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Help! This Is New Territory! |
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By Jonathan Graf
It was an odd thing. As I preached that Sunday morning, every time I stepped into the area immediately behind the pulpit I struggled to collect my thoughts. When I wandered to either side, my mind was clear and I could speak with ease. I thought my mind was playing tricks on me; that I was giving into suggestion. You see, the pastor told me how difficult it was for him to preach from behind the pulpit. Now I was experiencing this phenomenon myself.
Today, in the United States, there is almost no plus church growth occurring anywhere. Most churches that are growing, are doing so by pulling sheep from other less exciting churches in their communities—not by people coming to Christ. Most denominational church leaders will tell you their churches are full of infighting, lack of commitment. Many—if not most—churches are either status quo or in decline.
With this reality, why do we not think to look for spiritual
strongholds or bondages in churches as a possible cause? Very few
churches—including charismatic/Pentecostal churches—are thinking of the
issue of church cleansing. Yet tens of thousands of churches have
suffered serious, “Satan’s won a victory” situations in their past.
Church splits, or new church starts by someone who left a staff
disgruntled, sexual misconduct of clergy and leaders, power control
issues of leading families who want to run things, are all
circumstances that give Satan strong footholds into a church. And in
our “avoid conflict” way of operating, we want to simply overlook these.
Many of us struggle to see things through spiritual eyes. I have a
pastor friend, who when his church was faced with a situation where a
person on his worship team was obviously struggling with some demonic
things in his life, the pastor was very apathetic to do anything. Get
him into counseling (something he had been in for years) was his
approach. The thought of bringing in someone to teach leaders on
spiritual warfare was distasteful to him. He looked back to one
experience in seminary where he watched a deliverance session prove
fruitless. That had put a wall to this dimension in him.
It is time to open our eyes, pastors and prayer leaders. Virtually
every church in this country potentially has serious spiritual bondage
issues. Satan wants to make the church ineffective—and he has succeeded
in many places. If your church is stagnant, it is time to seek God for
the cause.
If this is new to you, I highly recommend getting help. Read the
recommended resource. Also pick up copies of The Devil Goes to Church
(www.prayershop.org), The Beginners Guide to Spiritual Warfare by Tom
White, and Bondage Breakers by Neil Anderson. Look for people and
ministries who can help you.
When Jesus was challenging Peter about his leadership in the
soon-to-be-formed church, He said, “on this rock I will build my
church, and the gates of [hell] will not overcome it” (Mt. 16:18-19).
Many of us miss something unique in this verse. Jesus talks about the
gates of hell. We often think of spiritual warfare as defensive. But
this verse is talking about taking the offensive were Satan and hell
are concerned. You see, gates of a city do not move. They are not a
weapon; they are a defensive measure. We are to attack the gates of
hell. If we would go on the offensive and attack our church bondages
and strongholds, we would see a vastly different church. A victorious
church.
Where do we begin? Pray! Seek God for direction. Ask Him to reveal if
there are issues that have never been dealt with in the life of your
church. Use the “Points of Interest” as a guide. (In most situations,
we highly recommend doing this under the authority of church
leadership.)
Like Danny Garrido’s church in our lead story, when things are dealt
with, doors open to Satan’s activities close, and you will see change!
It may be difficult, but God desires your church to move forward.
Jonathan Graf is the president of the Church Prayer Leaders Network and
a vice president with Harvest Prayer Ministries. He can be reached at
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May 2006