Authority to Affect the Spiritual Realm

Notes for the Ekklesia Meeting
Sundays @ 10:00 a.m. Info: (651) 283-0568 www.dtminc.org Today’s Date: June 26, 2005
Authority to Affect the Spiritual Realm
by Dan Trygg

"I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of hades will not overpower it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven." Matthew 16:18,19

"For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ…" II Corinthians 10:3-5

As we have been talking about the church, the ekklesia, or the congregation of those called out from the world to assemble to do the Lord’s bidding, it is very clear that Jesus appointed us to assault the very strongholds of the powers of darkness on this planet. He said that "hades’ gates" will not be able to overcome the assault of the ekklesia. How do we fight against an unseen, invisible, intangible enemy? We certainly cannot do it using human ingenuity and physical strength. Without some kind of weaponry or authority which the powers of darkness cannot hold out against, our task would be hopeless. This is precisely what Jesus’ comment to Peter in this passage is addressing. He will give him (and every other disciple) the authority and power to get the job done.

This is not the only time in the NT where the issues of spiritual authority and power are mentioned. Jesus had recently called the twelve disciples together, and had given them power and authority over all the demons, and to heal diseases, and then sent them out to proclaim the Kingdom of God and perform healings (Lk. 9:1,2; Matt. 10:1; Mk. 6:7-13).

They were conscious of the fact that Jesus was able to heal when the power of the Holy Spirit was present to perform healing (Lk. 5:17). When He traveled about preaching, the crowds would press in to touch Him, because they noticed that power seemed to be coming out from Him to heal people (Lk. 6:19). If they could observe this connection, how much more would the disciples have been able to see the fact that Jesus had some kind of power present with Him, or in Him, which flowed out when people were healed. Jesus Himself even talked of His experience of this phenomenon (Lk. 8:40-48).

Based upon their observations, experiences, and what Jesus Himself told them, it is not surprising that they later spoke of Him as "a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst" (Acts 2:22), or again, " you know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good, and healing all who were oppressed by the devil; for God was with Him" (Acts 10:38). It was very clear to them that He did the miraculous signs, and dealt with the demonic, because He had the authority from God, and the empowerment from the Holy Spirit, to do so. They had seen Jesus use these unseen powers and supernatural authority to bind and cast out demons, and loose people from bondage. That was what was striking about Jesus’ ministry, and even set Him apart from John the Baptist (Jn. 10:41). He was clearly routing the powers of darkness, and was liberating those who had been held captive in affliction and disease.

The Keys of the Kingdom: Binding and Loosing

Let’s take a look at the words Jesus used in this passage to describe the authority He will give His followers. Jesus said that He "will give the keys of the Kingdom of the heavens". The "keys" are a symbol not only of access, but of authority. When the master gave his keys to his slave, the slave became the entrusted steward of the master’s property and was also granted the master’s authority, as his representative. It meant being given access and authority over all the resources of the Kingdom. Being given the "keys of the Kingdom" is the general statement, the power to "bind" and "loose" are a more specific focus, having to do with the objective which Jesus had mentioned, that of assaulting the "gates" of the strongholds of the enemy.

He spoke of "binding" and "loosing". What is meant by these terms? The word translated as "bind" is the Greek word deo. It occurs 43 times in the NT. In virtually every context it refers to a literal tying or binding something or someone with a rope or chain. [The only possibly metaphorical examples are:

(1.) Luke 13:16, where a woman had been bent over double by a demon for 18 years, and Jesus laid His hands on her and she was able to straighten up immediately. Jesus said that she had been "bound" by Satan, and He "loosed" her. The "bonds" were not visible, but had as real an effect as if they had been. Once "loosed", the woman was able to move normally.

(2.) Romans 7:2, where Paul refers to a married woman as "having been bound by law to her husband as long as he lives. If he dies, she is "released" from the law concerning her husband (the word "released" is not the same as "loosed" in Matt. 16, rather it means "to be cut off from", or "to be separated from").

(3.) I Corinthians 7:27 – "Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be loosed." The same word for "bind" is used by Paul in this context as Jesus had employed in Matt. 16, but the word for "to be loosed" is a related noun form of the word Jesus had employed for "loose". This is the only occurrence of this noun. It could refer to a separation, annulment, or divorce. Paul does not advocate an "unbinding", when people come to Christ and they are married.

