God’s Face is against the Church

Yet I am an idolater.

Like the Israelites who brought idols into the temple of God and mingled pagan sacrifices, I too have brought idols into the temple of the Holy Spirit, my heart, soul and mind.

Idolatry at its most basic level is not putting God, the King and Creator of the Universe, first. (Exodus 20:3)

Idolatry is disobedience or rebellion against the commandments of God. It is a watering down or outright rejection of the laws, principles and ordinances of God found in the Bible (aka God’s word). It is shirking from submitting to the total authority of God and His rule and sovereignty over our life no matter what the cost.

A Mutinous Church full of Deserters

To use the military analogy, a soldier is worse than useless (a liability) if he refuses to take commands or obey orders and does not follow the rules of engagement from the King.

It would be called a mutiny if a group of soldiers rejected the commanding officer’s role and did whatever was right in their own eyes (Judges 17:6).  That army would be destroyed from within and would have no hope of winning any battle let alone a war.

A soldier would be a deserter if he refused to fight because he feared the real possibility of getting hurt, being maimed or dying for the kingdom.

Similarly, today we see in Christians: disobedience, a lack of faith, a rejection of the absolute rule of the word of God and the courage to declare “it is written…” to attack the enemy and be willing to pay the cost of being a true disciple of Christ with our possessions, relationships, reputation, income, freedom and even our life. (Luke 14:25)

Christians are, in general, deserters and mutineers of the Kingdom of Heaven. We are too comfortable and fear losing our comforts. Time and again Christians ‘duck’ when the heat gets turned up and they can feel the furnace of real persecution or they might suffer hurt in some way.

We even refuse to follow the rules of engagement. If a people don’t want to know the gospel message of Jesus Christ, shake the dust off your feet and move on. It is not a Christian’s responsibility, or within his ability, to save anybody – we only preach the gospel and declare the truth. Salvation is God’s work not ours! (Acts 13:51) 

The Judicial Battle Ground will be Theological

Many have scoped the main positions and fronts of the enemy where they have dug in.

Yet when, Christians try to repel the enemies’ next advance or capture of a freedom, we fight carnally using the tactics of the enemy as if they will work in our hands when they are absolutely useless in fighting a spiritual war.

Claiming foul under freedom of speech, equality, human rights legislation is a waste of time. We can see it in the court cases in the UK, USA and elsewhere. The tide is against anything to do with upholding truth, logic, scientific facts, reality and God’s law. The normal rules of justice and judgement don’t apply as the frame of reference is now political correctness – morality defined by the politicians on behalf of the enemies of God.

This can clearly be seen in the court cases Christian Concern and the Christian Institute are currently supporting regarding street preachers, the bakers, and the post-graduate student wanting to be a social worker.

The implied statutes of God, the historic basis of our legal system, have been subverted by the corrupt statutes of man. By all means use the statutes of man and point out the perverse and corrupt interpretation and application of them, but doing that will not hold the legal argument. Paul did use the statutes of man when he was arrested and beaten as a Roman citizen.

A Christian who wants to uphold and publically declare a Biblical principle such as covenant (natural) marriage, must explicitly declare that this is based on what God declares, established in His word as the natural creation order, and that the court/tribunal ruling is a defiance of God’s law.

The courts must know that they are facing the judgement of God and that they are corrupt in their justice. It is irrelevant whether the judges or magistrates don’t believe in God and His law. God’s law still stands and all mankind will be judged by it.

Christ Himself tells us not to worry about being dragged before the courts in persecution as the Holy Spirit will tell us what to say. Yet at the moment, carnal legal arguments around the statutes of man are made to defend Christians for upholding a Biblical principle. This is not the correct approach.

We can also see in recent court cases that the word of God is being censored or the Bible considered as a ‘hate book’. It can’t be avoided now; the battle ground is theological and therefore spiritual and we must use God’s word as the sword to attack the enemy not the statutes of man.

Christians must be bold in their declaration of God’s word to the judiciary and force them to show their injustice, rejection of God and persecution of followers of Jesus Christ.

The cost to the Christian could be very high, even martyrdom, yet we are commanded to accept that cost by Jesus Christ and to be faithful unto death. Anything else is idolatry. Not putting God first.

