Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses. - Joshua 1:3
In elementary school our children attended an elite, K-12 private college preparatory school. We were drawn to the school because of their Judeo-Christian mission statement and their outstanding academic record. Our kids had a fantastic K-5 experience, with their Christian character and academic progress developing with authenticity and excellence. It turned from light to darkness immediately thereafter.
MIDDLE SCHOOL DARKNESS
A switch flipped when our oldest child entered the middle school. The academics were still excellent, but Judeo-Christian character was jettisoned for a subversive agenda of homosexual indoctrination. The Godly character and culture we loved in the elementary school was supplanted with the perverted rainbow agenda with teachers promoting the agenda by posting yellow equals signs outside their classroom doors. (A little digging revealed to a concerned friend and I that the financial backer of that agenda is the porn industry.)
Upon learning this, I was extremely concerned for the mental and sexual safety and character of our middle schooler and the other vulnerable middle schoolers. I asked The Lord what to do. The first instruction was to remove our child from the middle school and move her to an excellent, authentic Christian school. Those doors opened by the Grace of God. (Miraculously, one of our best friends was our child’s substitute teacher on her very first day!)
GET THE SIGNS DOWN
The second instruction was to “GET THE SIGNS DOWN!” When I asked The Lord what He meant, as best I could perceive, His exhortation to me was that He wanted the rainbow flags and yellow equal signs, demonic symbols standing for perverted sexuality, removed from teachers’ door posts. He did not want those cursed symbols associated with a Judeo-Christian mission statement. I asked The Lord how to go about it. He told me to “Jericho walk” (Joshua, Chapter 6) the school.
Since we lived within walking distance of the school, I could easily walk to and around the school. So, with lots of prayer support from a small army of God’s special forces, following the victory pattern of the Jericho walk, for six days I walked around the school, campus, and buildings. While walking I asked The Lord to deliver the school from the demons, spirits and people of sexual perversion and deliver the school to the spirits and people of sexual purity. I anointed all the doorposts I could, asking The Lord to make them the coming and going places for His people and His Word.
A GROTESQUE CHINESE WITCH
On the seventh day I walked around the campus and buildings seven times. At the end of the seventh circuit I shouted The Name of Jesus and praises to God. On the last shout The Lord showed me the grotesque, fusia-fleshed, over-sized Chinese witch spirit seated on top of the school and it deflating like a huge Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon at the end of it’s life.
Not long after that, another concerned father and I attended a middle school parents meeting. God gave us the strategy. After a few remarks by the principal of the middle school, the floor was opened for Q&A. I let a few typical, benign questions about curriculum and class trips go by. Then God gave me the question to ask the principal. “Do you mind explaining to all the parents why so many of the teachers have signs sponsored by the porn industry promoting homosexuality posted on their classroom doors?” The collective gasp almost sucked the air out of the room.
To the principal’s credit, he was honest and said, “I thought it was common knowledge that many of our middle school faculty are gay.” The collective gasp after that bombshell almost sucked the air out of the entire building.
When my friend tried to ask a follow up question, the parent facilitator shut down the discussion and ended the meeting. That same parent published the meeting minutes the next day. We all received the minutes via email. Guess what was left out of the meeting minutes? Yep. The discussion concerning the middle school’s agenda of sexual perversion.
TAKING TERRITORY
By the Grace of God, the original email contained the emails of all those in attendance. It was another door God opened to expose the darkness. I was more than happy to go through that door and correct and update the meeting minutes to include the discussion addressing the school’s homosexual agenda. I forwarded the correction to all the email addresses in the original email. That was the beginning of the end for the school’s minions of darkness.
Since our child was one of the highest performing and highest character children in the school, our extracting her from the school set our phone to ringing. Many parents called wanting to know why we had changed schools. The calls allowed us to share the subversive and secretive agenda of homosexual indoctrination with many parents. They in turn began asking tough questions of the school’s headmaster. Fortunately, after that, the middle school principal became open about his homosexuality and the homosexuality of many of the middle school faculty. They were proud of their deviant lifestyle choices. The parents were stunned. Fortunately, when news of this reached the “big donors”, they threatened to withhold all funding for the school unless the headmaster was fired, and the faculty made right. By the grace of God, the headmaster, principal, and perverted faculty were fired in disgrace and replaced with leaders and teachers of Godly character. Glory to God!