(4.) I Corinthians 7:39 – "A wife is bound as long as her husband lives; but if her husband is dead, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord." Again, marriage is viewed as having a tie or an obligation, which only ends when one party dies. Note that the word for "free" is not the same as "loose", although freedom is the end result in both cases.]

In addition to the verbal form of "bind", there is also a related noun form, "bond", which occurs 18 times in the

NT. Of these, all but two examples are references to literal bonds or chains. Of the two exceptions, one refers to a person who was deaf and had difficulty speaking. In the healing, Mark says that "his ears were opened, and the bond of his tongue was loosed" (Mk. 7:35). The other instance referred to the woman bent double (see #1 above), where Jesus said she was "loosed from this bond" (Lk. 13:16). Of the combined 61 related forms of the word, 54 occurrences are literally about binding or tying something up, and the metaphorical usage follows this image very closely. So, when Jesus speaks about "binding", He is indicating that we have authority to put something that is loose into some kind of restriction or imprisonment.

The clearest example of this would be from Matthew 12:29, "…how can someone enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house." Apparently, we have been given the means to "bind" or "tie up" the spiritual powers that are on the loose, and then we will be able to set free those who have been held captive by them.

The word translated as "loosing" is from the Greek word luo. It occurs 42 times in the NT. Most of these times it refers to a literal untying of a rope or bond. In 14 cases, there is a broader, more metaphorical usage, but these, too, are mostly about setting something free, unbinding or breaking something (Matt. 5:19; Jn. 2:19 [destroy]; 5:18; 7:23; 10:35; Acts 2:24; 13:43; Eph. 2:14; II Pet. 3:10,11,12; I Jn. 3:8; Rev. 1:5; 5:2). Of these, I Jn. 3:8 stands out strongly as applicable to our Matthew context, "The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy (loose) the works of the devil." Furthermore, the "loosing" of the bond of the tongue of the deaf man who had difficulty talking (Mk. 7:35), and the "loosing" of the Satanic bond of the woman bent double (Lk. 13:16), provide practical illustrations of physical afflictions that were healed once the spiritual bondage was "loosed". By giving us the ability to "loose", Jesus has made us His representatives to do as He did, to set people free from the bonds which the enemy has managed to truss people up with. Our job, like His, is to "loose" the works of the enemy.

Spiritual Transactions

The language Jesus used in the last two thirds of Matthew 16:19 is very interesting. Both conditional statements combine a point-in-time possibility with a strongly-stated once-for-all result. The condition, "if ever you might (at a point in time) bind", or "if ever you might (at a point in time) loose", really emphasizes the importance of our role in this entire venture. If we do something, it will have an effect. If we don’t get involved, there is no guaranteed result, …possibly nothing will happen. The result follows the condition, …our involvement in the accomplishment of the binding or loosing transaction, whatever that may entail.

Then, the result clause is very strongly stated. In the Greek it is a periphrastic construction, which means it is an indirect way of stating something very strongly. The construction consists of a form of the verb "to be", in this case in the future, "it will be", followed by a form of the verb that emphasizes that the action has taken place, and its effect is ongoing. In other words, if we do the first part, say, "if we might bind" something, then "it will be having been bound", meaning, at some point in the future, it will be accomplished and stay accomplished, i.e., "it will be having been tied up (and still be tied up)". If we might loose something or someone, then it will be (at some point) having been loosed (and still remain loosed). In other words, the lynch pin is our involvement. If we do our part and get the transaction done, whatever that might entail, then the outcome of that will be accomplished in the future with ongoing effect.

Is this confusing? Well, there is still one more dimension to add to this. Jesus said that if we might bind something on earth, it will be having been bound in heaven. In other words, we make a transaction of some kind as God’s representatives on the earth, and it will have an effect on the spiritual balance of power in the heavenlies. If we might loose someone or something on earth, it will be having been untied or loosed in the heavenly realm. This is huge. This definitely relates to what Jesus said that the ekklesia was being assembled to do. We have the authority and power from God to make transactions on earth that will affect the outcome of things in the spiritual realm.

It is important to note that Jesus does not tell us how to make these transactions. We don’t see Him always saying, "I bind you, Satan", or, "I loose you". He did different things in different circumstances. He had to listen to the Spirit, and watch for what the Father was doing, as do we. He will teach us, if we will seek to learn from Him.

