One of the most mesmerizing passages in the Bible is found in Isaiah 6. There the prophet declares, “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.”

Apparently, Isaiah was given an open vision into heaven where he saw the glory of the Lord in the heavenly temple. Isaiah’s initial response was one of terror as he measured his weakness, frailty, and even sinfulness against the holiness of God. In the moment of the vision he cried out, “Woe to me. I am ruined. For I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” The expectation in the Old Testament was that a man would die if he ever looked on the face of God as God had warned Moses on Mt. Sinai. However, Moses was in the very presence of God while Isaiah was seeing him through a vision. And yet, the effect of feeling defiled and filthy in the presence of “the Lord of All” was still devastating.

The good news was that an angel took a burning coal from the altar (probably the altar of incense that stood just outside the Holy of Holies in the temple) with a pair of tongs and touched the prophet’s mouth with it, declaring him forgiven and his sin atoned for. At that point, Isaiah was ready to stand before God and receive his commission to go preach to the rebellious nation of Israel. It’s interesting that Isaiah measured his sin and the sin of the nation, by the words that he and the nation had spoken. The burning coal was placed on his lips as if to purify his speech. One again we are reminded that words matter.

I wish that Isaiah had been more artistically minded and had given us a more detailed description of what he saw…colors, light, radiance, lines, proportions, music in the background, etc. But what he does reveal is a God so big that even the hem or the train of his robe filled the temple. Seraphim, a special class of angel, surrounded the throne declaring the holiness of God. “Holy, Holy, Holy” was the chorus. Perhaps, the triple holy was for emphasis like exclamation points. Or, perhaps, it was in recognition of the Father, Son, and Spirit. When the seraphim spoke the doorposts of the eternal temple shook and the palace was filled with smoke. If the servants are that powerful, how much greater is the master? If the servants are that impressive, how much more impressive is the one they serve? Whatever details Isaiah left out, he was overwhelmed by the vision. The greatness, the power, the glory, the holiness, and the majesty of God made Isaiah want to melt.

But why the vision? There seem to be two possible reasons for the vision and the timing of the vision and both are probably true. First of all, the reign of King Uzziah was either about to end or has just come to an end after 52 years on the throne in Jerusalem. The transition of power in those days could often be bloody and violent. In the history of Israel, civil wars had broken out over who would replace a king who has just died. Assassinations were not unheard of to remove new kings before they could consolidate their power. In those days, many more kings turned out to be evil than good and the judgment of God was always standing in the shadows just off stage. In fact, although Uzziah had been a faithful king until his latter years, the people as a whole were both idolatrous and rebellious. The future had to be uncertain – even to the prophet.

So, here was God still on his throne regardless of who was on the throne in Jerusalem. There was no weakness in heaven, no panic, no uncertainty and no king who would leave a vacant throne some day. Isaiah was reminded in his vision that his God was still ruling in heaven, full of power and majesty. He was still in control and he would still care for his own. In a year of great uncertainty, even the prophet needed the reminder of where the true king and true power resided. In our own year of great uncertainty, we need the same vision. We need to be reminded that our salvation is not in the Republican Party or the Democrat Party but in heaven where there is no corruption, no voter fraud, and no untested candidates.

A second reason for the vision was that Isaiah was about to be given an assignment to go out and preach to a hostile crowd that was not always adverse to killing or jailing prophets who were calling them to repentance. As he received his orders, he also needed to know that an unimaginable power in heaven would be his covering, his protection, and his provision. He needed to know that had qualified him for his mission by taking away his sin. Whatever God will be calling us to in the decade to come, we may also need to know that. To some degree, our faith is only as big as our God, our security is only as big as our God, our boldness is only as big as our God.

Isaiah reminds us that we have an immense God who is not detached from us at all but rather had laid plans for our redemption before the foundation of the world and announced it once again through his prophet Isaiah. In the last few verses of Isaiah 6, God tells the prophet that judgment is coming and that Israel would be cut down like a tree but, in the stump, a holy seed would remain that would someday be the salvation and restoration of Israel. That Holy Seed would be Jesus, the Messiah.

