Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.  Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.  For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.  Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. (Eph.6:10-13).

In my last blog, we looked at Paul’s teaching regarding worldly weapons and divine weapons in 2 Corinthians 10. He is clear that the church must employ divine weapons infused with divine power because the real battles are fought in the spiritual realm. Paul pulls back the curtain on the spiritual realm in the text above.

He begins by counseling us to be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Strength is found in the Lord as he releases his mighty power. The word for power here is not “dunamis” but “kratei” which means the force inherent in a person or thing such as the withering force of a category five hurricane. When we speak of the power of a king, we usually mean the power that he can command in his armies. The power does not rest in him personally but in the numbers of those that serve him. This power (kratei) actually rests in God with or without angelic armies to back him up. That word makes sense when we remember that God alone not only spoke the natural universe into existence but the spiritual realm as well – including his angelic armies. So our strength is to come from trusting in the Lord and the power that he personally brings to bear on our situation. That power is greater than anything we can imagine, so that is a very good place to stand.

Secondly, we discover that God expects us to take up the battle and to stand against the enemy. My first response to that revelation is that I would much rather God just handle things for me. He has the power and might to sweep away the enemy without me leaving the house and some days that would be my great preference. That however, is not how God operates. Many of the events and doctrines of the Old Testament were “types” and “shadows” of things to come (see Rom.5:14; Heb.11:19; Col.2:16-17; Heb.10:1). In other words, they were imperfect forerunners or hints of greater realities that God would bring to pass in the future that still give us insights into the reality. For instance, Moses was a “type” of Jesus who was sent by God as a deliverer for God’s people. The temple sacrifices and the festivals were “types” and “shadows” of the sacrifice of Jesus, the Lamb of God. The Red Sea crossing was a “type” of baptism. The Promised Land of Canaan was a “type” of our salvation.

After forty years in the wilderness, God brought a believing generation of Hebrews to the brink of the Jordan River to enter the land he had promised to Abraham and his descendants. The problem was that Canaan was still full of powerful tribes and walled cities like Jericho who had no intention of giving up the land. It would have been no problem for God to destroy these enemies without any effort on the part of the Hebrews. In 2 Kings 19, the king of Assyria laid siege to Jerusalem. King Hezekiah truly was helpless to defend the city but cried out to God for deliverance. The text says, “That night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies! So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew” (2 Kings 19:35-36). God is clearly able to deliver us from our enemies without us breaking sweat. On occasion he does, but that is not the norm.

The norm is that God’s people fight. He goes with us and goes before us but we are called to put on armor and fight. Even when previous generations have won victories, God still leaves us battles to be fought. Joshua did not drive out all of the opposing tribes in Canaan. After his death there were still tribes and cities that had to be conquered. We are told, “The Lord had allowed those nations to remain; he did not drive them out at once by giving them into the hands of Joshua. These are the nations the Lord left to test all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan (he did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience)” (Judges 2:23-3:2).

Those tribes were tribes who worshipped idols and those idols represented demons (Dt.32:16-17). God still calls on us to fight against demonic forces today. In the battle, we draw closer to God, increase our faith, and gain strength. In the battle we learn the realities of the spiritual realm, the authority of our King, the heavenly joy of victory, and the comradeship of those who go to battle together.   More about Ephesians 6 in my next blog.

I consistently encounter Christians who assume that demons cannot afflict believers because we belong to Jesus and have the Holy Spirit living within us. They usually say something to the effect that they don’t believe Christians can be “demon-possessed.” I agree with them. I also don’t believe that Christians can be “possessed” by Satan. “Possession” implies ownership and we are certainly owned and possessed by Jesus Christ who purchased us with his blood.

However, possession and affliction (oppression) are two different things. The only character we see in the gospels that comes close to possession is the man who lived among the tombs who had “Legion” camped out inside of him. Even that man would have been more accurately described as “demonized” rather than possessed and there are many levels of demonization. Mary Magdalene had seven demons cast out of her. Others in the gospels seemed to be afflicted by single spirits.

