Suddenly, life in America has taken on a surreal feel.  Here in West Texas the coronavirus has shut down schools, churches are going online instead of meeting on Sundays, and the shelves in every grocery store are emptied. On top of that, thirty-dollar oil looms over our area like a dark cloud. It seems to be the perfect storm.

The most obvious thing in the spiritual landscape is the spirit of fear that is attached to all of this. There seems to be no rational reason for people to be hoarding everything from toilet paper to corn flakes, but here we are.  This is a time when we need to remember that our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual principalities in heavenly realms.  I’m not saying that the coronavirus is not real and is no threat, but the fear response is way out of proportion to the reality.

Fear is an open door for the enemy.  Demonic spirits smell fear in the atmosphere like sharks smell blood in the water and are drawn to it.  As we move ahead, I want to encourage you to bind and command any spirit of fear to leave you in the powerful name of Jesus.  In fact, you may want to do that every day or several times a day if you feel it encroaching on your mind.

I also encourage you to command any spirit of infirmity to leave you and your family as well.  I encourage you to do so daily. Demonic spirits mimic real diseases and health conditions and so some will be feeling the symptoms of the coronavirus without actually having the virus.  When the spirit is driven out, the symptoms will subside soon. Again, I’m not saying that there is no actual coronavirus.  There is.  We don’t deny reality, but in the name of Jesus we can defy it and, especially, when the demonic is involved. You should engage in spiritual warfare as soon as you begin to sense any symptoms and before you head out to the ER or clinic.  If the symptoms go away, you know it was spiritual.  If not, go on to the clinic.  Medicine is a grace of God as well as supernatural healing….although God’s healing is much better.

One abiding principal of spiritual warfare is that we empower whatever or whomever we agree with.  Adam and Even came into agreement with Satan in the Garden and in doing so submitted to his authority.  Their agreement gave him power over them.  We must be careful to stay in agreement with the word of God now, rather than coming into agreement with the news or the panic on social media. If we come into agreement with fear, we will certainly create an open door for the enemy and not only will fear camp out in our living room but infirmity will likely follow.

The New Testament instructs us to fix our eyes upon Jesus and that is the key to navigating times like these.  Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth and that authority includes authority over coronavirus.  As we fix our eyes on Jesus, we should invite the Holy Spirit to impart to us and his church greater measures of faith, courage, wisdom, and health for this time.

In one of his Messianic prophecies concerning Jesus, Isaiah declared, “Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed” (Isa.53:4-5, NRSV).

Part of our inheritance in the Lord is health…by his wounds we are healed (I Peter 2:24).  Remember that we are to pray, “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  There is no sickness for God’s children in heaven and so sickness is not his will for his children on earth.  John reminds us that Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil (1 Jn.3:8). His primary method if evangelism was to proclaim the kingdom of God and then demonstrate it by healing the sick, casting out demons, and raising the dead.  Sickness then is a consequence of sin and a work of the devil. It is not God’s will for his children.

God’s heart has always been to defend his people from disease. He said, “If you listen carefully to the voice of the Lordyour God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you” (Ex.15:26).  The psalmist also declares,” Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits— who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases.  David also wrote, “Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you” (Ps.91:3-7).

That was God’s heart for his people even under the Old Covenant and we live under a much better covenant sealed by the blood of the Lamb. Our inheritance is health and healing. Jesus demonstrated healing as a sign of the presence of the kingdom.  Peter declared that by his wounds we are healed.  James promised that if any believer is sick, he can call the elders of the church to pray over him, anoint him with oil, and the prayer of faith will bring healing.  In addition, the Holy Spirit has given gifts of healing to the church and so we know that healing is a blessing that Jesus has purchased for his people.

These are the promises we should agree with rather than aligning our hearts with fear and projections of disaster.  We should also remember that these promises are for God’s people whose lives are also in alignment with his will.  By his grace, we also have the privilege of praying for unbelievers and seeing them healed by the power and authority of Jesus as an expression of the Father’s love for them.

Let me encourage you to declare these promises over yourself and your family daily and declare that you are healthy and healed in the name of Jesus. The Israelites dabbed the blood of a Passover lamb over and around their doors as a sign of God’s protection.  The plague that had been released over Egypt did not enter a door covered by the blood.  If you are comfortable doing so, you might even dab anointing oil (olive oil) above and on the sides of your door at home as a declaration of faith that the blood of the Lamb also has power over the enemy and over disease in your house.

Passover is near and we are praying that God will sovereignly end this coronavirus crisis supernaturally and quickly in a way that points people to Jesus.  Will you join us in that prayer as we walk in faith and not fear because he that is in you is greater than he that is in the world? Blessings and health in Him.

When I became a Christian, I heard the gospel through a Cessationist church.  These were people who loved God and were ardent students of the Bible. The lens through which they interpreted the word was, however, Cessationism.  That simply means that the denomination that church aligned itself with believed that the miracles, supernatural interventions by God, and the miraculous gifts of the Spirit ceased to operate around the end of the first century when the last of the apostles died.

The idea is that God performed his miracles through Jesus solely in order to prove that he was the Son of God and the long awaited Messiah.  He performed miracles through the apostles in order to validate them as leaders of the church and to validate their writings as inspired by God. The argument continued that the miraculous gifts of the Spirit were also given to validate the early church as the body of Christ and gifts such as prophecy and discernment were needed because the church did not have the complete New Testament canon until the end of the first century. However, once there was enough historical record of miracles in the life of Jesus and his apostles and once the entirety of the New Testament had been penned, the need for the supernatural acts of God and his church were fulfilled and God began to work only through natural means.  Most American mainline churches still hold this view in varying degrees.

