From time to time, having faith for healing is still a challenge to me. Sometimes my prayers for healing have the flavor of   “I hope this works” rather than “I fully expect God to heal this person.” My issue is continuing to believe for healing when I have not seen my prayers for healing answered on a regular basis. Much of the contemporary church has interpreted scripture through their own experiences rather than maintaining a commitment to bring our experiences up to the biblical standard. So…if a certain fellowship has not personally witnessed miraculous healing for a few decades, it is easier to declare that God no longer heals in such ways rather than asking what is wrong with us that we are not witnessing what we clearly see in scripture.

For those who believe in God’s healing today, there are also two general camps. One camp says that God is still willing to heal through supernatural means occasionally. For that segment, sporadic healings are simply windows into heaven that let us know what life will eventually be like after Jesus returns. For them, illness can and does come from God as a means to build faith, purify a person spiritually, or to bring glory to himself through the person who, though suffering terribly, still praises God. If healing doesn’t occur it is either because there was not sufficient faith or that it is God’s continuing will for the person to be ill or disabled and that his ways are simply beyond understanding.

The second group of those who believe in God’s healing today will state that sickness never comes from God and that it is always God’s will to heal. If he doesn’t heal, it is simply because there is something in the spiritual realm that we don’t yet perceive or understand that is blocking the healing. The problem is on our end rather than His. This group points to Jesus who healed all who came to him as the standard form the church. Not only did he heal but he never visited sickness or disability on anyone to make that person more holy. Jesus said that if we have seen him then we have seen the Father. Therefore, what we see in Jesus is what we can expect from the Father as well.

For this group, the fact that Jesus taught us to pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven clearly implies that illness is never God’s primary will for man because there is no illness in heaven. This group will also point out that those who believe it is always God’s will to heal experience many more healings than the group that is never sure about whether or not God wants to heal the person they are praying. I know that observation is accurate.

The question, however, is not what we believe but what the Bible teaches. One of the things that helps my faith in God’s healing for today is to see what God’s will has always been in this area. Let me point out a few texts on this that are helpful to me. The more convinced I am that the Bible promises healing, the more faith I can bring to a prayer for healing.

First of all, I doubt if any of us believe that Adam and Eve had to deal with sickness and disability in the Garden of Eden. Part of God’s primary will for his children then was health. Sin and the curse it brought on the earth changed the environment but did not change God’s will for his children. I believe we can say that God always wants to bless his children. Our sin and rebellion may get in the way of that blessing but it is still what he wants to do. That was true even under the Old Testament and the Law of Moses. Notice the following verses:

If you listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you. Ex. 15:26

Worship the Lord your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you, and none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span. Exodus 23:23-26.

Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits—who forgives all your sins

and heals all your diseases. Ps. 103:2-3

He brought them forth also with silver and gold: And there was not one feeble person

among their tribes. Psm. 105:37

Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. Isa. 53:4-5. KJV

These verses and many more make it clear that healing and health are blessings that come from the Lord. God often calls for Israel to repent so that he can heal their wounds and bless them. Illness came into the world as a result of sin. It is always an expression of a world cursed by the actions of men. It is an expression of a curse not an expression of the blessing of God. It comes as a consequence of unrepented sin and rebellion but as soon as repentance comes, God wants to heal. Illness, under the Old Covenant, was a curse that came on the heels of persistent disobedience. A state of blessing always brought with it healing, health, and prosperity. This reality is consistent with the nature of God who reveals himself and “the God who heals you.”

Since God is the life-giver and illness wars against life, then it is the very nature of God to heal and to oppose illness. That will always be his first choice. From the scriptures above you can see his desire to heal if his people will let him. More than that, healing and health was a covenant promise under the Old Covenant. How much more should it be so under the New Covenant which is a better covenant?

The Isaiah 53 passage above highlights God’s intent for his people under the New Covenant. This is a Messianic Prophecy. Notice what the Messiah will do for those who have faith in him. This is the prophecy that declares what the suffering Messiah would bear on our behalf so that we would not have to. Of course we are aware that he died and took on our sins – our transgressions and iniquities. That is a familiar part of the gospel. But he also took on our infirmities and diseases. The same gospel that declares that Jesus took our sins away also affirms that he bore the curse of illness so that we would not have too. It is summarized in Psalm 103 where we are told he forgives all our sins and heals all our diseases.

So why do faithful Christians experience illness? To some degree we experience illness for the same reasons that we experience sin. We live in a fallen world with a fallen nature which also means our physical bodies come with defects. Sometimes we just get sick. In the New Testament we are not promised that we will never get sick but that if we do, healing is part of our covenant. “Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven” (Ja.5:14-15).

