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

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

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

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

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

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

An interview with the woman went something like the following:

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

A:  Any church.

Q: Where did this anger originate?

A: From their not believing it was real.

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

A:  Yes.

Q: And the prayer group there?

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

Q: That was three years ago?

A: Yes, and I did.

Q: How did you cause division?

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

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

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

Q:  What power do you have?

A: I’d rather not have it.

Q: What power is it?

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

Q:  The power to help?

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

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

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

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

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

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete.  2 Corinthians 10:3-6

This is a very well known passage from the writings of Paul, but I’m not sure how many Christians actually know how to use divine weapons or even know what they are.  The Greek word translated as stronghold is an ancient  military term that means a fortified place.  A fortified place implies that someone has intentionally built up defenses to protect something. Strongholds, as Paul uses the term, are well established belief systems deep within us that are opposed to God’s truth.  In the context of Paul’s writing, these strongholds or belief systems actively argue against God’s truth.

The word translated as pretensionmeans anything that arrogantly sets itself up above the word of God.  Anything that wants to exalt itself above God or his word is demonic.  Isaiah, speaking of Satan said, “How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ But you are brought down to the grave, to the depths of the pit” (Isa. 14:12-15). The word translated as demolishcan also mean “to dethrone.”  These strongholds are built and reinforced by Satan and contain thoughts that always want to argue against and exalt themselves above God’s truth.

Undoubtedly, each of us has to contend with some measure of strongholds in our life.  We are constantly bombarded by the belief systems of the world from childhood as we listen to television, read books, attend secular schools, pick up the strongholds of our parents, etc.  On top of that, we have experiences that establish beliefs about ourselves, God, and life in general and act as filters for every subsequent experience we have. For instance, an abused child will walk away from that abuse believing that something is so defective in him or her that they cannot be loved. Why else would a parent treat them that way? An abandoned child may grow up believing that, sooner or later, everyone they love will leave them.  Others will grow up in homes where whatever they did was “never good enough” and so will always struggle with feelings of incompetence and fears of failing.  Others will experience some disappointment and walk away believing that God doesn’t hear their prayers. These strongholds begin as some childhood conclusion we draw from a hurtful experience but then Satan reinforces those beliefs that oppose God’s truth.

Each of those strongholds will limit a person in life and in relationships. Each of those strongholds produces beliefs contrary to the word of God when it comes to those who are born again and have a destiny in Christ. God says he will never leave us or forsake us.  He tells us that we are more than conquerors in Jesus Christ and that nothing can separate us from his love.  He tells us that he has made us competent and that we can do all things through Jesus.  He tells us that whatever we ask for in the name of Jesus that is aligned with his word will get his full hearing. As long as we have persistent thoughts that are not aligned with God’s truth, strongholds exist that war against and argue against our faith and our obedience.

When believers hear these scriptures enough, they come to believe them on an intellectual level but may not believe them in their hearts.  They tend to believe them for others but not themselves or always have a “Yes, but…” response when called on to believe a promise enough to act on it.

Those belief systems that are buried deep within us are reinforced by the demonic realm at every opportunity.  In the parable of the sower, Satan comes to steal the seed which represents the word of God before it can put down roots and bear fruit. When strongholds exist, the enemy will provide any number of reasons not to believe God’s truth when it is offered. Because these strongholds are places fortified by the lies of the enemy as he operates in the spiritual realm, it takes divine weapons to dismiss the demons that keep rebuilding the walls of those lies and divine weapons to destroy the stronghold.

Counseling and therapies that do not engage the enemy on a spiritual playing field will not be able to truly demolish these spiritual fortifications.  We may learn to manage our issues to some degree or learn coping skills, but that is far from freedom and victory over the issue.  Most churches still send their members out to counselors who do not believe in or have skills in spiritual warfare, although Paul clearly says our struggles are not against flesh and blood but spiritual powers. Even churches that have counselors on staff, typically have counselors who were trained in secular approaches to counseling.  They may pray and offer a scripture but do not know how to confront the enemy and exercise authority to break these strongholds. Because of that, only a small percentage of Christ’s body actually walks in the full freedom that Jesus has purchased for them.

Divine weapons include Spirit-led counseling, the spiritual gifts of discernment, healings, wisdom, revelation, deliverance, prayer, hearing God, and so forth. If you think about it, most strongholds are established as a result of some intense experience or trauma.  Most life-altering transformations also occur as a result of an experience with God –  Moses at the burning bush, Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus, the apostles seeing the resurrected Christ and experiencing the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, Gideon watching an angel ascend in flames, the servant of Elisha seeing chariots of fire all around him, Jewish neighbors seeing Lazarus emerge from his tomb and so forth.  Divine weapons allow us to experience the presence and power of God so that strongholds are discredited, demolished, and them replaced by the truth that comes through encounters with God. It often takes an experience with God to overwrite what we have believed because of an experience with Satan.

