It’s been a while since I wrote about curses on this blog, but I think it is time to do so again. As a technological and “science-based” culture, most people give no credibility to the notion of curses. The idea of curses is typically relegated to fiction and fairy tales. However, it is a very biblical topic and a continuing reality unless you dismiss the reality of a spiritual realm. But even those who believe in a spiritual realm give little thought to curses.

In the church, I frequently see individuals and families who have suffered and failed and experienced loss to an unusual degree for extended periods of time…even for generations…without recognizing that a curse may be operating in their lives for family line. It is also human nature to forget that we collide with a highly active spiritual realm on a daily basis. Part of that realm is working on our behalf. Another part is working tirelessly to undermine our lives and the destiny God has for us as his children.

When the enemy has pushed back against our dreams, our families, our success, our health, or our destiny long enough, we may slip into a mindset that our inability to make headway or experience breakthrough is simply life on planet earth. Once we take on that worldview, we stop fighting and the enemy wins. He is then able to steal our future. As believers, we cannot forget Paul’s admonition to the church in Ephesus…

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 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. 6:10-12)

For those who believe we should have no concern about Satan because he is defeated and Jesus protects us, this word from Paul dispels that notion. Certainly, he that is in us is greater than he that is in the world. Certainly Satan has been judged. But we are still involved in an ongoing war to enforce the victory Christ has won and we have a significant role to play in those battles. Otherwise, Paul would have had no reason to issue this warning and directive. Remember that when God brought the Hebrews out of Egypt to the land of Canaan, he did not suddenly eradicate the enemy tribes within the promised land. Instead, he required Israel to fight. The promise was that he would go before them and assure the victory, but they still had to face the enemy and take the land.

The word translated “schemes,” in the passage above, (methodeia) means a logical, systematic and deceptive strategy. The one who is orchestrating this strategy against you is the devil (diabolos), which means slanderer or accuser. The book of Revelation tells us that he (Satan) accuses the brothers and sisters day and night before our God (Rev. 12:10).

How are his accusations and his schemes connected? Through his accusations, Satan is seeking a legal right to afflict or oppress the children of God. The throne of God is established on righteousness and justice (Ps.89:14), which means that the kingdom of heaven operates on a system of divine law that even God submits to because he is submitting to himself and the laws he has established in his own righteousness.

The book of Job is instructive. It opens with Satan coming into the presence of God with accusations against Job. Picture a court room. Satan’s comes in as the accuser, the prosecuting attorney. His complaint was that God had placed a hedge of protection around Job so that Satan could not touch him. His strategy was to bring an accusation against Job, so that the charge would give him a legal right to torment the man. Apparently, the charge was that Job only worshipped God because of the blessings he received rather than because God was worthy of worship regardless of whether life was pleasant or a nightmare. The charge would stand until it was answered in the courts of heaven.

The charge gave Satan the right to change an environment of blessing into a cursed environment in which Job lost children, possessions, and finally his health. In the end, Job relinquished his pride and his sense of self-righteousness and declared God worthy of worship regardless of circumstances. When Job came to that place in his mind and heart, God was able to justify him and dismiss the accusation that Satan had levied against the man. After that, God was free to bless Job again…even more than he had in the beginning. It is always God’s heart to bless his people, but if an accusation stands in the courts of heaven, justice requires that he gives the enemy some access to the one accused.

Satan uses the same strategy against us. He brings accusation against each of us in the courts of heaven. If he can find a legal cause to enforce a curse against us, he will. For some of us, he doesn’t have to look very far. Secret sin, unconfessed sin, unforgiveness, arrogance, gossip, etc. can all give Satan access to us. Solomon said, “Like a fluttering sparrow or a darting swallow, an undeserved curse does not come to rest (Pr. 26:2). Satan is constantly looking for a something in our lives on which a curse can come to rest. When he finds something, he can oppress and afflict us until the charge is dismissed. That ongoing affliction and oppression is the manifestation of curse that has landed in our lives.

Often, our part in the battle is to discover the issue that is giving the devil the legal right to hinder God’s destiny for our lives or the lives of those we love or care for. Sometimes the cause rests in us…our thoughts, our actions, or our carnal nature. Sometimes it rests in our bloodlines…the sins of the fathers that are passed down to the children to the third and fourth generations. If Satan can find a cause, he can bring the accusation before the Father and if it stands, he may gain legal access to us and our families, our business, our church, and even our community. We can command the enemy to cease his attack and take his hands off, but if he still has a legal right to afflict someone, our commands may go unheeded or the demons we have dismissed will return soon and take up their assignment once more.

I love deliverance, but our task before deliverance should be to determine the issue that is giving the enemy a legal right to afflict us or the one to whom we are ministering, and then to take the issue before the Lord so that he may submit it to the blood of Christ. Once the accusation is dismissed, we can command the enemy to leave and to never return. There are several steps we may need to take in order to have the accusation dismissed and the legal right of the enemy taken away. We will discuss those in next week’s blog.

Show me, O Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life.  Psalm 39:4

I don’t know how many of us would pray the prayer of David, quoted above. Most of us want to live as if death is for other people, not for us. We don’t want to contemplate our own death. We don’t want to think about how remarkably short our lives can be our how quickly our years are flying by. And yet, the brevity of life in this world is a constant theme in scripture.

David’s point was not a morbid fascination about his own death, but rather a desire to make every day count because life goes by much faster than we anticipate. Making every day count for eternity is the ultimate wisdom. The illusion that we will live forever creates a mindset that we can put off the most important things until life is more convenient.