Of course, that perspective leaves much unanswered.  For instance, why all the miracles in the Old Testament if miracles were only to validate Jesus?  If miracles were only given to validate the apostles and their writings, then why did Luke gain a place in the New Testament with a gospel and the book of Acts as well as James, the brother of Jesus, not the apostle James? Neither were apostles and we have no evidence that either of them ever performed a miracle to validate the inspiration of their writings.  Why did the church need gifts of miracles, tongues, healings, and the capacity to cast out demons if the miraculous gifts were only to make up for a lack of a complete New Testament?  Those gifts did not fill in the “yet to be written” word of God for the church. If the church needed miracles to validate that it was approved by God, why would the church not need the same validation today in the face of Islam, Hinduism, or Buddhism?  In addition, if the biblical record shows that God interceded for his people with miracles from Genesis to Revelation, why would he stop intervening for his people after the Holy Spirit had been given to the church and since God himself does not change?  He is the same yesterday, today and forever.

In addition to those questions, being taught that all of God’s miracles, supernatural interventions, and miraculous gifts were relegated to the past had an unintended side effect, I believe.  As I was taught to read the Bible through that lens, I also came to believe, at least at a subconscious level that we could no longer do great things for the Lord.  The Bible stories of David slaying Goliath, the Red Sea parting, supernatural strength in battle, fire falling from heaven, Philip being transported by the Holy Spirit, and so forth seemed to take on an almost mythological aura in the sense that these heroes of the past were not like you and me.  God would not work through us as he had through them.  I was reading the Word to see what God had once done, not what he would do.

The question becomes why the story of all those people and the story of all those supernatural events were even recorded if we cannot be like the people we are reading about.  God’s mighty works sound like stories that happened long, long ago in a far away galaxy.  And yet, I believe that the stories of David running toward Goliath, Joshua marching around Jericho, Elijah facing the false prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel, Gideon routing the enemy of Israel with clay pots and torches, Peter being led from prison by an angel, etc. are to be emulated by us, not just remembered.

I believe that the stories were written to tell us who God’s people were and who they can be again.  They are written to tell us that we can be those people. These were real people with flaws and fears and great misunderstandings who eventually did great things through faith and the supernatural interventions of God.  If we are to be like them…if they are our role models then we cannot be like them without faith and we cannot be like them without the miraculous power of God working in our lives as it did theirs.

To take away the supernatural operation of God in our lives is to take away the possibility that we can be another David, another Gideon, another Esther, another Elijah, another Mary, another Peter, Paul, or John.  In an effort to explain why we personally haven’t seen someone heal the blind or raise the dead, we create a theology that denies the miraculous today and, at the same time, cuts the legs out from under the church and the church’s ability to “turn the world upside down” once again.

The Bible isn’t simply a history book as much as it is a book that demonstrates how men and women have encounters with God and that demonstrates what every believer’s life can look like in fellowship with God. What the Father has been willing to do in the past he is willing to do again because he does not change.  In my first church home, I was taught to run away from the miraculous because I might be deceived and led astray.  Of course we are to test the spirits to see if they are from God, but I believe that scripture actually instructs us to run toward the supernatural because we may just find God there.

I was reading through Matthew the other day and was struck with a paradox. One the one hand, Jesus seems too be telling us that we should think of ourselves as weak and lowly while in other scriptures we are told how significant we are in the kingdom of heaven.   The two thoughts sometimes seems contradictory.   However, throughout the Bible there seem to be numerous scriptures that hold us in a kind of tension between two absolute positions. For instance, we are told, “Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will be like him yourself “ (Prov. 26:4).  The very next verse says, “Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes” (Prov. 26:5). Somewhere in the middle of those two positions we are called to exercise judgment and to be sensitive to the leading of the Spirit in a given situation…one  situation calling for no answer and another calling for an answer to the “fool.”

I find that same kind of tension in the New Testament where we are clearly called to humble ourselves if we desire to be great in the kingdom while at the same time knowing that we have this amazing identity of status and authority in the kingdom of God.  Matthew records a moment when some of Jesus’ apostolic band asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Mt.18:1).  Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

The word humble in the original language means lowly, weak, insignificant, or poor.  So to be great in the kingdom we must see ourselves as lowly, weak, or insignificant.  Yet, at the same time we are told over and over that we are priests, royalty, friends of the Most High King, ambassadors, co-heirs with Christ, sons and daughters of God, saints, and so forth. We seem to be called to see ourselves as insignificant, while, at the same time, knowing how significant we are.  We get the same flavor in James when he directs us to humble ourselves before God and then to resist the devil and he will flee from us. We are to humble ourselves before God but we are to have a very different bearing when we face the devil.

So do we see ourselves as insignificant or highly significant?  Do we see ourselves as weak or strong enough to send the devil to flight? Do we see ourselves as lowly or highly favored and established in heaven?  The answer seems to be “yes” to all of that.  The key seems to be in knowing that our significance, strength, and standing in heaven has all come to us as a gift, rather than as something we possess apart from Christ.

Our humility comes from knowing that apart from Christ we are weak, insignificant, powerless and lost.  He has given us value, significance and position but on the basis of his inherent greatness not ours.  We walk in strength, authority and confidence because it is his strength and authority operating in us.  To feel less than we are in Christ is to take away from what he has done and who he is, but at the same time we walk in humility knowing that all we have has come from him.

Paul put it this way,  “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:9-10). Knowing that we have no strength, power, authority, or glory of our own allows Christ’s glory to shine through us.  We actually are not self-confident but Christ-confident so that we can walk both in humility and glory at the same time.

Jesus modeled the tension between these truths as he walked the earth knowing he was the Son of God who could call twelve legions of angels at any time, yet at the same time totally submitting himself to the Father.  The Son of God simply made a decision to only do what he saw the Father doing and only speak what he heard the Father speaking.  That was God himself operating in humility.  Ultimately, humility is a mindset of total dependence on another for our needs.  Jesus was humble in that he chose to be totally dependent on the Father in every circumstance even though he knew heaven would come running at his call.  When we walk with that mindset, both humble and significant,  we can be great in the kingdom of God.

