By Doug Stringer
(Edited from the Ambassador Report, Turning Point Ministries, P.O. Box 570007 Houston, TX 77257 713.621.1498 www.tpmi.org
About 85% of the world’s population now lives in cities. 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 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.” Cain was a man of rebellion, a murderer, running away from God. He then built a city in the land of Nod.
The first time a city is ever mentioned, people are running away from GGod, running from His presence thinking that they can hide. 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. Here it says Nimrod built Nineveh, the same city that God later called Jonah to go and cry against because of its great 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 the Church is apathetic and complacent. 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 (impurity) 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 seeking of comfort and 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.”
God showed me a principle concerning spiritual warfare. 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 he disappeared. My opponent was gone. Next thing I knew, he 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 had 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.
