Wherever Jesus, Paul, Simon Peter, John, or others went representing the kingdom of God, they encounter resistance for the prevailing spiritual condition. The prevailing spiritual condition manifested itself in the culture dominating the spiritual arena in which that spiritual condition had influence.
As kingdom leaders, they began a process of preparing kingdom leaders who could confront and overcome that prevailing spiritual condition by establishing kingdom and kingdom culture. It was the kingdom culture they established that got them into trouble because the confrontation point of any kingdom establishing occurs where it manifests in patterns of behavior or culture.
Consider that Paul produce both revival and riot in Ephesus because he was establishing kingdom culture. When the individual behavioral changes of many people manifested as kingdom culture, the threat to the rule of Diana queen of heaven worship reach a point of crisis. It was not that Paul went in and “planted a church” that produced this shift. It was that Paul went in and prepared and positioned kingdom leaders who began to live kingdom culture. It was the confrontation of spiritual cultures that produced transformation.
Jesus immediately encountered satan, thrust into the wilderness to be tested by this confrontation, and the test was focused upon potential instead of purpose, using the prevailing culture as a basis for testing Jesus. The issues before Him were cultural in nature. Jesus challenged the culture and it got Him crucified. Had He played to the existing culture, He could have gained political, social, religious, and cultural influence within the existing culture. He did not. He challenged that culture at every turn, insulted it, made fun of it, castigated it and its leaders.
Jesus prepared leaders to challenge the culture: “They will hate you as they hate Me.” They would hate them because they challenged the culture with the kingdom culture.
Spiritual Conditions and Culture
The prevailing spiritual condition will manifest in behavior. If you wish to set an individual free, you confront the prevailing spiritual condition within that person, the character of the dominant demon manifests according to its character. A spirit of fear manifests behaviors of fear. A spirit of shame manifests behaviors of sexual perversion. A spirit of religion manifests in religious superstition. A spirit called “Legion” manifests in the violence of an invading army that destroys everything around it.
In any arena of spirit, over a region, the prevailing spiritual condition manifests in the culture of that region. If hatred and bigotry, racism will manifest. If violent and aggressive, bullying and violence will manifest. If Jezebel, queen of heaven will manifest in relationships at every level of society. If Leviathan, a systematic delusion will take hold of the culture to cause people to believe something obviously illogical so that Truth makes no sense and purpose is lost in overt individualism as people seek false identities.
