The spiritual realm frequently interacts with the natural realm. 0ne effects the other. Throughout scripture, we see the spiritual realms impacting the natural realm as demonic spirits clearly afflict humans through temptation and even “possession.” In the book of Daniel, we are told that demonic principalities sometime rule over nations. influencing them to follow the ways of Satan. Angels clearly impact the lives of individuals throughout the Bible…protecting them, delivering messages, leading them out of prisons, and executing God’s judgments at times. James even warns us to be careful how we treat strangers because some of those we interact with may be angels operating in the form of men. In the other direction, prayers, praise and commands in the natural realm move things in the spiritual realms.

More often than we are aware, we experience spiritual atmospheres in the natural realm that are generated by the presence of spiritual beings we cannot see. Christians often talk about feeling the “presence of God” or the “presence of the Holy Spirit” in a church service, conference, or small group setting. Angels often are present in churches during worship and contribute to an atmosphere of peace, praise and expectation. It is also true that demonic spirits can produce an atmosphere of fear, anger, heaviness, hopelessness, distrust, and oppression in other settings.

Several years ago, we received a request from a lady who attended another church asking us to pray for her and her family. She had remarried a good man and her teenage son from her previous marriage lived with them. He and his “stepfather” had gotten along well for the first year or two of their marriage, but after moving into a new home (new to them) the relationship became combative and even physically violent between the son and stepfather. The woman’s husband travelled with his job, so was gone from time to time. The atmosphere in the house was such that she had put a dead bolt on her bedroom door and kept it locked out of fear that her son would try to hurt her or even kill ear with the stepfather away.

She invited us over while the son was at a school event and her husband was out of town. As we asked about her experiences, she noted the agitation and anger had only become apparent after they moved into their current house. She also noted that if they were traveling as a family, the son and husband got along as they had in the beginning, but as soon as they pulled into the driveway, the anger and agitation erupted again. This woman did not attend a church that talked about the spiritual realm and certainly not about demons, so she made no connection between the anger and violence in her home and the spiritual realm.

Several of our team members had gifts of discernment so they immediately sensed the presence of a spirit of anger and violence in the house. We prayed over the house, commanded the spirit to leave and never return and went on our way. She said she never told her husband or son that we had prayed over the house, but their relationship quickly returned to what it had been in the beginning. In that case, prayer and commands in the authority of Jesus changed the spiritual atmosphere of the home.

There are times we will feel the atmosphere of a home, neighborhood, city, or church. Sometimes, these places will feel peaceful or full of life if the Spirit of God is present. If there is a strong demonic presence, it will feel dark, heavy, evil, foreboding, or angry. I have visited several cities where witchcraft was openly practiced and on a clear day, the sun seemed dim in those cities as if there were cloud cover when there was none. Those atmospheres affect not just the sky but the people who live there as well. The people themselves reflect the spiritual atmosphere of their city.

In Mark 4, Jesus told his disciples to get in a boat and head across the sea of Galilee to the region gf the Gadarenes. As they made their way across, a great storm suddenly blew up. Jesus was asleep in the boat while the disciples were in full panic mode. Remember, they were crossing the sea to encounter a totally demonized man who lived among the tombs, whom Jesus would set free. The disciples shook Jesus awake and announced that they were all about to die. Jesus rebuked the storm and it ceased immediately.

Many commentators believe that the storm had been stirred by demonic forces and, in essence, Jesus had commanded the demons to cease their activity. They were attempting to keep Jesus from setting the man who lived in the tombs free from demonic bondage. If this is true, Jesus discerned the demonic atmosphere charging the storm and by his commands, changed the atmosphere.

Other things can change the spiritual atmosphere of a location as well. We are told that when an evil spirit would torment King Saul, David would play a harp, and the spirit would stop the torment. Psalm 149:6 instructs God’s people to enter into battle with the praise of God in their mouths. We are also told that God inhabits the praises of his people. Praise attracts the presence of God and the presence of God disperses the enemy. Prayer also attracts his presence and praying out loud for the presence and power of the Lord to overcome the enemy can also shift the atmosphere of a home, room, church, business, etc.

