Many things that believers have been praying for in America are unfolding.. The new administration brings in a pro-life environment and is pushing back on the indoctrination of our children from the LGBTQ influencers in America. The sovereignty of our nation and, thus, our religious freedom, is also being bolstered.  People are talking about their faith more openly than they have in decades.  Revival is breaking out on college campuses and, for now, we can be encouraged.

However, we would be naïve to believe that Satan is going to lay down and let this agenda unfold without significant opposition.  America has such influence globally that the enemy cannot afford for the turn-around in culture here, to spread to other nations.  Corruption is being uncovered at the highest levels through the efforts of DOGE to see where the money has gone.  Much of it has gone to those committed to a demonic agenda in America…whether they were aware of the source of their agenda or not. 

There are four things that we must engage In to keep this moment in history from being a very brief window of opportunity that closes with the next election cycle.  

1. Prayer is going to be more essential than ever.  We must pray for our leaders asking God to protect them, give them favor with the people, success with their policies, and wisdom and courage for governing.  We must also pray that the corruption that has been hidden in darkness will be brought into the light … on both sides of the aisle.

2. We must pray and act for the re-evangelization of America.  God is moving in amazing ways right now.  Unprecedented revival is breaking out on college campuses around America.  Students by the thousands have been giving their lives to the Lord over the past two years…the first notable outpouring being the Asbury Revival in February of 2023.  If America is to recover from its departure from God, the conscience of America must be renewed as a whole.  That will only happen if huge numbers of people turn to Jesus for the first time or return to him again. 

3. We must pray against demonic strongholds and principalities ruling over the nation. In his book, The Return of the Gods, Jonathan Cahn makes the case that when we began to push God out of our schools, courtrooms, and government buildings in the 1960’s, the enemy rushed in to fill the spiritual vacuum we chose to create.   In Daniel 10, we discover that demonic princes have assignments over nations to influence entire countries to serve Satan rather than God.  

In ancient Israel, Baal, Molech and Ishtar were consistently the false god’s Israel pursued.  Baal was the god of fertility and prosperity. He was the first substitute for the true and living God. Molech influenced people to offer their children in the fire to be granted blessings for their material prosperity.  Ishtar (Ashteroth) was the goddess of sexual immorality and perversion including her boast to turn men into women and women into men.  Certainly, we have seen the effects of these principalities establishing themselves over America. We must pray and ask God to dismantle and destroy these principalities and drive them from America once again.  Remember, our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual forces of darkness (Eph. 6:12). The irrationality of political policies and social movements over the past few years and the speed with which they took hold are explained only by demonic influence.

4. We must be willing to confess Jesus by speaking up for godliness in America at every level…through ballot boxes, at school board meetings, with our neighbors, and at the work place.  We need to do so with love and respect, but we must speak up.  Our careful silence, over the past decade or so, left America with the impression that the miniscule number of those pushing for super-liberal agendas were actually in the majority. Through our silence, we allowed them to label believers as haters and bigots and homophobes.  Since few spoke up, many Americans believed that conservatives were those things.  Now people are speaking up and America is changing her mind, but that must continue in every setting…again with love and respect.

The mid-term elections coming up in two years will be as critical as this recent election because if conservatives lose their majorities in the House and Senate, all this momentum in America will grind to a halt.  So pray for leaders at every level.   Share Jesus with those around you.  Pray against demonic strongholds in America.  And speak up for Jesus and biblical values.  This is not the time to coast, but to step on the accelerator as we try to take back this nation for the Kingdom of God.

One of the favorite verses of many believers is found in the Book of James where he says, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). James was the biological half-brother of Jesus.  The gospels reveal that none of his siblings, including James, believed Jesus was the Messiah until their older brother was raised from the dead.  Let’s face it, it might be hard for any of us to see one of our siblings as the Savior of the world after rolling in the mud with him as children.  I would be interested to know how much time Jesus spent with his family during the forty days he walked on the earth after his resurrection.  James became the leader of the Church in Jerusalem and was eventually martyred for his faith. That suggests Jesus may have spent some significant time with him and, perhaps, one of the things they talked about was the confrontation between Jesus and Satan in the wilderness after he was baptized by John.  That may have painted a clear picture for James of what it meant to resist the devil. 

