Pulling down strongholds — or reinforcing them?
Tim sent this message to local pastors on January 6, 2014:
Our Lord has charged us with the divine power to demolish strongholds (2 Corinthians 10:4). But all too often it seems that Christians in our community are reinforcing demonic strongholds instead of seeking to tear them down.
“A stronghold is a mind set impregnated with hopelessness that causes the believer to accept as unchangeable something that he/she knows is contrary to the will of God.”
Do we believe that it is God’s will for babies to be aborted in Bakersfield? Do we believe that God wills that those who attend our churches participate in abortions? Do we believe that God wants His people to speak up for the innocent children who cannot speak for themselves? Do we believe that we honor God by enabling members of our congregation to “sin that grace may abound”? Do we accept as “unchangeable” the continuation of the carnage of abortion (nationally, locally, and in our own congregations)?
Several minutes ago I listened as a Christian young woman justified her participation in having a child killed in Bakersfield’s FPA abortion center today, quoting scriptures to condemn us for seeking to save the children. (I wish I could say that I was shocked to hear such venom coming from a Christian, but this is all too common.) The woman chose to trust the doctor’s judgment instead of choosing to trust the God who created the child.
At the very moment that this woman was chastising us, another woman arrived unexpectedly to show us her two month old child who was saved from abortion. Even though this saved child and his mother had faced a similarly negative prognosis to the mother and child being aborted today, the woman was resolute in her determination that today’s scheduled abortion must be executed. Although she is a Christian who knows her Bible well, her mind has been captured by a stronghold.
Has God called you to pull down strongholds which exist in the minds of those who attend your church? Are you teaching your church to have faith to believe that they do not need to abort a child God placed in their womb, no matter the circumstances? Are you teaching your church to take a stand against the killing of children in our community?
Are you teaching your church to pray as Jesus taught us? Are you teaching your church to pray for God’s will to be done here in Bakersfield as it is in heaven?
Sanctity of Human Life Sunday is less than two weeks away (Sunday, January 19, 2014). Unfortunately it seems that even at this time, many leading local pro-life pastors find other concerns to be more important than taking a stand against abortion in their own congregation.
If you had other plans for January 19, even if find yourself in the midst of a series, let me ask you this: did you preach a different sermon than you had planned on the Sunday after 9/11/01? With almost 3000 dead in one day, most pastors quickly rewrote their sermons, believing that to ignore the carnage would be to dishonor the dead (and to dishonor God).
Yet over 3000 children die every day in our nation from abortion!
I’m sure you know that you can change your plans if you want to. But perhaps the children dying here in your backyard (perhaps even in your church) are not sufficient reason to change your plans.
If you are one of the few who plans to preach against abortion on Sanctity of Human Life Sunday, please let us know so that we can tell others (perhaps some of those we reach will be there to listen). Also, consider sharing your sermon with us, so that we can pass it along to others through the Pastors Pro-Life Resource Center.
In Christ’s service for those who cannot speak for themselves,
Tim Palmquist
P.S. If there is anything we can do to help you have a more meaningful Sanctity of Human Life Sunday, please don’t hesitate to contact me at (661) 412-2291 or reply to this message. To learn more about how God calls us to be involved in spiritual warfare against abortion, including pulling down strongholds which tolerate and enable abortions, read chapter eight of my book, available free at this link.
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