I am so glad to welcome you to Forms & Patterns™ this week. I believe strongly that the Lord has been good to you, and you have been seen the goodness of God in your life, in your marriage, in your ministry. Moving forward into the fulfillment of God’s plan and purpose for our lives, the Lord has prepared a word for each and everyone of us in the church. If you are found guilty by this word, there is no need to resist or to be annoyed. There is only a need for you to go to God in the place of prayer for a retrace of your steps. The focus today is: The Peril of Double Agents in the Church of Christ. The Scriptures says God send His word to them, the word healed them and deliver them from their destruction.
Listen To Podcast: THE PERIL OF DOUBLE AGENTS IN THE CHURCH OF CHRIST
If a people are ever going to be rescued by God from a looming danger or problem, it is going to be via the word of God. So today, the Lord has sent His word to us and I believe is going to rescue us from any imminent danger that we could have been brought to, either by our carelessness or by the opposition against our life’s destiny. So, we are looking at The Peril of Double Agents in the Church of Christ. Before we move on, I want us to look at certain words in our focus.
Now, when we talk about Peril, what do we mean? When we talk about peril, we are talking about a serious or immediate danger. And so, what does double agent imply? Double agents, according to online source, represents “persons employed by government to discover secret information about enemy countries but who are really working for one of these enemy countries.” In another way, we can say “double agents are persons that spy on a country while pretending to spy for it.” I believe you know, that according to Genesis chapter one verse one, Bible says “God created heavens and the earth” and in Isaiah 66, God said “heaven is my throne, the earth is my footstool.” In another place in the book of Psalms, the Bible says “heavens, even the heavens belong to Gods to God, but the earth He has given the children of men.”
So, it is important we understand that God began His creation by creating two territories- He created the heavens, He created the earth. He made the heaven His own abode, His throne and He made the earth the place of His rest, the place of His glory. And so, every time we remember God, we should remember the king of heaven who rules in the affairs of men. Now, perhaps you wonder? How does God who is the king of heaven, rules in the affairs of men? Genesis 1:26 makes it very clear, when God said “let us make man in our image, according to our likeness and let them have dominion over.” The things that God put under the dominion of man are the things on the earth. And so, God created man in His image and according to His likeness to have dominion on the earth, not to have the dominion outside God, but to have the dominion in God.
No wonder the Bible says God said “let us make man in our image and let them function in our likeness.” So, their authority is in us, the basis of their dominion is in us. Every time they move outside of us, they move outside of their domain of authority. So, we must remember that the authority that any man enjoys on the earth, the power, the influence, is rooted in God, and is found in God. So, God is the basis of every man’s dominion, every man’s authority. However, in Genesis chapter 3, the Bible reveals an event that took place robbed man of the dominion that God gave to him. Because God has already ordained it as a rule that you are a servant to whomsoever you obey; the moment the serpent who came to Adam and his wife and tempted Eve into thinking that disobeying God was going to give them more dominion; and so, haven obeyed Satan, they disobeyed God, and as soon as they disobeyed God, they left God as it were, and they became servants pf Satan. And so, the dominion that God almighty gave to man, was then handed over to their new master, Satan. And from that time, the devil has been claiming ownership of dominion on the earth.
If you remember how we started it, when we examined the word “peril” and “double agent”, every time you hear double agent, you are talking about men and women that work for nations, that work for countries, that work for kingdoms. It is about government; it is about governmental influence; across the nations. Spies are sent by every nation to other nations. There is no nation on the earth that does not have agents working for them. When you now talk about the kingdom of heaven, you would understand that even though the kingdom of heaven has the throne in heaven, the influence of the kingdom reaches everywhere on the earth. However, God had given the power, the dominion over the earth to man, and man gave it to Satan.
Man, who was initially an agent of the kingdom of heaven on earth, sided with Satan and then became an agent of the kingdom of darkness. So, instead of God reigning over the earth through man, Satan began to reign over the earth through the same man. So, two kingdoms using the same agency to achieve their purpose. I am sure you remember when you hear the word “double-mindedness.” Now the root of double-mindedness is what we just mentioned. A man who get commands from two different sources is a double-minded man. A man of God, a woman of God that sources his or her vision or revelation from the kingdom of darkness and then also from the kingdom of light, is a double agent even though he is a man on the earth.