Interestingly, John quotes Isaiah 6:10 in the 12^th chapter of his gospel (Jn.12:48) and tells us that Isaiah was actually seeing Jesus and his glory in this vision. This same Jesus has now regained that glory and intercedes for each of us every day with the Father. This vision simply reminds us as it did Isaiah, that Jesus is big enough, powerful enough, and glorious enough to meet our every need. Even though the world might shake around us he can make us stand. In the face of uncertain politics, crumbling economics, terrorists, the devastating loss of a loved one, a cancer diagnosis, or the rebellion of a child, our God is big enough.

Jesus, the lover of our souls, is big enough and from his throne in heaven reminds us, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you” (Jer.29:11-12).   Isaiah reminds us that when the day is bleak and tomorrow is troubling, do not focus on the problem but the one who overcame death and is big enough to overcome anything that comes our way.

One of the most common experiences of Christians is having someone on their heart that needs the Lord, but not knowing exactly how to pray for that person. It may be someone who once had a relationship with Jesus but has now walked away or someone who has never given their heart to God. Very often it is a wife praying for her husband or parents praying for an adult child who is not living for the Lord or who never accepted the Lord.

Because these tend to be long-term prayers, we often wonder if our prayers are making any impact at all because we are not seeing life change in the one for whom we have been praying. Often we have prayed for months or even years to see our loved ones begin to seek the Lord but without evident effect. Because the Spirit of God must persuade and motivate without violating the free will of the one for whom we are praying, this process can be very drawn out. Sometimes, God is simply waiting for a defining, life-altering event that he knows is on the horizon. Though the thought that this may be a long, drawn out process may be discouraging, the truth is encouraging. The truth is that the thing that keeps any person from belief is a lie from the enemy that exalts itself against the word of God, but we are promised that divine weapons have the capacity to pull down or demolish those strongholds.

I like the Living Bible’s translation of 2 Corinthians 10:4-5. Speaking of divine or God-powered weapons, that version says, “These weapons can break down every proud argument against God and every wall that can be built to keep men from finding Him. With these weapons I can capture rebels and bring them back to God, and change them into men whose heart’s desire is obedience to Christ.”

Our prayers for unbelieving loved ones must reach these strongholds in their hearts and minds that keep them from receiving the love and truth of God. Because our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual powers and principalities, our best rational arguments, pleading, manipulations, and even coercion make little headway. Let me suggest a few ways to pray for our lost loved ones that touch these places and tear down the strongholds that keep them in bondage.

First of all, we should pray for God to preserve the life of our loved one while this process of salvation is unfolding. We should not always pray for God to remove their struggles because many of us find God in a struggle or crisis, but we should pray for protection over their lives.

Secondly, we can ask Jesus to heal the broken heart of the one we are praying for. In Luke 4, Jesus quotes Isaiah 61 and says it defines his mission to a lost world. He says that he has come to heal the brokenhearted and set captives free. In most cases, the enemy plants lies and builds barriers through wounds and brokenness. Healing may need to come before captives can be set free and before strongholds can be totally torn down.

Thirdly, we should pray for the Holy Spirit to lift the veil or the deception that Satan has placed over his/her mind through revelation and enlightenment by which that person may begin to see things as they really are. Paul prayed for the church at Ephesus to receive a spirit of wisdom and revelation so that they might grasp what God had done for them and how much he loves them. Certainly, those we pray for need to grasp that as well.

In addition, we can pray for the Holy Spirit to hover over the one we are praying for in order to birth faith and a spiritual hunger in his/her heart. In Genesis, we are told that the Holy Spirit brooded or hovered over the chaos that was on the face of the earth and brought order out of that chaos. Often, those we pray for have a chaotic mind when it comes to the things of God. We can ask the Spirit to help them make sense of God’s truth.

