In Matthew 16:18 Jesus not only promised, that He would build His church upon the testimony of Peter, which happened on the Day of Pentecost. But Jesus promised that the gates of hell shall not prevail against His Church. What does it mean the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church according to the Bible?
Jesus Christ has the highest authority in heaven and on earth
When Jesus died on the cross and took all the sins and iniquities of the world upon Him, Jesus entered Hades (death). But the death wasn’t strong enough to keep Jesus there. Because, after 3 days, Jesus rose from the dead!
Through His death, Jesus destroyed the devil, who had the power of death (Hebrews 2:14). Jesus conquered death and legally took back the keys of hell and death.
Jesus has the highest authority in heaven and on earth. He is the faithful Witness, the First Begotten of the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth (Revelation 1:5).
As long as His Church is seated in Him, and stays in Him, His Church also has the highest authority, which means that the Church also has power over hell and death; the kingdom of the devil.
The Church of Jesus Christ is the most powerful spiritual organization on this earth and the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Body of Jesus Christ; the Church.
This is the truth and this is the way it should be.
But how come, that many times we don’t see this and experience satanic powers prevailing against local churches? What should believers do to ensure that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church?
An Embassy of the Kingdom of Heaven
The Church is an assembly of believers, who are born again in Jesus Christ by water and Spirit. The Church is the connection on this earth between man and the Kingdom of Heaven. The assembly of Jesus Christ represents God’s spiritual Kingdom on this earth.
We might say, that the Church is an Embassy of the Kingdom of Heaven, that is appointed and founded on this earth and acts on behalf of Jesus Christ in His authority. Jesus is the Head and out of Him, the Church is controlled and led by His Word and the Holy Spirit.
The faithless church
The Church of Jesus Christ is spiritual and led and controlled by the Word and the Holy Spirit. Without Them, the Church is nothing more than a (social) humanistic organization, that is spiritual death. Without the Word and the Holy Spirit, the Church becomes carnal and a worldly organization, that is controlled and affected by worldly knowledge and wisdom; human wisdom, knowledge, philosophies, and strategies. The church will be controlled by the darkness instead of the Light.
The carnal church shall walk after the flesh and be led by her senses, emotions, feelings, and intelligence. The people shall be the center of the church. Therefore, the church focuses on pleasing man instead of Jesus Christ. She shall be occupied with the things of this world and follow the spirits (trends) of this world. The carnal church shall tolerate sin and adjust the Word to the lusts, desires, feelings, the will, and lives of the people.
Therefore the church shall resist and rebel against the Truth of God and shall affect and defile the gospel of Jesus Christ with the world; darkness.
The church shall not be occupied with the things of the Kingdom of God and shall not instruct and correct the believers in the Word, so that they will adjust their lives to the Word and the will of God, and grow up into mature sons of God, who live holy and righteous lives, but they shall be occupied with death works that are down by the flesh.
A faithless church is carnal and operates in the physical realm
Because the church is carnal and unspiritual, the church shall operate in the physical realm instead of the spiritual realm. The church shall have a lot of carnal head knowledge and shall trust in her intellect, but shall be spiritually ignorant and spiritually dead. Because of that, the spirits of this world shall enter the church through the lives of people and shall take their place without any restraint from the leaders of the church.
The church shall try to take authority over the evil powers of darkness but shall fail. Because the believers, who are the church, are dominated and controlled by the same powers of darkness, whom they seek to dominate and take authority over.
A carnal church is not able to take her position in the spiritual realm. It is even dangerous when a carnal church tries to enter the spiritual realm because the church will enter the spiritual out of the soul instead of out of the Spirit. Which means that they are not protected in Christ.
Without the protection of Jesus Christ, the church shall in no time be overwhelmed, by evil powers of the kingdom of darkness.
This shall become visible in the fruit that the church (the believers) will bear. The decisions, that are made in the church about the way of life, cause the believers to live lives that go against the will of God and His Word.
