The Church’s Most Powerful Weapon

If you’ve been around Apostolic Churches much at all, you know that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God for pulling down strongholds, (2 Corinthians 10:4 NKJV). You have doubtless heard of our spiritual armor and any number of spiritual weapons. There is definitely no doubt that we have been equiped by God to triumph over the enemy of our souls.

There is one universal weapon however, that is available to one and all, regardless of whether you are Apostolic or not. This “secret weapon” has been used from the most ancient times to accomplish great things. This weapon in fact is so powerful, that God Himself, had to step in to prevent mankind from accomplishing their purpose, by the use of this weapon.

This weapon is really not a weapon in the sense of the usual weapon. In fact all of our spiritual weapons provided by God have the power to accomplish wonderful victories individually without the use of this “secret weapon”. For instance, the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God is so powerful that Hebrews has this to say about it:

Hebrews 4:12: For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing even to the point of dividing soul from spirit, and joints from marrow; it is able to judge the desires and thoughts of the heart. (NET)

So God has equipped us to have victory in our lives. Notice however, how I entitled this post, “The Church’s Most Powerful Weapon”. The weapon I’m talking about is a weapon the Church as a conglomerate is in need of. At least if we are to achieve the complete destruction of the enemy’s plans.

What is this weapon? UNITY! If local churches and the Church as a whole could ever come to a place of unity, only God could tell what we would accomplish for His kingdom. If you look in Genesis 11:6, you will see that God Himself had this to say about sinful mankind when they were unified to accomplish a goal.

Genesis 11:6: And the LORD said, “If as one people all sharing a common language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be beyond them. (NET, emphasis in bold mine).

If our Churches could come to a place in the Spirit where we would get true unity, there would be no stronghold left for the Devil and his minions. On the other hand, disunity is Satan’s most powerful weapon against the Church. God even goes so far, as to say that someone who causes disunity among brothers is an abomination to Him (Proverbs 6:19).

I believe that our greatest days as the Church are yet to be seen. I also believe that the only way we will achieve the pulling down of Satan’s strongholds in our communities, is to first achieve unity in the Body of Christ. We need to check our own spirit and attitude first (to ensure that we are not the problem), then do all we can do to bring our local congregation into a place of one mind and one accord. How many lives will be changed? How many slaves to sin, set free? How many souls will find salvation? We will never know if we can never find a place of unity in the Church.

We received power after we received the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8). We have power through the Holy Spirit Who lives with in us to overcome in our personal lives. How much more could we accomplish if would become unified in purpose to reach our communities with the Gospel? I hear some in the Church speak about the outrageous sin going on in their communities. Abortion clinics everywhere. Bars and strip clubs going up all around along with casinos, etc. In actuality these are not the problems, they are the symptoms of the true problem. If our Churches would come together in unity and declare war upon the enemy in their communities we would see such a revival that these symptoms would close down for lack of customers. I’m not talking about organizing protests, etc. either. I’m talking going back to the New Testament, Apostolic, tried and proven method of warfare. Spiritual Warfare! In other words coming together in prayer and fasting, teaching and preaching the Word without compromise, and seeing a revival we can only imagine. Think I’m crazy? Read American history in the 1800s. When the Christians got so hungry for God they were willing to go to war for it, the bars shut down because the owners were converted. Whole towns would repent.

I realize we live in a different time. I also realize that our God is unchanging and still Omnipotent. You say your Church wants revival? Get unified behind the Man of God in prayer and fasting. The strongholds will come tumbling down.

When Your Promise Dies

I was privileged this past Sunday to hear my old Pastor, Kenneth Haney, preach at Dallas First Church. During his message he mentioned the story of the Shunammite woman. I opened my Bible to review the story and this story hit me with such a message for our time. You can read the account for yourself in 2 Kings 4:8-37.