In the book of John 4 from verse 19, there is a particular account that reveals the truth to us about worship, about service, about agency and we must never forget it even as we seek to please God as His agent, as His ambassadors on the earth. John 4 from verse 19, the Bible says:
“The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
When you talk about worship, I am sure you understand that it goes beyond you just singing songs or you just come to a fellowship or a house of prayer. Worship talks about your devotion, your loyalty, your allegiance. It talks about your affiliation, are you of God, do you belong to God or are you of Satan, or do you belong to Satan? Every time you are talking about worship, you are talking about whom you serve, whom you live for and ultimately, whom you intend to spend the rest of your eternity with. Those who worship God definitely are telling themselves that they want to spend the rest of their eternity with God. And those who worship Satan are determined to spend their eternity with Satan wherever he is. But the Scripture shows us in Revelation that the end of Satan is hell. And so, those who worship and serve Satan, those who are agents of Satan, wherever they could be; have their eternity in hell.
So, the Bible says that the Father is seeking worshippers. However, he does not seek any kind of worshipper, He is seeking through worshippers. Because the Bible says anyone who wants to worship the Father, who is spirit must worship in spirit and in truth. And so, if you intend to become an ambassador of God, an agent of God in your nation, in your denomination, then you must understand the spirituality and the sincerity of your action or your decision. You have decided to be sincerely, and to be spiritually responsible for the kingdom of heaven on earth. However, should you yield yourself in obedience to the kingdom of darkness, you then become a double agent, a man, a woman who does not only minister to God, but also minister to Satan.
You remember from John chapter 4 that we just read; we saw that God is seeking worshippers. But beside God, there is someone else who is seeking worshippers. He had been seeking and is still seeking. Let us go to Matthew chapter 4:8-10. The Bible says: “Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’” If you look carefully at the things we just read here, you will notice that outside God, there is an enemy of God as it were, that desires, that craves for what only God should enjoy.
You remember the Bible says “the father is seeking such to worship Him, true worshippers, sincere worshippers,” However, Satan also desires worship. In fact, he so desired it, even though he suspected that Jesus was the Son of God, he still went ahead to ask Him to worship him. Do you imagine that? So, you must understand that if Satan could ask Jesus to worship him, then you must know that Satan can ask you to worship him. I am sure you have omitted a lot of people and you have assumed “these people are too nice, they are too handsome, they are too beautiful to worship Satan.” But the truth is: If you, that you think you worship God can worship God, that is how also they can worship Satan. So, don’t exempt people, don’t assume because somebody looks beautiful, dresses well and rich, because somebody looks spiritual or even religions; the person is not worshipping Satan. If Satan could come to Jesus and say “Jesus, if you want to move forward in your ministry; if you want to enlarge your ministry, if you want to spread the influence of your ministry beyond where you are, if you want more power, more authority, this is how you can get it on the earth because I have dominion over the earth, I have received the dominion of the earth from Adam, your forefather so to say; and so, if you want the same dominion, you must worship me.”
That is how Satan came to Jesus and if Satan could come to Jesus again, Satan could come to you, and Satan can come to anybody demanding for worship. But remember, when Jesus got that instruction, got that command from Satan, unlike Adam and Eve that decided to yield in obedience to Satan, Jesus became disobedient to Satan and therefore obedient to God. Remember, you are a servant to whomever you obey. A man, a woman who obey Satan disobeys God, and so, as a double agent, is now serving the interest of Satan, his new master. See what Jesus said to Satan in Matthew 4:10. It says: “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’”
So, that is clear and we must never forget that. “Him only” shows that only God deserves our loyalty, only God deserves our obedience, even though other things and people could be demanding our loyalty and obedience, only God deserves it. Moving on from there, I want us to consider something that I found in the book of 2 Corinthians chapter 11, from verse 12-15 so that we can have a broader perspective to what we are discussing today. The Bible say:
“But what I do, I will also continue to do, that I may cut off the opportunity from those who desire an opportunity (remember the word, “desire” There is a difference between desire and deserve. The devil desires your worship, but God deserves your worship) to be regarded just as we are in the things of which they boast. 13 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms (and I want you to note the word. It is not “transformed” or “transform”, it is “transforms”) himself into an angel of light. 15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.”
