Be Strong, Courageous, and Careful

Well, I didn’t get a blog out last week, so I posted that fact on Facebook and got a lot of “likes.” I don’t know exactly what that means. Do they like the fact that I let them know, or do they like the fact that I didn’t write a blog? Whatever the case, I continue to write.

The reason I didn’t get a blog out on the 18th was because Susan and I took three days off to spend some time in Indianapolis around our District Area Ministers Meeting. We left Monday afternoon, checked into a hotel, and had a great steak dinner — compliments of a very generous member of our church. We spent the evening checking out local thrift shops in search of grey pants for me.

On Tuesday (Susan’s birthday) we met with Phillip, our son, for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. It was a very interesting place with exceptional food. Afterward Susan and I went to the movies. Of, course, that evening we were at The Caring Place (formerly Calvary Temple) meeting with other Central Area ministers.

On Wednesday we had breakfast at Denny’s, did a little shopping, and headed home to Union City to prepare for the evening service at Calvary. After the service that evening, we had a cake with the congregation to celebrate Susan’s birthday. The Men’s Fellowship and Ladies’ Bible Study took up an offering and bought Susan a new NIV Study Bible (color appropriate: hot pink) for her birthday.

I was overly tired during the evening service, but the fast-paced study through Joshua, Judges, and Ruth went better than I expected. There is so much material in these books. My prayer is our members will use them as a Bible overview resource to refer back to time and time again.

Thursday I met with the Pastor of the Trinity Lutheran Church to plan the Good Friday Service and show him the presentation I did for it. I am delighted that after four years here, I have Pastors who will work together. That brings me to what I want to talk about in today’s blog.

A New Season

There is a new day for us here in Union City. I know Calvary has been in transition, and will continue to do so, but I also see the entire community beginning to change. There is a new spiritual climate pervading the atmosphere of this area. Have you ever felt like there was a darkness trying to settle in on a community? Have you ever felt that persistent gloom and despair that is in the background of everything? Although I felt it when I first came to Union City, I didn’t understand what it was. There was just that something-in-the-air feeling that I couldn’t put my finger on.

As I began to deal with some of the issues in our church, I realized the spiritual bondages that were present. You might say I was struggling to maintain a peace where there was no peace. There was a season of trying this and trying that before I finally began to see what God was trying to show me. Once we began to pray about the wall we were hitting and the turmoil that was constantly stirred up, we began to see a breakthrough. However, it was not until the summer of last year that I truly felt we had established the reality of victory in our church. This past fall led to a greater victory in my home life also.

We finally experienced a breaking free from the spiritual influences that kept stirring things up. As a church, we began to realize this new freedom towards the end of the year of 2012. Prayer became our focus, the Prayer Tower was born, and people began to fight for victory in their personal lives, backed by our new season of prayer. Not only were things moving in the right direction, they WERE moving once again!

Suddenly the response of the community around me began to change also. In the past they greatly resisted even talking to me. I felt shunned. Now, however, they make an effort to talk to me. They seem to want to include me, instead of exclude me. Where once I felt marginalized, I now feel valued. As we have reached out to our community, they have responded by reaching out to us.

Something mighty has changed in the spirit.The social climate feels different. In January of 2011, during our week of prayer, I heard a loud sound of something breaking in the spirit. It was a sound I have often tried to describe since then. Mistakenly I’ve tried to describe it in the way an ear would hear it. Now I have realized it is better described in the way people act towards one another. We are honoring one another, preferring one another, and respecting one another. We see value in each other.

The most powerful aspect of this new spiritual climate is that it is not just in our church, it is community wide. Our whole area is going to benefit from this breakthrough. I’m not saying all the strongholds have been demolished, but we are bombarding them with effective prayer.

One of the evidences that this is true is that the devil continues to thrash about trying to do as much damage as possible, but he only meets with defeat after defeat. It’s kind of like Iraq when they retreated from Kuwait, they burned the oil fields as they left. Yes, there are fires to put out, but we now possess the land.

Victory By Decree

I have been reading The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson. In this book he notes when God promised victory to the Israelites over their enemies, he always did it in the past tense. Last night I told our church, “Don’t go into the battle until the victory is already in your hand.” It’s amazing to see how many understood this statement. I have never really understood it before. Victory is not won by fighting the battle, victory is obtained by asking God for it. 

As a result, I have begun to ask God to give me this city. Albeit it is currently a feeble request, I am beginning to understand that God’s desire for our church is much bigger than what we have grasped to date. Whereas churches up to now have been community churches, God is beginning to move us to be a regional church. It is nothing for people to drive 10 miles to church, or even to have close relationships with people who live in other communities.