In addition, a huge part of destroying strongholds is offering obedience in every part of our life.  Many believers don’t experience freedom because they withhold slices of their lives from God and do not willingly submit to him in the areas of relationships, giving, entertainment, forgiveness, addictions, and so forth.  Each area that remains “unsubmitted” to Jesus is an open door for the enemy to come in and rebuild the very fortifications they are trying to tear down. Paul says, “we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete” (2 Cor. 10:5).  In other words, when we have submitted all of our life to Jesus, then those who oppose us in the spiritual realm and the natural realm will be punished or caused to suffer by God. When we are obedient, demons can be driven out and the strongholds they have defended can be torn down.

I would venture to say that nearly every believer has some stronghold that remains within him or her – myself included. So many strongholds have been with us for so long that we don’t even recognize them.  They seem like a natural part of who we are and the enemy has provided numerous justifications for our beliefs that don’t line up with the Word.

Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal any strongholds that exist so that divine weapons can be applied and the stronghold torn down. In its own way, every stronghold is a form of bondage though we may not recognize it is that.  A stronghold is simply a slice of our thought life that has been taken captive by Satan.  Our goal should to surrender every thought to Jesus because surrendering to Jesus truly brings freedom.  An essential part of deliverance is discovering these strongholds and pulling them down. Giving some serious thought to our personal strongholds on a regular basis is also essential to becoming all that he wants us to be.

In my last blog I talked about the dangers of compromise in our spiritual lives.  I referenced Solomon in that blog but I think he deserves a closer look than we were able to give him then.

By all accounts, Solomon stunned the world as the King of Israel.  His wealth, his wisdom, his knowledge, and his strategies were legendary even in his own day. He was the son of King David and God had promised David that there would always be one of his descendants on the throne of Israel as long as those descendants followed the commands of God. When Solomon was a young king, he experienced a visitation from God who told him he would grant whatever request he offered.  In a moment of brilliance, Solomon asked for wisdom to rule God’s people.  Because he asked for wisdom rather than wealth, power, or long life, God graciously promised him all those things as well as wisdom.  In a sense, the words of Jesus were fulfilled that if we seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, all the other things needful for life will be given to us.

Solomon began his reign in a stellar fashion.  He secured the kingdom from his enemies, he built the magnificent temple for God that his father David had envisioned, and he built his own palace that amazed all who saw it.  His wisdom was known throughout the Middle East and other kings came or sent envoys just to ask him questions.  God gave him victory in every battle and eventually peace on his borders.

One famous visitor was the Queen of Sheba who said, “The report I heard in my own country about your achievements and your wisdom is true. But I did not believe these things until I came and saw with my own eyes. Indeed, not even half was told me; in wisdom and wealth you have far exceeded the report I heard. How happy your men must be! How happy your officials, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom! Praise be to the Lordyour God, who has delighted in you and placed you on the throne of Israel. Because of the Lord’s eternal love for Israel, he has made you king, to maintain justice and righteousness” (1 Kings 10:6-9).  She was amazed at everything she saw and, as it should be, his giftedness directed her to give glory to his God.

Solomon surpassed every expectation that anyone could have ever imagined for his reign.  And yet, he died as a failure. The text says, “King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women… They were from nations about which the Lordhad told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lordhis God, as the heart of David his father had been. He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites. So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lordcompletely, as David his father had done. On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites. He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods.  The Lordbecame angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. Although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the Lord’s command” (1 Kings 11:1-10).

The question for us becomes, “How could the wisest man in history who had two personal visitations from the Lord and who knew well the promise that God had made to David about faithful sons, lose his way?”

First of all, Solomon asked for wisdom to rule Israel.  That may not be the same as spiritual wisdom.  We can ask God to give us wisdom for business, creativity for the entertainment industry, a best selling book, a mind for science, and many other things that will advance us in this world, but spiritual wisdom to know how things operate in the heavenly realm can be another thing. One type of wisdom is tied to the affairs of this world while the other is tied to the eternal realm.  The silence and submission that promoted Jesus in heaven, got him crucified on earth.

Secondly, years of amazing success and people bowing before you can cause anyone to forget God…I don’t care who you are. Somewhere in Solomon a seed of self-sufficiency and pride was planted, watered and grew.  The time came when he didn’t fear God or see him as the only true and living God.  Many great spiritual men have fallen because they became “stars” and “celebrities” within the church.  They believed their own press and refused to be accountable to others.  David made some huge mistakes but he still had men and prophets who would speak into his life to warn him and even confront him. Solomon seemed to have no one who could speak to him.

