Years ago I played high school and college football. I played defensive end and our defense was rated #2 in Florida at the time.  We played at a pretty high level.  The way that was accomplished was by focusing on and practicing the fundamentals consistently.

Whenever our team started doing poorly, it was often a sign that it was time to go back and review the fundamentals. 

Today, the Church in America is in crisis.  I've had numerous interactions with ministers whose character falls far from the standard set in God's word and or have little or no power.  While I am sure there must be some ministers from bible colleges and seminaries who walk in the character and power of Christ, in the last several years I've interacted with far to many who do not.  It's no wonder that the Church in America is in the condition that it is in.  

Based upon the fruit that I see, it's time to revisit the basics.  This short (50 pages) but powerful workbook is an interactive course designed to get YOU into God's word so you discover what His word says about these essential foundational doctrines that take the believer from the spiritual cradle to eternity.   

Click here to visit Amazon and orders your copy today. 

Recently a minister asked me a question about a certain situation involving witchcraft which inspired me to share these truths with you.  Like Paul in 2 Corinthians 2:11, I don't want Satan to take advantage of us by being ignorant of his devices.

First let's start with a foundation of understanding.  God created the heavens and the universe.  He created natural laws and spiritual laws.  These laws work just like the law of gravity works.  The law of gravity works the same with a righteous person as it will work with an evil person.  

I can tell you how witchcraft, divination and soothsaying work because I understand how prophecy, words of knowledge, discerning of spirits and other spiritual gifts work.  If righteous person drops a big stone on a pile of rocks he is using to make a wall, the rock will fall at the exact same speed and hit with the exact same force as it will with an evil person.  The only difference might be the target.  For example, the evil person may choose to use the same object for an evil motive.  He may choose to use the stone in the same manner to take someones life or harm another person.  The natural law governing how the stone falls can be the same.  The only difference is the person's motive and target in exercising that natural law. 

It is the same with spiritual laws. Spiritual laws work the same way as they do in the natural world.  The main issue is what's the motive and the target of the practitioner. 

The truth is there is a lot more witchcraft practiced today than many realize.  I'll use the following scriptures to help explain.

There is a principle in God's word encapsulated within 1 Timothy 1:18 which says, "This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare,"

Prophetic words from God often foretell what is to come and or share God's heart and thoughts on a matter.  This portion of scripture also reveals that prophetic words are also part of the New Testament experience and the word translated "warfare" is very revealing if you look at the Greek word actually translated warfare. It's the Greek word strateia. It's the origin of the word we use for strategy today. Strongs Concordance says that it means "apostolic career, military service or warfare."

It's the same word used in 2 Corinthians 10:3-4, "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ."

This portion of scripture reveals that our warfare is a spiritual war against strongholds of thought. Every proud that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. Bottom line it is a war for truth against lies.

Looking back at Paul's admonition to Timothy we can understand that God can use prophecy to forewarn us and even give us insight or strategy for the spiritual war that is to come for individuals or in the book of Isaiah's case, for nations.

The Dream Fore-warned Us How the Devil Would Use White Supremacists 
The Lord gave Rick Joyner a dream in 1993. It is recorded in "The Coming Catastrophe."  The reason I highlight this man's prophetic dream is because he's shared it in other books and articles and at one point around 2011 I remember going to the website of a "Right-Wing Watch" group.  They were mocking him and his prophetic word about a coming spiritual civil war and race riots. 

When Ferguson occurred a couple of years ago I went back to check and found that group had removed the mocking article.  I'd like to share portions of Rick's dream and some other people's prophetic words and share some of the strategy God gave His Church to pray.

 When they said Lord, teach us to pray in Luke 11:1 Jesus responded with an outline we call the Lord's prayer (Luke 11:1-4 and Matthew 6:9-12).  We were to pray that our Father's kingdom and His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

I learned in the Navy War College that the role of a military is to enforce the will of the government it represents.  Jesus message, His assignment is all about presenting the gospel of the "kingdom." The kingdom is a government of which Jesus is king.

In Ezekiel 37, Joel 2, Ephesians 6, 2 Timothy 2) we find the Church likened unto an army and over 245+ times in God's word we find God's name as the Lord of Hosts (Armies of heaven and of earth).  When Jesus taught us to pray kingdom come and will be done, He's calling His spiritual army to pray with power.

One of the ways we can increase the power of this army is through the prayer of agreement. The prayer of agreement is like the principle of mass that they taught me at the war college.  In my book Developing Apostolic Strategy I share about the principles of war and how that each of these principles of war are biblicaly based and authored by the Lord of Hosts. In fact, when it comes to the principle of mass there are five factors that contribute to the amount of power able to be projected.  To learn more about the 8 principles authored by the Lord of Hosts click to see Developing Apostolic Strategy.  

