Word of Life Church

Satan does not want this to happen and seeks to thwart and delay Gods plan from being fulfilled.


The church must believe that spiritual warfare exists and the church must learn how to stand against the wiles of the devil.

• Ephesians 6:11-12, 17; put on the whole armor of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against the flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in heavenly places. Having your loins girt about with the truth and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God.

Paul specifically instructs the Ephesian believers to understand that humans are not their direct enemies. Rather, they are in warfare with satanic structures in heavenly places; the “spirit” that now works in the children of disobedience. He instructs that we are to put on the whole, not part, but the whole armor of God, of which truth is a part. The word of God, which is truth, is likened to a spiritual sword. Truth is crucial in the battle against these evil forces. The Church’s ability to overcome these spiritual forces is directly proportionate to the level of truth she receives and employs. In fact, the Church is to be the ground and pillar of truth in the earth (1Timothy 3:15).

“Wiles” is translated from the Greek word “methodiah” and means in the sense of a method; a traveling over; travesty or trickery. It is translated in other places as; to lie in wait. The devil has methods which he employs to put the church under his feet. He will lie in wait until the opportune time to employ these strategies.

Satanic strategies employed against the Church are most effectively deployed through the “spirit of error”.

In John 16:13; the Holy Spirit is named by Jesus, the Spirit of truth. It is also critical that Christians understand that just as the “Spirit of truth” exists, there also exists a “spirit of error”. 1 John 4:6 says, We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. The Greek word translated as “error” in this verse means: fraudulence; subjectively it means; a straying from orthodoxy. Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines “orthodox” as conforming to established doctrine, esp. in religion.

The spirit of error will not only lead astray but it will, if possible, cause departure from the faith. 1Timothy 4:1-3; now the spirit (the Spirit of truth) speaketh (to relate in a set discourse) expressly (outspokenly; or distinctly) that in the latter times some shall (not maybe) depart (to remove; that is, to instigate revolt; to desist or desert) from the faith giving heed (to hold the mind) to seducing (roving, as a tramp, that is as an imposter or misleader) spirits, and doctrines (instruction) of devils: Speaking lies in hypocrisy…

The Greek word translated as “speaking lies” means: mendacious or promulgating erroneous “Christian doctrine” in hypocrisy, which means acting under a “feigned part”, in other words, deceit.

We must understand that it is erroneous “Christian doctrine” that the “spirit of error” is interested in promulgating throughout the church. Satan does not care what you believe as long as you do not believe the truth. He also does not care how we structure and govern our assemblies as long as we reject God’s design.

It is also important to notice that the “spirit of error” (singular) which is a ruling demonic entity has under its control individual seducing spirits (plural) constituting a satanic structure or principality. The only weapon against this principality is obedience to the truth. Truth triumphs over error!!!

So the Apostle John is teaching that there exists in the spiritual realm a “spiritual principality” whose assignment it is to cause Christians to stray from established doctrine. Is it not reasonable to conclude that part of the strategy of the “spirit of error” would be to employ seducing spirits in an attempt to cause the church to stray from established doctrine; particularly doctrine pertaining to the structure and government?

Satan realizes that if he can effectively employ, seducing spirits, causing leaders to embrace erroneous doctrine, he can seduce the church away from God’s design for its structure, government, maintenance, and mission with delays the Lord’s coming and his demise.

The effective employment of the “spirit of error” opens the door for the deployment of another ruling spirit called “division”. Satan understands the spiritual principle of division as taught by Jesus; Every (not some) kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation (to lay waste); and every city and house divided against itself cannot stand (Matthew 12:25). Satan has effectively divided the Church over issues of doctrine, church structure, and church government because of the carnality of believers.

• 1 Corinthians 3:1-4; And, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were able to bear it, neither are ye yet able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions (disunion; dissensions), are ye not carnal, and walk as men? For while one saith, I am of Paul; and I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

Divisions in the Church keeps the Church in perpetual babyhood and unable to grow to the level where strong meat can be introduced by the Holy Spirit in the “deeper things” of God.