I have noticed a lot of social media comments this week about the half-time show at the Super Bowl.  I watched the game but not the half-time show.  Of course, the objections were for the over-sexualized production at half time that has been described as disgusting, shocking, perverse, and so forth. This was just the latest addition of such half-time shows going back to Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction and Beyonce channeling her spirit (demon) in a hypersexual way.  The debate over the production reminded me of an article that our pastoral staff discussed only a week or so before the Super Bowl.  I thought you might be interested in some takeaways from the article related to a sexualized culture.  The article was written by Kirk Durston and was based on a book entitled Sex and Culture written by J.D. Unwin, a Cambridge social anthropologist. He studies a number of cultures contemporary and historic based on several criteria – one of which was a cultures level of sexual restraint.  It is a highly academic book so I will try to keep the quote brief.

Why Sexual Morality May be Far More Important than You Ever Thought

A few days ago I finished studying Sex and Culture for the second time. It is a remarkable book summarizing a lifetime of research by Oxford social anthropologist J.D. Unwin.  The 600+ page book is, in Unwin’s words, only a “summary” of his research—seven volumes would be required to lay it all out. His writings suggest he was a rationalist, believing that science is our ultimate tool of inquiry (it appears he was not a religious man). As I went through what he found, I was repeatedly reminded of the thought I had as a philosophy student: some moral laws may be designed to minimize human suffering and maximize human flourishing long term.

Unwin examines the data from 86 societies and civilizations to see if there is a relationship between sexual freedom and the flourishing of cultures. What makes the book especially interesting is that we in the West underwent a sexual revolution in the late 1960’s, 70’s, and 80’s and are now in a position to test the conclusions he arrived at more than 40 years earlier.  

Unwin’s degrees of sexual restraint

Degrees of sexual restraint were divided into two major categories—prenuptial (pre-marital) and postnuptial (married). Prenuptial categories were:

1. Complete sexual freedom—no prenuptial restraints at all
2. Irregular or occasional restraint— cultural regulations require an occasional period of abstinence
3. Strict Chastity —remain a virgin until married

Postnuptial categories were:

1. Modified monogamy: one spouse at a time, but association can be terminated by either party.
2. Modified polygamy: men can have more than one wife, but a wife is free to leave her husband.
3. Absolute monogamy: only one spouse permitted for life (or until death in some cultures) 
4. Absolute polygamy:  men can have more than one wife, but wives must “confine their sexual qualities (i.e., activity) to their husband for the whole of their lives.”

So what did he find?

Here are a few of his most significant findings:

1. Effect of sexual constraints: Increased sexual constraints, either pre or post-nuptial, always led to increased flourishing of a culture. Conversely, increased sexual freedom always led to the collapse of a culture three generations later. 
2. Single most influential factor: Surprisingly, the data revealed that the single most important correlation with the flourishing of a culture was whether pre-nuptial chastity was required or not. It had a very significant effect either way.
3. Highest flourishing of culture: The most powerful combination was pre-nuptial chastity coupled with “absolute monogamy”. Rationalist cultures that retained this combination for at least three generations exceeded all other cultures in every area, including literature, art, science, furniture, architecture, engineering, and agriculture. Only three out of the eighty-six cultures studied ever attained this level.
4. Effect of abandoning prenuptial chastity: When strict prenuptial chastity was no longer the norm, absolute monogamy, deism (a culture in which considerations about God shape the culture, and rational thinking also disappeared within three generations.
5. Total sexual freedom: If total sexual freedom was embraced by a culture, that culture collapsed within three generations to the lowest state of flourishing — which Unwin describes as “inert” and at a “dead level of conception” and is characterized by people who have little interest in much else other than their own wants and needs. At this level, the culture is usually conquered or taken over by another culture with greater social energy.
6. Time lag: If there is a change in sexual constraints, either increased or decreased restraints, the full effect of that change is not realized until the third generation.

The conclusions of the writer were that America is far along the path (Super Bowl) and that we hit the self-destruct button, which began our countdown back in the 60’s.  The Cambridge scholar did not try to determine why cultures that showed sexual restraint flourished while those that did not began to circle the drain, but he thought maybe the energy that would have been expended on sexual pursuits were actually channeled intoscience, technology, the arts, etc.

I have another thought on that:  Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people (Proverbs 14:34 ). God created sexuality to be a holy thing shared by one man and one woman in the covenant of marriage. He designed it to knit hearts and emotions together in a way that would strengthen the bond of marriage more than almost anything else.  It is such a holy thing that adultery was a capital offense under the Old Covenant.  Satan has made sexuality a prime target since the Garden of Eden.  In our time, a lack of sexual restraint has created a generation of fatherless children, a bevy of sexually transmitted diseases, a world haunted by gender confusion, an inability to bond properly with a spouse because of multiple sexual partners before marriage, a epidemic of brutal sex trafficking – both boys and girls, an additional epidemic of pornography, and most importantly, the removal of God’s blessing from nations.

So does the Super Bowl half time show really matter?  In one sense, it is just one more expression of a culture that has become sexualized to the point of shamelessness.  But more importantly, it is a probable indicator of the impending collapse of a great nation once blessed and used by God.  The good news is that there are still many who find such expressions objectionable.  We should.  The church must be the conscience of a nation for who else will speak out for righteousness?  Of course, speaking out is only part of the battle.  The only true solution is to evangelize the nation with the good news of Jesus Christ and the true freedom found in Him.  There are so many things the enemy has stolen from our culture that need to reclaimed and taken back by the church. A holy sexuality is one of those things and we must be in the fight…beginning with our own personal purity based on the Lord’s standard not the standard of our culture.