We should also pray that God would put godly people in the path and life or those we are praying for so that they might influence them for Jesus. Even Jesus said that a prophet has no honor in his own town or family. The brothers of Jesus didn’t believe he was the Messiah until after his resurrection. They just could not see him as anything but their older brother and defined him by the childhood rivalries they had experienced. Sometimes we are not the ones to lead a loved one to Jesus, but we are the ones who can pray for God to put someone else in his or her life who can.

We should also bind any spirits that are oppressing our loved one in the name of Jesus, command them to be silent, and to leave that person never to return. We should specifically bind pride, rebellion, lying spirits, spirits of unbelief and religious spirits. We should forbid them from speaking and from continuing to establish any thought patterns contrary to the Word of God. We should declare the destruction of those strongholds by the authority and power of Christ and command them to come down as the walls of Jericho came down. Declaring things in the spiritual realm is often like using a battering ram. Every time we declare God’s power and sovereignty over a spirit or a circumstance we weaken the walls of that stronghold. Eventually, they will crumble and fall if we do not lose heart. We should also declare, in the name of Jesus, that no weapon formed against the one for whom we are praying shall prosper or succeed.

Finally, we may pray for God to assign angels to protect our loved one and to keep the enemy from him/her and to show every lie of Satan for what it is. There are also times that we may need to pray for God to remove an ungodly influence from the life of the person for whom we are praying. That could mean a breakup in a relationship, a job change, or simply a fresh set of eyes through which to view that person.

Warfare is a dirty business. It takes perseverance, faith, consistency and a long-term view of things. It takes aggressive prayer and aggressive declarations. It takes faith that God is in the mix and working even when we cannot see what he is doing. It takes strategy and confidence in the one who leads the battle. When we pray for another’s salvation, we know that we are aligned with God’s will who wants all men to be saved so we can pray with confidence. Our job is to pray constantly and continue to direct the power of heaven toward our loved one with our prayers and to exert the power of heaven with our declarations. God will back us.

And remember, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Gal.6:9). May you be constantly filled with faith and endurance as you pray for the salvation of another. May you also know with confidence that God is able and willing to tear down every stronghold through your prayers as you war for the soul of one whom God loves even more than you do.

Our greatest weapon in spiritual warfare is prayer. In a microwave world, I often hear Christians express discouragement and doubt when prayers have seemingly gone unanswered after weeks or a few months of praying. We often give up on a prayer and an answer too soon because in our culture waiting for anything is almost a foreign concept. Instant gratification seems to be the norm in everything we do. Unfortunately, patience and endurance along with perseverance are spiritual qualities that God wants to develop in each of us. James wrote, “Consider it pure joy my brothers whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance” (Ja. 1:2-3). If we did not have to wait and persist in many circumstances, we would not need those qualities.

Speaking of our thirst for immediate answers and solutions, Dutch Sheets writes, “We are much like the African cheetah that must run down its pray to eat. It is well suited for the task as it can run at speeds of 70 miles per hour. The cheetah has only one problem, however, in that it has a disproportionately small heart, which causes it to tire quickly. If it doesn’t catch its prey quickly, it must end the chase. How often we have the cheetah’s approach in prayer. We speed into our closets with great energy, we speed to the front of the church, or we speed to someone else for prayer. But lacking the heart for a sustained effort, we often falter before we accomplish what is needed. For our next prayer excursion, we decide to pray harder and faster, when what is needed may not be more explosive power but more staying power – stamina that comes from a bigger prayer heart” (Dutch Sheets, Intercessory Prayer, p.208).

George Muller once wrote, “The great point is never to give up until the answer comes. I have been praying for sixty-three years for one man’s conversion. He is not saved yet, but he will be. How can it be otherwise…I am praying.” Dick Eastman reports that the day came when Muller’s friend did receive Christ. It did not come until Muller’s casket was lowered into the grave and at that moment, Muller’s friend gave his heart to Jesus. Persistent prayer had won the day. Faith reached beyond the grave and accomplished a lifelong prayer. Jesus himself instructed his disciples to “always pray and never give up” (Lk.18:1).