Built Up To Build Up

Notes for the Ekklesia Meeting
Sundays @ 10:00 a.m. Info: (651) 283-0568 www.dtminc.org Today’s Date: June 19, 2005
Built Up to Build Up
by Dan Trygg

"…on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hades shall not prevail against it." Matt. 16:18-23

"And He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to mend, equip and adapt the saints for work of ministry and service, for building up the Body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the true-knowledge of the Son of God, to mature personhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, …15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole Body, joined and held together by every ligament of support and supply, according to the proper functioning of each part, makes the Body grow so that it builds itself up in love." Eph. 4:11-13,15,16

"And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified." Acts 20:32

"Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing." I Thess. 5:11

We have been parking on this passage in Matthew 16, where Jesus first mentions His intention to "build up" His set-apart people, the Church. It is important that we clarify some of the concepts surrounding what the Master said, because we have wandered far afield from His original intent for us as a people, …and because He seems to be on the move around the world these days to call a remnant of His people back to a way of meeting together which is more Biblical and effective.

Today, I wish to focus again on the words which Jesus used, "I will build-up My ekklesia". How was this to be done? What are the means which Jesus intended to use to accomplish the assembly and strengthening processes of His people? What does that tell us about how we ought to be conducting our gatherings?

According to Ephesians 4, the primary way in which Jesus has chosen to build His called-out people is through every-member-ministry.

His plan has been to give certain giftings to some people in the Body to enable them to prepare every person (all the "saints") to do the work required to strengthen and grow up the people of God. Note that it is not the responsibility of these people, -- the apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastor-teachers -- , to do the work of ministry, care for the needs of people, or build up the church by themselves. They are not able to do that. It was never the Lord’s intention for them to try to do that. Their place is to share with others in the Body, so that all of us can be prepared to do the work of growing one another up. It is important to realize that those people who have these giftings are not complete in themselves, either. No one is. We all need the mending, adapting, and equipping ministry from other people gifted to help us in this way. Also, we all need the interaction of the other members of the Body to help us grow up to health and maturity in Christ. No one is exempt. No one is beyond needing the interaction and service of others. Furthermore, no one is exempt from the responsibility of serving others in the Body through investing in them by word and deed, especially according to the way God has designed you. This is Jesus’ plan to build His ekklesia, His congregation of people called out from humanity to serve God. He intends to work through us to mature and equip us to serve one another, to assault the strongholds of the enemy, and expand the Kingdom.

How is the church built up? There are three areas of focus in this Ephesians passage.

First, we have to be built up as individuals. The underlying assumption of the passage is that we all start out as immature and undeveloped. Personal growth is the first area which Paul mentions. The goal, or end point, of this building-up process is that we would have a sound understanding of the faith, that we would develop a deep and intimate relationship with God, and that our character should become like Jesus in righteousness, love and integrity.

None of us starts out that way. We all start out as spiritual infants, and we need to grow and develop in these areas. Without a sound grasp of Biblical teaching, and without an ability to hear from God, we are vulnerable to deception. Without a transformed character, we likely have areas of weakness and blindness which also leave us open to being entrapped and held in bondage by the enemy. We must embrace the responsibility which God gives us to grow up in these three areas: sound doctrine, spiritual sensitivity and consistency of godly behavior. Again, none of us starts out with maturity in these areas. We all have to grow, so let’s have grace for ourselves and for one another. Also, since these are the marks of maturity which Paul indicates, it is essential that we understand that every one of us will eventually be established in these areas, if we apply ourselves to growing up in Christ. These are characteristics of what a spiritual grown-up is like, so if we become mature, we will become established in all three of these areas. On a personal level, this is part and parcel of what the Holy Spirit will bring about in our lives. This is the end point. If you walk with Jesus, this is where you are headed. So, don’t think that this can’t happen to you, or that you’ll never attain these characteristics. This is part of your spiritual heritage, and God will establish your walk in these areas.

[I would be remiss if I did not refer to Acts 20:32 at this juncture. In this verse, Paul is leaving the church of Ephesus, thinking that he may never return. He commends these fledgling believers "to God and the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified." God Himself is a living personal spiritual being who cares for you immensely. He is able to work in your life to build you up. Furthermore, He has given you His Word, the Scriptures, as a means to also help you. In II Tim. 3:16,17, the apostle reminds us that these writings were "breathed out by God" and are beneficial for "teaching, reproof and training in righteous-living, in order that the God-follower may come to be competent, equipped for every good work." So, if we really want to grow in those three areas mentioned in Eph. 4, we would do well to focus on asking God to grow us up, and to invest in studying, memorizing and meditating on the Scriptures as a means for Him to do so. II Pet. 1:5-7describes a progression of faith development, moving from desire through knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly affection and agape love. Knowledge is only one ingredient in this process. Without new information, new ideas, we will stay stuck in our old ways of thinking and operating., so growing in knowledge is important. However, unless we apply what we learn, it is of no benefit. Christianity is not a "head game". We must become doers of the word, not just hearers or thinkers (Jas. 1:22-25). Knowledge without implementation is valueless.]