Thirdly, he eventually surrounded himself with unbelieving wives which opened the door to Solomon himself being demonized to the extent that he worshipped the most perverse of the pagan Gods…even those to whom children were sacrificed. The word of God clearly prohibited taking foreign wives and making foreign alliances. And yet, Solomon ignored those laws.  Paul declares the same for us in 2 Corinthians 6 when he commands us not to be yoked together with unbelievers.  Solomon had a weakness for women but excused it and fed it until it consumed him.

We need to be honest with ourselves about our weaknesses and vulnerabilities and we need to build guardrails around ourselves in those areas with prayer, confession, and accountability to some people we trust and respect.  These people must always have our permission to ask questions and give correction when needed.

To excuse, minimize, or justify those weaknesses is an open door to the enemy and if we play the game long enough, we will be deceived.  I am certain Solomon himself fell into that trap. I’m sure he didn’t give into the pleadings of his foreign wives at first.  He most likely tried to evangelize them and point out the greatness of his God for years.  But if we surround ourselves with unbelievers long enough, they will inevitably wear us down and we will be drawn to their way of life…little by little…. but drawn, all the same. One good apple placed in a barrel with rotten apples, will not make them healthy, but the one placed there will become rotten as well. Jesus hung out with sinners as ministry, but surrounded himself with those seeking God the rest of the time.

I’m also confident that Solomon’s wealth and success convinced him that God was all right with his foreign wives and foreign alliances.  That can be the danger of success and we all need to be aware of that danger. God is longsuffering, but his patience should not always be taken as approval.  We need spiritual wisdom to know the difference.

So pray for spiritual wisdom more than wisdom to succeed in this world. Be honest with your vulnerabilities and build guardrails for yourself including some who know what is going on in your life. Watch your relationships with unbelievers and do not open the door for the enemy.  If you find one open, shut it because even Solomon in all his glory finished his life as a failure.

One of Satan’s primary tools against believers and unbelievers as well, is a spirit of offence against God. That spirit prompts us to view God as the source of our pain or loss and paints some episode in which we have been wounded as a betrayal by God. The offence often begins in the form of a question such as “Why did God do this to me?” or “Why did God allow this to happen?” Satan follows up with accusing thoughts suggesting that God doesn’t love us or that he broke his promise to us and therefore cannot be trusted.

This strategy shouldn’t surprise us because it was the first strategy of the devil recorded in scripture. It began with the question from the serpent to Adam and Eve. “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the Garden’” (Gen.3:1). I’m sure he was pointing out an abundance of trees filled with fruits and nuts as he said that. His tone of voice undoubtedly suggested that God was the sort of God who always withheld the best things from his people. When Eve replied that there was only one tree in the garden from which they could not eat and eating from it would produce death, Satan simply replied that they would not die which implied that God was a liar and could not be trusted. Once Adam and Eve accepted the premise, it was downhill from there.

One of the great lies that Satan promotes in the American church is that God has promised that if you serve him faithfully, your life will be trouble free or, at least, the troubles will be light and momentary. With that expectation, anytime loss or serious crisis arises, the believer must either believe that they are so defective that God can’t love them or that God has broken his promise to them. Either one of those conclusions moves us away from God.

The truth is that Christians will most likely face loss, woundedness, disease, and betrayal from other humans in this life. Jesus warns believers that in this world we will face trouble (Jn.16:33). The idea that God is supposed to totally protect us from all hurts while we live in enemy territory in a fallen world is an unbiblical expectation. Look at the “roll call of faith” in Hebrews 11. Some of God’s best people were delivered from trouble after a season of serious suffering while many others were ridiculed, rejected, tortured, flogged, chained, put in prison, stoned, sawed in two, put to death by the sword, and so forth. Jesus was rejected, beaten and crucified. Eleven of the apostles were martyred and the other was exiled to a lonely island. Hundreds or thousands of Christians today in the Middle East and China have been imprisoned, tortured, and killed for their faith.

As believers, we are often shaken with a diagnosis of cancer, a spouse leaving us for another, the unexpected or even tragic death of a loved one, the loss of a job, the failure of a business, a child born with a birth defect, a miscarriage, or the inability to have children altogether. At moments like these, we want everything to make sense as if that somehow would comfort us. I’m sure it makes sense from heaven, but not from this side of the veil. At times like that, we have to hold tightly to the things we do know to keep from being shaken by the things we don’t know. Paul said that we only know in part (1 Cor.13:9). We will have to be content to live with some mystery and some unanswered questions. If we had an answer for everything we would not need faith.

What we do know is that God is good. He is faithful. He cares and his grace will be sufficient if we allow it. We have to know that we are all subject to loss, pain, and betrayal in this world and for it to come is neither a sign of God’s disapproval or any broken promises. The promise is not for a pain free life but that he will walk us through the pain to some good that waits on the other side.

