This is one of those “food for thought” blogs….something for you to consider. I was listening to a Bill Johnson sermon on YouTube a week or so ago, and he said something that resonated with me and that I have been mulling over since then. He said that whenever there is a prevailing spirit (demonic) over a people group, a city, or a nation, the church is either in active opposition to that spirit or is being influenced by that spirit. There is no middle ground.

I believe that is a true statement and, if it is true, there are a number of implications. First of all, there are certainly spirits assigned to nations, cultures, people groups, and individuals to promote evil there and oppose the works of God. In the Book of Daniel, we see demonic spirits referred to as the prince of Persia (Dan.10:13) and the prince of Greece (Dan.10:20). These were spirits of significant authority that were warring against Michael, the archangel, in order to hinder the work of God and to further the purposes of Satan in those nations. In the Book of Revelation, John wrote to the church at Pergamum and spoke of the city as a place where Satan had his throne (Rev.2:13), which speaks of a city over which Satan had great influence and spiritual authority.

In our own times, we clearly sense the influence of prevailing spirits in the Middle East that oppose Christ, his people, Israel, and life in genral. The unrelenting hatred and extremism of some groups there can only be understood by the influence of demonic spirits. When you look at Stalinist Russia, Nazi Germany and other places where millions died in concentration camps and mass graves, only a powerful demonic influence can account for such atrocities. We see the same level of influence now in Isis.

Even in America there are the prevailing spirits of Anti-Christ, anti-Semitism, sexual immorality, perversion, violence, and abortion that are having their way in our culture. The rapid acceleration of cultural decline in a once Christian nation is a clear indicator of demonic influence. For the past 50 years, most of the American church has been in passive opposition to these prevailing spirits rather than in active opposition. We have moaned about the decline of the church and our culture but have done so quietly over coffee or while cocooned in Sunday School classes. By and large, the result is that the church has been influenced by these spirits rather than these spirits being pushed back by the church.

How can any Christian church approve of abortion, active homosexuality, same-sex marriage, and the idea that Jesus is a Savior but not the only Savior? And yet many churches in America and many individual’s who identify themselves as Christians hold those cultural views. We have become toxically politically correct which is another way of saying that we don’t want to offend anyone by suggesting that they may be wrong or that their actions might be unacceptable. In that environment there can be no call to repentance. This political spirit is also a prevailing and highly manipulative spirit. Try running a household full of kids that way and see how well it goes. Running a nation that way has even greater repercussions. In recent decades, we have not shaped the culture but the culture has been busy shaping us. I believe it is because we have not actively opposed the prevailing spirits that have been and continue to influence America.

Lets transfer the principle from a national grid to a personal grid. Whatever prevailing spirits in our culture are doing to influence us individually, if we are not actively opposing them, then they are likely influencing us. Most believers are passive in much of their own spiritual lives. We hear cultural input day after day justifying and rationalizing unbiblical and ungodly values and lifestyles. We are likely to absorb the value only minutely day after day, but the accumulation effect impacts us as the months and years pass. Television and movies normalize sinful and perverse lifestyles so that we are no longer shocked or offended when we encounter those things. We hear proponents of abortion and same sex marriage offer their arguments day after day on talk shows and never hear a sermon or a teaching at church that pushes back against those arguments. Our kids hear those values promoted at school and see those who oppose them demonized. Unless we recognize the devil’s agenda and actively oppose those values in our minds, our prayers, and our actions, we will slowly be coopted into a mindset of excusing those behaviors or assigning them to moral gray areas.

We have often heard the maxim that if we are not growing spiritually we are actually loosing ground in the same way that if we stop exercising we don’t stay at the same level of fitness but rather lose strength and endurance. I know that to be true by personal experience. You probably do as well. In reflection, it might be a very good thing to begin to identify the prevailing spirits in our culture, our community, or our families and encourage our churches to actively oppose those spirits while we do the same in our personal lives.

I’m not speaking primarily of picketing, demonstrating, or writing blazing op-eds, although there may be times for that. But where there is a prevailing spirit of divorce in a family or community, the church should be actively providing ministries that strengthen marriages and families. Where teen suicide is on the rise, the church should be finding ways to connect with teens at risk and infusing hope into that segment of the community. If a spirit of poverty seems to prevail in a community or over a people group, the church might be working to provide pathways out of poverty for that group. Where abortion thrives, funding abortion alternatives, volunteering at Life Centers, and promoting adoption would be an active way to oppose those spirits. For every strategy of Satan, God has a powerful and creative answer. Doing similar things in our own lives would be helpful. Although spiritual warfare begins with massive amounts of prayer, spiritual warfare can have a very practical side that goes beyond prayer and deliverance and that takes territory back in whole communities.

Let me encourage you to consider what prevailing spirits might be having the most influence in your community, your church, or your life. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you discernment to identify those spirits, and then pray for creative ways to actively oppose those spirits in your own life and your community.   To take a passive approach might mean you are actually losing ground. Just….food for thought. Blessings today in Him.