We keep thinking we will make that phone call later; we will confront the problem as soon as we get it all figured out; we will really press into our relationship with God as soon as our life slows down; we will mend that relationship at a time when we have more emotional energy. We tend to think that we will get around to the most important things as soon as our career is established, our family is grown, or our relationships are where we want them to be. David’s point was that none of us are promised tomorrow on this planet, so we need to prioritize our lives and do the most important things today…regardless of how inconvenient or difficult it may be.

When we think about it, we probably all know that one of Satan’s great strategies against us is distraction. We just rarely think of it or rarely choose to think of it. There is always something that can take our eyes off the most important things in life. In his “Sermon on the Mount,” Jesus warned us not to be preoccupied with the material things of life – what we will eat, what we will wear, or where we shall live. He clearly stated that our heavenly Father knows that we need these things and, as a good father, will provide all that we need…if we keep our priorities straight. “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you” (Mt. 6:33).

And yet, most of us as believers, still fill our days with worry about those things. We work eighty-hour weeks to provide the “finer things” for our families, stay awake wondering about our 401K’s when the market tanks, buy more car and more house that we need in order to feel good about ourselves, constantly fight over finances with our spouse, chase all over the country every weekend for our kids to play soccer, baseball, or volleyball…so they can feel good about themselves, and then try to squeeze in a little time for Jesus when we can.

The devil’s distractions for believers are typically not sinful things. They are usually good things that we simply give more time and energy to than they deserve. Our problem is that we don’t live with an eternal view. If we are truthful, we might admit that on a day-to-day basis, we may give little thought to spiritual realities. We are prone to only consider spiritual things on Sunday mornings, while we think of this world as all there is, on the other six days of the week. By and far, we spend our time and resources on things that pertain only to this world and not the world to come. However, when we stand before Jesus he will not evaluate our lives based on the size of our house, our vacation destinations, or whether we had a swimming pool. We will not be judged on the basis of whether we drove a Ford or a Lexus. We won’t be praised on the basis of how many miles we logged taking our kids to club ball instead of church.

Again, these are not wrong in themselves but, if we are honest, we often give them a much greater priority than we give the kingdom of heaven. We would probably deny that, but it is true. Our aspirational value is to make Jesus the most important thing in life, but our actual values are revealed by what we do rather than what we should do. Simply add up the time, energy, and money you give to spiritual matters and those you give to material matters and you will get a more accurate perspective of what is truly important to you.

David’s prayer was that he would never lose sight of how fleeting this life can be, so that he would live each day with eternal priorities. That should be our prayer as well. Otherwise, we will die with a long list of good intentions that we never got around to. The illusion is that we will get serious about those more important things…later. Many of those things we put off are promptings from the Holy Spirit. The danger is that we can put those things off long enough that we he stops prompting us. Then, the most important things may go undone altogether.

In my moments of clarity, I want to number my days as David did…making each one count from heaven’s perspective. I don’t always do that, but I find questions are often a good way to help me evaluate my own actual priorities rather than my aspirational priorities and make needed adjustments. Maybe these will help you as well, if you are serious about eternal issues.

1. What is the Holy Spirit prompting me to do that I keep finding reasons to put off?

2. What am I giving my best time, energy, and resources to…other than God?

3. What activities or career issues do I often choose over church, spiritual family, or ministry?

4. If I am honest with myself, have I been more interested in the approval of men lately or the approval of God?

5. If people looked at what I do more than what I say, what would they believe is the primary source of my identity, my significance, and my satisfaction? Would they see it as Jesus Christ or something else?

6. What values am I modeling for my kids with the way I spend my time, money, or energy? Would they see me giving God the first fruits of my life or simply the leftovers?

7. What do I need to change or let go of in order to genuinely live with a view towards eternity rather than the pleasures and promises of this world? What am I lying to myself about?

May we, like David, learn to live each day with God’s priorities so that every day is lived without regret and stores up for us, and our children, riches in heaven.

The Apostle Paul had a fascination with sports. Church tradition suggests that he was anything but athletic, so perhaps he idealized what he was not built for. At different times in his writings he references wrestling, boxing, and, of course, running. Perhaps, this was also influenced by his two year imprisonment at Caesarea Maritima. This was a beautiful city on the Mediterranean Sea where Pontus Pilate lived at times. It was a cultural center but also a place where athletes trained for the Greek Olympic games. it is very likely that Paul spent much of his time watching them train and thinking of parallels between athletes and the spiritual life of believers.

In his second letter to the church in Corinth, Paul wrote, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize” (1 For. 9:24-27).

Perhaps, Paul had Solomon in mind when he said that he would keep his body or his flesh in check so that he would not be disqualified for the prize. Solomon started out well. When God offered to give him anything he wanted, he didn’t ask for power or wealth but for wisdom to govern God’s people. God was so pleased with his request that he gave him all three because these were gifts that could only be stewarded well by a humble man. In the years ahead he was given power, glory, wealth and wisdom that government officials from around the world came to hear.

The problem was that after years of peace, honor, and getting everything he wanted, his zeal for the Lord wained. The numerous foreign wives he had taken seduced him into worshipping their god’s at the high places of Israel. In the end, Solomon died as a foolish idolator. Many other spiritual leaders in scripture also began well, but faded in their last years. Many of the great evangelists of the 19th and 20th Centuries had the same experience. They had amazing ministries but ended with mental health issues, sexual sin, and financial scandals.