God is not impressed with a world that demands instant everything. He works on his own timetable to fulfill his purposes in the world and in our lives. He will not be hurried by our impatience so we must bend to his ways. Sometimes that includes patience, perseverance, and endurance. Whatever you have been praying for, keep praying. If it is good and godly and is a desire of your heart, keep praying unless God instructs you to do otherwise. Jesus promised that whatever we ask in his name (that is consistent with the will of God) we will receive it. He promised the outcome but did not dictate the time frame. God is a multi-tasker and is often accomplishing numerous things connected to the same prayer. It is never just about you or me. God does things “in the fullness of time,” which means he does them when every part is in place. Typically, nothing happens, nothing happens, nothing happens…and then everything happens at once.

Our part is to believe that God answers our prayers. He is faithful and stands on his promises. Some answers do come in hours but others come in years and decades. If it is important enough you must keep praying and believing that the answer is in the pipeline. It is coming and when the time is right and the forces of heaven converge, your answer will appear. Endure. Be patient. Always pray and never give up.

I keep running into Christians who do not take spiritual warfare seriously. Their position is that since the devil has been defeated he has no real power to come against believers. The notion of demonic attack and, especially, the demonization of a believer sound hyper-charasmatic, unsophisticated, antiquated, and even superstitious to them. They tend to relegate all demonic activity to the first century in the same way that cessationists confine the miraculous works of the church to the “age of the apostles.”

It is true that scripture tells us that Jesus triumphed over Satan, judged him, and rendered him powerless. We have to understand those statements, however, in the context of all of God’s word. Look at the following passages that were all written after the resurrection and the announced defeat of Satan and see what you sense about Satan’s activities in the life of believers and his threat to their welfare.

 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Ephesians 6:11

For we wanted to come to you—certainly I, Paul, did, again and again—but Satan stopped us. 1 Thessalonians 2:18

Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. 1 Peter 5:8-9

Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life. Revelation 2:10

However we understand the triumph of Christ over Satan that rendered him powerless, it clearly does not rule out Satan’s ability to wage war against the saints. We are told clearly that we still have a struggle and that struggle is against rulers, authorities, and powers in this dark world and in the heavenly realms. That phrase doesn’t sound as if the dominion of darkness has been totally stripped of all power and authority. It is such a struggle that we must put on spiritual armor and learn to use divine weapons in order to take our stand. We are instructed to be self-controlled and alert because the devil still prowls around looking to devour those who apparently lack self-control and are oblivious to Satan’s activities. Paul also lets us know that Satan can block the plans of Christians and, perhaps, the will of God on this planet. Paul complained that Satan had prevented him from visiting the church at Thessalonica on multiple occasions. Finally, we are told that Satan can launch persecution, imprisonment, and even martyrdom against God’s people.

These verses are written to believers not unbelievers. The warnings are issued to the saints, not to those outside of Christ. Spiritual warfare then is a very real component of the Christian life and must be taken seriously. We are not to be afraid or paranoid but we are to be cautious and wise about Satan’s strategies. The resurrection cancelled Satan’s claim on our eternal souls. It cancelled the power of the law in our lives that brought condemnation. It rendered Satan powerless in terms of his dominion over those who are in Christ and his claim on us but has not taken away his ability to wage war.

Notice that these attacks are from external sources. Jesus promised that all those who were righteous would experience persecution, so external attacks from people who are being directed by Satan are normal in the lives of those who serve Jesus. Temptations from demons who are outside of us and just dropping by to see what can be accomplished are normal as well. We see that dynamic when Satan showed up to tempt Jesus after forty days in the wilderness. Satan tempted Jesus with ungodly promises and taunts three times, but after Jesus resisted him he left with the intention of returning later and trying again at a more opportune time.

However, Satan not only wants to attack God’s people from the outside but would love to get on the inside as well. That is why we are warned, “In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold” (Eph. 4:26-27). Here the warning is not to leave your anger, resentment, and bitterness unattended. To remain in a state of unforgiveness gives the enemy the opportunity to gain a foothold or a place or some standing in our lives. This happens not because the victory of Jesus has failed but because we willingly opened the door and invited the enemy inside by some prolonged disobedience to the commands of God.

