Of Gates and Offense

And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18)

It is sad, very sad that we are these days hearing of this and that influential Christian leader receiving his (many are women) orders from the other kingdom. What is even more disquieting is the fact that in as much as we may want to defend our fellow ministers, we are seeing a lot of the fruit they are producing showing that there are high chances that the accusations are not totally unfounded. The way they carry themselves makes even outsiders (non believers) question their faith.

We know that some very prominent Christian musicians are signed with record labels who also manage the most rotten and morally bankrupt secular musicians. Some of those record labels are known to be openly satanic yet we feel it is okay if they used their money and visibility to promote the Gospel their whole existence is set against. Back home we have the most successful brewer in the region sponsoring a talent search program whose focus is worship leaders. In fact the whole setup is Christian leaders from the judges to the trainers. Yet you will even find pastors going to celebrate with the winner of that money from the pit of hell.

It is said that we have even have a Bible translation whose copyright holder owns the copyright for the satanic bible and the lesbianism manual. He also owns of some of the most morally rotten media houses even from a worldly viewpoint. That translation has watered down and obliterated any mention of homosexuality because I have heard that among its translators was a homosexual, probably more than one.

Yet that is not my main concern. Infiltration is a key game plan for any nation. Any army worth its salt commits some of its most intelligent brains to infiltration. We are always hearing of double agents all over the world. Why should the devil not do the same?

Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. (1Thesalonians 5: 5, 6)

But for me the tragedy is that he was able to infiltrate the church to the extent of controlling the leadership. How was darkness able to penetrate the light without being seen? How does a thief get to the living room and steal a big item when the family is all seated without any of the members noticing?

Where was the watchman when this was happening? Was there a watchman anyway? Or was the watchman a hiring who was bribed by the enemy to keep quiet instead of alerting the ones he was responsible to sound an alarm to?

We are having pastors whose specialty is the demonic. They are adept at chasing this or the other devil out of people. Many have started deliverance ministries to deal with the devil one way or the other. They are the ones with the secret formulae to deal with the demons. The sad part is that many of them use the demonic to deal with demons. I have heard of instances where these prophets have actually confessed to using witchcraft to get their powers. Others have killed people who discovered the sources of their ‘anointing’. Some actually take the anointing oil for ‘treatment’ by witches and wizards, some crossing borders for better results.

Yet for me that is not the problem. My main problem is that we are dealing with the devil on our territory.  The verse talks about the gates of hell. Gates are not offensive weapons. Are they?

What does the verse mean when it says the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church? Surely gates are not mobile. The only instance when we have a gate moving is when Samson carried them. What is the devil doing in the church? Is it really the church? Let me give us some other verses.

Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And of some have compassion, making a difference: And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. (Jude 21 - 23)

We are pulling some people from hell. Now that is what I think of when I read about the gates of hell. We break the gates of hell, capture the strong man in his territory and rescue captives from him. Again look at this other verse.

No man can enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house. (Mark 3:27)

What on earth are we doing binding the strong man in our house? What were we doing when he was getting into our house? Could we be deceived to imagine that we are binding him when all the time he rules our house? That the ‘victories’ he allows us to experience are his way of keeping us in the deception? Could it actually be his house that he is giving us the freedom to experience victory after victory to make us comfortable that we are victorious when we are in his prison?

You see the devil is a liar and the father not only of liars but also of lies. It is in his interest when we feel so victorious in his prison as we will never see the need to venture out as we are experiencing so much victory.

The sphere of spiritual warfare is not the church. I believe we should be using the church to sharpen the saints to be breaking through the gates of hell. Once we stop doing that we can be sure that the devil will slowly encroach on our territory. In fact he will want to take over our house. That is his specialty. In fact that is the reason he was thrown down from heaven when he wanted to take over God’s throne.

If the church examines herself especially as it concerns her mandate it will be impossible to have the dramatics we continue experiencing from church to church. This is as we realize that what we think pleases God is an insult to Him from all fronts. Which army wants to fight the enemy on its land? When your land is the place a war is fought, you will lose whether you win or lose. Collateral damage will be on your land. And that is why many strong armies take the battle to the enemies’ lands to minimize the damage on their lands. Then if they lost it will be a few people and equipment that will be lost.

Why are we excited to fight the devil in church? Why are we so excited to give testimonies of the routing we gave him in church? What was he doing in the church anyway? How did he get to the church? Where were we when he entered?

The only things we should be fighting in the church are sin and hypocrisy. That is what Christ did. For the most part He encountered demons out there. Dealing with demons in church is a shame on the leadership, even worse when the same leadership prides itself on that fact. I will repeat that you will lose even if you win when you are fighting the enemy on your territory. Therefore it is a very sad fact that we even have radio and TV programs existing for that purpose.