Many people are affected by spiritual atmospheres without being aware of what is going on. They simply find themselves feeling hopeless, depressed, agitated, angry, or fearful for “no apparent reason.” There may be an atmosphere of conflict in a home or business where couples or kids or employees seem to fight incessantly for no good reason. These individuals or families should act intentionally to change the atmosphere of the home or business. Praying out loud, playing praise music in the background all day and night, an audio Bible being played, or direct commands for spirits to leave (or all the above) can change the atmosphere instantly or over a few weeks.

Paul told us that we should not be unaware of the devil’s schemes and negative or toxic spiritual atmospheres can certainly be one of those strategies to bring down individuals, families, businesses and even churches. When you feel the presence of God, stay there, When you feel or see the evidence of demonic activity, take action to change it.

At the risk of sounding elderly, this is going to be one of those “when I was a kid” blogs. When I look at the current cultural and political landscape, I cannot help but be somewhat astonished at the accelerated cultural collapse of values I see and our nation’s passive acceptance of them.

When I was a kid and even a college student, I remember that every presidential candidate was somewhat scrutinized to see if he and his family were church members somewhere. The idea behind that was a need for biblical morality (even feigned) among our leaders. When JFK was running for president there was concern that he was Catholic and that he might be taking direction from the Pope. That was somewhat absurd, but the fear reflected how important we thought faith affiliations were.

Fast forward to 2023. Now it seems that if a presidential candidate has some actual faith and commitment to biblical values, he or she is considered radical and dangerous. It almost disqualifies them from leadership. How have we come to a place in a nation built on Christian commitment, to the place where a commitment to biblical truth disqualifies you from leading a nation, a university, a major corporation or major media outlet?

It wasn’t that many years ago when homosexuality was against the law in many states because it was considered sin and a perversion. I’m not in favor of jailing gay people, but the value that homosexuality was a deviation from healthy, normative reality was based on biblical standards. Now we have gay pride month..not just a day, but a month. In addition, we have transgenderism being championed in many of our schools and in the media. Now if you object to same sex marriage or transgenderism for children you are labeled as perverse. We are in such a place that some are seriously arguing that pedophilia should also be considered an acceptable alternate lifestyle. Millions of abortions are not just allowed but celebrated.

Recently, there have been serious attempts to make biblical preaching that doesn’t agree with “cultural norms” illegal under the category of “hate speech.” Preachers who presented homosexuality and same sex marriage as sin, have already been arrested in Canada for hate speech and if we stay on our current political and social track in America, we will se that soon here.

In past decades in the U.S, it was comfortable, acceptable, and even advisable to speak out for God, the church, and biblical standards of morality. To do less made you suspect as a political leader, a teacher, or a business man. People wondered if you had integrity in your business dealings if you were not clearly a Christian. I’m not naive enough to believe that all those who professed Christianity really lived it or even believed it. But biblical standards were at lease promoted to be the correct standard for living. Nearly all of that has been erased in our cultural landscape at this point.

What I truly wonder is whether the average American has given up those values or if the average American is simply remaining quiet because of the fear of man. It truly seems that a very small percentage of people in America are calling the shots for everyone else who doesn’t want be labeled as “a hater” or “perverse” by this truly small number of media, political, or educational “elites.”

I am encouraged that there seems to be some who are now speaking up against “wokeism” and the cultural tyranny of these few elitists. But all of us who believe in biblical or at least traditional values better begins to speak up. In past decades, it was acceptable and comfortable to be a Christian. Now, in many places and settings in America it is no longer comfortable and speaking up will cost you your job and will certainly cost you the praise of men..

I was reading in the book of Acts this morning and felt that the apostles prayer for their little group who were being persecuted by the religious and political elite of their time, must become our prayer now in this “new normal” in which we find ourselves. Peter and John had just been warned by the authorities to no longer preach or minister in the name of Jesus at risk of imprisonment. When they reported the threat to the church in Jerusalem, the church prayed a prayer we should begin to pray daily.

“On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: “ ‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One.’

Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly” (Ac 4:23–31).