Sometimes, when we think about resisting the devi, we think of strong believers commanding the devil or his demons to leave after afflicting an individual for years.  Maybe we picure Jesus commanding Legion to leave the Gerasene who had been so demonized that he lived among the tombs and broke chains when the people in the region tried to restrain him.  However, James doesn’t seem to be talking about a moment when someone else resists the devil for you, but a moment when you resist him.

The word translated “resist” means to stand against, outweigh, oppose or be hostile toward something or someone.  It has the feeling of not just enduring but active opposition.  In the wilderness temptation, Jesus opposed Satan with the Word of God, which is the sword of the Spirit. He actively declared God’s truth over each of Satan’s half-truths and lies.  Satan came at him three times and then departed.  In his public ministry, Jesus commanded evil spirits to leave and they did so…sometimes immediately and sometimes after a bit of resistance, but they left. On numerous occasions, they manifested genuine fear in the presence of Jesus.   We too can resist Satan with the Word of God and the authority of Jesus.

The essential key to resisting Satan however, is stated in the verse just before the one we have been discussing.  There James declares, “God opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble.  Submit yourselves, then, to God.  Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (Ja. 4:6-7).  What we need to understand is that the first step to successfully opposing Satan is submission to the Father.  The power and authority if Christ must flow through us as we engage in any spiritual warfare.  We fight in his authority not our own.  We wield his sword of truth not our own philosophies. 

The very first battle for conquest of the promised land was Jericho.  In this famous story, God directed Israel to march around the city in silence day after day which made no strategic sense at all.  Then on the final day, after marching around the city seven times in silence, the priests blew the rams horns and the people shouted. The walls of Jericho collapsed.  Israel rushed in and totally defeated the enemy.

In the very next battle, Israel had only a small city. named Ai, to defeat.  But sin had infiltrated Israel through a man named Achan.  All of Jericho had been dedicated to God.  Israel was to take nothing from that city for themselves. But Achan had taken gold and fine clothing for himself and hidden it in his tent. As the army of Israel confidently attacked Ai, they were routed and thirty-six Israelites were killed.  Joshua was stunned that the small city had won the day after they had totally defeated the great city of Jericho. God then revealed that sin among the Israelites had cost them the victory.  

Where sin and rebellion are present, God restricts the power and authority that he would otherwise provide. We are not the source of power and authority, but are only conduits for the power and authority of Jesus.  Unrepented sin creates a crimp in the flow of the Spirit like a crimp in a water hose.  Even though there is a great volume of water at the source, only a trickle is available at the end. 

When we resist Satan with the full flow of God’s power and authority available to us, then he flees.  When our lives and hearts are submitted to God, his presence and power are not restricted.  Satan knows he cannot stand against that. James goes on to say, “Come near to God and he will cone near to you.  Wash your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you doubleminded…humble yourselves before the Lord and he will lift you up” (Ja. 4:8-10).

The first step to prevail in spiritual warfare is to align our hearts, our minds, and our actions with the Lord. The Word of God is powerful and the authority of the believer can overcome the enemy, but only when we are submitted to Jesus. Before the battle, Paul instructs us to put on the armor of God which includes truth (the Word of God), righteousness, readiness, faith, salvation, and the sword of the Spirit (Eph. 6:13-17). We are arming ourselves with God, but only if we are a good for him.  Remember, “The wicked man flees though no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion” (Prov. 28:1). Before the righteous, Satan flees.

But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. James 1:22

The Book of James is one of the most straight forward letters in the New Testament.  Instead of focusing on theological discussions, he deals mostly with what we do as evidence of what we believe.  In other words, he challenges us to look at our actions more than our words to truly discover what is in our hearts.

Revelation 12 give us an important insight into the work of Satan. We are told, “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” (Rev. 12:10).  John is referencing Satan and reveals that the devil is constantly appearing before God in the courts of heaven with accusations against us…against you and me. We see a similar scene in the opening verses of the Book of Job where Satan is accusing Job of worshipping God only because God blessed him so richly.  Satan complained that God had prevented him from getting at Job and bringing pain and loss into his life.  The accuser argued that if God would lift his hand of protection and allow Satan to torment the man, Job would curse God instead of worshipping him.

When looking at these verses and others throughout scripture, we discover that Satan is constantly going before God with accusations against us.  He is persistent in his attempt to find a legal right to afflict us…some unrepented sin, some generational curse, or some spoken word that opens the door for his attacks.