While we all agree that believers cannot be possessed by demons, many would argue that no demon can attach himself or take up residence within a believer because light (the Holy Spirit) cannot tolerate darkness (the demonic) and so would not allow any demonic presence to abide in the believer. I remember one woman who had witnessed a number of believers experience deliverance at a weekend where we were ministering to the church. She was amazed that so many non-Christians had been in church that weekend seeking deliverance.

Let me say a couple of things about demons taking up residence with believers and, thus, sharing a space with the Holy Spirit. First of all, we need to understand than demonization is not a salvation issue but a sanctification issue. People come to Jesus all the time with tons of sin and baggage in their life that is just as offensive to the Spirit as a demon. We believe that upon their confession of faith they are saved and the Spirit takes up residence within them while sin still remains. Then, the Spirit begins the process of conviction and transformation that will uproot the sin in a believer’s life over time. In the meantime, many immature believers are still struggling with addictions, crazy theology, and sinful behaviors including sexual sin, abuse, lying, etc. The Spirit hates all of those things and yet coexists with them inside the believer. Even mature believers can fall into deep sin and addictions but the Holy Spirit does not abandon them. How different is that from some demonic spirit who has found a foothold within a believer because of free will choices made by that believer or someone who has had authority over that believer?

Remember Paul’s admonition to the church at Ephesus to be angry without sinning. He then warns them not to let the sun go down on that anger, otherwise their refusal to deal with that anger through the cross might well give satan a foothold in their life. The word translated “foothold” carries the idea of a sanctuary for worshipping false gods. When Christians persist in sin without repentance, they can give the enemy a place in their life – a legal right to establish a foothold which can then become a stronghold. The Holy Spirit will not revoke our free will or the consequences of our free will. Just as he remains in the midst of our offensive sins he will remain in the presence of a demon we have chosen so as not to abandon us to the enemy.

The demon does not possess us; he has just carved out a place for himself from which to operate in our lives like a terrorist cell in a city. The terrorists don’t own the city but they will harass, torment, and oppress the city as long as they can. If you have ever had squirrels gain access to your attic, you know that they don’t own or possess your house but they can create havoc there and torment you in the middle of the night with the sounds of chewing and small feet running across your ceiling.

Demons afflict and oppress many believers because they have not been taught how to recognize their presence or how to deal with them. When we should be exercising the authority of Christ to regain the freedom that is ours in Jesus, we send believers off to secular counselors and therapists who will not or cannot touch the spiritual realities that are keeping their clients in bondage. My belief is that the church has a great deal of demonic oppression in it because we have let the enemy go unchallenged for generations. (More about that on Wednesday)

In many churches, demons are relegated to the first century and poorly done Hollywood presentations. If many believers think about them at all, they would imagine them to be in third world countries where idols and temples to false gods abound or where people gather in secret rituals to call up the powers of darkness. In general, they give no thought to demons actively afflicting Christians or operating in high-tech nations where the spiritual realm is only depicted in entertainment forms. But let me assure you that demons are real and very active in America – even in conservative West Texas. And let me assure you that they afflict and oppress many Christians who are unaware of their presence or who may sense their presence but do not know what to do about it.

Today, I’m going to begin a short series on the topic in hope that this may alert some believers to the reality and encourage them to become better equipped in the realm of spiritual warfare. Let me say upfront that I am not encouraging an obsession with the demonic. We are to fix our eyes on Jesus not the enemy and He that is in us is certainly greater than he that is in the world. On the other hand, Paul tells us that we should be aware of Satan’s schemes (2 Cor. 2:11), that our struggles are not against flesh and blood but against spiritual powers and authorities and that we should put on the armor of God so that we can stand against the schemes of the devil (Eph.6:11-12). So…let’s begin.

Demonic spirits are a given in scripture. There is no clear explanation of their origins although there are several theories which all seem to be less than satisfying at some point. Like roaches, it’s not as important to know their origins as to know that they are in your house and to know how to deal with them once they have been discovered.