If power and boldness do not mark the church in the coming months and years, this nation that was once a beacon of light will slide into darkness. Much if what God will do with this nation is up to us, In Deuteronomy 28, God marked out two paths for Israel. One was a path of extreme blessing if they would be careful to follow the commands of the Lord. The other was a path of cursing, loss, poverty, and oppression if they failed to follow his commands. I believe America is at that crossroads. What we decide to believe, to do, and speak has never been more crucial; I am praying for boldness. I hope you will as well.

Have you ever felt “less than” because you didn’t find the connection with God in a certain environment that other people did?  Maybe it was a worship night at your church where, afterwards, you heard others talk about how thick the presence of God was…but you didn’t feel it.  Maybe it was a night of prayer in which many talked about how close they felt to God as they “pressed in”… but you didn’t.  Maybe it was a winter retreat in which everyone got up to experience God in the sunrise, but you just found yourself wishing you weren’t so cold.  It wasn’t that you didn’t enjoy the worship, the prayer, or even the sunrise but you didn’t feel as connected to God as the others did in those moments, so you begin to doubt your own spirituality.

Well, take heart.  Not everyone connects with God in the same way.  In fact, a great deal of study has gone into the subject of how we best connect with God and those who did the studies have determined that there are a least nine different ways in which people best connect or feel closest to God.  These are usually called primary pathways or sacred pathways to God. These findings actually should not surprise us.  Afterall, God has made us all to be unique.  He has given us different gifts, temperaments, and experiences with which to fulfill his unique purposes for us, so why would we expect to all experience him in the same way? Gary Thomas suggests nine sacred pathways. Let me briefly list these as a sampler of what I am talking about.

The naturalist feels most connected to God when he or she steps outside and observes God’s creation.  These are the “let’s watch the sunrise folks.”  Whether mountains, deserts, beaches, lakes, rivers, city parks, or a flower garden in their own backyard, they seem to see and hear God best in those environments.

The sensate experiences God though their five senses.  They feel connected by majestic music, sacred architecture, sacred art, communion, candle light services, etc.  These symbols stir their spirits to sense the presence and grandeur of God. God made us with five senses so we must be able to experience him through those as well as other ways.

The traditionalist loves traditional forms of worship including liturgical readings, historic rituals, keeping to church calendars and holy days. They feel the presence of God when they align themselves with centuries of faith through these traditions and hundred-year-old hymns.  Praise bands and light shows do not connect them to God in the same way.

The ascetic finds God most clearly in simplicity and solitude.  These men and women probably tend to be introverts who process their faith more internally than externally.  They gravitate toward traditional spiritual disciplines such as fasting, prayer vigils, and solitude.  They find God best in silence rather than in a sanctuary of spirited worshippers.

The activist meets God best in the midst of battle.  It is in confronting the enemy or injustice or poverty that God seems most real, immanent, and exciting. These folks campaign for change, become evangelists, pray in front of abortion centers, and so forth.  

The caregiver feels closest to God when meeting the needs of the poor, the sick, and the oppressed.  Mother Theresa comes to mind. These individuals feel closest to God when serving others. They often are the first to sign up for service projects. They may gravitate toward the medical field, social services, or even first responders.  They feel most connected to God when they are there for others in crisis.

The enthusiast loves the excitement and celebration of faith.  They love conferences where they are challenged to take risks…missions, prayers for healing others, sharing a prophetic word, etc.  They love creative and contemporary forms of worship and wake up every morning hoping that God will perform a miracle that day in them or through them.

The contemplative is marked by emotional attachment and abandonment to God. Perhaps, more than any other, these individuals seek a personal relationship with God through extended quiet times, extended periods of seeking his presence or hearing him. They like to show their love for God through secret acts of devotion, anonymous gifts of charity, or private worship just for God.

The learner discovers God through study.  His or her spirit is stirred when they discover new truths about God. These are individuals who want to get through with the worship so they can discover more of God in the sermon.  Bible study is the center of their devotional life. They want to talk theology with friends and always have a new book feeding their hunger to discover more about the Father.