If Satan their master could transform himself over and over as an angel of light, as a spirit of light, how much more his servants, his agents who are working for him, they would transform themselves repeatedly as agents of light. When we are talking about agents of light, we are referring to the five-fold ministry. Now, in the book of Ephesians chapter 4:7, the Bible reveals to us how God instituted His agency on the earth through Jesus. Verse 7 says: “But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift 8 Therefore He says:
“When He ascended on high,
He led captivity captive,
And gave gifts to men.”
Now, if we jump to verse 11, it says: “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.”
We must understand that Jesus instituted His agency through the five-fold ministry gifts. He raised men as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. When Satan wants to perverts the work of Christ Jesus, when Satan does not want the unity of the church, when Satan wants to fight against the growth of the church, what Satan does is to replicate what Jesus has done in a fake order. So, while Jesus established the true order of authority in His kingdom, Satan also establishes a false order. So, while there are true apostles, there are false apostles. While there are true teachers, there are false teachers. While there are true prophets, there are false prophets.
The basis of the falsehood is to negate the impact of the truth. The more the falsehood spread, the more the impact of the truth is weakened among the people. So, you must understand how the devil works. The devil did not create dominion on the earth. The devil stole the dominion that God gave to man. So, you must understand that the devil does not create new things, what the devil does is to create alternative or to replicate what has been created, is to pervert what has been created as a fake copy of it. God gave dominion to man, Satan came, stole the dominion from man and make himself a fake or a false dominating spirit on the earth. And so, he ensures that his own will is done on the earth through his agents.
Usually, if his agents work in isolation from the rest of us and from the rest of the people of God, everybody would be cleared that these are the agents of darkness. However, to ensure that his agents are not subject of attack, or subject of opposition from the church, or from the truth, he decides to embellish his falsehood within the body of Christ. So, it is not impossible for you to find men and women in the church who are serving God and also serving Satan, who physically or apparently appears as servants of God, ministers of God, but in their closets, they are ministers of the kingdom of darkness. These are the double agents whose end, according to what we read in 2 Corinthians 11, is according to their work.
As their works are evil and destructive, so are their end. They shall have an evil end, and destructive end. That is what the Bible says, I am not saying it. If a man, or a woman has been in the church for so long, yet, a double agent, and has been thinking he or she is saved; the truth is he or she is not saved, the judgment of God is hanging over the person. You cannot be an ambassador of darkness in the light, you cannot continue to be a representation of the kingdoms of hell even in the church of Christ Jesus. It will no longer continue for the judgment of God is coming upon such.
You remember we saw in Ephesians chapter 4, that when Jesus ascended, He gave gifts unto men. And the men He has given these gifts to are His servants, they are His agents on the earth, whose purpose is to do on the earth as the Lord wills. Jesus said this is how we should pray: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name, they kingdom come, thy will be done on the earth as it is in heaven.” So, the goal of the agency of Christ is that the will of God is entrenched in the societies of men. So, we could see from there that the agents of Christ Jesus are the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and the teachers. But let us see what happened before Jesus gave gifts unto men.
Let us see something in John 18:33-36.
“Then Pilate entered the Praetorium again, called Jesus, and said to Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?” 34 Jesus answered him, “Are you speaking for yourself about this, or did others tell you this concerning Me?” 35 Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered You to me. What have You done?” 36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My, servants (Another word for that is “my agents”) would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.”
The fact that He said His kingdom was not from here does not mean He didn’t have kingdom; He was indeed king and He was the King of kings. Now we must understand that as a king, he executes His will across nations through His agents. However, just as Je executes His will across the nations through His agents, the five-fold ministry gifts, Satan also executes his own will on the earth through his agents – the pseudo five-fold ministry gifts. So, while there are apostles and prophets that singleheartedly serve the Lord Jesus Christ, there are apostles and prophets who singleheartedly serves Satan, and whose joy is the enforcement of the will of Satan, even in the church.