In Psalm 23, David did not say that God would take us around the valley of death but that he would give us hope and courage as we walk through the valley. Paul tells us that God is the God of all comfort who comforts us in our troubles (2 Cor. 1:3). It is in the midst of trouble that we experience his comfort. It’s not that God does not keep us from harm or from the evil one. He protects us more that we will ever know.

There are certainly promises of protection in scripture. But those are balanced with the realities of living in a fallen world in which God chose at the outset to honor the free will of men. That free will can have devastating consequences. By man’s decisions people are betrayed, drunk drivers kill the innocent, spouses enter into adulteress relationships, war’s take the lives of millions, and drug overdoses take the lives if the young. But it is also the very thing that produces real love, sacrifice, compassion, heroism, and faith. The church’s mission is to bring enough people under the saving grace of Jesus Christ that man’s free will becomes a blessing rather than a curse.

They key is to know these realities before trouble comes. If we are living with the paradigm that God only loves us if no pain comes our way, the devil will have no trouble getting us to be offended at God. The key is to know that we all live with the possibility that in this world we will have trouble. Some trouble will be short-lived. Some we will overcome in this life. Some we will gain victory over only in heaven.

Remember that Paul promised that “in all things we are more than conquerors” (Rom.8:17). However, we are conquerors because we can never being separated from the love of God no matter what. Whether in life or death, we will eventually win because our standard for winning is living eternally with Christ. That is where true victory lies regardless of the outcome of our battles in this world. I believe God wants us to live as overcomers in this world, pray for supernatural healing, raise the dead, and believe God for victories here and now. But those victories will usually come after some initial pain, sorrow, and battles. Some victories, however, will simply show up as victory over the grave and victory over the enemy as we refuse to fall to his strategy of alienating us from the God who has prepared a place for us and has promised us eternal life in a place without pain, hate, loss, and betrayal.

Life without pain will eventually be the full expression of God’s love for us, but only when we finally arrive home. Until then, the question is not whether trouble will come but only whether our faith stands when it does arrive. Jesus told us that we will have trouble, so we would not be surprised when it comes. When it comes, we should only hold God tighter and know that he is not absent nor uncaring but has already prepared what we will need to walk through the moment if we will walk with him.

If you believe in the gifts of the Spirit and the full ministry of the Holy Spirit, then you must believe in our capacity as Christians to hear the voice or receive the leading of God. For you that leading may come primarily from the Father, from Jesus, or from the Spirit. It doesn’t matter because each one is God and will give you the same direction and reveal the same heart.

When we start to hear God, we are also responsible for testing the spirits to see if what we are hearing or seeing is from God or another source. John is very clear about our responsibility when he says, “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God” (1 John 4:1-3). To our and detriment and their’s, most believers don’t practice testing enough. Too often we hear a voice or sense a leading and because it feels good we take off on it without questioning its authenticity.

Brad Jersak tells a story in his book ( Canyouhereme?) that is instructive. “On another occasion, a young man came to me voluntarily to test whether he was hearing God accurately. He felt that the Lord was telling him to sleep with his girlfriend. The voice had even used scriptures to justify this direction. He asked me how he could know whether or not this was the voice of God. I felt like arguing with him, but I have learned the hard way how ineffective this is. So, I suggested we test the source directly.

I spoke out, ‘We take up God’s invitation and our authority in Christ to directly test the source of this revelation. If it is the Holy Spirit, we welcome you. If it is another spirit, we summon you to present yourself before the Lord Jesus for testing.’ The young man answered, ‘I see a large dark cloud with lightening crackling around it, and the voice is coming from there.’ In my mind, I thought it might represent the power and the glory of God (/Ezekiel 1) or else the darkness might be our hint. But before I could ask another question, this fellow jumped in his seat. ‘I just heard a voice from behind me say, ‘Nice try,’ and then Jesus stepped up and blew the cloud away, There’s just a little gremlin-looking thing where the cloud was … ‘and who are you?’ we asked. It shrugged in defeat, ‘The spirit of the world.’ This was the messenger who had tried to masquerade as the Lord.”

If Brad had not pursued this testing, the young man could have assumed that the voice was from God. After all, he quoted scripture and appeared as an Old Testament image of God. I’m confident that the young man had invited this spirit by nurturing his fleshly desire to sleep with his girlfriend, otherwise he would have dismissed the voice immediately because it was clearly contrary to God’s word. Even when listening for God’s voice, we must be careful not to simply hear what we want to hear and disregard the rest. When I was involved in campus ministry years ago, it was remarkable how many young men in our college group had received a “word from the Lord” that they were to marry the same girl in our college group – perhaps, because she was the prettiest.

