to his sovereign state to rule the earth much like the allied forces liberated Europe from Nazi Germany during WWII. 

Jesus had the legal authority to wage war against the forces of darkness. He committed no sin, He was innocent and yet was put to death. Satan had no right to kill Him. When he did, he committed an act of war. 

As a result, the courts of heaven ruled in favor of Jesus and gave him the authority to besiege Satan and his kingdom, to wage war, and this resulted in His victory over death and hell. 

His resurrection is proof of His liberating conquest over the power of the devil. The war that began in the garden of Eden had been won;

We read in Heb 2:14…”for only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could He break the power of the devil, who had the power of death.”

Also in Romans 6:9…”We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead and He will never die again. Death no longer has any power over Him.”

A vital component of every tactic that we employ is the truth that we are not fighting to win a war, but rather we fight legal battles to secure the victory already won by Christ. Remember, whenever you engage in a battle, you must know that you have the legality to do so.

Ephesians 6:12-13 tells us…”For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm.”

Notice that this passage uses the term “battle”, not “war”.

So, what’s the difference between Battle and War?

“A battle is a singular fight between opposing sides, of a similar number of soldiers. A war is an overall conflict between 2 sides.”

“A battle is usually combatting between two or more armed forces while a war is between two countries, nations or states” (i.e. the kingdom of Heaven vs. the kingdom of Darkness)

Battles can be won or lost, but not necessarily determine the end of the war. In our case, the “war” was won at Calvary. Therefore, we’re not “warring” tooth and nail for victory. We “battle” to hold on to the spoils of the war won by Jesus Christ.

As I mentioned at the very beginning there is a war, a battle, that will continue until the return of Christ. The church is not looking to defeat satan and his kingdom. Jesus has already done that. We are called to thwart any ongoing resistance to the rule of Christ. Because we have failed to do this for so long, the enemy no longer has a foothold in the seven spheres of influence, he now has a stronghold. Unfortunately he also has a stronghold on the mountain of religion.

I don't want you to be afraid or ignorant of the truth. I've prepared an outline that introduces you to the subject of spiritual warfare strategies for the church which you can obtain right here on this website. Get your copy today and contact us if you have any questions.