Don’t Doubt it – The Enemy Fears the Church

Dynamite blasts a 50,000 person church in Chi*a this past January. Sides crumble, earth rumbles, ceilings splinter apart like some cardboard commodity.

A bright, red cross high and lifted up, bends low, slides horizontal, parralel with that dusty heap of rubble left to taint bystander’s nostrils.

Yet, the Golden Lampstand Church of Shanxi Province, wasn’t the first church under President Xi Jinping to explode into ashes.

Crosses have been removed, steeples taken down, churches fall in many regions, as a wild attempt to eradicate evangelical Christianity from spreading like fire.

Men also in our societies, have catastrophically fallen.

Lowered, shattered, like a building without energy, offered no space to meet within society. Sucking air, unable to breath and cope, their very identity ripped apart since the garden of Eden…

Adam didn’t stand. Voiceless, he let Eve eat the apple, thus changing history.

It seems, fear has landed everywhere, like a fine dust, in the hearts of God’s people. People hurried and scrambled, hidden behind counterfeit screens in hopes to protect themselves….

Trying to retain some resemblance of dignity. All the while, the enemy tries muting us, white-washing us.

He tries to cover us with sackcloth, legalism where works replaces words, good behaviors substitute the spoken message of God’s redemptive work.

Fearful to offend. Christians feel threatened, made to tiptoe, compromise, keep silent about the once invigorating, spoken gospel…

Padding it, replacing it with complacent, comfortable Christianity. Our vice. Though nothing about Jesus life was safe, unoffensive or intimidated.

And yet, I see the church rising. I see the Spirit of our God permeating our society. 

Wall’s crumble, but faith rises.

Steeples topple, but the truth of a whole gospel burns alive without borders, doors, or ceilings to quench or hide it.

God is radically moving; in homes, public places, in caves in communist countries.

He is alive in small gatherings, during Bible readings, through prayer, in the walls of every heart open, willing to catch the blaze and run in faith wherever He might be leading.

The church is getting feet.

And surely feet with a firm foundation planted deep outweighs some solid building our carnal eyes might see.

Jesus had no place to lay His head. Yet, His ministry was revolutionary, spread by a group of men mobilized by persecution.

Men on fire, due to the urgent need to tell as many as possible, before their very lives were taken.

Persecution always inflames the true gospel…whether in China, or in the caverns of our very own hearts.

And the enemy fears us rising, rising in the flames, standing from the rubble, set ablaze by real relationship with the One who has never, ever failed us.

Screens flash quietly before us. Another text, private message. One more stranger “likes” us from afar.

But we are learning, we have come to discover, we are more than some rectangular imagine we stare at in our hands.

We are alive, fully awakened, created human beings, made to live, experience, be in relationship, pursuing dreams no flat screen could ever distract us from, or extinquish. 

We are not slaves to social media. Man-made apparatus’ don’t own our children. (See Kirk Cameron’s movie: Connect)

We are God’s chosen, having power over what was created. And we are rising, confident, in our God-given identities.

The enemy fears this understanding. He fears a generation set free from the addiction of a coma-like, dumbed-down, isolated-existence.

We are a generation who walks in evangelism, looks people in the eyes and ministers to those before us, regardless of how they appear.

And in the passing of Billy Graham, we didn’t lose a world-changing evangelist. Heaven gained a saint. Can’t you just see him standing at the finish line, cheering us on, with the rest of the great cloud of witnesses?

His mantle of faith and fearlessness, love and kindness….spreading.

All the while, we are remembering the power of a simple gospel, untainted, unwatered down, uncorrupted by a loud, blasting culture whose proud and over-sensitive.

We are getting real, raw, taken back to our First Love, as heart’s recognize the power in confession and repentance, coming to faith not through works or some club offering exclusive membership.

We all play a part. As we are fully realizing Jesus is no respector of persons. The sinner and saint, the executive and drug addict, all welcome to His feast.

Groups like YWAM are moving, across land and waters, leaving mothers and fathers to pursue a gospel that doesn’t die, won’t lie, hasn’t failed lives in over 2,000 years.

Movies like, “I Can Only Imagine” are showing us what real redemption looks like, the power tucked in love and forgiveness. Generations sustained like never before, by His grace and mercy….

The enemy fears us knowing who we are, in a world that tries to neutralize gender, ages and cultures….mute us all into one messy, ashy-looking heap of rubble.

But God’s calling each and every single one of us to rise; uniquely and distinctly.

Each tongue and tribe He calls to know their place, embracing their beauty in this pallet of history. Not apologizing, or melting, or compromising their identity.

Unity means embracing our specific place and purpose, embracing our distinctions.

African, Asian, South American, Pacific Islander. Voices of all God’s peoples, tribes, and generations called to stand and sing together.

Power lies in knowing our each individual purpose, but also power rises when our voices come together corporately.

Unity doesn’t mean we have to look and act the same.

And the Fathers? They are recognizing their names, as heads of households, men who rise, not in authoritative dictatorship….But as kind, strong, God-focused leaders.

When the Father’s rise in Him, nothing can stop this generation.

Men have fallen to fear for far too long, and Fear is a liar.

Adam is being replaced with the Second Adam, Jesus. A man who came to renew, redeem, and represent what real, loving leadership looks like.

And I can only imagine the enemy quakes, as Joel and Acts tells us old men will dream dreams. Young men are seeing visions, sons and daughters are prophesying, and the Spirit is alive and moving…

And not even a million explosions or destructions of local churches across the world can stop it.

People are hungry to pray. The church is coming together, utilizing social media for prayer, finding groups and people in other nations to reach to, evangelizing in create ways…

Finding homes to gather in, caves and neighborhood buildings to rally in…

God’s Spirit has been released. And the laborsome warfare, heavy yoke of oppression and evil intentions we once experienced, have been replaced by power and authority, His victory and truth.

The church is rising in love. And love casts down a thousand demons, covers a multitude of sins, rises above all doubt and fears.

We have a new mantel of grace and favor, identities meant for the advancement of a Jesus who died so that we can experience newly empowered freedom.

Can’t you just see the enemy tremble and flee from every committed Christian clinging to the saving grace in Jesus…

Every mouth that professes His hope and promise, His power and authority…every heart submitted to the Lordship of the One who reigns sovereign in victory?

Churches may crumble. Dictators, leaders, and strong men of power may come and try to destroy the church.

Even people close to us may try to lure hearts away from The One who won the battle on every calvary hill…

But, He wins. He lives. He reigns above it and through it all. He IS our victory.

Christian’s are rising up. And the devil must fear and flee immediatly. The enemy’s schemes have been revealed.

Confusion is in the camp…and everything in darkness is finally being revealed. Exposed to His eye-blinding light…

Hearts committed to love and justice, hope and peace, and His goodness, will never die.

Jesus is alive. And a million explosions of a bunch of old buildings can never stop Him.

Let freedom reign. Let heart’s sing. Let His Spirit go out with fury and evangelism, in faith and purpose.

Men and women take your place, walk in authority, rise in the fullness of your God-given inheritance…We are children of the King.

The enemy fears. Let’s rejoice! The church is rising.