In testing the spirits, we should not be paranoid but should be careful or at least give due diligence in confirming that something is from God. Paul warned the church at Corinth. “And no wonder! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is not strange if his ministers also disguise themselves as ministers of righteousness” (2 Cor. 11:14-15). These “disguised ministers of righteousness” can work through flesh and blood as they speak through misguided teachers, counselors, divisive church members, false prophets, or mistaken prophets. They can also masquerade as the voice of God as we hear them in our thoughts or see them in our imaginations.

There are several guidelines for testing spirits. Does the spirit or voice reflect the character of Christ and the fruit of the Spirit (Gal.5)? Is it consistent with the Word of God – the whole counsel of God and not just a proof text here or there? Does it draw us to Jesus and point is to holiness and integrity? Does it display love and build us up rather than tearing us down? Does it create peace in our hearts?

One of the best tests is to simply and directly ask Jesus if the word we heard was from him or a source other than God, just as Brad did. We can ask the Spirit to judge the voice by giving us peace in our hearts or by troubling us about it. It is also a great idea to ask a mature believer, who has heard from God for years, if it sounds like God to them. If we are concerned that God might be offended if we question “the voice” or the “prophecy,” remember that he is the one who told us to do so. When we ask, we’re not doubting him or his character, we are simply being careful with our own discernment. It’s a good practice to develop and a good practice to teach young believers.

 Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” 2 Corinthians 6:14

Having stated the principle of separation, Paul gives a list of reasons for the separation. In general, he makes the case that because the Spirit of God lives within you, you are sacred and set apart for exclusive service unto God just as the temple was. Anything that is profane or secular that touches the sacred defiles it. To underline his command, he simply asks a series of rhetorical questions.

He first asks, “What do righteousness and wickedness have in common?” and “What fellowship can light have with darkness?” He lists two incompatible things that are polar opposites. In many cases, we are so desensitized to the world that we often don’t see wickedness for what it is. The Greek word is anomia which means lawlessness. Righteousness is living based on God’s standards or God’s law. Of course, we don’t always measure up to his standards but we have an “imputed” righteousness through the blood of Christ and an innate desire to live up to the standards. An unbeliever does not submit to the law of God nor does he desire to but lives by a set of worldly standards that have been established by the prince of this world. Although those standards may have an appearance of goodness and morality, the basis for the standards is polar opposites. The righteousness of the kingdom is based on the moral nature of a holy God who will judge men and nations. Worldly standards always place man as the judge of all things and truth as his truth rather than the creator’s truth.

The world can imitate goodness and morality but at the core, righteousness exalts God while wickedness exalts man and self. Eventually, that road will lead us away from God and the fallen nature will have its way. When speaking of light and darkness Paul simply reminds us that they too are incompatible. Fellowship implies close and harmonious association. Darkness is the absence of light and light pushes out darkness. They cannot coexist in the same space. From God’s perspective, believers are incompatible with unbelievers because the Holy Spirit living in us makes us so different from the unredeemed that we can only be contrasted not compared. Again, I think our desensitization to the sin and self-centeredness around us dims our awareness of how different children of light are from children of darkness. But God does not lose sight of the vast difference.

Paul then raises he question, “What harmony is there between Christ and Belial?” Belial seems to be one of several Greek names for the god of the underworld and is a reference to Satan. Believers belong to Christ while unbelievers belong to Satan. Most unbelievers are unaware that Satan owns them and would deny that they serve him but there is no spiritual Switzerland – no neutrality in the spiritual realm. We either belong to Christ or we belong to Satan and the two have declared war on one another. There is no peace between the two kingdoms and to be yoked to an unbeliever opens the door to the presence of the enemy. Satan will always use his subjects to draw you away from Christ. To be in a binding relationship with an unbeliever is making an alliance with the one who rules over him or her and that “ruler” is bent on destroying you.

Paul then summarizes his point by asking what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever. Of course, you might answer that you both like baseball or that you both need love and purpose and those things would be true, but Paul is talking about our natures, our allegiances, our purpose, and our destination. From Paul’s perspective, you have nothing eternal in common with an unbeliever.

Paul finishes with the rhetorical question, “What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God.” This again raises the question of the sacred mixing with the profane. The temple and everything in it was dedicated to the service of God. Because the presence of God was in the temple, great care had to be taken to purify all of the grounds and instruments related to the temple from sin. Sacrificial blood was sprinkled on everything on a regular basis to cleanse the temple and its furnishings from the defilement of sin. Any bowls, knives, plates, tables, censers, etc. that were used in the temple services were to be destroyed if they were ever used for ordinary purposes. Once you have been dedicated to the service of God you are not to involve yourself in anything that will defile you. In addition, idols are always associated with demon worship in both the Old and New Testaments and so Paul is declaring that to be yoked with unbelievers not only connects you to profane things that defile your sacred standing with God but also brings you into agreement with demons and empowers them in your life.