These pathways are not exhaustive but demonstrate that we all connect best with God in different ways.  We often connect in several ways.  This doesn’t mean that if worship is not my high point of the day, that I don’t need to worship. We are commanded to do so.  We are commanded to serve the poor, study the word, be still before God, etc.  But, when we don’t experience the presence of God in one setting like others do, we don’t have to feel less spiritual or less acceptable to God.  

A caution:  we are all human.  We tend to think that our primary pathway to God should be everyone else’s primary pathway as well.  If we are not careful, we may judge them as less spiritual than we are, but that would be a mistake.  God has given each a different role in the body, different gifts, and different personalities.  Each is valid, each is valuable.  When you find your primary pathway(s) to God, put yourself in that place more often.  Don’t discount your pathway because it is not the pathway most celebrated in your church or the pathway of other believers you admire.  Rest in the fact that it is part of how God made you and seek him on that pathway on a regular basis.

I try to stay away from politics because a political party won’t save us and political stands often splinter the body of Christ.  However, many believers are choosing political values over biblical values.  When we stand before God, and we will, he will not ask us about political affiliation but how faithful we were to his word and how we stood for biblical truth in the face of social pressure.

Adam and Eve compromised the commands of God by coming into agreement with Satan. The devil presents objections to God’s truth that always sound reasonable to an unrenewed mind that is ruled by the flesh.  The flesh wants to submit to no one.  It wants to be in charge or, at least, wants no one else in charge.  The Old Testament says that during the period of the judges, there was no king in Israel and every man did that which was right in in own heart. Remember, these were unregenerated hearts and “no king” meant that they were often not held accountable for their actions.  That is what the flesh wants and that is what Satan peddles. You can be like God and the master of your own destiny.  Do your own thing.  Follow your heart.  Do it your way. Follow your own truth.

I was in China a few years ago ministering to underground church pastors and members.  I was having lunch with a young pastor in Hong Kong and asked him what the condition of the church was in China at that time.  Of course, people were coming to Jesus by the thousands and even hundreds of thousands and most Chinese believers are willing to go to prison or even die for their faith.  He said, however, there was a lot of division among church leaders.  I asked why and he said, “There is just something in every Chinese man that wants to be emperor.”  In other words, there is something even in these church leaders that wants to be in charge and call the shots while being unanswerable to anyone.

We have to guard against that dynamic in each of us.  Paul says in Romans 7, “So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members” (Rom. 7:21-23).  In other words, even among the saved there is still a fallen nature warring against our redeemed nature.

In 2 Corinthians 10, Paul declares, “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Cor. 10:2-5).  Because we still have a natural man warring against our spiritual man and because the tempter is frequently whispering lies in our mind, we have thoughts that are not obedient to Christ.  Therefore, we must take those thoughts captive and bring them into alignment with the Word of God. 

The Word is the only unchanging standard in this world.  It is unchanging because 

God us unchanging.  We must stay true to his word without compromise, even though some of the world’s arguments seem to make sense…to our unrenewed mind.  I am still astonished that many churches, Christian schools and universities are buying into the worldly arguments that homosexuality is an accepted lifestyle to Jesus or that abortion for any reason is a godly value.  They are buying into arguments that transgenderism or the effort to do away with gender differences altogether is somehow compassionate and righteous and that those who speak against that cultural view are haters. Scripture says that God made them male and female and no other genders are mentioned.  Churches and educational institutions who adopt cultural views in these areas seem to believe that God needs to be informed by our “science” and “progressive thinking” in these areas.  The Word must inform culture; culture cannot inform the Word. 

We have, perhaps, the most consequential election in the history of the United States coming up.  Ultimately, it will be a decision by the nations to either return to God’s values and standards or to continue to depart from them. We should not be voting on personalities or even our pocket books, but on values.  We must inform ourselves of what God says about the issues at hand and vote for those who best reflect his standards.

Paul is very clear when he writes, “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap destruction, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life^” (Gal. 5:6-7).  That is true not only for individuals but also for nations. When November of next year rolls around, we must not listen to the voice of culture or our fallen nature or the voice of the enemy.  We must listen to the voice of God.  The future of this nation depends on it…not just for us but for our children and grandchildren.  

