You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. (Matthew 5:13)
We know that salt makes us thirsty, so our lifestyle and speech should cause people to become thirsty for our life and our Saviour. Salt also gives flavour to food, so our lifestyle should have such a flavour that people desire it.
There is more to it though.
Salt serves excellently as an antiseptic.
“You are the salt of the earth.” Notice that the passage includes the word “earth,” not
“world.” I believe the Lord wants us, His disciples, to be the antiseptic of the earth. It is the purpose of Satan to make the earth sick, to cause sepsis in every possible area of the earth's set-up or mechanism. I don't have to tell you how upside-down everything is on earth, from the politics right down to nature. The sepsis of the earth needs salt as an antiseptic to cure it, and we as Christians are that salt.
Jesus said three interesting things on the topic:
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:18, 19).
“All power” means He has power or authority over every other power or authority in heaven, which is the sky above us, the universe, and God's dwelling, and the earth. Because He has that power, we must go and make disciples who can be channels of that power. We must channel His power to rule over corruption, crime, unstable families, political violence, natural disasters, and so forth. Mark recorded Jesus’ final words as follows: “And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well” (Mark 16:17-18). I believe that if Jesus had time, he would have listed all the powers that believers would be able to exercise.
“I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father” (John 14:12, 13).
Jesus exercised power over sickness, political leaders, nature, and finance. He promised that anyone with faith in Him would do the same and even greater things than He did. The examples in the Bible such as the calming of the storm, Jesus walking calmly through a crowd about to Him off a cliff, and His wisdom in shutting the mouths of the political and religious powers of the time are all examples of what His disciples can do in a much greater measure.
Jesus said in the John 14:13 that anything we ask of Him, He will do. What is this “anything?” Is it our personal wants and needs? I don’t think so. These will be cared for automatically if we get busy with His Kingdom issues (Matthew 6:25-34). If we, however, identify a situation in the earth that needs changing, we need to go before Jesus in prayer and ask Him what we should command. Once we hear from Him how to go about it, we need to take authority over the spirit behind the situation and then command that which we have heard from God. He will then solve the situation. Obviously, this would demand from us dedicated prayer and separation for God. Believe me, I have seen many issues resolved as a result of taking authority and have also heard testimonies to that effect.
Some years ago my wife, Julia, and I became aware of a number of aeroplane crashes, one after the other, within a few weeks. I asked, “Why this trend, Lord?” I then saw a vision of a cloud of demons forcing an aeroplane down as if playing games. The devil’s purpose is to kill, steal, and destroy (John 10:10). We decided to take authority in the spiritual realm against these activities, and the accidents stopped. Then we started to look for other trends to pray against. There are many such issues that God can deal with in the natural, political, and social realms.
Where did Jesus get His power? It was not because He was God. He spent His nights in prayer, hearing from the Father about how to deal with the issues awaiting Him. Then during the day, He did exactly as He was told. He said in John 5:19, “‘I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.’”
Jesus could do nothing without relying on His father. How about us? “‘I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing’” (John 15:5). As Jesus needed His Father, so we need Him. As we remain in Him and Him in us, what fruit will we bear? The fruit He bore, the same power He exercised, the same difference He made. “The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working]” (James 5:16b Amplified Bible). That is how we should pray.
During the storm Jesus told the disciples:
“You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm” (Matthew 8:26).
Jesus made two points in this passage. First, by saying, “You of little faith,” he implied that the disciples should have spoken to the elements. They should have commanded the storm themselves, giving Jesus’ power a channel to work through. He expected them to exercise their faith and the spoken word so that He could solve the problem through them.
The second thing Jesus did was to command the wind and waves to calm down. Everything Jesus did was through commands, from the creation until the end of His ministry. He prayed through the night to get rhema; the living word or revelation instructions from the Father, and then He gave His commands. This means that He received the instructions from the Father, which gave Jesus the faith He needed that the Father will back His commands with His power, simply because it was the Father in the first place who told Him what to do. “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17 KJV). If we hear from God what He wants us to do, we will have the faith that He will back us up and do what we ask or command, since we do what the Almighty expects of us - His will.
How can we be salt on the earth and clean out its sepsis? First we need to become aware of God's concern for this sick earth. We need to focus away from our carnal thoughts, doubts, fear, and hatred and adopt His compassion and thoughts.
Then we need to have faith. We need to believe that He can and wants to deal with this sepsis. We need the faith to believe we can be His channels. Then we need to spend much time in prayer to bring every situation before God and hear from Him how he'd like to deal with it. Lastly, once we know how to deal with it, we need to command His will into every situation as Jesus did.
There is no record of Jesus publicly begging the Father to heal somebody. He rebuked and commanded. So if the sepsis of this earth becomes a concern to you, isolate yourself to God, get the rhema solution to the problem, and then command it into the heavens and onto the earth. “‘What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs.’” (Matthew 10:27).
What do you think will happen to this sick earth if all the millions of Christians do this on a daily basis?
Salt also preserves.
Any food treated with salt is protected against decay. Salt was especially used in the days before freezers and modern preservatives.
Christians, who are salt, should preserve values, life, joy, peace, and especially the stronghold that the Kingdom of God has in an area or country. If we apply the principles described above and act as salt that preserves, Christianity will survive in our area. A stronghold is a position of strength. Christianity has the stronghold in countries such as England, the United States, and South Africa, while Islam has the stronghold in countries such as Pakistan and Arabia.
