The battle of culture is the battle of the kingdom conquest.
Kingdom come. Kingdom culture. Kingdom conquest.
We advance kingdom through leadership. Leadership is influence we can measure by impact. Kingdom leadership is kingdom influence. Kingdom is spiritual, so we know kingdom leadership is spiritual leadership and kingdom influence is spiritual influence. Nothing can be as powerful as spirit.
To influence cultures enough to disciple them as Jesus commissioned us to do, we must first establish kingdom and kingdom culture.
We are currently engaged in a great culture conflict that tests the foundation of the United States of America. We have been here before on more than one occasion. We have won some battles, skirmishes, and conflicts. We have lost some ground between times of increased influence.
We are currently in a life and death struggle for our culture abasing international spiritual conspiracies set to use confusion and delusion to undermine the foundations of that influence. The Bible calls this spiritual influence “leviathan.”
The fullness of cultural influence can be seen in the number seven. Leviathan has seven head. The idea that culture has seven mountains has captured some attention since Francis Schaeffer first began the discussion of cultural influence. The metaphor of seven simply means the fullness of cultural influence, and we sometimes divide that up into segments or categories to make our discussion simpler. Don’t get hung up on the metaphor.
Leviathan
Leviathan is a Bible way of describing a spiritual condition, and the leviathan condition is one of systematic delusion. It is pride pumped into the spiritual ecosystem like pollution, and that pollution brings God’s resistance and a decline in grace flow. This result is obvious but the systematic delusion is complex at the cultural level. Leviathan at the cultural level is represented by seven heads because to represent how comprehensive the influence of pride has become in that culture.
Pride is deception; a system of prideful deception produces delusion.
Having confronted this spiritual condition of delusion, the system begins to defend itself against the antidote to the poison, roiling in the masses to create even greater confusion.
A simply action turns into a complex cacophony of confusion, and a discussion about that simply action becomes a deluge of controversy continually fed by all the important subsystems of the delusion.
Suddenly, no one can hear what the other is saying except through a filtering system poisoned by some level of deception. Someone says, “Rain,” and the context turns the meaning into “raining on my parade” because you are a hater.
Interpret Trends
Anticipate trends as a leader so that you are ahead of the curve on what is coming next, preparing people to lead at the points of influence as those trends play out.
We are purposefully positioned to have influence. So, we don’t invest in things that have no influence because God reveals the open door to greater influence. Unless we waste our time building subcultures – and that means Jesus ignores what we are doing – our submission to God’s order will position us to influence for His kingdom at some level every day we live in obedience!
The trends are either set by the kingdom of God or we get ahead of the trends in order to speak leadership into them. At present, a great battle has arisen because the kingdom is speaking into the culture enough to set trends, and then speaking to the trends as they reach higher levels of attention. At present, this produces greater conflict by confrontation, and that is good because it is necessary.
Interpret trends as a leader. This provides those that follow with the appropriate positioning within to take more advantage of the appropriate positioning they have in the spirit. They will be ahead of the trends and speak to them at their highest points. This means that kingdom influence will become more visible in the roiling of the Leviathan system. Its seven heads will weave and shake and its body within the culture will twist and turn.
You can see it: entertainment including cinema, TV, sports, and publishing; government including politics, justice, national boundaries, war and military, and policing; education including every form of formal instruction where culture meets college, high school, and children; medicine including all aspects of human health; family including marriage and all aspects of rearing children, sexuality and home; finance including commerce, currency, debt, employment, and consumerism.
Spiritually, the mountain of the Lord gains influence by kingdom leadership maturity, so that kingdom leaders positing the gates release more of the judgment of heaven into the earth, (judgment means “decision) so kingdom leaders can judge on the earth by spiritual declaration.
Leaders can discern trends. The higher perspective a kingdom leader has, the greater reach of that anticipation. The blueprint leaders can see out further and things are obvious to them that are not obvious to others.
Overcome
We overcome evil with good. We humble ourselves and pray when pride demands we strengthen human wisdom and power as the first course of response and action. So, the present response to Leviathan is twofold:
1. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and He will raise you at the right moment. How? By submitting more deeply to the leadership He has given you, making yourself more intimately accountable because your humility says you cannot prepare and position yourself. In other words, personal humility increases grace flow and Divine strength at the very time only grace and strength from God can produce overcoming. If you do not submit more deeply, you will find yourself attempting to survive what you should be overcoming.
2. Take your assigned position at a spiritual gate. Over your own body, marriage, family, finances, kingdom leaders, region of your resident assignment, declare the word of the Lord. You gotta say something! Standing is not offense. Wrestling is offensive. Press forward to displace what is entrenched, then and only then will you need God’s armor. You pick up new weapons at each new season, fully equipped with God’s weapons. You overcome!
Conclusion
Pride is the spiritual condition you must watch for, and you must humble yourself in submission to find your greatest place of rest and security. You are not safe in your own wisdom and strength. Do not depend upon your experience even though your experience has been a great teacher. If you depend upon your experience, you will attempt to fight a new battle with an old weapon. Humble yourself.
Separate from proud people. Avoid delusional prophecies and self-help coaching. Run from rebellious and pretentious influences. Submit to the leaders to whom you are assigned.
This is a terrible time to jump into launching yourself because your pride will tell you how amazing you are, and the enemy will use peer level voices to give you permission to rebel. You will be anointed, gifted, and called but out of position. The preparation you have had in the season of submission will not save you because you were not prepared to be out of position. You will be saved but what you build will burn up.
Humble yourself in the season of Leviathan.