These victories over the darkness are the heritage of the children of God, the authentic disciples of Christ. Jesus set the example (Colossians 2:15) for us, disarming principalities and powers, making a public spectacle of them. Accordingly, He gives us (Luke 10:19) “the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy”. David proclaimed our battle cry (Psalm 44:4-8), “You are my King, O God; Command victories for Jacob. Through You we will push down our enemies; Through Your Name we will trample those who rise against us.
GOD IS NOT TOLERANT
Unfortunately, the large majority of Christians have been and are being trampled on, giving away territory and influence that should be God’s Kingdom and Domain. Instead of doing the trampling, claiming territory and influence, the large majority of Christians have cowardly and comfort-seekingly lapsed into a worldly and new age church culture induced stupor, allowing evil to propagate under the brand names of “tolerance” and “diversity”.
God is not tolerant. His Son paid an unspeakable, brutal, bloody, humiliating, crucified price for His Father's intolerance for sin and sinners uncovered by The Blood of Christ. However, God is merciful and forgiving. He mercifully forgives those who confess the need for and accept the atoning sacrifice of Christ for their own sin.
God does not promote diversity as it pertains to lifestyle choices and how we relate to Him; in fact, He provides only One Way to Himself (John 14;6), through His Son Jesus, found only via that same confession of our need for Christ, our acceptance of His sacrifice in our place, our repentance from a sinful life, and our devotion and submission to the Lordship of Christ. While He is exclusive in The Way into His family, He is totally inclusive as far as the invitation to come in. All are welcome to receive The Blood of Jesus as their atoning sacrifice. All are welcome to submit and devote their lives to His Lordship.
TREAD and TRAMPLE
One of my key learnings in writing this testimony was the criticality of the act of obedience mentioned in each of the key verses; TREAD and TRAMPLE. I take that to mean that quite literally and physically forcefully stamping on land and/or flooring; renouncing any evil influence upon it and claiming it for the Kingdom of God and His Christ. If I can't physically be there, then I may "virtually" or "spiritually" "walk" a map, picture, or layout drawing of a territory or structure. (This notion of spiritual territories or objects being influenced and having an influence for darkness or light is taught throughout Scripture.)
In Luke 10:19, Jesus tells us that He has given us authority to TRAMPLE on serpents and scorpions. The Greek word for “trample” is “pateo”, meaning to tread, tread upon, tread down, tread under foot, trample, crush with the feet, advance by setting foot upon, to encounter successfully the greatest perils from the machinations and persecutions with which Satan would fain thwart the preaching of the gospel, to treat with insult and contempt.
Treading and trampling on God’s enemies and strongholds in and for His people and His purposes is the heritage, inheritance, and responsibility of the children of God. We must walk in the power and authority God has given us; on behalf of a/our school, a/our family, a/our home, a/our church, a/our business, etc. My wife and I have been blessed and privileged to do a lot of Kingdome territory taking by treading and trampling enemy influence and strongholds in people, homes, lands, businesses, schools, parks, neighborhoods, and the like.
We do not say that out of boasting. Jesus’ forbids us to (Luke 10:20). We say this with two purposes. One is an urgent concern for The Church, an urgent concern that The Church and its people are walking in and have been lulled and taught into disobedience; forsaking Jesus’s Command to aggressively advance His Purpose and Kingdom on the earth. The second purpose is the power of a testimony. There is power in a testimony itself to empower and electrify faith in others to breakthrough whatever was broken through in the testimony; the application of God’s Word or Promises to a given situation. I pray that this testimony will be encouragement and faith fire for you in the treading, trampling, and taking of enemy ground for the Kingdom of God, His Christ, and His Glory.
VERSES
"But don’t rejoice because evil spirits obey you; rejoice because your names are registered in heaven.” - Jesus, Luke 10:20