Notice that James does not say that Christians only get sick when they sin but rather if one has sinned and opened himself up to illness, that person will be forgiven so that healing can occur. Persistent, unrepented sin can still open the door to illness coming in as a natural consequence of sin even for believers. It can also block healing if there is no repentance. Remember Psalm 103. He forgives our sins and heals our diseases. There is an order to the process. Sin opens the door to illness. Repentance opens the door to forgiveness. Forgiveness opens the door to healing. Sometimes the sin lies not in what we are doing but in what we are failing to do…like failing to forgive.

Sometimes we get sick because we ignore God’s directives for healthy living. We eat junk, fail to exercise, abuse our bodies with sugar and alcohol, etc. We can’t ignore God’s wisdom without consequence. God has given us bodies over which we are to exercise good stewardship. Poor stewardship invites disease.

Sometimes, illness comes as a result of demonic attack. Spirits of infirmity show up often in the gospels and deliverance was needed before healing could occur. If you are part of a fellowship that doesn’t believe in the demonic or in deliverance, you may go for years with symptoms that are never quite healed or diagnosed because the source is spiritual not physical.

Healing does not come for many because they have been taught that God no longer heals in supernatural ways. They receive the best the medical field has to offer and if that is not enough they simply resign themselves to death. James said that we have not because we ask not. I have been amazed at the number of believers I have known who have not asked because they were taught that there was no point in doing so. I have been more amazed at the number of elders I have seen come to pray for a quick and peaceful passing rather than the healing they are commanded to pray for. Unbelief never gets it done.

Regardless of the source of illness, God has provided for our healing because it is his desire for all of his children to walk in strength and health. Through Christ he has given us forgiveness, promises of healing, healing gifts in the church, deliverance and wisdom. All those things work toward our health and healing because Jesus has purchased our healing with his blood as well as our forgiveness.

Does that explain every incidence of illness and premature death for Christians? No. I must admit that there are still situations that puzzle me because it seems we did everything needed to open the door to God’s healing and still did not see it come. I then fall in with those who believe God heals and desires to heal but that there are some things in the spirit realm that still get in the way. Those things have not yet been revealed to us. It is certainly better to look at Jesus and his standard of healing (all those who came to him) and ask for a greater revelation of keys to healing than to assign unhealed illnesses to God’s will and resigning ourselves to whatever medicine can do.

Whatever is promised in scripture is God’s heart and will for his people. Healing is definitely promised. So as I sometimes struggle to have faith for healing, I go back to Word and see it all over again. When I know it is God’s desire for his people, part of my covenant with him, and my inheritance in Jesus … I can begin to pray with faith again.

I was brought to the Lord through a “cessationsist church” that did not believe in the miraculous ministry of the Holy Spirit in our time. What was interesting is that the fellowship that brought me to Christ and in which I ministered for 20 years was a church that valued and promoted the restoration of the practices and structure of the early church. They found a pattern of weekly communion in the first century church and so insisted on corporate communion each week. They found a primary emphasis on evangelism in the early church and so evangelism was promoted from the pulpits at every opportunity. They found a strong emphasis on baptism in the early church and so baptism was emphasized to the extent that those who were unbaptized were in jeopardy of missing heaven.

One of the cornerstone texts for baptism in this fellowship has always been, “He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned” (Mk.16:16). The emphasis was on baptism and, of course, if you disbelieved, then you would not be baptized and condemnation was waiting in the wings. This text was quoted more often than just about any other scripture in the Bible with the insistence that if the early church put such a premium on baptism then we should not and could not waiver from that emphasis.

I certainly think communion, evangelism and baptism are hallmarks of the church and should all carry a great deal of weight in our practices. However, the rest of the verse so often quoted from Mark 16 was typically ignored altogether. “These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues, they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick and they will recover” (Mk. 16:17-18). The early church had a strong and undeniable pattern of those practices also along with communion, evangelism, and baptism. It is inconsistent to adopt some primary patterns of the first century church and ignore or explain away others.

I like what Kris Vallotton has to say about this omission of New Testament practices. “Jesus never meant for miracles to be an end in themselves, but rather an invitation into a superior Kingdom – a catalyst to cultural transformation fueled by revival…When people experience the supernatural manifestations of the kingdom of God – when, for instance, the dead are raised, the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and people are delivered from demons – they witness two kingdoms in contrast. This juxtaposition provides them with an opportunity to repent. A church that does not demonstrate the miraculous works of Christ has failed to give the world this opportunity and, thus, has no right to judge people for their lack of response. Without miracles the kingdom of God is reduced to words, concepts, and good works. Perceived through this paradigm, the Lions, the Rotary and Moose clubs would be the ones contending for first place” (Kris Vallotton, How Heaven Invades Earth, p.18-19).

