ISEMA Newsletters
Spiritual Resistance Against the Church
By Doug Stringer (From the Ambassador Report, Turning Point Ministries, Box 925308, Houston, TX 77292, (713) 621-1498.)
Cities represent the resistance and opposition to God and His Kingdom purposes that have been entrusted to the Church. We are called to counter this resistance. The cities are the battleground for the minds and the control of people. Cities represent capitals and center of evil and corrupt philosophies of this present darkness. Powers of darkness are released into the personality that will dominate a city. If I say, “San Francisco” you’ll think of a mind-set that surrounds that city. If I say “New York,” “New Orleans,” or any major metropolitan area around the world, there is a certain personality of that city.
People are drawn to the city with a false hope of security, when in reality it is nothing but a web that draws them into the clutches of the devil. By the year 2000 the world cities are expected to swell to 1.7 billion more people. About 85% of the world population is going to be jammed into the cities only a few years from now. We are facing the possibility of an exploding world of chaos and difficulty. We are getting ready to face an urban nightmare, unlike anything mankind has ever known. We’ve got to win our cities for the Lord!
THE LAW OF FIRST REFERENCE – The first time the word “city” is mentioned in the Bible is in Genesis chapter 4. Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in NOD. In Hebrew the word “Nod” means “a place of wandering.” He was a man of rebellion, murderer, running away from God. He then built a city in the land of Nod and called it Enoch, which he named after his son (Genesis 4:17). Here’s the special insight. The first time a city is ever mentioned, people are running away from God, running from His presence thinking that they can hide. It’s nothing but a place of barren waste. The first city was truly a stronghold to keep God out, a personal monument to man’s own abilities.
The next place that the term city is mentioned is in Genesis Chapter 10, it says Nimrod built Nineveh, the same city that God called Jonah to go and cry against because of its much wickedness. He built another city called Calah, which means “complete,” carrying the idea of “we arrived.” And finally another one called Rehoboth, meaning a “broad place.” Remember that Jesus said, “narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:14).
I see a two-fold reason that our world and its cities and people are in such crisis. First of all, because we the Church and the people in the Church are apathetic, comfortable and deceived. Secondly, there are evil powers that lurk in the city which control and dominate it. Until we, the Church rid ourselves of the carnal, sensual compromise and the mixture of the leaven that’s in our own lives, we’ll never see the Lord Jesus arise powerfully to change our cities. If we have not circumcised our own hearts or prostrated ourselves before a Holy God and said, “God, we have offended You by our apathy and indifference; our comfort and our seeking of pleasure,” we will never see the enemies of the Cross routed. “WE MUST BE IN THE CITY BUT WE MUST NOT HAVE THE CITY IN US.”
Each city is dominated by specific evil spirits. Over the city of Houston there are a number of territorial spirits or ruling entities. There do seem to be four major spirits over Houston. Groups that don’t really relate to one another in the Body of Christ, different denominations are coming up with a similar list of dominating spirits.
PRIDE is the logo of Houston. “We’re Houston Proud.” The very phrase permeates the whole existence of Houston. From NASA to the petrochemical industry the thought is the same, “Houston has it all.”
GREED, the God of Mammon. As you drive through the city, you begin to spot the places of hi-tech industry, banking and commerce. Recently, we’ve seen the bottom drop out of the Savings & Loan Associations and all across Texas, the banks are being shaken. Men are putting their confidence in money while God says, “you shall have no other gods besides Me.”
VIOLENCE is prevalent in our city. One area of Houston, the Westheimer strip, has one of the highest crime rates in all of the State of Texas. Gang activity and all acts of violence have unbelievable ramifications for all of us. By the end of January of this year, there had already been a reported 35 murders in our city. We’re losing the war against crime in our city at this point. We’ve got to have a spiritual awakening.
MORAL IMPURITY, the uncleanness, the filthiness of the flesh permeates the city, from adult bookstores to homosexual clubs. Prostitution is rampant and there is an increasing number of abortions occurring every day. Thus we’re seeing the moral decline of our city.
Whatever spirit is ruling over a city has been sent to dominate and rule over the hearts and minds of individuals and to infiltrate the Church. The Church needs to circumcise its heart and humble itself before God and say, “Oh God, if You don’t do it, it’s not going to happen. And if You don’t move, Houston has no future.” We need to awaken ourselves and put out the call to the pastors and leaders of the Church to come together and pray. God showed me a principle concerning spiritual warfare while I was seeking some answers. He woke me up in the middle of the night and I saw myself in a boxing ring. I had been pumping up, working out a lot and building myself up physically for this match. I was in the ring beating this guy up. Then all of a sudden this guy disappears, my opponent was gone. Next thing I knew, this guy was beating me up, because I couldn’t see him.
I didn’t know who I was fighting or where he was. The Lord dealt with me, saying, “Doug, you can work on your physical muscles, but you better start building your spiritual muscles, if you are going to fight a spiritual war.” I pray that we all can come to understand that principle, for we truly do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against powers and principalities.