Reform starts with Confession, Repentance, Faith and Obedience

Before any offensive action can be taken against the enemy, Christians must examine themselves to see if they really and truly be in the faith. (2 Corinthians 13:5)

This painful process of identifying and removing sin is necessary and requires us to grab hold of the idols in our life that stop us putting God first and grind them to dust, never to be handled again. Included in the process is to face head on the reality that to stand as a true Christian soldier might cost us everything.

Are we prepared to put our trust in God to the point where we are not careful for our life, but desire to obey God? (Daniel 3: 16)

The move from mental assent to the word of God to practical real life application is the same as a soldier moving from the training camp to the horrors and trauma of a battle field. Hard to imagine, terrifying, but this is what my heart desires so help me God.

Essentially it is faith in God’s promises and obedience to God’s commandments when all the comfortable certainties of life are  removed and you live on a day to a day basis trusting the Lord for his provision, like the children of Israel in the wilderness. (Matthew 6:25) (Matthew 6:25)

Infiltrators and imposters must be removed from the family of Christians. A tough disciplined stance needs to be taken against people who call themselves Christians and yet reject fundamental doctrines such as Creation and the application of God’s law, which includes the gospel message of the need for a Saviour and obedience to Christ’s commandments. ((John 14: 21)

Compassion can be showed to those who have been fed corrupt doctrine from false pastors, but a strong firm line needs to be shown that this is what God says.

Do you believe what is written: Yes or No?

If the answer is No, leave it with the individual as the Holy Spirit will work on them if they are called by God.

The standard for being a Christian is very high, as Christ declared, and we need to strive with all our heart to live worthy of being called a child of God, listening to the commands of God. (1 Thessalonians 2:12) (1 Thessalonians 2:12)

Spiritual Weapons must be use in a Spiritual Battle

When Christ was tempted in the wilderness and throughout His ministry, He upheld and applied the law of God. “It is written…”. (Luke 4:4)

Christians need to study, digest, and work out, the application and principles of God’s law from the Old Testament and its fulfilment and demonstration in the New Testament. This is vital as God’s law and justice is laid out in the early chapters of the Bible and judgements realised in the following chapters.

Our lack of proper understanding of Biblical law from the Old Testament and Christ’s expanded interpretation in the New Testament has made us weak, ambivalent, sloppy and clueless as to what are the moral absolutes. We do not know how to wield the sword of the Spirit. We are like soldiers who do not know how to use the weapons of war.

Tough Questions need to be answered correctly by God’s law, like for example:

• Is homosexuality a sin? (Politicians say no – Andrew Marr show 30 April 2017, 55:43)
• Should society criminalise homosexuality? (Archbishop says no – Andrew Marr show 8 April 2017)
• Should a bold unrepentant homosexual be put to death?
• What is the impact of acquiescing homosexuality in a society?
• Does God’s law apply to mankind or just Christians?

Demonic Activity

Christians also need to recognise that demons are active and present in the enemies we face and the development and the outworking of their strategies to destroy the knowledge of God and his laws.

Christians have to fight spiritual enemies with spiritual weapons. Carnal approaches - as we are witnessing - are powerless.

We need to expose and tear down idols by using the word of God equipped with truth, righteousness, the gospel message, faith, the surety of our salvation and prayer. (Ephesians 6: 10- 18)

The Movement of One

Individual Christians who have true faith in God will move mountains and cast them into the sea. Daniel’s faith and practice is an obvious example in a completely idolatrous society or kingdom.

As individual Christians we must do all in our power to contend for the faith. But the outcome is the Lord’s. The prophets preached and were true to the Lord, yet the nations of Israel and Judah did not repent and subsequently were spewed out of the land to Babylon in judgement.

To summarise, when each individual Christian removes their own idols, is prepared to fully count the cost and study and learn to use the spiritual weapons given to us by God, then we can attack our enemies and God will fight for us and give His victory.

The battle is one of theology. A contest between the word of God and the rebellious statutes and ideologies of men.

Christians today have imbibed the mind-set and lies of an idolatrous society and have not allowed the Holy Spirit to write the law of God on their heart through feasting on the word.

Once this is recognised and repented of then an army of soldiers of the kingdom can be recruited and mobilised for God’s glory.

© 11 May 2017

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