One of the most familiar stories in the Old Testament is found in 2 Kings 6 and is part of the chronicles of Elisha’s life and ministry.  In this section, we find the king of Aram at war with Israel. Whenever the king of Aram would lay plans to attack the king of Israel, the Lord would reveal the plan to Elisha who would, in turn, send a message to the king of Israel, revealing the plan.  The king of Aram began to believe that there was a spy in his camp who was alerting Israel but his men declared that it was the prophet Elisha who was alerting Israel so that Israel could avoid the ambush.

The king of Aram then commanded, “Go, find out where he is,” the king ordered, “so I can send men and capture him.” The report came back: “He is in Dothan.” Then he sent horses and chariots and a strong force there. They went by night and surrounded the city. When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh, my lord, what shall we do?” the servant asked. “Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” And Elisha prayed, “O Lord, open his eyes so he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. As the enemy came down toward him, Elisha prayed to the Lord, “Strike these people with blindness.” So he struck them with blindness, as Elisha had asked.  (2 Kings 6:11-18).

Most of us can identify with Elisha’s servant who suddenly found himself facing overwhelming odds and so panicked and despaired of his life.   The prophet answered with the most frequently stated command in scripture, “Don’t be afraid.”  What we see in this story is the manifest difference between eyes of faith and eyes of flesh.  The servant, although he was a follower of God and a personal witness to numerous miracles, still viewed life from the flesh – as a natural man.  Elisha viewed life as a spiritual man. The servant was aware of his limitations.  The prophet was aware of the endless and powerful resources of heaven.  The servant believed he was on his own as he faced his crisis.  The prophet believed that the resources of heaven were available to him.  The servant’s reaction was fear and anxiety.  The prophet’s reaction was peace and confidence.

Elisha did not deny his circumstance.  He did not dismiss the reality that he and his servant were totally surrounded by an enemy army. But what he also knew was that the God of heaven was poised to fight for him with an army of angels.  Here is the question.  Did Elisha have faith because he saw the angel army or did he see the angel army because he had faith?  I believe God showed him what he had faith for.  The apostle Paul encourages each of us to live by faith, not by sight (2 Cor.5:7) and that seems to be the principle by which Elisha lived as well. The writer of Hebrews declared that “faith is being sure of what he hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Heb.11:1).

So if we don’t see it, how can we be certain of it?  We are certain because God says it is so.  That seems simple and is always the correct answer but it is apparently much easier said than done.  Otherwise, scripture would not have to encourage us over and over to not be afraid.  And yet, faith that moves heaven is a certainty that abides in us even when we cannot see the solution or cannot see God moving.

Hebrews 1:14 states that all angels are ministering spirits sent forth to serve those who will inherit salvation.  I am confident that Elisha believed that promise before he ever saw an angel.  By faith he was convinced of their activity on his behalf and so because of that faith, God opened his eyes to see what he already believed.  Elisha believed that God was actively working on his behalf in supernatural ways so by faith, his spiritual eyes were able to see into the spiritual realm.  I believe we all have spiritual senses that can be activated by faith, but most of us still struggle to have real faith in what we do not see.

The difference in living by faith rather than sight cannot be overstated.  When Jesus challenged his apostles to feed 5000 men plus women and children, all they could see was the five loaves and two fish that a young boy offered. They could only see their immediate resources and their obvious limitations.  They were still operating in the natural.  Jesus, however, acknowledged no such limitations because he was aware of the unlimited resources of heaven and by faith called on those and thanked the Father for the provision.  By faith, God’s provision was not only enough, but more than enough. Jesus viewed the situation through spiritual eyes.

My goal is to view every situation by faith and not by my natural sight.  My goal is also to be able to see into the spiritual realm by faith and expectation so that I can see what God is up to.  Not only are resources different in the spiritual realm than in the natural realm but strategies are different as well.  Elisha did not ask for the armies of heaven to destroy the army of Aram surrounding him, but simply to strike them blind for a season.  How fun is that?

We live in a world and culture permeated by fear.  Terrorism, natural disasters, climate change, mass shootings, a nuclear Iran, cancer, and a host of other things that exude fear are the stuff of headlines, politics, and the 24-hour news cycle.  Even for believers it is easy to live with crippling anxiety but God tells us over and over, “Don’t be afraid.”  What God has for us in the spiritual realm is more than enough to overcome threats or lack in the natural realm.  In 2020, pray for faith to believe what we cannot see and for the daily capacity to live by faith rather than sight.  Perhaps, like Elisha, we will see God’s chariots of fire surrounding us as well.

Our expectations for the Christian life matter and those expectations tend to create a gulf in the body of Christ. On the one hand, a major stream of theological thought holds that Jesus came, lived a life of miracles to prove that he was the Son of God, and purchased the forgiveness of our sins through his sacrifice on the cross.  His intent for us is that we come to faith in Him and his completed work on the cross, live a moral life, teach others the tenants of our faith, and do good to the people around us.  The expectations of these believers keep them from ever seeking more.

A second stream of thought is that Jesus came and lived a life of miracles to not only demonstrate that he was the Son of God but also that the Kingdom of God had come with power. His intent is not only that we would come to faith in Him but that we would also continue to demonstrate his reality and the power of the kingdom of heaven by doing the miracles he did as we lead others to Christ while doing good to those around us.

Perhaps, it seems like a small difference but in practice it is not.  The first stream of thought believes in the historic miracles of Jesus and the early church but holds that the historic record is sufficient for belief.  No current miracles are necessary to bring others to Christ and, therefore, the Holy Spirit no longer distributes gifts of prophecy, tongues, healings, miracles, and so forth.  Moral living, loving others, and preaching the gospel are the defining marks of the church.

The second stream of thought would echo moral living, loving others and doing good but would add the element of miracles not only for the purpose of evangelism but also as an ongoing expression of the love and compassion of God for hurting people.  Jesus did public miracles in order to establish who he was but he also did many in private telling the person who was healed to tell no one.  His motivation for healing as much out of compassion as it was to prove that he was the Son of God.  He is still compassionate.