There is not a great deal of discussion in the Old Testament about demons but it is clear that they existed and operated primarily through false religions and idol worship.  

They shall no more sacrifice their sacrifices to goat-demons, after whom they whore. This shall be a statute forever for them throughout their generations. (Lev.17:7, ESV)

They sacrificed to demons, which are not God—gods they had not known, gods that recently appeared, gods your fathers did not fear. (Dt.32:17)

They worshiped their idols, which became a snare to them. They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons. (Ps.106:36-37)

The law clearly prohibited worship to false God’s and connected that worship to demonic spirits. It is not surprising that demons entice men to worship them since that is a quality of Satan as well. There are plenty of people in America who worship false God’s and offer their sacrifices of time, money, and even their families to them. There are also those in America who participate in satanic rituals, voodoo, white magic, black magic, and other occult practices. All of these summon demons and honor those demons to whom they pray. High-tech America is not exempt from idolatry and false religions including Wicca and numerous other organizations. Involvement in the occult – mediums, tarot cards, astrology, etc. – also invites the presence of demonic spirits.

As you transition from the Old Testament to the gospels, you see a much greater awareness of the demonic. Numerous individuals bring family and friends to Jesus and his followers with a clear sense that those people were being tormented by demons. The response was not to convince them that their friends suffered from some form of mental illness but was to simply drive out the demon with the authority of the Lord backing them up. Jesus and his followers were quite convinced of the reality of demons and even declared that deliverance from demons was evidence that the kingdom had come (see Luke 11:20).

Certainly, not everything is demonic. We live in a fallen world with a fallen nature subject to disease, physiological and psychological conditions, and trauma. That would be enough to deal with but a great deal of what torments people today is also demonic – even among believers. More about that in Monday’s blog.

So far, in this series of blogs on healing prayer, I have attempted to make the following points:

• It is the nature and heart of God to heal.
• Illness and disability are the result of sin, directly and indirectly, and fall under “the works of the devil.”
• Although God is willing to heal, there are things that can restrict his response to our prayers.

Issues that may restrict God’s response to healing prayers are: (1) a lack of faith on the part of the one ministering healing or the one receiving healing when there has been ample opportunity for faith to develop. (2) Sin that has not been dealt with through the blood of Christ because it has not been acknowledged or confessed by the one who needs healing. (3) Unforgiveness in the heart of the one needing healing. (4) the failure of those needing healing to even ask for healing.

In addition to the above hindrances to healing, demonic spirits can play a significant role. Numerous times in the gospels, individuals came to Jesus with physical conditions or disabilities such as blindness, deafness, muteness, seizures, back pain, insanity, etc. and Jesus cast out a spirit. Healing then followed the deliverance because the presence of those spirits of manifested as illness. Until a spirit of infirmity is driven out, healing will not occur or will not be sustained.

The spirit is present because something in the life of the individual has given that spirit some ground or legal right to afflict the person. Sometimes the individual has opened the door through unrepented sin or unbelief. Others may be afflicted on the basis of the “sins of the Fathers” or curses spoken over them by those who have had spiritual authority in their lives and sometimes as a result of trauma and fear. In each case, unrepented sin or a curse must be dealt with by confession, repentance, and the blood of Christ so that the authority of the spirit to afflict the individual can be taken away. When that has been accomplished, deliverance can occur and healing may follow.

In addition, there may be times when healing does not occur and we will not know the reason. Those times can be reduced when we help sick people deal with the cause of their illness through a spiritual assessment, repentance, confession and dealing with any spirits who may be manifesting as an illness. When we pray for healing, we typically assume that a spirit may be involved and so simply command any afflicting spirits to leave so that our healing prayers will not be hindered if, in fact, a spirit is the source of the condition.

We need to remember that some supernatural healing is instantaneous while some is progressive. We should not always assume that healing has not occurred if it didn’t happen immediately. Authentic healings can also be lost because of fear and unbelief about healing that did occur. However, experience also tells us that there will still be some mystery as to why some were healed and others were not.