When the church is disconnected from the Word and becomes worldly and allows and tolerates sin in the church, then the gates of hell shall prevail against the church. Through sin, the devil and hell shall take dominion over the church.
The gates represent entrance, authority, power, dominion, wisdom, and counsel (because the elders of a city were gathered in the gates to give counsel and to make important decisions). When the church is disconnected from the Word, then through sin, the gates of hell shall prevail against the church. The counsels of the church shall be inspired by the kingdom of darkness and shall go against the Word of God and His will.
The faithful church
And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18)
But when a church stays faithful to Jesus; the Word and the Holy Spirit, and keeps walking in the Law of Christ, then the church shall walk in the authority of Jesus Christ and represent and bring the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. The church shall walk in dominion and have dominion over the darkness. Instead of the darkness having dominion over the church. The gates of hell shall not prevail against the church. Therefore life will reign instead of death.
The faithful church shall take her spiritual position in this world. The church shall spiritually reign over areas and claim territories and souls for the Kingdom of God. The church shall claim as many souls as possible out of the hands of the devil; the prince of this world.
In churches where the Holy Spirit is present in the lives of the believers, the people, who live in sin and are devoted to sin, will be confronted with their sins. Because the Holy Spirit reproves the world of sin. When the Holy Spirit reproves them of their sins and their sinful state, they can decide to repent of their sins, turn their lives to Jesus Christ to serve and follow Him or to continue living in sin, and stay obedient to the devil and serve him.
That’s why the church should take her place in Jesus Christ, in the spirit, in the heavenly places, and reign from that position and protect the church against the evil forces of darkness.
The church should be guided by the Word and the Holy Spirit so that the world will be reproved of sin. The assembly of Jesus Christ must know the Word and the will of God, so that the congregation can pray according to the will of God and intercede not only for the believers, but also for the people, who don’t know Jesus, and for villages, cities, and countries and claim them for the Kingdom of God.
Only when the church takes its position in the spirit and is led by the Word and the Holy Spirit, the church shall know and recognize its enemy. The works of the devil and hell shall become visible by the Word. The devil shall come and shall try to enter as an angel of light, via the lives of Christians. But if the church discerns the spirits, the church shall close the spiritual gates for the devil and his minions, so that they can’t enter the church.
Jesus has all authority in the heavens and on earth
And hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the Head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all (Ephesians 1:22-23)
Jesus has all authority in the heavens and on the earth, and He has given all authority to His church; His body. Now it’s up to us, what we do with this responsibility and authority on this earth.
What does it mean the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church?
If we build the church upon the Rock then we won’t only be hearers of the Word, but we shall keep His words, speak His words, and shall be doers of His words.
We shall represent Jesus Christ and shall do what Jesus has commanded us to do (i.e. Matthew 28:18-19, Mark 16:15-18, John 20:23).
Only when we stay in His Word, the gates of hell that represent the kingdom of the devil, shall not prevail.
That’s the promise, that Jesus gave to His church; the assembly of believers, who walk after the Spirit and not after the flesh, that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church.
Jesus knew the devil and knew what His work at the cross and His resurrection from the dead would cause.
Jesus knew that the devil would be furious if Jesus would take all authority from the devil.
Therefore Jesus knew that the devil would try anything to attack His body; His church and destroy His body.
That’s why Jesus gave the church His Word and His promise, that as long as we would stay in Him the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church.
The attack of the devil and hell on the church
The devil knows how dangerous a living victorious church is, that walks after the Spirit in the authority of Jesus Christ. A church that isn’t focused on the people, and the enrichment and prosperity of themselves, but that is focused upon Jesus Christ and the mission of the Kingdom of God.
The devil doesn’t want his kingdom to be destroyed, and that’s why he has one mission and that is to extinguish the Light.
He wants to spiritually eliminate every church and cut off the church from the power Source so that the church will be seated in darkness.
How does the devil do that? By removing the testimony of Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God, which is the foundation of the church and replacing it with worldly knowledge and wisdom of man.