There are all kinds of religions and religious groups who claim to have revelation from God concerning salvation.  They also point people to living a moral life, loving others, and doing good.  They nearly all have some form of historic miracles on which their doctrines and stories stand.  So…how will a Muslim, a Hindu, a Buddhist, a Scientologist, or a Satanist determine that Jesus is the real God versus the one they have been taught to worship since birth?

Moses seems instructive in this matter.  Remember when he had his showdown with Pharaoh and the false gods of Egypt (Ex. 7-12).  Pharaoh called on his magicians to match the miracles of Jehovah….and they did….for a while.  Moses had Aaron throw down his staff and his staff turned into a snake, but so did theirs by “secret arts”.  The snake from Aaron’s rod ate the snakes of the magicians, but both displayed impressive power.

Moses then commanded the waters of Egypt to turn to blood.  Pharaoh’s magicians did the same by their “secret arts”.  Moses called up a plague of frogs. The sorcerers of Egypt matched that as well.  However, Jehovah through his servant Moses continued to display his power and when a plague of gnats was called out, the magicians could not match it nor any of the plagues that followed. Then those same magicians declared to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.”

There came a point when the works of darkness could not compete with the works of God and those who saw the miracles began to believe.    Since our struggle is not against flesh and blood (Eph. 6:12), we need to understand that miracles were not just to impress men, but also to demonstrate the superiority of the Kingdom of Heaven over the kingdom of darkness.  Jehovah declared that his plagues were not just judgments on the men who had enslaved his people but also were judgments on all the gods of Egypt (Ex. 12:12).  In most parts of the world, men still do not need to be convinced that a spiritual realm exists.  Their question is not whether there is a god but only whether the God we serve is more powerful than the god they serve.  That can only be demonstrated by the miraculous hand of God.

Jesus reflected that same reality when he said to the Pharisees,  “But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you” (Luke 11:20). A demonstration of power was always at the center of Christ’s ministry as well as those he sent out.  When he sent out the twelve and the seventy he gave them power and authority to heal and cast out demons. When he gifted the church, he gave gifts that demonstrated the power of the Kingdom of God through prophecy, healing, miracles and so forth.

Throughout the book of Acts we see the supernatural move of God through miracles, angelic activity, and moves of the Holy Spirit.  That is the model of evangelism and church growth that we see in the New Testament. Interestingly, many of the churches that reject the miraculous move of the Holy Spirit today claim to model themselves after the New Testament church and yet omit the very things that demonstrated the reality of Jesus over the demonic spirits that were being worshipped throughout the New Testament world.

Jesus made an interesting comment about John the Baptist in the gospel of Luke.  He declared, “I tell you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he” (Lk.7:28). How could a brand new Christian or even a mature Christian be greater than John the Baptist?  Certainly, he would not be greater than John in character and faith but he would be greater in capacity because the baptism of the Holy Spirit makes a lifestyle available that not even John had access to.

By Old Covenant standards, John was the culmination of the prophets although we have no record of him doing any miracles.  But Jesus said that the least New Covenant follower would be greater than John. He said that because he was going to send the Spirit for all of his followers after he returned to the Father. Why would Jesus give us such capacity for power through the Holy Spirit, but not want us to exercise that power just as he did?  After all, he promised that anyone who had faith in him would do the works he had been doing and even greater things (John 14:12).  That sounds like an expectation for all who have faith and he did not put an expiration date on that promise.

In a world where no one knows who to believe or what to believe, it will take authentic demonstrations of the reality of the Kingdom of Heaven and the finger of God to convince the world that Jesus is who he says he is. Living a moral life and doing good is praiseworthy but it does not set us apart from others who claim to have God’s seal of approval and who live relatively moral lives and do good. Even Satan appears as an angel of light.  It will take miracles that outstrip what others can produce even by their secret arts just as in the days of Moses so that the truth of God’s word and the reality of Jesus become undeniable. My hope then and my prayer is that the church in America and each of us will begin to embrace the power of the Holy Spirit in order to duplicate the ministry of Jesus that will once again turn the world upside down.  The apostle Paul summed it up when he said, “The kingdom of God is not a matter of talk, but of power” (1 Cor. 4:20).  The question for each if us then is, “How is that power being displayed in our lives or our churches?”

Blessings in Him.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.  I Corinthians 13:8:13

The passage quoted above comes from 1 Corinthians 13 which is often referred to as the Love Chapter.  Paul’s description of love in this chapter has been read at countless weddings and other settings.  You know…. “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud”…and so forth.  Interestingly, this chapter is sandwiched between two other chapters on the use spiritual gifts such as prophecy, tongues, healings, miracles, administration, and so forth.

The reason the chapter exists is that the believers at Corinth had been given amazing gifts but were exercising those gifts in selfish ways rather than as God intended.  Paul begins his letter by declaring, “So now you aren’t lacking any spiritual gift” (1 Cor. 1:7), which is very impressive, but he goes on to say, “When I was with you, I found it impossible to speak to you as those who are spiritually mature people for you are still dominated by the mind-set of the flesh” (1 Cor. 3:1, Passion Translation).

Paul’s letter to the Corinthian church makes it clear that believers can possess and exercise impressive spiritual gifts while at the same time not having the spiritual character to operate in those gifts as God intended.  The church at Corinth was full of people who were self-promoting, self-focused believers who were using their gifts to exalt themselves and to establish some kind of pecking order for who was “greatest in the kingdom.”

It’s important to notice that Paul did not forbid the use of the gifts because they were being abused, but rather instructed them in how to exercise the gifts with a godly perspective and attitude.  So…he drops an entire chapter in the middle of the conversation telling them that if there use of the gifts was not governed by love, then what they thought was impressive was totally unimpressive to God.  By the way that is true for all things not just the exercise of spiritual gifts.  If preaching, evangelism, giving to the poor, leading worship, etc. is not done with a heart of love towards God and his people, it counts for nothing in the kingdom of heaven.