James warns us of the ultimate deception through which Satan may gain access to many believers. He warns us to avoid the trap of being hearers of the Word only, without being doers of the Word. It is easy to feel spiritual and mature when we are constantly involved in Bible study, theological discussions, perpetual sermon podcasts, and so forth. We can carry on spiritual conversations, disect scripture, and talk about all the amazing things God is doing in the world, without allowing the Word of God to actually transform us.

In my years as a believer, I have witnessed men who taught the Bible with zeal and who could quote most of it, act in very unloving ways.  Some were abusive husbands and fathers. Some were spiritually arrogant and quick to judge others as less than themselves.  Some were child molesters. Others pursued secret addictions while quickly condemning others for their weaknesses.  

Because we talk about something, it is easy to believe we have done something about it.  Anyone who has done much counseling has experienced clients who come every week to their sessions and fully engage in long discussions about what they should be doing or could be doing, but then leave and never apply any of what they learned to their lives.  They show up, they talk, but they don’t change.  They feel great that they are going to counseling as if that were the goal rather than life change.  

We can do that in church or in our small groups as well.  We can read the Word, hear the Word, and discuss the Word, but never get around to doing what it calls us to do.  That is the great deception.  We feel we are good with God because we hang around God’s people, listen to sermon and attend conferences.   But our true goal is gaining religious information rather than spiritual transformation. Transformation takes a commitment to actually do what we are called to do…forgiver others, humble ourselves, confess our sins, care for the poor, seek justice for the weak, and so forth. 

When Satan goes before the Lord and accuses us of hypocrisy, God will have to grant him some legal right to afflict us because the charge is true.  The sin of appearing to be righteous while our hearts are full judgment, hatred, pride, lust, indifference to the needs of others, and so forth is the very condition about which Jesus rebuked the Pharisees…clean on the outside but full of decay on the inside.  The great deception is found in our contentment to know all the right things without letting those “right things” get hold of us and change us. The deception is feeling good with God and secure because we listen great sermons and great teachings.  James, however, says there is another necessary step.  We must do what we know, not just know what we know.  

I had a wise man come to me one day after a Bible class.  He said,” I don’t want you to teach me one more new thing from the Bible.  I want you to teach me how to do what I already know. I think that man would have made James, the brother of Jesus, smile. 

Every believer’s birthright in the Kingdom of God is freedom and healing – both physical and emotional. Scripture emphatically declares that Jesus came to heal the brokenhearted and to set captives free from every form of bondage (Isa.61). It also declares that by the stripes or wounds of Jesus, we are healed. If that is true then …

• Why are so many Christians still in bondage to anger, addictions, depression, and relational brokenness?
• Why do destructive behaviors still devastate Christian families from generation to generation?
• Why do so many Christian marriages end in divorce even after dozens of sessions with Christian counselors and therapists?
• Why do so many Christians experience minimal life transformation after coming to Christ?
• Why do so few Christians experience God’s supernatural healing?

If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you possess a birthright of healing and freedom that too many Christians have yet to experience.  Many believers are unaware that healing and freedom are blood-bought promises that come to us through the cross.  My first twenty-five years as a Christian, I was taught the powerful and supernatural works of God were true, but were limited to the first century.  Once Jesus was confirmed to be the Son of God by his miracles and once the apostles were confirmed to be God’s anointed for writing most of the New Testament and establishing the first century church, the miracles were no longer needed and faded away.

After that era of miraculous validation,  we were told God began to work only through natural means and every believer was then left to receive direction from God only through the written Word, to live a moral life with some ambiguous help from God, and to face hardships like any other human.  The only real difference between believers and unbelievers was  faith that when the struggle was over, you would be rewarded with peace and blessings in heaven. 

Interestingly, we are told that scripture teaches us how to live.  We are to pattern our lives after men and women in scripture so that we might live the same life of faith as they did.  And yet, from Genesis to Revelation, there is an emphasis on the mighty works of God and his miraculous intervention for his people.  Genesis points us to numerous miracles.  Exodus reveals the miracles that brought Israel out of Egypt and sustained them in the wilderness.  Joshua begins with the walls of Jericho collapsing and the conquest of Canaan as God intervened over and over again for the armies of Israel. Judges is filled with God’s miraculous touch on ordinary men and women whom God raised up to lead the nation.  The prophets are filled with miracles and then the New Testament records all the works and miracles of Jesus as well as the twelve and many others.  So from Genesis to Revelation, God calls on his people to trust him for miracles…but suddenly, when we have received a Better Covenant through Christ, God goes out of the miracle business and the Holy Spirit no longer works through supernatural gifts.

