The idea that the Church is only a refuge that we run into needs to change.
The Church is, in fact, the place from which God sends us out to conquer.
The idea that the Church is only a refuge that we run into needs to change. The Church is, in fact, the place from which God sends us out to conquer. I believe that God’s word for the Church today is to take back the territory that has been lost. For generations God’s people have given up our authority to shape and influence culture to the enemy. Over 300 years ago Yale and Harvard were founded as institutions of higher learning to educate ministers of the gospel. Now these same institutions aggressively promote atheism, socialism and are extremely critical of Christian thinking. A great champion of conservative values, William F. Buckley, who just recently passed away, was prohibited from delivering his commencement speech at Yale because of its overtly Christian content. He in turn expanded his speech into a book, God and Man at Yale, where he exposed the aggressive liberal agenda of his alma mater and rallied a movement around him to restore the foundations of our nation and culture.
We are in a strategic battle for who will define and set the values for our culture and our nation. We saw this again at our recent conference in Dr. Lance Wallnau’s teaching on the seven primary influencers of our culture. If we leave a vacuum in any area of our society, something will fill it. It is time for new voices to arise and take back the territory that has been lost, and it is the charge of the church to lead the way.
An apostolic view of the Kingdom is necessarily going to see the Kingdom in the context of the Church. Our spiritual father and mentor, Brother Derek Prince, used to teach that many of the prophetic Scriptures of Isaiah are referring to the Kingdom represented by the Church of Jesus Christ. Isaiah 2:2-3 is one such example:
In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. Many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways, so that we may walk in His paths." The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
This mountain is the end-time Church in her glory. We are living in the last days, and we are on a journey to where God wants us to rule and reign from the top of this mountain. We need to move from the idea of the Church as only being a refuge. The Church is, in fact, the place from which God sends us out to extend His Kingdom. The cross of Christ has planted us at the top of the chief of the mountains where He has conquered every power and principality, even death. Jesus said, “If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto Me.” Isaiah 2:3 says, “all nations will stream to it.” The mandate of the church is a missionary mandate that extends not only to individuals, but to the high places in every sphere and every level of every nation. The Church is the agent of change to not only bring people into the Kingdom, but to bring the Kingdom into the earth.
Vision for overcoming and taking the land comes from the perspective of the Mountain of the Lord. In Numbers 27:12, God tells Moses, “Go up this mountain in the Abarim range and see the land I have given the Israelites.” This is the vantage from which we will prevail. Too often we allow our perspective to be defined by the other powers and high places in our society. The voices of our media, entertainment, government and our educational system have all shaped our culture with the message that the Church is irrelevant, repressive and powerless. But we see from Isaiah that the Church is not just one voice, nor one hill among many. The Church is the chief of mountains and exercises authority and influence over every other hill! In order to fulfill our mandate, we need to experience a paradigm shift in our understanding. We are seated in heavenly places. It is from this vantage on the chief among mountains that we do spiritual warfare, intercession and go out to take back our culture and society.
Isaiah 59:19 promises that, “When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against Him.” 2,000 years ago the Lord lifted up a standard and planted us above every plan and power of the enemy. We are in a season of restoration as individuals, as the Church and as a nation. Wherever you are and whatever challenges you face, you are defined by the Mountain of the Lord.
