Deliverance is a powerful tool for setting people free from the grip of the enemy. Not only is it powerful but it is essential. However, at times we may tend to overemphasize deliverance in the process of spiritual transformation. That is understandable because many of us have seen radical and dramatic transformation in believers in a very short time as a result of deliverance. It becomes problematic, however, when we begin to see deliverance as the cure-all for every issue. In some ways we begin to think of it as the quick-fix for people who are stuck or loosing ground in their spiritual progress, but demonization is only one barrier in an array of barriers that can stall out the process of discipleship and transformation.

Deliverance will not make a person spiritually mature but will remove the resistance so that individuals can then begin to grow spiritually as they should. At the end of Free Indeed, our ministry for healing and freedom, we always remind our participants that completing the eight weeks of study and the weekend of activation is not the end but rather the beginning of their growth and maturity.

Discipleship is the process of becoming like Jesus. It is a lifelong endeavor that can be punctuated by significant events where huge growth spurts occur but then we must always settle back into the process. In transformation, there is always a price to be paid by the individual who wants to be changed. That price is a consistent lifestyle of coming into the presence of God through multiple expressions of ancient spiritual disciplines: daily time in the word, prayer, meditation, confession, repentance, thanksgiving, worship, service, listening to God, solitude, memorization, journaling, authenticity, and so forth. We often say that getting free is the first battle. Staying free is the second. The implementation of these spiritual disciplines is what keeps us free.

We are such an instant society that we have come to expect instant spiritual maturity through a weekend conference, an impartation, deliverance, a prophetic word, and so forth. I think all of those things are amazing and I will be the first in line for an impartation, but they can’t replace the work of partnering with God on a daily basis in the change we desire.

Too often we pray for inner healing or cast out a demon without making sure the person we have ministered to is pursuing the Lord on a daily basis and filling themselves with the things of the Spirit. Sometimes we don’t even make sure that the person has repented of the very sin the demon was attached to or has forgiven hurtful people in his/her past. In our hurry to help, we may be setting them up for a worse condition because we haven’t helped them lay the foundation that they will need to maintain their freedom and grow in the Lord.

Paul commands us, “Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:17-18). The verb tense of the word translated as “filled” is progressive which means to be continually filled with the Spirit. When you are filled with the Spirit there is not much room for the devil. A great deal of being Spirit-filled is about being filled with the things of the Spirit which are to be found in spiritual disciplines. It is by “doing the work” that we get in spiritual shape. The work brings us into the presence of God and the transforming power of the Spirit. The work lays new neural pathways that are in agreement with God and diminish the old pathways that agreed with Satan so that our brains are renewed while our minds are being renewed spiritually.

So, as you minister healing and deliverance or give impartations and prophetic words, remember that the person you are ministering to will need to pay a price for continued freedom and spiritual growth. If they are not willing to pay the price of drawing close to God daily, they will most likely lose the ground they have gained and maybe end up worse than they were before their freedom. As those who minister in this arena it is essential that we too pay the cost of freedom in our lives each day.

Philip Yancey once said that the real temptation presented to Jesus in the wilderness by Satan, was the temptation of gaining a crown without the cross. Satan offered Jesus shortcuts without suffering to establish his kingdom on the earth once more. Ultimately, there are no shortcuts. It was true for Jesus and it is true for his people. Crucifying the flesh is a daily demand if we are to be consistent with our spiritual disciplines. Neither the flesh nor the enemy want us spending time with God. But for those who reject the “shortcuts” there is certainly a crown after the cross.

This week I’m attending a four-day conference at the King’s Park International Church in Durham, North Carolina entitled Healing the Human Soul. Most healing conferences offered by churches today are all about praying for physical healing. I love those conferences as well, but I would say that healing the soul is of greater importance and if the soul is healed, many times physical healing will follow. For a number of decades now, leaders in the field of medicine have estimated that 60 to 80 percent of all illnesses are emotionally rooted. When they say “emotionally rooted” they mean that chronic stress, worry, fear, bitterness, anger, etc. tend to compromise the immune system, increase blood pressure, rob people of sleep, create chemical imbalances, etc. and those conditions then give way to illness. Because of that, physical healing is often impossible or, at least, impossible to maintain without first healing the soul.

The prophet Isaiah recognized the great need of healing the soul when he spoke of the coming Messiah. He spoke for Messiah prophetically when he said, “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners” (Isa.61;1). Because of sin, man is enslaved to a number of things: sin, addictions, demonization, self-centeredness, and illness. All of these create their own form of bondage for people – even God’s people. In Isaiah 61, the prophet suggests a chronology needed before each person can be fully released to become all that his/her Father in Heaven has decreed for them. First the gospel must be preached so that sins are forgiven in Christ. That releases us from the legal demands of sin on our lives. But secondly, Jesus came to bind up, heal, or minister to the brokenhearted. That is healing the soul. After that, captives and prisoners can be set free from whatever form bondage has taken in their lives.

Too often we try to heal the physical body or cast out a demon without addressing the brokenness in which a disease is rooted or to which a demon is attached. If the wound isn’t cleaned and healed properly, even if there is some temporary relief, the infection will return. Addictions are ways in which we attempt to medicate our broken souls. If the soul is not healed, a person may be set free from one addiction but will simply find another with which to medicate the wounds hidden deep in his or her soul. Believers often get stuck in their spiritual growth because they can’t get past their brokenness. The church over the last 200 years has been excellent at bringing people to forgiveness but is just now beginning to discover or rediscover how to heal the soul so that the sanctifying work of the Spirit can truly make us like Jesus.