I think there is a profound warning in these examples for all of us who are over 60. At least in America, we are programmed to think in terms of retirement once we get to age 60 0r 65. Others strive hard for early retirement around age 50 or 55. We define retirement as the years in which we get to take our foot off the accelerator, de-stress, and coast to the finish line. It’s a time when we think we should be able to do as we please without answering to a boss or a board. If we have done well financially, we feel satisfied and self-reliant.

Here is the caution. Many people, who have served the Lord well for years, take a retirement stance in the kingdom as well. They unplug from both the office and the church, and go to the lake or go to live close to the grandkids and that orders their lives.. There is certainly nothing wrong with going to the lake or investing in the grandkids…as long as we don’t begin to coast spiritually and develop the mindset that we did our tour of duty in the kingdom and now it’s our time to relax and let others serve.

The apostle Paul would have raised his eyebrows at the thought of taking a twenty year sabbatical from serving in the church or sharing the gospel because it was time to relax. Retirement is an American concept, not a kingdom concept. Paul instructs us to run our race as believers, like one who is running in the Olympics. One of the firs things you learn in competitive track is to never slow down as you complete your final lap and close in on the finish line. You are coached to run as hard as you can, never slowing down, until you are well past the finish line. If you have watched much track and field, you have seen numerous examples of someone in the lead who slows down just a few steps before the finish line only to be passed by another runner or several runners. On several occasions, I have seen runners in the lead who thought the race was won and so slowed down only three strides before the end, only to be passed by several at the last second, so that he or she didn’t medal at all.

The truth is that when I unplug from church, from ministry, and from the weekly fellowship of other believers or when I feel I am spiritually mature enough that I no longer need to be challenged and motivate by sermons or lessons or testimonies, I will start to lose ground spiritually. Spirituality is like a muscle. If I fail to stretch it, tax it, and exercise it on a regular basis, that muscle will atrophy.

Paul’s perspective is that we should all want to finish strong, not coast to the end. God gives us time on this earth and that time is a gift must be stewarded. If we simply use our last twenty years to indulge ourselves because we feel we have earned the right to do so, we may have a hard time explaining how we used that twenty years faithfully to continue to bear fruit for the kingdom.

Believe me, I recognize that as we age we don’t always have the energy or stamina we once had. Paul put it this way. “Although outwardly we are waisting away, inwardly we are being renewed day by day” (2 Cor. 4:16). Paul recognized that the years take a toll physically, but our spiritual life such continue to grow, be enriched, and bear fruit more than ever as we approach the finish line.

There is something spiritually dangerous about our latter years and our latter years are being extended as the average American can expect to live much longer than previous generations. The scriptures and history testify that many (not all) men and women who were amazing in the kingdom of God finished their race poorly. Because of that, we should be thoughtful about those “final-lap” years and intentionally position ourselves to stay connected to a healthy church and to ministries in which we continue to bear fruit.

God has ordained that believers live in connection with one another. We are commanded to love one another, encourage one another, serve one another, pray for one another, admonish one another, etc. If we are not in active relationships with one another in the church, we cannot fulfill those commands. We have a responsibility to the body of Christ to stay actively involved. The writer of Hebrews warns , “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Heb.10:25). I don’t believe the electronic church fits God’s design for our lives and his church unless circumstances will not allow us to leave our homes.

Here is my concern. At a time when the church needs every faithful believer fully engaged, our most mature and potentially most productive people are simply phasing out. I know from personal experience, that if I am away from my spiritual family and my commitment to ministry for any extended period, my spiritual life suffers. I know that if I retire so that I disconnect from the church in meaningful ways, I will not finish strong and when the Lord returns and asks me what I did for Him with the last years of my life he entrusted to me., I may not have an adequate answer.

I simply want us all to finish strong and to think about those years when we will have more time, more resources, and more experience than the rest of the church. What will we do with those? Be prayerful, be thoughtful, and be intentional. As great as Solomon was, he died an idolator. He asked for wisdom to govern God’s people and he was the most politically astute ruler of his age or, perhaps, any age. He should have asked for spiritual wisdom – wisdom to live well for God – because in that he failed. So when we start to make retirement plans, let’s submit those to the Lord and just to our own desires, so that we steward well all that he has given us.

The prophet Isaiah spoke of the coming Messiah when he said, “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners” (Isa.61:1).

As we have just celebrated our national day of independence from British oppression under King George, I want to reflect on the theme of freedom in scripture. The passage from Isaiah above declares that Jesus would have a three point mission when he lived among us. First of all, he would preach good news (the gospel) to the poor. The gospel is a message of freedom from the tyranny of Satan who holds all men in bondage until they respond to the gospel and accept the ransom that Jesus paid for each of us on the cross. In a sense, the gospel gives us positional freedom in Christ. By his blood, we are given a legal standing in heaven that declares we are justified as our sins are forgiven and the record of them in heaven is wiped clean. That is definitely good news and takes away the legal right of Satan to to afflict us and oppress us at his discretion.

However, there is more. Even though we have a legal standing in heaven of righteousness, there is still our fallen nature (the natural man) and our brokenness that must be dealt with. That belongs to the rest of Isaiah 61:1 where the word declares that Jesus will heal broken hearts and set both captives and prisoners free. Nearly every human alive comes to Jesus with a broken heart…obviously some more than others. A broken heart unattended will always limit our ability to be all that Jesus wants us to be.

A broken heart speaks of shattered emotions: shame, rejection, self-condemnation, and even self-hatred. Many of us come to Jesus with the belief that no one can love us because we are unworthy of love. We believe intellectually that God loves us because the Bible says he does, but deep in the hearts of many believers there is still a place that doubts that anyone can love them…not even God.