Secondly, we must actively engage in sharing honestly and lovingly with each other to build up one another. For this to take place effectively, there must be three ingredients.

(1.) We must be people who are willing to take the risk to become personally involved in helping others grow. This can be a scary thing, especially in our culture where we have been taught to respect other people’s privacy and ignore (at least not speak about) their flaws or weaknesses. We have to be willing to move beyond the insular boundaries between ourselves and others. We must approach them with concern and caring, asking real questions, expecting honest answers.

(2.) We must be people willing to be honest enough about our needs and struggles to open up, share our needs and ask for input and help. Any attempt at helping will come to an abrupt halt if the recipient is not honest and open. The Holy Spirit is a gentleman, and He will not push Himself into areas where He is not welcome. This too can be a scary thing, especially if we have spent years and years of our lives hiding things from ourselves and others. Yet, if we are to truly find freedom from old destructive thought patterns and behaviors, we must get them out in the open. Please do not be offended by people who may approach you about issues they see in your life. Everybody has areas that they need help seeing. That’s why we call them "blind spots". Your brothers and sisters in Christ have a responsibility before God to help you see the need to put off the works of darkness, so you can put on the armor of light, and walk in liberty in Christ. Some people say, "I don’t want people getting into my business." Well, if Paul is right, and we truly are members of one another (Rom. 12:4,5), and your sickness and immaturity affects all of us (I Cor. 12:26), then your business is our business, …not because we are snoops, or we want to find fault with you. Our genuine desire is to help you grow up in Christ.

(3.) We must be a people who are sensitively acting in response to the leading and prompting of Jesus, the head of the Body. The effectiveness of our interaction is directly proportional to our being obedient to the leading of the Spirit. (We come back to our need to personally mature in our walk with Jesus. We can’t act on the leading of the Spirit if we cannot discern when He is leading us.) This interaction between members of the Body is to be the expression of love and truth from Jesus’ heart through His members ministering to the hurting person (Eph. 4:15,16), all for the purpose of building that person up, …mending what is broken, binding up the wounds, offering encouragement, insight and hope. We need to guard the quality of our interactions, being careful to avoid controversies, disputes, or human opinions. These can put up defenses between people, and be counterproductive.

Thirdly, as the Body is functioning well, with people becoming more like Jesus and actively, respectfully expressing love and truth to one another in honest, practical ways, the life and vitality of God will be seen in us as a people, and the ekklesia will attract others. In this way, the grace of God is displayed to a watching world through the church. Jesus spoke of us being the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden (Matt. 5:14-16). It is our job to display the light of the glory of God into our world of darkness (Phil. 2:14,15). The quality of our love and interactions with each other will produce something in us that will be visible to others. Isn’t this our greatest evangelistic tools, that people could see that our lives have changed and that we really do love one another? Jesus said that love should be the signature mark that we are His followers (Jn. 13:34,35). How can they see our love, unless we interact with one another, and are involved in one another’s lives? Furthermore, our commitment to one another must go much farther than what is evidenced by other groups, or there would be nothing special about our love. There must be something very noticeable different about our relationships that cause people to stand back and say, "God must really be with these people. They are truly followers of Jesus."

Jesus said, "I will build My church." The way He has chosen to do that is through His people, especially as we interact with others. Following Jesus is not for the lazy or weak of heart, unless you are willing to be changed. Change and growth is what it is all about. God wants to work in you, and He wants to work through you.

Assaulting the Gates of Hades

Notes for the Ekklesia Meeting
Sundays @ 10:00 a.m. Info: (651) 283-0568 www.dtminc.org Today’s Date: June 12, 2005

Assaulting the Gates of Hades
by Dan Trygg

"…on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hades shall not prevail against it." Matt. 16:18-23

"If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters-- yes, even his own life-- he cannot be My disciple. 27 And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple. 28 Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? 29 For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, 30 saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be My disciple." Luke 14:26-33

I love action/adventure movies, especially ones where there is an objective to be accomplished which requires careful planning, preparation and execution to obtain the desired goal. The Mission Impossible movies, Sneakers, Oceans 11, are some examples. In each of these, there is a team of specialists working together. They are given their assignment and creatively come up with a plan to accomplish their objective. Then, they must work together to make it all happen. That is a word picture that illustrates what the church is supposed to be. God has uniquely gifted each of us so that we can be specialists, but His desire is that we learn to work as a team to accomplish His objectives.