Let’s consider an erroneous “Christian doctrine” that pertains to the issue of Church structure and government that divides the church at this present hour. The teaching is this: that apostles and prophets do not function in the church today. Many saved, faithful leaders, who love Jesus, teach this as a doctrinal position. The head-quarters of a certain major denomination issued a worldwide memorandum to all leaders of member churches, stating the denomination’s official position in reference to apostles and prophets as being: they do not function in the church today.

Let us examine carefully and thoughtfully what the word of God says concerning apostles and prophets. Let us begin with Ephesians 4:8.

• Eph 4:8; Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.

When Jesus ascended back to the Father, He did two things: (1) He led captivity captive; and (2) He gave gifts unto men. For the scope of our discussion we will confine ourselves to the second thing he did. This is in fulfillment of a prophecy given by the prophet David found in Psalm 68:18.

• Psalm 68:18; Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea the rebellious also, that the LORD God might dwell among them.

We must observe three key pieces of revelation in the prophecy: (1) the messiah would ascend into heaven, (2) that upon his ascension he would receive (from the Father) gifts for men, and (3) that these gifts would be for the purpose of building a dwelling place or habitation for God.

When we return to Ephesians 4:11, we do so knowing that Jesus did ascend and we find that upon His ascension he gave the gifts that he received from the Father to men.

• Eph 4:11; And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;

In verse 12 we discover that the main objective of these gifts to the church is for the perfecting (maturing and equipping) of the saints for the work of the ministry and the building up on the Body of Christ.

Questions: Does the Body of Christ still need perfecting today? Does the Church still need to learn how to do the work of the ministry and build up the Body today? If the answer to these questions is yes, then is it not reasonable to assume that we still need apostles and prophets today? If the Father deemed them to be necessary to accomplish His purposes in the saints, then why would they not be necessary now?

But just in case you are still not convinced, let’s look at the time element found in verse 13. You cannot separate verses 11 and 12 from the word “till” in verse 13, which sets the time frame for the duration of these five Ascension gifts.

So, we have these five gifts functioning in their intended purpose until “we all” come to the unity of the faith. Would anyone dare say that the church has arrived at the “unity of the faith” and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, or do we still have a ways to go? Does the phrase “we all” embrace present day Christians or just those in Paul’s day? And would anyone dare to suggest that the Church has attained to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ? Answering these questions honestly requires that we accept the truth that apostles and prophets should still be functioning today.

Ephesians 2:19-22 contains critical revelation concerning the relevancy of apostles and prophets to the Church.

• Eph 2:19-22 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

First we need to see that Paul likens the Church to a household; second Paul teaches that apostles and prophets are the foundation of the Body of that, the household of God; and thirdly we see that upon that foundation the saints are being built a habitation for God.

Fathers are the foundation of the family. We all know or maybe have experienced the result of a father not being in the home. Satan has devastated our society by effectively removing fathers from homes. It is an absolute fact that children raised in a home with a father and a mother have an overwhelmingly better chance of growing into well adjusted and stable adults. Apostles are the fathers of the Church and without them the children are not likely to mature into stable, healthy adult Christians.

Consider a prophecy of the Lord given by the prophet Malachi; Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to the fathers: lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. Could it be that the fulfillment of this prophecy is the restoration of apostles (fathers) to the Church?

The word translated foundation means a substructure. Without a foundation, a building cannot be supported whether it is a house or a temple. A foundation supports or carries the weight of the structure. Apostles, and prophets, are the foundation of the Church.

Paul taught that the saints were being built into a habitation or dwelling place for the Lord. If we go back to Psalm 68:18 we see that is exactly the purpose for those gifts being received by Messiah and given to men; that God might dwell among them. If God gave five gifts, and He did, then it is those five gifts that accomplish the task. Every generation of Christians are continuously being built into the habitation of the Lord so all five gifts are necessary in each generation of the Church.

How does the believer avoid being led astray by a spirit of error?

Let me begin to answer this prudent question by making this statement: truth is not promised to “church members”, it is promised to disciples and there is a difference between the two.