Although some mystery about healing will continue to exist. I am still convinced that healing should be the rule in the church and not the exception. A careful reading of scripture suggests that believers are not immune to illness because we live in a fallen world but when it comes, we can expect healing.

If healing does not occur, we should begin to look for hindrances that have prevented the healing so that God’s grace can flow unobstructed. If we can discover no reason for healing not to occur, and yet someone we love is not healed, our response must be to take no offense at God and continue to pray for others to be healed. If we believe in the supernatural ministry of God, we will have to be willing to live with some unanswered questions while we continue in faith.

In Monday’s blog I will discuss how we pray. Be blessed in Him.

To the angel of the church in Pergamum write: These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword. I know where you live—where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city—where Satan lives. Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality. Likewise you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. (Rev. 2:12-16).

We are continuing to look at the letters to the seven churches of Asia in the beginning chapters of the book of Revelation as an opportunity to check our alignment with the Father so that nothing hinders the flow of the Spirit in our lives. Frequent course corrections are usually needed for all of us if we are to stay aligned with our “true north.” These letters remind us that we can be on track spiritually in parts of our lives while being seriously out-of-step in other parts.

In his admonition to the church in Pergamum, Jesus acknowledged the things they had done that prompted praise from heaven. They had not renounced the name of Jesus or rejected the faith even in the face of brutal persecution. Within the city was a huge altar that was built for sacrifices to Zeus or Athena or both. Some believe this is the throne of Satan referenced in the letter. The city was a center for pagan worship. The bible is clear that demons rather than gods are the power behind any idol so that Satan had a stronghold within this city that warred against the church. The church had held its own when hell had broken out against them and even when Antipas was martyred for the faith. Jesus affirmed them for their faith that had been sustained in a demonic stronghold.

However, their faith wasn’t all that it could be. The real issue among the “faithful” of Pergamum was tolerance. Apparently they tolerated men and women in the church who still participated in idolatry and immorality and who were enticing other believers to join them. In a city with so much demonic influence and immorality it may have seemed that what these individuals promoted was “not so bad” compared to the culture around them and yet Jesus taught that a little leaven will eventually affect the entire loaf. In essence, the culture was impacting the church rather than the church impacting the culture. A little tolerance and a little political correctness may seem to buy the church a little acceptance by the culture but it is offensive to the Spirit. True alignment always seeks the praise of the Father over the praise of men.

Compromise with the culture misaligns us with the Father and his heart. That is true for churches but just as true in our personal lives as well. When we are surrounded by a demonic and debase culture it is easy to compromise with the flesh and the culture by engaging in things that seem “more moral” than what the culture at large is practicing.  After a while, the “more moral than the culture” may become a standard in our lives rather than biblical standards of righteousness. My guess is that this compromise shows up most in movies, television, books, magazines, and web sites that believers frequent.

For instance, many believers feel no hesitation to go to a PG-13 movie because our culture considers the content to be fairly tame. However, what is seen in PG-13 movies now would have been R-rated or even X-rated 50 years ago. The standard for each of us should not be not what the culture considers harmless but what the Spirit finds unoffensive.

Many of us watch television shows that promote homosexuality, adultery, premarital sex, or greed as an acceptable lifestyle with no thought of those things being sin and being highly offensive to the Spirit of God. Compromise with the culture, even in what we watch or read, dulls our spiritual sensitivity to the things that are unholy. They also dull our sensitivity to the things that are holy.

Undoubtedly, when we are committed to live by biblical standards of righteousness we will seem fanatical or prudish to most of the people around us – even to other believers. And yet tolerance and compromise are the very things about which Jesus warned the church at Pergamum. The more aligned we are with the Father’s heart, the more of his Spirit we will experience. Alignment is about saying yes to the things of God and no to the things of the world. May we choose well today so that the power of heaven can flow easily in our lives and may we ask for a spiritual sensitivity to the things that please the Spirit or that grieve him.