A great question for every church is, “If the Holy Spirit left your church today, what could you no longer do that you have been doing?” What are you doing that is clearly beyond the scope of what man can do in his own strength and in his own intellect? Are you stirring the hearts of people with amazing worship? There are any number of performers and stage shows in Vegas that stir the hearts of people and even inspire. Are you providing riveting preaching. There are any number of motivational speakers in the world that hold the audience in the palm of their hands. Are you doing great works in the community? As Vollotton pointed out, so are any number of social service organizations. Some hold marathons that raise millions every year for cancer research or children’s hospitals while the name of Jesus is never mentioned.

I’m not saying that worship and preaching and even good works don’t have an anointing from the Spirit. They can and they should but from an outsider’s view, it would seem no different than what the Masonic Lodge and Shriners do or the Rotary Club. However, raise the dead, read someone’s mail with a prophetic word, heal stage four cancer in a moment, grow an eye where there was no eye, and drive out fear, depression, and self-loathing with a command and suddenly the Name of Jesus stands apart.

I would go as far as to say that miracles are more necessary now, in a culture of science and technology, than they were even in the first century. In our culture we are taught that everything has a rational explanation and that eventually science, medicine, and technology will give us what backwards people thought God could give them. Miracles challenge that paradigm and demonstrate a present reality that is superior to science and medicine. Let’s face it, most Christians in America seek physical and emotional healing from the world before they ever go to Jesus. When their marriages or kids are in trouble they run first to secular psychologists for answers. They start to pray for miracles as a last resort because they have little or no belief that God will deliver one. They have little or no belief because the church has taught them that God is no longer in the business. And yet, the only times throughout scripture in which we see God withhold miracles from his people were the times in which they were in utter rebellion and unbelief. Otherwise, miracles are what dot the landscape of the Old Testament stories and absolutely flood the pages of the New Testament.

Jesus said that his miracles testified of him. The miracles of the church also testified of Jesus by pointing to him as all things supernatural were done in his name. Why would we not need that testimony today as much as ever? When the church as a whole begins to pursue and embrace the supernatural power of God again, then his supernatural power will be released in a way that changes the world. Isaiah speaks numerous times of a season when the kings of the earth will come to God’s people for blessing, for wisdom, and to be taught God’s ways. That will not happen as long as we are simply trying to match the Shriners in good will and good works. Instead of building children’s hospitals we should be emptying them out with the healing power of Jesus Christ. Then the world will have a clear choice between kings and kingdoms. Then Jesus will be lifted up again that all men might come to him. Miracles – they’re a good thing.

Just before his departure to sit at the right hand of the Father in heaven, Jesus gave his followers what has been called the Great Commission. “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Mt.28:18-20). No church would say that command was only for the early church but would declare that command to be the church’s prime directive until his return.

Sadly, the contemporary church often only hears that command as the command to teach the world correct doctrine, live moral lives, love one another, and be kind to your neighbor. That is certainly part of the picture but Jesus taught and commanded his disciples to do much more than that. They were commanded to represent or re-present him to the world not only by preaching the gospel but also by presenting the Kingdom of Heaven with power. They were to do so by healing the sick, raising the dead, cleansing lepers, and casting out demons. That was the pattern of evangelism Jesus used and the pattern he commanded his disciples to use. It was also the pattern of evangelism in the early church as well.

Jesus commanded his apostles to teach every believer in every nation to obey everything that Jesus had commanded them to do. He didn’t tell them to teach some of what he had commanded or only the intellectually acceptable parts of the gospel or everything except the miraculous manifestations of the Holy Spirit that clearly demonstrate the victory over Satan that Jesus established by his resurrection. Jesus taught us to pray, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” God’s will in heaven is health, joy, freedom, life, etc. for his children. If we cannot deliver his will on earth in concrete ways, then that prayer is only a sentiment not a reality.

The Holy Spirit gave spiritual gifts to the church so that the demonstration of the Kingdom of God on earth could continue after the ascension of Jesus and the death of the apostles. Miracles were never dependent on the presence of Jesus or the apostles but on the presence and ministry of the Holy Spirit. Jesus performed miracles only after he had been baptized by John at which time the Spirit descended from heaven and remained on him. Jesus commanded his disciples to stay in Jerusalem until they received power from the Holy Spirit because they could not be effective witnesses until they could operate in the power and authority of Jesus. The same is true for us. Jesus has left the earth and resides in heaven. The apostles have died and joined Jesus. The Holy Spirit, however, is still with us. If we cannot demonstrate authority over the dominion of darkness by the power of the Spirit, our testimony is lacking for all that the Spirit does points to Jesus.

The point of all this is that we cannot fulfill the great commission without demonstrating a gospel of power which was what Jesus commanded his disciples to deliver. Paul attempted an intellectual and somewhat “acceptable” approach to the gospel in Athens in Acts 17. He brought out his best rhetoric and his best classical arguments for one God and Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. The results were more than disappointing. His next stop was Corinth. By the time he reached the great metropolitan city and center of pagan worship he had totally revised his approach to evangelism. Paul confessed to the believers there, “When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power” (1 Cor. 2:1-5).