As we minister to broken people, we too often think that problems are one-dimensional and need a one-dimensional solution. If a person is sick, command healing. If person is emotionally distressed or in bondage, cast out a demon. If a person is hopeless, preach Jesus. All of these are valid expressions of the kingdom of God and are extremely important. However, broken and enslaved people typically need all three of these elements to find healing and freedom.

God is interested in redeeming every part of us. Paul echoes that truth when he says, “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess.5:3). In one sense, the idea of sanctification is for us to align ourselves perfectly with God’s will, his ways, and his purposes. He wants the body, soul, and spirit of every believer to be aligned with him. When that occurs healing is manifested, freedom is experienced, and the fruit of the Spirit can finally begin to flourish within the believer.

Most often this is a process, not just an event and discipleship is the ultimate solution so that these afflicting conditions don’t return. As Americans we are prone to look for the quick fix and often leave many things undone that manifest later. Taking our time to minister to body, soul, and spirit is a much more effective approach in the long run. The cost on the front end is time and effort – both on the part of the one who needs the healing and on the part of those administering the healing. Slowing down is a spiritual discipline that many, if not most, of us need to master. I’m at the front of that line.

Pastor Jim Laffoon from Nashville, Tennessee is leading this conference and is providing really interesting insights and thoughts about healing the soul. Much of his presentation is connecting what the Bible has told us for millennia about the impact of sin and righteousness in our lives and the lives of our children with current brain and genetic research. This research is revealing some of the “whys” for God’s commands and may suggest even more effective approaches to our use of the divine weapons that God has given us.   I will be sharing some of those insights in my next few blogs.

Many of us who pursue the Holy Spirit and the gifts he distributes are hungry for more.  We want increase. Jesus said that the Father gives the Spirit without limit, so it is legitimate as co-heirs of Jesus to want more and more. The question is how do we gain that increase of anointing? If you are like me, you have already been asking but, perhaps, have not seen significant increase.

Of course, prayer with fasting is a tried and true way to receive more as well. When some of the apostles were unable to cast a demon out of a boy, Jesus did so easily. Later, when they wondered why they had been unsuccessful, Jesus answered, “This kind can only come out by prayer and fasting” (Mt. 17, Mk.9). Since Jesus did not ask the boy or his father to pray and fast before deliverance and because he did not pray before casting out the demon, we must assume that he was saying that a life of prayer and fasting carves out more authority in the spiritual realm than simply a life of prayer. That’s bad news for those of us who don’t enjoy fasting.

However, there is a third way to gain increase and, perhaps, this is the most significant of all for the time in which we live. In Ezekiel 47, the prophet was given a vision of the temple and fresh water that flowed out of the throne room of God and became a river. Ezekiel said, “As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits and then led me through water that was ankle-deep. He measured off another thousand cubits and led me through water that was knee-deep. He measured off another thousand and led me through water that was up to the waist. He measured off another thousand, but now it was a river that I could not cross, because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in—a river that no one could cross. He asked me, “Son of man, do you see this” (Ezek. 47:3-6)? As the vision progressed, the prophet was shown a number of trees growing along the river whose “leaves will not wither” and whose “fruit will not fall.” We are told that those leaves would be for the healing of the nations and their fruit would be for food.

The river, of course, represents the Holy Spirit moving out from the throne room of the Lord. In the gospel of John, Jesus declared, “’If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.’ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.” (Jn.7:37-39). The Spirit gives life to us and that life is intended to flow out form us to the people around us. Notice that the further the river flowed, the deeper it became. This life-giving water did not pool around the temple but flowed down to the sea where its fresh water would mingle with salt water making it fresh also and creating and environment for abundant life. Very often in scripture “the sea” represents the nations.

The point is this. The further the river flowed from the temple the deeper it became. It was intended to pour into distant nations and become a source of healing and life as trees grew up along its banks. Increase in the gifts of the Spirit occurs as we move out from the church and into the lifeless places around us. We will see greater increase when we begins to exercise our gifts in the dark places of our communities that are distant from God, rather than keeping them in the safe confines of our church sanctuaries. It’s not that these gifts are not for the body of Christ – they are. But they are not only for the body. They are also for the lost and hurting who are far away from the throne and as we take the Holy Spirit to those places and those individuals, the river gets deeper – greater anointing is given.

If you go on mission trips, you have probably noticed that God worked through you in greater ways on the mission than when you came back home. That may be the “river principle” in action. The truth is, however, that we don’t have to go overseas to find those who are far from God. We may only need to go next door or to our closest “big box store” or Starbucks.

To go out in public and exercise the gifts of healing, prophecy, encouragement, deliverance, mercy, and miracles takes a willingness to risk. We always risk rejection and being thought of as weird. We also risk that moment when healing doesn’t occur, prophecy seems to have missed the mark by a mile, or when some spirit hangs on and for some reason we, like the apostles and the boy, can’t deliver. However, it is in that territory that the river gets deeper and if we want increase, we will need to move out from the sanctuary to the nations around us. How else can we be trees for healing and fresh water for life for those who are still far from God?

If we want increase, then we have to let God place us in situations where more is needed. The good news is that when we move away from the sanctuary God does not stay there, he goes with us and in the going we will experience the increase we have been asking for.

This is one of those “food for thought” blogs….something for you to consider. I was listening to a Bill Johnson sermon on YouTube a week or so ago, and he said something that resonated with me and that I have been mulling over since then. He said that whenever there is a prevailing spirit (demonic) over a people group, a city, or a nation, the church is either in active opposition to that spirit or is being influenced by that spirit. There is no middle ground.