Our problem is that we don’t value the presence of God within us and the holiness of God as we should. We become careless with it and often compromise with the world and may even yoke ourselves to what is unholy in the eyes of God. But God calls us to be separate and to serve him only. He is not calling us to isolate ourselves from the world because them we could not rescue the lost from the dominion of darkness but we are to maintain a separation in our hearts and refuse to make alliances binding agreements, and covenants with anyone or anything that is not willingly submitted to Christ and made clean by his Spirit. Those relationships will always pressure us to compromise.

That does not mean that we separate ourselves from the lost or refuse to love them because God loves them. Jesus associated with sinners but never came into agreement with their values and never bound himself to them in order to win their approval or even their love. He never compromised his allegiance to the Father or his mission. Paul’s challenge is this section of scripture is for us to never forget who we are, who we belong to, and who lives within us. We must consider ourselves and all those who have the Spirit of Christ within them as sacred – as holy ground. We must also remember that those outside of Christ belong to the devil and have the spirit of disobedience within them. Our job is to bring them into the light not to participate with them in their darkness. You are holy. You are sacred. You house the presence of God. Live like it.

 Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”                       2 Corinthians 6:14

Sometimes it’s very beneficial to go back to familiar texts to see what else the Spirit will show you. The word of God always has more and is layered with truths. Jesus said, “Therefore every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old” (Mt.13:52-53). Each time you study the Word, whether an unfamiliar passage or a very familiar passage, you find not only confirmation of truths you have already discovered but discover new truth as well. The passage above is a familiar passage but I felt prompted to consider it again. It will take two blogs to do it justice so I hope you will bear with me. It is a very important text.

The first verse is usually translated as the NIV translates it above saying, “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. ” Some translations like the ESV say, “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.” The idea is rooted in Old Testament law. Under the Old Covenant the Jews were not to intermarry with surrounding tribes who did not worship Jehovah (Dt.7:3) or plow with different types of animals in the same yoke (Dt.22:10). There were a number of laws that reinforced the principle of separation and purity even to the extent of not weaving garments out of two kinds of thread or material. The idea that God’s people are to live distinct lives driven by kingdom goals and values without worldly influence is a constant theme in both the Old and New Testaments. The root word translated as yoked means to be in agreement with. It also carries the idea of being influenced or tied together by covenants. When animals are yoked together they are bound and the movements of one influence the other. Not only was Israel to never marry those outside the covenant but also was never to make any treaties with foreign nations. Of course, they violated that principle over and over and the inevitable outcome was that Israel compromised her values in order to maintain the alliance and as a result alienated themselves from God and his blessings.

The apostle Paul clearly tells us that we are to avoid relationships with unbelievers that yoke us together in any kind of covenant or alliance because there are spiritual implications to those relationships. The truth is that you cannot enter into that level of relationship with an unbeliever and maintain that relationship without compromising your spiritual values. Throughout his writings, Paul is clear that the unsaved cannot understand or agree with spiritual matters because they do not have the Spirit of Christ in them. To them, many of your values will seem quaint, naïve, or unreasonable because their thinking is darkened. To maintain a relationship will create constant conflict unless you compromise your values and perspectives to some degree. It cannot be any other way. Think about how hard it is to maintain relationships even with those who do have the Spirit of God within them much less those who do not. Those who do not have the Spirit of Christ are darkened in their understanding (Eph.4:18) and are blinded by the god of this age (2 Cor.4:4). They may say they agree with you but cannot and because of that, there will be a slow but steady pressure in the relationship for you to compromise your relationship with the Father.

These “yoked” relationships that Paul had in mind probably had marriage at the top of the list. In Ezra 10, as the Israelites were rededicating themselves to the Lord, all those who had married non-Jews and even had children by them had to put away those wives and children because they were defiled by the relationships. Even Solomon, toward the end of his life, was drawn into idol worship by foreign wives he had taken for himself. Many of those were products of foreign alliances in which he took the daughter of another king to cement an alliance. For all of his wisdom, he was still drawn into a seriously compromised spiritual position because he allowed himself to be yoked with unbelievers. Yoking brings us into agreement with another and whatever or whoever we agree with we empower.

In addition to marriage covenants these yoked relationships can also include political alliances, business partners, dating relationships, and best friends. It is also important to know that Paul was not just giving wise counsel but was giving a command to believers. Whether or not your friend, your partner, or your love interest are aware of it, your yoking with that unbeliever gives Satan power in your life. When you enter into a binding relationship legally or relationally with unbelievers, you are entering into an alliance with the one they serve. We need to think seriously about that before joining ourselves to others that do not belong to God. That joining can take many forms and we will consider those in Part 2.

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.

