Derek Prince - Satan's Primary Attack On The Church
But I want to deal just with certain general basic requirements if the church is to be victorious. I’m going to deal with them briefly. I have actually listed seven; you could probably make it eight or you could make it six, but in my making of outlines, if I get to the number seven I usually stop. Alright, let’s turn to Matthew 12:25. Here is a statement by Jesus which is extremely important. And I think I’m afraid the church has often ignored it.
Matthew 12:25. Jesus said: Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. We’ve spoken about the kingdom of God. But if the kingdom of God is divided against itself it cannot win. So Satan’s primary attack on the church is to divide us. Has he been successful? I’m sorry to say, he has been extremely successful. One thing we have to do is to resist division. That does not mean that we automatically associate ourselves with everyone or everything that is called Christian. But it means that wherever there are people who are true believers in Jesus according to the Scripture and committed to love Him and serve Him, we have to acknowledge them as our brothers and sisters. And we do not let unnecessary barriers come between them and us.
Ruth and I in our ministry we work with I don’t know how many different ministries and persons around the world. And basically I can say we don’t have any problems in our relationships with them. I think the primary reason is because they and we are committed to something positive. And we are committed to Matthew 24:14: “This Gospel of the kingdom shall be proclaimed in all the world as a witness to all the nations and then the end will come.” We believe this is our responsibility to prepare the way for the Lord by proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom to all nations. And wherever we meet with people who have that primary aim based on Scripture, we may never have met them before, but in 10 minutes we feel like we have known them all our lives.
So let’s not focus on the negative. Let’s focus on the positive. You’ll find where people are truly committed to prayer and intercession or to evangelism, the barriers melt. Where people are all tied up with church structure and programs there usually are problems. So the first thing we have to do is guard against division. It is not easy. We certainly don’t have all the answers but when we give it due priority I think we will be nearer to achieving it.