Even after we are saved, Satan preys on that doubt and reinforces it. A major part of the Holy Spirit’s mission is to give us a revelation of God’s love in our hearts that removes the doubt and silences the accuser. Some receive that revelation in their heart at the moment of salvation. For others, it seems that a process is required. However we receive that assurance, it is still part of Messiah’s mission to heal our broken hearts and restore our identity so that we know we are children of God.

The passage then announces that Messiah (Jesus) is committed to setting both captives and prisoners free. Captives are those who have been victimized by others and experience bondage to shame, fear. and hopelessness. Those are the abused, molested, violated, and abandoned of this world. It is those who were innocent, but traumatized by other broken or evil people in this world. Prisoners are those who are in bondage because of their actions like a those in jail. Sometimes we are in a bad place because of our own decisions. The good news is that Jesus is willing to set both free from their bondage and their brokenness.

That freedom can come in many ways. Sometime accepting the truth of God’s word sets us free from lies that have kept us in bondage. Jesus said, “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” Satan’s primary weapon is the lie. Jesus called him the Father of Lies and his strategies always distort the truth about God, the truth about us, and the truth about him. Choosing to give God’s word more authority in our lives than the lies of the enemy or our old beliefs based on those lies is a key to freedom.


Sometimes, freedom only comes through direct confrontation with the enemy. A major element of Jesus’ ministry was delivering people from demonic affliction and oppression. He has given his followers power and authority to do the same. Even though we have been redeemed, we may come into the kingdom with demons already assigned to us by the enemy. Although their legal right to afflict us may have been taken away, sometimes they still must be evicted by the authority and power of Jesus.

What I want to emphasize today is that God is interested in our freedom. That is not a freedom to do as we please, independent of Him, but a freedom from sin, brokenness, and the oppression of the enemy whose only desire is to kill, steal and destroy. It is a freedom to become all that God has destined for us and to find the joy and fulfillment of knowing who we are and walking in that destiny.

All men desire freedom. That is want prompted the American revolution. It is why Ukranians are fighting Russian aggression as you read this. That desire for freedom is an inherent part of being made in God’s image. Satan tries to persuade us that God’s commands are restrictive, oppressive, and totalitarian. Instead, they are the very instructions that will free us from our prisons if we will follow them. God has designed us and crafted us for a unique destiny that, once discovered, can make our lives extraordinary.

The challenge is to embrace the truth that surrendering to God’s will and God’s ways is not oppression, but the open door to a freedom we all desire. Our independence is not independence from God but from the one whose will is to destroy us. Scripture declares that “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom,” and “If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.” My hope is that we will all recognize the true freedom that Jesus offers and celebrate it each day. Blessings in Him.

This past week, of course, the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade. This ruling did not prohibit abortion, but sent it back to the states for each state to determine what their liberties or restrictions will be concerning abortion. The probability is that many states will greatly restrict abortions and some states will allow abortions up to the moment of birth. I wasn’t surprised by the strong response on each side of this issue , but one thing did surprise me…a little.

Our senior pastor decided to comment on the ruling and several people left, declaring that they do not come to church to hear or participate in politics. They would be back when we decided to just preach the Bible. I suppose this may be a response that’s been groomed by a misguided emphasis on the separation of church and state. Many believers have come to the conclusion that what happens in church should not in any way influence what happens in our culture or government…as if God has not interest in that.

I want to push back against that view in this blog because the next two to three years are going to be politically crazy and will probably determine the fate of America for the foreseeable future. I certainly agree that the government should in no way establish a state church and require Americans to be part of that church. I believe that was the simple intent of the founders when they spoke to that in the constitution. However, that is a very different thing from our efforts to influence culture so that it lines up with the word of God.

Solomon wrote, “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people” (Prov. 14:34). The clear message of scripture is that God still judges individuals and nations. If we care about our nation, our communities, our friends and our families, we must be an influence for righteousness. In America, part of that influence is in the ballot box on election days, speaking up at town hall meetings and sharing our thoughts over coffee. Part of that is also lawful influence towards those who make our laws. We are to be salt and light. We are to be leaven in our culture.

Jesus told his followers, “What shall I compare the kingdom of God to? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough” (Lk. 13:20).  We are not to coerce people to do it our way or demand that they see everything our way, but we are to influence the people and the culture around us for righteousness.

From Genesis to Revelation, a constant theme emerges. People and nations that submit to the righteousness of God are blessed. Those who do not, are cursed. It is the responsibility of the church to inform God’s people regarding cultural shifts and trends. Scripture has no value it we do not apply it to life. Teaching on the things that politics are influencing is not politics. It is informing God’s people of what God says about the things that politics affects, so that we might respond in a spiritually responsible way to the world around us. To do less is to invite judgment.

According to Deuteronomy 28-30, judgment looks like natural disasters, war, runaway inflation, crop failures, abnormal levels of disease, abnormal numbers of miscarriages, confusion, corrupt and foolish leadership, oppression, failure, defeat, runaway crime, food shortages, and more. If you check the boxes, America is being judged. It is not God’s desire to judge us, but his righteousness demands it. His heart is for us to repent so that he can bless us once again.

When we treat trends in culture, government, or politics as something we should not speak to in church, we communicate silently that God is not interested in those things. But he is very interested. The judgments of God will affect even believers…our children and our grandchildren. If we are not informed, we cannot be an influence for good…we cannot be salt, light, and leaven. We cannot give a good answer to those who disagree with God. I agree that we should not tell people who to vote for, but we should tell them what God stands for and encourage them to align their voice and their vote with those who best represent God’s values.