These five factors are:

In cities and communities across this world we find a small but very important group of Christians.  They are marked by their love for God and a strong desire to see:

• Our Father's house of prayer built through 24/7 prayer (Isa. 56:7, Acts 15:17-17 & Matt. 21:13)
• Jesus prayer for the Church to become one in John 17:21 
• Their community transformed through the presentation of Jesus gospel of the kingdom
• Leaders gathered and working together in the 7 spheres of society

​James 1:22-24 and Romans 2:13 teach us that it is the "doers" of God's word who are blessed. No action equates to no faith and no results.

Love is Essential
1 Corinthians 13 teaches us that no matter what we "do," if there is no love that under-girds that "doing," those actions profit nothing.  They are useless.

So love is absolutely essential otherwise our "doing" is merely worthless as far as eternity is concerned.

Love without Wisdom, Knowledge & Understanding is Frustrating
But if we are going to be a doer and put our faith into action then we need to do it with wisdom. Otherwise we will be doing it the hard way. Proverbs 2:6 teaches us that wisdom includes an understanding of how and when to use knowledge and understanding.

Over the years I've seen many church mobilizers fueled by their love for God and a desire to see their community impacted through the presentation of Jesus' gospel of the kingdom.  They want to do the Biblical mandate which includes go and making disciples of all nations.  They are so passionate about seeing prayer established in their church and community.

But they are frustrated by the lack of results.

The Beauty of the 1Church1Day Community Prayer Transformation System
The beauty of the 1Church1Day Community Prayer Transformation System is that it is designed to serve those kinds of church mobilizers.  They provide the love, passion and action.  The 1Church1Day system adds the wisdom of God with knowledge and understanding to their actions which helps them and the churches they serve to exponentially increase their impact in their community by 7x in just 90 days.
 
​How? Let me show you by sharing with you the scriptures that under-gird each step and action in our system.

We just received this report from Steve Buss and the One Hope network in Lane County Oregon.  Here's an excerpt from their newsletter.  

For two years, more than 40 churches + hundreds of people have prayed around-the-clock for our community. With specific insight from Christ-honoring leaders in every sphere, we’re praying. God is giving us eyes to see our community, teaching us to seek its “peace and prosperity,” and bringing glory to Jesus. There is more to come! Praise the Lord!

Steve's team introduces the strategy on their website with:

One Church - One Day provides a simple way for churches to pray together for our commu​nity in strategic and relevant ways. Each church takes one day every month to pray for 24 hours. This creates a church-led, year round, strategic prayer covering for our community. In other words, that's prayer on behalf of our community 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days of the year!  Click here to go to One Hope's website.

In the read more section below I'll provide a link to this PDF report and you can visit their site for more of their personal testimonies click here.  Let's rejoice with them and remember that the testimony of Jesus, is the spirit of prophecy (Rev. 19:10).  If Christ did it here, He can do it in your community to.  Catch a vision!

One Hope's Two Year report of their employment of 1Church1Day (One Church One Day).

I love this report because it illustrates the "long term impact" of God's presence invited into a community. Click here to download One Hopes 2 Year Report in PDF. Now while we start by emphasizing the 7 spheres or 7 mountains the truth is, you can have as many or as few councils as you desire. In Lane County they choose 10 areas to focus their prayer on and as of today, there are actually 42 churches working together each month.

What's so cool is that One Hope did this "old school."
What do I mean by old school? They had to do the work and due due diligence to put the communication infrastructure in place in order to facilitate the prayer, praise, requests, reports, and serve the councils. My friends, this system works! The beauty of the app and the associated 1Church1Day Community Transformation System is that we are helping automate the process for you. We are going to offer two kinds of leagues.

1. Ambassador League - An ambassador league (you name your league) will incorporate the best of "old school" with new technology. They'll have access to all of the "old school" tried and true tools that have been used by ministries in over 38 nations for the last 12 years. Plus, we've found a way to offer the 1Church1Day app to your league and use it for directing your decrees, prayer targets and sharing your testimonies through the app. You'll use some of our old school systems and processes to handle your watchman reports, prayer requests, praise reports and council reports. This league is where everyone starts with a very low financial threshold to set this up. Watch for this to be rolled out in our app the first week of June.
2. Kingdom League - A kingdom league is for a church/ministry/city/network of churches who desire to utilize the full automated 1Church1Day Community Transformation System. It automates all of the old school systems and the beauty of it. It empowers the Church overseeing it to mobilize strategic prayer and action within 5 minutes. It provides a level of security and confidentiality which is key to serving high profile leaders in the 7 mountains and in your council teams. It offers calendars so every person can manage their watch schedule and there are ways for everyone to report what the see and hear. I love this because this system offers leaders a "virtual strategic command center" which we call a Leadership Dashboard for your league. This will also have your very own 1Church1Day apps associated with your league for your people. There is a significant cost to customize which we will discover what that is over the next several months. I'll share more about this soon.