Many other verses warn us to be aware of Satan’s schemes and traps so that we don’t give him some legal right to assign demons to us on a permanent basis. When crazy relatives drop by for a few days, we can bear that and still be on our best behavior. But if they move in, after a while their actions and attitudes will wear us down, rob us of our peace, and maybe cause us to act out in ungodly ways. When demons gain a permanent assignment through our actions they can have the same effect. A friend of mine who had years of experience in deliverance ministry used to say, “It’s one thing to wake up in the middle of the night to discover that someone is trying to get into your house. It is another thing to wake up and realize that someone is already in your house.” We want to keep the enemy out by refusing to give him even a foot in the door. Of course, even when the enemy has gained entrance, he can be still dislodged by our repentance and the authority of Christ. But it is best not to go down that road at all.

Ultimately, scripture is very clear that spiritual warfare is the condition of every Christian life whether we know it or not. We are most vulnerable if we are not sensitive to the attacks of Satan and write them off as simply the normal bumps and bruises of life. That is like an individual who does not know that cancer has assaulted his or her body and thinks the accumulating symptoms are simply normal signs of wear and tear on the body. Catching the assault early is immensely better than discovering if after is has a foothold in your entire body. Preventing it in the first place is even better. Every Christian then should be equipped for spiritual warfare and equipped in the use of divine weapons by which we wage war in the heavenly realms. Those who do not receive that instruction are most vulnerable and even helpless in the face of the enemy.   So, to every believer…be wise, be equipped, and be victorious.

Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. Hebrews 2:14-15

The writer of Hebrews declared that Jesus, through his death, has rendered the devil powerless. The word that is translated powerless, means to make insignificant or ineffective. Too often, those who are involved in spiritual warfare give the devil too much credit and, in their minds, give him too much power. Paul wrote, “But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it says, ‘When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.’ (In saying, ‘He ascended,’ what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions of the earth?  He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things’” (Eph. 4:7-10).

Not only did Jesus render the devil powerless but he also descended into hell and either set those who had previously been held captive by the enemy free or brought enemy captives with him as trophies. Either understanding is possible. The probable picture Paul is painting is that of a Roman general coming home from war after securing a victory. Victorious generals were given a “triumph” by the Senate, which was essentially a tickertape parade through the streets of Rome. As he entered Rome, he would be riding in a chariot pulled by four horses. His chariot would be followed by prisoners that he had taken captive as a display of his power and his authority. After the prisoners, came all the spoils that had been taken from the enemy. Then the general’s soldiers and other dignitaries would come behind. After the parade, which sometimes took more than a day, the general would often throw a huge banquet, giving away gifts and providing food paid for by his part of the spoils of war.

This picture of Jesus confirms that by his sinless life, his willing death, and his resurrection he was completely victorious over the enemy. He rendered Satan ineffective and irrelevant for those who are in Christ. After the cross, the only power that Satan has over God’s people is the power we give him through sin, unbelief, fear, and by believing his lies. Ultimately, we are in the same condition Adam and Eve were in while living in the Garden. In the Garden, Satan could not assault them, kidnap then, take their lives, or even harass them until after they believed his lies and surrendered their authority to him.

Today, as believers, we give him the authority to harass us and afflict us by coming into agreement with him. Apparently, Satan has the ongoing right to tempt us and cause others to persecute us because we are told to beware of his schemes and that persecution will come to the righteous. But, he does not have the legal right to afflict us, take our lives, or harass us year after year unless something in our lives or the lives of those we are attached to has given him power. When those things are taken care of by the blood of Christ, his authority is revoked again.

I like what Jonathan Welton says about this. “ I do believe demonic forces are at work in the world, but not in the way many think. Most true spiritual warfare takes place in the arena of truth versus lies. The devil is a liar, and he uses his craftiness to get us to lay aside our identity and authority. Our battle must be understood as a battle to maintain our identity, because the authority we have been given as believers is contained in our identity.