In the next two years, there will be an onslaught of political activity at its worst. It will be divisive, deceptive, slanderous, and accusatory. We will need help sorting out the truth and knowing what God has to say about the values represented by each party or candidate. I don’t want to stand with Democrats or Republicans. I want to stand with God because whether we do or not as a nation determines whether we will be blessed or cursed.

I hope we will invite our spiritual leaders to give us guidance rather than bering silent or rather than walking out because we are touching the substance of politics. I promise you, Satan is very involved in the political process because it determines the fate of a nation. . If we do not influence that process with the righteous demands of God, this nation will not stand. We, our children, and our grandchildren will pay the price for our silence. Our goal as believers is not to represent one party or another, but to represent God to this nation in every possible way.

Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony” (Rev. 12:10-11).

The apostle John penned this descriptor of Satan in the book of Revelation. He is often called the devil in the New Testament. The word translated from the Greek as “devil” is “diabolou.” It actually means a false accuser or slanderer. It is the nature of Satan to slander and accuse. We discover from John’s words in Revelation that he accuses the people of God day and night. He does so in the presence God.

In the Garden of Eden, Satan, in the form of a serpent, actually slandered God and drew Adam and Eve into agreement with his accusations. In the first chapter of Job, you will find him in the presence of God slandering and accusing Job. In Zechariah 3:1-5, we find a scene where Satan is before the Lord accusing Joshua, the high priest. In Luke 22:31. Jesus said to Peter, “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you s wheat, but I have prayed for you…” I think we can assume that Satan had come into the presence of God to accuse the apostles and maybe, specifically, Peter.

In the courts of God, Satan is persistently trying to gain legal access to afflict or torment believers by bringing accusations against them. Remember, his complaint in Job was that God had protected Job against the assaults of Satan, and the devil was seeking permission to afflict the man. In one sense, that is a different topic than I want to discuss today, but it reveals the nature and strategy of Satan against God’s people.

What I want to emphasize today, is that Satan uses the same strategy against each of us. If he cannot keep us out of the kingdom, then he strives to keep us ineffective in the kingdom. His goal, is to make us feel defective, inadequate, and disapproved of. His goal is to discourage us and make us feel disqualified for the blessings of God. He constantly reminds us of past failures and whispers that whatever we have done for the Lord was not good enough. He fills us with doubt about pleasing God. He pushes us to a legalism that demands we do enough to be saved, be sincere enough to be saved, have enough faith to be saved, and, of course, assures us that we have failed in every department.

In my experience, the flesh gravitates towards legalism which is the idea that we are saved by works and our own righteousness. I know that is true because every religion conceived by man, bases salvation on works and self-righteousness. Only the Holy Spirit reveals a salvation by grace through faith. Paul put is this way. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph. 2:8-10).

We are created in Christ to do good works, but we are not saved by those good works. We are not even capable of them until we are saved. Good works are our response to God’s grace rather than the cost of admission into heaven. They are evidence of salvation, but not the means of salvation. They affect our rewards in heaven, but not our presence there. That is the work of Christ and Christ alone, whose righteousness is imputed to us when we believe in God’s goodness towards us.

I find that the concept of grace can be slippery and Satan, through his accusations, often draws us into a sense of failure and condemnation by pointing out past failures and present inadequacies. But the blood of “Christ has a erased our failures in the past and makes up for our inadequacies in the present. We need to be convinced of that when Satan comes accusing.

If you struggle with the concept of grace, let me encourage you to find all the passages you can that underline the truth of God’s grace made available to us through the blood of Christ and spend days meditating on those passages. When Satan reminds us of out past and current failures, the answer is that the accusation may be true, but his premise is false. His premise is that our salvation and God’s love for us is based on our performance. That is a false premise. Both are wholly wholly based on the perfect performance of Jesus and the goodness of God. Maybe the accusations of our shortcomings are true, but it doesn’t matter. That is the good news of Jesus Christ. An understanding of grace is the body armor that protects us from the attacks of the enemy. Saving faith is simply the faith that is convinced of God’s grace through the cross.

If the accuser of the brethren is wearing you out, get hold of grace. Meditate on passages about grace. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you a revelation of grace. Read books on grace. (What’s So Amazing About Grace? by Phillip Yancey is a good one.) Hang out with people who have a handle on grace. And don’t stop until you get it.. When you get it, the accuser will be disarmed.

This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. 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. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity.” Jeremiah 29:10-14

The text above is familiar to most of us…at least part of it. The “plans to proser you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” part is often quoted. Strictly speaking, in context, this is a promise to Israel and not to the rest of us. However, the important part is that it reveals the heart of God and the nature of his love towards his people…and that does come to all of us.

The “God of the Old Testament” is often characterized as angry and vengeful because he visited judgments on the nations that would not repent and turn to him or that were dedicated to the destruction of Israel. And yet, if you read carefully, God took no pleasure in dispatching those judgments. In Ezekiel, God declares, “Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign Lord. ‘Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live'” (Ezekiel 18:23)?

God did send judgments because he is a righteous God, but they came after decades and even centuries of wickedness and after prophets had warned them, time and again, of the coming judgments. In the Jeremiah passage above, we see that God had sent Israel into exile because of her constant, unrepented rebellion and idolatry. And yet, his heart kept calling them back with a plan to restore their relationship with him so that he might bless them again. God takes pleasure in blessing his children. That is the nature of love. Even his judgments or discipline is an expression of redemptive love, as he tries to call his people back so that he might bless them again. The apostle John simply declares that “God is love” (1 Jn.4:16).

