Pulling Down StrongholdsHe asked, "Has anyone been talking to you?" I replied,
"No one but the Lord."
I told that pastor, "The people in your church don't
treat ministers of the gospel right! That's why I won't
come." Unless God tells you to, there's no use going to a
group like that anyway. They can't receive God's best
because they mistreat God's servants; they are being
motivated and influenced by evil spirits.
A "stingy" church is not scriptural. The Bible says,
"... Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the
corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward" (1
Tim. 5:18). Paul was quoting the Old Testament (Deut.
25:4), but he was talking about those in the ministry (1
Cor. 9:7-14).
When church members yield to evil spirits like that
it gives the devil a right of way in the church. It grieves
the Spirit of God, and He will be hindered from
manifesting Himself the way He wants to. We need to
realize that as Christians we don't have to listen to the
devil. And we don't have to yield to him either! We don't
have to allow the god of this world to dominate our
thinking or our actions.
Pulling Down Strongholds
So whatever kind of spirits dominate in a city, those
same spirits will try to get into the church if people in
the church yield to them and let them in. We can see
this, for example, in Paul's Epistles to the Corinthians.
Corinth at that time was one of the most immoral
cities of the East. The immoral spirit that had control of
the city got into the church because someone in the
church let it in through wrongdoing. There was a man
in the church who was cohabiting with his father's wife.