I believe that is a true statement and, if it is true, there are a number of implications. First of all, there are certainly spirits assigned to nations, cultures, people groups, and individuals to promote evil there and oppose the works of God. In the Book of Daniel, we see demonic spirits referred to as the prince of Persia (Dan.10:13) and the prince of Greece (Dan.10:20). These were spirits of significant authority that were warring against Michael, the archangel, in order to hinder the work of God and to further the purposes of Satan in those nations. In the Book of Revelation, John wrote to the church at Pergamum and spoke of the city as a place where Satan had his throne (Rev.2:13), which speaks of a city over which Satan had great influence and spiritual authority.

In our own times, we clearly sense the influence of prevailing spirits in the Middle East that oppose Christ, his people, Israel, and life in genral. The unrelenting hatred and extremism of some groups there can only be understood by the influence of demonic spirits. When you look at Stalinist Russia, Nazi Germany and other places where millions died in concentration camps and mass graves, only a powerful demonic influence can account for such atrocities. We see the same level of influence now in Isis.

Even in America there are the prevailing spirits of Anti-Christ, anti-Semitism, sexual immorality, perversion, violence, and abortion that are having their way in our culture. The rapid acceleration of cultural decline in a once Christian nation is a clear indicator of demonic influence. For the past 50 years, most of the American church has been in passive opposition to these prevailing spirits rather than in active opposition. We have moaned about the decline of the church and our culture but have done so quietly over coffee or while cocooned in Sunday School classes. By and large, the result is that the church has been influenced by these spirits rather than these spirits being pushed back by the church.

How can any Christian church approve of abortion, active homosexuality, same-sex marriage, and the idea that Jesus is a Savior but not the only Savior? And yet many churches in America and many individual’s who identify themselves as Christians hold those cultural views. We have become toxically politically correct which is another way of saying that we don’t want to offend anyone by suggesting that they may be wrong or that their actions might be unacceptable. In that environment there can be no call to repentance. This political spirit is also a prevailing and highly manipulative spirit. Try running a household full of kids that way and see how well it goes. Running a nation that way has even greater repercussions. In recent decades, we have not shaped the culture but the culture has been busy shaping us. I believe it is because we have not actively opposed the prevailing spirits that have been and continue to influence America.

Lets transfer the principle from a national grid to a personal grid. Whatever prevailing spirits in our culture are doing to influence us individually, if we are not actively opposing them, then they are likely influencing us. Most believers are passive in much of their own spiritual lives. We hear cultural input day after day justifying and rationalizing unbiblical and ungodly values and lifestyles. We are likely to absorb the value only minutely day after day, but the accumulation effect impacts us as the months and years pass. Television and movies normalize sinful and perverse lifestyles so that we are no longer shocked or offended when we encounter those things. We hear proponents of abortion and same sex marriage offer their arguments day after day on talk shows and never hear a sermon or a teaching at church that pushes back against those arguments. Our kids hear those values promoted at school and see those who oppose them demonized. Unless we recognize the devil’s agenda and actively oppose those values in our minds, our prayers, and our actions, we will slowly be coopted into a mindset of excusing those behaviors or assigning them to moral gray areas.

We have often heard the maxim that if we are not growing spiritually we are actually loosing ground in the same way that if we stop exercising we don’t stay at the same level of fitness but rather lose strength and endurance. I know that to be true by personal experience. You probably do as well. In reflection, it might be a very good thing to begin to identify the prevailing spirits in our culture, our community, or our families and encourage our churches to actively oppose those spirits while we do the same in our personal lives.

I’m not speaking primarily of picketing, demonstrating, or writing blazing op-eds, although there may be times for that. But where there is a prevailing spirit of divorce in a family or community, the church should be actively providing ministries that strengthen marriages and families. Where teen suicide is on the rise, the church should be finding ways to connect with teens at risk and infusing hope into that segment of the community. If a spirit of poverty seems to prevail in a community or over a people group, the church might be working to provide pathways out of poverty for that group. Where abortion thrives, funding abortion alternatives, volunteering at Life Centers, and promoting adoption would be an active way to oppose those spirits. For every strategy of Satan, God has a powerful and creative answer. Doing similar things in our own lives would be helpful. Although spiritual warfare begins with massive amounts of prayer, spiritual warfare can have a very practical side that goes beyond prayer and deliverance and that takes territory back in whole communities.

Let me encourage you to consider what prevailing spirits might be having the most influence in your community, your church, or your life. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you discernment to identify those spirits, and then pray for creative ways to actively oppose those spirits in your own life and your community.   To take a passive approach might mean you are actually losing ground. Just….food for thought. Blessings today in Him.

I apologize for not getting any blogs out last week. My goal is to write two each week, but last week was consumed with the death of my wife’s mother. Her mother Rose was a great woman of God who touched her children and her grandchildren more deeply than any other woman I have known. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s several years ago and finally succumbed to its unrelenting attack on the mind and body. She died New Year’s Day in a nursing home in the Texas panhandle. The family was gathered in her room when she took her last breath.

I have been present at the moment of death on several occasions. Those moments are sobering moments that put life’s real issues into perspective. Maintaining perspective is the key to living life well. First of all, those moments confirm that the only truly essential thing in life is a real relationship with Jesus. We will all die this side of His second coming. Medicine and science keep teasing the world with notions of living forever with replacement parts, gene therapies, and cryogenics. It won’t happen. Death is part of the universal curse brought on by sin. It is as much spiritual as physical. Science can postpone but not beat the results of sin, only Jesus can.