What many of us miss is the incredible extent to which God loves each of us. We often think that he may love others that way, but not us. For those of us who grew up in homes where love was not expressed well or where love was not expressed at all, it is hard to comprehend God’s love. For those who grew up In homes where love was highly conditional – based on perfect compliance with a parent’s demand, or where love was highly erratic – never knowing when it would be given or withdrawn, accepting and trusting God’s love is difficult. We too often expect God to love us or not love us as our parents did. And yet, discovering the depths of God’s love for us is the most transformative thing that can happen.

The cross, of course, is the ultimate expression of his love. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom.5:8). The heart of God has always been to draw us into a close and loving relationship with him…even at great cost to himself. His heart is not to harm us, but to bless us. He does have a hope and a future of each of us. The people I know that have been able to receive that reality have been transformed by it. But, my experience tells me that most of us have not yet fully been able to embrace that revelation.

Oh, we know that is what the Bible says. I know that we believe the Bible and the Bible says that God loves us. But I also know that to believe in our head is not the same as believing in our hearts. This truth of God’s love must penetrate our hearts if we are to be transformed by it. That “heart knowledge” is the challenge. How do we stop seeing God through the template of our experience with imperfect, broken parents and see him as he is?

This must be a work of the Holy Spirit. In his letter to the church at Ephesus, Paul wrote, “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe” (Eph.1:17-19.).

We need a revelation of God’s love in our hearts…in the deepest part of who we are. If you had amazing parents who loved you unconditionally and consistently, this may be an easier revelation to receive. But, for many of us, only a true revelation of this love by the Spirit can overwrite our debilitating experiences with love in a broken world. Paul said that we need the Spirit of wisdom and revelation to truly know God and his heart for us. We also need the eyes of our heart to receive the revelation so that we may know the hope to which he has called us. In other words, we need revelation so that we can know God’s love for us and so that we can perceive, by faith, the hope and blessings he has prepared for us. I wonder how often we have missed a blessing because we had no faith for it and we had no faith because we still don’t understand how much God loves us?

If you struggle to comprehend God’s love for you, then I encourage you to pray for yourself, the prayer that Paul prayed for the Ephesians. Pray it every day. Ask him to give you eyes to perceive his love and grace that flows into your life on a daily basis. Start looking for what he is doing rather than focusing on what he hasn’t done yet. Ask the Spirit to open your spiritual eyes so that you may recognize his goodness and his hand in your life each day. Develop a lifestyle of noticing and thanking God for the “little things” as well as the “big things.” Comprehending his heart for us and his love is the real key to joy, security, and optimism in a world that tries to rob us of each of those blessings every day. Pray fervently for this revelation and trust that God will give it to you because it is his will for you to know his love. Blessings in Him.

I believe one of the most important principles in scripture is found in Galatians 6. Paul writes, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh , from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. 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. 6:7-9).

This is a spiritual principle confirmed over and over agin in scripture. It is a spiritual principle revealed in nature and in the outcomes of our own decisions and the decisions of others if we pay attention. First of all, it is an immutable law. Like gravity, you cannot escape the reality of consequences. If you accidentally step off the edge of your roof, you are going down not matter how often you test the law. To deny the law of consequences is to mock God. That word means to belittle, to not take seriously, or to treat with contempt. When we live as if we can violate God’s law without consequences, we mock him.

We often think of those who mock God as brazen sinners who shake their fist in God’s face as if they determine the outcome of their own lives. But many believers do so as well. When we operate outside of God’s will in parts of our lives, we often are doing so because we are deceived. The enemy whispers his familiar phrase spoken first in the Garden of Eden, “You will not certainly die!” He whispers that we will be the exception, even though we know others who have done what we are doing and ended up in a very deep ditch..

When it comes to sin, Satan’s favorite strategy is to simply convince us that we won’t be found out, we won’t get addicted, our unhealthy habits will not end up destroying our health, or that we can cash in on God’s grace so that nothing really hurtful will come from our actions. I can’t count how many church- going believers I know have been deceived into believing that an affair won’t be found out, that dabbling in pornography won’t end up in an uncontrollable addiction, or that they will be able to put the money back before the boss realizes it is gone. Here is the thing: these secret sins will not be without consequence because either God will bring it into the light to cleanse it, or Satan will bring it into the light to destroy you and your family. Why? Because God will not be mocked. There will be consequences. We will reap what we sow. If we sow to the desires of the flesh, we will reap hurt and destruction.

This deception from the enemy can be incredibly strong. There is no greater expression of sowing and reaping than in Deuteronomy 28-30. In these chapters, God spelled out in detail the blessings he would grant Israel if they remained faithful to him. He also spelled out in detail, the disasters that would come if they chose to reject God and his commands. And yet, Israel chose to ignore God’s commands and to chase after other gods. The only explanation is that they believed Stan’s lie that God was all bluff and no action. Yet, they were destroyed and scattered all over the world….not because God was evil or unfair, but because those were the consequences of their choices. When we choose the path, we choose the consequences.

Now the good news is that, when we do life God’s way (sow to the Spirit), God promises good outcomes and blessings. We receive life…in this world and the world to come. God cannot be mocked in this matter as well. This is not a promise that trouble will never come our way, but that God will ultimately bring blessing, even out of trouble. “And we know that in all things, God woks for the good of those who love him. who have been called according to his purpose” (Rom.8:28). Sometimes, the challenge is in waiting for the blessing to manifest. Remember Paul said they we must not grow weary in doing good (sowing to the Spirit), but should know that in due time, a harvest will come.