Many Christians have reached a point emotionally where they feel as though they have been stripped of their armor. They have been beaten to a pulp. They have been chained and are being dragged behind the devil’s chariot as his spoils of war…The truth regarding our identity is that we have been put into Christ. ‘In him we live and move and have our being’ (Acts 17:28). We abide in Him and he in us (Jn.15:4). We have been seated with him in heavenly places (Eph. 2:6)…If we understand that we abide in Him (which also means that we abide in his authority), then our spiritual warfare is very different: we are not fighting for victory, we are fighting from victory” (Jonahtan Welton, The School of the Seers, DestinyImage Publishing, p.155).

In our own lives, when Satan shows up and seemingly rents a room in our house, we need to remember who Christ is and who we are in Him. We need to take a personal inventory and inquire of the Spirit to see if anything or anyone is giving the devil a key to our front door. If we find something, then we should immediately deal with it through faith and the blood of Christ. Having done that, we should reassert our authority as those who speak for Christ and represent him on this planet. When we command the enemy, we should do so with full confidence that we have the authority to do so and that he must comply because he that is in us is greater than he that is in the world (1 Jn. 4:4).

We already have the victory over Satan because Christ already has the victory. We should have no fear of this enemy who has been rendered powerless, but rather he should fear us for we sit in judgment on him. If we want to be effective in spiritual warfare we must maintain that mindset. When we go onto the field to face the enemy we should walk on with the swagger of those who already know that the game and the victory is theirs. It is that swagger in Christ, the certainty of who we are, and the total confidence that victory is already ours that intimidates demons and causes the devil to flee.

If we walk onto the field fearing defeat, being unsure of our Captain, and thinking that the enemy looks bigger, stronger and faster than we thought, we will be ineffective. We will empower and embolden the enemy by forgetting who our Captain is and who we are in him and we will not win the lopsided victory that was ours. I remember a scene from a cheesy vampire movie from my youth. It was the classic scene where a priest was facing the vampire, pulled out his silver cross, and shoved it in the face of the dark one. Instead of wilting, the vampire laughed and told him that the silver cross had no power in that moment because the priest had no faith. It didn’t turn out well for the priest. There is some truth in that for us as we face the enemy. Know who Christ is, who you are in him, and that Satan has been rendered powerless, in your case, by the resurrection of Jesus. Then exercise the authority of one who is already seated in heavenly places next to the King of Kings.

Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life. Philippians 2:14-16

I visited with a sweet lady last night who grew up in church, loves the Lord, hosts a house church in her home, but was still struggling with overwhelming feelings of fear and condemnation as she tries to serve the Lord. She lamented that the churches in her area were “powerless to help people like her.” In many ways she had no more freedom in her life than the unsaved men and women in her community.

If we are honest, many believers today are saved but remain in bondage to sin, addiction, shame, fear, and a host of other hindrances to their walk. The truth is that other than church attendance, a large percentage of believers look just like the people they work with or go to school with who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them. Divorce rates in the church rival divorce rates in the culture at large. Christian teens seem to have little power over the cultural pressure to drink, experiment with drugs, or to be sexually active. A significant number of believers live on antidepressants, tolerate marriages dominated by anger and rage, live with bitterness toward the past, and are crippled by an overpowering sense of unworthiness and rejection.

I’m not scolding these brothers and sisters for not being “the Christians they should be” because I have struggled with many of those issues as well. These believers are desperately looking for freedom, but in many cases have not been shown by their churches how to access the freedom that Jesus promises.

A gospel that only gets us to a place of forgiveness but that does not radically free us and change us so that we stand out in contrast to our culture is not the gospel of the kingdom that Jesus preached. Paul pointed to this truth in the text from Philippians quoted above. Stars stand out in stark contrast to the darkness. Jesus himself declared that his followers were to be the light of the world. Those who wear the name of Christ should stand out in the crowd by their sheer “differentness.”

Jesus spoke of being “born again” not as figurative language for trying harder or simply starting over with a clean sheet, but as a reality where something real and essential has been altered in everyone who comes to him. Scripture tells us that before Jesus came into our lives we were dead in our trespasses and sins and living under the dominion of darkness. We were in bondage to sin whether we knew it or not. Satan literally owned us. But in Christ, all things become new.