When a person lies helplessly as death approaches, only two things bring comfort. The first is faith in Jesus and knowledge that when the heart stops life does not cease with it for those in Christ. Death can only end our existence in this form but eternal life in the presence of God goes on. We began our eternal life the moment we said yes to Jesus but it becomes most obvious after slipping out of this body that is not suited for heavenly environments. Paul said that to be absent from this body is to be with the Lord. We get glimpses of heaven in scripture but ultimately it will be more that we can ask or imagine on this side. As Rose slipped away, her family felt the loss but also rejoiced that she had been set free from the prison of a broken body and was experiencing life and joy to the full in his presence. They also knew they would see her again because they too are in Christ. There is great comfort in that knowledge. I have officiated funerals where that knowledge did not exist in some family members. For them, there was nothing to say but goodbye. Their only comfort could be found in their mistaken belief that nothing exists beyond the grave. To think anything else would be terrifying. But those who love Jesus are not terrified. They are expectant and long to be in the joyful presence of the King.

The second thing that truly matters at the moment of death is the legacy one leaves behind. The greatest legacy is love. Real love teaches others how to love. We can only give what we have first received. Jesus loved us and gave his life for us, not just to save us but to teach us how to love others as he did. In John 13, Jesus said, “A new commandment I give you. Love one another as I have loved you.” According to Paul in 1 Corinthians 13, no matter what we do in this life, if it is not motivated and supported by love it has no lasting value. At the end of that chapter, Paul simply tells us that the greatest thing in the kingdom of God is love. “Faith, hope and love remain. But the greatest of these is love.”

Love heals. Love unites. Love forgives. Love reconciles. Love puts others and the needs of others first. Love always acts in the best interest of others. Love affirms. It builds up. Love believes for the best in others to immerge. Satan hates love. It is the opposite of everything he stands for. Satan comes to kill, steal and destroy. Love gives life; gives rather than steals; and builds up rather than tearing down. When you stand in a room with a dying person, you tend to know whether he or she has sown love in their lives because of the response of those standing there. Those who love are loved by others because we reap what we sow and it is evident as a person prepares to exit this world.

No one says in their last moments that they wish they had worked more, accumulated more, been mentioned in one more article, manipulated one ore person for their personal gain, or set one more record. Those things seem important in life but not in death. In death, only faith and love expressed through compassion and service to others bring comfort because those are the things that connect us to Jesus.

The point is this. We should live with an eye toward death – not in a morbid sense but simply knowing that we will all be in that moment someday unless Jesus returns first. Knowing what is important at the moment of death tells us what should be important as we live out each day. As we minister to people for healing and deliverance we often talk about what increases our authority in heaven so that we can be more effective in our ministry. Jesus said that if we want to be great in the kingdom of heaven then we must be the servant of all. Service is an expression of love. Faith is certainly huge in the kingdom but Paul said that even if we have the faith to move mountains but don’t have love, that faith means nothing. I have come to believe that loving others with the heart of Jesus and serving others out of love is what gives a person real standing in the kingdom. That standing carries authority as well because the person who loves can be trusted with the things of the kingdom. Francis MacNutt, in his book Deliverance from Evil Spirits, talks about how much Satan hates love and that in deliverance sessions, a touch of true love, compassion, and concern for the person can sometimes dislodge a spirit when commands have not been effective.

As we move into 2017, I want more faith but I also want more love. Both are fruits of the Spirit that he must bear in us. I want a greater certainty in my life about every promise in the kingdom but I also want to grow in love. I don’t want to do good things or even right things simply out of duty but because I love those to whom I minister. That will be my consistent prayer this year. Standing at the foot of the bed as Rose took her last breath and exited for glory reminded me of those priorities and challenges me to make some adjustments. You may want to examine your priorities as well. Blessings in Him today!

When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots surrounded the city. ‘O 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.” 2 Kings 6:15-17

Few of us are ever aware of the provision and power that God offers us when we face impossible moments in our lives. I admit that I am one who often misses it as well.  I love the story of Elisha when he was surrounded by the army of Aram in the small town of Dothan. The king of Aram was at war with Israel. Each time he set an ambush for Israeli troops, Elisha would receive a word of knowledge from the Lord, warn the leaders of Israel, and the King of Aram’s plans would fail miserably. His initial thought was that a spy was leaking his battle plans to Israel but one of his officers convinced him that the Elisha was the one informing on the King when he said, “None of us my lord the king, but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the very words you speak in your bedroom” (2 Kings 6:12).

The King immediately ordered a nationwide manhunt for the prophet who was to be found and captured. Word got back to the king that Elisha had been seen in Dothan in northern Samaria and so he commanded his army to surround the settlement. The verses above record Elisha’s servant’s response when he peered out from Dothan early in the morning. What he saw was an impossible situation for himself and his master. An army surrounded the small town. He probably assumed that the army of Aram was there to kill Elisha and most likely his servant as well. He saw no solutions and felt totally overwhelmed by his circumstances and the power of the enemy.

What we discover through the story is that the Lord had already responded to the need of Elisha and his servant with the power of heaven which was already poised to do battle on behalf of the man of God. The servant was terrified because he had no faith or experience to see what God had already made available in this impossible moment. Apparently, God left the fate of those soldiers in the hands of his prophet who could have called on the angelic army to destroy his enemies. Instead, he asked the Lord to strike the army blind for a season while he led them to Samaria where they were eventually released. After a demonstration of God’s power on behalf of his people, the text says, “So the bands from Aram stopped raiding Israel’s territory” (2 Kings 6:23).

Here is the lesson. If God is for us, who can stand against us? God is never taken by surprise. When the King of Aram ordered the capture of Elisha, God had already provided for Elisha’s victory. The servant was overcome by fear. Given the chance he would have stolen away in night and hidden in the hills. Elisha, having faith in both the power and the character of God, stood without fear and saw the provision of God that others could not.