The Book of Nehemiah is the story of a man who was sent by God to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem that had lain in disrepair for years after the Babylonians had destroyed the city. The walls of a city marked its strength, its size, and its boundaries. They provided protection against all enemies and the more impressive the wall the more impressive were the citizens of a city. The walls of Jerusalem were essentially rubble. So extensive was the damage that no one had bothered to rebuild the walls in years.

By the providence of God, Nehemiah was given permission by King Artaxerxes of Persia to return to his native land and repair the walls. The hostility of the neighboring tribes around Jerusalem was as great then as it is now. They delighted in the ruins of Jerusalem and would have blotted out the Jewish race if it had been in their power to do so. When Nehemiah arrived and began to rebuild the walls, the tribes around them began to strategize ways to prevent the wall from being built. There are three main characters in the story that oppose Nehemiah – Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arab.

When the work began they immediately mocked and ridiculed the effort. Their strategy was discouragement and mocking as they tired to convince the Jews that they were not up to the task and that all their efforts would end in failure (see Neh. 2:19). They also accused them of rebelling against the king by rebuilding the wall. Even though Nehemiah had letters from the king giving him authority to rebuild, the enemies of God kept insisting that his authority was fraudulent. Nehemiah’s response was simple. He declared that God would give them success and that the surrounding tribes had no part or say in or power over what God’s people were doing.

As the story progresses, Sanballat and Tobiah continued to ridicule the work that was being done. They kept pointing out the ultimate impossibility of the task and that what had already been done was inferior and would not stand (Neh. 4:1-3). They kept declaring that even though the Jews might make an effort and a start, ultimately the task would be too hard and what was built would not last. Their efforts would prove to be pointless. Nehemiah simply prayed for strength and victory.

As the wall began to take shape, the enemies of Jerusalem began to panic. “They plotted to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it” (Neh. 4:8). Burt again, Nehemiah prayed and posted a guard against the threat. As fear and discouragement began to creep into the hearts of God’s people, Nehemiah’s response was, “Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord who is great and awesome and fight…” His counsel was to get their minds off their own ability or capacity and fix their minds on the strength and power of God who had called them to the task.

Toward the end of chapter 4, the threat of attack had risen so that the people carried building materials in one hand and a weapon in the other. They knew that God might not keep them from conflict but would give them victory over the enemy if they would stand and fight.

In Chapter 6, the wall was completed though the gates had yet to be reset. At that point, Sanballat and Geshem invited Nehemiah to a meeting to ostensibly discuss peace regarding the wall. Peace often means compromise and, in this case, was seen as a ploy to get him away from Jerusalem and simply kill him. Nehemiah’s response was on point. “I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?” Four times they sent me the same message, and each time I gave them the same answer” (Neh.6:3-4). Their response was a threat to slander Nehemiah before the king with a report claiming that not only was Nehemiah rebuilding the wall but was also planning a revolt against Persia and planning to have himself declared king over Israel. Nehemiah could have stopped building and run back to Persia to defend himself, but instead he simply told them that their accusations were untrue and continued to build the wall.

The next ploy of Nehemiah’s enemies was to frighten him with reports that assassins were on the way so that he must leave the work and retreat to a safe place. Nehemiah saw through the scheme and recognized it simply as an intimidation tactic. His response was, “Should a man like me run away?” He knew that, as a leader, if he gave into intimidation and ran the rest of his people would lose heart. Even if he thought the report might be true, he hand to stand and trust God to save him.

In the face of all the intrigue and opposition, the text says, “So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days. When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God” (Neh.6:15-16).

To rebuild the wall in 52 days was a miracle. God didn’t do it for his people but did it with his people and moved them to work through a man he sent to lead them. What I notice in this is that Satan uses the same tactics against each of us when we try to move ahead on assignments or a dream given us by the Lord.

First of all, he mocks and ridicules our idea or the idea that God might do something great through us. His first attempts are always to make us feel unqualified or disqualified to do the work of the Lord. How many things may God have given us to do that we never picked up because we felt unqualified for the task?

Secondly, he impugned their motives. He accused them of having rebellion in their hearts as they began to rebuild. How often does Satan accuse us of having selfish or fleshly motives for the things we want to do for God. If we are spiritual we want pure motives for the things we undertake. To begin to dissect our motives and over- analyze our hearts can create emotional paralysis that side tracks us in the very beginning.

If we push ahead on the thing God has put in our hearts and begin to create something, Satan’s next scheme is to convince us of how inferior our work is and that it will fail and we will be ridiculed by men. We suddenly will see every weakness or imperfection in our attempts to serve God and will begin to feel foolish forever thinking we could accomplish something significant.

If we continue, even in the face of self-doubt, Satan will then offer distractions to get our focus off the call on our lives and onto other things. These will not necessarily be sinful things. In fact, they will probably be good things…but not the one thing God has called you to accomplish. If there has been opposition to the goal you are pursuing for the Lord, those who have opposed you may try to get you to compromise your vision or your dream for the sake of peace.