When the Holy Spirit takes up residence within us, an incredible potential for radical change is released. The door to our prison cell is unlocked and opened wide. The question is whether we will walk through that door into a radically new life or voluntarily stay in our familiar environment. Many Christians stay because they are unaware of the destiny and power Christ offers to them to set them free and transform their lives.

One of Satan’s favorite strategies is to convince a believer that he or she is the same person they always were and will always be even after coming to Christ. If he can’t keep us from accepting Jesus then the next best thing is to convince us that we will only experience the power and blessings of heaven after our funeral. Until then, we will simply struggle and do the best we can while out life plays out like a sad country song. That is not what Jesus had in mind on the cross.

After coming to Christ, the essential difference between those with the Spirit of Christ living in them and those without the Spirit should soon become apparent, not as a reflection of our efforts but as a reflection of the power of God working in us. The fact that so many believers blend in perfectly with the world around them reveals that something is amiss. Speaking of Jesus, John tells us, “In him was life and that life was the light of men” (John 1:4). There was a measure and quality of life in Jesus that was unmistakable. It stood out and drew men to him. With Christ in us, we should exude the same life. That life comes through the power that heals and sets men free (Isa.61:1-4) and the power than transforms us into the image of Christ. A powerless gospel will not take us there.

Last night we ministered the baptism of the Spirit to the lady I had visited with. We cast out spirits of fear and condemnation in the name of Jesus. For the first time in a very long time she felt totally at peace and the thoughts of condemnation were silent. I am confident that radical transformation for her is in her near future.

Whenever Jesus and his followers preached the gospel, they immediately healed the sick, cast our demons, cleansed the lepers, and so forth. That power was not just a demonstration that they were speaking for God, but it was also necessary for those accepting Christ to be released to meet their full potential in Him. Much of the church is reclaiming the power of the Holy Spirit but that realization has not made it to every church or every believer. My hope is that a time will come soon in which no one will have to say that the churches in his or her town seem powerless to help, “for the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power” (1 Cor. 4:20).

Fifteen years ago, I asked a faithful Christian woman, we will call Mary Ellen, when she was going to forgive her former husband. It was a hard question. She had been physically and emotionally abused even beyond what most abused women have had to endure. She had fled from that husband five years earlier, moved far away from him, and had started over with a new marriage. The problem was that her new marriage wasn’t going well either. She had come in seeking answers and, after three sessions, I felt compelled to ask the question. In fifteen years I haven’t forgotten her response. With her hands clenched into fists, the veins on her neck popping out, and her jaws tightened, she snarled, “Forgive him? Forgive him? I hope he burns in hell for what de did to me!” In her heart there was no impulse to forgive and in her mind she felt totally justified in hoping for his eternal damnation.

Although this was a woman who had grown up in church faithfully serving in various ministries, she was in bondage to bitterness, rage, and unforgiveness. She was the poster child for the old saying that “unforgiveness is like drinking poison, believing that it will make the other person sick.” She was aware of the multiple verses in which Jesus was very clear that if we don’t forgive those who have sinned against us, then our heavenly Father will not forgive our sins against him (Mt.6:14-15, Mt. 18, etc.). She simply felt that her case was exceptional so that those verses did not apply to her. The truth was that the toxic bitterness and rage she still felt against her first husband was spilling over into this new marriage and poisoning it.

Of all the sins that Christian men and women are in bondage to, I believe that unforgiveness is the most common and, in the long run, the most destructive. It is also the most common because we have all been wounded and betrayed and have all felt fully justified in our anger or bitterness toward the perpetrator.

In fact, we have likely been truly justified in our feelings. We just haven’t been justified in holding on to those feelings and keeping them alive. Because we are justified in our feelings in the beginning, we feel justified in keeping those feelings alive forever. But the decision not to forgive is where sin begins and when the door swings open for the enemy to enter. It is even where we begin to take offense at God when we discover that he is not hammering the person who wounded us.