As you read his letter to the church in Corinth, it is clear that he not only demonstrated power from the Holy Spirit personally as an apostle, but imparted those same spiritual gifts of power to the church. Many in the church today point to abuses of spiritual gifts to discredit their existence or their authenticity.   To be sure, the church in Corinth abused the gifts, but Paul did not discredit the gifts or tell them to stop operating in the gifts. Rather he instructed them in the proper use and motivations for the gifts.

In the days of the early church, the effective preaching of the gospel required a demonstration of Kingdom power and authority. It still does. The Great Commission envisioned the full reproduction of the ministry of Christ not just a tame or partial version of that ministry. Until the church again embraces the power and full ministry of the Holy Spirit, we will not have been obedient to the Great Commission nor will we reap the full harvest of those Jesus died for. For those of us who embrace all that the Holy Spirit has to offer, our part is to exercise the gifts in love and according to Biblical principles. Our part is to offer thoughtful responses to the questions and concerns others have with no aroma of spiritual pride or we fall into the trap that the Corinthians had fallen into – exercising the gifts without the love or humility that also marks the presence of the Spirit. Pray that the church will come to embrace the gifts and leading of the Spirit so that we can be all that Jesus paid for. Blessings.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

A declaration is the act of speaking or pronouncing God’s word and will over a situation. It is an essential weapon to be used in spiritual warfare.   Jesus modeled that strategy in his showdown with Satan in the wilderness after fasting and praying for forty days.

After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.      “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’” Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him. Matthew 3:2-11

Satan tried to bait Jesus into engaging in a dialogue with him about his rights and privileges as the Son of God on earth. When Adam and Eve allowed themselves to be drawn into a conversation, they were out maneuvered and manipulated. Sin was the outcome. I don’t believe for a second that Satan could bested Jesus at anything but our Savior modeled a better strategy. He simply declared the word of God over each temptation.

The word of God has authority. When we declare God’s word over a situation, it first establishes His authority and, as his delegated representatives, our authority over the circumstance. If you watch any crime show on television, you know that when police show up at a house, they first have to identify themselves as officers of the law or authorized representatives of the law and then they will still need a warrant or probable cause to begin to exercise their authority. The Holy Spirit within us and the name of Jesus on our lips identify us as representatives of the Kingdom of Heaven. A declaration of God’s word demonstrates the extent of our authority over a situation and establishes that the enemy is in violation of God’s law. That violation gives us probable cause to exercise Christ’s authority and issue commands in his name. The enemy is not always a demon but may also be disease, poverty, conflict, etc.

Paul tells us that the word of God is the sword of the Spirit (Eph.6:17), which can function either as a defensive or offensive weapon. The word translated as sword in that passage is not a Roman sword or a broad sword but a dagger. Daggers are used when the fighting is close – hand to hand. So when the enemy closes in, it’s time to pull out the word of God and use it as a weapon. Solomon said, “Reckless words pierce like a sword (Prov.12:18). If the words of a man can pierce, how much more the Word of God which is sharper than any two-edged sword (Heb.4:12). These passages suggest that the word of God declared over the enemy not only establishes authority but may inflict pain as well. When I was being schooled in deliverance, I used to minister with a man who had done deliverance for decades. On occasion, when a spirit was stubbornly hanging on, James would lay his Bible on the back of the person and the spirit would leave as if the word had afflicted the spirit in some way. That didn’t work for me, but it did for James. He probably had more faith in the effect of the Word than I did.

Another important aspect of declaring God’s word over a situation is that it helps to keep us aligned with the word of God. The enemy is skilled at twisting the truth and introducing doubt just as he did with Adam and Eve in the Garden. The tempter himself came to Jesus and tried to lure him into sin. With each temptation, Jesus answered with scripture – “It is written…” Not only was Jesus wielding the sword of the Spirit but he was keeping himself anchored in the truth of his Father’s words. Those words were true and had authority. For Jesus, that settled the matter and it should for us as well. Any lack of confidence on our part regarding our authority or the Lord’s authority in a matter seems to give the enemy a right or at least the ability to continue his assignment.

When ministering deliverance, we always want to establish our position and authority first by declaring the Word of God. We typically begin with a declaration that we are servants and sons of the Most High God who come in the name of Jesus who has all authority in heaven and on earth (Mt.28:18) and a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord (Phil.2:9-11). We also declare that the prince of this world has been condemned by Jesus (Jn.16:11), that we have been given power to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy (Lk.10:19), and that no weapon formed against those who belong to the Lord will prosper (Isa.54:17).   We may declare similar things over sickness as well when we suspect a spirit is involved.