Typically, in most of these movies, the characters are already fully-grown, capable adults. We don’t usually see how they came to be experts in their field. Often, if there is any explanation of their backgrounds, we find that their expertise came about through many years of experiences and experimentation. They don’t come to that team unprepared, unskilled or untested. That is a dimension to the church that these movies do not take into account. This would be more akin to the task that the various branches of the military have in working with those who enlist with them. Out of all those who come to them, they must train and equip these people to accomplish both general tasks, as well as to find those who can fulfill specialized roles, in their branch of service.

In a similar way, God has given us the responsibility and challenge of working with "raw recruits". We are to bring them through some measure of basic training, helping to establish their foundational spiritual walk and disciplines, all the while looking for clues to determine what their specialty gifts may be. We are to keep one another on track in our personal growth in our faith-walk, so that we become strong, stable and well-equipped for team ministry.

Jesus told us plainly that we are at war. Our general objective is against the enemy’s established strongholds in people’s lives, as well as his influence and control in localized areas. God desires to develop us as assault teams to break up the enemy’s dominion and operations within lives, neighborhoods, communities, states, and countries around the world. It was never His agenda that we "go to church". Rather we are the church, His people gathered to train, prepare, and ready ourselves for the mission assignments He will give us.

We need to be clear about this, in order to understand what is supposed to happen when we come together, and what we are supposed to take away from our gatherings. If we think that the goal is to come to church, then we will leave the meeting with a sense of having done our duty, but with no special over-arching focus for what our meeting was all about. Church gatherings become "events" by themselves. They were never intended to be that. If we perceive them that way, then we tend to be looking to be entertained, stimulated or charged up by a meeting, and we judge the meeting’s success by whether it accomplished that, or not.

Of course, it is easy, then, to approach the meeting from a passive mindset, waiting for the musicians or the speakers to "minister to us" (i.e., to stimulate us, energize us, etc.). If that is not happening, then we get bored or come away frustrated that we did not "get fed". Can you imagine someone on the Mission Impossible or Oceans 11 team acting that way? "C’mon, guys, entertain me. This is boring. What? You expect me to participate? You expect me to come up with an idea, to play a role in the plan, …to actually do something?" You see, your perceptions of what the purpose of the gathering is all about will drastically affect what you expect, and what you do.

Jesus told us that the general objective was to storm hades’ gates, but how do we translate that into a practical course of action in our lives, or for our local assault group (church)? Well, obviously we need to have direction from Him, to see where we are to focus our attention, and we need to put together a plan of action in conjunction with His leading. (A significant difference between one of these action/adventure movies and our calling is that they are usually very specific. They are about a single objective, whereas the struggle we are facing is protracted, with conflict and potential objectives on many fronts.) As we probe and pray, we watch for signs that God is opening up a new opportunity. Then, as He makes His will known, we need to get in step with what He wants to do. Sometimes the situation requires instant action. At other times, God may desire that we put our heads together to formulate a plan that takes into account our giftings and the level of maturity of our Body. In other instances, we may have to develop skills that we do not yet have, requiring research, preparation and growth. Sometimes the objective may require special giftings or personnel that we do not have in our midst. In such cases, the Lord may require us to look beyond our group for people who can do what we cannot. Therefore it is important that we network with other believers outside of our fellowship.

Remember, our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual powers. This means that we must learn how to combat an enemy that we generally cannot see, hear or touch. We cannot use weaponry or techniques that we may see on TV or the movies, because our foes are very different. The kingdom of darkness is very real, however. It is highly organized and efficient. Jesus’ words imply that Satan and his minions are already entrenched in people’s lives and in communities, businesses, countries, etc. Wherever people are, Satan’s forces are at work, and likely have at least some inroads. In spite of the fact that the enemy has had time to hide, to get dug in, and to set up elaborate systems of protection, Jesus says that all his preparations will not be able to stand against the assault groups of the Kingdom of God. We can win. We can drive the enemy out and turn the spiritual climate in an entire area around, …but we need to know what we are doing, we need to discover and follow God’s strategy for the assault, and we need to work hard. This is not a curiosity, or a hobby, …this is a real war. People’s lives are being destroyed, and we can make a difference. Satan is not playing, and we cannot afford to either.