There is something wrong with that view.  The argument that God no longer heals and delivers supernaturally is based on the absence of such miracles. ” We don’t see them anymore so God must not do them anymore.”  In scripture, when God’s people did not see miracles,  it was because they were either given over to idolatry or had no faith for miracles.  If we have no faith, then we are not asking for miracles and, therefore, will certainly not see them.  If we are given over to idolatry, we are looking for other sources to meet our needs rather than the supernatural hand of God.  Therefore, we also will see no miracles.  

Any natural reading of the New Testament with its emphasis on miracles and spiritual gifts, would never lead a person to believe that God was going to pull the plug on miracles and supernatural functions of the Holy Spirit.  You have to approach the scriptures wanting to prove that premise rather than finding in its the scriptures as a clear doctrine. If God were going to make such a radical shift in the way he irelated to his people. surely he would have been as clear about that shift as he was about the shift from the Covenant of Law to the Covenant of Grace. Yet you have to search for scriptures that might suggest God isn’t serving up miracles anymore and then interpret them to say much more than they actually say in context.

Too many of us have accepted the idea that the power we see on every page of the New Testament faded away centuries ago.  Yet Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever.  The Spirit in us is the same Spirit that brooded over the face of the waters in Genesis, that empowered the prophets, that rested on Jesus, and that raised him from the dead. .  He has not changed and He is a Spirit of power. Jesus did not die on the cross so that we could merely manage crippling and destructive issues in our lives, but so that each of us could be set free from bondage and brokenness. The promise is this: “So if the Son sets you free, then you will be free indeed” (John 8:36).  Don’t settle or live with a sense of resignation in the face of pain and brokenness. Go after everything Jesus paid for.

When God began to deliver Israel from Egypt with a series of plagues, there were a few of the plagues that Israel had to deal with as well as the Egyptians. But then God began to exempt Israel from the plagues in order to demonstrate that his relationship with Israel was unique. We are in a unique and covenant relationship with the Father and he wishes to demonstrate that difference through our healing and our freedom that come through the power of the Spirit and the supernatural works of God. Any theology that denies that truth, is keeping us from the very things Jesus died to provide.Someone once said, “A gospel without power is no gospel at all.” I agree with that. Don’t settle. Go after everything he has provided because the wonderful works of God bring glory to him.

I rarely walk on the weird side of spiritual warfare.  Weirdness tends to discredit the realities of the spiritual realm and our fight against unseen enemies. However,  I am going to cautiously put out to sea a little ways into some speculation because the devil is up to something and I feel like the Holy Spirit is highlighting these things for a reason.

Years ago, the Twilight Zone aired an episode entitled, “To Serve Man.”  The story was about aliens making their presence known on earth.  Imagine an impressive space craft landing on the White House lawn with emissaries from a planet in another galaxy descending the steps and declaring they have come in peace.  They declared they had come to share their knowledge and abundance with earth and to eliminate disease and war.  The earth, of course, was once again on the verge of destroying itself so, out of a sense of desperation, these alien emissaries were given the chance to demonstrate their good will.

In short order, they ended food shortages around the globe.  They provided cures for a huge number of devastating diseases.  They provided keys to eliminating natural disasters.  In short, they became the savior of mankind.  The world clamored for more.  In the process, there were skeptics who doubted their altruistic motives, but they brought so much good, who could doubt them.  Eventually, more ships came and they started taking men and women to their home planet for ten-year excursions.  One of the skeptics had secretly stolen a book from one of their ships and was trying to translate their difficult language.  The first breakthrough was the title, which read “To Serve Man.”  Those aware of the attempt to decipher the book were encouraged because that is why these aliens said they had come.  In the closing scene, the skeptic who was translating the book was feverishly trying to stop a friend from going on the interplanetary voyage to the aliens’ home planet.  He had finally broken the code and to his horror discovered that is was actually a cookbook and those leaving this planet were doomed to be feasted on when they arrive on this other world.  The scripture occurs to me that Satan appears as an angel of light.