We will all face our impossible moments when no strength or resource of our own will provide the victory we need. Failing marriages, children bent on self-destruction, financial crisis, stage-four cancer, or the overwhelming loss of a loved one. We all come to moments when we feel as if we are surrounded by an overpowering force that we cannot stand against. In the moment, pray Elijah’s prayer for yourself, “O Lord, open my eyes that I might see! Lord, show me by faith and by your Spirit, the power and provision that you have already made available to me for this impossible moment. For with you nothing is impossible.”

In this upcoming year, many of us will face circumstances that, from the natural perspective, seem impossible. Our first inclination will be to feel the same panic that Elisha’s servant felt. Even if we remember this story, our first inclination may also be to think that God would send angels to rescue a great prophet but we are not great prophets.   In that moment, remember that you are a son or daughter of the King. You are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. You live under a better covenant than Elisha and you have the Spirit of God living within you. Remember that “all angels are ministering spirits sent forth to serve those who will inherit salvation” (Heb.1:14) and you are an heir of salvation. More than that, God has said he will never leave you nor forsake you.

No matter the circumstance take heart because in the kingdom of God, those who are with us are always more than those who are with them. Graham Cooke often says that every crisis carries an opportunity to discover more of the goodness of God that is always there for us. No problem comes our way that does not already have a solution in heaven. Because our Heavenly Father is good, he is always willing to provide the answer. When the circumstance arises, don’t be afraid but ask the Lord to give you eyes of faith to see the provision that is already at hand. Blessings and faith in the year to come.

Our church heard a good word from pastor Jim Laffoon last night. Jim made the point that God’s greatest challenge on this earth is not Satan nor broken cultures nor persecuting tyrants, but his broken church. That thought is worth some reflection.

The kingdom of God has significant challenges that stand in the way of establishing God’s will on earth as it is in heaven. There is Satan. There are powerful, corrupt, and atheistic governments. There are defiled cultures that rival Sodom and Gomorrah. There are powerful tyrants that persecute the church and there is a powerful, godless media that shapes the mind of the world. And yet, the church is designed and empowered to overcome every one of those obstacles. Jesus said that even the very gates of hell would not prevail against his church. And yet the world, in many quarters, seems to be winning.

The problem is not that the world is bigger and badder than God anticipated. The problem is that the church is made up of a huge percentage of people who are broken and in bondage to all kinds of things and who are not walking in the freedom and power that God offers. The question then is why is such a large percentage of the church broken and in bondage? Jesus said that he had come to heal the broken hearted and to set captives free (see Isa.61 and Luke 4). So why isn’t he doing his job?

Obviously, the problem isn’t with Jesus. The problem exists on this end. To a large degree, the problem is that a large part of the church has rejected or limited the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Jesus told his followers that when he left he would send another – the Holy Spirit – and as a result, they would be better equipped than if Jesus were physically present with them. He told them and us that the Spirit would come to be our counselor, our comforter, our teacher, our guide, and the transformer of our character (the fruit of the Spirit). He was also very clear that the Spirit would come to give us power for ministry.

In the beginning, Jesus commanded his followers to stay in Jerusalem until they received power from the Holy Spirit (Acts 1). He didn’t mean that the power of the Holy Spirit would help them do their best and be their best. He meant that the Spirit would operate in them with a supernatural power that would go beyond anything they were capable of even on their best day. Just fifty days earlier the apostles had shown what their “best” was. They ran away. Peter denied Christ three times. They had no comprehension of the resurrection and they simply hid from the authorities and some doubted even when Jesus appeared in the room with them. However, the moment after the Holy Spirit fell on them and imparted power to them, they stood in the temple courts and boldly preached that Jesus was Lord to the same crowd that had crucified him less than two months earlier. As they did so, they spoke in languages they had never learned.

That is a template for the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Lord’s church and in the life of every believer. The anointing for personal transformation and power to change the world is found in the full ministry of the Holy Spirit. The supernatural move of the Spirit in us and through us is everything. And yet, much of the church has done its best to minimize the Spirit and in doing so we have minimized the church. The idea that the entire ministry of the Holy Spirit is to simply give us a little insight into scripture and to make us into a gathering of nice people is a real weapon of the enemy.

The theology that the Holy Spirit no longer operates in supernatural power through his people has effectively declawed the Lion of Judah. The church in America is full of demonic presence because she quit believing in the supernatural moves of God or even the supernatural moves of the devil. Recently, a believer from another church in our city went through our eight-week Free Indeed class and Freedom Weekend and was delivered from several spirits. That believer went back to his church and when praying and counseling with one of their members realized that a demonic spirit was manifesting so he cast it out. Not too long after that episode of freedom and supernatural ministry, one of their church leaders told them that they didn’t do that in their church. As a result, many members of that church will continue in brokenness and bondage and will never step into the destiny God has written for them.

The word Christ means “the anointed one.” Jesus Christ is the Anointed One of God. He declared in Luke 4 that he was the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy that says, “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, release from darkness for the prisoners…(Isa:61:1). The very things Jesus did required the Spirit of the Lord to be upon him. The anointing was the Spirit of God operating supernaturally through him. John tells us that a spirit of anti-Christ is in the world. I believe that spirit not only denies that Jesus is Lord but works against the anointing of the church by the Spirit. I believe cessationism, the theology that God stopped working in miraculous ways at the end of the first century, is one of the doctrines of demons Paul, warned us about in 1 Timothy 4.

