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May I suggest that we as “the church” sat back, did nothing and allowed the enemy to have his way without any battle?

Sadly, in many cases, we encouraged it by trying to be what we thought was merciful and compassionate but the enemy took it as a sign that we were okay with and even agreeing with their agenda.

Our calling upon the earth, some will say, is just to believe and wait till Jesus comes back. Then there is the other end of the spectrum where those tried in a very militant way to make the world into their version of the Promised Land where everything is okay as long as it is done my way under my direction.

Neither view is correct.

So what is the purpose of the church upon the earth? I am afraid that many have not figured that out and still don’t have a clue.

Jesus told us in Mark 16:15: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” Matthew 28:19 says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations…” Acts 1:7-8, “…you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” and many other verses give us information as to what we are to do.

But is that all and is there more?

There is a passage in Luke 19:13 in King James Version that says, “…Occupy till I come.”

Many other versions say Do business till I come, Conduct business with this until I return, Invest this money until I come back and Engage in business until I come back. What he is saying is be an influence in the world and society, not the world influence the church which has been happening far too long.

I was taught in church for years to “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (1 John 2:15) So I was told not to have “anything to do with the world,” whatever that meant.

For many years the church has let the secular society dictate to the church what it is to be and how it should act to the point that the church is so weak as a whole that we have lost our “salt.”

Matthew 5:13 says We as the church try to appease the world so they will come to our buildings, but what we need to be doing is leading them to our Savior.

In 1975, Bill Bright developed a God-given, world-changing strategy. Their mandate: Bring Godly change to a nation by reaching its seven spheres, or mountains, of societal influence.

They concluded that in order to truly transform any nation with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, these seven facets of society must be reached: Religion, Family, Education, Government, Media, Arts & Entertainment and Business.

Sadly we as the church have abandoned all of these and left them to others to use as a platform of propaganda. They have exploited them to the point that they have taken them over and now we see what the results are.

Now is the time for the church to arise and take her place and take back what has been given up. We can do it. We have already been given the mandate by our King “Occupy till I come.”

Now go out and be the force that God has called you to be, so that when he returns we can hear him say “well done thy good and faithful servant.” (Matthew 25:23)

Duane Williams is pastor at New Horizons Ministries in Kingsport.