Some of the issues we will need to have an informed biblical view of are going to be abortion, same sex marriage, homosexuality, transgenderism, globalism (a one world government), holding criminals accountable, the state having authority over children rather than their parents, and so forth.  As these political platforms are presented, please find out what God says about the issues.  Remember, at first glance the issue may sound right because our natural man gravitates toward those positions, but determine to represent God rather than the world.  So much depends on us doing so.

But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations. 

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he chose for his inheritance. (Ps. 33:11-12). 

Back in 1970, a little book came out entitled The Late, Great, Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey.  It was viewed by many as the ultimate blueprint of the end times.  Of course, the beginning of the countdown to the return of Christ was the establishment of Israel in 1948.  Lindsey took all kinds of Old Testament prophecies as well as the book of Revelation and some prophetic statements by Christ in the gospels to connect nations, leaders, and world events to a seven-year tribulation of terrible plagues and natural disasters on the earth. 

Then, either before or in the middle of this great tribulation, the rapture of the church would occur when Jesus would evacuate every believer from the face of the earth to avoid what was coming.  Then, after the tribulation Christ would return to begin a thousand-year reign on the earth during which Satan would be bound and then released for a final confrontation. Then would come the end of time when Christ would destroy all his enemies and the eternal heaven would be ushered in on a renewed earth.

This book had a profound impact on the church in the coming decades.  Lindsey was not the first to develop this theology but he was the first to popularize it in such a way.  For me, the discouraging part of this view of the end times was that all of the earth would plunge into an inevitable spiritual darkness that no efforts of the church could forestall.  It suggested that no matter how hard the church prayed or evangelized, this inevitable triumph of darkness over light would transpire until things were so bad that Jesus “raptured” every believer from the face of the earth.

As a result, an attitude developed that any great efforts of the church at redeeming nations and cultures were doomed to fail.  Some believers simply took on the notion that we could no longer be world changers, but simply needed to bunker in until Jesus returned.  That mindset still exists in many believers today. I believe that some of this theology crept into churches to the extent that Christians began to pull back and isolate themselves from our culture with the sense that our involvement could actually make no difference. We handed over politics, education, science, and the arts to relative unbelievers – an expanded version of separation of church and state. 

This separation has become a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Someone prophesied that culture would continue to inevitably deteriorate in spite of our best efforts and so Christians abandoned it.  Because we withdrew from these cultural playing fields, of course it is deteriorating.  My objection to this view is that it inadvertently presents the power of Christ and his church to be insufficient to withstand the power of evil for decades while billions of people that Jesus died for are funneled into hell.  

And yet, Jesus demonstrated his power over evil through preaching, healing, and deliverance during his entire ministry on the earth.  His greatest demonstration of power came through the resurrection. He then sent his Spirit to empower believers to do what he had been doing.  Jesus himself declared that the gates of hell would not prevail against his church.  We are also told in Isaiah, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this” (Isa.9:6-7). 

This prophetic passage declares that the increase of his government will have no end.  In other words, his kingdom will continue to advance until the end of the age.  Jesus stands for victory rather than defeat. He taught us to pray…thy kingdom come…on earth as it is in heaven.  There is no place for a sense of inevitable failure, defeat or impotence in the kingdom of God.  Every election cycle, it feels like many Christians believe that their involvement in the political process is either futile or unbiblical…because they refuse to vote.  It seems that many believing parents discourage their children from academia or politics or involvement in the arts because those systems have been heavily infiltrated by the enemy.  

The questions is whether we should withdraw or retake those influential systems of culture for the kingdom of God?  To do so will require a theology of victory rather than defeat, power rather than weakness, and engagement rather than abandonment.  That is the Spirit of Christ. No matter how the end times roll out, we should remain committed to taking back the world from the enemy until Jesus appears again. God commanded Adam and Eve to subdue the earth for his purposes. That command was restated in the Great Commission to make disciples of all nations. We may want to begin right here in America to reclaim what belongs to God.