Paul was essentially saying to God’s people at Corinth that although they thought they were extremely mature, they were extremely immature.  God is love.  Therefore, he cannot do anything without love as his motive. Paul argues that we must reflect that same love in everything we do if what we do is going to be pleasing to the Father and if we want him to increase the anointing and favor in our lives.  It is not about earning his love or favor, because it is all by grace, but it is about demonstrating that we can be good stewards of what he gives us.  Remember the principle…he who is faithful in little will be made faithful in much.  Love seems to be a defining measure of what it means to be faithful.  To be faithful means that we live and use the resources God has given us just as God would use them.

So…in that chapter, Paul states, “Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.”

Much has been made of this text by those who believe that God no longer distributes his miraculous gifts to the church.  They argue that the apostle clearly states that the gifts will cease and they will cease when “perfection” comes.  The word translated as “perfection” is teleion in Greek, which can mean complete.  So those who hold the Cessationist view (the gifts have ceased to operate) argue that perfection is the “completed word of God.”

The idea is that gifts such as prophecy, tongues, and knowledge were needed only until the New Testament canon was completed, and once the complete will of God was made known through the written word, all the gifts would cease in the church. That view holds that the gifts were only temporary and temporarily needed to reveal God’s will to his church because the New Testament was in the process of being revealed. Once all of the N.T. had been penned and compiled in what we think if as the New Testament, the miraculous would cease.

The word teleion can mean complete in the sense of “there is no more to do,” but it also means complete in the sense of full maturity.  Jesus used the word when he said, “Be perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Mt. 5:48). He was challenging his followers to have the mind and heart of God which is the definition of full spiritual maturity.   In Philippians 3:12, Paul says, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.”  The word perfect in this verse is teleion again. Paul is simply saying that he his not yet Christ-like in every thing he says or does. In other words, he is not yet motivated by love in everything he does, says, or thinks.

In the context of 1 Corinthians, spiritual maturity is the goal, not a completed New Testament canon.  The idea of perfection is that when we are perfected in Christ, the gifts of prophecy, tongues, and knowledge will no longer be needed.  When we are perfect, complete, and fully mature in our ability to love, then those three gifts (and, perhaps, the rest) will cease. Okay, so if the gifts are needed until we love like Jesus loves…then I think they are still greatly needed.  I believe that we will be perfected in love, only when Jesus returns and when we are with him face-to-face, and so I belief the gifts are for the church until Jesus returns.  Paul is simply highlighting the fact that love is superior to gifts because the time will comes when the gifts will not longer be needed but love is forever.

Paul underlines this emphasis on spiritual maturity when he says that we need to be transformed from children to spiritual adulthood…which is his theme throughout the letter.  His point is that if you want to truly be great in the kingdom, seek love over the gifts. Don’t be mistaken…Paul is big on the gifts and wants them to powerfully work in the church.  However, he insists that they must be motivated and directed by love.  Otherwise, they will do more harm than good.

I think we can conclude from this section, that if we want an increase in gifts and anointing in our own lives and in our churches, we should pray first for the capacity to love as Jesus loves.  Our desire for the gifts must be based on a hunger to bless others rather than to exalt ourselves.  Paul counsels us to “Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy” (1 Cor.14:1).  Notice that he puts love before the gifts in this verse.

Perhaps, our daily prayer then should be, “Lord, I earnestly desire your spiritual gifts and your anointing in greater measure, but more than that, I want to love as Jesus loves. Give me that heart first, and then the gifts I desire because then I will use them as you desire.”

Blessings in Him

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations. Psalm 100:4-5

This, of course, is the week of Thanksgiving.  This is the time that we commemorate the coming of the Pilgrims to America. As we think about the holiday, we may envision happy pilgrims sitting down with friendly Native Americans and feasting on a sunny day in New England. We tend to forget the sacrifice made by that small band of believers who sailed to the New World on the Mayflower not only to escape religious persecution in Europe and England but to spread the gospel as well.  I want to quote some of Stephen Mansfield’s article from his Leading Thoughts publication in which he provided a Thanksgiving meditation for this week.

“For 66 days the little ship, no longer than a modern volleyball court, made the treacherous voyage from England to the coast of what would one day be Massachusetts. When the Pilgrims arrived, what must their thoughts have been as they stared at the howling wilderness that was to be their home? William Bradford, later their Governor, recalled:

Being thus passed the vast ocean, and a sea of troubles before in their preparation, they had now no friends to welcome them, nor inns to entertain or refresh their weather-beaten bodies, no house or much less towns to repair too, to seek for succor.  What could sustain them but the Spirit of God and his grace. May not and ought not the children of these fathers, rightly say: ‘Our fathers were Englishmen which came over this great ocean, and were ready to perish in this wilderness.’

And perish they almost did. More than half of them died during that first winter, often called “the starving time.” At one point, each person’s ration for a day was no more than five kernels of corn and a few ounces of brackish water. Native friends like Squanto and Samoset taught the whites how to harvest the bay and the land, but the yield would not be sufficient until the next year. So they buried their dead and prayed for the mercy of God.

In the spring they planted and soon after began sensing that God had heard their prayers. The previous winter had been the worst of times, but the harvest looked bountiful now, the settlement was growing, and God seemed to be smiling upon them.

When the harvest was gathered that fall, their leaders called for some of the men to go hunting in preparation for a great feast to celebrate the goodness of God. Wild fowl, fish, and venison were gratefully prepared. They invited their native friends, too, who brought five freshly killed deer. The white women prepared hoecakes, cornmeal pudding, and a variety of vegetables while the Indian women introduced delicacies made with blueberries, apples, and cherries. The most welcome new food the natives brought with them, though, was a new way of cooking corn in an earthen pot until it became white and fluffy—popcorn!