The reason I’m bringing this up is because we are about to be inundated with news about alien visitors. Congressional hearings are opening the doors on secret files containing reams of reports about UFO’s going back to the “Roswell coverup” decades ago.  Notice, however, that the language has changed.  Now we are talking about non-human entities and interdimensional visitors.  When chased, these current UFO’s seem to disappear through some portal that closes. Non-human and interdimensional actually describe the demonic.  I have seen two reports on alien abductees.  Both reports claim no spirit-filled Christians have ever been abducted and those who were threatened sent the “travelers’ scurrying at the name of Jesus.  When aliens are revealed and interviewed on CNN, beware. They too may be interested in “serving man” and what power they would have to bring about a one world government and to endorse the “anti-Christ.”  Of course, AI can play a huge role in this as well as it becomes more and more difficult to discern the genuine from the computer generated.  

I know, this sounds like conspiracy theory gone wild, but if these kind of events begin to unfold, please be prayerful and discerning.  Only Jesus is the Savior of the World and his one world government will not be established until after he returns…and it won’t be on a flying saucer.  I won’t venture into these realms again unless compelled to do so, but sometimes we need to keep a closer eye on the enemy.  This possibility is not gospel so simply consider it and do with it as you will. 

I’m reading through Exodus again as we begin this new year.  It is such a familiar story that I have to be careful not to assume I have learned all that can be learned from the reading.  Jesus said, “Therefore every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old” (Mt. 13:52).  In other words, every time we search the word of God, we will affirm old truths we have known, but will also discover new insights that have great value as well.  There is always more that fresh digging will uncover.

In Exodus 12, God begins to give instruction about the Passover.  He has already decimated Egypt with nine of the ten plagues.  The final plague and the breaking point for Pharoah will be the death of the first born of every man and animal in Egypt…except for the Hebrews.  Speaking of this final judgment, the Lord says, “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn—both men and animals—and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you” (Ex. 12:12-13).

Until this chapter, God had spoken about bringing judgment on Pharoah and the nation of Egypt.  But in summary, he says, I will bring judgment on “all the gods of Egypt.”  One of the most important revelations of scripture is the spiritual realm that exists and powerfully influences the physical realm.  Even as Christians, who have been given a greater revelation than the Old Testament men and women of faith received, we often forget that our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual rulers and powers in the heavenly realms (Eph. 6:12).

The Old Testament does reveal that behind every idol was a demonic spirit drawing people away from God through false worship.  We tend to think of demons as spirits who always torment and bring devastation into the lives of people they touch.  Ultimately that is true, but in the beginning these spirits can bestow power, fame, riches, relationships and all the things people hunger for, believing that their happiness and even salvation will be found in those worldly pursuits. But after a while, the demons take control and control their followers through fear, threats and intimidation. Their end game is destruction, but they often begin with things perceived as blessings.  

People follow the demonic because they believe that Satan is more powerful than the God of the Bible.  Many who have fallen deep into the occult, are amazed to discover that Jesus has more power and authority that Satan. When they discover the truth, they often renounce Satan and give their lives to Jesus.  

Ultimately, God’s plagues on Egypt were displays of his power and authority over demons or the false gods of Egypt who claimed to be all powerful.  The showdowns that took place in Pharoah’s court time after time, were between the one true God and the false god’s whom Egypt worshipped…the Nile that was turned into blood, the sun god that was blocked out by darkness for three days, the first born of Pharoah who also claimed to be a living god, and so forth. Each plague either directly or indirectly demonstrated God’s power was greater than the power and authority of a “false god.”  

In a secular world, we don’t think in terms of false gods because we don’t erect idols to them or build temples to them…but they still influence the culture and create their own worshippers.  There are demons behind wealth – Baal, the god of fertility and prosperity.  There is Molech, the god who prompts his followers to offer their children in sacrifice to obtain blessings.  There is Ishtar, the goddess of sex, immorality, and gender confusion whom some worship for an entire month in June each year.   How many of us treat celebrities and power brokers as gods and pursue career, fame and success as if it provided some form of eternal salvation?  

Eventually, these gods must fall to either the gospel of Jesus Christ who brings men to faith and banishes false gods from their hearts or to the judgment of God on a nation that demonstrates his power and authority over each one.  Our God is a jealous God who hates the enemy because he draws those whom God loves into eternal punishment. In America, we need to recognize the reality of spiritual warfare…not just in the lives of individuals but also in the life of the nation. We need to pray.  We need to speak out against sin and corruption.  We need to declare the Lordship of Jesus and vote for righteousness.  We need to share the gospel with those we encounter. The future of our nation lies in the spiritual realm not in the realm of politics or Wall Street.  In this year to come, we must remember that more than ever.