We must realize, too, that Satan is not just hiding behind some stronghold somewhere, hoping that we will not find him. No. He is actively working to entrap us, if he can. That is why Jesus prayed for His disciples, asking the Father to "keep them from the evil one" (Jn. 17:15). Early on, He had taught His followers to pray for themselves in this fashion (Matt. 6:13). Many years later, the apostle Peter warned us to be alert and watchful, because the enemy prowls around, looking for easy prey (I Pet. 5:8). The apostle Paul warned us, as well, of the spiritual opposition that wars against us. He exhorted us to put on spiritual armor, and to be calling out to God in prayer, for ourselves and others (Eph. 6:10f). Although this may seem to be a bit overdone to our 21st century sensibilities, the truth is that the enemy is all around us. Our cavalier attitude just indicates how well he has succeeded in camouflaging his activities from our eyes.

George Verwer, founder of the mission organization, Operation Mobilization, has declared, "Most people in the church in America are wimps." He is right. Most people do not have a clue regarding anything I have written above, and they certainly would not know where to begin, if they were suddenly to realize what their true spiritual responsibilities were. Then there are those who do have some awareness of these matters. They nod their assent to what I have written. They have read about such things. They have been to meetings where they heard prophets, or they know someone who has had a run-in with a demon, or was involved in a healing. See, that is so typical of what we have come to be as a people. We live our lives vicariously through others. We think that because we have seen, heard or read about something, we are "in the know" and somehow more mature than those who "don’t know". No. We are no different than those who "don’t know". We are not any more actively engaged than they are.

What are you doing that is actually a threat to the enemy? Are you knocking on his gates, bringing the battle to his door? Does he have to be afraid of you and your friends, because you are hunting him? That is what Jesus is asking us to do, to go after the enemy and root him out. The church should be making the devil uncomfortable. We should be putting him on the run. Instead, we barely make enough noise to irritate him, and we do that in our own buildings, among ourselves, where it won’t matter. What noise we do make is not from anguished hearts, desperately crying out to God for direction, boldness and power to make a difference. Instead, we have our dressed-up "religified" version of campfire songs.

Right after Caesarea Philippi, Jesus began to talk about His cross. He also pressed the disciples about what it meant to follow Him. They were to count the cost. Were they serious? Are you? I don’t know about you, but I am challenged by what I am finally coming to realize that I am called to be and do. It makes sense more than ever before, and I find I have a lot to learn, and a lot to seek God for. I also am excited. I want what I know God has for me. I’m looking for team members, people who are ready to take on objectives God gives us. Are you ready to dig deeper, to go farther, to "turn it up a notch"? Let’s go!

I Will Build My Church

Notes for the Ekklesia Meeting
Sundays @ 10:00 a.m. Info: (651) 283-0568 www.dtminc.org Today’s Date: June 5, 2005

I Will Build My Church

by Dan Trygg

“…on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

Matt. 16:18-23

“For through Him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In Him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”

Eph. 2:18-22

“But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the Body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”

Eph. 4:15,16

“And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”

Acts 2:42-47

Last time we saw how Peter had made the outward confession of the inward revelation which God had given him regarding who Jesus was, namely that He was the Anointed One, the Messiah from God. This insight, owned and personalized by repentance and faith, would be the foundation upon which Jesus said He would build His people. His ekklesia, His group of people called out for His purpose, was to bring into expression the Kingdom of God on planet earth. They were to take people and territory away from the powers of darkness, which had been entrenched here for centuries. God’s promise was that the gates of hades would not be able to resist the assault of His assembled ones.

Jesus came to crush the head of the serpent. He came to strike a death blow to Satan’s power and kingdom. Satan knows now that his time is limited, but he continues to hold people under his bondage and darkness. Through intrigue and violence he has attempted to derail or stop the advances of the ekklesia in the world, but, at the end of two millennia, its advance has once again accelerated to a rate which is highly threatening to him. God has been pouring out His Spirit upon those of His children who are ready and open to receive it, and are willing to put its dunamis power to work.

After centuries of bondage to a hierarchical system of “doing church”, which kept most believers in immaturity and in a spectator-mode of living, the winds of the Spirit have opened up God’s people in fresh ways. Those who are led by the Spirit find themselves more and more propelled into active ministry. Spectator Christianity is out. Instead, God is raising up a remnant of His people who are stepping up the spiritual assault by meeting in small, interactive, Spiritually-minded groups. In these groups, people are built up and encouraged in their faith, and the Spirit leads them into ministry outreach which is practical and Spiritually-empowered.