It was indeed a thanksgiving, but not just for safety and abundance of food. It was also a time to remember the words they had penned about their purpose for coming while they were still on board The Mayflower. They came, they said, “for the Glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith,” “for propagating and advancing the gospel of the kingdom of Christ in those remote parts of the world; yea, though they should be but even as stepping-stones unto others for the performing of so great a work.”

So they were, and we ought to remember them this Thanksgiving, and take their mission to our hearts.

Thus out of small beginnings greater things have been produced by His hand that made all things of nothing, and gives being to all things that are; and as one small candle may light a thousand, so the light here kindled hath shone to many, yea in some sort to our whole nation; let the glorious name of Jehovah have all the praise.

William Bradford, “Of Plimoth Plantation””

It would have been easy to turn their backs on God as nearly half of those who came to America died the first winter.  It would have been easy for them to focus on their loss and see God as a cruel God or a detached God who let their family members perish after sailing across a treacherous ocean for his glory.  Instead, they focused on his goodness and gave thanks for what he did provide and out of their sacrifice and his provision came more than they could ever imagine.

As modern Americans we tend to believe that God is good only when everything is going our way.  The idea of hardships and sacrifice doesn’t seem to be in our playbook, so at the first sign of struggle, loss, or disappointment we begin to question God and his goodness.  We begin to question whether he really cares for us.  It is in those moments that thanksgiving becomes a powerful weapon in spiritual warfare.

The first temptation recorded in scripture was in the Garden of Eden. As you recall, Satan asked Eve a question subtly suggesting that God was withholding good things from the couple he had created.  Once that seed of doubt about God’s love for them was planted, their faith was undermined and sin had its way. The opposite of giving thanks is complaining.  One of the negatives that marked the Hebrews in the wilderness in the days of Moses was that they constantly grumbled and complained.

At the heart of their complaint was the idea that God wasn’t treating them as they deserved.  Although God had just led them out of 400 years of slavery in Egypt with flocks and gold in their hands and was feeding them daily with supernatural bread from heaven and providing water, as it was needed, it wasn’t enough.

When believers complain, it is an accusation against God.  It is a statement that in our hearts we believe that God isn’t watching over us or treating us well or treating us fairly as he should.  Satan loves to sow discontent which again plants a seed that questions God’s goodness toward us.  Once we start down that road we may begin to see God as an adversary who is withholding good things from us or who even delights in hurting us.

Paul, writing from a prison cell, to the church at Philippi said…

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

As complaining marked the people of God in the wilderness, thanksgiving and an absence of complaints should mark those who follow Jesus.  Those who complained in the wilderness never entered the Promise Land. On the other hand, faith believes that God is good and that he is watching over us.  Faith says that God will always meet our essential needs.  Faith says that trouble will come our way in a fallen world but that God will see us through that hardship.  Faith says that God will even use those hard circumstances to bring about some good in our lives.  Faith says that this world is not our home but a preparation for home.  Faith says that we should not always expect comfort in the midst of a war zone, but that the God of all comfort will meet us in hard times.

The Pilgrims understood that principle and gave thanks in the midst of hardship. David, in Psalm 100, declared that thanksgiving opens the gates to God’s presence and praise, which flows from thanksgiving, brings us into his courts.  I believe that thanksgiving is a spiritual discipline because our fallen nature is quick to complain.  Our fallen nature declares that even when life is good, it isn’t good enough.

Someone said that complaining is the language of hell, while thanksgiving is the language of heaven.  I think that is true.  When we complain, we come into agreement with the enemy. When we give thanks, we align our selves with heaven.  So … this Thanksgiving, I want to resolve to eradicate complaint in my life because it is an open door for the enemy and I want to grow in giving thanks because that opens a door to heaven. Be blessed today and give thanks even in hardship because God does care for you.

In the twelfth Chapter of Genesis, God called Abram and declares, “The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Gen.12:1-3)

We derive several principles about blessings from these verses.  First of all, God is the source of blessing.  Secondly, blessings seem to be associated with God’s purposes for a location, an individual, a family line, or a nation.  Next, it seems that blessings impart the power, life, health, and prosperity that enable the object of the blessing or the person receiving the blessing to fulfill their God-given purposes.  Finally, blessings can be passed on and are activated by the words we speak as God’s priests on the earth.

In a general way, a blessing deposits the favor of God or the grace of God and the resources of heaven on whatever or whomever God determines to use to fulfill his purposes. God even blessed a day. “Therefore, God blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy” (Ex.20:11).  When God blessed the Sabbath, he apparently assigned his favor to the day and those who kept the day faithfully could make withdrawals from that favor.  God also declared that those who blessed Abraham would be blessed and that all the people on the earth would be blessed through him or through his descendants. \

That declaration applies not only to the Messiah coming through Abraham’s bloodline, but also to the contributions the Jews would make to the world.  If you research a list of Nobel Prize winners, Jewish recipients are hugely over-represented in all categories including the arts, science, and medicine.  All nations have truly been blessed by the descendants of Abraham.

Paul further refined our understanding of the descendants of Abraham under the New Covenant when he said, “Consider Abraham: ‘He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.’ Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham” (Gal.3;6-7).  By faith, we are also descendants of Abraham and the world is to be blessed through us as conduits of his grace. This truth and this job description for followers of Jesus cannot be overstated.

It is the nature of God to bless.  As his representatives on the earth, our nature should mirror his.  If God is the source of blessings, then as his children who desire to be like him, we too should be constant sources of blessing…even toward our enemies.  Jesus commands, “But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you” (Lk.627-28). A blessing is simply a prayer or declaration that directs the life-giving, enabling grace of God to rest on someone.

James pushes back on our propensity to speak death over others and sternly declares,  “All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water” (Ja.3:7-12).

James makes the point that both blessing and cursing should not come from the same mouth.  He treats it as something unnatural. Instead, we should be sources of fresh water that give life in every circumstance. Since the Holy Spirit is living water within us and his words are life, our words should direct that life toward others and their circumstances.  As his representatives, we are to be distributors of God’s grace on the earth through blessings we speak.