When a farmer plants, it takes time for the seed to germinate, the stalk to grow, blooms to form fruit, and the fruit to mature. It can be the same with prayer or acting righteously whenever all those around us are ignoring the commands of God. Waiting is hard. Satan will whisper that God does not hear our prayers or that he has obviously said “No” to our prayer, so that continuing to pray or act in faithfulness is pointless. Like a crop, It takes takes time for blessings to manifest and we will have to fight discouragement at times, especially when we see those who don’t serve God getting what they want in this life while we wait But don’t be deceived, God will not be mocked. What you sow in faithfulness will bear a harvest.

When we think serving God is pointless because the wicked seem to prosper, we must remember that it takes time for curses to manifest as well. That is part of the trap. People disobey and see no immediate consequence and, because of that, they believe nothing will ever happen. I have a pastor friend who had a secret addiction for years, but was eventually found out. It became a huge embarrassment to him, his family, and his church. He told me that the deception was that you only imagine the moment of pleasure or excitement, for relief but you need to “run the film to the end.” What he meant was that you need to imagine not only the pleasure of the moment but the pain that will come when your sin is revealed…because it will be. “Running the film to the end” is a very effective way of discouraging the persistent sin or secret sin in our own lives because it recognizes that consequences will come because God will not be mocked. Of course, when negative consequences arise we are prone to blame God for our losses, our embarrrassment, or our hurt. But God is just and has revealed the truth to us about our choices. he simply honors our choices, whether we choose curses or blessings.

When we make choices, we need to do so with Galatians 6 in mind. Every deed, every word, every prayer is a seed that will some day bear fruit. It is up to us to determine the harvest. Because seeds take time to grow, we often forget this immutable law of God. But if you remember, you will see the faithfulness of God in blessings as the years of your life wear on.

When you are involved in spiritual warfare, it is critical that you have realistic expectations to avoid discouragement and even deception by the enemy. As believers discover the power of the Holy Spirit and the name of Jesus, they may anticipate immediate deliverance or emotional healing as they pray over others. They may expect instantaneous healings as presented in the gospels or for spirits to exit immediately at the name of Jesus. They may expect one fifteen minute prayer session to heal every emotional scar in a human soul and every problem to disappear over night because we have declared a thing or commanded a thing. Sometimes, it does happen that way and sometimes it doesn’t. As you enter into the realm of healing and deliverance, it is best to be prepared for things to take a little longer than you hoped for.

I love the gospel accounts of Jesus encountering demonic spirits. They often come trembling before him, begging not to be sent into the abyss. When Jesus commanded a spirit to depart, that spirit left almost instantaneously…except for Legion, who hung on trying to broker a better deal with Jesus for his troop of unclean spirits inhabiting the Gadarene demoniac. When Jesus commanded, demons exited immediately or almost immediately. Occasionally there were severe manifestations of a spirit as it exited, but we can say the standard was quick and almost immediate departure.

That does happen in our ministry as well. But, more often, it takes a little longer and more than one command. It is not unusual for deliverance to take five minutes, ten minutes, an hour or even longer. It is not unusual to cast out several spirits, but to have to come back later for others. Although Jesus functioned as a man, he functioned as a sinless man who was also the Son of God. The spirits he encountered knew that he was the Son of God, the Messiah, and the Holy one of Israel. Let’s face it, his personal presence had to be much more intimidating to the enemy than a representative. We definitely minister in his name, represent him, and serve as those given power and authority over the enemy, but we may not have exactly the same spiritual gravitas that Jesus had.

I have seen several negative consequences of unrealistic expectations for deliverance. Some believe that as soon as you command a spirit to leave, it must leave and, therefore, stop too soon in the deliverance process without real evidence that a spirit has left. This view does not recognize that some spirits are more powerful than others and can hold on longer. Sometimes, there is still something giving the spirit a legal right to remain so that “open door” has to be discovered and closed. Some strongholds have been there for generations and may take more time to tear down. Just declaring that a spirit has left because we told it to go does not always make it so. If we say it must be gone and the one we are ministering to feels no difference, he or she can be confused or discouraged because they sense that nothing has actually happened.

Demons usually adopt one of two strategies when eviction is in the air. Often the spirit manifests in ways designed to intimidate the person being ministered to or to intimidate the one ministering. It is not unusual for a spirit to growl, hiss, and sneer at those ministering freedom. It is not unusual for a spirit to declare that he is more powerful than we are and that the “host” belongs to him and he will never leave. Intimidation is simply an effort to discourage everyone involved or to convince them that they are powerless over this demon and to give up. Unclean spirits manifest in such ways when they are threatened and on the verge of losing their assignment. Instead of being intimidated, we need to be encouraged because the spirit is on the run when it manifests strongly.

A second strategy is for demons to step back into the shadows, so to speak, and be silent. We may be tempted to assume that a spirit has left because manifestations have ceased, but unless you or the host are very confident that something has left, you may want to continue a while and even command the spirit to manifest if it is still present.

Another reality is that sometimes freedom and emotional healing come in stages and not all at once. Often a person finds a significant level of freedom or peace, but knows a few things remain to be done later. Sometimes, they have a season of freedom and peace but then experience some return of torment, depression, fear etc. a few months later. It possible that an open door in the spirit realm has allowed spirits to gain access again but it may simply be that some spirits that have kept a low profile for a while that feel safe to begin their torment again after a few months have passed.