Our words establish both the Lord’s authority and our delegated authority over the enemy like an arrest warrant. They also remind us of who we are in Christ as we begin to deal with the enemy. In addition, these declarations establish the victory that is ours in Christ and remind the enemy that he too must bow the knee to Jesus. If Jesus used declarations of God’s word against the enemy then how much more should we? The word of God declared through our lips over people, nations, and circumstances is powerful and an indispensable part of spiritual warfare.

Paul instructed Timothy, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15). This verse suggests that we are to know and wield the word of God as a craftsman or as one who expertly knows how to use the tools or weapons entrusted to us. Getting the word in us so that the Holy Spirit can pull up the word that we have stored in our hearts whenever the enemy shows up is critical. There is no substitute for time in the Word and the capacity to declare that word over temptation, weakness, or crisis. I’m concerned that too many believers today have substituted good books written by their favorite authors and YouTube sermons for Bible study. Books and sermons are great resources but the Word itself contains the power. Jesus said that his words are Spirit and life. We need all of both that we can get.

And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes. 2 Corinthians 2:11

Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. Ephesians 6:11

The two scriptures above and others clearly state that Satan schemes against God’s people. According to Strong, the Greek word translated as schemes means, “machinations or (in military terms) attacks against which one must be armed. The nature of the attacks (the plural suggests that they are constantly repeated or are of incalculable variety) constitutes their great danger, against which the armor of God is the only defense. They are distinguished not so much by technique or strategy as by refinement and insidiousness.”

Strong’s definition is much longer than that but, in summary, it tells us that Satan attacks us repeatedly with strategies designed to move us away from God and into vulnerable positions where he can have greater access to us. These strategies are not typically frontal assaults but are more often insidious and very calculated moves that are subtle enough that we might not notice what is going on. It’s not that Satan never uses frontal assaults but when he does we usually recognize those for what they are and begin to pray against the attack and ask others to join us. The more insidious attacks are subtle and move us inch by inch away from the Lord until we find ourselves further away from God and deeper in enemy territory that we thought was possible.

Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 10 that we are to take every thought captive to Jesus Christ. The reason for that extreme position is that Satan attacks us through our thoughts and it is in subtle moments that we begin to doubt God or to compromise with the culture around us. Satan simply plants seeds of doubt and compromise and then waters them over weeks and months and even years.

In the midst of a crisis, the question guided by faith is always, “How is God working in this crisis to deliver me.” Faith is convinced that God is already moving and is simply interested in detecting his strategy. The enemy changes that questions to, “Will God deliver me from this crisis?” which introduces the possibility that he won’t. That possibility then raises other questions of whether God cares or loves me or whether he even has power to protect me. When we start going there, we are in trouble.

The most effective lies are attached to truth. The fact that part of what was said is obviously true lends credibility to the part you weren’t so sure about. The lies that the enemy tells are usually progressive in nature and test our character and motives from different angles. The wilderness temptation of Jesus is an illustration.

In Luke 4, we are told that after his baptism, Jesus was led into the wilderness for forty days of fasting and prayer. At the end of that time, when Jesus was hungry, tired, and vulnerable Satan came to tempt him. He began with a challenge. “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” Satan appealed to pride, hunger, and self-sufficiency in this one little challenge. So…you think you are the Son of God? Prove it. That appealed to pride. Secondly, he focused on a legitimate need (food) but suggested that Jesus use his power and authority for his own benefit and without the direction of the Father. Satan will always point us to legitimate needs but ask us to meet those needs in ways that exclude God from the process or that violate his standards. Adam and Eve went after wisdom – a good thing – but used a tree as the source rather than God. Self-sufficiency rather than God-sufficiency is always where Satan is pointing us. He doesn’t point us to things that are impossible without God but things we can do in our own strength. Jesus was fully able to turn the rock into bread but submitted to God’s provision and timing rather than his own.

The second temptation was similar. Satan knew that Jesus had come into the world to re-establish the kingdom of God and to reign as king. Knowing the God-given goal of Jesus, he offered him a shortcut that would avoid the dirty business of the cross. In so many words, Satan said, “If you worship me, I will give you all the kingdoms of the world. You can have a crown without a cross. After all, isn’t that what you came for?” Isn’t that what the world constantly offers – short cuts to success, weight loss without self-discipline, sex without the commitments of marriage, etc. God is in the business of building character along the way and preparing his people to wear a crown. Satan always whispers that the wait is too long and the cost is unfair. Short cuts at any level usually get us into deep trouble. Satan always promotes “the end justifies the means” thinking.