We do a lot of equipping in the arena of spiritual warfare. Paul tells us that the church in his day was not unaware of Satan’s schemes. In other words, the mature followers of Christ in Paul’s day had an understanding of how Satan worked and how he laid traps for God’s people. We should have the same awareness, so we equip believers with that knowledge.

The downside of that equipping is that some people then begin to see every event in their life as an attack from Satan. A flat tire is an attack. A cold is an attack. Sugar ants in the kitchen become another harassment from the enemy. Let me be clear. I do believe and teach that many things in our lives that others see as simply events in the natural realm have roots in the spiritual realm and that we are targets of the enemy. I believe that in many cases we should look for spiritual causation before addressing causes that might rest in the natural realm. But, as in most theology, balance is important. The truth lies in the center of the road. Muddy ditches lie on either side.

The balance is that although Satan is real and that demons show up in many situations, we should not give Satan too much credit nor should we fear him. The New Testament teaching is that we should be wise and cautious regarding the enemy but not afraid. Peter tells us to be self-controlled and alert since the devil prowls around like a roaring lion. He did not say to be afraid but to be alert. And he said to avoid the Devil’s reach by exercising self-control. In other words, don’t get caught up in sin and don’t act in impulsive or foolish ways and the devil is not to be a big concern.

God’s word actually portrays Satan as being on the defensive and demonstrates the power of Christ’s authority over the enemy time and time again. Remember that Jesus declared that the gates of Hell would not be able to prevail against his church (see Mt.16:18). The image is the gates of a walled city under siege. The gates of Hell will not be able to withstand the assaults of God’s people. In scripture, gates usually represent power or authority. Jesus clearly says that the power and authority of the kingdom of darkness is no match for the kingdom of light. When Jesus sent out the twelve and the seventy he gave them power and authority over the enemy, disease, and sometimes even death. He has given the same authority to us. John reminded the church that he that is in us (Jesus) is greater than he that is in the world (1 Jn.4:4). Jesus declared that the prince of this world (Satan) had been condemned (see Jn.16:11) and that he would be driven out (see Jn.12:31).

When we begin to speak to a person about deliverance it is not unusual for that individual to begin to experience anxiety, fear, or even panic. They are simply sensing what the demonic spirit is experiencing as that spirit knows that he will not be able to withstand the authority of Jesus coming against him for very long….the gates of Hell shall not prevail. Remember the encouragement of James who declares that if we resist the devil he will flee from us (James 4:7).   When a spirit flees he is afraid.

When our lives are aligned with Christ and we have removed those things that might give the enemy some temporary authority to harass or afflict us then we need to be alert, we need to be self-controlled, we need to be submitted to God, but we do not need to be afraid. When I stand in the ranks with the Commander of the armies of heaven and pray for his protection over me, then I should expect it and not believe that everything that disrupts my life in a fallen world is demonic. If it is, then Christ can’t or won’t protect me. Christ can and will protect me because his name is above all names and he has all authority in heaven and on earth.

I will agree that there may be times when Jesus allows the enemy to harass me but it is so that I can learn to fight…not just for me but for others and, more importantly, so that I can experience the victory that is ours in Christ. In the first part of the book of Judges we are told, “The Lord had allowed those nations to remain; he did not drive them out at once by giving them into the hands of Joshua. These are the nations the Lord left to test all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan (he did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience): the five rulers of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites living in the Lebanon mountains from Mount Baal Hermon to Lebo Hamath” (Judges 2:23-3:3).

God left battles for the Hebrews not only so they could learn the tactics of war but so that they could be strengthened in their faith. It is in the midst of battle that men learn that a faithful God partners with his people for victory. God can do all things without us but he typically gives the victory through us using our hands, our prayers, and our commands to overcome the enemy. In the process we mature and learn over and over again that he is faithful and that he that is in us is greater than he that is in the world.

So there are times when we will have to stand against the enemy while at the same time we must remember that the victory is assured. The enemy has been defeated. We are simply left to enforce and enjoy the victory that has already been won. The enemy loves to cast a large shadow and growl and boast of his power but when we stand against him with the power of heaven he flees.