In 1 Peter 2, the apostle tells us that we are a holy and royal priesthood belonging to God.  One of the primary functions of the Levitical priesthood was to bestow God’s blessings on God’s people. The Lord told Moses, “Tell Aaron and his sons, ‘This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them: ‘The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.’ So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.” The priests directed the blessings of God toward Israel by speaking a blessing over them. God was poised and ready to bless, but he waited on his priests to declare the blessing before he released it, In short, regarding this blessing, God said, “I will do it when you have said it.”

Christ is a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek and that is the priesthood in which we serve. We serve under a better covenant, with a greater priesthood, lead by a great high priest who will never die. How much greater should the blessings be that we direct than those given by the Levites? As in many things, we partner with God.  There are those he is willing to bless but he waits on us to declare the blessing over them.  I don’t believe this is indiscriminate blessing, but blessing directed by the Holy Spirit.  Jesus is our model for living and serving and he did nothing without a prompting from the Father.

I believe a large part of our ministry as believers should be the giving of blessings.  As we go, perhaps, one of our daily prayers should be, “Lord, show me who you want to bless today and give me the very words for that blessing.”  The holiday season would be a perfect time to begin your ministry of blessing to those God wants to bless.

Some churches are quite comfortable never engaging in spiritual warfare.  They assign the supernatural works of God to no later than the first century and assign demonic activity to the same century.  For these churches, salvation is the forgiveness of sins and the development of good character.  Throw in reasonably good church attendance and occasional tithing and you have the Christian life.  For emotional and physical healing you go to doctors and therapists trained by the world and if you are really spiritual, you go to Christian doctors and therapists who were also trained by the world.  Jesus came to heal the brokenhearted and set captives free.  We send them to clinics.

In many cases, the whole idea of discipleship is simply leading someone to pray the sinner’s prayer and then get him or her to the baptistery.  When that has been accomplished, the work of discipleship is done.  In churches I attended in the past, the sentiment was to shake your hand as you rose from the waters of baptism and then simply  wish you good luck.  Other than serving in the children’s department on Sunday mornings or greeting folks at the door there wasn’t much else.  How exciting.   If you were white, middle class, perhaps, that was sufficient.  When illness or the death of a family member jarred a family’s  world, there was a plethora of casseroles and caring people who took care of the grieving.

But what about the rest of the world?  Who reached out to those molested time and again as children or those defiled in human trafficking rings.  What about those who were abandoned and fell into drugs and heavy sexual addictions to medicate their pain?  What about those who tried to make sense of their pain and find some form of control in their lives and so fell into satanic cults and witches covens looking for power?  Some looked for it the church first but found none,  so they decided to play for the other team. What about those who were seduced by the homosexual culture and fell into lifestyles filled with shame and secrets?

The churches I attended didn’t have many of those folks in the pews because we didn’t know what to do with them and had no power to pull them out of the pain and bondage they were in.  If they came looking, it didn’t take long to know that we might care but we couldn’t help except to encourage them to try the things they had already tried with no lasting success.  Perhaps, we deceived ourselves into believing that those kinds of people were such a small percentage of the population that it didn’t really matter that much and, hopefully, they would find some street ministry run by former gang members or former addicts who could help.

When churches won’t face the reality of Satan still being very active in this world and the reality of demonic oppression and intense spiritual warfare, it does matter. First of all, many of the people already sitting in their pews are racked by demonic oppression and affliction. It is called depression, suicidal tendencies, and anxiety.  Hopefully the drugs will help. The Bible calls these things a spirit of heaviness, a spirit of death, a spirit of fear,and a spirit of bondage. If a spirit is involved, only spiritual warfare will provide a lasting solution.

Francis MacNutt  tells a story of one of those people that Jesus died for who desperately needed help to gain freedom.  She had been involved in a witch’s coven and wanted out. The coven had been desecrating churches and offering blood sacrifices in their rites.  She had approached some church leaders asking for help.  They were not sure if they could even believe her and they offered no help to escape the devil or the coven.  In her anger, she had retaliated against that church.

An interview with the woman went something like the following:

Q:  You told me earlier that one of the reasons you were engaged in the incident was because you were angry with the Church.

A:  Any church.

Q: Where did this anger originate?

A: From their not believing it was real.

Q: And your anger was first directed against (the name of a church)?

A:  Yes.

Q: And the prayer group there?

A:  I wanted to split them up and cause division.

Q: That was three years ago?

A: Yes, and I did.

Q: How did you cause division?

A:  Put thoughts in people’s minds…like, “This stuff isn’t for real.  What’s in it for me? Gossip about each other…not being secretive about each other when they should have been….I directed my anger at church leaders….(she talked bout splitting the leaders and causing one to believe he was homosexual, etc.)

Q: What would you say if someone said you were crazy?

A: I would say, Maybe so, but I know what I’m talking about. If they say I’m crazy, they had better back off, because they are in the line of fire. I know what is real and what isn’t. I know what I’ve been into and they don’t know what they are talking about. If they had seen and felt the power that I have, they wouldn’t be saying that.

Q:  What power do you have?

A: I’d rather not have it.

Q: What power is it?

A: The power of destruction and the power to help.

Q:  The power to help?

A:  The power to help is white magic, the power to destroy is black magic….

A:  So now you want the church to get involved?

Q: I don’t care how they work it out. I want help.  I can’t do it by myself.

(Deliverance from Evil Spirits by Francis MacNutt, p. 64-66)

This woman was in bondage to Satan and she new that the church should be able to help. When they would not or could not, she felt betrayed.  I wonder how many others sitting on our pews or passing through our doors feel betrayed?  If Jesus set people free, shouldn’t his church set people free as well?  If Satanists know that,  why doesn’t his church?  .