This is not a new thing, it represents a return to a very ancient methodology, that which Jesus modeled for His disciples, and that which they utilized in the early church. In those early centuries, before the imprisonment of the church in large lecture halls and before the rise of a priestly caste of religious professionals supported by state taxes, the Christian movement grew at an astounding rate of 13% per year (even more in the apostolic period). No wonder that in three centuries it had swept through the Roman Empire and had infiltrated virtually every segment of society!

The secret to the church’s success lay not in its outward forms alone, but in the powerful, transforming work of the Spirit in the lives of everyday people. As people changed, and were mobilized into active proponents of the Kingdom, the impact was unavoidably felt in families and in society as a whole. People could not help but be curious, and the Christians were more than willing to share with their neighbors what they had discovered.

The infectious Christian movement spread rapidly, because it was almost entirely relational. It had no overhead expenses, since generally churches met in homes. They did not have to wait for a group to become large enough to support rental expenses, nor did they have to build buildings. They did not even have to wait for leaders to be trained. Training was minimal, because successful oversight and mentoring was more a function of common sense and intimacy with the Spirit, mixed together with an understanding of the Word of God. People gifted in caring for others in this way soon became evident, and were able to function adequately as they learned the ropes under the mentoring and oversight of others. Pastoring followed more of an apprenticeship model than a schooling model.

Note that Jesus said that He was going to build His church. If you look at the passages listed above, you will see that He does it through two major forces, the work of the Holy Spirit and the activity of His people in obedience to Him.

You will also notice that all of these passages emphasize a binding together of a people.

The passage in Matthew suggests a building together process, but then calls us an ekklesia, a people called out from the masses and assembled together for a purpose. That purpose is to lay siege to the strongholds of the enemy, and liberate people and territory from his control and influence.

In Ephesians 2, we are presented with a picture of the building process very reminiscent to that described in I Peter 2:4-10. We are like stones assembled together into a building, which Paul describes as a holy temple, a dwelling of God in the Spirit. The important thing to note is that we are assembled together, and we are to be in right relationship with Jesus, who is the cornerstone. This signifies a life in agreement with and obedience to His will. When we do that, we are part of a team that functions together. When we are out of place, out of agreement with His will, we affect not only ourselves, but those around us. The word picture describes how important it is for us to be in the proper place of orientation to Jesus so that God’s purposes could be accomplished and the building could proceed.

Paul then moves to a different word picture in chapter 4, that of a body. We are like the parts of the body. As we grow in every way into the head, Jesus, He directs us to be tightly-fitted together and knitted together in relation to each other. Then the joints of supply can provide the power and grace from God to minister. Note that this comes about as each part is working properly. This word picture marries the power of the Spirit to the functional activity of every believer in order for the Body of Christ to be built up effectively.

As we look at the passage from Acts, we see the practical way the apostles brought the people together. They met in homes, in small interactive gatherings where they could “be real” with one another.

For the first three years, or so, they also met in the temple, as well, but after the stoning of Stephen and the persecution that followed, that was no longer an option. During the next three hundred years, the church was only a small group movement, meetings in homes, cemeteries, and in other obscure or fairly secretive places.

Interestingly, this coincides with the period of time when the Christian movement enjoyed its greatest exponential growth, and Christians were most active, spiritually-charged and radically obedient.

It was also a time when signs and wonders often accompanied the advance of the ekklesia. There were open power encounters between the Holy Spirit and the entrenched forces of evil. The gifts of the Spirit were very evident in those early centuries, but with the Roman captivity of the church, those became infrequent and the growth rate also virtually flatlined, especially after 500 A.D.

During the next one thousand years, the church became little more than a religious institution, growing along with population growth and the conquering of non-Christian nations by those who claimed Jesus. Although there were always some bold evangelists in every age, generally during the Middle Ages, with political occupation came the introduction of Christian teachings and practices. The crusades captured the imagination and devotion of some, and stirred the pot, bringing about the evangelization of more, but the gains were lost during the Renaissance period. The all-time low of this period was the 1400’s and early 1500’s.

Then, with the Reformation, things began to heat up. The teaching of the priesthood of all believers, and the availability of the Scriptures in the common man’s language, opened up a surge of evangelistic fervor and there was also a rise in people rediscovering the gifts of the Spirit.