Finally, if you still continue to push ahead he may try intimidation and place seeds of fear in your mind. You may begin to imagine illness, poverty, the loss of loved ones, the loss of financial security, etc. if you continue your pursuit of a ministry, a career God has called you to, the writing of a book or a song, raising godly children, or life in the mission field.

Nehemiah faced each of those challenges but never waivered from the task. He was sure that God would resource him, protect him, and direct him to fulfill the work God had given him to do. He had insight into the devil’s schemes and knew what it was when it came his way. We need to be wise as well and also aware of his strategies so that we are not deterred by his ploys against us. If you have drifted from a call or a dream that you believe God gave you in the past, take a close look to see if you fell prey to one of the devil’s schemes. Recognize it. Renounce it. Repent of coming into agreement with the enemy and get back to the call and promises of God that once moved you. There is a miracle that God wants to do through each one of us. Blessings in Him today.

In his book, When Heaven Invades Earth, Bill Johnson has an interesting take on one element of spiritual warfare. He says, “First, God makes us strong and then he stirs up the devil’s hatred toward us. Why? It’s not because he wants to create problems for His Church. It’s because He likes to see the devil defeated by those who are made in His image, who have a relationship of love with Him by choice. We are His delegated authority. It is His delight to have us enforce the triumph of Jesus.”

I believe that statement is true but there is still a part of me that doesn’t warm up to that truth. I don’t like to be roused from my comfort zone to face an irritating enemy. I don’t like my world being rocked when I have just found the right balance and am peacefully coasting along. I find myself, like Rodney King, asking, “Can’t we all just get along?” Unfortunately, the answer is No. We live in a war zone and will until the King returns to cast the enemy and his angels into the lake of fire.

My problem is that while Jesus came to preach a selfless, other-centered gospel, I too often still make it a self-centered gospel. I too often seek the blessings for myself rather than relentlessly looking for others who need them more than I do. I too often worry about my comfort and security rather than the pain, poverty, and discomfort of those around me. As Americans, we tend to be self-centered consumers looking for a church that ministers to us and meets our needs rather than a church that is sacrificing and kicking down the doors of hell. That kind of self-centeredness robs the kingdom and us individually of both power and joy.

Regarding joy, Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit…” Those who are poor in spirit don’t demand much for themselves and often don’t think of themselves at all. Modern psychologists would say that such a mindset is a sure sign of self-hatred and a sure formula for depression. But Jesus said that those whose focus is primarily on others and not their own glory, happiness, entitlements, etc. are the truly blessed people of the world.

Philip Yancey put it this way. “My career as a journalist has afforded me opportunities to interview ‘stars,’ including NFL football greats, movie actors, music performers, best-selling authors, politicians, and TV personalities. These are the people who dominate the media. We fawn over them, pouring over the minutiae of there lives: the clothes they wear, the food they eat, the aerobic routines they follow, the people they love, the toothpaste they use. Yet I must tell you that, in my limited experience…our idols are as miserable a group of people as I have ever met. Most have troubled or broken marriages. Nearly all are incurably dependent on psychotherapy. In a heavy irony, these larger-than-life heroes seem tormented by self-doubt.

I have also spent time with people I call ‘servants.’ Doctors and nurses who work among the ultimate outcasts, leprosy patients in rural India. A Princeton graduate who runs a hotel for the homeless in Chicago… Relief workers in Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Bangladesh and other repositories of human suffering…I was prepared to honor and admire these servants, to hold them up as inspiring examples. I was not prepared to envy them. Yet as I now reflect on the two groups side by side, stars and servants, the servants clearly emerge as the favored ones, the graced ones. Without question, I would rather spend time among the servants than the stars: they possess qualities of depth and richness and even joy that I have not found elsewhere…Somehow, in the process of losing their lives they find them” (Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew, p.117-1180.

It seems that Jesus knew what he was talking about and I think, in reflection, that the less we obsess about ourselves, our needs, our wants, our security, the more room we make for God and the love of God that we crave. The more of God we have, the more joy, authority, and even power we have to fight the inevitable wars on this planet against the devil. God does many things to get us to focus on him. He is not an egotist. He simply wants the best for us. When we are full of ourselves or even full of concern for ourselves there is little room for Jesus.

If we truly want to excel in spiritual warfare, then we must fix our eyes on Jesus not on ourselves. Greatness and joy in the kingdom, come when we seek it for others more than ourselves. The cross is the ultimate example of that truth. In the days ahead, it would be a good practice to check my “self-ometer” from time to time to make sure that there is truly room for God. The more of me that is in the tank, the less room there is for the very things I say I want most that can come only from the Father. Sometimes my own self-focus and concern for self is a more formidable enemy than Satan.