Concerning unforgiveness, the apostle Paul counsels us, “Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil” (Eph.4:26-27, ESV). This verse reveals several things. First of all, we can experience anger and not sin. Perhaps, our anger is a righteous anger such as the anger Jesus demonstrated in the temple when he was turning over the tables of the moneychangers. Perhaps, it is just the normal human experience of anger welling up within us when we feel threatened or betrayed. There is a point, however, in which our failure to manage our anger becomes sin.

Our experience of anger becomes sin when we take the next steps of retaliating against the person who wounded us or when we choose to nurture our anger to keep it alive. We forget that Paul had some experience with the kind of rage that begins to take control of a person. As Saul of Tarsus, he was not just attempting to discourage false doctrines about Jesus of Nazareth from arising within the Jewish community. Rather, he was described as one who was “breathing out threats and slaughter” against the church (see Acts 9:1). He was the one who coordinated the stoning of Stephen in Acts 7, without any evidence of remorse. Saul was a man who was full of rage and obsessed with the destruction of Jewish people who simply had come to believe that Jesus was the Messiah. Before his encounter with Jesus, Saul was not a righteous man trying to defend truth, but an angry man filled with rage against people he had never met. He was in bondage to his anger in the same way that Mary Ellen was in bondage to hers.

We are also told that we should not let the sun go down on our anger. In other words, deal with it in short order. Don’t even go to bed until you have dealt with it as Jesus would. Why? Because…any kind of prolonged unforgiveness gives the devil an opportunity to establish a beachhead in our hearts. Some of the older translations say that we must not “give the devil a foothold.” The Greek word is “topos” and means a position, a sanctuary, or some standing in our lives. When we refuse to forgive or keep putting it off, we come into agreement with Satan. All Adam and Eve did was to come into agreement with Satan. Whatever we agree with, we give authority in our lives and you never want Satan to have any authority in your life.

Many Christians are not living a spiritually abundant life nor are they making progress in their faith or their freedom because they have chosen not to extend forgiveness to someone in their life. They unknowingly have given Satan a foothold that has probably become a silent stronghold over the years. A satanic stronghold is not typically the stuff that The Exorcist was made of where the presence of demons is totally weird, extreme, and unmistakable. Typically, strongholds manifest as compelling, persistent thought patterns that, in the case of anger, keep anger alive and provide total justification for continuing in our unforgiveness.

From these strongholds, the devil tells us that our case is the exception to the commands and warnings of Jesus about a refusal to forgive. He convinces us that our case is so extreme that it is not the kind of thing Jesus was talking about when he insisted on forgiving our enemies or he convinces us that we have been hurt so deeply that it is impossible for us to forgive. Because it is impossible, Jesus will give us a pass on that command. He will go on to convince us that our anger is righteous and just because to forgive would let evil people off the hook or excuse their behavior altogether. He will also tell is that our anger and unforgiveness is the very thing that protects us from more hurt and, therefore, is both necessary and justified.

The problem is that Jesus gave no exceptions to the rule and demonstrated the “no exception” clause on the cross when he asked the Father to forgive those who had just betrayed, beaten, and crucified him. What we must understand is that forgiveness is primarily for us, not for those who have wounded us. Forgiveness frees our heart from bitterness, from the past, and from those who would continue to hurt us. Forgiveness keeps the devil out and keeps us from poisoning our own wells. Forgiveness opens the door to God’s blessings in our lives and aligns our hearts with the heart of Jesus. Justice will be done. God will deal with those unrepentant individuals who go through life harming others whether you have forgiven them or not. If they are not right with God, he will deal with them. The bigger question is always whether or not we are right with God.

Forgiveness frees, heals, and makes reconciliation possible when it would bless all parties. It is the ultimate chance to trust God by doing the very thing that seems most risky and trusting him to bless and protect us in our obedience. It is the ultimate measure of how aligned our hearts are with his. The first step to forgiveness is acknowledging that there are no “exception clauses” for us, no justification to ignore his command, and that God only asks us to do those things that bless us. After that, we can receive God’s help in fulfilling his commands.