DETERMINING OUR DESTINY

(Your role as a citizen in the Kingdom of Heaven)

You, personally, have a role in determining the destiny of your community, nation and world. Your part as a citizen in the Kingdom of Heaven.. your role as a Priest gives you and me the responsibility to call on God for the spiritual needs of the world around us until the opposing powers of darkness are pushed back.

You are part of this battle that is raging between these two kingdoms. The elements that show up in your lives on a daily basis, the things that eat at your inner peace, the people that drive you to the brink of sanity, the temptations that always seem to show up at the most inopportune times…. Are part of a much larger conflict going on somewhere beyond the three dimensions in which you live.

Pastor.. you’ve been watching too many cartoons…not according to Scripture:

(Ephesians 6:10-11) Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. (NIV)

(Ephesians 6:12) For we are not fighting (wrestling) against people made of flesh and blood, but against persons without bodies, the evil rulers of the unseen world, those mighty satanic beings, and great evil princes of darkness who rule this world; and against huge numbers of wicked spirits in the spirit world. (TLB)

The good news is that you, as a child of God are very definitely planted firmly in God’s camp in direct opposition to satan’s camp. As a citizen in God’s kingdom you are no longer under the power of satan’s kingdom!

I spent some time last week showing you the example in Daniel 10 where Daniel called on God, God sent a response in the form of an angel. There followed a titanic struggle between the forces of evil and the Kingdom of God that lasted three weeks and only culminated when Michael the Archangel intervened. This seems like something one would see in a superhero comic book, but it’s actually a snapshot into the reality of what’s going on in the fourth dimension.

Note:

Let’s look at this carefully:

First of all, you are living in this world, you are flesh and blood. You’re moving around and interacting with other flesh and blood people. Occasionally you get into flesh and blood tussles with these other people, mentally and emotionally a lot…..verbally way too much, God forbid, maybe even physically….

Virtually everything in society around us teaches us that this human interactive struggle for existence is the primary reality in life! You’re taught in school, how to compete in that struggle. Every TV show you see, is some interpretation of the human struggle; with each other, or against each other.

For me to suggest…or God’s Word to suggest, that what you see and feel going on around you is actually secondary to another struggle you are in, seems almost mystical. We don’t often connect the fact that the argument you had with your husband, this morning, before coming to church was part of a bigger universal conflict…. The thoughts of anger and hatred you feel toward your imbecilic relative are part of an even bigger battle. Your temptation to hit that button on your computer and bring up the porn website is part of a bigger universal battle. While you are dealing with the flesh and blood people in the world around you who threaten your daily peace…. you are at the same time, more importantly, fighting “persons without bodies, the evil rulers of the unseen world, those mighty satanic beings, and great evil princes of darkness who rule this world; and against huge numbers of wicked spirits in the spirit world.” (TLB)

These forces are not trying to best you in some emotional conversation or seduce you for a one night stand. These forces are in an eternal conflict for your very soul. If you lose the battle with someone at work you can crawl away and nurse your hurt ego. If you lose the battle with the kingdom of darkness you lose your eternal soul.

God has provided for you to do so….but your not going to win this battle with bombs. and guns, and tanks.

Because the war you are in is spiritual, the weapons you use must be spiritual as well.

Some of us have really honed our tongue into a physical weapon to get us through our physical battles, which aren‘t even eternal battles….how well have you worked on honing your spiritual weapons for the eternal battle for your soul?

What does that mean? What are the strongholds of satan that you find yourselves fighting against? The word literally means fortress. What fortresses of satan are you taking your spiritual weapons and fighting against? Is it possible that satan could build one of his strongholds inside of your very life. If so how would you go about tearing it down?

What does the Bile mean by the phrase “tearing down satan’s strongholds”

The next phrase gives us a clue:

Where is satan’s battle for our souls taking place?

In the mind!

For the unbeliever; satan has their mind all tied up in dark knots, thinking exactly as he thinks, all the while imagining themselves to be free thinkers.

Our battle against satan is on two fronts.

1) We fight to keep satan from building fortresses in our own minds.

2) We are God’s key to deliberately and systematically breaking down the strongholds he has built in the minds of unbelievers around us.

Our purpose statement, here as a church, is built around these principles:

In our tolerant, pluralistic society, isn’t it wrong to try to proselytize others to our way of thinking? Hogwash!!! It’s what we are called to do. It’s the mandate of Scripture that we show as many people as possible that Christ is the only way to heaven.

1) We fight to keep satan from building fortresses in our own minds.

If it’s true that:

God) has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son…

Why should we be concerned about fighting off satan’s attempts to build strongholds in our minds:

From a purely theological perspective, you have been made alive with Christ, Your sins are forgiven, all your cause for guilt has been erased, and the “powers and authorities” have been triumphed over!

Is this no longer true?

If Jesus triumphed over satan on the cross and disarmed his kingdom why are we still involved the universal conflict of the ages.

Because, even though satan’s power over you has been neutralized, if he can get you to believe otherwise he can have just as much power over you as if you had never accepted Christ’s triumph on the cross.

Remember, satan’s chief tactic is to go after your mind. You are commissioned by God to:

Satan’s primary weapon against you is the weapon of…………Guilt.

(Revelation 12:10) Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: "Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. (NIV)

He’s accusing you of not measuring up to God’s standard. He says that since you fall short you are obviously a fraud. If Christ died for your sins and you still find yourself sinning you are obviously just as much a child of satan as you ever were.

Here’s what he doesn’t want you to remember:

(2 Corinthians 5:21) God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (NIV)

That’s the triumph of the cross. A triumph is not the actual winning of a victory. A triumph is the celebration and demonstration of a victory that has already been won. Jesus demonstrated to the whole universe his victory over the entire satanic kingdom. However Jesus did not win that victory for himself…he didn’t need to. He won that victory for us!

His triumph over satan, however comes when his victory over satan on the cross is played out in the freedom from sin in our lives. Our increasingly righteous lives are the weapon that seals satan’s defeat.

(2 Corinthians 2:14) Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. (NKJV)