This is warfare. Battles are not always won in a single day or by a single volley. We learned in Vietnam that enemy soldiers may hide in tunnels during a powerful assault by the opposing army, but emerge later to fight again once the attacking army has moved on. In warfare, we discover that some fortresses are more resistant than others. Some enemy troops are more skilled and determined than others. Even though victory is assured, battles may be brief or may be prolonged. We also know that if may take different strategies to win different battles and so we may need to wait on a strategy from the Spirit in order to set someone free. That strategy may come in the midst of deliverance or as you sleep after not achieving the victory you wanted earlier in the day.

Quick and immediate is our desire when we pray for healing or engage in deliverance. Sometimes that happens, but at other times we need to know that a prolonged battle or multiple skirmishes will be required. When that happens, know it is normal. Persistence and faith are often required to win the battle. Every command, every scripture quoted in the face of the enemy, and every rebuke weakens the enemy. In due time, the walls behind which the enemy hides will crumble and collapse and then the enemy will flee in all directions. Don’t assume deliverance too soon and don’t give up because he that is in us is greater than he that is in the world. Be blessed.

Reading through 1 John this morning, I was reminded of a seeming paradox in that epistle and a helpful explanation that was shard with me years ago. I thought it might be helpful for you as well. 1, 2, and 3 John are letters written by the apostle John who also wrote the gospel of John and the Book of Revelation. He was the youngest of the apostles and, perhaps, the one that Jesus loved the most. He and his brother James were the ones who offered to call down fire on a Samaritan village because they had not welcomed Jesus (Lk.9:54). Jesus called them the Sons of Thunder (Mk. 3:17) which suggests that, in his younger days, John was passionate, boisterous and. perhaps, given to anger. In his later years, he was known by the church as the “apostle of love.” In 1 John, the apostle is writing a general letter to the church that would be read aloud, passed along to another church that would read it aloud, and so on. It is a letter with a strong emphasis on love, but also on living for the Lord.

Now…let me point out the seeming paradox or contradiction in his letter, that actually turns out to be an encouragement. John writes, “God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we claim to to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin” (1Jn. 1:6-7). He also writes, “And in him (Jesus) is no sin. No one who lives in him, keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him” (1 Jn. 3:6). No one who is born of God will continue to sin…they cannot go on sinning because they have been born of God” (1 Jn. 3:9).

However, John also writes, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 Jn. 1:8) and “If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar , and his word is not in us” (1 Jn.1:10). On the one hand, John tells us that if we say we have no sin we are liars, but on the other hand, he states that no one born of God will continue to sin. When I first began to study these passages, it troubled me, because I knew I still sinned, in some form, on a daily or even hourly basis, but John was telling me that if I had been “born again,” I couldn’t continue to sin. So…was I not really saved? I hope you see my dilemma.

This is where the Greek language comes to the rescue. In Greek, verb forms denote kinds of action. There is “punctiliar” action and “linear” action. “Punctiliar” is like a string of disconnected dots, whereas “linear” is a continuous, connected line. What John is saying is that after we come to Christ, we will sin, but it is punctiliar sin, not linear. In other words, sin is no longer the rule of our life, but the exception. We sin, but these are moments of stumbling separated by righteous living. These are sinful thoughts that do no rule our thinking, but that pop up from time to time. As we grow in Christ, sin should be more ocassional…the points should be further apart. If, we say we are saved, however, and sin still defines our life, then something is out of order.

There is obviously a process of spiritual growth or sanctification that occurs in every new believer. It takes longer for some than for others, but growth and maturity are expected. If we are not growing or are loosing ground, then we may be in bondage to some demonic power or simply have not truly surrendered ourselves to the Lordship of Jesus and that raises the question of whether I truly gave myself to the Lord. But even when we have given ourselves, we will still have those points and moments in our lives when sin occurs. But John encourages us in these moments when he says, “My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 Jn.2:1).

Here is my encouragement from John’s writings. When we read that those who are in Christ no longer sin, the devil can begin to fill us with doubt about our salvation or our sincerity However, what John actually says is that those of us who are in Christ will not longer live a live defined by sin, but rather by the righteousness of God. Graham Cooke often reminds us that we obsess about our sin, while God obsesses about our righteousness. We often think about our failings, while God thinks abut who we are in Christ. That is a good perspective to remember. John also tells us that if we say we have no sin at all, then we are deluded or lying, so we need not pretend to be sinless. God knows our weaknesses, but has already made a way for us through Jesus.

God is not concerned if we struggle with sin. He is concerned if we don’t struggle with it, in the sense that we don’t resist it or wrestle with it or if we make a practice of justifying it in our lives. James 3:2 says that we all stumble in many ways, so God does not require that we live a sinless life. The balance is found in wanting to live a sinless life and please God in every way, even though we sin.

A second area where Satan can bring condemnation is when we are growing in the Lord, but start to feel that we are sinning more now than we we first became a Christian. The truth is, that because you are growing, your sin is not increasing, but your sensitivity to sin is increasing. That is a good thing, but we need to be wise so that we do not allow the enemy to use that sensitivity against us. Again, John has a solution to the sin we do recognize in our lives. “If we confess our sins, her is faithful and just and will forgive our sin and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 Jn.1:9). So, once again, God has made a way for us.

One of Satan’s primary schemes is to make us feel condemned and disqualified from living a joyful life in Christ. Certain scriptures may bring a sense of condemnation if they are misunderstood, so I wanted to highlight those in John that I have to struggled with. Just remember the great promise of Romans 8:1, that there is absolutely no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Be blessed.