Be wise, be aware, but don’t be afraid and don’t give him too much credit. You are in Christ and Christ is in you. When you know that then the devil is on the run.

In his life on earth, Jesus healed only a relatively small number of people on one small patch of the globe.

• He left the rest of them to us.

In his life on earth, Jesus preached the gospel to a few thousand on the hillsides of Israel.

• He left the other seven billion to us.

In his life on earth, Jesus cast demons out hundreds of spiritually oppressed Jews.

• He left the defeat of the tens of thousands remaining servants of darkness to us.

In his life on earth, Jesus went about doing good and condemning  injustice in the world.

• There is plenty more of that work to be done by us.

In his life on earth, Jesus reached out to the poor and destitute of a very small nation.

• He left the rest of the starving and naked in the world to us.

In his life on earth, jesus forgave those who nailed him to a cross.

• He left the rest of those who need to be forgiven to us.

Jesus intends to finish his work.

• He just intends to do it through us.

How much of what he left for us did we do today?

One other thing…In his life on earth, Jesus died for every lost person who ever lived to will live.

• He left none of that for us.   That’s the good news.

He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me, scatters. “When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order.              Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first. (Luke 11:23-26)

Neutrality is a dangerous place in the spiritual realm.  I’m reminded of a scene in the movie, “O Brother Where Art Thou?”  In that scene Tommy (a young black guitarist) has just been picked up and given a ride by the three principle players in the movie – Ulysses, Delmar and Pete who had escaped from a prison chain gang a few days earlier.  The three asked Tommy what he was doing alone in the middle of nowhere and he told them that he had met the devil at a crossroads the night before and sold his soul for the ability to play guitar.  Delmar and Pete had just come upon a camp revival and had been baptized so that all their past sins and crimes could be forgiven.  As they rumbled down the road Tommy explained, “I had to be up at that there crossroads last midnight, to sell my soul to the devil.”  Ulysses then commented, “Well, ain’t it a small world, spiritually speaking. Pete and Delmar just been baptized and saved. I guess I’m the only one that remains unaffiliated.”

Many people have the idea that they can take a neutral or unaffiliated position in the spiritual realm and somehow stay out of the conflict and even enter heaven because they weren’t bad people.  Jesus spoke to that idea when he said, “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me, scatters.”  Some actively and intentionally serve Satan while others make no commitments and remain uninvolved.  Jesus places both of those positions in the kingdom of darkness.  The truth is that everyone starts out on Satan’s team. Only those who choose to play for Jesus get to change uniforms.

The idea that I can pursue nothing spiritually and be okay because I’m not  pursuing evil things ignores the reality of the spiritual realm.  The enemy searches the world looking for vacancies and when he finds one he moves in.  Wherever he finds a heart or a life not filled with Jesus he camps there.  When a man encounters Jesus and spiritual freedom for a season but does not fill his life with the things of God….the enemy will return and bring others with him. He has the right to bring more because this man has tasted the things of God but not pursued them.  To fail to pursue the things of God is the same as rejecting them.

The warning and the encouragement is to never stop pursuing and filling your life with the things of God and his Spirit. The Spirit, like water in an old barrel, tends to leak out and must be replenished.  When enough of the Spirit that we once hungered for and pursued has leaked out, then a vacancy is formed in our soul and we become vulnerable to the enemy.  Paul instructs us to be filled with the Spirit (see Eph.5:18) because when we are filled we are fruitful but we also leave no room for the devil.

Back in my youth when I was faster and fifty pounds lighter, our football coaches always told us that the guys who were always moving and hitting hard didn’t get hurt.  The guys who were coasting or standing around on the field were the ones who got injured.  That was true most of the time and I believe it is true spiritually.  Keep moving, keep growing, keep serving, keep seeking, and keep filling up on God and there will be no vacancies or vacuums in your life that attract the enemy.  And remember, there is no one in the car who is unaffiliated because if you are not actively for Jesus  then you are against him.  No retirement in the kingdom, no coasting, no neutrality. We can all rest when we get home!  Be blessed today and fill up!

