The Banner in Darkness

For years I’ve admonished the household of faith to reach for a dimension in the Lord that I’ve described as “something more.” To get beyond the traditions, yes even the comfort zones and routines of standard operating procedures of the faith-walks of God’s committed.

Doing so involves reaching for that reality in the Lord that those ranked among the persecuted have embraced to simply survive.

This admonishment of “something more” has a history in my own journey. It began after a serious tangle with some high-level practitioners of darkness. At the time, being at the helm of designing a corporate turnaround strategy for my employer, there came an unexpected encounter.

More aptly, it was a face-off, the outcome of which would determine whether the corporate turf would be dominated by darkness or Light.

With a track record in stewarding the authority of a seasoned prayer-warrior, I also held a position in that firm, that placed me at the forefront of recognizing what I was facing was a concerted effort …. targeting the gateway into the spiritual atmosphere and resources of an organization of more than 400 employees, with a customer base many times that number.

My personal, daily prayer life at the time consisted of roughly two hours of a mix of prayer and immersing myself in God’s word, during the very early morning hours. Not long after the tangle, I began realizing something during those prayer-times.

What I realized was that these efforts of spiritual maintenance were not enough to ward off what had been released upon me from the encounter. I needed “something more.” The Lord was very faithful …. giving me a strategy …. that within a short period of time dispelled the darkness.

Responding Wisely to the Spiritual Atmosphere
So we have arrived at a time when the spiritual atmosphere we face as a culture and as a society ….. is requiring “something more” of us than most of us have faced in this past generation. This very vital need will not be based on “more of the same, harder.” Embracing the dynamic of “something more,” will entail a twofold focus between simultaneously what is practiced by the individual and what is employed by the community.

Raising that banner in this dual thrust begins with boldness. There can be no equivocation. We’re already in the crosshairs.

With the boldness is the need for deeper consecration. This will involve regular personal communion as well as sharing this practice of the Lord’s Supper in informal groups that meet for prayer.

Consecration for facing battles embraces humility and repentance. It will be consistent consecration that is shared by the community-at-large prepared to engage in the spiritual tangles. At the same time, it will not recklessly or randomly address the engagements, but rather be strategic, timely and coordinated in the execution of specific assignments.

While not always, but for the most part these efforts will be on the offensive rather than defensive …. always maintaining the big-picture or what military strategists refer to as the grand-strategy in mind.

Balancing Tactical with Strategic Confrontations
With the boldness, consecration and big-picture at the forefront, the issue will balance the tactical with the strategic. It will utilize the employment of prayer partners based on Jesus’ wisdom in sending His disciples out two by two. The tactical need for armor-bearers, individuals who consistently have each other’s backs. With that, should be an adoption of leaders, both spiritual and in the natural (business, government, etc) whose efforts pave the way and are guided by and undergirded with intercession.

The suggestion being that there should be a matrix of prayer which defines and coordinates assignments, objectives and strategies.

From the beginning and throughout the history of God’s people have been confrontations, challenges to the cultures and societies defined by and committed to the reality of God manifesting in their midst. While these challenges have had their chief foundations to emanate from both within and outside the household of faith, the reality has more times than not been there being a chink in the armor of God’s people. A chink tied to blindly and overtly blending their faith with lures of darkness.

The Role of Remnant Forerunners when Darkness Spreads
Yet, with that observation has been the role of a remnant, sometimes spearheaded by spiritual and sometimes political leaders, sometimes both …. in restoring the spiritual climate commensurate with being the household of faith.

Isaiah prophesied a time when darkness would cover the earth and deep darkness the people, yet simultaneously a time when the Lord would arise over those called by His Name. A review of the history of the growth of the persecuted church from China to Vietnam is instructive for the challenges now being faced across the church in the free-world.

It reveals the banner to be raised in the face of darkness …. the realities tied to the reach for “something more” being led by remnant of forerunners, when it seems the bottom has dropped out.