The third temptation included a scripture quote. In essence he told Jesus, “God has promised in his word that he will protect you, so jump off the tower and make him prove his love and faithfulness.” Satan’s great strategy against those who love God and his word is to highlight one Bible truth as if it is the only truth. For instance, John tells us that God is love. Some church leaders have recently reasoned that since God is love, he would never send anyone to hell. They ignore the balancing truth that God is also holy and just. Others have found the scriptures that emphasize God’s love and acceptance of those he loves. Therefore, they reason that he accepts us just the way we are. That reasoning leads to the idea that he not only accepts us but our lifestyles. There is some truth in that. God accepts us as we are but does not accept the sin in our lives and so he gets busy calling us to repentance and freeing us from our bondage to sin. An unbalanced view of scripture leaves us in bondage to sins and moves the church toward a dangerous compromise with the culture.

Each of the three temptations contained truth. Jesus was the Son of God and he had a legitimate need that he could meet on his own. All the kingdoms of the world did belong to Satan and he could give them to whomever he chose. God had promised to protect his Son from harm through the protection of angels. But Jesus countered with the balance of truth and refused to fall into the devil’s trap.

In Paul’s statement to the Corinthian church mentioning the schemes of Satan, he suggested that our unwillingness to forgive is one of his primary schemes. Satan is always quick to provide a justification for refusing to forgive. They don’t deserve it. They haven’t really repented. They haven’t asked for forgiveness. Justice requires that they pay for what they did. You name it. He will probably attach some fragment of biblical truth to each of those justifications but the truth is that God has commanded us to forgive in spite of any of those reasons. To refuse to forgive, gives Satan open access to us and our families through the open door of disobedience and unrepented sin.

The point is that the schemes of Satan are usually subtle efforts to skew our thinking, to sow compromise and doubt, and to draw us away from God’s truth even through the misuse of scripture. Our first defense is the Holy Spirit who has promised to lead us into all truth. We should ask him on a regular basis to do so and to reveal to us any areas in which we are beginning to lean toward a lie. We should also examine our actions on a regular basis to see if our actions are lining up with the word and the character of God. Misplaced actions are clear evidence of misplaced thinking. Since Satan often works in subtle, inch-by-inch ways we need to notice when we are moving our boundaries a little to fit in with cultural values rather than keeping scripture as the standard. We need to notice when sin no longer offends and almost becomes normative in our thinking so that we would be surprised to find that God is offended by what we entertain on a regular basis.

When all hell breaks loose in our life, we know who it is and start arming ourselves and gathering other warriors. The fight can still be fierce and we may still be wounded. But, perhaps, the greater threats are the little, barely noticeable things like one drop of arsenic in your coffee each day – hardly noticeable until the accumulation is life threatening. Watch the little things…the insidious schemes and you will also be ready for the frontal assaults. Blessings.

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. Isaiah 61:1-2

The text above is one of the most famous Messianic prophecies in scripture. We know that it was a passage looking ahead to the ministry of Jesus because Jesus said as much in Luke 4. If Jesus were crafting a “mission statement” for his non-profit that passage would be it. If you reflect just a bit, you will recognize that those verses summarize his three-year ministry to Israel.

For three years Jesus preached the good news of the Kingdom of God to the oppressed. Some translations say that Jesus preached to the poor but the better translation from the Hebrew is the “afflicted” or “oppressed.” The language harkens back to the Hebrews in Egyptian bondage and the days of Moses. In the days of Jesus, the Jews found themselves under the merciless boot of Rome. Under the power of Rome they were certainly afflicted and oppressed. That was true, not only in a political sense, but spiritually they were in the same boat. Not only were they in bondage to sin but the legalism of the Law as interpreted by the Pharisees and Levites was just as crushing. Speaking of the religious establishment, Jesus said, “They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger” (Mt.23:4). Peter called the Law a “yoke of bondage” (Acts 15:9). The preaching of the Kingdom of God and the grace God had for his people must have been a breath of fresh air. In contrast to the hundreds of laws the Jews had generated for God’s people, Jesus boiled it down to loving God and loving others. He said that the works of God were simply to believe on him. So Jesus came preaching the good news of God’s grace and mercy.

In addition, Jesus declared that his purpose was to bind up the brokenhearted. In other words, he came to heal broken hearts or bring emotional healing to people who were crippled by emotional trauma and shattered identities. It is amazing how many believers are still in bondage to past experiences that painted them as worthless, insignificant, and as orphans – someone that nobody wants. Jesus brought a different message calling us sons and daughters of God as well as friends of the King of Kings. He declared our worth and significance in the heart of God and the cross put the exclamation point on our value in the kingdom of heaven.

The third part of his mission statement, in general, was to set captives free. The idea was to release men by the power of the cross from bondage – bondage to sin, to disease, to infirmity, to fear, to addictions, and to the devil. When he referenced bondage, he spoke of two groups – prisoners who were in bondage due to their own choices and captives who were ambushed by the sins of others and the devil. Jesus came to liberate both.