Drawing Circles

We must draw a circle not only around Union City, but a ten mile radius outside the city. At the Lord’s direction, I went to Google Maps and printed out a map of our area between Winchester and Greenville. As I prayed over it, the Lord impressed me to draw a circle with it’s center on our church. Now here’s the question that came to my mind, “How big?” The Lord’s answer to the question was the same, “Yes, Brian, how big? That response stopped me in my tracks. I understood what he was trying to get me to do.

I have just become bold enough now to begin timidly asking God for this city. However, he is saying my vision is still too small. He wants me to take a close look at the region. I got out my compass and placed its point on our church. I began to twist the wheel and twirl the end around to get a feel of what it was encompassing. Internally I was listening to the Spirit's leading. Each time I encircled an area I felt faith saying bigger, bigger! Finally my compass reached the borders of Winchester and Greenville and I thought of the other Assemblies of God churches there. That’s when my heart knew how big the Lord thinks.

It was like planning a bomb drop to effect as many people in the region as possible. Where do you place the epicenter of the blast to encompass as many people as you can? As I pressed the pencil of the compass to the paper and drew my circle, I felt a confirmation in my Spirit that said, “I have given this area into your hands.”

When I completed this exercise in faith I taped the map to my office wall. Then I began to meditate on what Mark Batterson had said in his book, “When God gives you the victory he speaks in the past tense.” In other words, the Lord is making a decree. He is stating how it shall be. He is issuing an order that angels carry out. At the moment I decided to align my will with his, increase my vision to his, and match my faith to his, he said, “It is done.” God has not only given us this city, he has given us a regional church that reaches beyond the borders of our town, our community, and even our state. Our promised land reaches as far East as Hwy. 116 in Ansonia, as far South as Hwy. 36, as far West as Hwy. 27, and as far north as East 800.

I have told our church that this summer I will begin circling our community with prayer walks. I will be adding to that vision with “prayer drives” around the entire perimeter I have described. I have noticed after reading Joshua again, the Israelites began dividing up the land of their possession even before it was entirely conquered. They based their conquest on what God had promised, not on what they were experiencing. There are still principalities and powers in control of areas, but the land is ours.

Possessing the promised land is based on persistence in the promises of God. Beginning with my prayers, I will begin to encompass this area and claim the victory over it. Like God told Joshua when he took charge after Moses, “Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you.” (Joshua 1:3) The Lord goes on to describe in detail the land and the boundaries of the possession. He then charges Joshua to be strong and courageous.

Our courage if not based on our ability. It is based solely on God’s promises. It takes awhile for me to see myself as the Lord sees me. Many of us have this problem. We are small in our own eyes. It is not a matter of developing some kind of superiority complex to see yourself as God sees you. It is more a matter of being willing to do as he says, to inherit what he has promised. God will now show us how to posses the region he has called us to. We must follow closely after him in prayer. The Lord concludes his charge to Joshua by warning him to be careful to do everything he showed him. 

1. Be Strong  2. Be Courageous  3. Be Careful

6 “Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people
to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. 

7 Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law
my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left,
that you may be successful wherever you go.

8 Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth;
meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful
to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. 

9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous.
Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged,
for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Joshua 1:6-9

Taking It To The Streets

I want to note that territory is not just marked out in square miles. God also wants us in the territories of government, business, and the schools. He wants us to possess the land in our jobs and in our families. He wants to give us victory over every principality and power that holds our region in darkness. He wants our light to shine everywhere.

Just two of the things God is drawing us to that state our claim to this area — our prayer teams and our home fellowships. I excites me to see that, beginning with the Prayer Tower, our ministries are no longer confined to our church. God is giving us outposts and tasks forces to move out into the far reaching areas of our region. We must support and sustain ministry throughout our area. I envision a home fellowship at every extreme limit of our influence. I envision prayer teams traveling through the region like special ops moving in on the enemy’s works.

If we can embrace this vision in 2013, who knows what God will do. No longer are our sons and daughters outside of our reach. We claim them as part of our territory. We have a right to them, in the name of Jesus. No longer will our government, our schools, our jobs, businesses and social organizations be off limits. The Lord says, “Everywhere our feet shall trod.” Being involved in our church is important, but being involved in our community is imperative for victory and possessing the land.

Pray with me that God will increase our vision and impart to us the direction to achieve it.

Calvary Assemblies of God | 720 N Plum St Union City IN 47390 | Pastor Brian P. Jenkins |  (765) 964-3671 | www.calvaryassembliesofgod.org