As long as we deny the continuing supernatural ministry of the Spirit in his church and through his church we will continue to be broken and in bondage. We will also leave the world in its brokenness and bondage. We will be an army so handicapped that we will win few battles and hold little ground. Jesus himself promised that those who believe in him would do even greater things than he did. I don’t think he was talking about huge buildings, well run programs, and worship productions that rival Vegas. I’m not against big churches, excellent programs, and powerful worship but Jesus was talking about the supernatural healing of broken hearts and transformed identities. He was talking about casting wheelchairs aside, emptying cancer wards, preaching in languages we have never learned, raising the dead, dismissing depression, and casting out devils in greater ways than he ever did.

The church is broken and the full, unleashed ministry of the Holy Spirit is the antidote. I see more and more churches beginning to recognize that truth but then I see them hesitate to actually embrace the power of the Spirit. My prayer is that God will fill his church and every believer with the fullness of his Spirit so that the world will know that Jesus is truly the Anointed One because his church walks in that anointing. That anointing is available to every believer so I also encourage you to ask for it daily as part of your “daily bread.”  May you be blessed today and represent your King with power and love.

A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” 

They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an evil spirit came from the tombs to meet him. This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him any more, not even with a chain. For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones. When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. He shouted at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Swear to God that you won’t torture me!” For Jesus had said to him, “Come out of this man, you evil spirit!”

Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.” And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area. A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. The demons begged Jesus, “Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them.” He gave them permission, and the evil spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned. Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man—and told about the pigs as well. Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.

In his gospel, Mark ties two supernatural events together that we often miss because they are separated by chapter breaks and so, in our minds, they are often viewed as unrelated incidents. But…let’s review. Toward the end of Chapter 4, Jesus told his disciples that he wanted to get in a boat and sail across the northern end of the Sea of Galilee. He calls on them to make the journey in the evening so it will be night before reaching the other side. Being on a large body of water at night on a lake subject to sudden storms always presents some concerns. In the middle of this night we are told that a “furious squall” came up suddenly and threatened to swamp the boat. The disciples, afraid for their lives, woke Jesus with the question, “Don’t you care that we drown?” There may have been a bit of accusation present in the statement suggesting that Jesus should never have insisted on crossing Galilee in the night. Of course, you know the story. Jesus got up, verbally rebuked the storm, and the winds and waves immediately subsided. The response of his disciples is interesting. Mark says, “They were terrified and asked each other, ‘Who is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!’”

As frightened as they were of the storm, it seems that they were more upset by an encounter with the supernatural power of Jesus. They had already seen Jesus heal lepers, heal paralytics, cast our numerous demons, and raise the dead. Yet, at this moment they asked, “Who is this?”   As they tried to get their minds around what has just happened, they beached their boat in the area of the Gerasenes (Gadarenes) and immediately faced an even stranger situation.

Suddenly, out of the dark comes a man who is, by all definitions, demon possessed. Luke tells us he was naked (not the first thing you want to see after an already disturbing cruise); he came from a stretch of tombs that were probably carved into a bluff along the coast. He was a man who cut himself with stones and cried out in torment night and day. He was a violent man with pieces of broken chain swinging from his wrists and ankles and undoubtedly had the classic look of a madman with deranged hair and a ragged beard. He was most likely smeared with mud and smelled of everything dead or rotting.

It must have been disturbing enough to see this man in the distance, but in this case he ran straight at them. Just as they prepared themselves for a vicious attack, he fell on his knees before Jesus and began to shout at the top of his voice, “Want do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God. Swear to God that you won’t torture me!” How’s that for a greeting from a naked madman? Mark focuses our attention here on the demonized man but I would have loved to see the eyes of the disciples who must really be thinking now, “Who is this?” The wind and waves obey him and demons beg him not to torture them as they call him Son of the Most High God. Then the demon begins to bargain with Jesus. I’ve heard numerous demons speak and it’s never a nice, soothing, human voice but a hissing, growling, threatening or arrogant tone. But this time it is a fearful, pleading tone.

You know the rest of the story. Jesus allows the demons to leave this man and enter a herd of pigs nearby which immediately runs into the Sea of Galilee and drowns. That has to be another disturbing sight for these disciples – to hear the squealing of two hundred (just guessing) tormented hogs rushing to the water and then the thrashing of drowning swine and then their bodies floating out to sea. Witnesses to the event ran into town and told everyone what had happened. When they came out, they saw the man who had become an icon of demonization and insanity sitting with Jesus, clothed and perfectly sane. Luke tells us, “Then all the people of the region…asked Jesus to leave them because they were overcome with fear” (Lk.8:37).

From our perspective, the stilling of a storm and the deliverance of a severely demonized man would be good news and something to celebrate. But in the unrenewed mind, the evidence of the presence of God is a fearful thing. Perhaps, it is fearful because something unexplainable just occurred and we fear what we don’t understand. That was the normal response to God throughout the scriptures which called for the most frequent command in the Bible – “Don’t be afraid.”

As for the Garasenes, it seems that the wildly demonic had been with them so long that it had become the norm. Instead of being afraid of the destructive presence of Satan, they were terrified by the healing presence of God and essentially demanded that the Son of God leave them…even though they must have had their own sons and daughters in need of healing and deliverance.

Apparently, the only two men standing there that were not afraid was Jesus and the man who had just been delivered. The Gerasenes wanted Jesus as far away as possible. The former demoniac and nudist wanted to be as close to Jesus as possible.

Personal experience is often the catalyst for real paradigm shifts in the way we view reality. The apostles had seen Jesus heal and deliver others but had not experienced that themselves as far as we know. In all three gospels, the quieting of the storm and the deliverance of this radically demonized man occurred before Jesus sent the twelve out to heal and deliver on their own. After God worked powerfully through them on their mission trip, they too had a paradigm shift. They didn’t seem to be afraid of the presence of God anymore.