Jesus delivered on his mission statement throughout his ministry. Everywhere he went he preached the good news, healed the sick, cast out demons, cleansed the lepers, and raised the dead. He loved the sinner and the “down and out” people of this world and his unconditional love as well as power transformed people like Mary Magdalene who at one time had seven demons and was, perhaps, a prostitute. Through God’s touch, she was no longer a woman tormented by sin and demons but was honored by being the first to whom Jesus appeared after his resurrection.

The pattern of preaching the good news, loving people, healing the sick and the brokenhearted, casting out demons, and raising the dead was carried on by the twelve, then by seventy-two others he sent out, and then by the church who was given spiritual gifts so that they could continue to do what Jesus did.

The point is that it took all of that to enable most people to live effectively for Jesus and to experience the abundant life that Jesus promised. What most people get today from the body of Christ is a salvation message and a little love from time to time. But their hearts are not effectively healed, they are not set free from sickness and infirmity, and they are not set free from demonic affliction. In many settings, the church is saved but still crippled. Due to the church’s inability to help set people free, many are sent out from the church to see secular doctors and therapists or “Christian counselors” who have only been equipped with the weapons and strategies of the world. They have little to no training in the use of divine weapons and are often powerless against the schemes of the devil.

My Bible says that the world should be coming to the church for solutions because we have the Holy Spirit who possesses all wisdom, creativity, and power. If we ever have to look to the world to fulfill the mission statement of Jesus, something is very wrong and something is very missing. Freedom ministries are beginning to take root in churches where people are finding freedom, healing, and truly transformed lives but the percentage of churches that minister at that level is very small. And yet, that kind of ministry should be as much a core of the church as evangelism, Bible study, and giving to the poor. That was the core of Christ’s ministry and he expects us to do what he did when he modeled the redeemed life on this planet.

I hope that if your church doesn’t have a “freedom ministry” of some kind where people find healing and freedom through the Holy Spirit, that you will pray about such a ministry and visit with your leadership about it. Many churches that have these well-developed ministries are glad to train and help other churches find their own expression of Christ’s mission statement. If the church is going to walk in the power and glory of God, her people cannot continue to be crippled by emotional wounds, lingering illnesses that never find a cure, and demonic oppression. That doesn’t look like “on earth as it is in heaven.” May every church be more committed to reproducing what Jesus did in the power of the Spirit rather than offering the world the best than we can do in the strength of men.

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. 2 Corinthians 10:4-7

This passage is familiar to most of us. However, I find that the most familiar passages are the ones that we begin to take for granted and stop looking more deeply into the passage because we feel like we know it so well. The truth is that the Holy Spirit offers multiple layers of meaning so that each time we go back and mine the passage for more, we discover that there are still nuggets and veins of gold each time we dig a little deeper. I thought I would take another look at this familiar passage to see what else the Lord might highlight.

To begin with, Paul is writing to a church that has an elitist and disobedient faction within it. They have created division and hurt in the church through their own spiritual arrogance and tolerance for sin. They have brought worldly attitudes, values, philosophy, and rationalizations into the church and Paul is confronting them. In fact, he is threatening to make a personal appearance to deal with them if they do not repent soon.

Paul begins by saying that we, meaning the spiritually mature, do not fight with the weapons of the world but we have, at our disposal, weapons that are empowered by God. Those who want to oppose God are always in the position of bringing a knife to a gunfight. They will always be out-matched. The problem is that when we are attacked with the weapons of the world, we too often respond with the same weapons. When anger comes against us, we respond with anger. When we are criticized, we criticize in return. When we are slandered we get busy defaming our attackers. When someone pulls a power play at work, we try to respond with a greater manipulation of power.

When we fight as the world fights, we come into agreement with Satan. When we agree, we empower him instead of overpowering him. That is why Paul clearly told us, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom.12:21).   To be overcome by evil simply means that we have surrendered to the impulses of the flesh and have responded as the devil would respond, rather than as Christ would respond. We overcome evil in our own hearts first by doing good and then overcome evil in the world by the good we do to others. Our first step toward defeat is giving in to evil thoughts. Evil thoughts are simply ways of thinking that agree with Satan’s perspective rather than the mind of Christ.

An essential truth of spiritual warfare is that Satan gains access to us in the arena of our thought life. As Joyce Meyers put it, the battlefield is the mind. Paul’s statement to the church at Corinth was that these divine weapons would, first and foremost, tear down or demolish strongholds. The word that is translated as stronghold can also mean fortress. I think immediately of the fortresses in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. A fortress or stronghold is a strong place of protection where armies reside except when they go out to raid or do battle, then they once again withdraw to their stronghold. Sometimes, it is even a hidden place that the opposition cannot find such as David found with his men when evading King Saul.