The Power of Purity and Simplicity for Meeting and Praying
One of the consistent observations regarding the incredible growth of the Chinese church as the Cultural Revolution sought to stamp it out …. was that it was expunged of Western doctrinal precepts ….. with the dependence being solely on the Word of God. And that was no small matter as sometimes there would be only one Bible within an entire community …. as the authorities sought to destroy any literature, which included the Bible, that was not supportive of the Cultural Revolution.

Often, members of a believing community would be assigned passages to memorize ….. to share with and encourage the community as a whole. Likewise, the gathering of believers reached a point in which the severity of the response by authorities …. arrest, imprisonment, beatings and even death ….. drove the people to meet secretly and spontaneously in homes …. to worship and pray. Which gave rise to the home-church movement.

Without there being any real coordination, this pattern was what the post-1975 church in Vietnam also experienced. With the communist takeover in 1975, anything Western was suspect, with perceived ties to the West being herded into brutal “re-education” work camps, the conditions of which were horrible and worse than any free-world type of prisons.

Restoring the Spontaneity of Church as a Movement
During that time and due to those severe conditions, the institutional church in Vietnam all but died. Yet the brutality and darkness triggered a very similar thing to what began in the Cultural Revolution in China ….. a fervent faith and dependence on simply taking the Word of God at face-value; spontaneous and secret gatherings in homes; ….. and prayer. Desperate prayer.

The persecution had forced the restoration of the Church in Vietnam to operating as a movement, with the vibrant power so evidenced in the First Century Church. This was becoming the mode across the occupied South of Vietnam.

However, economic conditions in the North in the reunited post-1975 Vietnam were also becoming dire. As conditions digressed, an estimated 70 percent of the Vietnamese boat people risking their lives to escape to the freedom of refugee camps across Asia …. came from the North.

So, in the midst of this deepening of the turmoil, the home-church movement in the South began spreading to the North. AND with key travel being by motorbike, there arose leaders, forerunners who ignited and began connecting communities …. from the North to the South …. in prayer.

Not unlike the persecuted church in China, the prayers of the Vietnamese were prayers of desperation …. the rise of the house-church movement demonstrating a fervency of scripturally-inspired, faith-based prayers. From my view of things, those prayers reflected what was described in Revelations as incense that was embraced as holy at the Throne of God.

Desperate Prayer Triggers the Unexpected
Interestingly at this time, those of the ruling elite from the North were finding brighter opportunities educationally and job-wise in Russia where the Vietnamese community in Moscow grew to roughly 100,000.

So it was that as the persecuted across Vietnam lifted their voices in prayer ….. for their basic needs, but also for their nation …. that things began happening within the Vietnamese community in Russia ….. with a groundswell of these elite having encounters with the Lord and fervently coming to faith …. a spontaneous move of God spreading the already significant move of the Holy Spirit “without borders” impacting both the North and South …. adding to the spiritual influence with the ruling elite back in the capital city of Hanoi.

With many other equally dramatic developments in the years that followed …. in the North and in the South …. there was the return of 90,000 Hong Kong refugees to Vietnam upon the Chinese takeover of Hong Kong. Most of them without the connections or credentials for political asylum, who had for years been trapped in these camps, becoming seasoned believers due to the diligence of Hong Kong missionaries.

And then in 1998, the Vietnamese Prime Minister got before the people to announce it “being time to put the past behind us and ask the Americans back” …. no doubt a result of the influence of his wife, who was reportedly an underground believer.

Due to the response of frequent border disputes with the Chinese, Vietnam has reached out and now has multiple alliances (economically, agriculturally, technologically, militarily) with Israel. No doubt the prayers arising from the believers in this nation further making an impact on the spiritual atmosphere of those establishing national policies. While there remain regional pockets of severe persecution, the North and South are strongly connected by prayer …. as well as within the capital city there being a church that is attended by senior (field grade and higher) military officers.

These simply are examples of that dimension of “something more” that typically operates outside the box of the “traditional” in raising the banner in the midst of encroaching darkness. It is an example of the reality of God that manifests when the Church functions with the spontaneity and power reflected by being restored to being a move of the Holy Spirit.

