Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesusbecause through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. (Rom.8:1-4)

The certainty of our standing with God empowers us to live for him. In the days of the Old and New Testaments, Kings were absolutely sovereign and their declarations became law – standing orders from the King himself. Once it was law, all the forces of the kingdom would be brought to bear to enforce what the King had declared. Once it was law it was unchanging unless it was superseded by another law issued by the king due to a change in circumstances.

Paul tells us that those in Christ stand without condemnation because through Jesus the law of the Spirit of Life has set us free from the law of sin and death. There was once a law, a standing order, that those who sinned must die – the wages of sin is death. Sin was a manifestation of rebellion and rebellion was a capital crime in the kingdom. The consequence of sin for every man was separation and alienation from the Father and death was the prescribed penalty. But a change in circumstances occurred. God himself put on flesh and paid the penalty for all men who would accept his sacrifice and his Lordship in their lives. When that circumstance shifted a new law was declared – the Law of the Spirit of Life. God has declared and established an unchangeable law that for those who have faith in the word of God and the saving work of his Son, there is life imparted by the Spirit and all condemnation has been removed forever as long as there is faith. The assurance of our standing with God based on what Jesus did rather than the shortcomings of man should embolden us to take hold of every promise of heaven.

Jesus said, “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it” (Mt.11:12). I like that. Forceful men are those (both men and women) who believe aggressively in the promises of God and grab hold of every promise with the assurance that comes from knowing who they are in Christ. These are the folks who run over the devil to get to Jesus. These are the folks who stand on the Word of God and call the devil a liar to his face. This standing of righteousness and acceptance in heaven is not just for some but for all who believe – mature and immature, rich and poor, gifted and not so gifted, saintly or struggling and is the unchangeable law of heaven.

To be clear, the Holy Spirit does convict his children but that is vastly different from condemnation. Conviction is the work of redirecting our hearts, thoughts and actions while condemnation is the work of rejecting us. God does not reject those who trust in Jesus because for them there is no condemnation. The result is articulated in the Book of Hebrews. “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Heb.4:16). Later, in Romans 8, the apostle Paul confirms our sure position with the Father when he declare, “If God is for us who can be against us?” Several translations instruct us to come before the throne not just with confidence but with boldness. I believe God wants his children to live with a boldness that confronts the enemy and scatters him. We can do so because by one sacrifice we have been made perfect forever while God is making us holy. Know who you are. Know what Jesus has done in your life. Know your standing in heaven and live with the boldness of the Lion of the tribe of Judah. It is God’s will for your life!

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesusbecause through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. (Rom.8:1-4)

This blog is dedicated to helping people find freedom in Christ through the power that is inherent in the kingdom of God. The foundation of that freedom is always found in the Word of God and one of the great sections in the entirety of scripture is Romans 8. As we launch this new year, I want to take a few blog entries to dissect this chapter to see what it has to say about the power of Christ to set us free and to overcome the power of the enemy.

Paul begins this chapter by reinforcing the truth that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. It’s my experience that we must know where we stand with God before we can stand against the enemy. Paul says that where we stand with God is a “condemnation free zone.” The key knows that Jesus became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor.5:21). Because Jesus died for our sins, the Father relates to us on the basis of our position rather than our condition.

Many believers assume that God’s evaluation of them is based on their performance as a Christian and most of us find our performance lacking. Because of that, we assume that God is not generally pleased with us and, as a result, he is not quick to answer our prayers or deliver us from the trouble that attaches itself to us in this world. Satan fuels our assumptions with feelings and thoughts of condemnation so that we feel disqualified to serve our God in significant ways or to receive his blessings. As a result we pray with little faith that God will hear our prayers and less faith that he will act on our behalf. We ask for little and expect little because we assume that we are always in God’s disfavor. When we have that mindset, we feel helpless against the enemy and the troubles that come our way. Our testimony fails and so does our courage.

