Welcome to the Resistance
In a world spiritually besieged, spiritual life is spiritual warfare. Whether or not we know it, whether or not we desire it, whether or not we feel up to the fight, the battle is upon us. It has been so since Eden.
And now, as then, the battle is fought upon the field of our minds, first; in terms of truth and trust and appeals to our loves. The assault is nearly always subtle: “Did God really say…?”, the enemy whispers, and, “If I may be so bold; mightn’t there be a better - and I dare say less costly - way?”
The enemy must be subtle, because for all the terrifying power of his animus - his ravenous desire to steal, kill, destroy, and despoil - what authority he has is a contingent authority. It operates upon the basis of permission. This earth is not his possession (“The earth is the LORD's and the fullness thereof…”), nor his rightful dominion (“Let us make mankind in our image, after our likeness. And let THEM have dominion… over all the earth…”). As such, the enemy of our souls only has agency to enact his diabolical program inasmuch as he has been invited and/or allowed to do so by those who have been rightfully bestowed with agency and authority upon the earth. Namely, humanity, under God. You, and I. Where we give the enemy ground he will surely take it, and once entrenched, he will resist removal. But it is nonetheless true that the earth is the Lord’s, and dominion, ours in him. If and where we stand, resisting the devil’s entreaties and deceptions, we stand rightfully. He has no authority to displace or lay claim to us.
“Resist the devil”, James exhorts us, “and he will flee from you.”
Intercession is a work of active resistance; speaking and claiming the truth and promises of the Lord as against the deceptions, advances, and every false claim of the enemy. To pray is to stand. To stand together is to contend. The agreement and practice of this Revival Covenant is an organization of resistance; contending together for our homes, our churches, our region to become spiritual strongholds of the King and Kingdom of the Heavens against the devil’s schemes. Bulwarks of life and renewal, forerunning and bearing witness to that day when all warfare will be ended, and all things are made new.
Rev. Chris Bannon
Area Coordinator North, Revive New England