Paul’s point is that wherever our thinking is not aligned with Christ, we give the enemy a place in our thought life to hide and to fight against us at opportune moments. A stronghold is not a random thought but is a pattern of thought that opposes the truth of God. It may be a pattern of thought that opposes the truth about Jesus but for believers, more often, it is a pattern of thought that opposes God’s truth about who we are in Christ, about forgiveness, about godly principles for living, or about God’s immense love for us and our security in him. Those thought patterns have been with us so long that we often are not even aware of how pervasive they are and how they color our thinking. When we minister deliverance to people, these belief patterns that have not been identified and repented of give the enemy a place to hide and the right to remain there.

When the moment comes, these thought patterns that are reinforced and amplified by the devil rise up as arguments against the truth of God’s word. Jesus declared that we would know the truth and the truth would set us free. God’s word is truth. When we insist on his word as the standard of truth rather than the wisdom of the world or our own past experiences, we are wielding a powerful and divine weapon.

However, when we say, “Yes, but…” to God’s word, we are inadvertently revealing our agreement with Satan and a stronghold inevitably exists. When we begin by saying “but…” we are almost always beginning to offer an argument as to why God’s word is not true in our case. We are the exception. To do so, aligns us with Satan rather than Jesus and automatically gives him authority in our life. It is important to identify these strongholds, renounce them, and repent of them. Then it is important to declare the word of God over any situation or feeling as the standard of truth upon which we will act and upon which we will stand.

The goal is to make every thought captive to Jesus Christ. The word for captive here is the word for prisoner of war. It is a military term that means not only to defeat an enemy who may run off and then engage us in battle again but to defeat and imprison that enemy so that he can no longer attack us. We do so by imposing the will and truth of God on patterns of thought that are in opposition to the word of God. Confessing the word of God over and over in opposition to patterns of thought I have identified in myself is a powerful strategy. We must only say about ourselves what God says about us. We must only say about a circumstance, what God says about that circumstance. We must not subject ourselves to sources of unbelief such as unbelieving friends or family members who constantly undermine our own faith. We must not subject ourselves to movies or songs that undermine our faith in God’s truth (the Da Vinci Code, etc.). We must not allow anger and unforgiveness to give Satan a place in our hearts. We must not allow lust to have its way with our thoughts.

When thought patterns and rationalizations that oppose God’s truth and standards become apparent, we must deal with them quickly and take them captive. The word arguments comes from the Greek word logismos. We immediately see the root of logic or human reason there. Human reason and worldly wisdom always rise up against God’s truth. All the foolishness about same-sex marriage and identifying as male or female based on your feelings is worldly wisdom that has already crept into the church because it sounds scientific, tolerant and non-judgmental. But it “sets itself up against the knowledge of God.” If you read the early chapters of 1 Corinthians you will see how the church had been impressed with worldly knowledge, eloquence, and education and had begun to give those things greater standing than the word of God. Paul declares that those strongholds must be torn down and taken captive.

Interestingly, strongholds in the days of Paul were actually fortifications within the walls of a city. If the walls were breached, then the army retreated to the stronghold or citadel which was an inner fortress that could be defended by fewer soldiers. Once the stronghold was taken, the battle was over. Too often we stop short in the battle. We push back against the devil, get a little relief as he retreats from his outer defenses, and then stop our pursuit. We fail to persist in getting God’s truth in our hearts or going deeper to find other thought strongholds that are still out of alignment with the Father. We breach the wall but don’t stay after it until the stronghold is demolished. We often speak about “removing another layer of the onion” in spiritual warfare. This reality of strongholds behind walls may reflect that truth.

The word pretensions alludes to high places or towers on a wall. These are places of pride and arrogance that do not want to surrender to God or to acknowledge being wrong or the need to repent. When these attitudes are not rooted out as well, the enemy comes back and we wonder why. These high places seem to allude to the Tower of Babel in Hebrew thought. That was a project based on man’s pride, his arrogance, and his desire to be independent from God. In essence it was the first expression humanism.

In spiritual warfare we have to identify and uproot the lies of the enemy and keep taking and retaking ground in our thought life. We have to identify pockets of pride and places within our hearts that we do not want to submit to Jesus. That is the process of renewing our minds. It is a joint effort between us and the Holy Spirit that, in most cases, will take a lifetime.

Our thought life is the primary place where spiritual warfare occurs. We must be active in the battle rather than passive. We need to find the hiding places and tear down strongholds without mercy. We need friends to point out those strongholds because they will often recognize them before we do. The Holy Spirit will reveal those strongholds if we sincerely ask and will provide the power to dismantle them. Paul tells us that where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Freedom is God’s will for each of us and he is ready for us to go to war with Jesus at our side.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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