• John 8:31; Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on Him, [if] ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed. And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

If a believer will continue to “abide” which is to remain or dwell in obedience to the words of Jesus, he qualifies to be a disciple and there is a continual receiving of more truth which sets him free from all that is error. Jesus clearly establishes the fact that only disciples will know the truth, which in turn would protect them from a “spirit of error”.

True disciples seek Jesus to understand His hard sayings!

In John 6:51-69, Jesus teaching that he is the bread of life offends many of His disciples.

• Ephesians 4:20-21; But ye have not so learned Christ; if so be that ye have heard him and been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus.

Disciples love the truth and obey it!

2 Thessalonians 2:10-11 teaches us that because people do not have a love for the truth they are susceptible to deception and that God gives them a strong delusion to believe a lie. When we couple this truth with our understanding that Christians can be led astray and separated from the faith by the spirit of error and seducing spirits, it necessitates that every believer love the truth more than our traditions or opinions. Truth will purify the Church from the religious mixture. Let’s look at the fruit of religious mixture.

In the fourth chapter of the gospel of John, we find the account of Jesus having a conversation with a Samaritan woman. Her most pressing question concerns the proper place to worship God. She has the tradition of her own people and she knows the Jews teach that Jerusalem is the proper place to worship. Before we consider Jesus’ answer, let us apply this passage to the present day condition of the Church particularly in America.

For our emphasis today let the Samaritan woman symbolize the “church” in the captivity and confusion of religious mixture. We can establish this symbolism from scripture in 2 Kings 17:1-34 where the origin of Samaria is revealed.

Because Israel refused to repent of their idolatry and sin, God sent Shalmaneser, King of Assyria, into all the land of Israel and he besieged Samaria for three years. At the end of three, years he took Samaria captive. He carried the people of Israel in the region of Samaria away captive to Assyria (2 Kings 17:5-6,23). Then in verse 24 we see that Shalmaneser transports people from Babylon, Cuthah, Ava, Hamath, and Sepharvaim and placed them in Cities of Samaria. These people do not know God and therefore the LORD sends lions among to slay them.

Shalmaneser’s solution is to transport one of the priests of Israel back to Samaria so he may teach these people the manner of the god of the land. So this priest returns and begins to teach them how they should fear the LORD. However, they continued in their religious traditions while learning of Jehovah. This resulted in the ordaining of the priest of the lowest sort (2 Kings 17:32). These priests were willing to serve the god of the land, Jehovah, while maintaining their personal religious traditions. The result is found in verse 33: they feared the LORD, and served their own gods; NOT UNLIKE MUCH OF THE CHURCH TODAY. So we can easily see why Samaritans represent religious mixture.

Because of the religious mixture, this poor Samaritan woman was confused about the proper place of worship. Her question indicates a desire to know the truth. The present day American Church will not come out of the confusion of religious mixture until it desires to know truth. Jesus answers and says,

• John 4:21-24; Woman, believe me.. But the hour cometh and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a spirit; and they that worship Him must worship (Him) in spirit and in truth.

Question: Are you a true worshiper of God? Have you ever asked God to evaluate your personal worship? Do you worship God in bondage to religious mixture or in the purity and liberty of truth? Is your doctrine the pure doctrine of God or is it contaminated with religious mixture? This question needs to be asked in reference to the particular way our churches are structured and governed. Do we govern our “assemblies” in the spirit and in truth, or with religious mixture?

It is important to see that at this answer the woman says to Jesus, I know that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. Isn’t this amazing! This woman, discouraged by the lack of answers and power in religious mixture, unable to live a Godly life, yet believes that Messiah is coming with the truth.

Much of the present day church lives in the same condition of religious mixture with no realized answers, realized power, or realized true godliness; just hoping to hang on until Jesus comes. However, when Jesus reveals to her that he is that very Messiah, she runs back to her village and evangelizes her village, which represents her entire world.

When the “Church” realizes that Messiah has come and that He has brought us revelation of “all things” and we put that revelation into practice, she will be able to evangelize the entire world and gather in the final harvest.