SOS-San Francisco Outreach Report
God has done many wonderful things over the past 12 years of SOS-San Francisco, but this past outreach was certainly one of the best and most diverse. Youth With a Mission (YWAM) teams joined us from New Zealand, Hawaii, Seattle, Denver, and Northern California. Individuals came from as far away as Minnesota and Texas. Over 600 Christians participated in this year’s outreach, with about 300 involved on a daily basis throughout the week. One of the brothers who joined us was Eric Livingston. Eric was saved last summer in the Berkeley jail. We met him the day he was released during last year’s SOS. He participated in the last half of the outreach and entered the Watsonville Teen Challenge program, which he has almost completed.
Over a hundred of those who participated were part of the King’s Kids, children from 6 to 16 years old who ministered in song and dance. Ten of the children came from an orphanage in Mexico! A dozen were from a San Francisco ghetto church. The faith, innocence and love of these precious children would melt the hardest heart. God opened doors through these children that are normally closed to us. They were able to minister at Pier 39, the third biggest tourist attraction in the U.S. The police allowed them to set up a P.A. without a permit at the Marina Green on July 4, while thousands were waiting to see the fireworks display. One of the King’s Kids groups was a “Hands” team, a group of teenagers that was involved in service projects, such as cleaning up Golden Gate Park and giving out clothes to the poor. Many of the teenagers were involved in a Torch Run, carrying a torch into every area of San Francisco, praying for that area and giving out tracts to people who watched them. Some Russian immigrants were involved in this ministry.
The YWAM team from New Zealand sang local native songs from their country, using them in evangelism. Calvary Chapel of San Francisco led a prayer team to neighborhoods throughout the city. One team worked with Asian teenagers in the Tenderloin district. Another team did some door to door witnessing with a local church in the Glen Park district and witnessed at City College. We had six drama teams in various areas. One brother ministered using sketch board illustrations. On July 4, we fed and witnessed to hundreds of Hispanics in the Potrero Hill district.
We had three worship rallies at Union Square and two at Embarcadero. The first rally at Embarcadero was on a very hot day and over a thousand businessmen were in the plaza. We gave out 100 New Testaments that day. On Wednesday, we did our first outreach in seven years at Lower Sproul Plaza on the University of California campus in Berkeley. Afterwards, Ray Comfort preached without an amplifier and drew a crowd of over a hundred people. He gave out free dollar bills to illustrate that salvation is a free gift that we must humble ourselves to receive.
On Saturday, 200 Christians from Set Free Christian Fellowship in Anaheim joined us for a rally at Washington Square. Most of these people had been saved from intense involvement in drugs and gangs. Four people who were saved at the outreach are now living in Set Free discipleship houses. Afterwards, we marched from Washington Square to the Powell St. BART station. We carried a hundred banners and sang worship songs as we marched through Chinatown and downtown San Francisco. We concluded the outreach Saturday night with prayer for San Francisco on Twin Peaks.
Coming Events
Saturday October 12, November 9 San Francisco Worship Rally and Evangelism Outreach. 3-6 PM. Powell St. BART Station. Contact SOS Ministries, Box 27358, Oakland, CA 94602, (510) 531-5325.
October 26-November 6 Hawaiian Halloween Outreach. $300 for food and lodging. Contact Christ in Action Box 100, Chatsworth, GA 30705, (404) 695-1868.
October 24-November 4 Huasteca, Mexico Outreach. (Also outreaches to China, Guatemala and Romania in Fall. Contact Forward Edge, 15121-A NE 72nd Ave., Vancouver, WA 98686, (206) 574-EDGE.
October 31 Prayer Rally at Candlestick Park, San Francisco. Contact Larry Lea Ministries, Box 9000, Rockwall, TX 75087, (214) 771-7000.
December 29-January 1 Florida Bowl Blitz–Jacksonville to Miami. Contact Rescue Atlanta (Mel Rolls, Director), Box 965039, Marietta, GA 30066, (404) 924-0201.
December 31-January 1 Rose Parade Outreach, Pasadena, CA. Contact Sondra Berry Young Ministries, Box 3044, Newport Beach, CA 92659, (714) 650-0525.
January 1 Cotton Bowl Parade, Dallas, TX. Contact David O’Dell. Operation Christlift, 3400 W. Park Blvd. #2117, Plano, TX 75075. (214) 519-0195.
A Final Word
Last month we sent out an evangelism survey to all the street ministries in our directory. Many of you have returned the survey, but if you haven’t–please return it to us right away. We want to know more about what you are doing and how we can serve you better.
Our Tape of the Month is “Solomon’s Porch: the Church in Public Places” by Richard Paradise. Richard is Director of Proclamation at New Hope Christian Fellowship in Sacramento. This teaching gives a practical strategy for having a church service outdoors, as a public witness of the gospel.
Yours in His love,
Larry Rosenbaum