Kingdom Community and the Banner when Darkness Spreads
So, the issue in responding to encroaching darkness is the serious reach and tapping of that dimension of “something more,” with anticipatory responses of the Spirit, and the restoration of the supernatural power once the norm in the days of the early Church.

Achieving this reach and response will involve a resolve to push back against encroaching darkness and “get out of the box” crimped by the traditions of men …. to tap and bridge the gap into the realities that have always been evident when God arises. To be …. the uncompromised vessels of His purpose aligned in such a way, to raise the banner that triggers and unfolds the arising of God.

Raising this banner and pushing back, as darkness spreads will gain momentum as the reach of God’s people recognizes and aligns with the sounds, the frequencies of heaven …. in the unstoppable move of God and the infrastructures it influences …… that shape the priorities and strategies that trigger the restoration of all things. At its core is the admonition of Jesus to love the Lord with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself.

Maintaining the offensive, the greater restoration will reflect a time of building. Jesus’ words of summation (Matt 24:46) were “blessed are those who are found doing when He comes.” This is the atmosphere that brings Him back. The context of this admonition is in creatively building and bringing increase. Its focus is undivided community stewardship that translates into the spiritual basis of Kingdom-building, of building and bringing increase that requires a level of the creative, largely unseen in this generation. Yet, it is on the cusp.

The greatest loss described in all Scripture was what was lost in the Garden. The wisdom and history described from Genesis 3 through Revelations taps God’s plan of restoration to the state of things in the Garden …. a society of God’s people operating as and within His Kingdom.

Jesus came and announced His earthly ministry with the words of restoration: “The Kingdom of God is at hand.” Isaiah’s 58th chapter captures a glimpse into the dynamics of which this Kingdom infrastructure is to be rebuilt.
“Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you remove the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, and if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness and your gloom will become like midday. And the LORD will continually guide you, and satisfy your desire in drought, and give strength to your bones; and you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. Those from among you will rebuild the ancient ruins; you will raise up the age-old foundations; and you will be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of the streets in which to dwell.” Isa 58:8-12

So, it’s about restoration and the strategy for restoration: the rebuilding of the ancient ruins; the raising up of the age-old foundations; becoming repairers of the breach, the restorers of the streets in which to dwell.

Again within the context of loving the Lord with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself, at the core of this restoration is the infrastructure of a community model …. community being defined as including but being much, much more than simply a congregational focus. It taps the model where the spiritual, economic and community blend together in stewardship and servant-leadership under God as a Light …. a society of God’s people who are a Light to the nations.

When the banner is raised in the face of darkness to a level that it penetrates and aligns with the priorities of His heart, then His Light shall shine in the darkness and the darkness will transform into becoming as the noon-day.

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Morris Ruddick has been a forerunner of the Joseph-calling and God’s economy message, being an international voice for the higher dimensions of spiritual game-changers and intercessors since the mid-90s. As founder of Global Initiatives Foundation, the Strategic Intercession Global Network [SIGN] and designer of the God’s Economy Entrepreneurial Equippers Program and the Jewish Business Secrets YouTube series, Mr. Ruddick’s messages equip leaders and economic community builders with strategy where God’s light is dim in diverse regions around the globe.

He is author of “The Joseph-Daniel Calling;” “Gods Economy, Israel and the Nations;” “The Heart of a King;” “Something More;” “Righteous Power in a Corrupt World;” “Leadership by Anointing;” and “Mantle of Fire,” which address the mobilization of business and governmental leaders with destinies to impact their communities. They are available in print and e-versions from www.Amazon.com, www.apple.com/ibooks and www.BarnesandNoble.com.

Global Initiatives Foundation (www.strategic-initiatives.org) is a tax-exempt 501 (c) 3 non-profit whose efforts mobilize economic community builders imparting influence and the blessings of God. Checks on US banks should be made out to Global Initiatives and mailed to 3838 South Wabash Street, Denver CO 80237 or by credit card at https://strategic-initiatives.org/donate/

Since early 1996, the Strategic Intercession Global Network (SIGN) has mobilized prophetic intercessors and leaders committed to targeting strategic-level issues impacting the Body on a global basis. For more information go to https://strategic-initiatives.org

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