Late last night I was working on a revision of our Free Indeed manual that we use at Mid-Cities for our eight week study on Freedom in Christ and our weekend of healing and breaking the power of the enemy.  That’s the curriculum from which Born to Be Free was developed.  As I was going over the manual I was reminded how patient and subtle the enemy can be in getting us to compromise our faith so that we compromise our effectiveness and slowly quench the Spirit within us.

No doubt the enemy sometimes comes at us with a full frontal assault in an effort to overwhelm us.  When that happens we quickly recognize what is going on and call up the troops for prayer. Those can be exhausting moments or seasons but we usually draw closer to the Lord and become more aggressive in our faith in those seasons. Sometimes the more destructive strategies of the enemy simply are seasons of relative peace during which we drop our spiritual guard and become susceptible to his subtle influences.  Those not-so-noticeable influences can gradually accumulate in our lives and lead us to compromise in ways we barely notice.

Think about movies today. Most Christians feel pretty good about attending PG or PG13 movies today while drawing the line at the R rated flicks.  However, what is PG13 today was R rated or even X rated just a few years ago. Television has normalized partial nudity, bad language, violence, adultery, homosexual relationships, and so forth. When we see something everyday it becomes “the norm” and whatever is “normal” seems to take on an air of acceptability because it doesn’t shock us anymore. Satan is fine with taking twenty years to move us from a perspective of sin being repugnant to it being normal and then to “maybe it’s not all that wrong” and, finally, to acceptance or approval.

As believers we are prone to think that because we have become comfortable with sin or have become callous to it that the Holy Spirit has become comfortable with it as well.  Paul counsels us not to grieve or quench the Spirit within us.  Sin grieves the Spirit and our choices to ignore the conviction he brings us as we watch, read, or participate in things offensive to him tend to quench the Spirit within us.  Satan presents those things slowly but persistently so that we find the sin barely offensive.

It’s almost like an enemy putting a small piece of tainted meat in your stew.  As you eat it you notice that an occasional bite seems a little odd or distasteful but the rest seems fine so we eat away.  If we eat that stew everyday, we don’t even notice the subtly odd taste anymore. It becomes the “normal” taste of stew for us.  Then the enemy can increase the amount of tainted meet again.  After a year or two we may believe that there is nothing wrong with the stew because it tastes “normal” although by then 90% of the meat is tainted. Even when we find ourselves feeling sick every day we don’t think that the stew is the problem because it tastes “okay” to us. In fact, we may not even recognize that we are sick because the fatigue and body aches have become our norm as well.

Satan introduces sin and compromise in the same subtle ways.  There were times when Israel would go up on high places and worship idols (demons) and then immediately go down to worship Jehovah in the temple at Jerusalem.  After a while, Israel placed idols in the temple itself and worshipped both false gods and the one true God at the same time. My guess is that it took years of worshipping idols before it was comfortable or “normal” enough to set them in the temple of the living God.  The culture had become so full of idolatry that even the priests seemed to accept the presence of demon worship in God’s holy temple as somehow permissible. They fell into the trap of believing that if they were not offended then surely their God was not offended.   However, God was offended and eventually his presence left the temple altogether.

My question is, “What has subtly become the “norm” in my life or in my mind that has slowly taken on an air of acceptability to me that is in no way acceptable to God?  Ultimately, I believe the tainted meat the enemy introduces slowly into my life is more dangerous than the frontal assaults of the enemy.  May the Lord give me wisdom to detect those areas of compromise and correct my compass so that his Spirit is neither grieved nor quenched in my life.  I pray the same for you.  Be blessed and aware today!

