To: Club Readers
September 6, 2021
Happy Labor Day.
We hope you get some rest from labor.
I am excited to welcome you to our first New MondayMorning.Club. I looking forward to connecting with you each Monday Morning with a short blog, a few book reviews now and then and some relevant news that I trust will be of interest and help to you. It will always be short and to the point but with links to more if you want to dive in.
People can theorize all they want about Covid-19 and all that has resulted from the global pandemic. The real power behind all of this is Satan. We are in a spiritual warfare that is being fought out in the natural realm.
A SEASON OF HEIGHTENED
SPIRITUAL WARFARE
“For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds” (2 Corinthians 10:4 ESV).
In all my years of serving the Lord, fifty-three years in ministry, pastoring in three countries and ministering in many nations. I have never experienced the level of spiritual warfare that is being manifested in the natural realm currently.
In Luke chapter ten, the seventy disciples returned from their first ministry trip excited about the healings and demonic deliverances. Jesus said, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. He is telling them that there is a spiritual being called Satan behind all of this and I saw him cast out of heaven.
Jesus said, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy” (John 10:10 NKJV).
Kill (virus, wars, murders): The world is experiencing Satan’s killing powers.
Steal from you: All that God has for you Satan is trying to steal from you. Spiritual, Financial, Happiness, Joy, Peace . . . do not take this. Rise up you “Soldiers of the Lord.”
Destroy: We are seeing his destructive forces at work in our societies, families and throughout the world.
We dare not be spectators.
“Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11 NLT). Other translations us: “His evil schemes or the traps of the devil. Paul instructs us not to give the devil a place, an opportunity, or a foothold in our lives. (Ephesians 4:27)
“From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force” (Matthew 11:12 ESV).
Three Main areas of Heightened Spiritual Warfare
Personal: It is very important to allow the Holy Spirit to help you to discern where the enemy is attacking you. The battle in true spiritual warfare is first in the believer's own mind.
I am seeing people making decisions that are completely out of context with who they are. While a time of disruption can be a season of opportunity it can also be a time where the enemy heightens confusion and disillusionment that leads to wrong decisions.
“In order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes” (2 Corinthians 2:11 NIV). In times like this it is wise to be prayerful and seek wise counsel before making major decisions.
Family: In the very first family Cain murdered his brother Able. Satan continually attacks the family. Is your family under attack? Are some making wrong decisions? Is your marriage strained?
You would think that the shutdown with people working and, studying at home would strengthen the family. It appears in many families it has brought more division, anxiety, depression, and marital stress.
(1.) Know your enemy.
(2.) Recognize his schemes.
(3.) Rise up and intercede in prayer for your family.
(4.) Seek prayer partners, counseling and help as you fight this warfare. Don’t fight alone.
Church: The first time Jesus mentions his church to the disciples he let’s them know that the enemy would be trying to destroy it. “I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18 NKJV).
I don’t think there has ever been a time where almost all churches around the world were closed. It happened in 2020. This gave the enemy a “foothold” and he is trying to kick the door open. If find yourself criticizing your church. Thinking about leaving the church or changing churches. You need to recognize the heightened spiritual warfare against the church and against you. What we need to do at this time is:
(1.) Strength the church.
(2.) Be faithful to church.
(3.) Pray for the church.
(4.) Support the church.
(5.) Stand with our leaders in the church.
The church especially in the West has had a steady diet of the prosperity gospel, bless me teaching, and hype. The truth is most do not know how to stand up to a real attack from the devil.
Researchers are saying that a lot of people have not and are not returning to church as the pandemic slows. Why? The church is under heightened spiritual warfare, and many do not understand that so they are responding out of the flesh rather than the spirit.
This will be continued next week.
Books we've been reading and Videos we have watched.
John Maxwell is always a good read. This one is exceptionally challenging. It's so good, we sent a copy to all the PC Global Pastors. At our church the men are starting a study of this book.
I read all my books on Kindle. Here is the link.
The CHOSEN Video Series
I have seen a lot of videos and movies about the life of Jesus but, the Chosen is the best I have seen. If you have not seen this, you are missing out. There are two seasons online. You can download the app and watch them free. Your whole family will enjoy The Chosen.
This is by far the BEST book I have read on REVIVAL in a long time. It will challenge you to want to be a part of a move of God. It gives you history of what was happening in the world, with the youth and how God used ONE HIPPIE and Chuck Smith and his wife to spark a historic move of God. This book will put you on your knees praying for revival. Here is the link.
Janet's recent read
Priscilla Shirer is Dr. Tony Evan's daughter and a great speaker and writer.
This is a good book for you personally and also for a Bible Study. We know a couple of churches who have used this book.
It goes through the life and times of Elijah. The ups and downs of life.
Janet, Here is the link
Is our WORLD RIPE for REVIVAL NOW?
Here is a few paragraphs out of Chuck Smith's autobiography.
When the first wave of hippies arrived in San Francisco, people were giving away marijuana and LSD. In time, organized crime moved in and cornered the market, so that drugs not only cost money, but users where pressured to move on to cocaine and heroin. The flower children began to fade and were replaced by a culture of violence.
By the end of 1969 the optimism that characterized the early hippie movement was gone. Enough young people had either died from overdoses or permanently damaged their brains through hallucinogens that no one continued to pretend drug use was about peace and love. It was just about getting high. The curtain came down on the hippie culture in December 1969 when a young man was stabbed to death at a free concert in Altamont, California. Within two years of that event, three of the counterculture's most popular rock stars had died from overdoses.
Thousands of young people who had given up everything and dropped out of society now found themselves stranded in a cultural wilderness. They did not want to turn their backs on the values they had embraced—non-materialist lifestyles, the importance of the human person, treating all people with love, and the earth with kindness, and so on—but they could no longer find support for their values in the naive belief that all they had to do was get the entire world to "turn on." They needed to find an entry point back into society that allowed them to bring their dreams for a better world with them.
Rarely has there been a time in history when a culture has reached a critical mass in which it was so perfectly prepared to discover the person and teaching of Jesus Christ. The Christian church, which from its founding was an outpost on the margin of society, provided the ideal environment for hippies to be reconciled to God and re-enter mainstream culture, yet without letting go of their belief that peace and love should prevail in the world. Once they heard the message and found a church whose doors were open to them, they came flooding in by the hundreds and thousands.
Smith, Chuck. Chuck Smith Autobiography: A Memoir of Grace (p. 164). The Word For Today. Kindle Edition.
There is MORE to COME . . .
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I would love to read your thoughts so please post your comments. Share with me please reach out to me.
Larry Neville