The preserving function of Christians being salt is an active process. Most corruption and decay took place because the church was asleep and passive at the time, or just did not fight hard enough. I’m thinking of things like the legalization of abortion and the removal of the Bible and prayer from the schools. We need to fight. For example, pornography was kept out of the South African family stores because the Christians launched a huge offensive against it when pornography became legal after the 1994 government change.
One of the issues we should preserve is our freedom of individuality and expression. The controversial issue of political correctness is something that we as “salt” Christians should challenge in the spiritual realms. Political correctness is possibly one of the major causes of spiritual apathy among Christians, because it can lead to fear of persecution. Instead of Christians challenging, rebuking, preaching, and training in righteousness, many have become cautious, do-not-disturb Christians. They hear a social gospel in a church that acts as a social club rather than a training centre for spiritual soldiers.
Political correctness seems to be a tool designed in the supernatural realm to prevent Christians from evangelizing. From the perspective of political correctness, evangelism imposes religion and therefore offends. Unfortunately, in reality, this only seems to apply to Christianity and allows non-Christian religions to flourish. It is a breeding ground for ungodliness. We should seek the Lord to show us how we could challenge it and persevere in the spiritual battle until we get results.
We want to say with Paul, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7). In the midst of setbacks, trials, temptations, and persecutions, Paul kept the faith that God can make a difference.
We should fight the good fight on God’s behalf to preserve His values on this earth, keeping the faith that He is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us (Ephesians 3:20). Being salt demands that we spend much time with God in prayer and it commands us to take up our authority in faith. How do we then actively preserve what is important for an abundant life? When meat is covered with salt, the salt interferes with the natural process of decay and changes the logical course that the meat would have taken. In the same way, we as Christians should interfere with the process of decay and change the logical course that the earth would take.
We do this in a number of ways. We should pray without ceasing. “The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working]” (James 5:16b, The Amplified Bible). We should focus our prayer away from ourselves and on that which needs change. We should pray fervently for that which the Lord told us to pray about.
Next we should act. We should make a noise about the sepsis that is so evident on the earth. For instance, when the homosexuals feel they are being discriminated against, they complain. Even more so, Christians should be in the news all the time for speaking out against wrongs. We could write to the newspapers, file complaints with our members of parliament, speak out at parent-teacher meetings, and tack posters on notice boards. We could even arrange peaceful, orderly protests and marches if the Lord directs. There are so many ways in which we could stir the consciences of the world and make them aware of sin and righteousness. If we do this, we give the Holy Spirit the mandate to do what He was sent for. “‘When he (the Holy Spirit) comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment” (John 16:8).
Salt Purifies
An effective way to get rid of sinusitis is to rinse the sinuses with a solution of salt in lukewarm water. It purifies those canals from all germs and loosens all the muck. We also use saline or salt solution to clean contact lenses.
“For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges (discerns) the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). The Word, which is living in us and is commanded by us through faith, does the purifying. Jesus said to the disciples: “‘You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you” (John 15:3).
The Greek word used in both these references is “logos” (the written Word or Bible) and not “rhema” (the revealed Word as from the Lord). So what is our task as salt? We need to help clean this earth of all the muck doctrines, ideas, and teachings by proclaiming the truth. For this we use the information and guidance in the written Word to replace and eradicate the false doctrines in people’s hearts. It is the written Word—the scriptures—quickened by revelation and power from the Lord through intercessory prayer that will discern the thoughts and intents of the heart.
As in advertising, the information must be offered continuously in order for it to gradually replace the incorrect knowledge in people’s minds. This is why lifestyle evangelism (showing Christ through your life) on its own is not enough. We need to preach the Word, in and out of season as we read in 2 Timothy 4:2, 3: “Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.”
We need to do this in boldness. Why do lies such as evolution, New Age and the like get away with so much and grow at such an immense rate? It is because there is not much truth resisting it, proving it wrong. Why is there not much truth? It is because there are too few Christians bold enough to proclaim and command truth as a direct counteraction to these lies. We are scared of unpopularity, persecution, and estrangement. It is low priority since we are busy building our own little kingdoms. The amount of time (if any) that we avail for the sake of Kingdom issues is so small that the work has practically no effect.
Political correctness also forms a barrier, since it is easier to have an attitude of “Let them deceive: I don’t care as long as I’m okay. Why should I get involved and risk persecution?” The problem is that when people are indoctrinated from childhood with false beliefs, it is hard to change. The Word of God calls for people who will sacrifice their lives for the sake of truth and not just exercise religion all the time—people who will fight for truth. If we really trust the Lord, we would not be scared to speak up, because He promised to cover for us if we seek His Kingdom.
Every Christian, not just ministers, needs to proclaim truth of the Word of God at all times. This Word is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart (Hebrews 4:12). We need to be courageous, speaking this Word at every opportunity—with colleagues, in the grocery line, with other parents at school, with brothers and sisters at church, with yourself and with the devil (“Listen, Satan, about this temptation, the Word of God says . . .). When we pray, we must also speak the Word to the Lord, because praying His Word releases His power. This demands that we know the Word. The only way to get to know it is through reading and memorising it. Imagine what little influence false doctrines will have if millions of Christians refute it all the time with the truth.
How do we do it? Once again, get the power and direction from Jesus in private prayer, and then simply proclaim truth wherever He shows you. Will I have the courage? “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline” (2 Timothy 1:7). The Greek for spirit is pneuma, which can be translated either as human spirit or Holy Spirit. The new spirit God gave us at rebirth, since our old spirit was dead because of Adam’s sin, is one with the Holy Spirit who is Almighty. So why do we fear?