To sum the story up, Elisha traveled through the town of Shunem “where a prominent woman lived”. This woman insisted that Elisha should stop at her home for a meal. She then talked her husband into building an extra room on the house for the Prophet to stay in when he traveled through. Over the course of time Elisha stopped by many times. One day he discovered that she was childless and he prophesied to her that by that time next year she would give birth to a son. The woman actually told him “do not lie to your servant!” She revealed in that statement just how badly she wanted a son. She did give birth to a son as the man of God had prophesied. Several years later when the boy was old enough to go to the fields with his dad, he apparently had a heat stroke and died. Her Promise Died!

While the woman had wanted the son, she had not asked for him. The prophecy came to her at God’s pleasure. Now after only a short time with the son she adored, the promise from God, that promise lay dead in her arms. All the hopes and dreams of a mother for her son, died with the boy.

I don’t know about you, but this story hit home for me. How many of us have promises from God that seemingly have died? Perhaps a man of God prophesied to you a promise from God, but the hope you had in that promise has died over time as it remains unfulfilled. Perhaps you have literally seen the promise die in various ways. Your ministry, your marriage, your children backslidden, and the list goes on. The promise has not seemingly died, it HAS died. No breath, no life, DEAD! Perhaps it has even been years since the death, burial and even the mourning for the death of the promise is past. You sometimes think about the promise with regret, but for the most part you have accepted the death and moved on.

Since we are applying the first part of the story to our lives, let’s continue on with the story and see what application we can find. When she realized the boy had died, she took his body to the prophet’s room and laid his corpse upon his bed. She then went to find Elisha. Read 2 Kings 4:25-30.

25 So she went to visit the prophet at Mount Carmel. When he saw her at a distance, he said to his servant Gehazi, “Look, it’s the Shunammite woman.26 Now, run to meet her and ask her, ‘Are you well? Are your husband and the boy well?’” She told Gehazi, “Everything’s fine.”27 But when she reached the prophet on the mountain, she grabbed hold of his feet. Gehazi came near to push her away, but the prophet said, “Leave her alone, for she is very upset. The LORD has kept the matter hidden from me; he didn’t tell me about it.”28 She said, “Did I ask my master for a son? Didn’t I say, ‘Don’t mislead me?’”29 Elisha told Gehazi, “Tuck your robes into your belt, take my staff, and go! Don’t stop to exchange greetings with anyone! Place my staff on the child’s face.”30 The mother of the child said, “As certainly as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So Elisha got up and followed her back. (NET)

When her promise died, she went straight to the man of God who had spoken the promise to her. Notice when Gehazi asked if all was well, she answered “everything’s fine”. She didn’t express her doubts or fears to someone who could not help. She simply spoke in faith, “everything’s fine”. To sum it up, Elisha went to her home and prayed and the boy was brought back to life. The promise was resurrected.

I wonder if when my own promises died, several years ago, what would have happened if I had the spirit of the Shunammite woman. If I had kept my head up and trusted God to resurrect the promises He gave. He gave them. He allowed them to die. He can resurrect them!

After all, God knows everything. Therefore, He knew when He promised you all that would come to pass in the meanwhile. We forget that when God promises, He does not always give a time frame. We tend to assume the promise is for immediate fulfillment. But He may have a different time-table in mind. God is not a man that He should lie (Numbers 23:19). If He promised it He will fulfill it. Our part is to remain faithful to Him and trust Him to fulfill the promise in His time. Has your promised died? Has it been dead to you for some time now? Perhaps even, as in my case, it has been years since you saw your promise die.

My question to myself and to you is a simple one. When your promise dies, what kind of spirit will you have? Will you mourn the death of the promise and bury it, and as time goes by forget it? Or, when your promise dies, will you say everything is fine? The mother recognized the death of her promise, but she also recognized the One Who could resurrect that promise. When you truly trust in Him, the One Who gave the promise, you can say; “everything is fine”, because you realize that God is still in control. When you’re trusting in God to fulfill His promises in His time, you realize that everything is fine. Because He is in control, and He will fulfill His promises.

Numbers 23:19 God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a human being, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not make it happen? (NET)