The devil wants to build the church upon human knowledge and powers because he knows that without Jesus; the Word, the church has no power at all. Besides that, it will ensure that the believers, who are the church, shall depart from the Word and keep living in sin.
Sin gives access and power to the devil and hell. The more the church tolerates and allows sin, the more power will be given to the devil and his kingdom.
As long as Christians live in sin, the kingdom of darkness; the devil and hell, shall have power and dominion over their lives. Because of that, the devil has power over the church.
The church shall live in darkness and be controlled by the powers of darkness and is led by the wisdom and knowledge of this world and false revelations. This wisdom and knowledge of the world and these false revelations rebel against the Word and the will of God.
What happens when the gates of hell prevail against the church?
The counselors of the kingdom of darkness shall inspire church leaders so that they shall be deceived and deviate from the Word and a holy lifestyle. The church thinks that she is inspired by the Holy Spirit and that she lives in freedom. But the truth is that she is bound by hell. Yes, through their lifestyle they have been given access to the devil and hell. They will be inspired by the evil spirits of darkness and they shall follow up their counsel. The church shall become lukewarm and tolerant. She shall no longer guard the spiritual gates of the church but shall leave the gates wide open for sin and death to enter.
They think that they are merciful and walk in love by being tolerant and allowing all kinds of sin. But the truth is that they are workers of iniquity and servants of the devil.
Because of this human behavior, the Body of Christ is being affected by sin and death. Sin proliferates like cancer in the Body.
Everything that takes place in the spiritual world, will eventually become visible in the church, in the lives of the believers.
Therefore if the gates of hell have prevailed against the church, this shall become visible in the lives of the members of the church and the fruit they bear.
They shall persevere in sin and therefore live in rebellion against the Word. They shall be lukewarm and spiritually slumber. Their tongue shall be an instrument of the devil and shall be used for his kingdom.
They shall live like the world, complain, and be unforgiving. They shall be unhappy, depressed, overwhelmed by fear, self-pity, self-rejection, and suicidal (thoughts). They’ll divorce, commit adultery and other sexual uncleanness and perversion, and they will be affected by sickness, which leads to death.
When these things occur in a church or congregation, it’s not God’s or Jesus’ fault. But it is the fault of the church, that didn’t stay loyal and faithful to the Word and the Holy Spirit, but has been led astray and has entered self-chosen paths. The church has put the counsel of the world above the counsel of the Lord. (Read also: ‘Stop blaming God‘).
Therefore let the church of Jesus Christ repent and renounce sin, by removing the sin from her midst. This means, that the church shall not allow herself to be led by her carnal senses, feelings, emotions, opinion, and intellect (flesh). But that the church shall be led by the Word and the Holy Spirit.
The responsibility of the church of Jesus Christ
If there are members in the church, who don’t live according to the Word and do things that go against the will of God then it’s the church’s responsibility and task to confront the person. So that the person is able to repent of the sin on the testimony of the Word. But if the person is not willing to repent then it’s the responsibility of the church to remove the person from the church and deliver the person to satan. This may sound harsh, but it’s necessary. Because through the sin of the person, the devil and hell shall enter the church and shall affect the lives of the other believers. That’s why it’s so important to remove sin from the Body of Christ. (Read also: ‘What does it mean to deliver a person to satan?‘)
Conclusion
Let the church return to the Word, remove the sins and iniquities out of her midst, and take her position in Jesus Christ. So that, the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church. But that the church shall become a living militant and victorious church, that is seated in Jesus Christ.
If you want to read more about the devil’s tactics and his attack on the church, you can read the following blog posts by clicking on the links:
- The world church is being prepared for the antichrist
- Doctrines of devils are killing the church; the Body of Christ
- Is Jesus thrown out of the church?
- The church seated in darkness
- What is wrong with the church?
- False prophets, how do you recognize them in our time?
- Many pastors are leading the sheep to the abyss
- The power of the devil is powered by sin
- The wolves in sheep’s clothing wreak havoc
‘Be the salt of the earth’