I say a “surge of evangelistic fervor” because the growth rate of the church went from less than two tenths of one percent over the previous 1,000 years to a quarter of a percent in the 1600’s, a third of a percent in the 1700’s, to over half a percent in 1800, and crossed the 1% growth rate by 1900. The growth rate peaked in 1990 at 1.74%, and has slumped down to 1.27% in 2,000. Pretty pathetic, huh? Of course, this represents the total loss and gain of all Christian groups worldwide.

It has become painfully apparent that much of what used to “work” (at least what was sufficiently attractive to keeping people coming to church) no longer is effective. Many of the more liberal, mainline denominations are losing people in droves, as are many of the traditional styles of worship and liturgy.

Offsetting the losses of more “traditional”, formalistic Christianity has been the explosive growth of Spirit-empowered believers since about 1850. The first wave were the early Pentecostals, followed by Charismatics, beginning in the 1950’s. Most of these were from the more liberal main-line denominations, or from the Roman Catholic church. Then, in the ‘70’s a third wave of Spirit-empowered believers began to emerge, this time from Fundamentalist and Evangelical denominations. They were people of the Word, who became empowered by the life of the Spirit. The spiritual gifts were released in their lives, often to their surprise.

Where this has really exploded is in third-world countries, notably Africa, China and Latin America. In total, these groups are growing at a rate of 8-10% per year. Worldwide, they have the same ingredients as the early Christian movement had, they are meeting in homes, they are very relational, deeply passionate about Jesus, and they are filled with the Spirit. Signs and wonders are common in their ministry outreach.

In the early church days there were 360 non-believers for every Christian. In 1960, there were 24 for every Christian. Today, there are only six. Jesus continues to build His church.

The Great Reversal
By Jim Rutz from Megashift (Empowerment Press: Colorado Springs 2005) Pp. 14,15

The direction of world events has made a sharp turn. Before the mid-1980s, Christians were growing about 2% a year, barely above the world population growth rate. Now God has stormed onto the scene like a tornado. Compare today’s annual growth rates:

Why the World Will Soon Be Christian. Not only are core apostolics growing far faster than Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and new agers, but in fair and even encounters, spiritual power prevails and Jesus wins perhaps 99% of the time. The main defenses of other religionists are not the-ological arguments, but violence, persecution, legal barriers, and propagandistic falsehoods.

Core apostolics are the new saints who are at the heart of the mushrooming kingdom of God. The term and the category are both mine, but they’re not at all subjective. They stand for a very real and countable movement of more than 707 million switched-on disciples.

As you can see, the growth rate of Protestants (and Christians in general) is so terribly low that they had clouded the picture, hiding the white-hot growth of the core apostolics. But now I feel you have yet another cause for celebration: the clear identification of an extremely strong center of the new Christianity.

If you don’t care for statistics, here’s the gist:

The growing core of Christianity crosses theological lines and includes 707 million born-again people who are increasing by 8% a year. These “core apostolics” are a powerful mix of Charismatics, Pentecostals, and Evangelicals whose main distinction is that they are in expanding, connected, easily countable networks.

The term excludes those groups that are so liberal in theology, so isolated in structure, or so deeply rooted in medieval tradition, that they are hardly growing at all.

More Christians Than People?

We rely on God, not statistical trends. Yet it’s fascinating to realize that the current core apostolic growth rate would produce a world composed entirely of core apostolic Christians by 2032! Of course, straight-line projections are a fool’s game because life never goes in a straight line. There will be pockets of resistance and unforeseen breakthroughs. Still, at the rate we’re growing now, to be comically precise, there would be more Christians than people by the autumn of 2032, about 8.2 billion.

In any case, the new realities are massive in scope. The future of your world is being rewritten at this very hour. For instance:

• Up until 1960, Western Evangelicals outnumbered non-Western Evangelicals—mostly Latinos, blacks, and Asians—by two to one. As of 2000, non-Westerners had shot ahead by four to one. By 2010, it will be seven to one! (Park this in the back of your brain for the next time you hear someone bad-mouth Christianity as “the white man’s religion.”)

• If you go through Latin America on a Sunday morning, you will now find more evangelicals than Catholics in church.

• As soon as we produce some church models that are culturally acceptable to Hindus, we could see an additional 70 to 100 million secret Indian Christians go public.

• There are now more missionaries sent from non-Western nations than Western nations.

Are you starting to see the outline of the new world? God writes history, but human eyes have trouble reading His handwriting. It’s not that He writes too small, but too big.