What this tells me is that personal experiences with God are catalysts for the renewed mind that Paul speaks of in Romans 12:1-2. Most believers have not had profound spiritual experiences with the Father, Son or Spirit. They believe they are saved by faith and do see the goodness of God and his blessings in ordinary ways in their lives. But if you asked them if he will heal them miraculously or raise a loved one from the dead they would not even entertain the possibility. They distrust spiritual experiences in general and shy away from them as a potential source of deception. They will live saved but powerless lives for the most part.

But a believer who has had a radical spiritual experience with God wants more. He or she does not fear it or avoid it but seeks it out. They run toward miracles, not away from them. Like the demonized man who was delivered, they want more. Those who have been insulated from those experiences will, like the disciples in Mark 4-5, typically feel fear as they see a supernatural move of God and move away from it.

The difference in believers can be marked. When the city folks asked Jesus to leave, the demonized man wanted nothing more that to follow Jesus wherever he went. But Jesus told him to stay in the area and simply tell people what God had done for him. When Jesus later returned to the area, crowds were waiting to hear his every word. The man with a God experience had done the job.

Supernatural encounters are good for the soul. When we begin to desire them rather than fear them because we know we can find more of Jesus there, we can know we are well on our way to a renewed mind. Paul says that when our mind has been renewed then we will be transformed. For some, even that prospect is fearful. They think that to be transformed is to lose yourself, yet the opposite is true. It is in transformation that we find the person we were always meant to be and experiencing a few weird nights or Sunday mornings is worth it to find the you that God intended.

One of the most mesmerizing passages in the Bible is found in Isaiah 6. There the prophet declares, “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.”

Apparently, Isaiah was given an open vision into heaven where he saw the glory of the Lord in the heavenly temple. Isaiah’s initial response was one of terror as he measured his weakness, frailty, and even sinfulness against the holiness of God. In the moment of the vision he cried out, “Woe to me. I am ruined. For I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” The expectation in the Old Testament was that a man would die if he ever looked on the face of God as God had warned Moses on Mt. Sinai. However, Moses was in the very presence of God while Isaiah was seeing him through a vision. And yet, the effect of feeling defiled and filthy in the presence of “the Lord of All” was still devastating.

The good news was that an angel took a burning coal from the altar (probably the altar of incense that stood just outside the Holy of Holies in the temple) with a pair of tongs and touched the prophet’s mouth with it, declaring him forgiven and his sin atoned for. At that point, Isaiah was ready to stand before God and receive his commission to go preach to the rebellious nation of Israel. It’s interesting that Isaiah measured his sin and the sin of the nation, by the words that he and the nation had spoken. The burning coal was placed on his lips as if to purify his speech. One again we are reminded that words matter.

I wish that Isaiah had been more artistically minded and had given us a more detailed description of what he saw…colors, light, radiance, lines, proportions, music in the background, etc. But what he does reveal is a God so big that even the hem or the train of his robe filled the temple. Seraphim, a special class of angel, surrounded the throne declaring the holiness of God. “Holy, Holy, Holy” was the chorus. Perhaps, the triple holy was for emphasis like exclamation points. Or, perhaps, it was in recognition of the Father, Son, and Spirit. When the seraphim spoke the doorposts of the eternal temple shook and the palace was filled with smoke. If the servants are that powerful, how much greater is the master? If the servants are that impressive, how much more impressive is the one they serve? Whatever details Isaiah left out, he was overwhelmed by the vision. The greatness, the power, the glory, the holiness, and the majesty of God made Isaiah want to melt.

But why the vision? There seem to be two possible reasons for the vision and the timing of the vision and both are probably true. First of all, the reign of King Uzziah was either about to end or has just come to an end after 52 years on the throne in Jerusalem. The transition of power in those days could often be bloody and violent. In the history of Israel, civil wars had broken out over who would replace a king who has just died. Assassinations were not unheard of to remove new kings before they could consolidate their power. In those days, many more kings turned out to be evil than good and the judgment of God was always standing in the shadows just off stage. In fact, although Uzziah had been a faithful king until his latter years, the people as a whole were both idolatrous and rebellious. The future had to be uncertain – even to the prophet.

So, here was God still on his throne regardless of who was on the throne in Jerusalem. There was no weakness in heaven, no panic, no uncertainty and no king who would leave a vacant throne some day. Isaiah was reminded in his vision that his God was still ruling in heaven, full of power and majesty. He was still in control and he would still care for his own. In a year of great uncertainty, even the prophet needed the reminder of where the true king and true power resided. In our own year of great uncertainty, we need the same vision. We need to be reminded that our salvation is not in the Republican Party or the Democrat Party but in heaven where there is no corruption, no voter fraud, and no untested candidates.

A second reason for the vision was that Isaiah was about to be given an assignment to go out and preach to a hostile crowd that was not always adverse to killing or jailing prophets who were calling them to repentance. As he received his orders, he also needed to know that an unimaginable power in heaven would be his covering, his protection, and his provision. He needed to know that had qualified him for his mission by taking away his sin. Whatever God will be calling us to in the decade to come, we may also need to know that. To some degree, our faith is only as big as our God, our security is only as big as our God, our boldness is only as big as our God.

Isaiah reminds us that we have an immense God who is not detached from us at all but rather had laid plans for our redemption before the foundation of the world and announced it once again through his prophet Isaiah. In the last few verses of Isaiah 6, God tells the prophet that judgment is coming and that Israel would be cut down like a tree but, in the stump, a holy seed would remain that would someday be the salvation and restoration of Israel. That Holy Seed would be Jesus, the Messiah.