That is one of Satan’s greatest lies. God’s view of us is not based on our performance but on the cross. The covenant that we have with God was not established by our sterling character and righteous works but by the blood of Christ. We are in Christ, covered by Christ, and carried by Christ. We have a position of righteousness before the Father even though our condition does not match that position. The writer of Hebrews puts it this way: “Because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Heb.10:14). In other words, God counts us perfect based on the sacrifice of Jesus (our position) while he works on our condition. God is not indifferent to our sinful or weak condition but his promises come to us by faith not performance. It is all about his goodness not ours.

As a result, we can walk in the knowledge that our heavenly Father does not reject us or hide himself from us when our lives have some tarnish. As long as our hearts are turned toward him he sees us as sinless and is more than ready to answer our prayers and work through us. We still walk in the authority of the king and the enemy must still answer to us as long as we submit our imperfections to the grace of God. In Christ, there is no condemnation and any whispers to the contrary are lies. When condemnation begins to sap out strength and our confidence, we can call the enemy a liar and command him to be silent because in Christ we are the righteousness of God. Romans 8 begins with that great assertion and builds on that truth. It is a truth on which everything in our life with Jesus stands and a truth that we should ask the Holy Spirit to write on our hearts with indelible ink!

Once I believe that I have been born again and that God has deposited within me the capacity to become a new creation, the enemy will whisper his accusations that I have not become a new creation after all because I still experience sin in my life. He points out each one, continues to drag up my past, and tries to convince me that my present sins prove that I was not sincere in my faith and my repentance and that insincerity puts my relationship with God at risk. As he whispers that a believer can feel the weight of mounting condemnation and begin to walk in doubt about God’s love for him and his love for God.

Let’s be clear. Christians – even mature Christians – still sin. Writing to believers, John said, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness…I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense – Jesus Christ the Righteous One” (1 Jn. 1:8-9, 2:1).

God does not expect us to live a sinless life although he expects us to be sensitive to our sins, acknowledge them, and continue to grow in Christ so that we do sin less and less. Jesus shed his blood not only for our past sins but for all our present and future sins as well. As long as our hearts are turned toward God the sacrifice of Jesus continues to wash away our sins. Remember that you have a position of righteousness in heaven because Jesus “became sin so that you might become the righteousness of God” (see 2 Cor. 5:21).

The truth is that once you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior the devil has lost all legal claims on you. His accusations and condemnation are designed to discourage you and hopefully cause you to abandon your walk with Christ altogether. But the writer of the Hebrew letter declares, “By one sacrifice, he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Heb. 10:14). In other words, the blood of Christ has given you the standing of perfection in heaven while God works to mature you on the earth. Satan wants to you to believe the contrary. He wants you to believe that you were saved by grace but to stay saved you must now live a sinless or nearly life. Nonsense. We were saved by grace and we will continue by grace until we enter the Heavenly City and beyond.

Paul capped that truth off in Romans 8:1. “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death” (Rom.8:1). In Christ, death does not follow sin but grace and forgiveness follow and with God there is no remembrance of sin once it has been washed away by the blood of his Beloved.

In Christ then, as part of your identity, you can and should declare, “I am a child of God, free forever from all condemnation and any condemnation is a lie from the evil one!” When sin comes, simply acknowledge it before the Father, ask him to give you strength to overcome the sin, lay it at the foot of the cross and move on knowing that it has been removed from you as far as the east is from the west. Then, quickly and reject any condemnation that comes your way in the name of Jesus! No child of God needs to wear and form of condemnation at any time because Jesus has set you free from your past and from all condemnation. Be blessed!

I keep being reminded that our view of God and our view of how God views us (say that three times as fast as you can) is essential to moving in the power of God. To a great extent the power of God in our lives will be expressed through the gifts of the Spirit. The gifts, of course, are given rather than earned.  Many of us fail to receive the gifts we desire because we somehow believe that God does not esteem us enough to entrust those gifts to us.  Many of us still see God as an all-powerful, all-knowing deity who is first and foremost in the judgment business. We cast ourselves in the role of Belshazzar who was told by God that he had been “weighed in the balance and found lacking” (Dan.5:27).

However, judgment is not God’s primary business because judgment is not primary in God’s heart.  When God gave Moses instructions for building the tabernacle he was very specific and he told Moses to make everything exactly according to the plan or blueprint he would be given. Everything in the tabernacle was specifically ordained because the tabernacle was designed to reveal God’s nature to his people.  At the very core of the tabernacle was the Holy of Holies and in that room sat the Ark of the Covenant. Moses was given very specific instructions about the ark.