Now because of our time, I may not be able to read the entire chapter of Jeremiah chapter 19, but the judgment of God to the double agent in the church is contained in Jeremiah 19, and I want you to read it in your quiet moment so that you can have a good understanding of what God has intended for men and women who serve God and Satan in the house of God. So, let us go quickly to the book of Jeremiah chapter 19 from verse 1-8, the Bible says:
“Thus, says the Lord: “Go and get a potter’s earthen flask, and take some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests. 2 And go out to the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the Potsherd Gate; and proclaim there the words that I will tell you, 3 and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus, says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will bring such a catastrophe on this place, that whoever hears of it, his ears will tingle. 4 “Because they have forsaken Me and made this an alien place, because they have burned incense in it to other gods whom neither they, their fathers, nor the kings of Judah have known, and have filled this place with the blood of the innocents 5 (they have also built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or speak, nor did it come into My mind), 6 therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “that this place shall no more be called Tophet or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. 7 And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hands of those who seek their lives; their corpses I will give as meat for the birds of the heaven and for the beasts of the earth.”
Let us jump to verse 12:
“Thus, I will do to this place,” says the Lord, “and to its inhabitants, and make this city like Tophet. 13 And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah shall be defiled like the place of Tophet, because of all the houses on whose roofs they have burned incense to all the host of heaven, and poured out drink offerings to other gods.”’”
I am sure you remember how we started? God seeks worshippers. However, the enemy of God, Satan, also seek worshippers. So, anyone who decides to worship God and Satan is a double agent, and for such, God had predetermined doom for such a person. Of course, you have noticed, that there also people around you who are serving God and serving the kingdom of darkness and yet, they seem to be alive. The fact that they are alive and flourishing now does not mean they will end up like that. Time will show you that the judgment of God will always come through for them. You cannot serve God and mammon; you cannot serve the interest of God’s kingdom and also serve the interest of Satan’s kingdom.
If you want to be for God, be for God, if you want to be for Satan, be for Satan. You cannot afford to be for the two kingdoms. You cannot share your interest with God and share your interest with Satan. You cannot please God and at the same time please Satan. Your desire cannot be to yield to God and then yield to Satan. You cannot yield to God when you please and yield to Satan when you please, thinking you are having fun. You are actually destroying your own destiny and your legacy. I believe that these words that we have heard from the Lord is enough for the wise because we are wise people. We do not want a dangerous end for our lives, we do not want to endanger our destiny, we do not want to destroy our own posterity, even as we leave the earth fulfilling the purpose of God as His ambassadors.
If God’s judgment will not alight upon you, nor alight upon your work, then it is going to be, just like apostle Paul, that you have actually renounced the kingdoms of darkness. Remember what apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4:1-2. It says: “Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart. 2 But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.”
Your goal must be to please God, your goal must be that you carefully handle the word of God, not deceitfully, but truthfully. Remember, that you are not an agent of darkness, you are an agent of light. You are not a minister of darkness; you are a minister of light. God is the one who called you into this ministry and therefore, you can no longer be useful to Satan nor be useful to the accomplishment of his will in your community. God alone must be praised and you must see to it that it is only the kingdom of God that is established and that is enlarged in your territory, in your domain of influence and God will be glorified in your life.
That is the word that the Lord has laid in my spirit: The Peril of Double Agent in the church of Christ. The goal of God for His agents is for the building of the body of Christ (the Church), for the equipping of the saints. But when an agent of Christ becomes a double agent, he therefore forfeits the entire purpose of his calling. If the purpose of your calling will not be forfeited, due to your greed or ambition, then you must stick with God, knowing fully well that God is seeking worshippers, God is seeking servants, God is seeking ministers, men and women who will worship Him, who will minister unto Him, who will serve Him in spirit and in truth.
As you have this desire, I see the Lord helping you. The Holy Spirit will help you; He is your helper. Call unto Him He will answer you. Don’t call on familiar spirits, don’t call on evil spirits, don’t call on demons to help you, they cannot help you. Baal was not able to help the prophets of Baal in the days of Elijah. Four hundred of them were destroyed simply because they relied on a demon that could not appear when the Lord is around. When God is on the scene, when the power of God is manifested, no demon can appear. Why should you be loyal to such? Why can’t you side with the true God? If you need patience, seek for patience. If you need endurance, go for endurance. If you need wisdom, go for wisdom. However, you must remain with God. With God, you are a majority, with God, you can leap over the wall. You can turn your city, your nations upside down for the purpose of God, for the glory of God, for the prosperity and the peace of humanity and God will be glorified in your life, in your ministry and God’s goodness will be evidenced all over your life.
Thank you for the gift of your time, till next time I come your way on another edition of Forms & Patterns™, I want you to side with God and side against Satan, and let God be glorified in your life. God bless you.