I enjoy playing golf.  I have given up being great at the game and have learned to live with rounds in which I make some good to great shots punctuated by several disaster holes.  Guys who play like me measure whether it was a good or bad round by the number of balls lost over eighteen holes rather than stroke count.  But you get a few hours away from your normal routine, time with friends, a bit of exercise, and trees and water which are rare in West Texas.  I don’t get to play as much as I would like but have played enough to understand some of the nuances of the game and enough to hit some fun shots, some good shots and enough puts to keep me coming back.

I have also talked to a number of guys who played once or twice and didn’t play well so they decided that golf was a stupid game played by non-athletes and chose never to venture on a course again.  They simply sneer and look with disdain as they drive by the golf courses in their neck of the woods.  I have talked to a number of individuals who have approached Christianity in the same way.  They tried some church, some God, and some prayer for a short while and didn’t really enjoy it or get the point of it.  They entered with great expectations of something that they didn’t experience, tried to live by the rules, and prayed a little before tendering their resignation.  I talk to others who are still in the game but attend out of obligation or to please a spouse but simply endure church services and clear out as quickly as possible after the closing prayer.  They tried reading the Bible for a while but couldn’t understand it or got nothing out of it so they laid that aside.  Now they attend but have no passion or excitement about their faith.

Here’s the thing.  Many things are boring if you never get past the initial learning curve or risk playing badly until you can play well.  Here in the desert I have actually known a number of men and women who are scuba divers.  They qualify by taking classroom instruction and then by demonstrating their ability to use the equipment by sitting on the bottom of a swimming pool and breathing for a given number of minutes.  At that level of involvement, it is simply boring and expensive.  My guess is that if you never tried scuba diving in a more adventuresome environment you would soon give it up. It’s the folks that get into deeper waters in unknown locations with the possibility of encountering a shark that see colors and life forms others have never imagined.  These are the folks that get hooked and feel like there is nothing like it in the world. The swimming pool sitters have learned a few basics but have never really experienced true scuba diving.  Both in golf and scuba, it is also wise to get someone with a great deal of experience to coach you past the initial learning curve and then to take you to a level of diving or playing that is so rich that you develop a passion for it.

Living for Jesus is every bit that way.  Many people never get past the initial learning curve of attending church, reading a daily devotional, or being asked to give financially to support the ministries in their local church.  I’m amazed at how many believers never get past that point in their faith.  They are the equivalent of swimming pool sitters who thought there was going to be more but are about to decide that this Christianity business is boring and expensive.  This is especially true for those who have never experienced a supernatural move of God in their life.

But what if they decided that there must be something compelling about a faith that has thrived for 2000 years and is the largest faith group on the planet; that there must be something compelling about a faith that thousands have died for and been imprisoned for over the centuries; that there must be something compelling about this life when you hear pro athletes say that their faith is more important to them than their high profile careers with thousands of fans shouting for them every week.

If you are that person who has found no passion for your faith or who is wondering why people even “play this stupid game,” I would encourage you to try some deeper experiences in Christianity for a while.  Find someone experienced in the faith who has had a number of supernatural encounters with God and the enemy.  Ask them to take you past the initial learning curve of the faith and to take you into deeper waters.  Ask them to show you how to use divine weapons to wage a war against unseen but very real enemies and then go out and face those enemies.   Ask them to take you for a faith walk where there is real risk and this life won’t seem trivial or boring anymore. Go on a mission where comfort isn’t the goal but real stretching for your faith.  Go out on the streets and pray for people you never met.  Share your faith with lost people or spend a weekend doing prison ministry.  Put yourself in a place where you need a supernatural God to show up and do supernatural things.

When you have chosen to “up” your game and venture into “shark-laden waters” your spiritual adrenalin will increase your heart beat for the things of God and you will find a passion for your life again.  If you are bored with your faith, perhaps it is because you haven’t learned spiritual skills well enough to enjoy God and the challenges he puts before you.  Perhaps it’s because you have strapped on the tanks and the facemask but haven’t ventured out of the swimming pool yet to experience the thrill of the oceans.  I hope you will and I hope you will begin today.  Jesus is always inviting us to step out of the boat because that is where the joy is.  Be blessed today and decide to go for more.  You really will be glad you did.