They shall construct an ark of acacia wood two and a half cubits long, and one and a half cubits wide, and one and a half cubits high. “You shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and out you shall overlay it, and you shall make a gold molding around it. …“You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold, two and a half cubits long and one and a half cubits wide. “You shall make two cherubim of gold, make them of hammered work at the two ends of the mercy seat. “Make one cherub at one end and one cherub at the other end; you shall make the cherubim of one piece with the mercy seat at its two ends. “The cherubim shall have their wings spread upward, covering the mercy seat with their wings and facing one another; the faces of the cherubim are to be turned toward the mercy seat. “You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony which I will give to you. “There I will meet with you; and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, I will speak to you about all that I will give you in commandment for the sons of Israel. (Ex.25:17-22)

The ark was essentially a wooden box covered with gold in which the tablets of stone that had been given to Moses would be stored and carried as the Hebrews moved from place to place in the wilderness. The Holy Place (the room outside the Holy of Holies) and the Holy of Holies were to represent the throne room of God in heaven and the ark was to represent his throne. In Isaiah 6, we get a vision of God’s throne room in heaven and around the throne the Seraphim are crying “Holy. Holy. Holy.”  If you want an earthly analogy for the seraphim it would be the royal chorus who sing praises in the presence of the king.  Other angelic beings associated with the throne of God are the cherubim.  These angels might be compared to the palace guard.  In the first chapter of Ezekiel the prophet sees a terrible storm coming toward Israel and a vision of God coming in judgment upon the nation.  In chapters 9 and 10 he tells us that the creatures he saw in his vision were the cherubim who were carrying God on his throne, as if it were a war chariot, as he came in judgment in chapter one.  We first discover cherubim guarding the entrance to the Garden of Eden with a flaming sword after Adam and Eve were forced to leave.  Their purpose was to let no sinful man enter the Garden or the presence of God. In the making of the ark, cherubim were to be cast in gold and placed on both ends of the cover of the ark in which the Law of Moses was placed. So far, the image seems ominous.  But between the cherubim, the guardians of God’s holiness, Moses was to construct a mercy seat that was to represent God’s throne.

It would have been easy to assume that God would instruct Moses to construct a judgment seat on top of the ark.  After all, the Law was deposited in the ark and that law would reveal our sinfulness. The cherubim surrounded the throne and they were the guardians of God’s holiness.  And yet, in the midst of that, God’s emphasis was mercy rather than judgment. We discover through those images that the purpose of God constructing the tabernacle was not to sit in judgment on his people but to dispense mercy.  God’s heart for us is always mercy and James, the brother of Jesus, tell us that mercy always triumphs over judgment (See James 2:13).

It’s not that God won’t judge sin or wickedness but it is always his last choice. Even Ezekiel’s vision of impending judgment was to bring a rebellious nation to repentance so that God would not have to judge. Many of us live and view God as if judgment and the rejection that goes with it are always God’s first choice.  The truth is that God is merciful first.  After David’s sin with Bathsheba, he wrote Psalm 51 and began his psalm of repentance by saying, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love.” David’s view of God was a God who would forgive even adultery and murder because he was first of all merciful and loving.

On the Day of Atonement, the high priest would enter the Holy of Holies and sprinkle blood on the mercy seat.  They symbolism was that the blood covered the Law that was in the ark so that the cherubim guarding the throne could no longer see the Law. Without the law there is no sin and so because the blood of an innocent covered the law, we could enter into the presence of God. Under the Old Covenant only the high priest who represented the people could enter into God’s presence but at the death of Jesus, the veil that separated God from man was torn in two.  The mercy of God triumphed over judgment and we have been given free access to the Father through Jesus.

Such a God does not take account of every failing and measure his blessings out according to our performance. He gives willingly and freely to all who have been declared innocent of sin by the blood of Christ. He rejoices to give his children gifts and especially spiritual gifts for the work of the kingdom.

We are the ones hung up on ours sins – not God.  We are the ones who fail to ask because we keep declaring our unworthiness – not God. We are the ones who run first to judgment, especially to judge ourselves – not God.  God views us through the filter of grace, mercy, and the cleansing blood of his Son.  He gives blessing and gifts from the place of mercy rather than judgment. When we can finally understand in our hearts who our Father is, then we will rejoice to ask and have faith that we will receive. Then we will expect God to grant us gifts of healing, prophecy, wisdom, knowledge, etc. and the church will begin to minister in power. We will expect God to give us those gifts because he rejoices in doing so – even to imperfect people like us.

Remember today that God’s first choice is always mercy.  His last choice is judgment. Expect very good things today from a very good Father and be blessed.

John Ortberg is an author and speaker you need to check out if you aren’t familiar with him.  I was listening to a video message he presented at a prominent church in Atlanta recently and was reminded that many Christians struggle with the concept of God’s grace in their lives.  I thought it was an observation that deserved some attention on this blog.

Many of us were quite comfortable with our need for God’s grace when we were unsaved, unknowing sinners. Our rationale is that, no matter how sinful our lives were, we didn’t know any better. Because of our “ignorance,” God was glad to pour out his saving grace on us. And so we live a life of joy for a few months after coming to Christ filled with the knowledge that all is forgiven because we have been saved by grace through faith and not by anything we have done or by any merit we have earned.

But for many of us, a subtle or not so subtle sense of condemnation begins to creep into our lives. Perhaps the condemnation comes as a steady whisper from the enemy or it comes through well-intended but somewhat misdirected teaching from our churches.  An unspoken belief begins to take root inside of us that we were saved by grace but we must become Christ-like by our own efforts and if we are not growing by leaps and bounds God is unhappy.  Somehow we begin to think that grace was available when we didn’t know any better but now that we know what constitutes right and wrong, we better toe the mark by our own efforts if we want to continue in God’s good graces.

At that point, our Christian walk becomes a burden rather than a joy and a source of condemnation rather than a life of freedom.  Have you ever noticed how hard it is to find the fruit if the Spirit in many long-time Christians?  I’m not talking about morality or good works. We can find those things.  I’m talking about the first three expressions of the fruit of the Spirit that are listed in Galatians 5 – love, joy, and peace. Week after week I see believer’s come forward during our ministry time at the end of each service and they are burdened, troubled, and joyless.  I’m not talking about those who just lost a loved one or found out that their spouse has been unfaithful.  I’m talking about believers who live year in and year out without a true sense of love, joy, or peace.

I believe two things are missing.  One is the transformation that Jesus offers to every believer. His promise and mission is to extend God’s grace to all who will receive it through the preaching of the gospel.  It is also to heal broken hearts and set captives free while exchanging garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness (Isa.61).   Many of us have heard the good news of forgiveness but not the good news of transformation and freedom which also stands on the grace of God. If believers have no expectation for significant change in their hearts and in their lives, they will not change.

The other missing component is the belief that I am not only saved by grace but also live by grace  – even when I fall short and even when I knew better.  Living by grace is not having a cavalier attitude toward sin. Rather it is believing that God’s grace is always much bigger than my sin. It is knowing that, by my own invitation, God is working in me every day by his Spirit to transform me into the image of Jesus Christ.  My part is to make myself available to him and ask him to do his work in me.  His part is to transform my heart which will then transform my actions.

In my book, Born to Be Free, I speak of a position / condition paradigm for understanding our sanctification (the process of becoming like Jesus).  The writer of Hebrews tells us “by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Heb.10:14).  That means that the grace of God, through the sacrifice of Jesus, has given us a sinless status before the Father and he always relates to us on the basis of Christ’s righteousness which has been credited to us.  While doing that, however, he is also working on our condition (sinfulness and brokenness) to make us like Jesus and to bring our condition in line with our position.

We get focused on the ugliness of the process while the Father is only focused on the end product.  Builders have a very clear picture of what the home they are building will look like in the end. They don’t focus on the weed-choked lot where the house will eventually rest.  They don’t despise the ugly pieces of plastic PVC pipe sticking up out of a fresh foundation. They don’t get hung up on bare lumber sticking up into the air or all kinds of trash on the lot that will be cleared out later.  For the majority of the process, a stately home looks like a chaotic mess that will never amount to anything.  The master builder, however, knows what the end product will look like so he doesn’t despise the process. The same is true for our lives.  We condemn ourselves for the chaotic process while God is confident in his finished product.

A life lived by grace, remembers that Jesus is the carpenter not us. It remembers that God always views us through a lens of righteousness not failure or sin, and that God is quite aware of our condition and is faithfully working on that.  You are God’s project. He does not hold us responsible to transform ourselves, but only to invite him to do the work and trust him while he is doing it.  In that environment love, joy and peace can develop and, like trees alongside the river of God, can bear fruit that heals the nations.

Remember – you were saved by grace and you go on by grace every day.  Rejoice in that truth and live in its warmth. God’s grace is sufficient and we must trust in it now as we did when we first came to Jesus. When the church is filled with loving, joyful, and peaceful Christians, the world will flock to Jesus.  After all, those are the very things everyone is looking for and those are the things the world is selling.  It’s just that the world is selling “knock-offs” rather than the real thing.  When the world finally sees the real thing in us, they will beg to know where we got ours.  Living by grace after being saved by grace is the answer.  Be blessed.

Jesus continues to fascinate me as John presents him in his gospel.  His capacity to see past the superficial and the obvious is a gift we all need from the Holy Spirit. In Chapter 4, Jesus has his famous encounter with the Samaritan woman.  Just outside of Sychar he stopped to rest at a well dug by Jacob centuries earlier. Sitting there alone while his disciples went for food, Jesus may have though about Jacob with a smile.  After all, they knew each other well.  For most of his life Jacob had been a swindler until he had an encounter with the living God.  After a night of ‘wrestling with God,” Jacob became the patriarch God had always wanted him to be.  He was named Israel and became the Father of the twelve tribes of Israel. His was another story of transformation in the Kingdom of God.

While Jesus was, perhaps, reflecting on that bit of history, a Samaritan woman came to the well at mid-day for water.  As every good evangelist does, Jesus began a conversation.  This time he simply asked for a drink of water. The woman was a bit taken back because Jews did not speak to Samaritans at all because of the animosity between the Jews and Samaritans.  The cultural atmosphere  probably carried the flavor of the United States immediately after the Civil War.  There was a legal peace and some business took place, but for most people you were either a hated Yankee or Rebel and it was best just to avoid much interaction while wounds from the former conflict were healing.

You know the story. Jesus asks for water. She questions why he would even bother to ask.  He begins to speak almost mysteriously about a gift of living water that he might give her – water that would quench her thirst forever.  She’s not sure what he’s talking about but she is intrigued enough to continue the conversation.  When she asks to view the product, Jesus tells her to go after her husband.  She tells him that she is not married.

Jesus goes on to commend her for her honest response and tells hers that she has been married five times before and now is just living with her boyfriend.  His words were simply a statement of fact but apparently carried no tone of condemnation or even judgment because the woman took no offense.  She simply was drawn in further by this “word of knowledge” so that she began to talk about spiritual matters. Finally, Jesus reveals himself as the Messiah they were expecting and she, a woman of no reputation at all, became the first president of the Samaritan Evangelistic Association. At her testimony, the entire town turned out and many believed.

So what is our takeaway from this moment with Jesus?  Hearing about five husbands and a “live-in” doesn’t shock us, but for the first century that was quite an eyebrow raiser.  Yet Jesus didn’t focus on her lifestyle.  He didn’t rebuke her behaviors and call for repentance to begin or even end this conversation.  Jesus knew that until there was a change of heart there would be no lasting change of behaviors.  Too often, we focus on behaviors and habits as the things God is most concerned about. But over and over, he points us to the heart.

Jesus simply knew that the multiple marriages and the cohabiting were symptoms of a broken heart and a broken person.  Somewhere in her soul was a thirst to be loved, to belong, and to feel significant to the world.  That hole in her soul had to be filled before she could give up the “medications” she had been taking her whole life to numb the pain. He pointed her to a love and a relationship that could do just that. Our approach to transformation has not always been the best.  We have called people to change their behaviors without filling the void in their soul and in their hearts – give up this and give up that and then come to Jesus. It must be the reverse of that.  Come to Jesus first, taste of living water, and then you can let go of the props you have been hanging onto for years.

Isaiah and Luke both said that Jesus came to preach the good news, heal the brokenhearted, and to set captives free.  It pretty much has to be in that order.  Let people know first that there is living water – there is something to satisfy their longings and to calm their fears; let Jesus touch their hearts for healing; and then pry them lose from addictions and bondage. Without the love of Jesus and the Spirit of Christ in them, letting go of the relationships, the substances, and the sin they have clung to will simply put them in free fall.

Do behaviors need to change?  Does sin need to be repented of? Sure. But that comes after Jesus, not before.  When we face people in the grip of addictions, sexual immorality, broken relationships, etc. we need to scan their hearts and their spiritual needs before focusing on behaviors.  Before calling out the homosexual community for its lifestyle or the promiscuous girl for her many lovers or the guy with the drinking problem, we must offer a better solution for their emptiness, fear, and brokenness. Lets start that conversation first – because that’s what Jesus would do. He’s so smart!

How to Rid Your “House” of Unwanted Guests:  Identifying the Problem

Not everything is demonic. We have to deal with the appetites of the flesh and learn to say “No” to our fallen nature. You can’t cast out the flesh. You must crucify it.  Sometimes, in a fallen world, illness is simply illness; depression is caused by chemical imbalances, and broken relationships are created by our own negative choices.  However, many things do have demonic dimensions that must be dealt with before freedom and healing can occur.

Demons attach themselves to believers because someone has given them a legal right to do so.  We may have opened that door through persistent, unrepented sin in our lives, refusal to forgive those who have wounded us, or long-standing unbelief related to God’s truth.  It is possible that demons have come down through family lines as a consequence of “the sins of our fathers” or that someone with authority over us spoke curses that created “legal” assignments for the enemy.  Perhaps, we ourselves spoke those words. It is also possible that demons entered in through wounds inflicted by trauma, abuse, or rejection.

There are several common experiences or doorways that make individuals vulnerable to demonic affliction or that indicate or suggest demonic activity within a person.  If you recognize these “doorways” or manifestations in your life, it raises the probability that you may be struggling with demonic oppression.

Sins of the Fathers – This demonic door is opened when ancestors (especially males) rebelled against God and lived in unrepented sin.  This is especially true in the areas of sexual immorality, occult activity, violence, or addictions.

Child Abuse – Child abuse opens the door for the enemy in many ways.  Often the abuser has some authority over the child or the enemy can enter later through the child’s residual anger, resentment, unforgiveness and shame.

Sexual Sins – For some reason, our sexuality is a place the enemy has targeted in man to produce all kinds of destructive behaviors that alienate us from God, others, and ourselves. Sexual sin of all kinds is a place where Satan gains tremendous access to individuals and families.

Gender Confusion  – Scripture says that God “made them male and female.”   Although our fallen nature contributes to damaged genes and chemical imbalances in our bodies, it is not God’s will that His children be confused about their sexual identity.  If gender confusion is an issue, it may have demonic components.

Anger – Emotions of rage, anger, bitterness, etc. are usually established in childhood after a wounding experience, a painful wrong, or a perceived betrayal.  These thoughts and emotions are natural reactions to those “wrongs,” but if nurtured or kept alive by subsequent wounding, they can open the door for demonic spirits to come in and fuel these destructive emotions and mindsets.  They then become strongholds and may be experienced as rage, hatred, thoughts of revenge, or bitterness.

Abandonment through death, divorce, sickness, or neglect may open the door to spirits of sorrow, fear, and distrust.

Occult Involvement – Christian and non-Christian occult groups throw the door wide open to demons as they invite their presence, pray to them, or serve them.

Curses – Demonic spirits may be commissioned to enforce curses in the lives of individuals or families that are attached to sins or word curses. If you feel trapped in patterns of abuse, destructive relationships, poverty, crisis, etc. a curse may be operating.

You Conspire Against You by persistently engaging in sinful or destructive behaviors and thought patterns, even though you want to be free from those things.  You may say and do things frequently that “aren’t you.”   You may have tried prayer, the Word, accountability, counseling, etc., without victory over the issue. The demonic is indicated when the more you resist a sinful or destructive thought or feeling, the more it presses in on you.  It feels obsessive, compulsive and addictive.

If you struggle with any of the above issues, you may have unwanted guests that have harassed and tormented you for a short time or as long as you can remember. Many demon-afflicted individuals have struggled with sinful or destructive thought patterns so long that they believe it is normal and that everyone must fight those thoughts every day.  That isn’t the case. When the demonic is involved, deliverance makes an unbelievable difference in managing temptation and condemnation. Sometimes you may not be certain whether demonic activity is involved.  I recommend treating it like a spirit and if it isn’t you haven’t lost anything. If it is, you have gained your freedom.

The first step after identifying demonic activity in your “house” is taking away the issue that has given Satan a legal right to camp in your life.  Having done that, you can command those spirits to leave by the power and authority of Jesus Christ who has delegated that power and authority to every believer. If there is sin, you need to repent.  If there is unforgiveness, you must forgive. If there are generational sins you must acknowledge those and renounce them.  If there are curses you must nullify those in the name of Jesus.

In Part 8 of Dealing with the Demonic, we will explore those steps in more detail.

One of my favorite authors these days is Bill Johnson.  He is extremely practical and believes that Jesus is coming back for a glorious church rather than a church hiding in the shadows of persecution and apostasy.  He believes in a kingdom of power rather than resignation.  He believes in a triumphant church rather than a church winding down its influence in the last days.  I like that.

One of the thoughts he has challenged me with is that believers should limit their self-examination and introspection.  That thought immediately flies in the face of Paul’s admonitions in his letter to the church at Corinth form believers to examine themselves (1 Cor.11: 28) and to judge ourselves (1 Cor.11: 31).  Many of us have been taught that the true way to holiness and spiritual maturity is to identify every sin and shortcoming in our lives so that we might live a life of confession and repentance, bathing all those failings in the blood of Christ.  I am an introvert by nature so all that introspection is something I am wired for anyway.

However, I believe the Holy Spirit has confirmed in my own heart the truth of what Bill Johnson has said.  I’ll quote from him.  “I struggled for many years with self-evaluation. The main problem was that I never found anything good in me. It always led to discouragement which led to doubt, and eventually took me to unbelief. Somehow I had developed the notion that this was how I would become holy – by showing tremendous concern for my own motives.”

He goes on to point out that a preoccupation with our weaknesses and failings keeps the focus on “Me” rather than on Christ.  It keeps the focus on the failings of the natural man rather than the glory of the spiritual man who has been clothed with Christ.  It tends to deny the things that God says are true about me – that I am a son in the house of God, holy, forgiven, beyond condemnation, seated with Christ in the heavenly places, representing the courts of heaven on the earth, walking with the power that raised Christ from the dead within me, and so forth.

Its not that we never deal with sin and weakness, we just let the Holy Spirit point out the things he wants to deal with rather than us always being the judge and setting the agenda.  Paul had just pointed out specific issues in the church at Corinth that had ben revealed by the Spirit.  Once revealed by the Spirit, they were to acknowledge the issues within them and deal with them.  Part of the ministry of the Spirit is to convict us of sin and to lead us into truth.  Our role is to listen and be led by the Spirit, not to dissect ourselves on the table each day until we are overcome with remorse and condemnation.

Our own constant introspection becomes a kind of work where we are trying to establish our own holiness through our own efforts.  God’s process for making us holy is to constantly remind us if who we are in Christ rather than reminding us of all the ways we are not like him.  I have come to agree, that we should take the same tact – spend more time reflecting on who we are because of Jesus rather than the ways in which we don’t yet measure up.

So, if you are a prone to introspection, self – criticism, and condemnation think about it.  Satan is the accuser of the brethren.  The Holy Spirit is the encourager! Perhaps, you should park your introspection and simply listen to the Spirit to see what he is concerned about in your life.  See what God shows you.  It might be a better, more biblical path to spiritual maturity.