Interestingly, John quotes Isaiah 6:10 in the 12^th chapter of his gospel (Jn.12:48) and tells us that Isaiah was actually seeing Jesus and his glory in this vision. This same Jesus has now regained that glory and intercedes for each of us every day with the Father. This vision simply reminds us as it did Isaiah, that Jesus is big enough, powerful enough, and glorious enough to meet our every need. Even though the world might shake around us he can make us stand. In the face of uncertain politics, crumbling economics, terrorists, the devastating loss of a loved one, a cancer diagnosis, or the rebellion of a child, our God is big enough.

Jesus, the lover of our souls, is big enough and from his throne in heaven reminds us, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you” (Jer.29:11-12).   Isaiah reminds us that when the day is bleak and tomorrow is troubling, do not focus on the problem but the one who overcame death and is big enough to overcome anything that comes our way.

I keep running into Christians who do not take spiritual warfare seriously. Their position is that since the devil has been defeated he has no real power to come against believers. The notion of demonic attack and, especially, the demonization of a believer sound hyper-charasmatic, unsophisticated, antiquated, and even superstitious to them. They tend to relegate all demonic activity to the first century in the same way that cessationists confine the miraculous works of the church to the “age of the apostles.”

It is true that scripture tells us that Jesus triumphed over Satan, judged him, and rendered him powerless. We have to understand those statements, however, in the context of all of God’s word. Look at the following passages that were all written after the resurrection and the announced defeat of Satan and see what you sense about Satan’s activities in the life of believers and his threat to their welfare.

 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Ephesians 6:11

For we wanted to come to you—certainly I, Paul, did, again and again—but Satan stopped us. 1 Thessalonians 2:18

Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. 1 Peter 5:8-9

Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life. Revelation 2:10

However we understand the triumph of Christ over Satan that rendered him powerless, it clearly does not rule out Satan’s ability to wage war against the saints. We are told clearly that we still have a struggle and that struggle is against rulers, authorities, and powers in this dark world and in the heavenly realms. That phrase doesn’t sound as if the dominion of darkness has been totally stripped of all power and authority. It is such a struggle that we must put on spiritual armor and learn to use divine weapons in order to take our stand. We are instructed to be self-controlled and alert because the devil still prowls around looking to devour those who apparently lack self-control and are oblivious to Satan’s activities. Paul also lets us know that Satan can block the plans of Christians and, perhaps, the will of God on this planet. Paul complained that Satan had prevented him from visiting the church at Thessalonica on multiple occasions. Finally, we are told that Satan can launch persecution, imprisonment, and even martyrdom against God’s people.

These verses are written to believers not unbelievers. The warnings are issued to the saints, not to those outside of Christ. Spiritual warfare then is a very real component of the Christian life and must be taken seriously. We are not to be afraid or paranoid but we are to be cautious and wise about Satan’s strategies. The resurrection cancelled Satan’s claim on our eternal souls. It cancelled the power of the law in our lives that brought condemnation. It rendered Satan powerless in terms of his dominion over those who are in Christ and his claim on us but has not taken away his ability to wage war.

Notice that these attacks are from external sources. Jesus promised that all those who were righteous would experience persecution, so external attacks from people who are being directed by Satan are normal in the lives of those who serve Jesus. Temptations from demons who are outside of us and just dropping by to see what can be accomplished are normal as well. We see that dynamic when Satan showed up to tempt Jesus after forty days in the wilderness. Satan tempted Jesus with ungodly promises and taunts three times, but after Jesus resisted him he left with the intention of returning later and trying again at a more opportune time.

However, Satan not only wants to attack God’s people from the outside but would love to get on the inside as well. That is why we are warned, “In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold” (Eph. 4:26-27). Here the warning is not to leave your anger, resentment, and bitterness unattended. To remain in a state of unforgiveness gives the enemy the opportunity to gain a foothold or a place or some standing in our lives. This happens not because the victory of Jesus has failed but because we willingly opened the door and invited the enemy inside by some prolonged disobedience to the commands of God.

Many other verses warn us to be aware of Satan’s schemes and traps so that we don’t give him some legal right to assign demons to us on a permanent basis. When crazy relatives drop by for a few days, we can bear that and still be on our best behavior. But if they move in, after a while their actions and attitudes will wear us down, rob us of our peace, and maybe cause us to act out in ungodly ways. When demons gain a permanent assignment through our actions they can have the same effect. A friend of mine who had years of experience in deliverance ministry used to say, “It’s one thing to wake up in the middle of the night to discover that someone is trying to get into your house. It is another thing to wake up and realize that someone is already in your house.” We want to keep the enemy out by refusing to give him even a foot in the door. Of course, even when the enemy has gained entrance, he can be still dislodged by our repentance and the authority of Christ. But it is best not to go down that road at all.

Ultimately, scripture is very clear that spiritual warfare is the condition of every Christian life whether we know it or not. We are most vulnerable if we are not sensitive to the attacks of Satan and write them off as simply the normal bumps and bruises of life. That is like an individual who does not know that cancer has assaulted his or her body and thinks the accumulating symptoms are simply normal signs of wear and tear on the body. Catching the assault early is immensely better than discovering if after is has a foothold in your entire body. Preventing it in the first place is even better. Every Christian then should be equipped for spiritual warfare and equipped in the use of divine weapons by which we wage war in the heavenly realms. Those who do not receive that instruction are most vulnerable and even helpless in the face of the enemy.   So, to every believer…be wise, be equipped, and be victorious.