Lessons Learned

1. This Kingdom Strategy Is Cross Cultural - While many are familiar with the Whatcom Story who began using this strategy in 2008 (ORT) or Lane County who began in 2015 there are a large number of communities who've employed with strategy who do not have websites and support like these two ministries do. We've seen churches impact communities and regions from Gainesville Florida, to Yakima Washington, to Kalamyo Myanmar, to Andra Pradesh India, to Lahore Pakistan, Kenya, Liberia, England, Romania, etc.
2. What is Needed to Start? - Leaders from the Church in a city, region, county, etc. who have responsibility because Christ called them. Leaders who are motivated by a kingdom heart. What do I mean by this? Leaders who recognize the Church is bigger than their ministry and they need to work with the other parts in that area. They often cry and pray for unity or that the Church would be one as Jesus prayed in John 17. People who are captured by a vision for building our Father's house of prayer continually. The most important element is the fire that burns within their heart we call love. Love for God, love for God's people, love for the lost and a desire to see Christ's love impact and transform their community. Bottom line, you supply the love and the territory and through 1Church1Day we can help you apply the wisdom of God to your passion to increase your effectiveness.
3. Honor - 1 Peter 2:17 says to "Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God and honor the king." It requires honoring God's word. In Acts 15:16 it says in the latter days that God would restore the tabernacle of David so the Gentiles might be saved. The tabernacle of David was marked by a system of teams who offered up 24/7 prayer all year long. It requires us to honor God's word when it comes to loving our brother and loving the lost. 1 Corinthians 12 makes is clear that there are many parts but one body and we need each other. It also requires that we honor jurisdictions. For example, our prayers are much more impactful when a leader with authority such as a mayor, police chief, fire chief, business man, pastor or bishop invite us in to pray. Finally we need to honor God's word when it comes to "doing" what His word says such as recording dreams, visions and words (Habakkuk 2:2), judging those words (1 Corinthians 14:29) and doing good strategic spiritual warfare through God's word (Psalm 68:11, 2 Corinthians 10:3-4 and 1 Timothy 1:18). It also requires honoring roles and gifts. God designed and gave certain gifts to perform certain functions. In every community where you see "long term results" you will also find a team or ministry who do what no typical church or pastor can do. They are uniquely gifted and called to mobilize and connect the body of Christ on a larger scale.
4. Faith in Action - James 2:17 says "Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead." You can talk, dream, envision, strategize, pray, prophesy etc. but the bottom line it requires a leader or a handful of leaders with a gift of wisdom to begin to put their faith in action. 1Church1Day provides wisdom to start ..... but it requires a leaders motivated by the love of Christ to push through the pain, disappointment and challenges that arise. Candidly, the steps are simple. 1. Build the wall of prayer as one church takes one day 2. Set a watch 3. Form councils 4. The spiritual intelligence gleaned through prayer and these councils are shared with the leaders who then do just like King Hezekiah did in Ezekiel 37 when he laid the report from Isaiah and the enemy before the Lord and asked God what to do. It's simple! But simple does not mean easy. But the fruit is worth it.

1Church1Day is a strategy that empowers the Church in each city, county, region etc. to become like an author as they begin through prayer and strategic wisdom to write a new chapter of Church history in their region.

Lance is an acquaintance of mine and here is an article in Charisma News in which I shared through our Facebook.  It's because we are called to be salt and light and yet, in my opinion, many ministers today use a feigned wisdom that is merely a thinly veiled mask for fear. 

This is why they avoid addressing anything that is controversial.  I've chosen a different way. I purposely share controversial topics in order to demonstrate how God's word shapes my attitude and response to these things.  Oh on earth will we disciple nations if the Church avoids the controversies affecting nations? 

I'm not alone in this thinking. There are in fact many relatively UNKNOWN ministers who do. I highlight that to bring to light another aspect of this problem. 

Let me be clear. It's not just the minister's fault! It's the people who "love" the message that makes life easier for them.  Not all, but many, have become quite popular with large followings. The message of the cross is lost in a veiled sense of wisdom that teaches people a twisted view of love that is actually conflict avoidance. 

In the video associated with this article Lance shares that he has wondered why the Church, referring to its leaders, seem to have fallen silent since the election of Trump.  They are not addressing any of the moral issues, confronting corruption nor addressing lies. He shared some of the notes he took listening to some of our friends sermons. This provides the context for my comments on Facebook which I've shared below. 

My post on Facebook
I have some of the same friends Lance does and with regard to the 2nd point he makes, I have seen and agree with his conclusion.  One of my friends in ministry (well known, popular in a certain segment) said this on numerous occasions both privately and in settings where other ministers/pastors were being addressed publicly.  He said:

"I have both Democrats and Republicans in my congregation therefore there are certain issues we avoid."

 My thought's always been, so what?  What does a person's party affiliation have to do with the Truth we are charged to present.  
This is why I have actually chosen to model something different over the last number of years because "you shall know the truth and the truth will make you free."  This is why: